The Mexican Mission and the Power to Endure

My beloved brethren and sisters, I believe that this is the greatest occasion of my life. In all my experience I have never had the privilege of addressing such a vast and intelligent audience as this should be. It is only the realization of the fact that you are all friends and brethren that makes it possible for me to stand here at this time and mingle my testimony with the testimonies that have already been borne. ¶

In standing here I bring to you the greetings of people of a different race and a different hue from those into whose faces I am looking at this time. I bring you the greetings of about thirteen thousand people of the Pacific Isles. Every one of them would like to be here and greet you personally, to sit and listen to the words of exhortation that are given from this stand. This, on my part, is an unofficial greeting, but it is sincere nevertheless, for I know that those people with whom I have been laboring for the past ten years, each and every one, have the welfare of this work at heart. ¶

I bring you also the greetings of not quite so many, but a kindred people who are living nearer to us, the Mexican people. There are quite a number of them in the Church, and they are faithful and sincere and reasonably energetic in the performance of their duties. ¶

The work with that people was begun in the year 1875, when my father, as a junior companion with a party of half a dozen or more, rode his horse from St. George as far as the city of Chihuahua, in the State of Chihuahua and the Republic of Mexico, returning by the same means of transportation. Since that time various vicissitudes have befallen that mission. Men have gone and opened up the mission, then returned, and the mission has lapsed, and that has been repeated time and again. But every time that mission has been reopened people have been found who were willing to listen to the Gospel, people who had attempted, through all of the years of silence, to retain their faith in the Gospel. From those people I bring you greetings. ¶

It is going to be a difficult problem, I realize, to shoulder the burden that has fallen upon me with the death of President Pratt. He was a noble and valiant man. He labored with all the power, zeal and energy that God gave him to further the work among that people. He had their interest at heart, and he won their love and their respect. I pray that with the aid of your faith and prayers, with the power of God to back me up, I may have humility and faith sufficient to carry on the work that he so well and faithfully performed; that the work may not falter, but that it may go forward. ¶

Now, if this is done it will have to be done through the aid of your boys and girls. We have in that mission at the present time forty-one of them, all faithful and energetic and lovable, all of them that I have met. It has not been my good fortune to meet them all, but I hope that within a few short weeks I shall have been through that mission and met every boy and girl that is laboring there. ¶

It seems that the people of the Church are not entirely clear as to what the Mexican mission at present consists of. You will remember, those of you who have read the papers, that certain laws have recently been passed by the Mexican government, which forbid the entry into Mexico of priests and ministers of foreign birth; so that our own Elders were forced to leave Mexico under this rule. We have in Mexico, laboring, as an ordained missionary, only one person at this time, and he is a Mexican boy. He is laboring in the vicinity of Monterey and is doing a very excellent work. All of the other work that is being done by missionaries is being done in the United States. Our mission covers a length of two thousand miles, from Los Angeles to Brownsville, Texas. In addition to that we have a very thrifty and vigorous branch in this city, and we have organized branches that are laboring under the guidance of native branch presidents in various cities in and around the valley of Mexico. ¶

I was very much surprised when I first learned, years ago, of the work that was being done among the Mexicans in the United States, but when you look into the matter it seems a logical field, for in the city of Los Angeles alone there are said to be no less than one hundred and fifty thousand Mexicans. We are attempting to make contact with those people. We are trying to do it with six persons—four boys and two young ladies. They are accomplishing a wonderful work, but they are limited, naturally, by their number, and as much as might be accomplished with more people is not being realized. We have there a very fine congregation, however. They are diligent, energetic and faithful. ¶

From there our labor extends, as I have said, clear to Brownsville, and we have some of the finest young men and young ladies in the Church working with those people. We hope that you who are here and who are bearing the burden of that labor will have the wherewithal to supply them. Some of those boys right now are wondering how long they will be able to stay—when their missions may be terminated by the lack of funds. I hope that they will be able to stay until they care to return, for it is an unfortunate thing when a missionary from that field has to quit his work prematurely. It takes the first half of his period to learn the language, and then if he has to go home we miss the great accomplishments that he is capable of during the latter part of the missionary period. I trust that you will be able to stand the burden, that you will sacrifice willingly in their behalf, for every one of them is interested; every one of them is laboring with diligence and energy. Most of them are enjoying good health, and you have to worry little over that. However, they are in a warm country; they have differences of food to contend with, and occasionally some of them suffer because of that. Right now we have two or three boys concerning whom we have to be very careful, because they are suffering from the changes of food that they have had to meet. ¶

I pray that the Lord will bless us, that he will give us power to endure, for the power to endure is the genius of this Gospel. If we cannot endure, the Lord pity us. These times are trying, but if we will round up our shoulders I am sure that the Lord will come to our rescue, that we will be able to carry on, and that we will not be the losers because of these trying times. The times of thrift and prosperity are the ones that we should be afraid of, not the times of adversity. ¶

I bear you my testimony that this is the greatest work in the world that we are interested in. I hope the Lord will bless me with power to carry on, and with strength to continue to the end, and I do it in the name of Jesus, Amen. ¶