Messages from the Missions

MESSAGES FROM THE MISSIONS. President Ben E. Rich of the Southern States mission, started about the first week in November, for a 4,800 miles gospel trip, to visit his conferences in the Southern States mission, to preach the gospel, and to look after the interests of the Church and the Saints. An important branch of the Church of between 400 and 500 Saints is found in Kelsey, Texas, which is making admirable progress. At a conference recently heid there, President S. 0. Bennion of the Central States Mission appointed three bright and prosperous young local elders of this branch to fill missions in Louisiana, John J. Bodine, J. Welcome Edgar, and Jos. J. Bailey. The Saints have just finished making and burning 100,000 bricks to be used in a "new school building which they are about to erect.

' EDITOR'S TABLE. 145 Elder Arthur J. Evans, writing from No. 48 Mount Pleasant Road, Exeter, England, Bristol conference, October 17, says: "At our recent conference Elder Charles G. Jarman and I were sent to Exeter to open up a new field of labor. This is the home of the notorious William Jarman. The Lord is blessing us in our labors here. We are meeting with good success in our tracting. We are selling many books and have many conversations with the people. We hold street meetings twice a week, unmolested, and with the help of the Lord we hope to do a good work here this winter. The Era is always a welcome visitor in our The labors of the elders in the Southern States for September are summarized in the Liahona the Elders' Journal, as follows: "With few exceptions the elders are in good health. The weather has moderated and the elders are able to prose- cute their labors with vigor. They are not meeting with much opposition from ministerial obstructionists. In a number of instances the ministers have invited the elders to participate with them in the worship of God. The Book of Mormon campaign is on in dead earnest. This divine record is being introduced into hun- dreds of homes. During the month of September the elders have walked 18,715 miles, ridden 18,815 miles, visited 1,711 families, revisited 6,433 families, dis- tributed, 19,908 tracts, sold and otherwise distributed 1,988 books, held 1,105 meetings, had 15,248 gospel conversations, blessed 48 children and baptized 85 ' souls. Elder Mathias J. Benson writes from Trondhjem, Norway, October 26: "In behalf of the elders of the Trondhjem conference I extend thanks to the managers of the Era for so kindly sending us the same. It has been a most welcome gift Of the twenty- two elders laboring here the past summer, in this far off land. twelve have been kcated north of the arctic circle, and much good has been done by distributing literature and conversing with the people. Our conference, which I believe extends farther north than any other conference in the Church, embraces all of northern Norway, and can truthfully be said to be under the rays of the midnight sun in summer, and the Northern lights in winter. Being cut up by fjords and channels of the ocean, traveling, and consequently missionary work, is more or less difficult, especially during the winter months when darkness prevails. Not many people are interesting themselves in the gospel message, but we have hopes for the future." The Millennial Star, October 24, contains a favorable notice of the Improvement Era, and among the good words said in behalf of our publication are these, for which thanks: "One of our best monthly magazines, and from a

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Latter-day Saint standpoint, the very best, is the Improvement Era. The Era for several years has been wielding a splendid influence among the young people in Utah, and elsewhere, and offering much food for thought to older and more matured minds. It has now become the organ also of the Seventies, a great body of elders of the Church organized into councils or quorums of seventy

146 IMPRO VEMENT ERA . each. * * * The Era for the year beginning in November, 1907, will equal and probably excel all previous ipsues of this first class magazine. In addition to the writings of the best authors in the Church on various topics fully abreast of the times, in theology, in science, in philosophy, in lighter literature, in a sum- mary of the leading events current in the world, it will have a separate depart- ment for the Seventies, with Elder B. H. Roberts as editor, which is sufficient guarantee of its excellence and adaptation to the special work for which it is designed. * * * The missionaries abroad will still be supplied with a copy each gratuitously. We know this will be welcome news to all the elders in the mission field, as they, as well as those engaged in the Liverpool office, look for the Era every month with eager anticipation. There is no other publication that we know of which equals it in its particular sphere, and with the added inter- est that will be created by the addition of the Seventies' department, it will loom up into still higher eminence than it has hitherto achieved. We commend the Era to all the readers of the Millennial Star who desire to advance in useful knowledge relating to this life and to that exalted condition of existence which is called 'the- life to come.' Study of its pages affords an education of itself. The spirit which it breathes is of the highest spiritual nature, yet it is practical withal and an incen- tive to progress temporally and eternally." "In the South, cooler weather has come, and the elders are prosecuting their labors with renewed energy. In many sections there is a noticeable change in the attitude of preachers towards th6 work of the Lord. In some instances they have invited the elders to participate with them in the worship of the Lord. A Lexing- ton Campbellite preacher who was formerly very bitterly opposed to the elders, recently bought a Book of Mormon. In some sections the ministerial obstruction- ists have been active. In North Carolina a Sanctified preacher became very much unsanctified on the night of October 5th, and poured out his vials of wrath on tiie 'Mormons.' He propounded some questions and expressed a wish that some elder were present to answer them. Two elders, passing, overheard him, and went in. A.t the close of the meeting they proffered to answer the questions, but the preacher refused to be enlightened. A preacher in Darlington, South Carolina, with a small congregation and a purse of the same size, recently turned book agent. He is selling a suspicious looking book with more suspicious con- tents, called Mormonism Exposed. Another preacher in South Carolina got space in a daily to reiterate some of the oft repeated lies about 'Mormonism. ' Despite the opposition the work is progressing. A vigorous Book of Mormon campaign is on. During the month of Uctober, two hundred and twenty of the Nephite record were sold. During the month the elders held 1,006 meetings, gave away 27.002 tracts, disposed of 2,612 books, and baptized 63 converts." So writes Nephi Jenson, secretary of the Southern States mission, to the Era, under date of November 9, 1907.

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