Report on the Uintah Stake

(President of Uintah Stake.) We are having a glorious time during this conference, yet I feel my weakness in representing one of the Stakes of Zion. You remember on the map of our State there is a kind of rectangular bite taken out of the northeastern part. The Uintah Stake lies just beneath the lower part of the rectangular bite, that forms a sort of chair seat where that piece is taken out. The Stake is about two hundred miles from here, and extends over a considerable area of ground. Before I forget it, I desire to say to the good people present that we have lots of room for more good people out there ; and if you are not so very good, but just like some of the rest of us who are there, you may come, and we will all try to get better together. If you have sons or daughters who want to take root somewhere, and branch out, and grow up with the country, just send them over to the Uintah country. It is in Utah, on the borders of Colorado and we think it is a goodly land. I am glad the Lord has given me the spirit of loving that country, inasmuch as He has sent me there. Our stake comprises, in round numbers, about 100 square miles of agricultural land; and we are just like little flies on a big wall, we are so few as compared with that expanse of country. But, as President Lyman said upon one' occasion, so I believe, it is destined to be one of the rich and populous sections of the state of Utah. In speaking this way I do not feel to depreciate any other part of the vineyard of the Lord, because all of it is important. The land and the people must all be reclaimed and brought under cultivation, temporally and spiritually. You can find there any altitude you want, from 4,500 to 7,000 feet above sea level. You can get any kind of soil you may desire. At the base of the mountains, you will find black alluvial soil ; on the benches red sandy, or clay soil; or, in the valleys below heavier clay, whiteish soil, which is kind of wax like, and never needs to be fertilized; or you can get sandy loam, if you desire a soil to work more smoothly over the plow, share. The climate is rather dry, and inclined to be hot in summer, and rather cool in winter. The rainfall is light, but there is ample water supply, it being one of the best watered countries in the west. All it needs is perseverance, faith, bone and sinew, every-day intelligence and stick-to-itiveness to get the water out, spread it over the land and make the country "blossom as the rose." Brother Samuel R. Bennion, his counselors, and the brethren and sisters who have labored with them in the past for almost a quarter of a century, have made our valley a place beautiful to look upon. As you ascend the hills in going into the valley, in the summer time, it begins to look almost like a garden of Eden. The trees skirting various avenues, fields of grain waving under the warm sun make it look beautiful. Down in the valley you find the town of Vernal. The people who built in different parts of the valley have improved their farms until they present a very sightly appearance, and show what might be done throughout all that vast country. ¶

As to ecclesiastical work the Presidency and High Council with the other boards of the Priesthood, and the various auxiliary departments, are doing what they can to further the work of the Lord. Last year we divided the High Council into committees, and enlisted them as special missionaries to the various priesthood and auxiliary departments, giving them a year's labor. We receive reports from time to time concerning conditions they find, and suggestions as to what would be good for the betterment. At our last quarterly conference, we made a little innovation. We used Saturday's portion of the conference as a special convention day ; that is, we had a program, and appointed members of the Priesthood and also leading sisters of various auxiliary departments to speak upon subjects that would be of special interest to the priesthood and the various departments. Then we allowed the congregation to discuss the various points at the close of the dissertation on the subject. It proved an occasion of very great interest and edification. Sunday was devoted to general services, and instructions, were imparted to the people on general topics. The plan worked very admirably. We did not do this however, without getting the sanction of the leading brethren. ¶

The people of our stake, as a rule are feeling well and trying to live their religion. Last fall, in holding our ward conference, catching up the forerunning of the spirit of teaching the Word of Wisdom, as we have heard here, we made that a special subject in all ward conferences throughout the stake. The spirit of the Lord was with us, and the people felt that the time had come to observe that law more than we have done in the past. It is only a few years since President Snow was impressed by the Lord to preach more abundantly, and impressively, that other law of temporal salvation, the law of tithing. You remember, he went south and first delivered the message there, and then continued northward through the country, and the people were everywhere aroused to observing that law of temporal salvation. Not only is the Church free from financial bondage today, but the people also have received spiritual blessings abundantly. Now the other law of temporal salvation is being brought forward by the Church authorites, the law which governs health, longevity, strength and our perpetuity in the earth, the Word of Wisdom, It should be gratifying to the Latter-day Saints to know that, after so many years have passed since the Lord gave that law of temporal salvation, especially condemning the use of strong drinks, many of our brethren and sisters in our great country now join hands with us, and preach prohibition. It is gratifying to us, and we gladly join hands with them for the betterment of conditions among us. We young people are often admonished with reference to the Word of Wisdom. Our fathers and mothers have been treated with great leniency with respect thereto, because they came into the Church with the old traditions and many of them were addicted from childhood to the use of tea, coffee, and tobacco, and in some instances, perhaps accustomed to the use of liquor. In our Stakes of Zion, while we have endeavored to intensify this principle before the young, we have told the fathers and mothers that, wherein they could get sufficient strength to keep the Word of Wisdom, it would not only be a blessing unto them, but they would furnish thereby a rich example of faith and works to their posterity. I have felt to thus encourage the fathers and mothers to keep the Word of Wisdom. ¶

May God bless us, my brethren and sisters in observing the laws of the Lord. My heart is full of gratitude and joy at the testimony of the First Presidency we heard yesterday. I felt that no Latter-day Saint could sit under the sound of their voices and not have his or her faith increased, to witness the strength, the love the living faith that emanated from those men of God. May God help us to do our part, be valiant in the testimony of Jesus, and live so that we may illustrate the sentiments expressed in the words of this hymn that we sing — ¶

"Why should we think to earn a great reward, If we now shun the fight? Gird up your loins, fresh courage take, Our God will never us forsake ; And soon we'll have this truth to tell : ¶

All is well, all is well." ¶

Amen. ¶