Report on the Juarez Stake and Mexican Mission

I desire, my brethren and sisters, first to express the personal gratitude I feel towards my Heavenly Father this morning, that I am worthy to be accounted a member of the Church of Christ, and that it is my privilege, in connection with you, to come up here to the house of the Lord upon this occasion, where we may be taught of His ways and learn to walk in His paths. I want to bear my testimony to the strong conviction I have felt since this conference convened that the promises made by the Lord, and which apply directly to the Church of Christ restored to the earth and fully established in the dispensation in which we live, are being verified, and that those promises which have not yet been fulfilled will all be accomplished in time, and in the way our Father in Heaven designs. The conviction I have felt is that no power which may be brought to bear against the Church from without, nor any dissension that may occur within, will ever, from this time forth, retard the progress or development of the work of God. I believe this because the Lord has said it. I believe it because I know that the principles of the Gospel are founded upon everlasting truth, and I know that whatever effort may be made to overthrow it, eventually the truth must and will prevail, the Latter-day Saints will be vindicated, and the mission of the Prophet Joseph Smith will be acknowledged by the world. ¶

I feel exceedingly grateful that it has been possible for a large number of people to come to this conference from Mexico, traveling 2,200 miles to get here. There are more than 30 representatives here, who, by the time they have returned to their homes, will have spent at least $6,000 in order to attend this conference. ¶

Mexico is a peculiar country. It is a country of great extremes— of intense sunshine and terrific showers, of vast unproductive plains and of valleys which are among the most productive in the world, with great ranges of treeless mountains, and plains that are covered with forests of most beautiful timber. It is not strange that the race of people who have inhabited that country for hundreds of years have partaken more or less of its characteristics. So the Mexican people are a people of extremes, a peculiar people, different, perhaps, to any other in the world. ¶

During the past six months we have passed through some very trying circumstances in the Juarez Stake of Zion. Some of our colonies have been almost destroyed by flood, and great damage has been done. Many of the people have lost the accumulations of a lifetime. Notwithstanding that which the people have suffered they are not discouraged, but "come up smiling," determined to grapple with nature and regain that which has been lost. There are 3,871 Latter-day Saints in Mexico, according to the last statistics we took. These people are scattered over a large area of country. They are a poor people, but, notwithstanding this fact, these 3,800 individuals paid in 1905, $54,100 in tithing, or $13.99 for each soul in the stake. Mexican money, someone suggests. Yes, that would be in Mexican silver, and would only have a face value in the United States of 50 cents on the dollar. But it costs us just as much to get a Mexican dollar as it does you to get a dollar in the United States. Our mechanics, our laboring men, our school teachers, our store clerks, receive no more in Mexican money for their month's work than you do here in gold. ¶

Our relationship with the Mexican government is of the most harmonious character. Recently, at an official opening of our Stake Academy, which, by the blessing of the Lord and the assistance we have received from our brethren, we have been able to establish, a large number of representatives of the Mexican government were present. In fact, it was their official opening of our school, and they participated with us, and encouraged us to a degree that we could hardly have expected in the work of education which we are doing in that country. We have found that these examples of ours in industry, and in establishing good schools wherein lessons are given not only to our own children but to theirs also, have done more to establish friendly relations, and to gain their confidence, than anything else that we probably could have done. A large number of their children are in attendance at these schools. Just before I left home two representative men visited Colonia Juarez and went in to the manual training department of our school, where they found five or six of their own boys, with their coats off, at work on the machines. They were overcome with emotion, because they said it was something they had never been able to get them to do at home. The boys themselves were enthusiastic in their work and studies. ¶

The mission which has been established in the neighborhood of the City of Mexico, and which is under the presidency of Hyrum S. Harris, is progressing very favorably; in fact, it appears to us that our effort should be to rather retard its development a little, until we are better prepared to take care of the people, than to encourage and push it. There is a vast field for missionary effort in Mexico, and undoubtedly a greater one in Central America and South America. My brethren and sisters, while you are teaching French, German and Latin in your schools, do not forget that there is something for the Latter-day Saints to do among the Spanish-speaking people of the world. There are about 30,000,000 Indians down south of us who speak the Spanish language — people whose forefathers gave us the Book of Mormon. In Cuba, in Porto Rico, and in Spain itself, there are many millions of people yet to hear the Gospel in the Spanish language, so that if you teach your sons Spanish you may be of assistance to us in the development of our missionary work in Mexico. It is a pleasure to me to bear witness to the integrity, faith, and devotion of your brethren and sisters who are in that distant land. It is a pleasure to me to tell you that they have implicit faith in the promises which have been made by the Lord to the native people who live in that country. We believe that the day is come for them to be brought back to a knowledge of the faith of their fathers, and converted to the truths of the Gospel, that they may become an active force and factor in the development of the Lord's work. ¶

My brethren and sisters, we are engaged in the Lord's work. This is His Church, and He will magnify it. He will magnify us also if we are faithful. He will reward us for our righteous works. If we will accomplish the part assigned to us there can be no doubt that the Lord will accomplish that which He has promised. But He is not going to do it alone; He is going to do it with labors of men and women. We live in an age when He has promised, as He never did before in any other Gospel dispensation, that the faith of the people would be sufficient to maintain the work of the Lord. He has declared that it is established for the last time, to triumph and to prevail. This is a very reasonable thing since the Gospel has never been on the earth before in a dispensation, when reason, argument and intelligence existed to such an extent in the earth, and when there was the same opportunity for it to prevail as there is in this dispensation of the fullness of times. ¶

I bear testimony, my brethren and sisters, to the good that has come to me through obedience to the principles of the Gospel. I feel under great obligations to my Heavenly Father, and it seems to me that He has more than repaid me for every act of my life which has been devoted to His cause, in the blessings that have come to me personally, in testimonies, and in strength that I have received in times of adversity and trouble. I bear witness to the influence for good which has come to me through association with the servants of the Lord. It was my good fortune to be personally acquainted with President Young. I sat at his table when a boy, and I feel to this day the influence upon my character which was made by the presence and the words of that man. I knew President John Taylor personally, but not so intimately, and the same impressions came to me through my association with him. I knew President Woodruff better than any other man who has presided over the Church. He lived in my neighborhood, I traveled with him, and I bear testimony that I was strengthened and blessed, and my faith increased through my association with him. I can say the same regarding President Snow, and President Smith who now stands at the head of the Church. Our brethren who constitute the quorum of Apostles I have known, have traveled with them, slept with them, eaten with them, been with them in times when both mental and physical courage were necessary, and I have yet the first incident to recall where one of them has ever failed under these circumstances. They are men of God, acting in the capacity to which they have been properly called, and He will magnify and uphold them; and through them, and through us, and, above all, by the blessings of the Lord, the truth will eventually triumph, and God's will be done on earth as it is in Heaven. May our faith be increased and strengthened that we may adhere to the truth, is my desire and prayer through Jesus Christ. Amen. ¶