Conference Address

My brethren and sisters and friends — and I say friends because I realize that perhaps many of this congregation have not as yet allied themselves with this great Latter-day work, and there are also many of the unseen audience who are listening in upon this occasion, and they are our friends, and we are their friends. We are all brethren and sisters, sons and daughters of our Heavenly Father, and he is mindful of all of us. ¶

I am very pleased to bring to you greetings from your sons and daughters and relatives who are now laboring in the East Central States Mission. The work is progressing in that part of the land, and we are meeting with success. During these services my mind has been drawn back many times to the work that is being carried on there. ¶

Yesterday I received a report to the effect that last Sunday three honest souls made a trip of some fifty miles to the city of Louisville in order that they might receive the ordinance of baptism. This was the result of the labors of some of the Saints who had been working with those people. They came there for the purpose of receiving the birth of water and of the Spirit. ¶

A short time ago Sister Jones and I made a visit of some fifty or sixty miles into the country to visit a family of Saints. They had gathered together a number of their neighbors and asked that we speak to them, which we did. We stood upon the ground where a few years ago the elders were disturbed and a meeting broken up. At the conclusion of our meeting, and since then, we have received several invitations to come back, or have the elders go and labor a week or so in that neighborhood, and I have received information to the effect that two of the elders are down there now holding a series of meetings, and I am very much interested as to the results. ¶

There are wonderful opportunities in all directions for us to reach the people and deliver our message to them. ¶

During the course of President Ivins' remarks this morning, when he referred to those who came to this land years ago, my mind reverted back to what I read of early history when I was a boy at school, as to the Pilgrim fathers more particularly. They came to this land after being persecuted in the land in which they lived. ¶

In 1906, while laboring as a missionary in England, at the invitation of President Grant, a number of missionaries, including myself, accompanied him to the Netherlands Mission. While in Holland we took the opportunity of visiting the city of Delftshaven, where is located a beautiful chapel, in which the Pilgrim . fathers worshipped the Lord after coming down the canal out of the land of Holland. From there they crossed the channel to Southampton, from which place they took their journey to this land. They landed and settled in some of the states that now comprise the East Central States Mission, more particularly North Carolina and Virginia. As I travel through those old places, such as Georgetown and Jamestown, and other places on my way to and from Portsmouth and Norfolk, I cannot help but feel impressed with the sacredness of those spots where the Pilgrim fathers settled in early days in order that they might worship God according to the dictates of their own conscience. As people in those sections come into the Church today, we find almost invariably that they are descendants of the Pilgrim fathers and others who settled that land, and thus we can in a way account for the wonderful success of the work, because those noble sons and daughters in early days came to this land where they might worship God as they saw fit. ¶

I recall now an account that I read in a paper a few years ago of a very prominent official of the United States visiting the president of one of the South American republics. As they sat upon the verandb and were talking over the situation, the President said to this official, "How is it that North America has advanced so much more rapidly than has South America, nothwithstanding we have more natural resources, more varieties of timber, more water power and more minerals of all kinds, also all kinds of fruit and vegetation? Notwithstanding these advantages North America has forged ahead of South America." ¶

The American official in a characteristic Yankee way evaded the question, and asked the President what his view of it was. The President said : "The only answer I can give is this : those who settled South America came here in search of gold, while those who settled North America came in search of God." ¶

And that seems to be the solution of the question. It also accounts ¶

for so many today listening to the Gospel message as it is presented to them. ¶

I am thankful, my brethren and sisters, that I have been counted worthy, along with these other brethren, of going into the world and carrying this message of glad tidings of great joy to those who sit in darkness, and there is nothing in all the world that will bring more joy and happiness to the souls of men or women than that which comes to a person when someone can come to him and say, "Thank God, you are the one who brought the light of the Gospel into my home and into my life." There are many of your sons and daughters today that can bear witness to that fact. ¶

God bless the youth of Zion. May they be kept in the paths of truth and righteousness and virtue, that they may prepare themselves for the great responsibility that will rest upon them, because it is only a matter of time when they will be called to carry on this great work. God bless you, my brethren and sisters, who have charge of the work in the various branches of the Church, and in all auxiliary organizations. May you have the power, the spirit, and the wisdom to carry on your work, I humbly pray in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen. ¶