Success of Missionary Work

It is a rare privilege that I now enjoy. I am grateful for my testimony that the Gospel is true, for the associations that are mine, both in the mission and at home, and for the blessings that are resting upon the Latter-day Saints. I think the Latter-day Saint people enjoy the blessings of the Lord so regularly that we come to accept them as a matter of course. ¶

I am quite sure we do not appreciate fully the privileges and blessings that are ours at the present time, nor the value of the heritage that has come to us from our parents. ¶

Shoemaking in America largely began in the New England states ; there were few good shoemakers elsewhere. When Missouri and the central west began to make shoes along the banks of the Mississippi and Missouri rivers, they imported their skilled workmen from the New England section of the country. A number of generations have passed since shoes began to be made at these points, and there has now grown up in that vicinity a generation of natural-born shoemakers. The boys and girls, as soon as they are able to be employed, go into the shoe factories and secure" employment. There seems to be a skill that is inherited from their fathers and perhaps their mothers — for women worked in the factories. Manufacturers no longer have to send away for their skilled labor. ¶

I have used this thought in connection with the Church. In the promotion of the magazines of the Church I have frequently said that there are no people in the world who can write such as our people can on religious subjects, or social topics, and that there are no magazines that equal the magazines of the Church. ¶

The very same thing is true with reference to the leadership of the Church. The Lord has said that we are to be like a little leaven that leaveneth the whole lump. I have observed that sometimes into a community comes one man and his family who have this quality, and as a result of their coming, an organization is built around one or two families. Without them the organization could not succeed. If one of them should move away we would have difficulty in maintaining the little group. ¶

What shall we say then, with reference to the value of the teachings that come to us, and which we accept almost unconsciously, in the Sunday Schools and other organizations of the Church at home? Young men and women come into the mission field thinking that they are almost wholly unprepared. They do not realize the strength that is naturally within them, nor the rapidity with which they will obtain skill and arrive at a stage where they are able to leaven the whole lump and stir it up wherever they go. It soon becomes apparent that there is a leadership among them that is unusual. ¶

• There is another feature of our people that astonishes the world, and that is the cleanness of the lives of the missionaries. I had this brought forcibly to my attention through the sanitarium at Independence, ¶

Missouri. We have a custom of bringing our "wounded" missionaries into that place. The doctor who attends them has marveled at the fine, clean bodies of the boys that have come to the hospital for operations, and the wonderful spirit of the girls that have gone there. The nurses at that sanitarium have mentioned it to the doctor, and he said to me one day : "Brother Woodruff, I know you will be very glad to hear this compliment to your people. Our nurses tell us that there are no people like yours that come within the walls of this institution, that there are none who respond so quickly to the healing care of medicine and good treatment, none who are so sweet-dispositioned to wait upon, and who leave behind them such a lovely and beautiful influence." ¶

This is the influence that comes from clean lives and from proper training at home. I am led to appreciate more and more the value of what the Church is doing. ¶

I know we are conscious of our failings ; I know we know that we have our limitations, but I say this if it is of any value, by way of encouragement to those who labor with the youth of Zion at home. People say to us : "Where in the world do you find such fine young men and such fine young women, so many of them ?" ¶

I always reply, "Why, the woods are full of them out west. All we have to do is reach out and take what we can use, and they are all good." ¶

Well, it is a marvelous work and a wonder, and the Lord is being magnified, and our testimonies are growing. The Church is growing in strength and power, and I pray that it may continue to do so, and that we may all partake of its blessings. I ask it in Jesus' name. Amen. ¶