The Best Conference: A Plea for Home Missionary Work

I trust, my brethren and sisters, that the few words I utter upon this occasion, may be directed by the same good spirit that has been so abundantly manifest in the remarks that have been made by the brethren who have been called to speak to the people, in the various sessions of this general conference. ¶

As I was coming up Main Street on Saturday morning, on my way to attend the opening session of the conference, I joined a brother who was also wending his way towards this Tabernacle. He smilingly said to me, "Well, brother Joseph, I suppose we are going to have the very best conference that has ever been held." These words of the brother referred to, brought to my mind remarks that were made in my hearing, by one of the counselors in a stake presidency, at a stake conference that I attended a few months ago. He declared in that meeting that he felt the stake conference, then convened, was one of the best they had ever held. After making this statement, he said that when he returned from Salt Lake City after attending the October conference last year, his family wanted to know what kind of a conference had been held, and how he had enjoyed himself. His answer was, "It was the best conference I have ever attended." Then the young people in the home laughed and said, "Why, father, you have made that statement after every conference you have ever attended." I was made glad, my brethren and sisters, when I listened to that declaration. This man was a man of years and of long experience. He was engaged in teaching the Gospel when I was a little child, a man under whose direction I had come in my Sunday School studies in the days of my boyhood ; I was made glad in my soul that after all the years of experience which -he had had in the Church, that the doctrines of the Gospel were still so sweet that he could say, after more than a half a century of experience, and after being in attendance again and again at conference meetings for about that length of time — for he has been in regular attendance at these conferences, and he is sitting in this congregation this afternoon — that this last conference was the best one in his experience. I would not be at all surprised if he were to report when he has opportunity that he has again attended the best conference he had ever attended. I do not know that one conference is really better than another; but there is something to be very grateful for, that at every conference we always have a spirit of joy and always feel that we have reason for great happiness. We feel fully satisfied with the sound of the Gospel, the principles and doctrines of the Gospel that are expounded in our hearing at these gatherings and at other times even though we may have heard them frequently before, they are always fresh, they are always satisfying, and always fill us with gratitude, thanksgiving and praise. ¶

I attended a conference recently, my brethren and sisters, where the stake president reported that an earnest effort had been made by the ward teachers within the confines of that stake during the nine months of the year that had then passed away, to carry the Gospel to the homes of the people resident within the stake. The brethren engaged in this labor had been instructed to visit all the people, not only the Latter-day Saints but to visit the people who were not of our faith. If non-members of the Church cared to hear anything in relation to the principles of the Gospel, the teachers were to expound the Gospel to them. If they did not want the Gospel, but desired to unite with the people in civic movements, or in other good directions in which all the people unite, to talk with them in relation to such matters. The president reported that these teachers were well received and as a result of their ministry in thus visiting the homes of the people, there had been over forty adult baptisms in that stake during nine months. I thought that was a very remarkable and commendable report; it was something for the brethren who had engaged in the labor to feel exceedingly proud of. You know it has been written in the revelations that have come from our Father in heaven in this latter dispensation, that if a man were to spend his entire lifetime in the preaching of the word of the Lord, and the result of his ministry should be the salvation of one soul, how great would be his joy with that soul in the kingdom of God. I believe in this doctrine. I have had some experience in the preaching of the Gospel, and now and then have discovered that the Lord has so used me in teaching the way of salvation, that the hearts ¶

of men have been touched, and a few have been brought to investigate the great message that has been revealed from on high for the salvation of the human family. I know whenever such information has come to me it has filled my soul with that joy that passes all understanding. ¶

At another conference that I attended not long ago I heard the stake president report the labors of missionaries something after the manner of the report that was made by President Smith, regarding these Church activities. This president reported that in the stake of Zion over which he presided they had been utilizing the Seventies and the Elders in the preaching of the Gospel, and that an earnest home missionary labor had been accomplished. These missionaries had gone among the people much in the same manner as our missionaries go abroad in the various missions of the world. They had literature to deliver to the people. They held cottage meetings, and other meetings, as they had opportunity. They taught the principles of the Gospel at the fireside, and wherever they could make an opening, and in that stake of Zion the report was made that there had been between forty and fifty baptisms of adult persons, individuals that were actual converts from indifference, from the religious follies that are in theworld, to the truth as it has been revealed. ¶

I mention these matters for the purpose, my brethren and sisters, of drawing the attention of men who hold responsible and presiding positions in the quorums of the Holy Priesthood, and particularly to those who preside in the quorums of the seventy, to the possibility of saving souls here at home, that they may be alive to the opportunity that abounds on every hand for missionary labor in the stakes of Zion. We have a great missionary field right here at our doors. Men and women in large numbers have been drawn from the various nations of the earth by the mysterious providences of our Father in heaven, and have located in the wards and stakes of Zion. We should feel that we are under responsibility to carry the principles of the Gospel to all these people who are not of the faith. We should be constantly on the alert and anxious to formulate plans, under proper direction, and proper authority, for the spreading of the word of the Lord, that those who are here within our gates may hear the sound of the Gospel and have no opportunity in the future, either in this time, or in the life that is to come, to rise up in judgment against us and say, that nothwithstanding the precious truth that had been committed into our care, and the nearness of these men to many who hold the priesthood, no effort had been made to convert them. I heard a stake president say that a neighbor, a man resident within his stake, who was visited when upon his death-bed by elders of the Church and heard something in relation to the principles of the Gospel, he wanted, then, to know how it was — if the story relative to the restoration of the Gospel that was being told was true, if the heavens had been opened, if holy angels had come with divine authority and had conferred that authority upon men, and his neighbors held that authority — how it was that they had not exerted themselves long before to make him acquainted with that fact. He appeared, according to the report of this president, to be concerned about the matter. He seemed to feel that possibly the story was true, that God had revealed Himself; that the message of the everlasting Gospel had been committed to men upon the earth; and he was in distress because he was conscious of the fact that he would not have opportunity to receive that message, as he was then upon his death-bed. Of course we do not know what his feelings might have been under other circumstances; but we really ought to know that the giving of the authority of the Holy Priesthood is most precious, and that with that authority is a very grave responsibility. Men should be earnestly engaged in seeking to bring to pass righteousness, of their own volition, by virtue of the agency with which God has blessed them, acting and laboring always under the authority of those who preside in the local subdivisions of the Church. I am very glad to know that there has been an unusual effort, during recent years, to utilize more fully the labors of the Seventies and other men who hold this precious authority in the preaching of the word of the Lord at home. I trust that there is a disposition on the part of all these men to recognize local authority; that there are none of them graduates in the sense that has been spoken of during this conference, but that they are all students, that they are all ambitious to learn the things of God, that they are all anxious to utilize the information that may come to them as the result of research and study for the advantage and well being of their fellows. For it is for this purpose that we have been given authority. For this purpose God has called us to His ministry, and He has laid upon our shoulders the responsibility of carrying the message of the Gospel to all men. ¶

I pray that the priesthood may feel this obligation more and more right here at home, and that there may not be found in any ward, or in any stake of Zion, any person not a member of the Church who can justly say, now or hereafter, that we have not appreciated our responsibility, and that we have not sought to magnify our calling in seeking after the souls of men in the fear of the Lord. May we so utilize our time and powers that have been committed unto us, that all men shall be left without excuse, and that we ourselves shall be received in due time by our Father in heaven with the plaudit, "Well done thou good and faithful servant, enter into the joy of thy Lord." God bless us, and help us to be faithful and true to the covenants we have made, is my prayer in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen. ¶