Report on the Northern States Mission

(President of Northern States Mission.) My brethren and sisters, it gives me pleasure to have the privilege of standing before you for a few minutes, to briefly report the labors of the Elders laboring in the Northern States mission. I take it that you are more interested in that subject than in any doctrine that I might preach. I feel highly honored in having the privilege of laboring with so many good men and women as are now in the Northern States mission, men and women who are active and faithful in their calling. They are struggling earnestly to magnify that calling before their heavenly Father. We are indeed grateful to God for His wonderful blessings, and we rejoice when we realize how He has opened the way, so that the honorable men of the earth may hear the gospel and read our literature. ¶

As most of you know, in the past three years, we have turned our attention more to the distributing of the Book of Mormon. We find that the dissemination of the Book of Mormon has more than doubled the distribution of other books and tracts. Three years ago we disposed of 1,000 Books of Mormon in our field, and something like 12,000 small books. In 1906, the Books of Mormon increased to 5,000 and our other books to over 20,000. Last year the Elders increased the Book of Mormon distribution to something like 12,500, and increased the ten-cent books to about 58,000. It has opened the door to the homes of hundreds of people, and our Elders feel that the Lord has been with them and has magnified them in their labors. They feel that in taking the Book of Mormon to the doors of the people that they have something important enough to take to the biggest men of the nation. The Lord, speaking to the Prophet Joseph and some of the Elders, in the eighty-fourth section of the Doctrine and Covenants, seems to have chided them because they had neglected the things they had received, and speaks particularly of the Book of Mormon, — beginning with the fifty-fourth verse, He says : ¶

"And your minds in times past have been darkened because of unbelief, and because you have treated lightly the things you have received, which vanity and unbelief hath brought the whole Church under condemnation, and this condemnation resteth upon the children of Zion, even all; and they shall remain under this condemnation until they repent and remember the new covenant, even the Book of Mormon and the former commandments which I have given them, not only to say, but to do according to that which I have written." ¶

The Book of Mormon has been given to the people of this dispensation to bring them nearer to Christ. It is a witness that the Bible is the word of God, and that God has established His Church in this day and time. There is something remarkable about the Book of Mormon, it is a great missionary book. You can open it any place, and the Spirit of the Lord, which accompanies the book, comes upon the people, and they are at once interested. ¶

The missionaries have enjoyed excellent health in the Northern States mission, having had little or no sickness. There is nothing that gives me greater happiness than the manifestations that the Lord has given to me, that He is establishing His work in the earth. I have a testimony that God lives, that Jesus is the Christ, and that Joseph Smith was His prophet, and that our Father has fulfilled, and is fulfilling, the promises to His servants in the missionary field, wherein He said, that He would send His angels before their face to prepare the way. We are learning every day of our lives that in order to keep pace with the angels that the Lord has sent out to prepare the way, we must work, and work hard. It is my experience that when we are weary in body we feel these messengers are with us, guiding and sustaining us. In the past I believe many of us have neglected the opportunities, and have come long after the way has been prepared, and the hearts of the people have grown cold, but I am glad to say, we are now doing our best, and cheerfully, too, to keep pace with the messengers that have been sent before our face. ¶

The last five weeks we have met all the Elders in the mission, but four, holding nine conferences with them, and laying plans for our summer work. Instead of preaching to the Elders in these conferences we had a short report, and then, in about an hour's talk, laid before them a plan for our summer campaign, and asked them for suggestions. At the close we voted to make the plans laid before them the plans of the conference for our summer's work. ¶

Our plan for the summer is to send a letter to the leading men of the city chosen for our week-end conference. We also expect to send two men ahead of the company of six, to call upon the newspapers and announce our conference as well as place our posters in public places announcing the coming of a company of Elders to hold conference in that town. In going through these cities, we expect to leave as many Books of Mormon, Voices of Warning, Durrants and Cowley's Talks as we can, and also copies of the Liahona. We expect to send them away not only with the spirit of the work but also with plenty of books and literature. We have prepared a tract containing 17 of the songs of Zion which preach a sermon, as it were, of the restoration of the Gospel, and all who will may go home with this collection, having heard some of them. Many learn to love and sing our songs, and music has a wonderful influence. ¶

We have had testimonies in the past year concerning men who have heard their children singing the songs of Zion, and they have been led to wonder from what source they came, and were moved to investigate the Gospel. The Lord has been good to us, and we rejoice in the truth. We rejoice in the manifestations of our Father. We pray that God will continue to bless and prosper Zion, and assist the Saints to send more of their sons and daughters into the mission field that they may learn that God is guiding His work, and that His angels are guiding the elders in their work. ¶

May the prayers of the Saints of Zion be fulfilled upon the heads of our Elders abroad, and upon our leaders at home. May God's special blessings be upon President Joseph F. Smith, upon his counsel and upon the Twelve, that Zion's people may receive through them the blessings they are praying for, and go forth and build up Zion. May the light of Zion guide the honest in the whole earth, to join in preparing the earth for the coming of the Savior, is my prayer in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen. ¶