Conference Address

President Smith, President Clark, President McKay, and President Richards, and brethren and sisters, may I join with some of the other speakers who have preceded me in expressing sincere appreciation for my membership in the Church and for the gospel of Jesus Christ as revealed to the Prophet Joseph Smith in our day. I am' especially thankful for the gospel because of the many opportunities it has given me and is giving me to work. I think work is one of the greatest blessings a kind Heavenly Father can bestow upon his children. ¶

. I quote the following lines about work, signed "Author Unknown." It starts out by asking the question, "Who am I?" ¶

Who Am I? ¶

I am the foundation of all prosperity. ¶

I am that from which all blessings flow. ¶

Everything that is of value in this world springs from me. ¶

I am the salt that gives life its savor. ¶

I am the sole support of the poor. ¶

And the rich who think they can do without me live futile lives — fill premature graves. ¶

I have made America. ¶

I have built her matchless industries, laid her incomparable railroads, created her citizens, and reared her skyscrapers. ¶

I am the friend of every worthy youth. If he makes my acquaintance when he is young and keeps me by his side throughout his life, I can do more for him than the richest parent. ¶

I keep bodies clean and fit, minds alert; and when neglected, both bodies and minds grow fat and sluggish. ¶

I am even the parent of genius itself. ¶

I am represented by every paper that flies from the press, in every loaf of bread that springs from the oven, in every train that crosses the continent, and in every ship that steams the ocean. ¶

Fools hate me; wise men love me. ¶

The man who keeps his hand in mine through life never dies — because that which he has created with my help lives on after he is gone. The man who shirks me and scorns my aid, never lives — Never really lives, even though he may continue to breathe. Who am I? What am I? I am WORK! ¶

— Author Unknown ¶

Opportunities for Church Service ¶

I am especially grateful for the great organization of our Church, an organization that gives every person, who desires, an opportunity for work. Even the members are supposed to be missionaries and set the proper example. "A clean life is the greatest sermon in the world." ¶

I am indebted for the following figures, showing how the organization works, to the general committee on statistics of the Church of whom Dr. Widtsoe is the chairman. ¶

Speaking first of the ward units: ¶

• Offices to be filled from ward membership (average ward membership 665): 257
• Number of wards and dependent branches in stakes: 1,419 — Total: 364,683
• Offices by stakes (average stake membership 5,300): 256
• Number of stakes: 172 — Total: 44,032
• Estimated offices in missions including missionaries: 60,000
• General Church officers (including general boards and mission presidencies): 400
• Total Church offices to be filled: 469,115

There is no other organization in the world comparable to the organization in our Church. Then think of the priesthood officers and the priesthood members, all of whom have special assignments. ¶

• High Priests — Quorums: 172, Membership: 30,451
• Seventies — Quorums: 332, Membership: 20,675
• Elders — Quorums: 1,001, Membership: 95,204
• Total (High Priests, Seventies, Elders) — Quorums: 1,505, Membership: 146,330
• Priests (under 21): 11,821; (over 21): 20,011 — Quorums: 1,263, Membership: 31,832
• Teachers (under 21): 15,455; (over 21): 15,422 — Quorums: 1,296, Membership: 30,877
• Deacons (under 21): 26,162; (over 21): 15,478 — Quorums: 2,168, Membership: 41,640
• Total Aaronic Priesthood in Stakes — Quorums: 4,727, Membership: 104,349
• Aaronic Priesthood in missions — Membership: 17,296
• Total Aaronic Priesthood — Membership: 121,645
• Total all priesthood membership* — Membership: 267,975

Calling of a Ward Teacher ¶

All these officers and teachers have an opportunity to work. Some may think, "Oh, it doesn't matter if I don't keep the Word of Wisdom or am only a part tithepayer. I'm only a deacon, or I'm only an elder, or a counselor in an organization; if I were a bishop or a president of a stake, I'd keep the Word of Wisdom. I wouldn't break the Sabbath day, but I'm only a ward teacher." Only a ward teacher! There is no greater calling, brethren, in the Church, than that of a ward teacher. If the ward teachers realized what an opportunity that is and if they were doing their duty, we wouldn't have the condition exist that Brother Ivins referred to in his splendid talk yesterday. The bishop would know through these ward teachers if any of the children in his ward were over nine years of age and not baptized, or needed shoes before they could enter school. He would know if the ward teachers were doing their duty, where our boys are who are in the service at this time, and when they changed their address. They could always get such information from the mothers in the homes they visit. It doesn't matter, brethren and sisters, so much what the position is. It is how we fill that position. We are given a job to do. It may be the only position that we have to show our Father in heaven that we can make good, that he can depend upon us. ¶

*In this computation, the approximately ten percent of transient Church members has been added only to the Melchizedek Priesthood figures. If a similar ten percent were added to the Aaronic Priesthood figures the Aaronic Priesthood membership would total 133,810, giving a total priesthood membership of 280,140. ¶

Visit to Western States Mission ¶

I am very grateful for the opportunity that I have in visiting the stakes and the missions. I wish to endorse what Brother Clifford Young said yesterday with reference to our mission presidents and missionaries— the fine work they are doing. Just recently Sister McKay and I returned from a very strenuous but interesting and beneficial tour of the Western States Mission with President and Sister Francis A. Child. They also are doing a wonderful work. They are real leaders, fine executives, and they have the respect, confidence, and love of all the missionaries as well as of the members and non-members. ¶

We traveled by auto nearly five thousand miles, averaged about three hundred miles a day; held nineteen district conferences and eleven district meetings with the missionaries. In these thirty meetings we contacted and heard from all the one hundred and fifty missionaries. They are doing a fine work. We were certainly delighted with the manner in which President Child meets the new missionaries as they come into the field. They are taken to their home headquarters and made to feel that they are. welcome. President and Sister Child get acquainted with these new missionaries by holding a testimony meeting and a "search-for-talent" meeting, an impromptu meeting where these new missionaries are given an opportunity to show what they can do;, and then they are given their instructions and their assignments. I was especially delighted with one of the instructions. ¶

Here's a good thing to remember and a better thing to do. ¶

Aways join the construction gang and never the wrecking crew. ¶

The Good and the Beautiful ¶

President Child is an optimist. He exemplifies what I like to call the "boost spirit." I think we need more of it in the Church and in the world, more "boost spirit" and less knock-knock; more builders and fewer wreckers, more lifters and fewer leaners. ¶

"If we look for the good and the beautiful, the good and the beautiful will come back to us." A prominent writer expresses this truth as follows: ¶

The universe pays every man in his own coin: if you smile, it smiles upon you in return; if you frown, you will be frowned at; if you sing, you will be invited into gay company; if you think, you will be entertained by thinkers; and if you love the world and earnestly seek for the good that is therein, you will be surrounded by loving friends, and nature will pour into your lap the treasures of the earth. Censure, criticize, and hate, and you will be censured, criticized, and hated by your fellow men. Every seed brings forth after its kind. Mistrust begets mistrust, and confidence begets confidence; kindness begets kindness, and love begets love. ("Compensation" — N. W. Zimmerman.) ¶

How much happier we would be and how much more joy there would be in the world 'if we looked for and spoke only of the good and the beautiful; if we looked at -the beauty of the hawthorn twig, its symmetry, instead of pointing out to everyone the dead leaf; if we enjoyed the fragrance and the beauty of the rose, instead of frowning and calling people's attention to the thorn on the stem; if we enjoyed to the fullest the Uplift of the purity of the lily instead of calling attention to the little dirt left on the roots! I like this story of the old frog: ¶

Once on the edge of a quiet pool, Under the bank where 'twas nice and cool, Just where the stream flowed out of the bay, There sat a grumpy and mean old frog, ' Who sat all day in the sand to soak, r And just did nothing but croak and croak. ¶

A blackbird hollered, "I say, you know. What is the matter down there below? Are you in trouble or pain or what?" The old frog growled, "Mine is an awful lot." " 'Tis a dirty world," thus the old frog spoke — "Croakety, croakety, croakety, croak." Then the blackbird said. "I see what's wrong. Why don't you smile or sing a song? ¶

Look up, young feller, why bless my soul, ¶

You're looking down a muskrat hole!" ¶

A wise old turtle, who boarded near, ¶

Said to the blackbird, "Now, friend, see here, ¶

Don't waste no tears on him," says he. ¶

"That fool's down there, cause he wants to be." ¶

Builders and Not Wreckers ¶

In the future when any of us have the urge or are tempted to repeat gossip or speak unkindly or perhaps untruthfully of a neighbor or a brother, let us think that we also are just looking down a muskrat hole and then look up at the birds. Imagine we can hear the beautiful song of the meadow lark or the robin or the red-winged blackbird. My, how I used to thrill to listen to those red-winged blackbirds after a hard and dreary old winter, singing that early spring song! How much I am indebted to the Church, to the gospel of work since those early days! I trust, my brethren and sisters, that the Lord will bless us that we may be boosters and not fault-finders, builders and not wreckers, lifters and not leaners, that we may look for and speak of only the good and the beautiful and above all that we may do our work so well, no matter what the calling is, that it can never be said of us truthfully or written after our names that we were called and found wanting, I pray in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen. ¶