President Mckay My Beloved Brethren And Sisters...

President McKay, my beloved brethren and sisters, after listening to this wonderful music and these inspiring talks that we have heard in conference and facing this vast body of priesthood and these fine women, I had a strong feeling, as someone has said, that the greatest eloquence I could indulge in would be silence. However, I have been called, and in all humility I want to say that I love and sustain President David O. ¶

McKay as the prophet of the Lord and all these wonderful brethren associated with him and express my appreciation to them for the great strength and inspiration that they have been to me as I am sure they have been to all of you. ¶

I should also like to express my sincere appreciation of the fine, devoted leadership and the faithful members throughout this Church. ¶

Sister Tanner and I are most grateful for the privilege and honor that came to us just a year ago, when we were called to serve in this great missionary work, to cry repentance unto this people and seek to bring forth the cause of Zion. ¶

We sincerely hope and continually pray that we shall prove worthy of the call, and I humbly pray this morning, that the Lord will bless me while I speak to you. ¶

I wish, first, to recognize the presence of the faithful representatives of the stake presidents and bishoprics and branch presidents from the stakes in Great Britain and in Holland. Nearly every one of them is in the Church because of some dedicated missionary who was prepared and privileged to take the gospel message to those foreign lands. ¶

President McKay, I bring you and the Saints here greetings from all the Saints in the stakes and missions of the West European area and also from those devoted missionaries and mission presidents and their wives that are laboring there. ¶

We were very happy to have had the privilege during the last few months of traveling with and being built up by President and Sister Moyle and their two daughters and Brother and Sister Spencer W. Kimball and Brother and Sister Howard W. Hunter while they visited our missions and stakes. The wonderful spirit that they radiated and the encouragement and help that they gave to the missionaries and the officers and members and investigators will be felt for years to come. ¶

At our servicemen's conference when President Moyle spoke to those men and women, I shall never forget the influence and the impact that it had on them and will have in their lives. ¶

At this time I should like to say how I appreciate those servicemen who are members of our Church and their devotion as they go forward in the work of the Lord. It is an inspiration to me to see young men of that caliber laboring throughout the world, and realize that they are doing the work of the Lord, trying to keep the members of the Church together in groups and helping to spread the gospel wherever they go. ¶

Two young returned missionaries in France, who are now in the armed services, told me that last year they baptized more people while in the service than they did in the two years that they were in the mission field in France. ¶

We have over 1,600 missionaries in the West European Mission, most of whom we have seen and heard and interviewed since the first of the year. ¶

They all send their love and best wishes to their parents and loved ones and to those who are helping to keep them in the mission field. ¶

Inasmuch as these missionaries are across the ocean in those foreign lands and therefore seem farther from home, I should like to say a few words about the work they are doing and conditions over there. It is certainly a privilege and a blessing to be associated with these missionaries, to hear them bear their testimonies and tell of their experiences as they go forward as ambassadors of the Lord. Last year they baptized over 16,000 converts, which is an average of approximately one each month for every missionary in the West European Mission. In France, the two missions last year baptized nearly twice as many people as were baptized in the whole of the British Isles in 1958. A few years ago this would have been considered entirely impossible. To hear the testimonies of these new members and to see the changes that come into their lives as they accept the truths of the gospel and become active members of the Church is an inspiration indeed. ¶

Since the beginning of the year, two new missions have been established in the British Isles. The British Mission has been divided into the British and the Southwest British Missions, and the Scottish-Irish Mission has become the Scottish Mission and the Irish Mission. ¶

This makes six missions in the British Isles. ¶

The organization of two new stakes is being recommended. ¶

In order to provide building accommodations for the increasing membership, we have labor — I prefer calling them church-building-missionaries — employed throughout the mission, helping to build chapels while at the same time they are becoming real, substantial members of the Church. ¶

While this outstanding growth is going forward, and so many people are being brought into the Church, the missionaries themselves are developing into fine men and women who will become very strong leaders of the Church. It is a heart-warming experience which brings tears to your eyes to hear them express their love and appreciation for their parents and the influence they have had in their lives and the privilege they have of being on a mission. ¶

The joy and happiness which they experience in bringing people into the Church can be excelled only by that which some of them have as they hear of increased interest and activities at home. It is really a humbling experience to see a big, strong young man break down and cry as he says, "The greatest thrill in my life was when I heard that dad has now become active in the Church, and that when I return home we will be able to go to the temple and there be sealed as a family for time and all eternity." And to hear another express his joy, love, and appreciation and thank his Heavenly Father that his dad, who was not a member of the Church, but who has been keeping him on a mission, has now joined the Church is a thrilling experience, indeed. ¶

Again, may I repeat that while these missionaries are doing a marvelous work in bringing people into the Church they are at the same time developing into men and women of whom we can all be proud and whose testimonies and experience will not only carry them through life with a strong determination to live the kind of life they should but will add greatly to the strength of the Church. ¶

In spite of the deep-rooted traditions and strong prejudices which exist in those old countries and which present some real problems, we find one thing which is most encouraging and that is that people from all stations in life, including professors, doctors, lawyers, and successful businessmen, are showing an interest in and are becoming members of the Church today. ¶

Just a few weeks ago, six young missionaries and I were invited to participate in a telecast one Sunday evening in London in which we were interrogated in a panel discussion by a member of the House of Commons. The questions were very fair, and we were given an opportunity to answer them without interruption. The way those young men responded was a real credit to the Church. ¶

Just a few days later, again in London, there was a full hour broadcast on BBC under the direction of Mr. Charles Chilton of the BBC, who is not a member of the Church, whom some of you know personally because of his having spent some time in Salt Lake City. I should like to read to you the announcement that appeared in the Radio-Times the day the program was presented. It is entitled "The Mormons": ¶

"What is a Mormon? The usual reply to that question is something like this: 'O I would say the people whose religion allows them dozens of wives.' It did once, but it doesn't any longer. ¶

Polygamy was officially outlawed more than seventy years ago and less than 3% of the Mormon community ever indulged in it. The Mormon Church, or to give it its correct name, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, was founded in 1830 by Joseph Smith, the son of a pioneer farmer of New York State. Although avid Bible-readers and regular holders of family prayers, few frontier families of those days belonged to an organized church. However, in 1820 a great missionary campaign was launched by Presbyterians, Methodists, Baptists, and other churches with the object of converting the settlers to their own particular faiths. Thousands of people were converted, including Mrs. ¶

Smith and three of her children, but not Joseph. 'There were,' he said, 'too many sects from which to choose,' and all of them declared themselves to be the only true church which, of course, was not possible. He decided to ask God for guidance, and he prayed and had a vision in which he was told the true Church of God would soon be revealed to him. How the new church was formed and how its members were persecuted and how at last, wandering to and fro along and beyond the western frontiers, they founded a new Zion in the valley of the Great Salt Lake, will be told in 'This Is the Place' tonight." ¶

Then in the Daily Express, the Manchester edition preceding the program, we read: ¶

"BBC plans program on Mormons. ¶

The program will tell how the faith was founded in New York and hounded across America." ¶

The program started with a very brief history of Joseph Smith, the Prophet, when he was just a boy and carried right through with his history until his martyrdom. It told of the missionary work in Great Britain, the people leaving there and crossing the waters and then the plains, the many trials and tribulations of the Saints as they were driven from place to place, and how unfair the people and the governments had been to them. It told of the Mormon Battalion, the Indians, the crickets, the sea gulls, and the building of the temple which was all presented dramatically. Those who took part were all well-trained British artists, and the choruses were beautifully rendered. ¶

Following the program we read in the Oxford Mail, under the big headline "Not Nearly Enough of the Mormon Story," these comments: ¶

"The story of the Mormons, 'This Is the Place,' really only scraped the surface of a fascinating history. The tale of the trek out west to found Salt Lake City was over-full of breaks and music. ¶

Joseph Smith, the founder of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, to give Mormons their full name, and Brigham Young, who chose the spot on which to build Salt Lake City, are pioneers of stature, who had to be cut down to smaller size to fit them into this program. ¶

"Too many questions about the Mormon way of life remained unanswered. ¶

Certainly there is plenty of material available if some one would care to dig a little deeper." ¶

These programs, along with others in which our people have participated, have created much interest and opened hundreds of doors to our missionaries. ¶

While this kind of program is being sponsored by some, there are those who are strongly opposed to our being there and to everything we do. Others want to know more about our beliefs. I could give you many experiences, personal and otherwise, but I should like to relate briefly the experience of a very talented and educated young Oxford graduate who is an Egyptian by birth. ¶

He studied and practised law in Cairo; he has taught law in the law schools of Luxembourg, he speaks six different languages including Arabic, Hebraic, Italian, French, German, and English, and teaches now in the London University. When he first read the Book of Mormon, he was greatly impressed by the style in which it was written. He noted that it, like the Semitic language, so often had sentences begin with the conjunction "behold" and with the phrase "and it came to pass." He was also impressed by the fact that names used throughout the book were names which occur so often in the Semitic language. He knew that an uneducated youth could not have translated or written this book. He noted, too, that Joseph Smith took no credit for its authorship but claimed that it was translated by the power of God. He accepted Joseph Smith's claim without doubt as he knew that this was the only way the book could have been written. ¶

As the missionaries taught him the principles of the gospel, he joined with them in childlike faith in praying to his Heavenly Father that he might have an understanding of the gospel. His prayers were answered, and he learned by the Spirit that he had found the truth. He was converted to the Church with a deep and abiding testimony. He is an able and strong advocate of the gospel and defender of the Book of Mormon which he knows is true. ¶

This is only one of many experiences which are most encouraging to the missionaries and the Saints and help to strengthen their testimonies as they hear of them. ¶

I, too, wish to bear my testimony to you today that the gospel has been restored in these the latter-days, that God the Eternal Father and his Son Jesus Christ did appear to the boy Joseph Smith, that he was chosen as a prophet of God with apostles at the head of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, that we have the same organization that existed in the Primitive Church, that the priesthood has been restored and that we have a prophet and apostles of God at the head of the Church today, and that the same simple truths and principles are taught and ordinances performed and by the same authority as at the time of Christ, and that the way is open whereby every man may be baptized by water and by the spirit and thereby enter into the kingdom of God. This is my testimony, in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen. ¶