Remarks

I have enjoyed the remarks made by the previous speakers and have listened with attention to the reports from the two presidents of missions and to the historical narrative by Brother Lund. ¶

After listening also to the excellent discourse delivered this morning by President Ivins, in which he recited the beautiful story of the Israelites, and also referred to the return of the Jews to their land — their original land of inheritance — I was led to reflect upon an event which took place in Kirtland, Ohio, on the 3rd of April, 1836, when Moses appeared in the Kirtland temple and delivered unto Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery the keys for "the gathering of Israel from the four parts of the earth and the leading of the Ten Tribes from the Jand of the North."We understand by this that it referred not only to the Jews, but to the other tribes of the House of Israel as well, and that it means a general gathering dispensation. Many centuries ¶

ago, the children of Israel were scattered to the four corners of the earth, but in the last days God, according to prophecy, will cause them to be gathered again from the islands of the sea, from the lands of the north, and from wheresoever they have been driven. In connection with this, I was thinking of some notes that I made recently regarding the preaching of the gospel in the different nations of the earth, as the question may consistently be asked: Have the Latter-day Saints been faithful and diligent in preaching the gospel to the nations and in gathering Israel? ¶

Jesus instructed his apostles, shortly before he ascended into heaven, to go out into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. John, in his vision upon the Isle of Patmos, saw an angel flying through the midst of heaven, having the everlasting gospel to preach to every nation, kindred, tongue and people. We see the fulfilment of that prophecy in the visit to Joseph Smith by the angel Moroni through whom the elders of the Church in our dispensation received their first commission to preach. ¶

While Joseph was engaged in translating the Book of Mormon, assisted by Oliver Cowdery, in Harmony, Pennsylvania, and in Seneca county, New York, in 1829 and 1830, they testified of the restoration of the gospel to the people in these localities and when these men had been ordained to the Priesthood by John the Baptist, and, according to the command that he gave them, had baptized and reordained each other, they commenced to baptize others. The next to be baptized after Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery was Samuel H. Smith, a brother of the Prophet Joseph. From that time on until the 6th of April, 1830, about thirty people were baptized altogether, and on the day mentioned, as you remember, the Church was organized, with six members. Of those baptized only six members seem to have been present when the organization was effected at Fayette; at least the Church was organized with six members whose names are known. ¶

As soon as that was done, the preaching of the restored gospel commenced in earnest. Oliver Cowdery preached the first public discourse ever delivered by a Latter-day Saint elder in this dispensation, on Sunday, the 11th of April, 1830, and I venture to say that since that memorable Sunday there has never been a Sabbath day but what the elders of the Church have lifted up their voices and borne testimony to the truth of the gospel. At the present time several thousand elders raise their voices every Sabbath day preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ in the various stakes of Zion as well as in the missionary fields. ¶

Among the first elders of the Church was Peter Whitmer, Jr., who, together with Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery, as early as April, 1830, commenced missionary journeys away from Fayette. One of their first trips was to Colesville, in Broome county, New York, about thirty miles from Fayette, where the Church had just 'been organized. In Colesville, the first convert to the restored gospel was Newel Knight, ¶

who afterwards became prominent in the Church. Soon a number of others embraced the gospel in that neighborhood, and so it is recorded in Church history that the Colesville branch was the first branch of the Church organized after the first organization in Fayette, New York, and it was also the first branch of the Church that fulfilled the command of "gathering to Zion."The Colesville branch led the van of the gathering of Israel in these last days by traveling as a body about 1300 miles from Colesville, New York, to the place designated for gathering, in Jackson county, Missouri. ¶

Soon after that, other elders entered the missionary field preaching the gospel. Thus Samuel H. Smith also became one of the first missionaries of the Church. He went to Lavonia, Livingston county, New York, and after suffering much persecution, the elders succeeded in getting a foothold there, and branches of the Church were soon afterwards raised up in that neighborhood. ¶

In August of the same year, Joseph Smith, Senior, and Don Carlos Smith performed a mission to St. Lawrence county, New York, where they converted a number of the Smith family. It seems that all of these except two became members of the Church, and most of them remained faithful and true adherents to the faith the rest of their • lives. ¶

In October, 1830, Oliver Cowdery, Parley P. Pratt, Peter Whitmer, Jr. and Richard Ziba Peterson were called by revelation on a special mission to travel to the far west to preach the gospel to the Lamanites, and thus a few months after the Church was organized, our missionaries had gone as far as 1300 miles away from Fayette preaching the gospel on the way, not only to the Lamanites but aho to the whites. ¶

I am relating these things, my brethren and sisters, that you may know that we have been diligent in keeping the commandments of the Lord in regard to preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ. First we preached in the United States, but after the keys had been given by Moses for gathering Israel, as has been referred to, the Elders also went into foreign lands. ¶

It may be interesting to know who the first elders in the Church were, and not only that, but who were the first missionaries of the Church — the first of the many thousands of missionaries who since have preached the gospel in nearly all parts of the world. We have between 1500 and 2,000 elders out in different parts of the world preaching the gospel at the present time. It has always been interesting to me to know who preceded me in preaching in the different localities where I have labored, and I imagine that the same is the case with others. The first sixteen missionaries in the Church were Joseph Smith, Jr., Oliver Cowdery, John Whitmer, David Whitmer, Samuel H. Smith, Joseph Smith, Sr., Don Carlos Smith, Parley P. Pratt, Hyrum Smith, Newel Knight, Richard Ziba Peterson, Peter Whitmer, Jr., ¶

Sidney Rigdon, Frederick G Williams, John Murdock and Orson Pratt, These elders alt labored as missionaries in the year 1830. ¶

It may be interesting for Patriarch Milando Pratt, who is present with us in this meeting, to lknow that his father, Orson Pratt, was among the first missionaries of the Church, 'being only nineteen years old when first called into the ministry. He had been baptized on his birthday and soon afterwards was ordained to the Priesthood and sent out to preach. Orson Pratt died in 1881, a faithful elder in the Church, and one of the twelve apostles. ¶

Time will only permit me to refer very briefly to what has been done by our missionaries, but it seems important that we should know how diligent the elders of the Church have been from the beginning in introducing the gospel into the different states of the Union, and into many nations. ¶

First they preached in New York and Pennsylvania. In 1831, they went as far east as Vermont, where Joseph the prophet, Brigham Young and many others, who became prominent men in the Church, were born. Elder Jared Carter organized a branch of the Church at Benton, on the west side of the Green Mountains — the first branch in Vermont. The restored gospel was also preached in Illinois, Missouri, Kansas, Indiana and Michigan, in 1831; and even some of the elders entered Kentucky and Virginia the same year. ¶

The next year (1832) Orson Hyde and Samuel H. Smith filled an important mission to the Eastern, or New England, states, and during that year the gospel was first introduced in New Jersey, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island, New Hampshire and Maine. In the last named state, Elder Wilford Woodruff later performed a splendid mission upon the Fox Islands. ¶

In 1834, the elders entered Tennessee. David W. Patten, Warren Parrish, Wilford Woodruff and Abraham O. Smoot were the first missionaries in that state. Wilford Woodruff and Henry Brown preached the gospel in Arkansas, in 1835. Into Maryland the gospel was introduced as early as 1837; and North Carolina was entered by Jedediah M. Grant (father of President Heber J. Grant), in 1838. The same year missionaries visited Iowa and later organized branches of the Church in that state, which afterwards 'became the home of many of the Latter-day. Saints after their expulsion from Missouri. ¶

The first Latter-day Saint missionaries entered South Carolina, in 1839. The first elder in that state was Lysander M. Davis. Missionaries entered Wisconsin, in 1840, and that state has been a fruitful field of labor ever since. ¶

The first Latter-day Saint missionaries entered the states of Mississippi, Louisiana and Delaware in 1841, Florida about 1842, Georgia (where we now have the headquarters of the Southern States mission), Alabama and Texas, in 1843, and California, in 1846. The first Latter-day Saints in California were that company who, after sail- ¶

ing from New York in the ship Brooklyn, landed where San Francisco now stands, July 31, 1846. They found there only a small Spanish village, called Yerba Buena, which the Brooklyn people soon turned into a thrifty town called San Francisco, and made it not only an ordinary Anglo Saxon town, but with "Mormons"in the majority. ¶

In what is now South Dakota we find our people, in 1846. They entered at or near the point where the Vermillion river empties into the Missouri. An elder of the Church, by the name of James Emmett, tried to lead a company of Saints astray at the time the Church had lost its first leader and prophet, and the people did not know exactly whom to follow. James Emmett spent the winter of 1846 and 1847 in what is now South Dakota with a number of people who followed him, and while he himself never became a faithful elder in the Church afterwards, most of his company returned to the fold. ¶

The Latter-day Saints were introduced into what is now Colorado, New Mexico and Arizona by the Mormon Battalion, in 1846 and the Saints were not only the first representatives of the Church in what is now the state of Colorado, but they were also the founders of the first Anglo-Saxon settlement in that part of our great country. The sick detachment of the Mormon Battalion, and a small company of Saints from the state of Mississippi, spent the winter of 1846-1847 at Pueblo, which up to that time, was a small Mexican and Indian village. ¶

In Nebraska, Winter Quarters (built by the Sanits in 1846) was the first Anglo-Saxon settlement of any importance. We were just as much the first Anglo-Saxon settlers of Nebraska as we were the first pioneers of Utah. ¶

Some of the exiled Saints from Nauvoo, Illinois, found themselves, in 1846, traveling west and passing through what is now the state of Wyoming (it was not Wyoming until 1868), but the pioneers of 1847 were the first Latter-day Saints in that part of the country; they located Great Salt Lake City the same year. ¶

Members of the Mormon Battalion, after having served their country faithfully one year, returned eastward by way of Carson Valley, in Nevada, in 1847, and in 1851 our people made the first real settlement in Nevada, where Latter-day Saints have resided ever since. ¶

We entered Idaho in 1847. Samuel Brannan, who had led the Brooklyn company from New York to the Bay of San Francisco the previous year, being anxious to intercept Brigham Young and the pioneers, crossed the mountains to tell President Young what a beautiful country the San Juaquin Valley, in California, was. After meeting President Young on Green river, he became very much displeased when the president, as he entered the valley of the Great Salt Lake, said, "This is the place,"and then stopped here, instead of going (according to Brother Brannan's advice) to locate in California, which in reality had many attractions at that time as compared to the Salt Lake country. In Idaho also we became the first settlers. Samual Brannan, ¶

coming from California over the Sierra Nevada mountains by way of old Fort Hall passed through the southern part of what is now Idaho. Some time afterwards the Saints located the first Anglo-Saxon settlements in Idaho (Fort Limhi, in 1855, and Franklin, in 1860). ¶

The president of the Northwestern states mission, who is present with us today, may he interested in knowing that as early as 1850 Charles C. Rich appointed Boyd Stewart to take a mission to Oregon, and that is the beginning of the missionary work which we have since carried on in that state and the great Northwest. We cannot tell exactly at the present time when the first elders entered what is now the state of Washington, from Oregon. We entered Indian Territory (now Oklahoma) in 1855, and we have carried on missionary work there ever since, both among Indians and whites. We entered Montana in 1869, Minnesota as early as 1875, and North Dakota about the same time. ¶

This covers all of the United States, and proves that the Latter-day Saints have preached the restored gospel in every state in the Union. In some states they have done more work than in otners, because of the tolerance or intolerance of the people. The Church has always had elders who were on hand to preach in all parts of the United States and elswhere. ¶

I shall now briefly refer to our foreign missions. As early as 1832, the missionaries of the Church crossed the St. Lawrance river and lake Ontario into Canada and commenced to preach the gospel in that part of the British Dominions, and from that time until the present there have been Latter-day Saints in Canada and at times also flourishing branches of the Church. At the present time we have a well established mission in Canada. ¶

In June, 1837, the first Latter-day Saint missionaires crossed the Atlantic Ocean and opened the door for missionary work in Great Britain. I need not give details of that mission, for you know what Great Britain has been to the Church. Tens of thousands of Saints have gathered from England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland, to the gathering places in America, and the Church would look very much different to what it does today if it had not been for the acquisition that has come to it from the British Isles. ¶

Our missionaries entered British India in 1840, and in 1853, a regular mission was established there. Some of our brethren went there as sailors; we have still members of the Church in India. ¶

In 1841, Orson Hyde arrived in Palestine as a missionary from America. He dedicated the land for the gathering of the Jews. In 1843 Elder Noah Rogers, Addison Pratt, Benjamin F. Grouard and Knowlton F. Hanks started from Nauvoo, Illinois, for the Pacific Islands on a mission. Brother Hanks died at sea on his way to the Islands and was the first Latter-day Saint elder who found a watery grave. The other elders of that mission were successful in preaching ¶

the gospel on the Society Islands and neighboring groups, and about the time that Joseph Smith was mrytred in Carthage jail, Addison Pratt organized the first branch of the Church on the island of Tubuai — the first branch organized among a non-English speaking people. One of the missionaries who left Nauvoo in 1843 for the Pacific Islands, namely, Noah Rogers, stayed on the islands only a short time. Getting somewhat discouraged, he returned to America and was the first elder of the Church to circumnavigate the globe. He arrived in Nauvoo in time to become a victim of the persecutions then raging against the Saints, was exposed to the cold weather and the hardships on the plains of Iowa and took sick and died; he was the first Saint buried at Mt. Pisgah, Iowa, where later about 250 Latter-day Saints found, so to speak, martyrs' graves. ¶

Erastus Snow, accompanied by John E. Forsgren, Peter O. Hansen and George P. Dykes, arrived in Copenhagen, Denmark, in 1850, as the first Latter-day Saint missionaries to that land. Elder Snow baptized the first converts August 12, 1850, and organized the first branch of the Church in Scandinavia (the Copenhagen branch) Sept. 15, 1850. John E. Forsgren arrived in Sweden in June, 1850, and baptized his first convert in Gefle. July 26. 1850. From the beginning Denmark, Sweden, and Norway became known as the Scandinavian mission, which so far has been the most flourishing mission of the Church established among non-English speaking people. It is estimated that nearly one fifth of the present membership of the Church are of Scandinavian origin. ¶

In December, 1850, a number of Elders arrived in the Hawaiian Islands. We are pleased to have listened to the president of the Hawaiian mission today, telling us that this mission has grown until it now has 14,000 members. I have had the pleasure to write the history of the Hawaiian mission, as well as the history of all other foreign missions of the Church, and it is indeed interesting to note how our missionary work has progressed in many lands and climes. ¶

In Italy, Lorenzo Snow opened the gospel door in 1850. Tn Switzerland, Thomas B. Stenhouse first preached in 1851. Gudmund Gudmunson commenced to preach the gospel in Iceland and John Murdock in Australia, in 1851. In Norway the gospel was first introduced in 1851, by Elder Hans F. Peterson, who died many years ago in Ephraim, Sanpete county, Utah. To Chile, in South America, Parley P. Pratt and Rufus C. Allen went in 1851. They spent about seven months in Valparaiso and vicinity, but came away without baptizing anyone. It seems that they were unable to learn the Spanish language. One reason why so many young men are called on missions to the islands of the sea and other places, where foreign languages are spoken, is that people learn languages easily when young. Foriegners who come to America from some old countries when they are over twenty years of age usually find it a hard task to acquire ¶

the English language so as to speak it without brogue. You can generally detect that they are foreigners. We invariably acquire new languages when we are still in our teens better than later in life. ¶

In 1852, Lorenzo Snow and others visited Malta (the same island where the Apostle Paul preached the gospel centuries ago) and established a mission there. ¶

The first Latter-day Saint elders went to Siam in 1853 and also to Gibraltar, Germany and South Africa. Other elders, the same year, went to the West Indies. New Zealand became a missionary field for our elders in 1854, Holland in 1861, Austria in 1864, Finland in 1875, Mexico from 1875 to 1879, the Samoan Islands in 1888, Belgium in 1889, the Friendly Islands (Tonga) in 1891, and Japan in 1901. ¶

I am hurrying to give you the merest outline. I have compiled many more details of these missions which perhaps may be used in Church publications later. ¶

In my endeavor to cover so much ground, I neglected to explain that while the Jews are being gathered to Palestine in their unbelief as to the mission of Jesus Christ, many of the Ten Tribes, who were taken to the Tigris country in the neighborhood of Nineveh, Assyria, and afterwards traveled northward (where they are now found in the lands of the north and upon the islands of the sea), become converts to true Christianity. Our elders have baptized many of them, and they gather as believers to the places which God has appointed for that purpose. Most of us here assembled are of Ephraim, or of the Ten Tribes; we are of Israel. This we are generally told in our patriarchal blessings and tradition bears out the same idea. There may be Gentile blood in our veins, but the blood of the House of Israel, we believe, predominates within us. Thus — while parts of the Ten Tribes gather as converts, the Jews gather to Palestine in their unbelief, and will not know the great Redeemer of the world until he shall place his foot upon the Mount of Olives and it shall be rent asunder; then, and not until then, will they recognize their Shiloh, or Messiah, in Jesus of Nazareth. ¶

May God continue to bless and prosper the missionary labors of our elders. May you who are younger than others of us who are fast growing old, continue to preach the gospel of Christ with unabated zeal until the heavenly message of salvation shall be preached to every nation, kindred, tongue and people, until Israel shall be gathered in fulfilment of prophesy, until Zion shall be fully established upon the earth and until Christ shall come and reign as King of kings and Lord of lords. May our children and grandchildren after us have occasion to rejoice exceedingly in, contemplating the integrity and faithfulness of their seniors, and, finally, may we all rejoice together in the celestial kingdom of our God and ever glorify him who has used us as humble instruments in his hands to labor for the establishment of his Church and kingdom upon the earth. May God bless us, I humbly pray m the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. ¶

A devotional anthem, words by Willard Done and music by Gerrit Dejong. was sung by the choir. ¶