The Eastern States Mission

I am pleased to report that the Eastern States Mission is in a good, healthy condition. At all events, the work is favorably progressing. Health prevails among the missionaries, and we never had a group more faithful or devoted, uniformly, than we have at the present time. Although our numbers have been reduced to less than one-third of what they were at the time I was called to preside over that mission, our converts baptized last year were over fifty per cent more than the preceding year, which was a somewhat normal year. ¶

The tithing paid in the Eastern States Mission is a demonstration to me of the fact that the Lord is blessing the honest tithe-payer. Notwithstanding the chaotic conditions, financially, that prevail, the tithing in the mission last year exceeded that of any other year in the history of the mission, excepting 1930 and 1931. A very substantial portion of that tithing is paid by western members who have moved into the East, some of whom, and especially young men, were non-tithe-payers at home. •Notwithstanding their isolation and associations, which would seem to cause them to further depart from the faith, they are more devoted. This shows something of the strength and vitality that there is in Mormonism, as it is called, where it has been taught and practiced in the home. ¶

I believe that the same is true with reference to the Word of Wisdom. I am grateful to the Lord that I inherited, I might say, a knowledge of the divinity of the Word of Wisdom, and was trained in the home of Latter-day Saints to obey it. I believe, as firmly as I believe anything, if I do not know it, that I am enjoying the fruits, in a substantial way, of a life's effort to obey the Word of Wisdom, and sot testify to the world. When I tell people of the fact, that so many, as I know, of our young people went through the World War without acquiring the habit of using tobacco, and I am able to say, with great pleasure and satisfaction, that such was the case with my own sons, it arouses astonishment in the minds of thinking men and increases respect for Mormonism. ¶

This is a marvelous work and a wonder, and has a remarkable hold upon the young and the old. In the Eastern states there are more large cities than anywhere else in the country, and in the work of this Tabernacle Choir and Organ there is, in my opinion, the greatest missionary that we have. I have marveled, of late, when the newspapers in some of these cities reported, as a matter of news, the names of our brethren who would preside at the console of this great organ, on the following Sunday. They also give the name of the leader of the Choir, and the details of the program to be rendered over the radio. Their names are becoming familiar household names among many of the lovers of music throughout the nation. These broadcasts are softening the hearts of the people. ¶

It had not occurred to me until coming to this conference that it might be significant that the pioneering of the work of preaching the Gospel over the radio in our mission originated on the Susquehanna River, not far from where the holy priesthood was restored in this dispensation, that is, in the city of Wilkesbarre, on the north line of Pennsylvania and near the southern line of New York. Since starting there we have preached the Gospel every week over the same radio now for the past two years and eight months. The locality in which we have had the greatest radio success seems to be that which surrounds the Hill Cumorah and the sacred grove — Wilkesbarre on the northeast, Jamestown, New York, on the northwest, Buffalo and Syracuse on the north. When I informed one of the officers of the Columbia BroadcastingSystem, last week, that within the last two years and eight months we had broadcast eight hundred and eighty-eight programs over the air, by very young untrained amateurs, boys and girls of from nineteen to twentytwo or twenty-three years of age, without any previous preparation or special education, he said that there was nothing comparable with it. I asked him if he wouldn't write me a letter to that effect, and I received one yesterday confirming that statement. He said that there had been some extended programs by great preachers, like Dr. Fosdick of New York, but that there was nothing comparable with this work that is being carried on by the Church in the Eastern States Mission. ¶

Now, let me beg of those who do have the resources, to help missionaries in need. If you could only hear the pathetic appeals and prayers that are being offered by some of our young missionaries who want to remain and fulfil their missions but are compelled to go home for lack of funds your hearts would be touched. My time is past, but let me again appeal to you. If individuals or families alone are not able to support a missionary in the field, especially after he has been there long enough to become really useful, cannot two or three families join together and help each other keep missionaries in the field r I do beg and pray that the missionaries who are there, whom we have trained and fitted for this work, may be able to continue and complete their mission. Many people are ready to listen to the Gospel, as they have not been heretofore. They are humbled and ready for it. ¶

May God bless this great work, I pray, in the name of Jesus, Amen. ¶