A Lifetime of Historical Service

ELDER ANDREW JENSON ¶

Assistant Church Historian ¶

My brethren and sisters: I have for many years looked forward to this day with fond anticipations — this Centennial Conference of the Church. I have hoped and prayed that I might live long enough in mortality to be present when the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints should be one hundred years old. I feel now like I could paraphrase the saying of Simeon of old when he had witnessed the child Jesus brought into the temple at Jerusalem. He said, "Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace, for mine eyes have seen thy salvation." ¶

I have been permitted to live to see this day, and to participate in this glorious Conference at the end of one hundred years of the existence of the Church, of which I became a member when I was eight years old. I may explain that my parents were among the first converts to the restored Gospel in that little country, Denmark, situated in the far-off north, toward the north pole. Being trained by my parents in the principles of the Gospel, I was baptized when I was old enough to be admitted to membership in the Church. ¶

I came to this land when I was fifteen years of age. From the time I was first able to read I became a student of Church history, and as a boy I read extracts from the history of the Prophet Joseph Smith as they were published semi-monthly in "Skandinaviens Stjerne," the Church organ of the Scandinavian Mission, and have been a student of Church history, from that time until the present. When I arrived in Utah, nineteen years after the original pioneers of Utah — after walking all the way across the plains from the Missouri River — I found that besides killing snakes and building bridges, I, as one of foreign birth, had many things to learn, among which was the acquiring of a knowledge of the English language. And not only did I have to study the language of my adopted country, but also the customs and habits of a new country. The Lord, however, was with me. I took hold of the task and did the best I could under the circumstances. After I had been here for some time I began to move about somewhat freely, with the English language moderately at my command. Then it dawned upon me that as I had been interested in the history of the Prophet Joseph and the history of the Church generally in my boyhood days in my native land, perhaps it would be a blessing for my country people to read the story of the great man and prophet who was the founder of this Church. And it became my privilege to write a brief history of Joseph ¶

ISO ¶

Smith, the Prophet, and to assist in publishing the first book that was ever printed in Utah in the Danish-Norwegian language. That was the history of Joseph Smith, in book form, issued even before a work of that kind was ever published by the Church in the English language. Prior to that time the Prophet's history had appeared in serial form in the columns of the early volumes of the "Deseret News" and the "Millennial Star." ¶

It has been my privilege to travel extensively in many lands and climes in the interest of Church history. I am exceedingly thankful to President Grant for the few words of commendation he gave me in introducing me to this great congregation. I have sometimes been at a loss to know exactly where I stood in the estimation of the General Authorities of the Church, because I have for many years been engaged in a labor that is perhaps only appreciated by a few and not by the masses of the people. It has been my privilege, my brethren and sisters, to travel something like 495,000 miles in the interest of Church history and as a missionary of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to the nations of the earth. It has been my privilege to visit all the missions of the Church excepting one, namely the South African Mission. When I traveled around the world for the first time, there was none of our missionaries in South Africa, and consequently I did not go there. ¶

In my historical studies and researches I soon learned that history is made up mainly from the acts of men and women, and that those who become converts to the true Gospel of Christ and are baptized, are organized, as a rule, into branches of the Church and that these branches are generally grouped into conferences, districts or missions. At home, the members of the Church, as we all understand, are grouped into wards, and the wards in turn are grouped into stakes of Zion. I have become convinced that it would be impossible for anyone to write a true and detailed history of the Church as a whole, without a knowledge also of the history of the various branches, conferences, districts, missions, wards and stakes of Zion; this means a history of the settlements of the saints in their gathering places, as well as histories of the missions and their subdivisions abroad; hence the necessity of extensive travels to read the sources of first-hand information. ¶

It has been my privilege to be a field man, gathering historical data, most of my life, and in going into all parts of the world, to follow in the tracks of missionaries who were laborers in the vineyard before me, to find out what they had done, gather up historical threads and weave them into history. ¶

After my long experience, I think that I am at liberty to say, from what I actually know, that there is no community at present in America or in any other part of the world that can consistently boast of so accurate a history of their movements and operations as can the Latter-day Saints. By making this statement, I refer particularly to the history of our settlements and our missions. It has been my lot to visit nearly "every nook and corner" of the Rocky Mountains and all the gathering places of the saints in the Great West, from Canada ¶

in the north to Mexico in the south, besides visiting the so-called "waste places of Zion" in the East repeatedly. In my extensive travels, I have ever endeavored to gather historical data, and from my field notes I have written and compiled some six hundred manuscript volumes containing Church history in general, and histories of our missions and stakes, with their subdivisions, in detail, and also histories of the different auxiliary organizations of the Church, both at home and abroad. ¶

I have aged and my hair has turned gray, as you can see, while dedicating my best efforts to this work. Mormonism, however, means everything" to me. I, together with so many others, was brought to this land through the use of certain keys of the holy priesthood which were restored to the Prophet Joseph Smith in the Kirtland temple on that memorable third day of April, 1836, when, among others, Moses appeared and committed to the Prophet Joseph Smith the keys for the gathering of Israel. That accounts for the fact that about one-fifth of the entire Church membership are converts or descendants of those who hail from the Scandinavian countries, commencing with the fruits of the labors of Erastus Snow and those who came with him to the north countries in 1850. In listening to these missionaries from Zion, the blood of Israel in our veins asserted itself, for that blood is to a very great extent represented among the inhabitants of those lands; and so, when Erastus Snow and his fellow-missionaries testified of the restored Gospel, a response was awakened in our hearts, telling us that we too were of the house of Israel. We seemed to listen to a familiar voice, which we understood and obeyed, for it was the voice of the true shepherd which the sheep recognized; and therefore we are here today. Israel in other nations has had a similar experience and thus a multitude of nations are represented in our glorious pageant which is now being given in this spacious tabernacle. ¶

Brethren and sisters, I feel that I would like to devote the balance of my time to completing the work to which I have devoted most of my life, because it is not yet completed; and if President Grant and my superiors in the priesthood will allow me to have "free rein" and back me in my labors, I promise that I shall continue my loyalty to the Church and to the priesthood and put forth the best there is in me as long as I dwell in mortality, to this end. ¶

There are many things that a real historian can see and understand which perhaps are not generally seen and comprehended by his contemporaries, but which will be better understood and appreciated by future generations — perhaps hundreds of years hence. Some of us, Pioneers in new fields, must necessarily live ahead of our time, in order to accomplish work in the interest of yet unborn millions. ¶

May God bless us, my brethren and sisters, and help us to be faithful and true to whatever positions in the Church we have been called, or may hereafter be called to occupy, as we sojourn in the midst of the saints of the most high God. May God help us to be satisfied with our lot and positions, if we can be convinced that we are where ¶

God wants us to be, and where we can be of the best use to our fellowmen, according to the strength and ability with which we have been endowed. We may not always be in the limelight, or be engaged in work that at once is understood and recognized, but if we are doing that which our Heavenly Father has designed us to do while we dwell in mortality, we should be thankful and satisfied. These, at least, are my sentiments, and by them and by my reverence for God and his cause I am encouraged and strengthened in my endeavors to faithfully and diligently discharge the duties pertaining to the work that has fallen to my lot to do in life. ¶

May God bless each and every one of us, who are members of the Church, to be faithful and true to our God, to our religion, to the priesthood, to our co-religionists and to our fellowmen in general; and may we have the desire and ability to honor any and every position in which we may be placed, and successfully carry the responsibilities entrusted to us, is my sincere prayer in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen. ¶