Responsibility of Officers in Missionary Work

OUR WORK. 155

reaches the absent members, so that all may have the privilege of adding their mites to the financial aid of our associations. In case there are delinquents, who do not comply with the request to contribute, it is prop- er for the president to visit such delinquents and encourage them to

subscribe to the fund. By this time,. every officer and member is doubtless familiar with the object of the fund, and it is needlesss to say, that every dollar ob- tained by the General Board, will be accounted for and spent in the in- terest of the Mutual Improvement Associations, and the cause which they represent. We hope to have it to record "that this season has exceeded all others in the amounts collected.

RESPONSIBILITY OF OFFICERS IN MISSIONARY WORK.

Elder J. W. McMurrin, speaking on this topic at our June annual cor- ference, gave some advice that is just at present very timely. Officers

will do well to weigh carefully his remarks.

The design of the local missionary work is that every mutual im- provement worker shall be a missionary. There may be, of course, a number from each association called and specially set apart to act as missionaries; but in traveling around among the stakes and listening to the counsels that have been imparted by other brethren, as well as by myself, this point has been urged, that every mutual improvement worker should be a missionary, and should be anxious to brmg into the service some other man. I have felt myself, in visiting some of the stakes, that the great difficulty with us is that we do not have the missionary spirit. In some places, there is a disposition to give up; to feel that because there is not a ready response to our invitations there is no need of con- tinuing our efforts. I have frequently called the attention of mutual improvement workers, particularly those who have been on missions abroad, to the spirit that they had in the world. When we go out as missionaries we leave our homes with the expectation of meeting all manner of obstacles; and, at the same time, with the determination that, come what will, we will succeed. This is the kind of men we want as

156 IMPROVEMENT ERA. missionaries —men with a spirit of this kind, who realize that it is not a pleasure trip they are going on, but that there is work to do. I feel that

this work is no light matter.The souls of men are very precious, and certainly the souls of our own children are as precious as any in the world. We want missionaries and officers who have this feeling in their hearts, who will appreciate the fact that this appointment is from the Lord, and that it is just as important as any appointment to go out among the nations of the world to preach this Gospel. We who are officers of these Mutual Improvement Associations are the men upon whom rests the responsibility of awakening an interest in the minds of the young, in relation to the importance of the mutual improvement work, and the Lord expects us to accomplish this labor. When the missionaries come amongst us, we ought to have the feel- ing that the responsibility is not upon them alone; they have their por- tion, but each one of us has a portion also, and we want to labor earnestly and actively, with the feeling in our hearts that God has appointed us to this labor, and that it can be accomplished. In the world a missionary would go back to the same man a hundred times, if there existed the slightest evidence that he would receive him and talk with him, and he would travel miles upon miles that he might make an impression upon the stranger. This is the spirit that we want to have in mutual improve- ment work. If we go a hundred times to one individual, and at last his heart is touched, and he becomes a mutual improvement worker, what a glorious thing we have accomplished! I hope that we will take hold of this labor in this spirit, and not with a feeling to let the missionary go and work alone, but that we will work with him with all our hearts; not feel that he is an intruder, but receive him into our arms, and give him our love and confidence. If we will do this, we will have abundant suc- cess, and there will be a reawakening among the local missionaries, andi a great improvement will take place in our associations.