Accomplishments of a Young Latter-day Saint

My brethren, this is an inspiring sight. With you I have rejoiced in the proceedings of the conference thus far; President Grant's great message to us, and then the word that came that Brother Mark Petersen is to be the new Apostle. ¶

Some twenty years ago a young couple moved into the ward where I presided as bishop, and as I approached them and shook hands with them the young man said, “This is my wife, Marr, and I am Mark Petersen,” and I said, “I hope you won't mar this Mark,” and she said, “I won't,” and you can well know that she hasn't, for truly she has been an inspiration and a blessing to this fine young man who is worthy in every way to hold the position to which he has been called. ¶

Accomplishments of a Young Latter-day Saint

I want to congratulate the Presiding Bishopric in the job they are doing for the youth of this Church. A few weeks ago I was in Lyman Stake, and a young man by the name of Amber C. Davidson, a seventeen-year-old youngster was there taking part in the exercises at stake conference. Recently he was awarded a twenty-four-hundred-dollar scholarship by the Westinghouse people as showing the most scientific aptitude of any young man in America. Fifteen thousand seniors from high schools had entered the contest, and this young Mormon lad won the scholarship. I am sure that the Presiding Bishopric had something to do with this. The house was well filled with lesser Priesthood at that conference. These boys gain inspiration in all the things they have to do from the things that the Presiding Bishopric are doing for them. They learn to know responsibility, and I am grateful for the program that is being put into effect throughout the Church. After this afternoon’s session I met a lady from Los Angeles who was telling me that recently at one of her guilds a prominent lawyer was talking about the problems of youth. Much has been said about youth here today. I remarked that Brother Oscar Kirkham had said he didn’t think it was a matter of the youth being delinquent, but it was a matter of parents who were delinquent, and she said: “Do you know, this lawyer said to us that in the community where he was, whenever a child committed a crime and there was a sentence imposed, the sentence was imposed upon the parents and they had to serve the time in jail, and that had reduced crime in their community down to two percent of what it had been.” I think parents have something to think about. ¶

Delinquency of Parents

Recently, I received a letter from a mother saying, “Dear Brother Smith, would you mind looking up my daughter and getting her into some good home? Some weeks ago she wanted to go to Salt Lake. She is fifteen years of age. She really needs her father, but he is too busy with the sheep to give her much attention, but I raked up ten dollars and sent her to Salt Lake City”—to start out life at fifteen years of age. I began to check and the scent led me to the juvenile court; and there I discovered that they had found her and had her located and in their possession. When I asked what the difficulty was, they said she registered at a hotel which cost two and a half dollars a day, and the second day she appeared with a soldier and continued on with that friendship and the hotel people permitted her to stay there until the hotel bill was seventeen fifty and finally they put her out, and she and this soldier registered in a Chinese place here in the city as man and wife; the father was too busy with his sheep to give any attention to his daughter. Truly, parents are sometimes delinquent. ¶

Conversion of a Young Woman

I thought, as Brother Joseph Fielding Smith was speaking about family prayer, of a little lady who, returning from her mission field, came to report to me; and I said, “That name sounds Italian.” She said: “It is.” I said, “Are your parents members of the Church?” “Oh, no,” she said. “Well,” I said, “how is it possible for you to be a Latter-day Saint?” “Well,” she said, “I went to work for a Mormon family, and the first evening I was there the father called the family in to prayer, and he asked one of the little youngsters to pray for the whole family, and do you know, Brother Smith, that little boy prayed for what he wanted, and I had never heard of such a thing as asking the Lord for what I wanted. I thought it was such good sense that I began to go to the Mormon Sunday School and finally became baptized. My parents objected rather strenuously, but finally gave consent, and then the good family with whom I lived offered to finance my mission, and I filled my mission and I have returned home and am going back to New Mexico to see what I can do with my parents.” Truly, there are some who have family prayer, and isn't it a wonderful thing that such a result could come from the prayer of an eight-year-old child to cause one to join this Church? ¶

Importance of Temple Work Stressed

We should be more exemplary, all of us. On this block there stands a temple dedicated many years ago; an institution that should attract all the members of the Latter-day Saint Church. The Prophet Joseph Smith was very explicit in his instructions in regard to temple work. Brigham Young declared it would be the greatest work performed by man on this earth. Each of the presidents of the Church has been just as emphatic in the importance of temple work. Wilford Woodruff, to whom I listened as he offered the dedicatory prayer in the Salt Lake Temple, thus expressed himself: ¶

We want the Latter-day Saints from this time to trace their genealogies as far as they can and be sealed to their fathers and mothers; have children sealed to parents and run this chain through as far as you can get it This is the will of the Lord to his people. I pray God that as a people our eyes may be opened to see, our ears to hear and our hearts to understand the great and mighty work that rests upon our shoulders and that the God of heaven requires at our hands. ¶

Lorenzo Snow and Joseph F. Smith have been just as emphatic. President Grant, who has been as fully awake to this responsibility as any of the others has said, “I do not ask anybody who is as busy as I am to go to the temple any more than I do. If you can get it into your hearts and soul that this is one of the most important things you Latter-day Saints can do, you will find a way to do it. That is the one lesson above all others that I would like to impress upon you.” ¶

Notwithstanding these solemn admonitions by the presidents of the Church, our people have not taken very much to temple work. I picked up an old report, 1940, I think it was, which showed that three hundred eleven thousand members had taken out their own endowments since the first endowments were given. The Church now has, as you heard today, nine hundred thirty-seven thousand people in it—nearly a million —and less than one third of the membership who now live have taken out their own endowments since the beginning of the Church; and yet we have temples built and building. They used to have seven sessions running in the Salt Lake Temple; now they have four, and many of them are not very crowded. Once in a while you will find a crowded session. ¶

I wonder if it wouldn't be a good thing if the Priesthood, the shepherds of the flock, would put into the hearts and the minds of the people and the membership of the Church the thoughts expressed by the prophets of God, for you remember that the Lord was so concerned about this work that one night he sent an angel here to earth to talk to a boy. Three times that night he gave the selfsame message. “Behold,” said he to this boy, three times that night and then again the next morning: ¶

Behold, I will reveal unto you the Priesthood, by the hand of Elijah the Prophet, before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord. And he shall plant in the hearts of the children the promises made to the fathers, and the hearts of the children shall turn to their fathers. If it were not so, the whole earth would be utterly wasted at His coming. ¶

What a dramatic statement. Now, mind you, up to this time nothing had been said about baptism for the living. It seemed our Heavenly Father was so concerned about our fathers, our ancestors, that this was the message that seemed to be of the greatest import, that the Priesthood was to be revealed and that the children's hearts should be turned to their parents or that the whole earth should be wasted at His coming. Brethren, let us think about these words that come direct from our Heavenly Father through his prophets. We are admonished to be awake to our responsibilities. ¶

God bless us and help us to be wise, big and broad, that we won't get absorbed in just temple work or in any other one work, but that we may be interested in the things that the Lord wants us to do and put forth our every effort to see that our example shall be one that will be worth while to the flock over whom we preside, and as we do our part we will not need to worry about the children. God bless and inspire us and direct us in His Priesthood to live as He would have us live is my prayer in Jesus' name. Amen. ¶