To germinate them, keep them in a moist, slightly warm (not more than 80F) place.
Some use paper towels. Some use peat starter pots, and some use (gasp!) good old fashioned dirt.
Some people like to scuff the surfaces of seeds lightly with an emery board to help water get in faster.
Some people like to immerse the seeds in a cup of water for a few hours, again, basically just to help water get in faster.
With rare exceptions, any that will germinate should do so within a week. In fact, most of the ones that will germinate will do so within 3 days.
As mentioned, if any of the seeds start to mold, they were probably non viable to begin with, but this CAN happen if the seeds are totally immersed in water and left there too long. Again, you want the seeds MOIST, you do NOT want them "dunked" in water (like dropping them to the bottom of a cup of water and leaving them there!).