My Brethren And Sisters, It Is A Joy...

My brethren and sisters, it is a joy to me to be able to report conditions in the Northcentral States Mission. We are the youngest mission in the United States, and the smallest mission in numbers. We have been organized only about three and one-half years. Our mission includes the State of Montana east of Great Falls, North Dakota, South Dakota, and Minnesota ; then passes over into Canada and takes Ontario west of the Great Lakes, Manitoba, Saskatchewan and part of Alberta. When the mission was organized we numbered only about nineteen hundred people. I should like to say in behalf of the young men and young women who come to our mission that they have been very loyal and faithful in the performance of their duties. I should rather change President Pond's invitation wherein he solicited that you send your boys and girls into the field, I should like to say to you, brethren, come yourselves, we need some more older brethren in the work, to go with these young elders, men who have wisdom and discretion and who can lead out in the work of the Lord. ¶

Not long ago, during the cold winter months, four missionaries came to our mission. We left headquarters in Minneapolis and traveled five hundred miles north to the city of Winnipeg. We started up the street on a street car. When we got off the car to go to a restaurant just across the road, there was a bitter wind blowing, and the weather was exceedingly cold. These elders, four of them, had a grip in each hand. We had not gotten very far from the street car when every one of them had dropped his grips and was holding his ears to keep them from freezing. I went back to help them along and got them into the restaurant. After we had given our orders for our dinner I said : "I will see if I can get in touch with the elders here." One of the elders turned to a companion and said: "Wouldn't this make you ask for your release?" and he said other things but I don't know what they were. When I got on the train with two of these missionaries to go to Saskatoon (the other two went to Regina) — one of them said : "When you get to Regina that elder will not be there." I said "Why?" He replied: "This country is too cold for him." He was an office man and had been working where it was warm all the time. When I arrived in Regina we held a priesthood meeting, and this young man was given an opportunity to express himself. He arose and said : "I am prepared to give all I have, even to my life, for this work." That is the kind of integrity that is in the hearts of these young men and young women who go out from Zion to preach the gospel. That integrity is not confined to the missionaries only, but it is in the hearts of the parents. Only yesterday I met two parents and I was asked: "How is my boy?" He is a very fine, splendid young man. Not long ago I said to the president of his district: "We must take this elder out and make a president of him." And he said: "Before you do it I want to talk to you. Don't take him away ; he is the finest man we have in our district. We can't get along without him." I said to those parents: "How long has he been in the field?" "Two years this month." "How are your finances to keep him longer?" "We haven't any, but we have as much now as we had when he went out;" and then the father said, with tears in his eyes: "Everything we have is on the altar, and you keep him as long as you want him." That is the kind of faith that has permeated this work from its inception. That is the kind of faith that will consummate this work. ¶

Not long ago two of our elders sat in the rear of a building where a meeting was being addressed by the Governor of the State of Minnesota. At the close of the meeting the Governor went down the aisle and said to these young elders : "I understand you are Mormon elders from Utah." "Yes." "Well, I received a Book of Mormon, from the headquarters of your mission not long ago, and I want to thank you personally for the teachings of that wonderful book. Whenever you come to St. Paul come in and see me. I would like to have you visit me in my office." The people of Minnesota and those states where we are laboring, are many of them of good old Scandinavian stock, and they believe the gospel when it is properly put up to them. ¶

We feel encouraged in our work, and are determined to go forth with all the power and zeal that God has given us for the accomplishment of his purposes among men ; and our greatest need is more missionaries. We have whole cities with only one pair of elders in them. What can one pair of elders do in a big city, to make proclamation of the gospel of the Son of God ? I pray that God will inspire the people of this Church, that we may look more abundantly to the prosecution of this great and important work that the Lord has given us, in that we will not only send our boys, but that we will break away occasionally and come ourselves. Presidents of stakes, bishops of wards, men of experience, it will make you bigger men and you will be able to render valuable service in the world preaching the gospel. I pray that the Lord will bless you in your finances and in your desires, that you may be able to do this, that we may have in the mission field more of the older brethren. ¶

I can't speak too highly for the young ladies of our mission, young ladies who have come into the world to preach the gospel. They can get into the homes of the people and find an opportunity for explaining the gospel where the elder cannot go. Send us more lady missionaries. We have had no trouble with a single lady missionary in our field. I was not wholly in favor of lady missionaries when I first went out, because I thought they would cause so much trouble; but now I am always glad to see them come, because my experience has taught me that they can do a great work. ¶

I bear witness to you, my brethren and sisters, that this is the work of God, that he has established it and that he will carry it on, through his servants and handmaidens in the earth. The faith of this people, both at home and abroad, is sufficient to carry this work successfully through, and the Lord's purposes will be brought about and his righteous designs established among men. I am grateful in my heart for the privilege of laboring in the ministry of the Lord. I would like to be able to perform the duties devolving upon me in a manner that shall be acceptable and pleasing to him. May God grant us his Spirit and his influence and power in the preaching of the Gospel, and in the building up of his kingdom, both at home and abroad, I pray, in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen. ¶