Report on the Juarez Stake and the Colonization of Mexico

I desire, my brethren and sisters, to preface the brief remarks that I am about to make by reading a few paragraphs from the Book of Mormon. Six hundred years before the birth of our Savior, the Lord called His servant Lehi to come out from Jerusalem, with his family, to a land which the Lord promised to lead him to, and to give to him and to his descendants after him for an everlasting inheritance. He outlined to this man in vision the future of his posterity and of the world throughout its generations, until a time should come in the dispensation of the fullness of times when truth should triumph over error, and when God's kingdom should be established in the earth. In order that this vision might be made clearer, plainer, and more comprehensible, the Lord sent his angel to explain and enlarge upon it to Nephi, the son of Lehi. Among other things, he saw that after the descendants of this man should dwindle in unbelief, a great church should be established in the earth, a church which he called the mother of abominations, a church which should worship gold and silver, satin and fine-twined linen; and he saw that this church should dominate the entire earth. Then he saw the establishment of another church, which he called the church of the Lamb of God; and it is just a few paragraphs relating to this epoch that I desire to read— the period of time, my brethren and sisters, in which we live, and in whose events we are actual participants: ¶

"And it came to pass that I looked and beheld the whore of all the earth, and she sat upon many waters: and she had dominion over all the earth, among the nations, kindreds, tongues, and people. ¶

"And it came to pass that I beheld the church of the Lamb of God, and its numbers were few. because of the wickedness and abominations of the whore who sat upon many waters: nevertheless, I beheld the church of the lamb, who were the saints of God. were also upon the face of the earth: and their dominions upon the face of the earth were small, because of the wickedness of the great whore whom I saw." ¶

Now. my brethren and sisters, the thing to which I wish to call your attention is this: At the time the Book of Mormon was published to the world, the church of the Lamb of God did not exist. It had not come into being in its organized form. Now. think back for a little more than -seventy-five years, and let us ask ourselves whether or not the words of the Lord that He gave to Nephi more than two thousand years ago are not verified. I have always rejoiced in the fact that the Latter-day Saints are a people who live in the present. Their faith is not founded upon that which is past, although they delight to understand the past, because in contemplating it they can in a degree judge of the future. They are not a people whose hopes are founded altogether upon something that is yet future; but they are a people who live in the present. They are fulfillers of prophecy. They are a people who are enacting their part in the great work of the redemption of the human race, outlined by the ancient prophets of God. What is the condition of the Church today? I have been led to contemplate this question, because of the report which was made here by the President of the Church at the opening of the conference. The Latter-day Saints are firmly established in Canada; their possessions extend into Oregon; they are in Montana, in Idaho, in Wyoming, in California, in Arizona, in Colorado, in Utah, in New Mexico. They have gone over the wall, and are in the republic of Mexico, still further south. Not only are their possessions to be found in this district of country to which I have referred, but you may find them also in the States of the Union, in the countries of Europe, and upon the islands of the sea. The Saints of God are acquiring possessions in these countries, few it is true, if they were not few, it would not be in accordance with the written word of God. ¶

I am very pleased to report to you the condition of your brethren and sisters in the Juarez Stake of Zion. They are in a foreign country, a country which offers very few natural inducements to men and women who reside in the United States, a country with very little public land, a country where every inch that we have acquired we have had to do so by continuous effort. Nevertheless, there are, according to our statistics, 3,751 Latter-day Saints in that land. They are scattered over a large area. They are poor people, but industrious, God-fearing, and economical. They are exceedingly liberal with the limited means which the Lord has given them. This is illustrated in the fact that about 40 of them have come up to attend this conference, and I am certain that, taking a very conservative estimate, these people will have spent $5000 in making this trip before they return to their homes. These three thousand and odd Latter-day Saints paid $50,000 in tithing last year, which amounts to about $13.50 for every soul in the stake, including men, women, and children. But a man said to me last night, that is Mexican money, is it not? Yes, that is Mexican money, and a Mexican dollar counts with us just as much as an American dollar counts to you, until we get over the line, and they are cut in two, and call it fifty cents; but the Mexican laboring man receives no more for his work, the teamster or the freighter receives no more for his work in Mexico than he does in the United States, and at the same time we pay about three times as much for everything we consume as you do here. I said this to a broker who was down there once, and he said he didn't believe it. I simply called attention to the fact that the sugar we use to sweeten our food and preserve our fruits costs us from $15 to $17 a sack, against five or six dollars you pay here; the fruit jars we put our fruit in cost us thirty-five cents a quart jar, as against eight or ten cents you pay here; the salt we put in our food costs us five or six cents a pound, I suppose you get it for about half a cent; the flour we eat costs us from six to nine dollare per hundred as against about two and a half dollars you pay here. So I could go on indefinitely, and am certain that the average of prices we pay for that which we consume in Mexico is three times as much as it is in the United States. Notwithstanding these conditions, my brethren and sisters, we are building up thrifty and prosperous settlements. The very best rural towns of their age and size that I have ever seen are in Mexico. You will see there more good brick houses that would be creditable to any community, than in any other towns of their age or size I have ever visited. We are in a country where men can work three hundred and sixty-five days in the year. We are never idle. Men wear out their lives with hard labor. ¶

The Mexican mission and those who have been converted to the Gospel among the rative population are not included in the enumeration to which I have referred. There are several hundred people who are converts to the Church in and around the city of Mexico. They are Indians. There are about eight millions of pure blooded Indians in the republic of Mexico, and probably two millions of other people in whom the Indian blood largely predominates, while there are two or three millions of people who are foreigners. Wherever we have gone among this pure blooded people with the Gospel, they have been ready to receive it. Our greatest effort is to keep them out until the time comes when we feel prepared to take care of them. They are a good people, devoted and God-fearing, that is, those who have embraced the truth. While their skins are dark, they are a thinking people, and understand the principles of the Gospel, and are capable of discussing them with any people that I have ever come in contact with. They are people of the covenant. ¶

The very fact that these Indians are beginning to receive the truth is of great importance to us. Have you ever stopped to contemplate, have you ever reflected upon the fact that Christ himself said to their fathers: ¶

"Verily, I say unto you, I give unto you a sign, that ye may known the time when these things shall be about to take place [referring to the fulfillment of the promises made to the seed of that people and to the restoration of the Jews]: * * * and behold this is the thing which I will give unto you for a sign: ¶

'"For verily I say unto you, that when these things which I declare unto you, and which I shall declare unto you hereafter of myself, and by the power of the Holy Ghost, shall be made known unto the Gentiles, that they may know concerning this people who are a remnant of the house of Jacob, and concerning this my people who shall be scattered by them: ¶

"Verily, verily. I say unto you, when these things shall be made known unto them of the Father, and shall come of the Father, from them unto you; * * • "When these works, and the works which shall be wrought among you hereafter, shall come forth from the Gentiles unto your seed, which shall dwindle in unbelief because of iniquity; * * * "And when these things come to pass, that thy seed shall begin to know these things, it shall be a sign unto them, that they may know that the work of the Father hath already commenced unto the fulfilling of the covenant which he hath made unto the people who are of the house of Israel." ¶

That time has come, my brethren and sisters. The works of the Church are translated into the Spanish language. These millions of people who are south of us, and who are direct descendants of father Lehi, heirs of the promises made to him and to his descendants, are beginning to come to a knowledge of the truth of the Gospel. It seems to me that a great responsibility rests upon us regarding them. We are indebted to them for the Book of Mormon, which contains the fullness of the everlasting Gospel, and which is the greatest living prophecy that stands before the world today. We are tcld that if a man prophecy and the things which he declares come to pass, we may know by that that he is a prophet; and I say that if the Book of Mormon stood alone as an evidence of the divine authenticity of the mission of the Prophet Joseph Smith, it is sufficient to establish the fact that he was called of God. It has unlocked the door by which we are able to read the past. It declares to us the present, and it forecasts to us the future, by which we know that the triumph of the work of the Lord is sure. It stands, as brother Roberts has said, as a new witness for God before the nations of the earth. The fact burned into my soul in my youth that not one word of prophecy which is contained in this book will fall to the ground unfulfilled. If this is the case, we know that the destiny of this Church is very closely allied with the destiny of these darkskinned people south of us. We cannot avoid the responsibility. We must carry the Gospel to them. They must be redeemed, they must come into the fold of Christ, they must be numbered with those who are already members of His Church before the redemption of Zion comes, and before the center stake of Zion shall be built up. Read the prophecies for yourselves, and judge whether or not I am correct in making this assertion. ¶

My brethren and sisters, we in Mexico are laboring, as you are, in humility and in faith for the establishment of God's kingdom in the earth. We believe that it will be established, that His purposes will be accomplished, and that despite the efforts of men or devils to stay the progress of this work, it will triumph, and Christ will come and reign in power and dominion with His Saints upon the earth. May the Lord help us to keep the covenants that we have entered into, to be true to each other, to be true to the Lord, increase our faith, our hone, our charity, our good works, and by so doing others may be led to glorify the name of our Father in heaven, and be brought into His fold. God bless you, my brethren and sisters, through Jesus Christ. Amen. ¶