My Dear Brothers And Sisters During My...

My dear brothers and sisters, during my life I have had a number of shocks, but this one that has come to me today is the greatest of them all. Like Elder Romney, I have always loved, admired, respected, and in my humble way, attempted to support the General Authorities of the Church. I have placed them upon a higher plane. ¶

I have appreciated their wisdom, their judgment, their counsel, and their righteousness. ¶

Gratitude for Appointment

Now, realizing my inability, my inadequacy, to be asked to step in and associate with those brethren completely overwhelms me. I would be ungrateful if I did not thank them for this appointment, and thank you for sustaining me today, and all I can do is to promise you that I shall give to this calling the best that I have. ¶

If you will pardon a personal allusion, I would like to say that throughout all my Church life, in the bishopric, stake presidency, and in the mission field, I have had a wonderful example in the life of my elder brother. Because of his great devotion to the Church, and the study and the preparation and the effort that he has made to qualify himself to measure up to what was expected of him, he has been an inspiration to me. ¶

Knowing as I do his great appreciation of propriety, of ethics, and how sensitive he is pertaining to these matters, in making sure that none of his family or relations ever received any favoritism, I want to assure you now that if you regard this appointment as a mistake, as I do at the present time, that you will not blame Brother Stephen L for it. ¶

Possibly the only resemblance we have is that we have about the same amount of covering to go over our heads, and if you will observe, we both part our hair in the middle. ¶

Missionary Labors

I shall take just a few minutes to tell you about missionary labors in Great Britain. First, I would like to say that that's a beautiful country, with its green pastures and countryside the year round. They are good people that inhabit those islands. Most of you, I think, can trace your genealogy and your blood strain back to those people. ¶

They are courteous. They are honest. They have a sense of justice, and I regard England as one of the cradles of real democracy. No one can come into that land as a refugee from any country where he has been persecuted, but what he finds asylum. I have a high regard for the English people. ¶

Right now they are greatly concerned about the health of their monarch, and I would like to advise if it is not already being done by those of the English people, that they pray for King George VI. ¶

He and his family are real Christians, as they understand Christianity. They are very self-sacrificing, and they are greatly loved and respected by all their subjects. ¶

In the mission field, I am happy to report, conditions are quite satisfactory. Sister Richards and I have had the pleasure of trying to build upon the fine foundation that was laid by President and Sister Boyer. They did an excellent work there. The mission will always be grateful to them for the excellent work that they accomplished and the devotion that they gave to the cause. ¶

Our auxiliary organizations are functioning very well considering the obstacles that they have to face. Most of them are officered by local people, and those local people are assuming their responsibilities with a high degree of seriousness, and they are meeting with considerable success. ¶

Generous Support

I would like to thank on behalf of the presidency of the British Mission the fine parents who have maintained those missionaries that we have there. We thank you for the encouragement that you have given to them, and the financial support that has made their presence there possible. ¶

May I tell this group assembled today that among those parents we have found those who were very willing to give of their means to help out in the cause. We have had two of them who have each given a thousand copies of the Book of Mormon for the work. ¶

One couple gave $1680.00 to purchase an automobile for the two special representatives of the mission presidency to travel over the different districts. We had a couple that gave $675.00 to make it possible for those branches that could not afford new song books to receive an adequate supply. ¶

Also in the mission field we have those with generous hearts. ¶

As we concluded one district conference, one good brother and his wife came up to me and handed me an envelope and said, "President Richards, there is one hundred pounds that I wish you would use for the missionary work." ¶

Just before I left, I was called to the hospital to see a brother who has been sick for some time, and for whom we have prayed to the Lord that he might be blessed and made well. When I arrived, he handed me a piece of paper and said, "Would you read that?" ¶

As I read it, I found out that it was a codicil to his will in which he had provided that when he died, a sufficient amount of his money should come to our Church to pay the full cost of one of the new buildings that we contemplate building. ¶

These acts of generosity naturally make us feel that the gospel of Jesus Christ is penetrating the hearts of the people, who are being made to realize that, after all, it isn't what you have, but it is how you use it, and they love the gospel so much that they are willing to give of their means for its support. ¶

Missionary Plan

Our missionaries are a wonderful lot. Sister Richards and I love them with all our hearts, just as we do our own children. We adopted, when we went into the mission field, what is called the Anderson Plan of proselyting. I may possibly not be considered out of order when I pay respect to Elder Anderson and whoever assisted him in working out that plan, for we found out that it is a very practical and methodical way of presenting the gospel of Jesus Christ. ¶

I remember well forty years ago as a missionary when we used to pass a series of three tracts to the door, attempt to get a conversation, or attempt to get a cottage meeting, and finally carry on in that work. ¶

Brethren and sisters, that is only the A B C's compared with this plan. Christ told his disciples, ". . . Go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature." (Mark 16:15.) That is what the missionaries are doing with this plan. They go to the door and with smiles on their faces, and the best personality they can develop, hold up the Book of Mormon, and they try for fifteen minutes to preach the gospel. They try to lend that book and then secure a cottage meeting. Then they carry on twelve different lessons in which they take up one at a time the principles of the gospel and try to secure an agreement on the truth of every one of those principles. ¶

Faithfulness of Missionaries

I don't know about the other missions, but I know that it is working among our missionaries, and I thank God for the way they work. They are willing to work from nine o'clock in the morning until ten or eleven o'clock at night, and they love it. ¶

They are happy because they are busy, and I think I will try to prove to you just how hard they are working. ¶

The last report showed that some districts are averaging 107 hours tracting a month among the missionaries, twenty-six street meetings a month, twenty-eight copies of the Book of Mormon lent a month, and as high as forty-seven cottage meetings a month, which means that each missionary is attending ninety-four because each missionary takes credit for only the ones that he conducts. ¶

That can't be done without work, and work in the Church never hurt anybody; and it never will. ¶

As a result of their work they have lent out up to date over 29,000 copies of the Book of Mormon. They have had the pleasure of baptizing, because of the Lord's blessings upon them, almost eight hundred, and at the present rate they should lend out about 40,000 copies of the Book of Mormon by the end of the year, and they should be servants in the hands of the Lord in bringing in between 1,000 and 1,100 new members into the Church. ¶

We rejoice in the great work that they are doing. May I say that they are living so close to our Father in heaven that they feel to call upon him on every occasion, and when the question comes up among the investigators, "How can we give up tea, coffee, and tobacco that we have used all our lives?" these missionaries, with their faith in God, say, "You kneel down and ask your Father in heaven to help you, and he will take the desire for those poisons away from you that you will never feel the urge to take them again." ¶

When they ask, "On the amount that we make, how can we pay one-tenth into the Church?" they tell them the same way, that if they will trust the Lord, the Lord will bless them so that the nine-tenths that they have left will go farther than the ten-tenths that they receive. ¶

Efforts Rewarded

The Lord has answered their requests in the most wonderful ways. I wonder if you realize how much faith these missionaries have. It is a marvel to me. ¶

One of our district presidents went into Colchester in the Norwich District there. He just happened to be there at noon with his companion to work with the two missionaries. One of them said, "Will you go out and hold a street meeting with us?" ¶

He said, "Why, you are not going out in a rain like this? It is raining cats and dogs outside." ¶

The other replied, "Sure, we are going out." ¶

He said, "All right, I'll go with you." ¶

They knelt down and had a word of prayer. By the time they got to the corner and started their street meeting the rain ceased, and that is unusual in England. They held their street meeting and started home, and the rain started up again. That elder told his president that every time that week it had been exactly the same way. ¶

Our missionaries entered upon a program for six months of preaching love and kindness. Let me tell you how it worked with one of the missionaries. He was on a street meeting corner in Leeds and as he stood up, one of the hecklers gave him one of the worst lashings of invectives that any man could receive. He tore him down and tore the religion down. ¶

What did this elder do? He lived what he had been preaching. ¶

He stepped down, walked over to the gentleman and said, "You have given me an awful calling down today. Possibly it is all right. I just want you to know that I hold nothing against you for it, that I love you, brother, and I would like to shake your hand." Then he went back to the stand. ¶

A young woman was heard to comment to another, "I didn't know that anything like that could happen outside of the New Testament." ¶

The Lord's Blessing

There are other things that I could tell you, but I must not take more time. I must not close without saying that if I have given the impression to any that I claim any credit for what has been done there, and is being done, I am sorry, because I claim no credit at all. It has all been done by the missionaries, and the Lord's blessings that have attended them. Sister Richards and I have been merely innocent and admiring bystanders on the sidelines urging them on. ¶

I would like to say that I do appreciate my beloved wife. All my life she has been a wonderful companion. She is so full of faith and devotion to this work that she has been an inspiration to me, and I think it is only fair to say that I feel she has done an excellent work in presiding over the Relief Society there in the British Mission. ¶

May God bless you, my brethren and sisters, bless all the missionaries throughout the world, and cause that his Spirit may ever attend them in their labors is my humble prayer in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen. ¶