Report on the Northern States Mission

(President of Northern States Mission.) It is with feelings of gratitude that I stand before you for a few minutes to give a brief report of the conditions of the work of the Lord in the Northern States Mission. We have been wonderfully blessed in that part of the vineyard, with health and strength and with energy to prosecute the labors that have been assigned to us. With few exceptions, the Elders have enjoyed the best of health, and through their energetic efforts have had the power of the Lord with them. In a great measure they have realized the responsibility that rests upon them. They have made an effort to reach all the people in their districts, and proclaim to them the restoration of the Gospel, and call upon all men to repent and work works of righteousness in the earth, that they may be worthy to stand in the presence of God when they have left this stage of action. ¶

In the last two and a half years our efforts have turned from distributing tracts when making the first call to that of presenting the Book of Mormon to the people. The Book of Mormon was the only book used, along with the Bible, as a text book for the first eight years in the history of the Church, and wonderful were the results following its distribution. We have placed this record given of God, containing the fulness of the everlasting Gospel, first and foremost. It has been placed in the grips of the Elders first, and if there was any room left, they have put in such books as Cowley's Talks, the Voice of Warning, the "Durant," and some tracts. ¶

In connection with putting the Book of Mormon as our leader, we have divided each conference into small companies. Each company of six or eight going by twos for the week, along different routes to a common point for a Saturday and Sunday conference. At the close of all street meetings held by each pair, the Book of Mormon was offered to the people, followed by the smaller books and tracts. During the past six months the Elders have maintained a very high record. In the month of August each pair of Elders in the mission made an average of 38 Books of Mormon, 180 Cowley's Talks, Voice of Warnings and other books. In the same month each pair averaged 1,200 tracts and 30 meetings — the Elders leading in Books of Mormon leading also in all other lines. The total number of Books of Mormon for August was 2441, other books, 12,177, while the tract distribution reached 81,990, most of them containing 32 pages. Every Elder who has pushed the distribution of the sacred record — the Book of Mormon — has received a wonderful blessing from the Lord. One of our conferences had not been following the plan proposed, because they had not fully understood, but after holding meetings with them they started out to do so. Within ten days we received a letter from the conference president, stating, 'We have had bills printed ; we have divided our conference into two divisions, and we are determined to make your plan, or the plan that has been adopted by some of the other conferences, a success." The Elders accepted what was told them, and went forth to prove it the right thing, not to demonstrate whether it was or not. The spirit manifest by this conference in proving the proposed plan inspired of the Lord, seems to be the spirit of all the Elders laboring in the Northern States Mission. Hundreds of people have listened to the Gospel in that part of the earth, and we rejoice greatly in the power that the Lord has given the Elders in teaching the principles. We rejoice in the success in distributing the sacred record that was given by the Lord to the Prophet Joseph Smith to help bring the world to Christ. President J. A. McRae, in talking with some of the brethren concerning the Book of Mormon, said, "It is laid upon our shoulders to distribute it to the world ; it is a message to the inhabitants of the earth, a letter given to us to be delivered to the people that live in this day and time. If we received a letter to be delivered to somebody, and we failed to deliver that message, and people were lost because of not receiving it, we would be held responsible for the destruction of those people or for the calamity that came upon them." We believe that we have felt this responsibility, although we have not put it in just that language, but we have sensed the importance of the message of the Book of Mormon, and have striven earnestly and carefully to distribute it among the people. We believe that the results from its distribution are wonderful compared with anything that has been done before in the Northern States mission, both to develop the Elders and to turn the hearts of the people towards the restored Gospel. ¶

We rejoice and feel thankful for the success that has come to the Elders laboring in that part of the United States, and for the spirit manifested by the people towards us and toward the work of the Lord. ¶

One thing said by one of the brethren in the opening of our conference concerning the environment of the home, and the environment of the Church, has been in my mind ever since it was said. I was led to think what a wonderful thing environment had worked in the hearts of some of the leaders of God's people in this day, and above all, the wonderful development that came to the Prophet Joseph Smith because of his environment. I thought of the time this summer when I was privileged to visit the birthplace of the Prophet, Palmyra, the Hill Cumorah, and the Kirtland temple. Several mornings I visited the grove in which the Prophet Joseph Smith knelt in the personal presence of God and Jesus Christ; and the sacredness of the spot was uplifting to my soul. I thought of the Prophet Joseph, just merging from boyhood to manhood, when the influence and the power of environment could work wonders in the life of any person kneeling in that sacred place, in the presence of the heavenly Beings. I said to myself, "Oh, that every boy might be so influenced at such a stage in life." Standing in the grove, where, it is said by the people who live there, the Prophet Joseph Smith beheld the Father and the Son, I was moved, and felt what a glorious thing it would be for the young men and young women of Zion, if they, too, could stand in the presence of God and Jesus Christ, and then grow up under that influence. What a great work they could perform, how powerful they would be in the earth in bringing the people to know the true character of our Father who is in heaven, and of His Son Jesus Christ. The world has a vague idea of some great spiritual force that manifests itself in all the phenomena of life, that is everywhere present. To the Latter-day Saints, all these manifestations are but the result of laws operated by our Father in heaven, who is indeed a personal God. ¶

After visiting the Hill Cumorah, the old homestead, and the wood in which these wonderful things were explained in the life of the Prophet Joseph, I had the privilege of visiting his birthplace, where now stands the monument that has been erected to his name. I learned from the man who quarried the stone that, as far as he could find out, it is the largest polished shaft in the world ; and I thought how fitting that such a stone should be erected to the memory of the man who declared that he had seen God the Father and his Son Jesus Christ, and that we are indeed His children. Why should we not erect such a monument to the honor of the man who gave to the world the greatest of all truths — the truth by which we might gain life eternal. I do not believe that the power and influence of such a manifestation as he received could leave any boy. They did not leave him. He stood alone, and when the weight seemed great, holy angels ministered to him, and cleared all doubt away, and the Church of Jesus Christ was established by our Father through him. ¶

From our earliest recollection we, as Latter-day Saints, young men and young women, have been informed of this great revelation. Most of us have had a testimony that the Gospel is true ; even before we had the language to express it, and even before we realized that we knew the Gospel was true that testimony was ours. With such a beginning, and with the environments that ought to surround the Latter-day Saints, every young man and woman could erect a monument to his or her memory that would stand eternally, not a monument of stone, but a monument most precious in the sight of God. ¶

My heart has rejoiced this summer in the things that I have learned concerning the history of the Gospel of the Lord Jesus, in this dispensation from the birth of the Prophet Joseph Smith to the building of the temple at Kirtland. These facts, added to my visits to Independence, Nauvoo, and Carthage, as well as many spots on the plains made dear by the dead buried there, has made the Gospel dearer to me than it has ever been before. I, in common with the Elders in our mission, have striven to magnify the name of our Father, and to erect a shaft of truth that will stand throughout all the ages of eternity. ¶

There is a wonderful change in the feelings of the people, and many things have been making for the spread of truth. The arguments of the elders have counted for nothing, but it has been the spirit in which they have spoken, and the power of the Lord that has accompanied their testimonies, and in the distribution of the Book of Mormon and other literature. One more testimony of the Book of Mormon and Joseph Smith. It is the experience of many an Elder when downcast, gloomy and oppressed, that all he needed to do was to testify of the divine mission of Joseph Smith, or speak of the Book of Mormon, and the mist was dispelled, and the power of the Lord came upon them, and they have stood forth grateful to our Father in heaven for the power that He has given them over the hearts of men. ¶

God bless the Latter-day Saints, and bless the young men and women of the rising generation, that they may keep burning bright in their hearts the spirit of the Gospel, and by the power of the Lord that will be given them be able to dispel the darkest clouds, is my prayer in the name of Jesus. Amen. ¶