Alpine Sunday School Report

My brethren and sisters, I can say that the Sunday school work is growing in the Alpine Stake of Zion. Our convention, held in Provo, has done a wonderful work in the Sunday school cause. It has interested many who, before the convention, were lukewarm, and many who were idlers in Zion, who attended the convention, have become workers. The Sunday schools in the Alpine stake are up to par. We have 70 per cent of the children represented in our Sunday schools. "We have in attendance 73 per cent of teachers and officers. This standard is not high enough for the teachers and officers; we feel that we ought to have at least 85 per cent, for when any take upon them the high and holy calling of an officer or a teacher in the Sunday school, they then give their allegiance to God, to help roll on His glorious purposes upon the earth. ¶

We have many Seventies who are teachers in Sunday school, and it is an unpleasant thing to me to state, after being one of the presidents of seventy, that some of them are numbered among the 15 or 20 per cent who do not attend to their duties in Sunday School. My brethren and sisters, the calling of the Seventy is to preach the Gospel at home as well as abroad. The calling of an Elder is to preach the Gospel at home as well as abroad. And we are trying to impress upon the minds of the brethren holding the holy priesthood that it is their duty to be in Sunday School, that they should be there at least 15 minutes to 10 o'clock, that their example may go forth before the children and have its effect. ¶

In the Alpine stake we have 300 teachers, most of whom are devoted to the cause. They love the Sunday School work, and it is through their love for the cause that we are enabled to have 70 per cent of the children in attendance. A year and a half ago there was only 49 per cent who attended the Sabbath School. Since that time we have taken up a labor with the parents; we have impressed upon their minds the revelation that is recorded in the Sixty-eighth section of the Doctrine and Covenants, on the relation of parents to children and of children to parents. We have tried to impress upon the minds of the parents that it is their duty to see that their children are in Sunday school, and it is their duty to teach their children the true and everlasting Gospel. During the 14 ward conferences that we have held in the Alpine stake, many of the Bishops have given us two and in some three, sessions, and during the afternoon and the evening, we have called the parents together, and we have pointed out to them the necessity of sending their children to the Sunday school. We try to convert the parents, and I believe that there are now 50 per cent of the parents in the Alpine stake of Zion, who are converted to the work of the Sunday School. ¶

The "Outlines" have done a wonderful work. I believe that every school is furnished with them and is using them to good advantage. There are fifteen schools in Alpine stake. We have now organized a Sunday School in Manning, and we hope that in the near future we can again organize one in Sunshine. There are a few families there, and wherever there are a few families we organize a Sunday School, for we find much good comes from it. We have many good men and women in the Alpine stake of Zion. We have a splendid Union Board, and I believe they are all united, and love one another. We meet often, and we talk over the Sunday School cause in our stake and in other stakes, and if there are any points that we can grasp that will better our condition, we grasp them, for it is the desire of our hearts, to make the Sunday Schools of the Alpine stake of Zion as good as those of any stake in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. We are working to that end, and if God will give unto us His Spirit and bless us, we will accomplish the desires of our hearts. ¶

I know that the work is true. I know that the Sunday school cause is true, and I hope that there are no idlers under the sound of my voice, and that Zion will not be condemned through the idlers that are in her, but that we may all become workers, not only in the Sunday School, but in Mutual Improvement and in Religion class work, and in whatever we may be called to do. God bless the noble cause of the Sunday School, is my prayer in the name of Jesus. Amen. ¶