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This is a tougher question to answer...not because it's hard to answer, but it's walking on egg shells. There's a fine line that's being tread today between validating the Priests and Pastors in other religions who claim to be using the Priesthood and utilizing it's power (and thus, if they are, validating their religions and churches) and the emerging teachings that many are thinking is being taught regarding everyone being able to use the priesthood. There is ALSO the danger which is where it appears there is a push to redefine what the definition of the Priesthood is today within the church and how, if accepted as such, ties directly into the direct problem I just stated above. Following down that path ultimately will mean that every Christian church that claims to have and use the priesthood has claim to be the REAL church and the REAL religion, because they have just as much authority and right to use it in the same ways as others without any other external conference of power or authority. Hence, the difficulty I have directly answering the question easily. That said, the question you ask can be seen as too broad a question to directly answer in light of the above. The Priesthood itself is seen as the Power of the Lord, however the authority of the Priesthood is related to offices and keys of which the ordinances of the Gospel are given. A simple answer are that ALL miracles that come from God are the manifestation of the Priesthood in our lives regardless of whom it comes through. However, there are certain blessings and ordinances that come solely through those upon whom the power and authority has been conferred upon and upon whom the keys have been ordained to.

Go back to the tried and true methods.

I think of gospel and doctrine as pretty much the same thing. I probably haven’t given it a lot of thought. And, it doesn’t overly concern me. For me, I think about one of the rawest of emotions: grief. For many, the death of a true loved one is heart wrenching. That’s when the basic fundamental questions are often asked. Where do I come from? Why am I here? Where do I go after death? And, many people in the world wonder, is there a heaven? Is there a God? And, what knowledge do we have as members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints? We know the answers to those questions. Answers, that we often take for granted. Answers that a young child who has been brought up in the church knows. It is the gospel of good news! Most in the world do not have the answers to these questions. At least not as thoroughly as we do. So, the death of a loved one is almost more than they can bear. It is still difficult for members, too, for we too grieve and mourn, but we have a knowledge that is a wonderful blessing. It helps to know that our loved one is on the other side of the veil. We know we will see them again. And, we have hope in the atonement and in the resurrection. We know who our Heavenly Father is. We are His spiritual children. We know who Christ is. He is our elder brother and our redeemer. For those who have searched for those answers, and then was taught them: “How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him that bringeth good tidings, that publisheth peace; that bringeth good tidings of good, that publisheth salvation; that saith unto Zion, Thy God reigneth!” Isaiah 52:7. What greater blessing is there than to know the gospel of Jesus Christ and living those principles and obtaining the ordinances in order to receive exaltation? I am so blessed! My testimony is what has brought peace through some nearly unbearable times in my life. And, honestly, I have a hard time understanding how someone who has had this knowledge can throw it away and leave the church. I love the gospel. I love the “good news.”

Wow, what a day! I waited until the snow on the roofs were melting. I turned the water on. then someone noticed the toilet was overflowing due to a poor valve. So I turned the toiltet off and we spent about an hour sweeping water out of the house. Then I realized that there was no way that the toilet could have leaked that much in thefew minutes between when I turned on the water and when I turned off the toilet water. Long story short: a pipe had burst inside the exterior wall. I had to turn off the water to the house again. I bashed the drywall open. I found the broken pipe. As per usual incompetence, they placed the pipe outside of the insulation. I spent much of the day cleaning up the mess and traveling from hardware store to hardware store. As you can imagine, there has been a run on plumbing supplies. I spent some time figuring out some cajun engineering with the parts available. My $7 project ended up being about a $50 project because of a run on plumbing supplies. And it's not completely done. I had to get a third set of supplies because there was more damage than I knew about. I can only hope that tomorrow the repairs will actually work. Now I'll probably have to spend about $100 or more on supplies to repair the wall. And the stuff I have in the wall can't be permanent. It's just a mess and will likely only last a few years. So, I'm going to have to redo it in a month or so when supplies have restocked and.prices have gone down. All told this will be about a $400 job or so, including the repairs at the well house.

I'm starting to suspect that this "legal loophole" mentality is why God has chosen so many lawyers to be modern apostles. Peter will have an entire legal team at his disposal!