I Can Assure You My Brothers And...

I can assure you, my brothers and sisters, it is with fear and trembling I stand before you and in the spirit of deep humility. ¶

Yesterday I attended a meeting of the presidents of the missions in the Temple. It was a day of feasting and a day of testimony bearing, the like of which I have never enjoyed before. ¶

I want to assure you, my brothers and sisters, I have most thoroughly enjoyed my experience in the South African Mission. ¶

I have spent eight years there and I have learned to love the people of that land, to know their ways, and to appreciate their fineness. ¶

Many of you think of Africa as being the dark continent and of the animals and of the natives, but for three hundred years the white people have been settling in that land and they have been doing a wonderful work. Many of our relatives are there who fled to that land for religious freedom, even as many of our ancestors fled to this land that they might be able to worship God according to the dictates of their own conscience. And when I think of mingling with fine men like Brother Thomas Wilson, and fine women like Sister Johanna Fouire and her husband, who some day will become a member of this Church, I rejoice, my brothers and sisters, in the choice men and women, sons and daughters of God, who have accepted the Gospel of Jesus Christ in that land. ¶

Generally speaking, the missionaries there are well. They are doing a fine work. They are searching out the honest in heart, and the Lord is blessing them richly, accordingly as they serve him and are diligent in the work that is theirs to do. ¶

I am grateful and happy in the testimony of the gospel that I bear, for I know with every fiber of my being that it is true, and I feel something like David of old when he stood before the giant. The giant told him: 'Am I a dog that thou comest to me with a staff and a stave?" ¶

And David said to him: "I come to thee in the name of Israel's God." And in that power and in that strength David was blessed that he could accomplish the purpose and the mission that was given to him. ¶

When I went into the South African Mission I went there feeling that certainly unless the Lord blessed me as he did Nephi of old I could never accomplish the work that was mine to do. And as experiences came and as responsibilities came, I bear witness to you, my brothers and sisters, that so also came the Spirit of the Lord to guide and direct and assist in the work that was ours to do. ¶

All the days of my life I shall be grateful for that experience. ¶

All the days of my life I shall never be able to repay this great Church for the blessings I have received in the callings that have been mine, and I hope and pray that I shall always express my gratitude and show by my actions the gratitude that I bear for the privileges and the opportunities that have been mine. ¶

I honor and sustain these my brethren with all my heart and soul, and I honor them in their great and high calling, and I do it humbly, and in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen. ¶