We Are All Called to Be Missionaries

Brethren, this is a remarkable gathering, the first that I have known about in the history of the Church: a session of a general conference composed entirely of the leaders of the Church in the stakes and wards and Melchizedek Priesthood quorums in the Church. Perhaps a larger percentage of these officers named are here than ever before. ¶

I was recently asked if, in my opinion, the Melchizedek Priesthood quorums were making progress. That took me back in memory thirty-one to forty years ago when, as a seventy, a member of two different quorums, one the Third Quorum of Seventy of which Brother George Albert Smith was also a member, when we felt we were doing our full duty as seventies if we met once a month with our quorum and there participated in the class work along lines furnished by President B. H. Roberts. Since that day we have gone a long way. We have come to appreciate that Priesthood means activity— that a quorum organization is a group of brethren banded together in order to do things, not merely to study about things. We stand foremost in advocating that faith alone will not save. Works are necessary, and no man can do his full duty in any Priesthood capacity, member or official, in any quorum who is content to sit on his seat and listen only. He must be on his toes doing things. ¶

I was thrilled and thrilled with the message of the First Presidency this morning as it was delivered by President Clark. There were some things in there relative to Priesthood that are dear to those that are trying to help Priesthood quorums in their work. President Clark referred to the family, what it should do if it had an absent member in the armed forces of the country, and he referred to the quorums. Now, brethren, may I say that as President Clark indicated, any family that does not communicate frequently, weekly, he said, with its member, is failing in its duty. Any quorum, we believe, and any bishop at the head of the priests' quorum who does not write or have letters written monthly on behalf of the quorum to the ones that are absent, is failing also in his duty. Brethren, all we need to do is to travel about the country on the crowded trains, keep our eyes and our ears open, contact men in uniform here and there, and listen to the stories of those of our own boys who have been in the camps to know that these boys are faced with situations more tempting, more trying, more severe, than they have ever before faced in their lives; and would any quorum permit any man, any member of that quorum, to be without the assistance that quorum can give? If the officers of any quorum fail in seeing that that is done, they have failed in one of their duties, I verily believe. ¶

We have heard this afternoon about missionary work. May I say, brethren, we are all called to be missionaries. The members of the Church are all called to be missionaries, not necessarily to give our time to proclaiming the word, the message of Mormonism, which is defined as the restored gospel of Jesus Christ in its fulness, but we are called upon to be effective missionaries and perhaps the most effective missionaries it is possible for us to be, by being true in our lives to the faith that we profess, and this is not an easy thing. Perhaps never before in the history of the human family, has the tempter had such power as he has today. Perhaps never before, certainly not since I have known anything about history, I believe, have the moral standards of the people become so low, as judged by our standards and our points of view, as they are today. You travel about on the trains. It used to be that if one wanted to smoke he retired to certain compartments, certain cars, certain places in the train. Nowadays it doesn't make any difference where you are, the air is blue with smoke, men and women alike puffing — mothers, grandmothers — I have seen them — mothers with small children puffing tobacco smoke. It makes you sick. And what else do they do? Brethren and sisters, President Clark spoke of the evils of drink. They are openly, in these trains, everywhere drinking their liquor. Now the conditions that prevail in the camps, the cantonments, and the places where our boys in uniform are working and training, are the conditions that are set according to the standards of a sinful world, and our boys are there. Will we try to help this situation? Will we try to get those boys — and there are hundreds of them who have returned from foreign missions— so impressed that they will feel obligated to continue their missionary work by living according to the teachings and standards of the Church? We must do this, brethren. We must do it or fail in a duty. ¶

Now, may I say that all of us here know absolutely, undoubtedly we know absolutely, that this is the work of the Lord. If the work of the Lord lags, it is because we are lagging in our duty. If the work of the Lord fails, it is because we fail in our duty; but to fail in our duty is to do something in the light of our testimony that is positively absurd, perfectly ridiculous, absolutely foolish; to know that this is the work of the Lord and that the plan we teach is according to the plan that will lead into the celestial kingdom if we follow it unto the very end, and then deliberately, through our foolishness, through our weakness, through our indifference, step aside from that plan, out of the path, and thus endanger our admittance into the celestial kingdom and therefore endanger our achieving the great reward that we will receive if we are true and faithful, is to do something that in the light of rationality is perfectly absurd, knowing that the gospel is true. But, brethren, we are in a world of temptation. We must not get an idea that it is easy to live the plan we teach. To be sure, the plan we teach, if followed, will yield more joy, more satisfaction, more real pleasure in life than any other; but yet, we must remember that it isn't easy to live that plan, because of our environment, because of our temptations, because of our weaknesses. ¶

I pray God that He will help us — that He will strengthen us, will give us wisdom and strength and courage and all that we need to keep us active in His work, that we may realize the joys that come to us as a result of obedience and faithfulness, and I ask it all in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen. ¶