California Mission Report

I appreciate this great opportunity and I sense the responsibility. I have undergone great anxiety for three days, and now if I can have as faithful a prayer offered for me as I have been offering for those who have spoken during this conference, I shall be happy indeed. ¶

To come up here and bring good news from California is happiness. If there is any schism or division I have not discovered it. There seems to be peace, love, good-will, brotherly kindness in the hearts of the people. ¶

We have been favored recently with a visit from Elder George Albert Smith, and he has brought us a great refreshing. The people have turned out en masse to hear him ; strangers have attended. They have testified that they have been impressed and more than impressed. They have testified that they have been inspired. The friendliness of the people is made manifest unto us on every hand. ¶

We have been blessed with an increased number of missionaries. The investigators are more numerous than at any other time during my experience. Last year was the most favorable year according to the record, so far as baptisms are concerned, in the history of the mission. The expense of the missionaries was never so low as now. Through ¶

the goodness of the Saints we have been able to care for missionaries at an average cost of less than seventeen dollars per month. There is a great opportunity to serve. The people want us, they are seeking the truth. ¶

I should like perhaps to mention one incident that I think would be interesting to every soul in the Church. A few months ago we sent two Elders out into Westwood, up in the mountains in one of the lumber camps. We have had people there for years, some of our people, but we have never been able to get any foothold. Every foot of ground there is owned by the Red River Lumber Company, and every house and every shack. We were never able to rent a place where we could hold meetings. We sent two Elders there recently, Elder Richards and Elder Foulger, under District President DeVaugn Jones. They were instructed, "Go and visit our own people, be prayerful and humble, and see if we can overcome an adverse situation." We found our own people and we visited the resident manager of the Red River Lumber Company. There is a community church there, and we said, "May we not have the privilege of preaching the Gospel in that church ?" Finally that privilege was promised, provided we would be careful about what we should say. ¶

That was not exactly what we wanted. We wanted the opportunity first of teaching, training, and helping our own. We wanted the opportunity of having a more humble place and having it where we could hold our meetings. Through the intercession of some faithful Saints a place was found. The man said : "What would you need ?" We told him. "What could you pay?" "The very lowest amount." ¶

• He finally said to our inquiring Saints, (Elder Young's family) "We have a hall for you. It is seated, there is a piano in it, it is heated, it is lighted; the janitorial work will be taken care of. Would ten dollars a month be too much for you ? We will give you three rooms in which to take care of your Sunday School."

Of course we counted that a gift from God, we counted that an answer to prayer. ¶

When we assembled those Saints who had not been permitted to meet before, when they stood up and sang the hymns of Zion, when they prayed, when they listened to the words of truth, their hearts were melted and their joy was made almost complete. While visiting them recently we invited this resident manager to come to our meeting. We hardly dared hope that he would favor us with a visit, but to our great delight He and his wife took seats immediately in front of the stand, and the Elders discoursed under the inspiration of the Almighty. He sat there all attention. At the close of the meeting, as I approached him and held out my hand, he took me by both hands and said : "I have not only been interested, I have been blessed. Where do these Elders stay? Could some of them come and stay at our home?" ¶

We said to the two Elders that labored there, "You go ; you are the men who have done the pioneer work," and so they went. ¶

The next morning as the Elders came back rejoicing we said : "How did you sleep?" ¶

They answered, "We could hardly sleep, the beds were too soft. And he gave instructions to the butler to feed us anything that we should ask for." ¶

The mercy of the Lord ! He is going before us. He is being upon the right hand and upon the left. This is exemplified every day. Since that day we have not only held a Sunday School but we have organized a branch and we have baptized converts, and there is joy out in Westwood. ¶

I want to refer to this one incident which I think will be interesting to the people of this Church. One of Phineas Young's sons lives there, and he said in the evening : "Brother Hinckley, I wish you would come and stay at our home. I have something that I should like to have you read," and to my delight he pulled out ten letters written by Oliver Cowdery to Phineas Young during the time that Oliver Cowdery was out of the Church. The letters are dated from 1843 to 1848. I sat up through the night. I have never had such a thrill before. ¶

Brother Young said : "I have never read them, the writing seems so old-fashioned that we cannot make them out." ¶

This to my mind seemed peculiar because the writing was clear, the paper was good, the ink had not run or faded with age. The paper was yellow, it was broken in the corners ; the paper had been folded and sealed with sealing wax. The address was on the outside with the statement, "postage paid." ¶

I could never describe to you the thrill that I had as I sat there and read those letters. I have read of Oliver Cowdery, I have shed tears when I thought of what the man had witnessed and what he had suffered, and then what it must have meant to have been excommunicated from the Church and to have been outside in the darkness. And so about two o'clock in the morning I said to one of the Elders, who had fallen asleep : "Wake up and listen to me while I read." ¶

If I may have time I should like to read this letter to you. It is dated Tiffin, Seneca County, Ohio, March 23, 1846, and reads as follows : ¶

Dear Brother Phineas : ¶

Tiffin, Seneca County, Ohio March 23, 1846 ¶

Yours of the 5th and 9th, and mailed on the 11th, has just been received. I was not looking for a letter from you, nor did I expect, when one should be received, that it would contain what yours does. I mean that part relative to the second Eldership, and Counselorship, etc. ¶

Before the receipt of this, you will have received one from me, enclosed in another to brother Daniel. From which you will discover that your last letter was perused with the greatest satisfaction ; and that one received from brother Orson Hyde about the same time was either misunderstood, or its' spirit misconceived by me. But from your last I am fully satisfied, that no unjust imputation will be suffered to remain upon my character. And that I may not be misunderstood, let me here say that I have only sought, and only asked, that my Character might stand exonerated from those charges which imputed to me the crimes' of theft, forgery, etc. Those which all mv former associates knew to be false. I do not, ¶

I have never asked, to be excused, or exempted from an acknowledgment, of my actual fault or wrong — for of these there are many; which it was always my pleasure to confess. I have cherished a hope, and that one of my fondest, that I might leave such a character as those who might believe in my testimony, after I shall be called hence, might do so, not only f or the sake of the truth, but might not blush for the private character of the man who bore that testimony. I have been sensitive on this subject, I admit; but I ought to be so — you would be, under the circumstances, had you stood in the presence of John, with our departed Joseph, to receive the Lesser Priesthood — and in the presence of Peter, to receive the Greater, and look down through time, and witness the effects these two must produce, — you would feel what you have never felt, were wicked men conspiring to lessen the effects of your testimony on man, after you should have gone to your long length rest. But enough, enough, of this. I will here say that I cannot fully comprehend the purport of Brother Hyde's letter ; but from your last, in referring to a conversation by Brother Brigham, about the presidency, I am fully, doubly satisfied that all will be right, that my character will be fully vindicated. I write thus plainly because I do not intend to mention it again in any of my letters. Let the records show what you, Brother Brigham and Parley, say they shall and you will be furnished with weapons to use against your enemies hereafter to good effect. You say you are to have a meeting on the 6th of April. Brother Phineas, I could be with you and tell you about the 6th of April, 1830, when but six members only belonged to the Church and how we looked forward to a future, I should gladly, but I cannot — only in spirit — but in spirit I shall be with you. And then in assembled with [then are some words I could not clearly make out] those who are yet alive of that six — How many can you count? ¶

From my letter to you and brother Daniel, you will see that Brother Thurston left, much to my regret, without letting me see him again. I think if he were to send me the note that falls due the first of October, 1846, I could get the money on it, by giving a share — by this means I could be with you * * * than I know of in any other way. You will of course see him on the subject and write me on receipt of this. The situation of my family is such that it is not possible for me to come with them this spring; but I want to be prepared at the earliest moment. We are well as usual. I wrote in great haste. May the God of our fathers bless you and yours, and the Church as a body. Such is my prayer. ¶

I am yours in the New and Everlasting Covenant, ¶

Oliver Cowdery. ¶

You will never know the spirit that was mine. ¶

I stood in front of the monument on these grounds today and looked at the Witnesses. In my heart I prayed for the descendants of Oliver Cowdery, David Whitmer, and Martin Harris, all good men who suffered for the truth in the revelation of the everlasting Gospel, which has been restored through the mercy of God, and which it is our high privilege to proclaim to the world. ¶

It is fifty years ago today since I first took upon me the responsibility of the presidency of the deacons — fifty years of joy, fifty years of walking safely in the footsteps of the leaders of this Church. For fifty years I have been acquainted in a way with every President of the Church from Brigham Young to Heber J. Grant, and now with my hair white and my experience ripe I testify that the path of safety is in following those whom God has called and appointed to lead the way and to carry responsibility in this Church. I testify that they are called of him and that they lead by divine authority. The Lord says it is given unto the President to have the spirit and to be like unto Moses, a prophet, a seer, and a revelator, having all the gifts of God which he bestows upon the ¶

head of the Church. That is what we have, and is what we will always have in our leaders. God help us to be true to them, I pray in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen. ¶