The Growth of the Gospel in the Southern States

I am very happy, my brethren and sisters, in having the privilege of representing the good people and the missionaries of the Southern States Mission. It is needless to say that I am proud to be honored of the Lord and my brethren to preside in that great mission of the Church. I have had a very delightful time while laboring there. I realize that the mission is accomplishing a great deal for the Church and for the people of the South. ¶

I have been led to say during my missionary work in that land, that if this Church had made no other contribution to the great work of the Lord in the earth than its missionary system, it would be something that all the world might envy. I realize that a great responsibility rests upon the Church in carrying on this missionary work. When the Prophet Joseph received the glorious revelations that came to him, he also received a great responsibility, for the message was to be carried into all the world. ¶

After the crucifixion of our Lord, when he tarried among his disciples, he said that unto him was given all power in heaven and upon earth. And he said, "Go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost; and lo, I am with you always even unto the end of the world." I want to bear testimony to you this day that every day in our mission there are evidences that the Savior of the world has not forgotten the promise thus made to his disciples. I realize that those unto whom he spoke were not privileged to tarry until the end of the world, but those who have followed after, with the same divine commission and authority, are receiving evidences of the wonderful manifestation of his blessing. ¶

Day by day, letters come to the Mission Office from missionaries laboring in that land, testifying of how the Lord is opening the way for them, how he is touching the hearts of men and women, how he is permitting them to be seen in dreams by faithful people before they come to their homes, which is evidence of the fact that the Savior of the world is with his missionary servants. ¶

Sister Richards and I visited a little woman a few weeks ago who related this testimony of how the Gospel had come to her: She said she had lost a son about 22 years of age and she was very much perturbed about it, because she was a Baptist and believed in the ordinance of baptism, but her son had never been baptized. She said, "I was in my bedroom on my knees praying to the Lord for some comfort and some assurance that there was yet hope for my son, when a knock came at the door." She said, "I arose from my knees and went to the door, and there stood two lady missionaries of this Church." She said, "I looked at them, and then at the tract that one of the sisters held in her hand, and I read the words, 'Baptism for the dead'." She said, "Come in — you are just the persons I am looking for — tell me all about it." And after a visit or two by the missionaries she joined the Church. ¶

I was in the city of Augusta, Georgia, a few months ago, and a good sister there told me this story: She said she had a friend in that city who was a member of the Church, and this friend said that her grandfather was the one man in the county in which he resided in former days who would receive our Mormon missionaries in his home. One day her cousin said to his grandfather, "Grandfather, the next time those Mormon missionaries come here if you receive them I will slap them in the face." And, she said, "True to his promise, the next time they came he did slap one of them but the Elder did not retaliate." She said, "That man's mind left him and he became an idiot, and he has been in the insane asylum ever since." ¶

I could stand here and relate to you for a long time the evidences that the Lord is with his missionaries guiding them in their work. I feel that it is a glorious privilege for our boys and girls to be engaged in this great work of the Master. I also want to bear testimony to you that it is improving their lives. A week ago last Monday, at a priesthood meeting at which a small group of missionaries were present, one missionary bore testimony that since his arrival in the field six months before, his father had started attending Sunday School and priesthood meeting, and he said that he had received a letter from his Bishop stating that the attendance at sacrament meeting had increased because heretofore they had not had a missionary out in the field for some time. Another young man arose and said that during the six months he had been there, his father had mastered the habit of using tobacco to which he had been addicted for forty years. I wish it were possible for every boy in this Church of proper age and proper conduct, to have the privilege of going into the mission field. As I stand before you today and realize that 30 years ago this month I left my home to go on my first mission, and realize what a contribution that was to me and my life, I thank the Lord for that great privilege. I would not want a son of mine to live through mortality without having the privilege of doing the thing that I did. I would like him to know the joy and the thrill that come when one is privileged to bear testimony of the restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ to those who have not had the privilege of enjoying the blessings and the gifts of the Gospel. ¶

I know that the Lord is with his people. I know that the Lord is with the missionary work. I want to read to you just a few words in closing from the Prophet Joseph Smith — a vision that he saw in the Kirtland Temple January 21, 1836, the day upon which Father Smith was ordained a Patriarch. The Prophet Joseph saw in glorious vision his brother Alvin, David W. Patten and others, in the Celestial kingdom, and these are the words he records in the Church History: ¶

I saw the: Twelve Apostles of the Lamb, who are now upon the earth who hold the keys of this last ministry, in foreign lands-, standing together in a circle, much fatigued, with their clothes tattered and feet swollen, with their eyes cast downward, and Jesus standing in their midst, and they did not behold Him. The Savior looked upon them and wept. ¶

I am sure that as we read the account of how the early apostles went forth to preach the Gospel, we can visualize them as the Prophet Joseph did, with their clothes tattered and their feet swollen, and the Savior of the world was there, according to his promise — "Lo, I will be with you always, even unto the end of the world." ¶

He said further: ¶

I also beheld Elder M'Lellin in the South, standing upon a hill, surrounded by a vast multitude preaching to them, and a lame man standing before him supported by his crutches; he threw them down at his word and leaped as a hart, by the mighty power of God. Also, I saw Elder Brigham Young standing in a strange land, in the far south and west, in a desert place, upon a rock in the midst of about a dozen men of color, who appeared hostile. He was preaching to them in their own tongue, and the angel of God standing above his head, with a drawn sword in his hand, protected him, but he did not see it. ¶

I want to testify to you, my brethren and sisters, that when your boys and girls go out into the ministry of the Lord the power of the Almighty God goes with them. He is raising up friends unto them on every hand. He is breaking down prejudice. He is opening the doors of the honest, and truly, as he said to the Seventies when he sent them forth, "He that receiveth you, receiveth me, and he that rejecteth you rejecteth me." Is it not a glorious privilege for our youth to go forth so endowed by the powers of heaven, so commissioned, and with the right and authority to speak in the name of the Lord? ¶

I pray the Lord's choicest blessings to be with his people throughout the world. It seems to me that a new day is dawning; it seems almost as if the time were here when nations might be born into the Church over night. ¶

One of our missionaries sent this report a few days ago: He said he had had a long talk with a Methodist minister, and at the close of the conversation, the minister said, "My boy, you may have the very thing I have been looking for. I do not believe the teachings of my church, nor have I taught them to my people. I have told my congregation repeatedly that I believe that in this day the God of heaven would send forth a Church different from anything else we know of today." ¶

What a glorious privilege to be able to bear testimony that the God of heaven has done that very thing, and that we do not have the work of man. I testify to this; I know that God lives. I know that he hears and answers prayers. I know he is in this work. I know that Joseph Smith was a prophet of the true and living God. I leave that testimony in his name, Amen. ¶