My Brethren And Sisters: I Deeply Appreciate...

My brethren and sisters: I deeply appreciate the blessed privilege of being associated with the missionary force of the Church. I bring to you an excellent report of a hundred or more elders and sister missionaries who are laboring in the Northern States Mission. The blessings of the Lord are attending our labors, and we are receiving progress through conversions and in a chapel-building program. It might interest you to hear a few of the experiences of some of your sons and daughters, brothers and sisters. ¶

Recently a young elder had an excellent conversation with a gentleman who propounded questions and presented arguments in a very kindly, christian-like spirit, and then invited the young elder to dine with him. After they had dined and visited and exchanged views for an hour or such a matter, the gentleman revealed his identity. He was a minister of the gospel, and it was his first contact with a Mormon elder. Both the minister and the elder appeared to have enjoyed the experience. ¶

At another minister's home an elder was given the privilege of holding a gospel meeting in the minister's church. ¶

Another elder was given the privilege of holding a gospel meeting in a large community hall, through the fine impression that the elder had made upon the mind of the gentleman who had the authority to let the hall. ¶

Two elders were entertained in the home of a mayor of an eastern city who had visited Salt Lake. He had been received so kindly in the temple grounds and had received the hospitality of the people to such an extent that he went home with the resolution that he would extend similar hospitality to the Mormon missionaries when they should come to his home, and this he did. ¶

Two elders were refused entertainment in a very unfriendly and in fact a hostile attitude at a well-appearing residence, but a change of sentiment came over this man and after the elders had departed he sent his son in an automobile to overtake them and bring them back. He gave them entertainment, something to eat, a good bed upon which to sleep, breakfast in the morning ; and when they left him he placed a dollar bill in the hand of each of the missionaries with an invitation to visit him when they should come that way again. This change of sentiment was an immediate answer to prayer by these two elders. ¶

Recently a good but aged brother died in the State of Wisconsin. Before his death he wrote into his will a donation of five hundred dollars to the Church for the furtherance of the building of a chapel. In his immediate locality there had existed bitterness and prejudice against our people, and for this reason little if any missionary work had been successfully carried on. This good brother requested that the elders should speak at his funeral. He died in a few weeks time, and the large public hall of the town was placed at their disposal for the funeral service. Half of the population of eight hundred people assembled in that hall. Of that congregation of four hundred people, less than a score were members of the Church. It was a wonderful incident, for we could verily feel the vanishing and the disappearance of the spirit of prejudice and bitterness that had existed, and a spirit of friendliness and sympathy taking its place. A few Sundays thereafter the elders were invited to return. They went there and organized a Sunday School, and we now have hopes of conversions and finally the establishment of a branch in that locality. ¶

Intolerance has played its part in the experiences of the missionaries of the past, but it appears now that indifference is our great obstacle. When the minds of the people are aroused, frequently the question is asked of us : "Why devote time and effort and money in such a highly educated and christianized nation as the United States? I answer with a quotation from the Luther Burbank book, "The Harvest of the Years," in which Mr. Burbank says: ¶

"After more than thirteen centuries of Mohammedanism, twenty centuries of Christianity, twenty-five centuries of Buddhism and Confucianism, and four thousand years of Hebrew religion, we are still greedy, selfish, cruel, short-sighted and ready to go to war at almost any pretext and fritter away the savings of decades, the flower of our youth and the friendliness that it has taken a half century to build up." ¶

Only the living of the gospel of Jesus Christ can make men better. With only forty per cent of the population of the United States identified with any church or ecclesiastical organization — Catholic, Jewish or Protestant — the answer to that question is clear ; the necessity of preaching the gospel in the great nation of the United States. The virtues of courage, generosity, loyalty and willingness to sacrifice are fine. People may be highly educated, but yet be wicked, cruel and ruthless. People may be wealthy and prosperous and yet without that higher level of a spiritual life. And so it is necessary that we preach Jesus Christ and him crucified, and the principles of his gospel. ¶

May God bless the people of this nation and of our Church. May the kindly blessings of the Lord be showered upon the First Presidency, the Council of the Twelve and all the presiding authorities of the Church, upon the authorities of the wards and the stakes, and upon the wonderful missionary forces throughout the world. My dear brethren and sisters, presiding authorities and saints — do all in your power to send your sons and daughters out into the mission field, and may God add his blessings, is my humble prayer, in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen. ¶