This Conference I Am Sure Has Had...

This conference, I am sure, has had as its theme the home. ¶

Example of McKay Family

Twenty-eight years ago I was adopted by the people of Ogden and Weber County. I believe now that I can safely say I belong to them. As I have seen it, I think that the greatest influence in Weber County through the years has been the example of the McKay family in establishing and keeping a home. I say the McKay family because President McKay has many brothers and sisters. I have never seen such unity in a family. Weber County knows that. I have had many happy associations with Brother Thomas McKay. ¶

I was happy that Brother Petersen said what he did the other day concerning him. If there were time, I could and would tell you other things which have shown me the breadth, and the love, and the desire of this good man who sits down in the lower tiers to give of himself to the people of that county, and to the Church. There isn't a person in Weber County but who knows that he can ask President David O. McKay to come and speak at the funerals of bereaved loved ones. All feel they can do that. All restrain themselves because of his time. They all call him affectionately David O, behind his back. To his face, of course, they give him his proper title, but everywhere one goes in Weber County it is "David O.," unless they want to tell a story about him, and then it is shortened to "D.O." ¶

I am sure it is all done with affection. There is an old saying that "Home is where the heart is." People from Weber County are not deceived by the fact that Brother McKay lives on East South Temple Street. They know he is forced to live there, but that, had he his way, his address is, and always will be Huntsville, Weber County, Utah. ¶

The example of this family and its resulting influence in our county is a testimony of the influence of good example in home idealism. Truly we of Weber County, and I suspect the rest of the Church also, know that if we will but follow the example of our beloved leader in establishing and keeping a home, we surely will find peace and joy. ¶

Mission to the Indians

I have one more thought. I would not argue as to which of the revelations is the most important, but there is no question that the longest revelation given to Joseph Smith the Prophet is the Book of Mormon. Each of its six hundred pages reveals the dealings of Jesus Christ with those whom he loved as his own family, the House of Israel. When the Prophet read the revelation, I do not know what was stirred up in his mind, but I know what he did. He read that the gospel had to be taken to the remnants of the House of Israel in this land. One of the first acts that he performed was to begin this work. He sent Oliver Cowdery, Parley P. Pratt, Ziba Peterson, and Peter Whitmer, Jr., on a mission to the Indian people. It was a tough, long haul they had in winter, on foot, through the wilderness from where they were at that time to the borders of Missouri, but the hazards of the journey did not stop them. What did they accomplish? Perhaps not much. They were able to talk to an Indian chief; they made the tribe quite excited; and then the Indian agent and the ministers of the surrounding territory descended upon them and drove them out. But one thing they did do from which we can take a lesson. They tried to fulfil a prophecy. It becomes our duty now to continue and try again to fulfil that prophecy; a prophecy that the gospel would go in the last days to these people until the time that they would take their proper place in the establishment of the Center Place and of Zion itself. ¶

Gospel Acceptance Individual

Now I recognize that the acceptance of the gospel is an individual thing. We aren't going to convert these friends of ours in multitudes. I remind the missionaries who are assigned to these people that they must go from house to house and bear their witness to individuals. There may be many, but we must seek them out one by one. We have been their conquerors — I don't mean the Church. ¶

I mean the white people of this land. They have been the subjected people. We know the story of how they have been downtrodden. ¶

There is no time now to talk about that. They expect something from us. What they want is help to rise, not relief; understanding, not pity; opportunity, not charity. And I remind you that there are thirty-four million of them in these two Americas, only three hundred and thirty-four thousand of them in the United States, a hundred thousand in Canada, fifteen thousand in Alaska, three million, five hundred thousand in Central America, and seventeen million who are of the blood of Israel in Mexico, in addition to those of the South American continent. ¶

Aztec Indian Boy

I think I see one way by which many of these things are going to be accomplished in something which happened to me a short time ago, and with that I shall close. I was talking to a boy. He was a little older than the Prophet Joseph was when he received the First Vision; he was about the age of the Prophet when he organized the Church. ¶

He was an Indian boy of Aztec descent. His mother accepted the gospel years ago in a little village on the slopes of those immense volcanoes in the valley of Mexico. She and her sister came to this valley years ago, and by dint of hard work, perseverance, and love, they have reared a delightful family. They have sent three of their children on missions. This lad of whom I speak had just been given an honor, a scholarship to a great eastern university because of the fine work he had done in chemistry. I said to him, "What are you going to do when you finish? I suppose you are going to become a doctor of philosophy." ¶

"That's right," he said. ¶

"And after that, what? Where are you going?" ¶

He looked up at me, and in the shy way that these people have (they don't like to stare at a person, they glance up at one quickly and want to be sure one understands) he said, "When I get through, I am going home." ¶

"Where is home?" I asked, because I knew he had been reared right here. ¶

"I am going back to the valley of Mexico whence my mother came and try to teach my people what I have discovered." ¶

"What place does the gospel have in that?" I questioned. ¶

He said, "I intend to teach the gospel along with the chemistry." ¶

That, I think, is a key to what we may expect when these people, these loved ones of ours, these of the House of Israel, come into the Church in numbers. They will come if we but strive diligently. ¶

I know the gospel is true. I bear my witness that Jesus is the Christ, that the Prophet Joseph Smith was inspired of God to do all of the things that he did to establish the kingdom and that these who sit on this stand behind me are verily prophets of God. In the name of Jesus Christ, I bear this testimony. Amen. ¶