Netherlands Mission Report

Words fail to express the joy I experience, my brethren and sisters, in being allowed to occupy this position this morning, and especially in being allowed to attend the sessions of this Conference. ¶

This is the first time in seven years it has been my opportunity to be present in the sessions of the General Conference, and I am thrilled beyond any power I possess to express my gratitude to the Lord for this privilege. ¶

For nearly four years it was my lot to preside over the mission in the Netherlands. During those years, I am convinced that the Church has gained a stronger foothold in that country than at any other time in the past. ¶

While the number of converts in recent years is not quite so great as the number made in the years immediately following the World War, nevertheless, for the past three years we have had increases in our converts as compared with the years before that, and the Saints are manifesting a finer spiritual attitude as proved by the fact that they are paying their tithes and their Fast offerings, and attending their meetings better than they have done heretofore. ¶

We rejoice in the fact that the members in this foreign land have been realizing the responsibility resting upon them, and throughout the period of our administration — as was the case during that of our predecessor— we have been endeavoring to train the local people to assume and bear all responsibility in conducting their affairs in the branches and districts. I am thoroughly converted to this policy inaugurated by President Widtsoe when he presided over the European missions. While there have been many difficulties connected with the transition from missionary leadership to that of local leadership, nevertheless, churches and branches in the mission field are securing a certain stability which they never had before, and there is a sense of permanence creeping into the organizations that was never the case with the constant change of missionary leadership. ¶

It was our opportunity while laboring in the field to celebrate the seventy-fifth anniversary of the founding of the Netherlands Mission, and at that period of time it appeared that the Lord had commenced to pour out his Spirit in richer abundance upon the people of that land than ever before. We had a most successful year during our Jubilee and one of the things that was gratifying to us was the fact that the newspapers commenced to come to us for news and published all that we would give. At conference sessions and commemorative meetings they had reporters in attendance who wrote accounts better than we could have done — favorable accounts — which were given wide circulation throughout the land. I rejoice in this change of attitude that has come in the press of the Netherlands with regard to our Church. ¶

Another objective that I think will perhaps be realized within the near future will be the recognition of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints by royal decree in the Netherlands, as an official church on equal footing with all other ecclesiastical organizations of that land. ¶

We have been endeavoring to develop the auxiliary associations in that land, and, under local leadership and local boards, that compare very favorably with our own stake boards here at home, we have seen our Mutuals, our Relief Societies, our Sunday Schools, Primary and Genealogical Associations grow and advance. We have found that the Primary and the Sunday Schools are perhaps two of the best means we have had in the field for giving our Elders contacts with strangers, and later bringing people to a knowledge of the Gospel. We get the children of the non-members in the Primary, and then the Elders visit their parents and succeed in getting the children in the Sunday Schools. We try to take the children by the hand and the parents by the heart and bring them to the Gospel. ¶

To give you an illustration: At one period during a year and a half the only converts we made in the large city of Rotterdam were people who became acquainted with the Church through the fact that their children had been brought into the Primary first. So we rejoice in this work. Also the work of our Genealogical Association has been organized and placed on a permanent basis under local leadership, and I think that the papers on file in the Temple and in the Genealogical office will indicate that perhaps we have achieved an organization that is better than any other genealogical organization in the missions in Europe. The people are industriously engaged in doing their genealogical research at the present time. They have a system of exchange not only with our own mission, but with the local groups working here in Salt Lake, as well as groups in other missions where there are many Hollanders who have emigrated. ¶

We rejoice also in the fine contacts .we have had with the Elders laboring in the missions. They are fine young men. We are pleased to report at the present time that so far as we know all of them are enjoying excellent health. We have had some serious illness among our Elders — two cases that were so serious that we despaired of their lives — but through the goodness of the Lord in ways that I think are nothing short of modern miracles, these men have been restored to normal health and strength and have been allowed to complete their labors. ¶

I rejoice in the testimony of the Gospel that I have. I rejoice that the Lord has been so good to allow me to have this opportunity, and I hope and pray I may go forth to raise my voice to preach the truths of the everlasting Gospel restored through the Prophet Joseph Smith. I know that he is a prophet of the Lord, and that in the passing of the years he will be recognized by the leaders of all mankind, both within and without the Church, as the greatest prophet of the latter-days, a real leader, who will take his place with the passing of the years alongside of the prophets of old. ¶

That we might go forth striving to serve the Lord and walk in his paths, is my prayer, in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen. ¶