--- title: Improvement Era description: Monthly periodical of the Mormon church, 1897 onward. This library holds the issues of November 1897 to December 1930. authors: - Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations collections: - periodicals tags: - magazine - improvement-era periodical: Improvement Era volume: 10 number: 1 published: 1906-11 publisher: Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations publisher_place: Salt Lake City language: en type: magazine reference: 'Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations, "Messages from the Missions," *Improvement Era* 10, no. 1 (November 1906): 67–69.' source: url: https://archive.org/details/improvementera101unse 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: improvementera101unse start_page: 67 end_page: 69 rights: status: public-domain basis: US publication 1930 or earlier (published 1906-11) source: https://archive.org/details/improvementera101unse publication_year: 1906 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 1906, before 1931; a scan-level notice does not restore copyright. --- # Messages from the Missions MESSAGES FROM THE MISSIONS. By letter from President Heber J. Grant, the following report of the work done in the British mission for the month of August is received. The elders are making splendid headway, and the late visit of President Smith is sure to do a 68 IMPROVEMENT ERA. world of good to the cause of truth in that mission. The elders are more determined to do their full duty than ever before. While the baptisms for August do not show the increase in proportion to the other work, yet one must remember that this is a day of warning as well as of conversion. The increased work is very beneficial to the elders, even if they do not secure many converts. Work done. Increase over August, 1905. Tracts 453,985 189,909 Books 13,569 8,556 Gospel conversations 27,576 12,457 Strangers' houses visited 84,936 35,906 Baptisms 30 4 Elder C. H. Davis, president of the East Pennsylvania conference, writes September 19, that there are now seven elders laboring in Pennsylvania; two in Camden, N. J. six in Baltimore, Md. and two in New York Co ; ; Pa. "All are , working hard, and meet with some opposition in the way of absurd stories about Utah and her people; but we go ahead and deliver our messages for we know in whom we trust. There is more real joy in one day in missionary work than in a whole year in following after the pleasures of this world. If our young men could realize this, they would save themselves the humiliation of waiting until they are called to proclaim the gospel before making it a study, and they would take advantage of our associations and Sunday schools to learn the principles of the gospel." The report of the Scandinavian mission for the month of August, shows that there are three conferences in Denmark and three in Norway, with 134 missionaries, 64 in the first country named, and the remainder in Norway. During the month, the missionaries visited 30,858 homes, and held 6,669 gospel conversations, 426 meetings, ordained seven persons, blessed thirteen children, and baptized twenty-seven people. The report of the Swedish mission for August shows that there are five conferences with 69 missionaries, that 15,519 homes had been visited, 2,008 gospel conversations held, and 240 meetings; one ordained, two chil- dren blessed, and fourteen persons baptized. The report of the elders of the Northern States Mission, for the month ending September 30, 1906, as kindly given to the Era by President German E. Ellsworth, shows that there are 132 elders in the eight conferences of that mission; during the month of September the elders sold 669 "Books of Mormon;" visited 25,958 homes; and revisited 6,739. They held 39,309 conversations, spending 8,735 hours in so doing. They distributed 48,898 tracts, and spent 11,064 hours in that work. They loaned 341 books and sold 2,742. They held 214 meetings in halls, and 428 cottage meetings, and 581 open-air meetings. There were 13 baptisms and 15 children blessed, during the month. Elder J. 0. Sampson of Marysville, Calif., writes October 15, that he finds the Era a great help to him. His wife and he are the only Latter-day Saints in that place. There are some very good people who are honest, pure, and in full EDITOR'S TABLE. 69 meaning search for the word of truth; but there are many others who follow the evilway. "This city was named in honor of one of the members of the ill-fated Donner party, whose name was Miss Mary Murphy at that time; but who later became Mrs. Mary M. Corilland. Her nephew is in the postofiice here as assistant postmaster. I hope that I may be able to turn a few honest s juls to the everlasting gospel, and I wish you success in your calling. - ' Elders D. N. Hulsa, L. D. McBride, W. C. Smith, and T. L. VanNoy write to the Era under date of October 13, from Toronto, Canada: "On September 23rd President John G. McQuarrie visited Toronto, Canada, and held a conference with the elders, Saints, and friends of this vicinity, the first ever held in Toronto. We have heretofore visited Albany, New York, in conference; but were this time pleased with the privilege of meeting in a conference gathering with the people where wo labor. We held three hall, and two street, meetings which were well attended. We believe much good was accomplished in awakening an interest among the people for the great Latter-day work. A Sunday school was organized here, and we feel that there will be a greater interest shown in the work in the future. The Era assists us in advocating the truths contained in the gospel, and contains many gems of knowledge." President Alex. Nibley of the Netherlands mission writes, Sept. 14: Last month the elders in this mission distributed 37,546 tracts, which exceeds any" thing that has hitherto been accomplished in these fields. There are 34 elders at work, so this means an average of 822 tracts per elder. This year we have put out over 202,000 tracts, which is an increase of about 40,000 over the whole of last year. This can be accounted for from the fact that we now have Elder Chas. W. Penrose's Rays of Living Light, in Dutch, and have already distributed about six ton of them. You can see by this that England is not the only country in which Brother Penrose is doing a wonderful missionary work. The elders disposed of 2,811 books last month, an increase of 1,762 over July, and July was about 500 books ahead of anything we had ever before done in the mission. What swelled our book record was getting out President Ben E. Rich's Friendly Discussion in Dutch. These little pamphlets are going like hot cakes, and are a splendid thing for this part of the world. We are baptizing right along in all the conferences, and each branch in the mission is growing. We are also having the Rays translated into French, and this will give the elders in Belgium what they have long been in need of, some good Church literature. Our Sunday schools are all in fine condition. In three schools in the Rotterdam conference there are 114 "Mormon" children enrolled, and 104 non- "Mormons. " This does not include the Rotterdam school which has an enrollment of about 180 pupils. The Era is regularly received and greatly appreciated by all the elders. We thank you for it.