The Australian Mission

My brethren and sisters, I am almost overwhelmed in my attempt to respond to this call, and yet one could scarcely feel insecure and uncomfortable, surrounded by such a vast concourse of friends. ¶

As President Grant announced, Sister Tingey and I have just returned from the Australian mission. Those of you who have had missionary experience know that all of our audiences in the mission fields are not friendly nor sympathetic. I have enjoyed immensely my labors in the Australian mission, and delight now in representing the good people of that land in this conference session. ¶

We have some very splendid Saints throughout Australia, and they are working zealously and faithfully in the performance of their labors. I think in all of my association I have not met better men and better ¶

women than some of those who are holding positions of responsibility in the Church in that mission. ¶

I have enjoyed also, far beyond my power to express, the companionship I have had with the young men who have been sent to us as missionaries — beautiful specimens of manhood, deeply endowed with the spirit of their callings. They are accomplishing a wonderful work in proclaiming the message of peace in that land. ¶

Australia is a large country. Many people, when reference is made to it, look upon it as merely one of the islands of the sea; but quite contrary to that, it is a great continent. I was interested in President Sloan's reference yesterday, comparing the size of Alaska with that of the United States, wherein he stated that were Alaska placed over the United States, it would cover all of that portion west of Washington. If Australia were placed over the United States you would not be able to see the United States. We have one branch in our mission which is twenty-seven hundred and fifty miles from our mission headquarters. We have another branch one thousand miles north of our mission headquarters; and still another one thousand miles south. ¶

To keep a group of men laboring in unison, and to keep a body of Saints in harmony, extending over a vast country of that sort, requires considerable help on the part of the Lord, and I am grateful to acknowledge here before you that we have had that help, and the work in that land is growing and progressing rapidly. ¶

Unfortunately, Australia has experienced conditions which are not pleasant, financially and industrially, far greater than we are seeing here ; and I hope we never see the conditions in the United States that we now have in that land. But the astonishing thing about it all, to me, is that while some of our people have been affected by it, they have stood unquestionably above the vast majority of the people of that land. Our tithes have fallen somewhat, but not in keeping with the exact reduction in the actual wage earnings of the people. There has been a definite reduction of more than fifteen per cent in the wages of the people. The tithing of our Saints has not fallen that much. I think it is a fulfilment of the promise given of the Lord that he would preserve his people, and I know that he is doing it in that land. ¶

I hope and pray that the conditions which are now facing us will not be too severe to bear, even as has been stated by former speakers in this conference. I am reminded of an old German proverb which says : "The hard is the good." We are facing hard times, but they are good times, my brethren and sisters — good times because they are making us think more soberly, more sincerely, more deeply, into the things of life. ¶

I was reading an article in the Literary Digest just yesterday in which this very thought is given, and it is declared that the people of the United States are making a greater demand for better literature, better types of entertainment, better ways of spending their means ; and all of this, I think, speaks for progress and development. ¶

I believe frankly that this Church, with two or three years of meager privation, will become stronger as a body, and its people will become more faithful ; their testimonies will increase more abundantly. We need this, I think, definitely. ¶

I want to bear witness before you, my brethren and sisters, that my stay in the mission field was the most enjoyable time of my life; that I return to you now with a more convincing knowledge that God lives than I have ever had before in my life. I want to bear testimony also, and I have reason to bear this witness because of a manifestation which was given me in the mission field, that our leader, President I leber J. Grant, is in very deed the one who is divinely and rightly selected to lead this people. I know it, and I can say no differently and be honorable before my God. I thank him for his leadership, and I hope and pray that the Lord will so sustain me that I will never turn a hand other than to give him aid and assistance. ¶

God bless you, my brethren and sisters, and this Church, and particularly its leaders, with inspiration and revelation, that we may grow to be all that the Lord expected that we should be, I ask, in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen. ¶