Testimony

(President of the Taylor Stake of Zion, Alberta, Canada.) ¶

It is not a very pleasant sensation to have the tables turned on you, the way Brother Talmage has done towards us this afternoon, in requiring us to do all the talking, because I believe the situation which he has stated exists in most all the stakes. I know it does in our stake. I know I once attempted to speak on the first principles of the gospel, and one of the presidents got up and said it was very refreshing to hear a stake president talk on that subject. We usually let the other fellows do that. ¶

I pray that the Lord will bless me with his Spirit that we may be benefited by meeting together. As Brother Talmage has stated, I come from the far north, Canada, a name that makes most of you, I suppose, shiver; you think that that is so far off and such a cold country that you have no desire to go there; but I assure you that we have a great many people in that land of the Latter-day Saints. And the Lord has blessed us fairly well in that land during the last thirty-four years, since we first began to settle there. We try to do what we can, in our weak way, in that stake of Zion. We have adopted the method counseled at the last conference: we have sent out a few missionaries, and I think they have done a great deal of good. You know, there are only eight or ten thousand of us in that country -- in that great nation. Most of us came from the United States. A few ¶

children, of course, have been born there, in fact quite a number. We have been treated in that wonderful land with the fullest measure of liberty that could be extended to any people. We have had every advantage enjoyed by any other people in that country, and we feel very thankful that that is the case. ¶

Now, in our missionary labors that we have taken up recently, we have advised the elders to go to the non-"Mormons," who do not understand the gospel, and also to those of our brethren and sisters who have been a little careless; and when they come back, they report that they have a great many very agreeable gospel conversations with some of our non-"Mormon" friends. Some who are not members of the Church have entertained our elders for hours at a time, and they have stated that they had no idea that we promulgated such ideas as we have. One man who had been educated for the ministry had the privilege of hearing two of our elders, and he had been so prejudiced against our people and doctrines that although the meetings were held in the schoolhouse, nearby, he would not go in. When the elders called on him, he would not invite them in; but they finally persuaded him to go into the schoolhouse. He said, "I was educated for the ministry, but I don't believe anything now, there are so many conflicting ideas." But when they left, he said, "Come back again, because I did not know, nor have any idea that you had such splendid principles as you have been telling me of." ¶

A great many people feel that our people are away up out of the world in Canada. Thirty-four years ago, when people first went up there, many of our people felt that after the storms had blown over the time would soon come that they would be called back to Utah. My grandfather was one of them who said that. I told him, no; because, I said, "You have heard some wonderful predictions in relation to the labors of this people in this land. I have heard people who come up there say that 'you will have very many more settlements in this beloved country.' President Joseph F. Smith said, 'You would have thousands and tens of thousands, and they would extend far up to the Great Bay, pointing up to the great Hudson's bay.' " I have taken a great deal of pleasure in predictions of that kind, and I have spent all my time and energies there, in fact. I have become a citizen there, over 30 years ago; but still I can say that no man born in this great country can feel a warmer feeling in his heart for this great Republic in which you live than we; and we always look back and say, That is a wonderfully blessed land where the Lord said that he raised up good and wise men for the purpose of establishing his great work. Now I say, we see the fulfilment of these prophecies. ¶

I have often thought of that wonderful vision that Nephi had. He said, he saw that wonderful Church, and it spread abroad, and multitudes of people belonged to it; and he also saw that the people of the Lord were scattered over the whole earth, but their numbers were few. It may be that the Lord will use that as a means of ¶

promulgating his work in the last days. Some people are so full of prejudice they will not give attention to the principles that we preach. If they did, they would say, as this man did, that they had never had any idea that we had such wonderful and noble principles. But when they come to examine our principles they wonder, and think they could be patterned after. ¶

Some of our people have attended some of the meetings of a great Farmers' association there. We have a very strong organization along that line in Alberta, and our bishops have been strong representatives of that organization, and in one of our meetings they put forward a resolution in relation to tobacco, and they petitioned parliament, or at least the provincial legislative body, that they would raise the age at which cigarettes could be sold to boys. In the recent vote for prohibition, the province went overwhelmingly in favor of prohibition, and of course our people stood where they ought to stand, in the lead, and our vote was the largest in the province. Now they can see what we are doing. We have already maintained, for a great many years, the only local option district in that country. Through the efforts of President Card, that was brought about, and finally the majority of the people there voted in favor of temperance, prohibition. ¶

We live on a little branch railway known as the Cardston branch, and some of the travelers, after we had put forth the M. I A. slogan, have said, "Why, my house has told me not to come down this way with our wares, because the people have adopted that resolution, and won't buy our coffee there. Now our stores are quitting the sale of tobacco," he said. Another man said, "I sell tobacco, and my house has ordered me not to go down there, for none of the stores are selling tobacco, and we cannot sell very much down in that country." An example of that kind begins to have its effect upon the people. ¶

I was in a big banquet not long ago, at which one of the members of the board of trade, with a wide reputation, happened to be sitting by me, and they have a habit of almost smoking you out in their banquets. He said, "Mr. Allen, I feel that it is almost a sacrilege to sit here and smoke beside you." That meant to me a good deal; it meant that they had begun to take notice of what we had been teaching. In a few ways of this kind the gospel is being preached in that great land. ¶

In that great convention I mentioned, we were told, "You 'Mormons' are not getting the benefit of all the taxes that you ought to get, and that you help to pay, because you haven't got enough men in the penitentiary." Those men said, "You haven't got any men in the penitentiary, and still you are paying your share of the taxes." ¶

Up where I live they organize for the farm women also, so that they can get social and other privileges. When they came into our midst they said they recognized something that there was not in any other province. They said, "You are looking after your own poor better than anybody else in the province; and this is a part of our ¶

work that we do not emphasize, because you do not need it in this community. " ¶

Recently when we paid a visit to the leading educators, and on the occasion of the visit of Superintendent Adam S. Bennion, in the interest of the Church schools, they said something that was interesting. You know, there has been talk of closing up Church schools; but the minister of education said, "You hold to that Church school just as long as you possibly can, because it has filled wonderfully a want felt in that community, that no other province has done, in getting young men into the school and educating them." He said, we want to introduce domestic art and other manual and domestic training in our Church schools, and the best representative of that was right in Raymond, and these things are efforts along a line of work that is highly important. They are carrying out the ideas that President Young advocated more than fifty years ago, when he said that the boys ought to be taught to be better farmers; and the girls, better housewives, so that they can be better citizens. We had the first schools in the province that introduced domestic art and science; and, in fact, others want us to cooperate with them. ¶

When our trustees went up to the educational convention they reported that ours was the only school outside of their large cities that was carrying on any of that work. ¶

In this way, it may be that the gospel may be preached, for they will get a chance in that way to see some of our good works. May be, after a while, they will begin to recognize that there are some other principles that are very valuable, and for the uplift and benefit of men; and I hope that the day will soon come that they can recognize us for our real worth, and when the spirit of the gospel shall be better than anything else with them, and when they can be baptized into the same spirit that we are baptized into, and a spirit of brotherly love and kindness shall exist in all parts of the world. Then they will begin to receive the benefits of "Mormonism," for which it has been restored to the earth. ¶

Now, at home we have the privilege of entertaining most of the general authorities of the Church, and I would just like to bear testimony of the worth of these men. I do this because we are sustaining two new members of the general authorities at this conference. We have had the privilege of entertaining 22 out of 26. Brother Talmage has not yet favored us with a visit, nor Brother Widtsoe, of course. I want to bear testimony that they are very, very good men, and that we are perfectly safe in following their footsteps; and we don't want to get the idea that we want to do something that is contrary to the will of the Church; because, from the ideas that I have received from carrying them over our great prairies, and having them in our own homes, they are splendid men, and I have not heard any one of them suggest that which would smack of trickery or anything of that kind, but they are pure-minded men. While I loved President Joseph F. ¶

Smith above all other men, I can see that the Lord raises up other men who are carrying on the work, just as well as men have been carrying it on in the past. At the present time I can say that I admire President Grant very much. I rode with him all over our stake, just previous to his being promoted to the presidency of the Church, and I found him to be a man that is pure-minded, and one who has the interests of the people at heart. And these other brethren who have recently been sustained, I can sustain them with all my heart. It is a source of pleasure to sustain these men by raising our hands and then going home and supporting them in everything that we do in life. May the Lord enable us to do that, and also recognize that there is order in his Church, and that whenever he has anything to do he will do it through the proper channel. I pray that we may follow our file leaders, that we may be indeed true Latter-day Saints, and also, that we may do our part in promulgating the gospel. This is my prayer, in the name of Jesus. Amen. ¶

The LeGrand ward male quartet, under the direction of Leland I Acomb, sang, "Nearer, my God, to thee." ¶