Report on the California Mission

My very dear brothers and sisters, I have been asked to speak a few moments in relation to the California mission. It is most gratifying unto me to report that the same Spirit that actuates the Saints in Zion is felt by those who reside in the state of California. I do not know that there is a more cosmopolitan people in these United States than the people of that great state. They are liberal-minded; there is very little prejudice existing in their minds; but there is an indifference in relation to all things pertaining to the Gospel of Christ. They are a pleasure-seeking people, and a moneymaking community. But for that, we are received well, and many open their doors and their hearts to receive us. They say they believe that we have within our organization and in the very genius of the Gospel we teach that which will uplift and benefit mankind and will do more to bring about the fraternal spirit that characterized the efforts of Christ and His Apostles than that taught by any other people. From a very few members some eight or ten years ago, the branches have increased in the largest cities of the coast to number about 600 souls. Last year they paid a tithing of upwards of $5,000, and about $600 in fast offerings. Many of them are desirous of coming to the house of the Lord to receive their blessings, and the spirit of gathering is upon them, despite the fact that we advise them to stay at their homes and at their various employments, and build up the branches in the State. It seems, however, that so soon as they have been born into the kingdom by baptism and the laying on of hands of those in authority, a yearning and a longing comes into their hearts to be within the Stakes and borders of Zion, to partake of the blessings which their more fortunate brothers and sisters enjoy. ¶

The recent visit of the Tabernacle choir to the coast will no doubt give a wonderful impetus to the cause. It has broken down the barriers of prejudice in the minds of many, and we are being felt after and enquired about. The secretary of state and the mayors of San Francisco and Sacramento were most kind and courteous in receiving us, in keeping open public buildings, in guaranteeing and giving us police protection, and welcomed us with a spirit of fraternal brotherhood that was very pleasing and satisfactory, I believe, to all our visitors, and especially to us who are laboring in that state. ¶

Thousands of tourists go to the summer land, as it is called, to spend their winter, and they enquire after us. They hear us on the street corners, receive our tracts, attend our meetings, and are frank enough to admit that in the east, where they reside, they would hardly do it, for fear of losing caste; but many of them have gone home with a broader idea and a better knowledge of our work and of our people, and are more kindly disposed towards us. Many of them, upon hearing our choir, left their addresses in the east with the Elders, saying that if there were any Elders In their neighborhood they wanted them to call, so that they might hear more of what little they had seen and heard of us in California. ¶

My brothers and sisters, I know that the Gospel is true, and that it is leavening the whole lump and modifying the sentiment of the Christian world. We hear it, we feel it, we see it, in what is being said and done today upon the coast, where their churches are being emptied and their pleasure resorts are being filled by the doctrines of men as they are now taught. It brings joy and satisfaction to my soul to know that I have been born of goodly parents, and have received and do participate in the Gospel of Christ, which will bring men to a full salvation and an exaltation in His presence; and that that may be our happy lot is my prayer in the name of Jesus. Amen. ¶