Aaronic Priesthood duties

Not that this was a major cause for concern, but I recall being a little confused when, as an Aaronic Priesthood-holder, my quorums would have lessons about our duties in which we would research them in the Doctrine & Covenants. Section 20 spells things out quite clearly from the office of apostle (not an Aaronic Priesthood office) on down to deacon.

Apostles - ARE ELDERS, they are called to baptize, ordain others to Priesthood office, administer the sacrament, perform membership confirmations, teach, watch over the church, and lead all meetings.
Reality - apostles are high priests who wear dark suits and sit in on board meetings; twice a year they give a boring talk.

Priests - preach, teach, baptize, administer the sacrament, visit each house to tell them to pray out loud and to fulfill their family duties, ordain other priests and lesser offices, assist the elders, and take charge of the meetings when the elders aren't around.
Reality - priests stumble through a couple of written sacrament prayers once a week, baptize their younger siblings sometimes, and occasionally stand in with the Melchizedek Priesthood-holders when they ordain someone to an Aaronic Priesthood office.

Teachers - keep watch over the church, strengthen the members, make sure the members are behaving themselves, make sure the members gather for meetings often, and take over when there's not an elder or priest present, expounding, exhorting, etc., but not baptizing or administering the sacrament.
Reality - teachers go to church a little bit earlier than everyone else so they can fill the sacrament cups with water, put bread on the bread trays, usher, and clean up the sacrament table.

Deacons - help the teachers out, expound, exhort, etc., but no baptizing anyone or administering the sacrament.
Reality - pass the sacrament and maybe be the bishop's little messenger.

It was hard not to notice that there were a lot of things we were supposed to do but weren't being held accountable for. It was also evident that there were things we did that weren't listed as our responsibilities.

Who cares? It doesn't matter! That was all 1830 stuff anyway when the Church was small. We've grown, the duties of each office have been modified through need. Just be a good kid and don't do anything wrong, OK?

Sure, no problem. Oh, hey, where in the Doctrine & Covenants can I find the revelations that changed my Aaronic Priesthood duties?

The Family (A Proclamation)

When I was a mere Aaronic Priesthood holder something very exciting happened: the prophet made a proclamation!

I can't make it through the whole thing either, but that's Gordon Hinckley, a prophet, solemnly proclaiming stuff! Why was this an exciting event at all, you might wonder.

This wasn't just another General Conference talk, this was a written document signed and endorsed by the fifteen men that I, my family, my friends, my community at large sustained as prophets, seers, and revelators. The thing was they hadn't prophesied, seen, or revealed anything since 1978 when they announced that the ban keeping men of African decent from holding the Priesthood had been lifted. I had always been told that prophets speak to God on our behalf and God responds directly to them giving them answers and guidance for the entire human population. The words of the prophets are sacred and holy because they are the words of God and that's why we write them down as scripture to read and study. Mormons believe that God is busy revealing and that He has a lot more to reveal later on, and yet I often wondered where all the revelation in the Church was. I for one sincerely hoped that God would finally give us the sealed portion of the Book of Mormon in my lifetime. 

So now we had new text coming straight from the Top! I figured it was as good as canonized and the Church would be issuing a new edition of Doctrine & Covenants with the family proclamation right behind Official Declaration 2. Instead "The Family" ended up for sale in frames to hang around your house.

Why was this not canonized? I couldn't figure it out. Wasn't this God's word with regards to what a family is and what it's for? Was it more of an opinion piece by God's groupies? 

At the time I didn't have what it took to recognize "The Family" as the unenlightened piece of conservative, reactionist tripe that it is. Instead I took it as God's word given through His prophets collectively but somehow not scripture, but pretty close to, or at least as good as scripture, probably, I couldn't quite tell, but I was for sure going to believe it because how can you doubt something as solemnly proclaimed by living prophets as was this particular proclamation? Whatever. It will sort itself out later.