Canadian Mission Report

It is indeed a pleasure to be back in the valleys of the mountains, and to meet you, my brethren and sisters, and partake of your fine friendliness, after having been away for just a short period. ¶

I am happy to bring you greetings from the Saints and the missionaries in the Canadian Mission, and to tell you that the fine young people who have come there as missionaries are well and happy, and doing such a splendid and outstanding work that the attention of the people of the world is called to them. It is not uncommon to hear people say: "I would like to have my son or my daughter grow up to be like those missionaries that you have among you." They are coming to us better prepared, with earnestness as well as experience. ¶

I pay tribute to the educational system of Utah, and to the organizations of the Church, that train in leadership. I was interested to note that half of the missionaries now serving in the Canadian Mission have had one or two years college training. I was just a little disappointed to note that only half of them have had seminary training. I have noted that the additional years of training, and direct responsibility in leadership in the organizations of the Church, makes them more efficient missionaries, and brings them to us very much better prepared. ¶

The Lord has told us what is expected of the missionary. "A marvelous work," he said, "is about to come forth among the children of men. Therefore, O ye who embark in the service of God, see that ye serve him with all your heart, might, mind and strength." ¶

As missionaries, we realize that we may plant and we may cultivate and we may water, but it is God that gives the increase. Realizing that it is our responsibility to get the message of the restored Gospel of Jesus Christ before the people in the clearest and best way possible, we have attempted to study the Gospel thoroughly to prepare ourselves, and then we have made an effort to reach the people that we have not been reaching heretofore. ¶

With this in view we made a good-will tour of the Canadian Mission, in an effort to meet the business men of Canada. We were successful in arranging meetings with many social clubs : the Rotary, the Kiwanis, the Lions' Club, the Kinsman's Club, the Good Will and Optimists' Club, and many of the schools. We had a splendid quartet that furnished the music. I was privileged to be guest speaker in most of those clubs, and was given the opportunity, for thirty or forty minutes, of explaining Utah and her people, and the reaction was much more favorable than we had hoped for. In the course of the tour we met over thirty thousand people — representative business men of Canada — and some of their reactions were remarkable. ¶

After one meeting a man in the club arose and said : "Gentlemen, I have been in Salt Lake City. I have been in that historic Tabernacle we have been told about. I know that what has been said about that great building, and that wonderful mission on the Temple grounds, and the industry and friendliness of the people of Utah, is true." ¶

We had such reactions throughout the long tour. We discovered through that tour that the people of the world are not irreligious, but they are disappointed in finding that they are not obtaining help for their personal lives in the churches. ¶

I read, as possibly you did, in the January number of the Cosmopolitan, an article by Dorothy Giles, entitled, "The Wise Men of Science Come to the Manger," in which she said that Science is no longer positively opposed to Religion, but is seeking diligently to understand it. They are seeking to understand the Babe of Bethlehem, what it signifies, and its great power over humanity. ¶

"What can we believe?" she said, we are asking of Science, and Science briefly replies : "Religion is not a question of belief, but of experience. No matter what the world thinks about religious experience, the one who has it possesses a great treasure which has provided him with a source of life, meaning and beauty, and which has given a new splendor to the world and to mankind. He has peace." ¶

So I have been proud to belong to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. We are truly "a city built upon a hill." The eyes of the world are turned toward us, and those who have visited us bring favorable reports. ¶

I am happy to be a missionary, and as I think of the hundred and eight years of progress of this Church, and the ideals that guided those sturdy pioneers, that neither persecution from without nor dissension from within, nor the lure of gold, nor the quest of land could turn aside, I am happy for the inheritance I have in the Church. ¶

I pray that our Father in Heaven may continue to bless us as a people, that our industry, our love for the principles of truth and righteousness, our brotherly consideration, and this great fraternal friendship that has grown up among us, may continue ; and that as the eyes of the world are turned toward us, we will continue to be the great missionary, for the thing the world wants today is a religion that works in the lives of its people in motivating love, in building character, and in doing the very things that this great Church has done for us. ¶

May the Lord bless us, that we may do our part in this great work, I humbly pray, in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen. ¶