Experiences in the German-Austrian Mission

I am deeply appreciative of this honor, although I face this responsibility with timidity, realizing that the time of the General Conference is so valuable. However, if I may have the Spirit of the Lord to aid me in expressing some of the things that have been in my heart during the sessions of this Conference, I sincerely hope that the few minutes I occupy will not be wasted. ¶

Naturally, when one returns from the mission field, his thoughts are on missionary work, and mine are on missionary work, particularly during this Conference. I have rejoiced in the admonitions that I have heard the brethren give with regard to better missionary work. ¶

I should like to make a plea this morning in behalf of the at least thirty-eight thousand Saints who are in the European missions. These are the only people I know in the mission field. I realize that if we could take our charge more seriously, if we could begin earlier in the preparation of our missionaries, we could bring a great blessing to those people. This thought was never brought home to me as directly and emphatically before as it was about one year ago, in a city in Germany. ¶

In the German-Austrian Mission we are doing missionary work in ninety-one fields. In these ninety-one fields there are seventy-two organized branches, and thirty-three of these organized branches are entirely in the hands of the local priesthood. President Widtsoe is laying great stress upon the desirability and the advisability of giving our brethren and sisters in those missions the same opportunity for ¶

development which has been given to us by activity in the quorums and organizations. He is pointing out to the missionaries and to the Saints that all the officers and the leaders of this Church have been men and women who have come up from the ranks, who have come up from the common people. ¶

We are beginning to realize in those missions that it is not possible for all to come to Zion. I rejoiced when a letter went out from the First Presidency of the Church a year ago, urging the mission presidents and missionaries to encourage our people to remain in the missions, to develop themselves there, and to build up the Church. In reading the revelations of the Lord I have been thrilled to find that it was never the intention that the Saints should all come here. I have come to a conclusion that it is not intended by the Lord that there shall be two types of Latter-day Saints — one type in the missions, who are under certain restrictions, and a different type here at home. ¶

I maintain, my brethren and sisters, that when a group of men and women who have accepted the Gospel in the same way we have are ninety per cent faithful in the payment of their tithing ; when they are more than that faithful in the keeping of the Word of Wisdom ; when they are ninety-five per cent faithful in attending their meetings, the promise which was made by the Lord in the 133rd section of the Doctrine and Covenants will become operative in their behalf, namely, that in the days when the missionaries should be sent out, the people of the world should hear the fulness of the Gospel in their own tongue, by those who are ordained to this work — not necessarily men who are sent from the center stakes of Zion. ¶

About a year ago we called one of our fifteen young, full-time German missionaries upon a mission. He comes from a large branch. His father has been in the Church about thirty-five years, and has borne the Melchizedek priesthood for probably twenty-five years. The young man was born in the Church. I had the opportunity, six months after he went into the field, of visiting a conference in the branch from which he comes. His father naturally was interested to know what kind of a record his son was making, and when I told him that the boy was measuring up in every manner to the responsibility of missionary work, he replied something like this : "Why shouldn't he? Before you call our boys on missions they must have a testimony of the Gospel. They must keep the commandments, including the Word of Wisdom, the law of tithing. They must attend all their meetings." ¶

Now, my brethren and sisters the day of the make-shift, temporary, front trench organization in the missions is past, at least it is in the European missions, and the mission from which I come is moving rapidly toward permanency. We desire soon to put before the Authorities of the Church a building program. We desire that our Saints there shall have the same privilege of worshiping in desirable places that you have. I don't believe that the Lord is a respecter of persons, either in or out of the Church. I don't believe that he intends that you, here in the shadow of the temples, shall worship in marble palaces, ¶

and that our brethren and sisters over there shall always worship in stables and vacated factory buildings. ¶

The thing that we are trying to do now is to develop them along the lines of self-government, and I am proud to testify to you that in the thirty-three branches where the local brethren have charge of the work we are making marvelous progress. I say to the credit of my predecessor, Brother Valentine, that we have built upon the sure foundation which he laid. ¶

• The Doctrine and Covenants says : "To some it is given by the Holy Ghost to know that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, and that he was crucified for the sins of the world; to others it is given to believe on their words." And I believe that if the members of this Church went down into their own experiences, into their own hearts, they would find that their testimony has come to them more through believing on the words of those who do know. I maintain that it is possible for every man and woman to have a testimony. I don't believe that we should allow our young people to be converted to this Gospel through the flesh. It cannot be done. Give them all the education we want; give them all the logic and the science it is possible to get, the same as Paul ; but even Paul, when he was left merely to the workings of the flesh, was not a servant of the Lord. It was only when the finger of God touched his heart that he received his testimony. ¶

I believe that missionaries are made in the homes. I believe that our brethren and sisters should, in their lives, set an example of righteousness before their children, so that by the time these children reach the age when our young people are ordinarily called on missions, they may not only know according to the flesh, according to the mind, the principles of the Gospel, but that their hearts shall be touched with a testimony which will lead them to go out into the world, seeking first the kingdom of God, desiring to know whether God lives and whether this work should come to all, and knowing when it is given, that it is going to transform the lives of those into whose lives it has come, as it has done in hundreds of thousands of cases. ¶

I bear my testimony to the Saints that there is no desirable or honorable profession or business in this world in which a man cannot reach the utmost heights and still remain a Latter-day Saint. I thrilled when I heard that a full-souled, converted Latter-day Saint had been appointed Ambassador to Mexico. I thrill when I think that an Apostle of the Lord, on an equal footing with every other citizen in this land, stands at the head, practically, of the influence in the Senate. ¶

I tell you, as I look over the Church and as I look at the missionary work today, the work of the Lord needs the best brains, the best heart, and the best testimony that can be had. If we are gaining in respect in the eyes of the world, there is a greater responsibility upon us. Roosevelt spoke a powerful truth, a few years ago, when he said : "The greatness of the fathers becomes to the children a shameful thing if they use it only as an excuse for inaction, instead of as a spur to effort for nobler aims." ¶

Now, my brethren and sisters, we of the younger generation, let us not sell our birthright for a mess of pottage. Let us rise, and raise the standard, and show those who have gone before us that even in our days of affluence, even in our days of plenty, even in our days of ease, it is still possible for a testimony to burn within the heart of a Latterday Saint in this day, as in the days of the other generations that have gone before us. ¶

Let us not live in the past. That is what is the matter with the nations and the churches of the world today. They are living in the past. We have done wonders in the last hundred years, but if we want to know what the Church is going to arrive at in the next hundred years, I can give you the key : Look now into your own hearts ; look into the lives and the testimonies of your boys and girls, and you shall see what the Church is going to accomplish in the next hundred years. ¶

God give us the power and the disposition to train our boys and girls into a knowledge that the work of the salvation of mankind has been committed to the Church of Jesus Christ as an organization God grant this, I pray, in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen. ¶