Former President of the Tahitian Mission

Former President of the Tahitian Mission ¶

My brethren and sisters, I assure you that I feel weak in occupying this position ; and I, like the others who have gone before me, ask that I may have an interest in your faith and prayers while I stand here. ¶

While sitting in my seat, and looking into the faces of these men who are on the stand, looking over this vast audience of saints, listening to the very remarkable, inspiring, and interesting testimonies that have been borne, I experienced a most peculiar feeling of comparison, a feeling that was mingled with sympathy and with thanksgiving. ¶

My thoughts went back to the last annual conference of the Tahitian Mission, at which I presided. The saints were there gathered from many islands of the sea, some of them coming hundreds of miles, and some even a thousand miles to attend that conference. They were there for the same purpose that we are assembled here today, to receive instruction, admonition and inspiration in their work in the gospel. They do not have the opportunity of listening first-handed to our beloved President of today, and to the presiding authorities, but they are trying in their humble way to fulfil their duties, to magnify their callings and their priesthood. As I sat here with joy in my heart for the many good things that have been told to us, my sympathy went out to those people, to that portion of the house of Israel who are not so fortunate as we who can assemble in this great building and listen to the words of God. ¶

I bring to you today, my brethren and sisters, greetings from the people of the Tahitian Mission. I trust there is in your hearts a prayer for their success as well as the success of the saints who are scattered throughout the different missions of the world. It is with pleasure that I report to you that with the very humble and faithful efforts of our elders, we are making good headway in that mission. During the past three years we have had an increase in baptisms of over a hundred per cent each year. Our tithes have shown a great increase. We have also had an increase in attendance at sacrament meetings and in faithfulness to other duties throughout the Church. ¶

Our principal efforts, however, have been with the young people. We have been successful in organizing Improvement Associations in many of the different branches of the Tahitian Mission. We have realized the importance of giving to these young people a knowledge of the gospel, that they, in turn, may fill the positions occupied once by their fathers and the older saints who have passed on before them. ¶

The condition of the people in general is good. We find that they are striving to pay an honest tithing. They are striving to live the gospel. They are striving to keep the commandments of God and to live the Word of Wisdom, that they may grow nearer and nearer to God. We have not had the privilege of preaching the gospel by radio, but we do have a publication of large circulation, and through that means have been able to reach many persons and homes we could not otherwise have reached. ¶

The most effective method of preaching the gospel throughout the islands is by personal contact. Perhaps many of you do not know that the Tahitian Mission includes the entire group of the Society Islands — a great number of islands scattered over a vast expanse of water, — and as our elders travel to and fro to the different branches they live with the native people, they come in personal contact with them, and they teach them how to live family life, how to pray, how to live near to God, how to magnify their offices and callings in the Church. ¶

My brethren and sisters, I have found in my experience that one of the most encouraging and inspiring things for an elder is to have a letter from home that encourages him in performing his duty, in living nearer to God. ¶

In the remarks in our priesthood meeting last evening the fathers were asked to be more chummy with their sons. I want to take this opportunity to ask the fathers and mothers not to fail to put in their letters to the boys encouragement to live near to God, and to fulfil faithfully their duties. It will go a long ways in helping the boys in our mission, and I think it will in all the missions of the world. ¶

I am grateful, my brethren and sisters, that I have had the opportunity of going into the world to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ. I am thankful for the opportunity I have had of serving with your sons and your daughters who are in the Tahitian Mission. I love them. I honor them for the courage and faithfulness they have shown in carrying the gospel message, the message of salvation, to that people. I have traveled with the boys on the sea. We have been in storms. We have been in hard circumstances, and I want to tell you, my brethren and sisters, that I am not a doubter regarding the youth of Zion. I think that the boys of today have just as much courage as those of other days have had. I have seen the boys when they had to meet situations, when it took men of courage to meet those situations, and our boys in the islands of the sea, and no doubt throughout all the other missions of the world, are successfully handling those situations every day. ¶

I bear testimony to you, my brethren and sisters, that I am thankful that I am a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. I know that God lives. I know that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, and that the gospel of Jesus Christ has been restored to the earth in the latter days. I know that the power of the priesthood has again been given to us, and is operative on the earth in this last dispensation ; and I know that the same power of the priesthood is operative out in the mission field as is operative here in Zion. ¶

I bear testimony to you, my brethren and sisters, that I know that President Grant is a prophet of God, called to preside over the Church in this particular time. I am thankful for the association I have had with the President and with the presiding authorities, while laboring in the mission field, which has been mostly through letters. I have received some very fine encouragement, and I have learned to love them and honor them as men who are called of God. I trust that I may live true to the covenants which I have made in this great Church. ¶

In closing I wish to call attention to remarks that Paul, the great apostle of old, who knew Jesus Christ, made. He said : ¶

"Woe is unto me if I preach not the gospel." ¶

Do we realize the importance of the message which is left for us to carry throughout the world in this dispensation? Paul realized it in his time, and he said : ¶

"I became as a Jew, that I might gain the Jews ; to them that are under the law, as under the law, that I might gain them that are under the law ; ¶

"To them that are without law, as without law, * * * that I might gain them that are without law." ¶

That is the thing that we are trying to do in the mission field. We are trying to win the people over, to give to them the message that the gospel has for them. The Gospel of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints teaches us to love the Lord with all our heart, and our neighbor as ourselves. How can we love our neighbors as ourselves, except to give unto them the happiness and the joy which comes to us through the gospel of Jesus Christ, which has been given to us in these latter days? I trust that the Lord will bless us all to that end, in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen. ¶