--- title: Improvement Era description: Monthly periodical of the Mormon church, 1897 onward. This library holds the issues of November 1897 to December 1930. authors: - J. Golden Kimball collections: - periodicals tags: - magazine - improvement-era periodical: Improvement Era volume: 5 number: 2 published: 1901-12 publisher: Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations publisher_place: Salt Lake City language: en type: magazine reference: 'J. Golden Kimball, "Our Work," *Improvement Era* 5, no. 2 (December 1901): 153.' source: url: https://archive.org/details/improvementera0502unse transcription: Transcribed from the Internet Archive scan of each issue (the item for each issue is named in the issue's own source); unnumbered advertising leaves are omitted, printed page numbers are kept as page markers. identifier: improvementera0502unse start_page: 153 end_page: 153 rights: status: public-domain basis: US publication 1930 or earlier (published 1901-12) source: https://archive.org/details/improvementera0502unse publication_year: 1901 note: The Internet Archive item metadata carries a blanket "© Copyright by Intellectual Reserve, Inc." notice. The library owner judged it inapplicable because this issue was published in 1901, before 1931; a scan-level notice does not restore copyright. --- # Our Work — OUR WORK. IMPORTANCE OF MISSIONARY WORK. At the June M. I. A. Conference, Elder J. Golden Kimball, speaking- to the officers upon this topic, said: There is a great work to be accomplished among our young people. While I realize that the great responsibility rests upon us to preach the Gospel to every nation, kindred, tongue, and people, we desire that the M. I. A. missionaries should become familiar with the environments of our young men. As I labor among the young people, I feel that we are unrighteous in some of our judgments; that we decide that some young men are worthless, and that we are unable to reach them. We should enquire about their environments, and the teachings they have received at home. Hundreds of them may not have offered a prayer in their lives, not having been given the opportunity. Parents seem not to understand these things. Some of them have been pioneers. Theirs have been lives of hardship, deprivation, poverty and adversity all the day long. They have labored from early morning till late at night gone to bed weary, got up weary; and they seem not to understand how precious are the souls of those spirits that are placed in their charge. Consequently, hundreds of young men have never had the advantages that you and I have had. For that reason, we are unrighteous in our judgments. It is, therefore, necessary that missionaries and officers shall be young men of wisdom, young men filled with kindness, with love and affection, who can fully comprehend how God and the Lord rejoices when a soul repenteth. When they reach after these young men they should become familiar with their environments, with all the difficulties they have had to meet, how they became rough, how they became ac- customed to blaspheming the name of God; and it will be found many