Report of the Mexican Mission

My dear Brethren and Sisters : I assure you of my humility in attempting to utilize part of your time again. I realize the responsibility involved in taking part of the time of this great congregation, and I shall not speak long this afternoon. I merely wish to thank you and the leaders of the Church and our Heavenly Father, in your presence, for the opportunity of service that has been mine in the mission field. ¶

During the past nearly five years it has been my privilege to serve in the Mexican Mission among a people that I love. It has been my opportunity during that time to labor with many of your sons and daughters, a privilege that I esteem above everything else. I feel that my life has indeed been enriched. ¶

I endorse heartily the remarks of President Hinckley and of President Rees with regard to the benefits reaped by your sons and daughters through service in the mission field. I exhort you, as did President Macdonald this morning, to look toward the sending of your sons and daughters into the mission field. No finer experience can come to them, I assure you. I appreciate fully the advantage and the progress that the missionary has in the mission field. I realize what this missionary system means to the Church, the advancement and the growth that come to the Church through the experience and the progress of the individual missionaries as they return to the Church, but I wish to sound one note of warning : Let not this be our purpose in sending out missionaries. ¶

The Master said : "He that findeth his life shall lose it ; and he that loseth his life for my sake shall find it." Let this be our guiding spirit in sending forth our missionaries. Let them go forth not so much for the benefit that they may reap, or the benefit they may bring home to us as an organization, but let them go forth rather to serve the Master, and in serving him serve their fellow men ; to take the Gospel, which is the power of God unto salvation, to those who are yet in darkness. I assure you that if they go forth in that spirit, reaping the benefit that they themselves will reap, and reaping the benefits that we as an organization in sending them forth shall reap, we will all be greatly blessed. ¶

I bear you my testimony, my brethren and sisters, that I know that God lives, that Jesus the Christ was sent by the Father and gave his life that we might live again. I know that his Gospel has been restored through the instrumentality of the Prophet Joseph Smith, and I bear you my solemn testimony before my Heavenly Father that I know that the present leadership of the Church is truly inspired, that it is authorized to lead us in the path of righteousness. ¶

Let us take seriously the advice that we are receiving at this conference, and .go forth with a renewed determination to practice the principles of the Gospel and to live in accordance with the advice of our inspired leadership. ¶

May this be our lot, I pray in Jesus' name, Amen. ¶

Former President of the South African Mission ¶

My beloved brothers and sisters, I deem this a real privilege, to stand before you this afternoon, and I pray that the inspiration of my Almighty Father may be with me on this occasion. ¶

I bring to you the greetings of the members of the Church in the farthest mission of the whole world, with headquarters just fifteen thousand miles away. I can assure you, my brothers and sisters, that we have some of the finest people in the whole Church in the South African Mission. ¶

As I sat here today my heart went back to my mission field, and I thought of the many hearts that yearn for the privilege of coming here, to be here in the Tabernacle, to see the Temple, and to hear the inspired words of our leaders. Oh, how our people down there long for that, because up to the present time they have had no General Authorities of the Church visit that great land. I realize that South Africa is a long, long ways away from headquarters, and we only have a little over two million white people in the whole of the country, but nevertheless in our work " with the white people in that land we have found them the finest people that I think we can find anywhere in the world. ¶

It seems that the people of South Africa are filled with the spirit of pioneering. They are open-minded. They are free to hear the truth, and I believe that we are showing wonderful progress in that great land. ¶

Just a little over a year ago I was in Rhodesia, near the great battle fields where conflicts between the British and some of the Kaffir tribes took place not so many years ago. On a little farm called "Fern Creek Farm," away up in that Rhodesian country, we have two families of members. We went to one of their homes one night, and there held a meeting. They had no electric light. We held our meeting by candlelight. There were just the four members of the Church and Sister Backman and two of the missionaries and myself. ¶

The old man and old woman, Brother and Sister Viljoen, could not speak a word of English, and so Brother Jubber acted as interpreter. After Sister Backman and the two missionaries spoke, he interpreted to them what had been said, and then I got up and spoke, and talked for some time, and as I noticed their faces I could see them light up with understanding, and they knew what I was saying. When I got through Brother Jubber said : "Shall I interpret what Brother Backman has said ?" They said : "No, we understood every word the President has said to us." ¶

I am just mentioning this, my brothers and sisters, to let you know that in the farthest outposts of the Church our people are blessed with the same spirit and the same inspiration that we have throughout the world among those that are true Latter-day Saints, and indeed we have true Latter-day Saints in that land. ¶

I have had the great privilege of seeing a wonderful progress of the ¶