Report on the Western States Mission

(President of Western States Mission.) I rejoice, my brethren and sisters, to meet with you this morning, and listen to the remarks that have been made during this conference. My heart has gone out to the young people of Zion. ¶

There have been many questions flash through my mind that I have been unable to answer. A short time ago, in talking with a gentleman who professed to be religious, he asked if we had stopped receiving revelations. He said : "I don't hear of any revelations having been accepted by your Church of late years, or since the close of the Book of Doctrine & Covenants, some years ago." I answered, "Of course we receive revelations ; we receive revelations every day." "But," he said, "you don't place those revelations before the body of the Church to be accepted by the Church, as directed in the Book of Covenants." That remark has led me to reflect on the history of this Church, and I have been wondering where the Church would have been if we had to depend upon a congregation of the Saints to decide upon accepting the revelations of God. I was trying to think where we would be today if it had been left to a council to decide as to whether or not the Father and the Son had appeared unto the boy Joseph Smith in the woods as you have heard related here this morning by Brother Ellsworth. What would have become of the Church, or where would the Church be today, if it had been left to a council to decide as to whether Moroni appeared unto the Prophet Joseph Smith, and taught him the things of God, and told him that his name should be had for good and evil among all the nations of the earth? What standing in the earth would the Church have if it had been left to a council to decide as to whether John the Baptist came to Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery, and placed his hands upon their heads and ordained them to the Aaronic Priesthood? Where would we be today had it been left to a council to decide as to whether Peter, James and John appeared unto those men and conferred upon them the holy Melchisedek Priesthood ? Even the date of that event has been lost; we do not know the exact time when it occurred, and yet, with thanks to our Father in heaven, we accept the ordination of Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery, magnifying the holy Priesthood that has been given unto us through them. Of course, that Priesthood was conferred by holy messengers, the fact was duly made a matter of record, but the precise date of its occurrence, as I have stated, has been lost. And so, we might go on from the beginning down to the present time. The appearance of the various messengers who came to confer the powers of Priesthood and authority upon His servants in this dispensation, where would we be today, I say, if these things had been left to the decision of a council? We might be quarreling and contending one with the other as to the authenticity of the various revelations. But we are perfectly content; we know that those whom God has chosen in this dispensation, whom He has ordained, set apart, and directed to accomplish His work, have been men of God, divinely ordained to accomplish the things given them to perform. And so, we stand forth boldly declaring that God has spoken from the heavens, that He has restored the Gospel in this dispensation, and that the Book of Mormon is indeed the word of the Lord, that it contains the fulness of the everlasting Gospel, and we do not need to submit these things to the decision of a council. All we need is to do as our Father in heaven has instructed us, go to Him in humble prayer and ask whether these things are true or not, and we have the assurance that we will receive a testimony of their truth. There are men and women who creep into our homes, wards, and missions, and seek to lead astray the people who have accepted the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. They are leading a few away by their sophistry, not saying harsh things against the authorities, because they know, perchance, that our young people would not listen to such things ; but at times some of the young are deceived and led away from the paths of truth. We have had Elders come to us in the mission field who said, "We do not have a testimony of the Gospel of Christ, we do not know that it is true; we have come here because we have been requested." We have said to them, "You do have a testimony of the Gospel, but you don't know it; you nursed the testimony of the Gospel from your mother when you were infants ; it is a part of you, but you have not had it awakened yet. When you are in the mission field a little while, and come in contact with those who oppose you, this germ of truth that was born with you, and has grown up with you, will be awakened, and you will find that you can be a power in the world in testifying of Jesus Christ, and the mission of Joseph Smith and the divine authenticity of the Book of Mormon." And these young men have been encouraged, and they have gone forth, and have returned after a while, thanking their Father in heaven for the testimony which He had given them. ¶

Some time ago a gentleman came and asked, "Why do you believe this is the Gospel ? and why are you a member of this Church?" I said, "My answer to that is very brief : I belong to this Church, because it is the Church of Jesus Christ, and that is the reason I am here declaring its truth unto the people." I believe that most of our young people have a knowledge of the Gospel, and have a testimony of it, but many of them are not aware of the fact. Sometimes we are dilatory and lazy; we think the Lord is going to do all for us. We go to school or to the university, and the young man or woman who wishes to progress, and receive a degree, must burn the midnight oil ; and yet, to get a knowledge of the Gospel of Jesus Christ they feel that all that is necessary for them to do is to ask their Father in heaven, and, without any effort on their part, the Lord will manifest the truth unto them. I want to say that God requires that we shall seek Him earnestly, exerting the powers and faculties He has given us, and then will He impart a testimony of the truths of heaven. ¶

This great body of Saints who are in attendance at this conference is a revelation to me. The utterances of the servants of the Lord yesterday in the tabernacle, and this morning, have been revelations unto me that we possess the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the power of God unto salvation. I have asked the Lord to bless me with testimony, that He would give unto me a knowledge that we have the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. I have not desired that I might be an orator, that I might stand before an audience and, in flowery speech, declare unto them the principles of the Gospel, and reason with them; but I have desired that I could bear that testimony to my fellow men, and that they may be impressed with it. And the Lord has been merciful and good to me. I see the revelations of God, and hear Him speak in all of His operations in the world. He has been mindful of me in this particular, and I feel sometimes that I cannot be grateful enough for these manifestations. ¶

In the mission over which it has been my privilege to preside for a few years, the Elders have been performing excellent missionary work. We are not baptizing many people, but we are making thousands responsible for the testimonies we bear unto them. Some time in the future the testimonies that are being borne by the Elders will stand as a rebuke unto those people if they do not accept the Gospel of Jesus Christ. This afternoon, the Elders in several cities in our mission will stand upon the street corners, and will bear their testimonies unto the congregations that will assemble. This evening they will do the same thing, and will declare that Joseph Smith was a Prophet of God, and that the Book of Mormon is a divine revelation from our Father in heaven. The people will listen to the testimonies that the Elders bear; they will have the words told unto them that have been proclaimed many times in many places, and they will go away paying little heed at the time unto the remarks that the Elders have made ; yet, in after years they will remember the words and the speakers who uttered them. It is a peculiar fact that the people whom the Elders come in contact with are very much impressed with their personality. I have met people who have seen an Elder but once, perhaps five or more years previously, and they have described the Elder with such minuteness that I was able to tell his name. The Elders have gone to their houses, and when they have stepped inside they have said, "Peace be unto this house;" and it has had a great effect upon the minds of the people, and the people ask them to come back and partake of their hospitality. A few weeks ago two of our Elders were approached by a gentleman— some of you may have read of it in Liahona, the Elders' Journal — who said: "I met two of your Elders in my home town and I treated them in a shameful manner, and now I have walked seven miles to meet you, because I thought perchance I might meet one of the men, at least, whom I had driven away from my home, and I have come here for the purpose of asking pardon of those whom I treated in such a mean and contemptible way." The Elders sold him some books, and he went back rejoicing that he had met them, and had the privilege of shaking their hands and giving them a message that they might give to the Elders whom he had mistreated so before. ¶

I want to say a few words about the little missionary paper that has been established. I do not wish to appeal to you in any way that would make you think that I am mercenary, or that I had a feeling of commercialism about me. I want to tell you what the paper has been doing in the mission field over which I have the privilege of presiding. One of the Elders said that in the city of Pueblo he had been in the habit of leaving in a certain public place some tracts almost every day. He said sometimes he would find them still there. When the publication of the Liahona was begun, he laid that little "missionary" down in the same place, and now when he goes back to place others there he never finds one of them left; it seems to have an attraction for the people, and they have taken it and probably read it. We have a number of people in the city of Denver who are subscribers to this paper, some of them work in the postoffice department, and those men look forward with as much eagerness for the coming of that little periodical as they do for the coming of a letter from home. They come to us and talk about the articles that have appeared in the paper, and say that there are wonderful things in it, that they did not know our people preached any such doctrines, until they saw them there. The editor of the Liahona has informed us that there are about twelve baptisms traceable almost directly to the influence of the paper already. The first copy was issued on the 6th day of last April, and it was begun under trying circumstances. We had a great deal of opposition in various ways, but today the Liahona has a weekly circulation of 18,000, which is something phenomenal. I bear testimony that the power of God has accompanied the work ; it has been magnified in the eyes of the people, and they are turning their attention to it, and are recognizing in that periodical a magazine that has been established for good. You will find, my brethren and sisters, if you take it into your homes it will be a factor for good to your families, because it carries the spirit of the missionary. It comes from the mission field direct. It partakes of the influence of the Elders who are laboring in the vineyard, and brings it right to your home ; and it is a message from your boys and girls who are in the mission field today. The Lord is blessing and helping us, and we are performing a good work in that direction. ¶

I pray that God will continue to bless us, and help us to do right, that we may ever serve Him and keep His commandments, which is my prayer in the name of Jesus. Amen. ¶