The Missionary Spirit and the Call to Serve

_ I humbly pray, my brethren and sisters, that the Lord will direct me in the things that I have to say to you this afternoon. ¶

I am very fortunate in having the association and the friendship of the young men and women of the Church who have accepted a call to go out and preach the Gospel of Jesus Christ. I say I am fortunate, because they represent a very splendid type of young people. They have good health. They are well educated for their age. They have good morals. They have an honest desire in their hearts to go out and preach the Gospel of Jesus Christ in plainness and simplicity, and give of their time and their service in the interest of this great work. ¶

It is true that there are some exceptions, and those exceptions ought - to be as few as possible, because of the missionary himself, because of the Church, because of investigators and those who are friendly toward us. ¶

The missionary needs good health, because this type of life is a strenuous life, and those who are engaged in it ought to go out in as good physical condition as it is possible. They owe it to their mission, they owe it to their companion, they owe it to those who are furnishing the means, to be so equipped physically that they will be able to do the work assigned to them. ¶

As I say, the work is strenuous, and the mission field is not a place for invalids or those who have chronic ailments. There is a place for such people at home, where they may serve with greater satisfaction to themselves and more helpfulness to the Church, It is also our duty to keep our missionaries in good health when they are in the mission field, and to return them home, as far as it is possible, in good health and strength. ¶

It is true that our Heavenly Father blesses us and guides us and protects us, but it always seems to me that our Heavenly Father can be relied upon to protect and help us more if we do our part in protecting ourselves. When missionaries are careless and do not give proper care to their bodies, I am sure that they cannot be protected in the same way or to the degree that missionaries can who are careful and live according to the commandments of the Lord. ¶

Their education, I say, is good. It is on the average. They are young people, and as far as their youth will permit they have gone through the schools. We sometimes find criticism about our young peop e and the education that they have, but as long as we send young people of eighteen, nineteen or twenty years of age we cannot expect them to go out with college degrees. If we want the other type— and I think we do— we will have to send missionaries who are older to add to the splendid type of young people whom we now have. ¶

They have good morals, an essential thing in preaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Men and women cannot go out unless they have observed the standards of the Lord, and have kept themselves in a condition that the Lord can let his Holy Spirit dwell with them. Occasionally we do have men coming into our Missionary Home who are using tobacco and liquor, and if we know that they are using it when they come into the Missionary Home I am sure that the bishop or the parents or the president of the stake cannot use the excuse that they did not know that the young man was not keeping the Word of Wisdom. ¶

It seems to me that after one hundred years as a Church we ought to be able to maintain that standard with our people who preach the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Those who are willing to try and make amends, if it is necessary, and show forth a desire to live right, have a greater chance of making good and having God's blessing and protection than those who will not try to observe the usual standards that we have in the Church. ¶

Of course, it is essential that our missionaries shall be clean. No man and no woman will ever receive a testimony, or will ever succeed, who cannot observe the law of cleanliness in their lives. If there should be some who have unfortunately broken this commandment they must truly repent. God cannot bless them if they show no signs of repentance, nor a desire to do the things he wants them to do. ¶

We desire them to equip themselves spiritually, because without the Spirit of the Lord and a knowledge of the Gospel they hamper themselves and they hamper the work. The reason that missionaries receive a testimony so rapidly in the missionary field is because they devote their time, their energy, their thoughts and their prayers to finding out about God and his work, and doing the things that God wants them to do. And when they do that they receive, almost instantly, a testimony of the divinity of this great work. ¶

This is a time when it takes considerable sacrifice on the part of parents and of the missionaries to go out and preach, but they are making good at it, and they have faith in God, the Eternal Father. A young man in the ITome just a short time ago said to me: "Brother Taylor, I would like to say to you in all sincerity that I am grateful to my Heavenly Father, and I ain grateful to my parents, for the opportunity I have had of preaching the Gospel;" and you could see that he sincerely meant it, that he had made good, and was glad for his missionary experience. ¶

I said to him: "Your father and mother were just here. They will soon be back again." ¶

He replied: "Then I think I will go downstairs and wait for them. I haven't seen them for two years." ¶

He went clown to his room, and it wasn't long before the father and mother came and went down to their boy, and they were united again. I was glad I wasn't there. I am sure it was too sacred a thing for any one else to be present except the boy and the father and mother. ¶

A father said to me: "I am bringing my daughter to the Home. I have $125.00, maybe $150.00. I hope that will keep her until fall. That is all I have. Maybe by then I will be able to earn some more. I have faith in God." And then he said this thing: "I would like to send my sister's son on a mission. He lost his mother when he was a child. He is a good boy and is twenty years of age. I hope that in just a little while I will not only have enough money to keep my girl, but I will have enough money to send my sister's boy out into the missionary field, because I want him to have the things that his mother would have given to him had she been alive." ¶

A boy, on the day that he was to leave for the train, kept coming to the desk and asking, "Have you had any word here for me?" ¶

I said: "No, we haven't had any word." ¶

He said: "I am expecting my father. I haven't seen him for a long while. I have been working here in the city, and he lives a longdistance from here. When I wrote and told him that I was going on a mission he said he would come to see me, and he hasn't come." It got later and later in the day, so he said: "I think I will go clown and get my valises and go to the train. It is time to leave." ¶

When he was downstairs, over the telephone came a long-distance call. I called him, and the father spoke to him about his mission. When he hung up the phone he repeated his father's words to me: "I am sorry that I cannot come. I haven't the money. I need it for you. Goodbye, boy, God bless you." ¶

He went downstairs, got his grips and went to the station. When he left he said: "My ! It was good to hear the voice of my father." ¶

Such are the men and women, such are the boys and girls that are going out to preach the Gospel of Jesus Christ. May the Lord bless them and keep them, bring them back safely to us, and bless us men and women at home, that we will do our part and fulfil our calling. May God be pleased with us because of our love for him, I humbly pray, in the name of Jesus Christ, our Redeemer. Amen. ¶