Where I Am and Where I Am Going

This is a great and an inspiring conference, and I am most happy that I can be here this morning and raise my hand to sustain those who have been called to preside over us in this great Church. ¶

I would like Brother Bennion to know (I have known him for many years) that he has been an inspiration in my life, and that I am sure he will find great joy and happiness in the new assignment that has come to him. ¶

I should publicly like to thank the First Presidency of the Church for the great experience that came to me immediately following the last general conference, of going into the islands of the Pacific and meeting there a very wonderful people. I had the opportunity of visiting New Zealand, Samoa, Tonga, the island of Niue, and the Hawaiian Islands, and I found there a people of great faith, who have an admiration for the leadership of this Church. I am sure this morning their eyes are focused on this great conference, from which the law goes forth. ¶

I should like to relate one brief experience, and that is because I have observed the great number of people who have tried to get into the Tabernacle to hear the conference. I participated in the dedication of a little chapel at Pago Pago in the Tutuilla District, and I observed something there that I would like to recommend to the Church. I would like to see it tried here. This little chapel, which normally, I imagine, would seat about two hundred people if it were equipped like our chapels are, had no benches in it. The people all sat on the floor with crossed legs. ¶

We had 508 in a little chapel that normally would hold two hundred. I am not recommending that we take the benches out of the Tabernacle, but we may use some new chapel as a guinea pig to try the new method, and possibly we could reduce the size of our buildings so that we could build more chapels, be just as happy and just as comfortable as these fine people in the isles of the Pacific. It was a great experience. ¶

My note here says that I was to say something about this beautiful springtime and how nature has put on its new garments. Looking out of the windows, you can tell I didn't write this speech this morning. ¶

When I was in the Hawaiian Islands, I had a little story related to me by President Edward L. Clissold of the Oahu Stake which impressed me very much. He told me of a Filipino man who was very earnestly studying the gospel, who was a very studious sort of person, a man who was very shy and backward, who became acquainted with the missionaries and also with President Clissold, and after becoming intensely interested and studying the gospel for some time, became a convert to the Church. President Clissold said shortly after this time they were holding a quarterly conference in the stake, and he kept having the impression that he should like to have some person, who recently had come into the Church, bear his testimony, and the name of this Filipino who had recently become a convert kept crossing his mind, but he said, "I knew if I called on him it would frighten him to death, knowing the nature of the person; but that idea so persisted that I finally called him up out of the audience, and he came to the stand. When he spoke, he said, 'I am forty-two years of age. For forty-one years I do not know where I am or where I am going; but for one year, I know where I am and where I am going.' " I thought, there is a thought-provoking subject on which sermons could be preached. Something came into that man's life that changed his whole perspective, and in a few short months, after becoming acquainted with those who have authority to preach the true gospel, he could also say he knew where he was now, and where he was going. I tell you, brethren and sisters, that probably the great difference between the true Church of Jesus Christ and all these other denominations is in that very statement — that those who have accepted the truth know where they are and know where they are going, and I doubt that the rest of the Christian world can say that thing. ¶

I have had some great experiences in the stakes of the Church. My work in the Presiding Bishopric has largely been with an army of men who have become a little wayward, a little backward, who have acquired a few bad habits, and because of this, have not identified themselves too regularly with the organizations of the Church. We have made a great effort to reclaim some of these brethren. My heart goes out to bishops, bishops' counselors, ward teachers, advisers, and others, who put their arms around these men and point out to them the thing they have missed in life and bring them back. ¶

I heard one recently down in the Uvada Stake. He was invited to say a few words at quarterly conference. It was a great effort for this man, and when he had finished his little talk, he said, "I would like you folks to know that when the bishop asked me to give this little talk, the devil also assigned someone to tell me not to give this talk," and then he began to point out eight different occasions where the devil and he had a contest over whether or not he was going to give this talk. You know, that influence is rampant in the earth, and I am sure many of us are being influenced by it. I am sure we are locked with him many times. Someone said in these few words: "I have heard much about the devil. I have read a great deal about the devil. I have even done business with the devil, but it didn't pay." ¶

I would like to tell you today that I hope we starve the devil to death, that we give him no business, and that we devote all our time and all our energies to doing the work of the Lord. I think that is one way we are going to bind Satan, by not letting him have influence concerning us. ¶

I was in the North Weber Stake just last week, and I heard another of these young men stand up, and as he did so, he said, "I'll never get over thanking the bishop who put his arm around me four months ago and invited me to do a little something in the Church." Then he bore his testimony indicating how happy he was, and he said, "For twenty-one years I have been inactive in this Church and have missed a great opportunity." When that meeting was over, the first person to rush up and embrace him was his wife, and standing next to his wife was his mother, her eyes filled with tears. She said to me, "This is one of the greatest days of my life, to have my son stand there, bear his testimony, and express his gratitude that he is now active again in the Church." ¶

I heard a good sister not so long ago in one of the stakes up in the east here, who was responding to a little talk about what the activity of her husband meant to her. She said she had prayed and worked in the Church for twenty-two years and hoped that the day would come when something would influence her husband to turn him away from some of the habits he had so that eventually they could enjoy some of the great blessings that come to the faithful in the Church. She said that early in his life he had been a sheep man. He went out in the sheep camp and acquired some bad habits. Later on his brother became very ill, and unknown to anyone else, he went to the elders and had them administer to him. His brother was seriously ill, and he even despaired as to whether he might recover or not. The Lord heard the prayers of the elders, and this man's health was restored to him. Later on this man became seriously ill himself, and he asked for the elders to administer to him, and he had a recovery. About that time his wife said, "My husband felt that he ought in some way to repay the Lord for the goodness that had come to him, and so he began to go to meetings and participate in some of the activities. He began to lay aside some of his bad habits. The bishop recognizing this, made him a member of the building committee of the ward. He was a man with a fine personality, a fine looking man, and he did a great job." She said, "One morning we were having breakfast, and our small daughter (I suppose noticing that the father poured himself a cup of coffee) said, 'Dad, you are getting along fine. When are you going to quit drinking coffee?' The man said, 'I guess I might as well quit right now,' " and she said, "He poured the coffee back in the coffeepot, and that was the last coffee that he drank." His activity increased, and the happiness in the home began to increase also. Then she said the bishop finally gave him another job in the Church. A few months later someone came to him and said, "Your name has been recommended to have you interviewed to be ordained an elder in the Church," and that so thrilled the man that from then on he didn't miss any more meetings of any kind. ¶

He became very faithful and very active. Then she said, as her eyes filled with tears, "Finally, the great day came when the bishop came to us and said, 'I have noticed the activity of your husband and the members of your family. I am sure you are ready to go into the temple to be sealed for time and all eternity.' " Then she said, "That great day came when we were in the Salt Lake Temple, my husband and I and our children being sealed together for time and all eternity. I waited twenty-two years, but it was worth every minute of it." ¶

I heard a number of these men, and I have been impressed by the great work we can do, brethren, if we will reach out our arms and invite them back into activity. Most of them just need a little job, need a little encouragement, need someone who has a little interest in them, and we can accomplish a great good with these fine people. ¶

I am sure my time is gone. I would like to mention one other little story that a father told me about his little son. Someone mentioned a little boy yesterday in his talk. This little boy was not quite six years of age, and his father said that last Father's Day he wanted to make an impression on his youngster. He had been playing out on the street. They brought him in and washed him up, and at the dinner table he wanted to impress this youngster with the value of Father's Day and what a great man the father was. He said as he was getting along with his little talk, his little boy said, "Daddy, do you know that God is the Daddy of all of the daddies and that Jesus is the Oldest Brother of all of the brothers?" ¶

That father said, "I all but got off my chair and knelt at the feet of my little son." I want to tell you, in the words of a child, that was a great truth, and I wish people of the world could understand just that, that God is the Daddy of all of the daddies and that Jesus is the Oldest Brother of all of the brothers. ¶

Then in conclusion someone else said, "Be careful. You may be the only standard works that some people may read." Now think that over. I think there is a lot of truth in that. ¶

May the Lord help us to live our lives worthy of membership in this Church, and may we be anxious and willing to do our part to help move forward this great work, I pray in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen. ¶