Western States Mission Report

My brethren and sisters, the admonitions, the encouragement, and the advice given in these sessions of Conference I feel will be appropriate, useful and beneficial to all who accept of the same. ¶

I was impressed this1 morning very much with the warning given as to the conditions existing in the world, and I am reminded of a passage of scripture which I should like to read: ¶

Behold, the days come, saith the Lord God, that I will send a famine in the land, not a famine of bread nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the Lord : ¶

And they shall wander from sea to sea, and from north even to the east, they shall run to and fro to seek the word of the Lord, and shall not find it. ¶

Likewise, I read these words : ¶

For the Lord is not the author of confusion, but of peace, as in all churches of the saints. ¶

It is said that a wise philosopher made this observation : ¶

I have diligently searched the Heavens and nowhere have I found God. ¶

I think if we look around the world today we will find that confusion is everywhere to be found; misunderstanding, misinterpretation, doubt, and uncertainty are all ever present. The world is fraught with anxiety. We read an article in the paper the other day concerning a condition existing way off in Egypt, where, in a monastery of one hundred monks, these monks went on a sit-down strike because they wanted to go modern. ¶

From Canton, China, we read an announcement that the police raided a southern province of China known as the "Superstition Belt," and confiscated one thousand man-made gods in an effort to stamp out idolatry. The authorities, fearing that wide-spread opposition would follow the drastic measures for the destruction of the metal and clay images, confined the images to a god concentration camp where the populace would be able to pray and burn incense to their favorite deity. ¶

We read in an Associated Press dispatch from Chicago of a large convention of churches there advocating the unification of a system that would make one church instead of many. In fact, there were forty different organizations represented, and the great bishop in charge said that he felt it was time for us to drop these different theories and ideas and be united under one hew organization to be called the United Christian Advance. ¶

We read of the conditions existing in Russia; that the preaching of religion is forbidden. There are twenty-five million children of school age who have been taught that there is no God. The teachers are forbidden to teach religion of any kind in the schools, all religious publications are banned, and 4,200 priests and those in charge of the churches have been confined to concentration camps and many have died in oblivion. At Moscow, where there were four hundred and fifty-four churches in existence, only some thirty now remain. Fourteen thousand churches were closed last year and few are left anywhere throughout the Russian countries. ¶

Many of these conditions that exist today, as we know, have been brought about as a result of confusion and misunderstanding with reference to religion. It is astonishing how men's ideas are warped ; how small they become ; and, not being sensitive to the promptings of the Spirit of the Lord, they do not desire to have truth penetrate their souls. If truth could make its imprint upon the hearts of men as the Lord intended, what a marvelous and wonderful thing it would be. ¶

Truth is a virtue akin to the divine, "eternal, unchanged evermore." ¶

The Gospel of Jesus Christ stands for the highest in intellectual development. It invites all men to come from wherever they may to join ¶

the great pilgrimage that will lead us to our great eternal home. It is marvelous when our souls are touched with the influences of the divine. It enables us to overcome prejudice and bigotry and become mellowed in our feelings, thus permitting the influence of God Almighty to touch us. ¶

I thank the Lord that this Church is one that has never had to change its policies, never had to change its creed or its doctrine ; that there never has been a period when there has been a decline in enthusiasm or in numbers, but that it has grown year by year since its inception one hundred and seven years ago with a very meager beginning of six members, until today approximately eight hundred thousand are following the banner of Jesus, the Christ, the crucified Lord. ¶

I thank the Lord that there has come to me the opportunity of becoming a member of this Church. I thank my sainted mother and father for the glorious teachings that they gave me as a child to honor and sustain the Authorities of this great Church. It has been born and bred into me that if I will abide the counsel of those who preside over me I will never go astray, and I have undertaken in my weak and humble way to teach these same principles to my own boys and my girls and also to the wonderful missionaries in our mission, that they might have implanted in their hearts and souls that integrity and devotion that will make of them real, genuine, honest-to-goodness Latter-day Saints. ¶

This Church invites the world to come to it. It is the Gospel of Jesus Christ, in fact the Church of Jesus Christ and the Gospel of Jesus are one and the same, inseparable and indivisible, and we who have embraced its truths and live according to its glorious ideals and standards will assuredly go to our eternal homes, and there will be unfolded to us a glory and a beauty that will be very graciously received by us. ¶

I want to say to the Latter-day Saints that the three and a half years that Sister Daynes and I have spent in the Western States Mission have been the most beautiful picture in our lives. We have learned the meaning of love, of loyalty and likewise that of faith. We have undertaken to teach these precious truths to the missionaries sent us and to likewise stimulate the faith of the members of the great Church within the boundaries of our Mission. ¶

I am very happy to say that every one of our missionaries, some eighty-six in all, is well and happy and giving vigorously of his or her efforts for the great truths of the Gospel. ¶

My testimony has never lessened. It is greater and stronger and more fervent today because I know that the Gospel is true, God being my witness. I hope that I shall continue in the faith and be true to every trust that may be reposed in me. My peace and blessings to you all, my brethren and sisters. ¶

May God ever direct us in every path of duty I pray in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen. ¶