Report on the Colorado Mission

My brethren and sisters, I rejoice this morning with you in meeting in this assembly hall, in continuation of the great conference we have been holding, and I rejoice in the remarks that have been made during the meetings that have passed. I am gratified in the report that has been made by the Prophet of the Lord, showing the great prosperity that the people are enjoying at the present time. While I have been at this conference, I have had many evidences that prove to me that what President Smith said at the opening meeting is true. I could not help but remark this when I looked upon the faces of those children that furnished the music for the afternoon session yesterday. Zion is assuredly prospering and growing. I heard a gentleman say something about prosperous men the other day, and successful men, and I said, "By what rule do you measure your successful men in this world? Is it those who make a success in accumulating means?" And he said, "Well, I suppose that is the way I measured the successful men." In various avenues of life we have found men that have been very unsuccessful, although they have accumulated means, and these men have been held up to the people as examples of honesty and integrity. But when I look upon the faces of the children of Zion, and hear their songs, and listen to their sweet voices, I feel within my heart that the parents of these children are successful, although they may not have much of this world's goods. ¶

In the mission where it is my privilege to preside, the Elders are performing a good work, preaching the Gospel among the people. They are meeting a great many people, making many friends, although very few converts are brought into the Church. Still with the friends that we are making, we feel amply repaid for the time and labor that has been spent in preaching the Gospel to the people. In many settlements and districts where the Elders have labored they are opening their doors today who have never done so before, and they are giving the Elders an opportunity to preach upon the street corners, although some of the cities, towns and villages have refused the Elders this method of bearing their testimony. We feel that the hand of the Lord is in all this. We feel that He is protecting His great work, that He will bring it out triumphant, and that what puny man may endeavor to do to overthrow it will be of no effect whatever, for we know it is the work of the Lord. We know that He is accomplishing His purposes, and often times He accomplishes them in a way different to that we would follow if we were left to ourselves. ¶

There is a matter that I would like to speak about, and I feel that it should be taken notice of by the Lat ter-day Saints. There are members of the Church going to Colorado, in different parts of the mission, seeking employment among people who are not of us, whose sympathies are not with us, even among those who are opposed to this latter-day work. Some of our boys and girls come among those people, seeking employment, and in some instances older men and women, and as the people are not in sympathy with us, they do not aid those who thus come in their midst, and they are cold and distant. These brethren and sisters come back again to us in the mission, and to the different stakes, and in this manner members of stakes are being scattered. Now we are trying to show them that most likely they are the ones who are at fault; they are to blame for the condition which confronts them. Many times, as was said yesterday by one of the brethren, we too readily see the faults of others, but if we would just look within our own selves we would probably find the real cause for the complaint we have been making. ¶

You boys and girls, if you leave your homes to go into our mission fields, if you go there to seek employment, or to study, or for recreation, it matters not what, you should first go to your Bishop, seek counsel from him, obtain his blessing before you depart, and I tell you that you will be blessed if you will do this. But if you go there upon your own responsibility, and mingle with people of the world that you have not known, you will find that you have shouldered a serious responsibility. One day in our little meetinghouse, I saw the face of a young lady that seemed familiar to me. For a few moments I could not place her, and then I remembered that I had met her in one of the wards of Zion, and I went up to her, and said, "What are you doing here?" She said, "I am trying to get a little rest. I have walked this city from one end to the other, and ten miles out, seeking employment. I have answered every likely advertisement that I have seen in the paper, and I don't know what to do." I said, "The best thing you can do is to go home; there is the place, go home where you belong." She said, "I thought I did not get enough wages at home, I thought the people were not treating me as they ought to do, but now I realize that I alone am to blame. Now," she said, "how am I to get home, I have spent all the money I had, and I am without anything to help myself." I said, "You go up stairs, my wife will take care of you. You rest a while, and we will talk the situation over and see what can be done." The result was, she came back to her home in Utah, and is glad she is again here. You could not get that girl to go out into Colorado, or into California, to seek employment again. She went away without the blessing of her Bishop. She went away without the blessing of her people, and she went upon her own responsibility. There are others who do the same thing, but some of them do not return in as good shape, or escape as easily as she did. I am sorry to say that some of them fall by the way side, and will never get over it as long as they live, never can wipe out the stain that has come upon them. My advice is, remain at home, although you may not get just as much wages as you might in the world. Remain at home under the influence of the servants of God, where you can receive counsel from your Bishop, and where you can attend and be benefitted by the Sunday School, the Mutual Improvement Associations and other means of comfort and blessing in Zion. Our Elders are doing all they possibly can to befriend girls they find in the mission who have drifted away from home. Some of these girls have become discouraged, and have married non-members of the Church, and they are sorry for that. They would give all their lives if they could only return again. I would like to sound this warning in the ears of every man and woman in the Church who is thinking about leaving home, and I would like to have them understand and see it as I see it. ¶

When you let your sons or your daughters go out to preach the gospel in the world they are safe. I was very much impressed with the remarks of Brother Kimball the other day, in regard to this matter. When you send your sons or daughters into the mission field, you send them there under the protection of God, our Eternal Father, and the prayers that you offer up in their behalf. You do not feel sorry or worried about their condition, and what temptations, even, they will have to meet, or as to their ability to overcome the temptations. You do not feel concerned over these things, for you know they are in the hands of God, you know they are strengthened and blessed by His power, by His Holy Spirit, and are sustained under that influence; and you are perfectly willing to trust them among the nations of the earth, in the cities of the world, wherever they may be sent and feel that they will return again to their homes in safety. President Ben E. Rich said yesterday that, of the thousands of missionaries that had been sent to him in the mission field, he could count on the fingers of one hand all the Elders who had fallen and returned with a dishonorable release. I have been connected with the Colorado mission almost since the first Elders went into that field, and can say that all the Elders who have come home from there have returned pure and unspotted from the sins of the world. They have come home undefiled, and can look their fellow men in the face and say, "I have performed my duty to the best of the ability God has given me." ¶

Our mission district embraces a variety of climate. In one part there is perpetual snow, and in another part we almost have the tropics, tropical fruits grow there. We have, therefore, the opportunity of transferring our Elders to places that will be favorable to their health conditions. We have the dry climate that is suitable to some conditions, and for recovery from some diseases; and we have the moist climate, where it rains a great deal. Our Elders have been transferred from one part of the mission to the other, as may be deemed necessary, and their health has been kept good. Very few Elders have returned who have been afflicted or sick, and we have never lost an Elder by death in that mission field. A very few of the Elders have had typhoid fever, or pneumonia, but other diseases have not afflicted them. It is stated by the physicians of Colorado that there is no such thing as malarial fever in that state, unless it has been brought there from other parts of the country. Therefore, your sons and daughters who are laboring in that mission field are in a healthy country, where they can be transferred in such manner as will conduce to their health. If we find that a damp climate does not agree with them, we transfer them to a higher and dryer place that puts new life into them, and they go forth with new energy in the performance of their duties. Elders have been transferred to Colorado from Great Britain on account of their health, and from the Southern and the Northern states, and these Elders have, in every instance, soon regained their health and performed mission work. Your girls who have been sent as missionaries to that field are also in good health. I am very much pleased with the success of the ladies in the mission field. Our sisters in Denver are busy, in fact have more than they can do in meeting the appointments made for them by the Elders. People say, "We would like to talk with some of your women; we would like to hear Mormonism from the women's standpoint." Our sisters visit the homes of the people, answer questions for them, read to them, and teach their children, where the Elders do not have access to the homes. They are accomplishing a great work; we have a noble band of them in the mission field at the present time, and the People sing their praises. ¶

Brethren and sisters, I am thankful for the Gospel, and the testimony that the Lord has given unto me. I am thankful that I have been born of goodly parents in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. I am thankful for the word of God we receive from the men who stand as His mouthpieces unto the people in this generation. ¶

My brethren and sisters, we are living in a critical time for this people, a time when it requires all the faith we can muster in order to remain true and faithful to the covenants we have made. Let us keep our eye upon the servants of God, that He has raised up in this dispensation. Let us follow their lead, and God will bless this people and bring them off triumphant, which may He do is my prayer, in the name of Jesus. Amen. ¶