Report on the Northern States Mission and the Spirit of Ingestion

My brethren and sisters, I do not feel as much at home in preaching to you, Latter-day Saints, as I would if this congregation were non-members of the Church. I believe I could attend this conference from beginning to end, and unless there was a feeling in my heart to bear my testimony to the truthfulness of the Gospel and to the power of God, I would not desire to speak; but I cannot remember a time for the last eight or nine years whenever I came before a body of people who did not know the Gospel was true, but what I had a desire to bear my testimony to them. I have not such a desire to bear my testimony before you; but I feel to report unto you the labors of my mission, having been called upon by him who holds the right to dictate in these things. ¶

With reference to the Northern States mission, I am proud to say that every Elder in the mission is doing his utmost; for the record of the past year is one that is going to require great labor to equal in the future. I have visited almost every Elder in the last two months, and they all desire to at least equal the record of the past year. In many parts of the mission we have wonderful openings. We have communications from people stating that the ministers have forsaken them because they are too poor to remunerate a good minister, and the poorer ones do not desire to visit them, so they have asked for our Elders to come and preach to them the Gospel. You remember that, at the last Conference. President Asahel H. Woodruff reported to you about the work in the little city of Robinson, Indiana, where they had baptized fifteen or sixteen individuals. We have added to that number, and since that time we have built a small church that will hold about 150 persons, and it will be ready for dedication in a few weeks. Many of the people rejoice, and are glad that they have united in the faith of the Latter-day Saints. We have in the last two months received letters from the northern part of Wisconsin, desiring our Elders to go through that part of the country and hold meetings in their schoolhouses; for, they say, they cannot afford to pay preachers that are only half as good as the Elders who come to them for nothing. Three weeks ago we sent two Elders into far-off Ashland, in the northern part of Wisconsin; and, in that city, those two Elders arose and bore their testimony, and thanked the Lord that they were sent to a place where our Elders had not been, so far as they knew; and they said that if there was another such point farther away they would thank the Lord if they could be sent there. A letter reached me yesterday in which I was told that those two Elders had a hard time for a few days to find an opening, but, through the mercy of the Lord, friends were raised up unto them, and in one week they held fifteen cottage meetings and sold several copies of the Book of Mormon. Three weeks ago we held a conference, in Monmouth, Illinois, of twenty-two Elders and four lady missionaries, and, like Brother Pratt, I do not remember a time when the Spirit of the Lord rested upon the missionaries more powerfully than it did in that historic town. Hundreds of people came to hear the testimony of the Elders representing a people that were once driven from that state, and they were glad to receive them. Many said they would to God that our people had never been driven from that state, and they are looking with anxious eyes to the return of the Latter-day Saints to western Illinois. Editors of papers follow us up and ask questions concerning the probable coming back of the Latter-day Saints to that part of the country. The people in Nauvoo would gladly welcome the Saints there, to rebuild that city. Several months ago two Elders were sent to Carthage, and they were received very kindly. Sometimes I wonder that they were so tolerant, for those two Elders, humble and young, stood upon the streets of Carthage and, in the fervor of their souls, declared that the blood of the prophets slain in that city was crying from the ground to their heavenly Father. The people did not seem to be aroused with regard to their testimony until, on Christmas day, two ladies were baptized in the Mississippi river, and, when it 'was noised about, the ministers of the city and county united in the desire to drive the Elders out; but the officials told them it would not do. For two months past they have hardly had access to the homes of the people, because of this prejudice; but it is breaking down and they are visiting some of the honest in heart in that city, and children of Saints who remained behind there. One thing that causes me to rejoice that I am a Latter-day Saint, and that my parents and grandparents came to Utah with the body of the Saints, is the growth of faith in the young men and the young women in Zion. It is a sad sight to see the old people who did not have faith to gather with the Latter-day Saints, but remained in Illinois or in Iowa. They have not the spirit of the Gospel; they have only about half the spirit of Americans. They live in obscurity and are practically unknown; whereas if they had gathered to Zion, and possessed the faith of the pioneers, they might have been brilliant men and women, known for good among their fellows. But through criticising the leaders of the Church in that day, and through their lack of faith, they have been lost to the Church. It is my firm belief that the people of today who are fighting our leaders will in a very few years be practically unknown. I often recall testimonies that were borne to me by apostates in California. I remember one man coming to me and, with tears in his eyes, requested me not to sing the songs of Zion in his house, because he could not stand it. When I asked him why he did not repent, he said that the spirit of repentance had never come to him in thirty years. I believe that men and women in the Church today who are fighting Zion will lose the testimony, and it may never come back to them possibly in this life. ¶

The Latter-day Saints in Chicago are thankful to the Lord for the goodly place they now possess in which to worship, and I bear witness that the means spent in Chicago for the obtaining of a beautiful house to worship in was well spent. There are a number of members of the Church who are students in Chicago, and they are proud to belong to that branch. They assist us in our work, and we feel thankful for the labors they have performed and for the support they have given us. I believe that they ought to be encouraged; for they have gone out to battle with the world. One young man came to me three months ago. He had not been attending our services, and he felt, possibly, that he was not of much consequence. He roomed with a strong minded student, and thought he had so much work to do that he could not come and worship. After four months of isolation from the Church, by reading the many things that are written against us, he began to wonder if Zion was not astray. Today, however, he feels better, having come under the influence of faithful students and Elders there. ¶

In southern Illinois we have purchased another small church in which to worship; and the honest in heart, also the firm minded among them, are pleased to think that they are going to have an energetic, enterprising people live with them. ¶

My Brethren and sisters, I am glad to have the privilege of representing such a noble band of young men and young women as are the missionaries in the Northern States mission. I belive that their souls are filled with a desire to keep the commandments of the Lord and to spread a knowledge of those commandments among their fellowmen. I have often thought, if their mothers could see their sons out there, perhaps knowing scarcely a passage of Scripture from, memory, and, reading the Bible, find that it sustains the teachings of their mothers, their hearts would rejoice to note how their minds broaden, and how their souls are filled with joy, when they see that the Bible backs up the teachings they have received at their mother's knee, and in their Sunday schools and other good places. Many of our young men are not as well acquainted with the Bible as they are with the fact that their mother has taught them to believe in God, to repent and be baptized, and then to have hands laid upon them for the gift of the Holy Ghost. When they read about these principles they understand them, and instead of coming back weak in the faith, they return with their faith strengthened, and with the teachings of their parents confirmed by the doctrines of the Holy Scriptures. ¶

My brethren and sisters, I pray that God will bless the Elders in our mission. We wish we had more to search out the honest in heart who desire to know concerning the great and glorious Gospel that has been restored in our days. I have a testimony that our Father in heaven is with Zion and her leaders. When but a small boy I had a testimony that our present leader was a man of God, and I have received additional testimony that God approves of his actions and is guiding him, together with those who have been called to direct the affairs of Zion. May God help us all to keep the testimony that we have, and to follow in the light that has come to Zion and her leaders, that we may not be lost sight of in the onward march of the work of God. This is my prayer in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen. ¶