Report of the South African Mission

Church in South Africa, because in 1915, when I went out to South Africa on my first mission, I was held prisoner on a boat in Durban Harbor for three days because I was a Mormon missionary, and now, when I returned again to preside over that mission, after an absence of sixteen years, I saw that most of the prejudice had been done away with. The people were willing to listen to our message. In February of this past year we had the privilege of taking our chorus from the headquarters in Cape town and appearing in the City Hall of Capetown with the Cape Town symphony orchestra, and several of the outstanding artists in Cape Town assisted us in a fine program. ¶

I am just bringing this to your attention to let you know that as far as South Africa is concerned, prejudice is almost done away, and we are meeting some of the finest and some of the best people in that land, and they are willing to hear our message, and they are willing to give us of their hospitality, for which they are so well known. ¶

I thank God with all my heart for the wonderful privilege that has been ours during the last three and one-half years, to labor in that land. I love Africa because I know that is where I learned to know my God, where I learned to gain a testimony of this wonderful Gospel of Jesus Christ. ¶

I come back from the firing line of missionary work, filled with enthusiasm for the work of the Lord. I know it is the grandest and the greatest philosophy in life, and I only hope and trust and pray that I might be able to continue to live as I know my Heavenly Father would have me live. I thank Him for this privilege. I thank the Presidency of the Church and the Authorities for the wonderful privilege that has been mine. ¶

The missionaries that have been with us have been all noble, wonderful boys. Forty of them have passed through our hands in the past three and a half years, and I can truthfully say not one of them has given us the slightest concern, and I am sure that that is a remarkable record. ¶

May God's choicest blessings be with us all, I humbly pray, in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen. ¶

Former President of the French Mission ¶

My beloved brethren and sisters : I am exceedingly weak in standing before you. May I be a beneficiary of your faith. ¶

It gives me great joy to report briefly the French Mission, which, by the way, geographically I think is the largest mission in Europe, yet we have a membership of a little less than one thousand, about fifty-five per cent in Belgium, about thirty-five per cent in Switzerland, and about ten per cent in France ; but we have very lovely people, who have made sacrifices for the Gospel of our Lord, and are very devoted. In the mission there is a group of young men and women missionaries that are very excellent. Many of them went into the mission fields not having a testimony of the Gospel burning in their hearts, and if they didn't find God in the wards and stakes at home, they have and are finding him in that field of labor. ¶

We have tried to inoculate into the hearts of these young people that they are ambassadors of life and salvation, representing the First Presidency of the Church and the Twelve Apostles, their stake presidents, their bishops, and their parents at home, and as such, putting them on their honor, we have expected them to be the missionaries that those who trust them think they are. It is surprising how this has worked in giving these young people a superstructure and a solidarity in presenting our Gospel message to the world. ¶

We are happy to report that in the last two years I think we have doubled baptisms of any preceding period of time in the history of the French Mission. We have done this following what we called a seven-point program that we presented to the Church, that it might be appropriate here for me to review briefly. ¶

There have been too many people baptized in the missions who did not know what they were baptized for. We have found plenty of them, many of them, who have wondered why they were baptized members of the Church, and it is no wonder some of them don't remain. ¶

In the seven-point program the qualifications that we presented were, ¶

First : Do you accept, unreservedly, God the Eternal Father, a personal being and Father of the human family ? ¶

Second : Do you accept the atonement of our Lord Jesus Christ as being full and complete, and that when a man or a child is baptized for the purpose of removing from him the stain of Eden, the act automatically denies the efficacy of the atonement of Jesus Christ? ¶

Third : Do you accept the doctrines and principles of faith, repentance, baptism by immersion for the remission of sins, and the laying on of hands for the gift of the Holy Ghost? ¶

Fourth : Do you accept the fact of a universal apostasy in the Primitive church, necessitating a restoration of the Gospel? ¶

Fifth : Do you accept the fact that God and Jesus Christ appeared to Joseph Smith, and that later he was ordained to the Holy Priesthood and authorized to establish the Church of God on the earth in this dispensation ? ¶

Sixth : Do you unreservedly accept the law of tithing, as revealed from heaven for the upbuilding of the Lord's church in this dispensation? ¶

Seventh : Do you accept the missionaries as being here with divine authority to preach the Gospel, to baptize for the remission of sins, and lay on hands for the gift of the Holy Ghost? ¶

There was one Catholic family who, after thus being qualified, answered affirmatively and whole-heartedly to every question. I said to them : "Why have you not asked me for baptism ?" "Because," said they, "we have been waiting for you to ask us." I said : "That will not happen. When you are ready for baptism you will ask me." The next Sunday they applied for baptism, and they are good members of the Church. ¶

In this way of qualifying members, when we bring them into the Church we know they are coming in with a knowledge of what they are doing. ¶

I am grateful, my brethren and sisters, for the privilege of having served these four years in Europe. I am grateful for these young missionaries who are over there representing some of you parents. I am grateful that the brethren have seen fit to send lady missionaries into the French Mission. I wish I had time to tell you just what these ladies are doing. ¶

The Gospel of Jesus Christ, my brethren and sisters, is true. The Lord said, through his prophet: ¶

How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of them that bringeth glad tidings and publisheth peace, and saith to Zion : The Lord reigneth ! ¶

I wish the world could accept this, the gospel of peace that we are proclaiming to the world. If they would accept Jesus Christ and his plan of peace, we would have no war and contention in the nations. ¶

Completing the passage : ¶

Thy watchmen shall lift up their voices, and together shall they sing ; for they shall see eye to eye, when the Lord has brought again Zion. ¶

Go the length and breadth of the earth and see if the Latter-day Saints do not see eye to eye. I have had the privilege, my friends, of visiting groups of Latter-day Saints in nine different nations, and we see that they do see "eye to eye" — the same hopes, the same aspirations, the same principles of the Gospel, the same things that are characterized, as President Clawson said yesterday, by the gift of the Holy Ghost. ¶

I am going to close by quoting from the thirty-fifth section of the Doctrine and Covenants. That will apply to us all. The Lord said to Joseph Smith: ¶

Keep all the commandments and covenants by which ye are bound; and I will cause the heavens to shake for your good, and Satan shall tremble, and Zion shall rejoice upon the hills and flourish. ¶

I wish we could take this to our hearts and know in our minds that we were keeping all of the commandments of the Lord, and not only part of them. If we would do this as a people I don't know what power and glory would come to us in excess of what we enjoy today. ¶

I rejoice in the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and I bear my testimony to you of its divinity. It is the greatest thing in my life. ¶

May God bless you. I ask it in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen. ¶