Conference Address

I pray for divine help while I shall stand before you. ¶

I am glad to bring to you greetings from the East Central States mission. I can honestly say in reporting our mission to you that what this good brother has just said about South America has been repeated many times during the past winter among the young missionaries who are laboring in our mission field. God has manifested his power, and many are the blessings that have come to our good people through the priesthood and the faith of the elders and the members of the Church ¶

We are living in an unusual day ; in a day when the Lord is making evident his power. In the mission where I live, we are at the present time experiencing unusual conditions, particularly in regard to the great floods that have come from the Ohio river and many of the other rivers that empty into this great stream. Because of the high waters of the Ohio the streams that enter into it back up, and as a result great areas of land are flooded. It is interesting, I am sure, to know that river boats have gone up the streets of Cincinnati, that in man)' places the water was six and eight feet above normal conditions,— I mean that over the main highways in some parts of that country there was that depth of water. However, I do not know of any serious handicap to any of our members except the loss, possibly, of some of their property. I recall that the day we left to come here one of the elders said, "I am mailing you this letter by way of rowboat from the second story of the building. We have been in here for three days." ¶

I have been greatly impressed by these conditions and I would like you people to read the sixty-first section of the Doctrine and Covenants and make your own deductions as to the curse that was placed upon the waters. Not only have we been troubled with waters but we have had tornadoes. And as we came here we passed through a great dust storm. It seems to me that we are living in an unusual day. ¶

I would like to tell you something in regard to this wonderful experience that we had yesterday. Immediately upon receipt of information about this broadcast we sent word to every branch, to every elder in our mission, suggesting to them that they provide some way so all could listen in. Saturday there came to me a letter that had been forwarded from a little town in the hills of Tennessee, telling me that they had borrowed a radio to install in their little church, which is about twenty-four by thirty-two feet in size, and they planned to gather there that day so they could listen to the prophets of the Lord when they spoke. ¶

We are making a great number of friends in unusual ways. I would like to refer to one case, emphasizing what has been said in regard to the spirit and power that is manifest by our beloved president. President Grant with Brother George Albert Smith visited Louisville a short time ago, and while there they visited that modern institution, the American Printing House for the Blind, where the Book of Mormon was printed in Braille. I visited this same place about the second or third day after they had been there, and I was pleased at the influence, the most favorable impression that had been left with those people during the visit of President Grant and Brother Smith. There is something about these brethren that no matter where they go they leave their impression and they leave something that is outstanding and unusual. ¶

I would like to express to you my testimony in regard to the Book of Mormon. It is one of the most wonderful books that we have in the world today. If I were bold enough I might say to you that I think many of us are not reading it just as often as we should. I know it is taught in our Sunday Schools and Seminary classes and in other such ways ; but I am thinking of that busy mother and that hurried father in their labors. I fear that they do not read the Book of Mormon as often as they should do. My testimony to you is this, that it is divine and it comes from God, that it is one of the greatest witnesses that we have of the divinity of this work and of the Prophet Joseph Smith. If you want to know where we came from, why we are here, and where we are going, no book that I know of will tell you in such plainness as does the Book of Mormon. We should read it more often. I am sure that the promise which is given in it will be fulfilled, namely, that those who ask God with a prayerful heart if the things therein written are true, he will manifest the truth of it unto them. It has been made manifest to a number of people in our mission during the past winter. ¶

Oh, I could tell you testimonies that have come to us this winter of young people and older ones who have had that promise fulfilled to them, and their hearts have swelled with joy because of the testimony of the Book of Mormon that has come to them. ¶

I pray that the Lord will bless you, and that we will live the Gospel of Jesus Christ. ¶

I bear testimony to you that the lives of our young men and women are teaching the Gospel just as much as their words. When someone was talking the other day about living this Gospel, I thought of five different places where the missionaries were living this winter. There will be from one to several members of the families baptized because of the lives, because of the actions, because of the teachings of these young missionaries in the homes where they have been living. We suggest to them not to live in a boarding-house, but to find lodging with some family of prominence. They are living in the homes of judges, of postmasters, and of dentists. We are encouraging them to go into such places, because in so doing they have a most wonderful opportunity of preaching the Gospel ; and by their lives and by their actions they are doing it. ¶

The Lord is blessing us. We need your prayers. We need your support. We need your blessings. And may the Lord magnify us in our work in the eyes of the people of the world, that we may bring souls to Christ, that we may fulfil the responsibility that is given to us to preach the Gospel in all the world. ¶

May the Lord help us to do this I humbly pray in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen. ¶