Preservation of Health of Missionaries

It may be proper for me to state at this time, for the information of the Elders, and also for the information of the local authorities of the Church, as well as the fathers and mothers and kindred of the Elders who are out in the world preaching the Gospel, that the Presidents of all the Missions are under strict instructions from the Presidency of the Church to guard carefully the health of the Elders that are laboring under their direction. These Presidents of Missions are also under instructions to send home any and all Elders whose health or whose other circumstances may make it necessary for them to return. We are frequently enquired of by parents relative to the health of young men who are out preaching the Gospel, and we invariably inform them that the Presidents of Missions are carefully guarding the welfare of their sons, and if anything serious occurs to them, making it necessary for them to return home, it will be promptly attended to, and they need ¶

not worry about their boys on that account. And while I am on my feet, I would like to exhort the Elders who are upon missions, and those who shall go upon missions in the future, not to allow the thought to enter their hearts that they will be criticised or be made to suffer in their character or their standing in the Church because their health will not permit them to fill a two or three years' mission abroad. We would like them rather to feel in themselves a wholesome aversion to coming home without having filled an honorable mission, when their health and other conditions will permit them to do so; and if they have any reluctance about coming home at all, before completing their missions, it should be based upon this principle. These men that are appointed to preside over the missions are men of intelligence and of heart, men who are filled with affection for their fellow laborers, and they will see to it that none of the Elders are left in their fields of labor to suffer, if it can be avoided. So, brethren, and sisters, you need not worry at all in regard to these matters. ¶