Building Faith in Youth

Brethren, I sincerely trust that I will have the spirit of the Lord to guide and assist me in order that I may say something that will be of value to you in this great work in which we are engaged. It has been a very happy experience to attend this great conference. It seems to me that there has been quite a heavenly influence. The spirit of God has been here in rich abundance, and the messages that have been given and the exhortations and the instructions have all been calculated for our good and for the good of this great cause. It makes us all thrill to be identified with this great enterprise. When I say that I love these men who stand at the head, I say that sincerely. I have said it many times in my associations with them. I have the highest admiration for every one of these General Authorities and sincerely love them. We support and sustain them in every way and are happy to do it. ¶

I am greatly honored, of course, although I feel a heavy responsibility connected with the educational program of the Church. It is a far-flung organization extended all over Western America, nearly a hundred fifty different units, and all of them, or almost every one, different from any other one. There is such a variety of problems and difficulties at the present moment connected with manning such an institution because, as you know, many of our teachers have been called into the armed forces of our country, and I hope you will be a little patient with us. We are trying hard to get first-grade teachers but they are just not available at the present moment. Some of our seminaries have had to close. Some places where we had three teachers we now have only two, and it is quite likely that fully another twenty or twenty-five teachers will go into the armed forces this Spring. We are going to do our level best to find teachers who have a firm testimony of the Gospel, which is fundamental and absolutely necessary, and also people that have ability to teach, because, although this first requirement is absolutely necessary, it is true that not everybody can teach; but we are going to do our best to keep the force of our system in operation and to maintain this great system. I hope you will be a little patient with us, and we will do our best to keep these seminaries operating. ¶

When I heard the brethren talk about the mission presidents' meeting with the Presidency, I had kind of a jealous feeling go through me. I wish our three hundred fifty teachers could have a chance to have the brethren instruct us for even one hour or two hours so that all of my men could get the feeling of the power of their influence and testimony. We have difficulty at the present time in having our conferences, our meetings of our teachers, because it is such a far-flung system and our men in some cases must be lonely for lack of opportunity for meeting together. The men appreciate very heartily the opportunity of coming to Conference. Most of our seminary teachers have positions in the Priesthood work which entitles them to come here but some of them are teachers in the Mutual Improvement work and Sunday School work. They were just thrilled to be given cards so that those who were not too far from here, might come and be built up by these wonderful conferences. ¶

These teachers really are genuine believers in the Gospel and have faith. I know that. I have a way of my own—I think it is pretty safe— for finding out whether these teachers really, genuinely are loyal and believe the Gospel. I want to say to you that I think myself they are as loyal and as much devoted and are living their religion as fine as any group in this whole Church. That may be putting it pretty strongly, but I believe it. They are genuinely good men. They are interested in these young people, and how they love them! They are writing letters to those who are in the army, many of them. They are setting good examples, and they realize that our first and foremost objective is to build up faith in the Gospel of Jesus Christ, in the restored Gospel, and to teach the principles upon which joy and happiness rest. They love the work. Many of them have had fine opportunities to go, at much larger salaries, elsewhere; but they have been very loyal and very devoted, because they love the young people and they love to teach in this great system. ¶

Now, we are apt to get, and we do get discouraged, all of us, sometimes when we become appalled at these terrific problems that confront the world at the present moment. I feel the worry of it as you do, and yet after all is said and done, the parents of the Mormon boys and girls are just finer people on an average than you find any place else. These officers that man the Church and the great body of people out in the stakes of Zion, all have their weaknesses, but they are just genuinely good people. We all have our weaknesses, and some homes are broken and many men and women make mistakes and do not set good examples, but I tell you they are the blood of Israel. They are the children of pioneers that have been gathered out of the world and there is a tremendous and a powerful amount of faith in the Church. It is very necessary of course, that we teach our own doctrines and the fundamental principles of the Gospel, but, I don't worry too much about it, because I know there is so much faith among this people. These young people come up through the various organizations of the Church. They are just not going to be led astray and there is no attempt to lead them astray. Quite the contrary, we are building a sound, substantial and firm faith so that when they get out in intellectual circles and meet the various temptations of the world they have a testimony of their own. ¶

It is thrilling to be in some of these testimony meetings, not only of our teachers, but of our college students and our seminary teachers at these institutes. We have conventions where one after another, just as fast as they can get on their feet and bear testimony to the divinity of this great work. There is great faith among our young people, and they are good; on the whole they are good and sound and lovely young people and are attempting to do their level best. The temptations are appalling, as you know. I think there is no other generation of young people that have ever had such temptations. We had temptations in our day, in all the history of the world youth has had to confront temptation, but if I had time I think I could prove to you that there are more temptations of youth in the present generation than any generation that has gone before and I say they are doing magnificently. If we have confidence in them and get close to them and win their trust, they will get to a point where they will gladly come to us with their problems and we will listen. Like some-body said, if we would just listen once in a while and not just preach. ¶

I had a person—a young woman—in my office the first week I was in my work here, about seven o'clock at night and I was weary. She put up one of the hardest talks to me that you can imagine for guidance and I turned in perplexity and said, ‘Why don't you ask your mother?” and she said, “Well, mother doesn't understand." And I said, “Why don't you ask your father?" and she said, “All he does is just lecture to me.” Now I listened and she had a hard problem. I know we are none too wise either in showing them what they should do. Many times about all we can do is listen with a kind, sympathetic ear and try and be helpful. They mean well, and are grand, and are doing their best, and let us hope and pray that they will come through these trying times in a fine way. I know how all of us are feeling about our young people now, so many of them in the war, and they are so priceless to us. ¶

Now, I mustn't take any more of your wonderful and valuable time. I want to bear my testimony to you that I know that this is the work of the Lord; that Joseph Smith was a Prophet of God; that the Book of Mormon is an inspired record containing the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and it was translated under the power of God through the instrumentality of the Prophet Joseph Smith; that President Brigham Young and John Taylor and Wilford Woodruff and Lorenzo Snow and President Smith and President Grant, every one of them have been prophets of God and great leaders. I love President Grant sincerely and always have. I like his strength of character, his power, his clarity of speaking, his absolute honesty. I love that in him, and I love these brethren, President Clark and President McKay and these members of the Quorum of the Twelve. I have learned to love my Executive Committee. I have six of these apostles on it that have been perfectly wonderful, so interested in our work, and I might say, too, that the Presidency and the Twelve and the General Board have been most generous to us in providing fine buildings and fine opportunities for carrying forth the work, and we appreciate it. We honor and love and respect them and we are doing our best as an auxiliary agency of the Church to take these thirty-five thousand of the grandest young people that ever graced this earth, and do our level best to teach them the Gospel of Jesus Christ and to build up their faith in the restored Gospel. ¶

We pray for the men in our staff. I am continually praying for them as I pray for help, myself, that we may carry this responsibility well and do a good job by the young people. May God bless us, my brethren, as leaders in this Church. May we be humble and open-minded and kind and generous to each other and work unitedly and devotedly and loyally for this great work. I am proud to be identified with it. It is the work of the Lord. It is doing a grand work in all of its capacities, and may it ever go forward to fulfill its destiny and grow and increase in the work. May we all do our part in carrying it forward, I humbly pray in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen. ¶