Category Page w/ Intro Template Not Working

Actually, an even better question:

I want to create a template that simply pulls a specific category for the page. I remember doing it for Parabola, but can’t seem to find the template anymore.

This is the template coding:

<?php /*
Template Name: News Template ( Posts Page)
*/ ?>

<?php get_header(); ?>

		<section id="container" class="<?php echo nirvana_get_layout_class(); ?>">
			<div id="content" role="main">
			<?php cryout_before_content_hook(); ?>
	

	<?php 
$paged = (get_query_var('paged')) ? get_query_var('paged') : 1;
$the_query = new WP_Query( 'post_status=publish&orderby=date&order=desc&posts_per_page='.get_option('posts_per_page').'&paged=' . $paged);?>

		<?php if ( $the_query->have_posts() ) : 

				 /* Start the Loop */ 
				 while ( $the_query->have_posts() ) : $the_query->the_post(); 
					 global $more; $more=0; 
					 get_template_part( 'content/content', get_post_format() ); 

				 endwhile; 

				if($nirvana_pagination=="Enable") nirvana_pagination($the_query->max_num_pages); else nirvana_content_nav( 'nav-below' );

			 else : ?>

				<article id="post-0" class="post no-results not-found">
					<header class="entry-header">
						<h1 class="entry-title"><?php _e( 'Nothing Found', 'nirvana' ); ?></h1>
					</header><!-- .entry-header -->

					<div class="entry-content">
						<p><?php _e( 'Apologies, but no results were found for the requested archive. Perhaps searching will help find a related post.', 'nirvana' ); ?></p>
						<?php get_search_form(); ?>
					</div><!-- .entry-content -->
				</article><!-- #post-0 -->

			<?php endif; ?>

			<?php cryout_after_content_hook(); ?>
			</div><!-- #content -->
	<?php nirvana_get_sidebar(); ?>
		</section><!-- #container -->

<?php get_footer(); ?>