Mis Queridos Hermanos Y Hermanas De Los...

Mis queridos Hermanos y Hermanas de los paises donde se habla Espanol. Me da mucho gusto a veros aqui con nosotros esta dia. Con todo corazon, muy bienvenidos. ¶

To you who wonder, I have just greeted and welcomed our people from Latin America. My Spanish may not have been such as they could understand, but you are in no position to challenge my interpretation of it. ¶

I love these, my brothers and sisters. ¶

To me they are white and delightsome. ¶

And of course I love you, too. ¶

Pursuant to assignment from the First Presidency of the Church, I have for the past two years been supervising the Latin American missions. It may not, therefore, be wholly inappropriate for me to say something about the Lamanites, many of whom live in these missions. With this intent, I take for my text the following statement made by the Lord to the Prophet Joseph Smith in March 1831. ¶

". . . before the great day of the Lord shall come, Jacob shall flourish in the wilderness, and the Lamanites shall blossom as the rose." (D&C 49:24.) The word, "Lamanites," denotes, of course, the descendants of rebellious Laman and Lemuel. It also denotes all other descendants of Lehi who defected to them. As used in our text, I think it includes all descendants of Book of Mormon peoples frequently referred to as the remnant of the people of Lehi. The Lord identifies them in the Doctrine and Covenants as ". . . the Nephites, . . . Jacobites, . . . Josephites, . . . Zoramites, . . . ¶

". . . Lamanites, . . . Lemuelites, and . . . Ishmaelites, . . ." (Ibid., 3:17-18.) "The great day of the Lord" will, of course, be the day when the Savior comes in his power and glory to inaugurate a reign of righteousness and peace. ¶

The background of our text is most interesting and significant. At that time there was much interest and considerable misunderstanding concerning the "great day of the Lord." The Shakers, for example, had the mistaken notion that the Savior might come as a woman. To dispel this error, the Lord said: ¶

". . . verily I say unto you, that the Son of Man cometh not in the form, of a woman, neither of a man traveling on the earth. ¶

"Wherefore, be not deceived, but continue in steadfastness, looking forth for the heavens to be shaken, and the earth to tremble and to reel to and fro as a drunken man, and for the valleys to be exalted, and for the mountains to be made low, and for the rough places to become smooth — and all this when the angel shall sound his trumpet. ¶

"But before the great day of the Lord shall come, Jacob shall flourish in the wilderness, and the Lamanites shall blossom as the rose." (Ibid-, 49:22-24.) The relationship here revealed between the redemption of the Lamanites and the coming of "the great day of the Lord" is frequently implied in the scriptures. Enoch, for example, the great antediluvian prophet, witnessing in vision the corruption of mankind, after the ascension of the Son of Man, . . . ¶

cried unto his God: "Wilt thou not come again upon the earth? . . . ¶

"And the Lord said unto Enoch: As I live, even so will I come in the last days. . . . ¶

'And the day shall come that the earth shall rest, but before that day the heavens shall be darkened, and a veil of darkness shall cover the earth; and the heavens shall shake, and also the earth; and great tribulations shall be among the children of men, but my people will I preserve; "And righteousness will I send down out of heaven; and truth will I send forth out of the earth, to bear testimony of mine Only Begotten; . . ." (Moses 7:59-62.) "The Latter-day Saints regard the coming forth of the Book of Mormon, ... as a fulfilment of this prophecy, . . ." (See James E. Talmage, Articles of Faith, p. 275.) One of the two purposes of the Book of Mormon as expressed on its title page is "to show unto the remnant of the house of Israel what great things the Lord hath done for their fathers; and that they may know the covenants of the Lord, that they are not cast off forever." "The remnant of the House of Israel" here referred to includes, of course, the Lamanites. It is concerning the covenants the Lord made with their fathers which run in favor of the Lamanites and culminate in their blossoming as the rose that I wish to speak. ¶

One of these covenants was that a record of their fathers would be preserved and brought forth unto the remnant. Concerning this covenant, Enos said: ". . . after I had prayed and labored with all diligence, the Lord said unto me: I will grant unto thee according to thy desires, . . . ¶

"And . . . this was the desire which I desired . . . that if it should so be, that my people, the Nephites, should fall into transgression, and by any means be destroyed, and the Lamanites should not be destroyed, that the Lord God would preserve a record of my people, . . . that it might be brought forth at some future day unto the Lamanites, that, perhaps, they might be brought unto salvation — ". . . and he covenanted with me that he would bring them forth unto the Lamanites in his own due time." (Enos 12-13, 16. Italics added.) The Lord had made this same covenant with Nephi some fifty years earlier (See 1 Nephi 13:35), and he renewed it with Mormon nearly a thousand years later. (See Mormon 5:8-9, 12-13.) Moroni, preparing to deposit the record in Cumorah, predicted that ". . . it shall be brought out of darkness unto light, according to the word of God; yea, it shall be brought out of the earth, and it shall shine forth out of darkness, and come unto the knowledge of the people; and it shall be done by the power of God." (Mormon 8:16.) In Mormon, chapter eight, from which this prophecy of Moroni is taken, and in chapter nine is to be found a clear and accurate description of the world in which we now live — a word picture written by a prophet, who by the power of God saw in open vision and made record of us, our times and doings, and of the chastening which awaits us, the inhabitants of this land, if we do not repent and heed the teachings of the restored gospel. ¶

Concluding the account of the covenant concerning the record to be preserved and brought forth, the Lord said to the Prophet Joseph Smith in 1828: ¶

"Behold, there are many things engraven upon the plates of Nephi (speaking of the small plates being substituted for the 116 pages of manuscript lost by Martin Harris) which do throw greater views upon my gospel; . . . ¶

"And, behold, all the remainder of this work does contain all those parts of my gospel which my holy prophets, yea, and also my disciples, desired in their prayers should come forth unto this people. ¶

"And I said unto them, that it should be granted unto them according to their faith in their prayers"; (D&C 10:45-47.) Other covenants which the Lord made with their fathers were to the effect that the remnant would accept the gospel, regain their inheritance and former blessings and take part in the latter-day redemption of Zion. ¶

Nephi, explaining to his brethren the words their father Lehi had ". . . spoken concerning the natural branches of the olive-tree, . . ." said, ". . . in the latter days, when our seed shall have dwindled in unbelief, ... for the space of . . . ¶

many generations . . . then shall the fulness of the gospel . . . come unto [them] . . . from the Gentiles, . . . ¶

"And at that dav shall the remnant of our seed. . . . ¶

". . . be remembered again among the house of Israel; they shall be grafted . . . into the true olive-tree." ¶

(1 Nephi 15:7, 13-14, 16.) "And then shall the remnant of our seed know concerning us, how that we came out from Jerusalem, and that they are descendants of the Jews. ¶

"And the gospel of Jesus Christ shall be declared among them; wherefore, they shall be restored unto the knowledge of their fathers, and also to the knowledge of Jesus Christ, which was had among their fathers. ¶

"And then shall they rejoice; for they shall know that it is a blessing unto them from the hand of God; and their scales of darkness shall begin to fall from their eyes; and many generations shall not pass away among them, save they shall be a white and delightsome people." (2 Nephi 30:4-6.) The chief witness to the blessings awaiting the Lamanites was the resurrected Jesus. As he ministered to the survivors of the cataclysm which attended his crucifixion, he said unto them, ". . . my joy is great, even unto fulness, because of you, and also this generation; yea, and even the Father rejoiceth, and also all the holy angels, ... for none of them (this generation — that is, those who were then alive) are lost. . . . ¶

"But . . ." he continued, "it sorroweth me because of the fourth generation from this generation, for they are led away captive by him even as was the son of perdition; for they will sell me for silver and for gold, . . . And in that day will I visit them, even in turning their works upon their own heads." ¶

(3 Nephi 27:30, 32.) Mormon, of course, records the literal fulfilment of this sad prediction. ¶

But Jesus did not conclude his prophecy about the Lamanites here. ¶

Notwithstanding their foreseen apostasy and degradation, he repeatedly affirmed the fact that the Father had given them this land as a permanent inheritance. ¶

(See ibid., 15:13; 16:16; 20:14; 21:22.) He assured them that a remnant would survive to enjoy their inheritance although, by reason of their iniquity, they would forfeit it to the gentiles for a season. ¶

He told of the coming of the gentiles. ¶

"For," said he, "it is wisdom in the Father that they should be established in this land, and be set up as a free people by the power of the Father, . . ." (Ibid., 21:4.) ". . . because of their belief in me, . . . ¶

". . . and because of the unbelief of you, O house of Israel, in the latter day ... the fulness of these things shall be made known unto them." ¶

(Ibid., 16:6-7.) ". . . that these things might come forth from them unto a remnant of your seed, that the covenant of the Father may be fulfilled. . . ." (Ibid., 21:4.) Speaking of the role the remnant would play in this last gospel dispensation, Jesus assured them that they would be associated with other faithful members of the house of Israel in establishing in this, the land of their inheritance, a New Jerusalem. "And behold," said he, "this people" — remember, he was speaking in America — "will I establish in this land, unto the fulfilling of the covenant which I made with your father Jacob; and it shall be a New Jerusalem. And the powers of heaven shall be in the midst of this people; yea, even I will be in the midst of you." ¶

(Ibid., 20:22.) Concerning the timetable for the fulfilment of these tremendous prophecies, Jesus said: "... I give unto you a sign, that ye may know the time when these things shall be about to take place — . . . ¶

". . . when these things which I declare unto you, . . . shall be made known unto the Gentiles . . . ¶

". . . and shall come forth of the Father, from them unto . . . ¶

". . . your seed . . . ¶

"And . . . thy seed shall begin to know these things — it shall be a sign unto them, that they may know that the work of the Father hath already commenced unto the fulfilling of the covenant which he hath made unto the people who are of the house of Israel." ¶

(Ibid., 21:1-3, 5, 7.) Now, with this foreknowledge as an interpretative guide to the signs of the times, all who have seeing eyes and understanding hearts may rest assured that the fulfilment of the promises to the Lamanites is at hand. Most of the foregoing prophecies have already been fulfilled, and others are now in course of fulfilment. The apostasy and fourth generation destruction, the degeneration of the remnant, the coming of the gentiles, their establishment by the power of God as a free people in this land, their harassment of the remnant, the preservation of the promised record, and its coming forth by way of the gentiles are now all documented history. ¶

For more than a hundred years the record of their fathers, the Book of Mormon, has been going to the Lamanites by way of the gentiles. And it is now being carried to them with increased tempo. ¶

Today the Church has in operation in lands inhabited, at least in part, by the remnant, twenty-one missions. ¶

Others are being organized. Working in these missions during 1962 were, on an average, 2,424 missionaries a month. ¶

These missionaries brought into the Church 22,909 people in 1962, an average of 9.45 a missionary. This is well above the average of other foreign missions of the Church. So you see, my brethren and sisters, the Lord is pouring out his spirit upon the Lamanites. ¶

They are accepting the record of their fathers and are coming to a knowledge of the "things" referred to by Jesus. It is true that they are poor; they are downtrodden; they are in large part uneducated. In these and many other respects they still suffer under the curse brought upon them by their apostasy from the gospel once so richly enjoyed and strictly obeyed by their fathers. But they are now accepting the gospel. And they will continue to accept it in ever-increasing numbers. As they receive and live it, they are certain to regain their favored status in the house of Israel and participate in the redemption of Zion and the building of the New Jerusalem here in America. Jacob, even now, flourishes in the wilderness, and shortly the "Lamanites shall blossom as the rose," heralding "the great day of the Lord," which God grant may not be long delayed, I humbly pray. ¶