Messages from the Missions

MESSAGES FROM THE MISSIONS. During the half year ending December 31, 1907, there were seventy-five baptisms in the Swedish mission, ten ordinations and nineteen children blessed. The sixty-two missionaries in the five conferences of Stockholm, Goteboig, Skane, Sundsvall, and Norrkoping, distributed 115,015 tracts, and 23, 188 books, visited 70,426 stranger's homes, and held 11,804 gospel conversations, and 1,550 meetings. From the annual report of the British mission for 1907, published in the January 23rd issue of the Millennial Star, we learn that there are thirteen conferences in this mission; 99 branches, 292 missionaries, including one lady, 4,667 members, 5,268 officers and members, and 877 children under eight years of age, making a total of souls of 6, 145. During the year there were 986 baptisms. Aside from this, the elders held 335,944 gospel conversations, distributed 4,574,- 620 tracts and 127,724 books. The number of meetings held was 15,607. President Charles W. Penrose, his co-workers, and the elders in the field deserve praise and congratulations for the splendid showing which has been made. The T^ord is certainly blessing their efforts, and we trust that he will continue to aid them in the great work of preaching the gospel to the people. In five European missions, there are 41 conferences, 715 missionaries, 17,819 souls, and there were 2,101 baptisms. Turkey and Africa are not included in this number. Elders L. Cook and R. J. Hunsaker, writing from Jackson, Breathitt county, Ky.. under date of January 30, express their appreciation of the Era which they pronounce, "much better this year than ever before," and then continue: "We are thankful to our Heavenly Father for opening the way for us to explain the principles of the revealed gospel in its purity, and to warn the people of the judgments that will befall them if they do not adhere to the teachings of the servants of God. We have several earnest investigators, and have been granted the priviledge of preaching in the Presbyterian church at any time. The eyes of the blind are beginning to see out of obscurity and out of darkness. The power of the Holy Priesthood is being made manifest, and the people are beginning to see that the little stone, spoken of by the Prophet Daniel, cut out of the mountains, is destined to fill the whole earth. May this 'marvelous work and a wonder' still continue to advance, is our earnest prayer. ' ' Elder D. H. Fowler, writing from Independence, Missouri, January 20, says: In this center place of Zion we have an aggressive and progressive M. I. A., which for results might well be pitted against almost any like organization in the Stakes of Zion. We are stirring the depths of the subject, "Spiritual Growth," and have already derived an abundance of nutrition. The Manual, this year, is a power. The people of this place, generally speaking, would be a credit to any community, in religious tolerance and general respect for others' views. Those who seem to be actuated be a mistaken zeal of bigotry have plenty of room to vent their wrath, for they appear to be few, or do rot actively assert themselves. As

EDITOR'S TABLE. 389 I glance out of the window at the courthouse grounds yonder, and note the peaceful surroundings, it hardly seems possible that it is the spot where, a few decades ago, a murderous rabble howled for the blood of the Prophet Joseph. When one surveys the peaceful streets of the town, or chats pleasantly with its worthy citizens, one can little realize that not so long ago said streets were cleared of "Mormons," at the point of the bayonet. Such are the great preparations of the Lord for the bringing about of "the Zion of our God'' and of all His purposes. Elder Alvin E. Jordan, clerk of the London conference, writes under date of December 31, 1907, from No. 97 Farleigh Road, Stoke Newington, London: "We have indeed been blessed by the Lord during the past year, and we have reaped the fruits of our labors to a great degree. We number at present, thirty-nine elders, all bright and energetic men, with a true desire to make known God's work among the people. During the past year many thousands of tracts and books have been distributed, and the elders have been constant in their labors. As a result, much good has been done, and one hundred and thirty-two members have been added to the fold of Christ. We have met some opposition in our work, but have come out of it much strengthened for having maintained our views and compared them with those of the world. We are pleased with the success that has attended us in the past, and know that if we are prayerful and humble, and always found doing our duty, God will be pleased to bestow his blessings upon us in the future. The harvest is ripe, and, with the help of the Lord, we expect to outdo our last years' record during the new year." Elder George W. Simons, No. 18 Tapscott St., Kimberley, Cape Colony, South Africa, writes: "We have summer here while you are having winter, and winter here when the flowers are in bloom at home. I enjoy my missionary life better than I expected at first. South Africa is a much better place than I imagined. There are many white people here, among whom we work. We do not preach to the colored race. I am in the city of the diamond mines, and there are many diamonds in the district around here, but all the country belongs to the Debeers Company, and no one is permitted to search for diamonds without their consent. If any one should pick up a diamond on the street, which, by-the-by, is very often the case, he is under obligation to deliver it at the Debeers office where he would receive so much per caret. If they do not turn it in and are discovered, it means a punishment of seven years' hard labor. This company seems to have its own way in pretty much everything in this country, as the mines are the only paying industry out here. The diamonds are found in what is called a blue rock. It is dug out of the earth and taken into a field where it is scattered and left for from eight to ten months in the sun. When it is brought out, it is a hard, blue rock, but by contact with the air for a length of time it disintegrates, when it is gathered and washed. The blue ground and the mud float away, but the heavier matter remains in the bottom and is loaded into carts and taken to a building called the pylsator, where it is divided into three classes, the coarse, the fine, and the inedium. It is then fi-rst put through a flume, and later through a second flume con-

390 IMPRO VEMENT ERA . taining a kind of grease on the bottom to which the diamonds cling while the other matter floats away. There are seven mines around this city and each employs about six thousand Kaffirs, besides white men. If it were not for the mines in Africa, things would be at a stand-still financially, for since the war, South Africa is in a bad financial condition. Many are greatly in want of food, and at the present time mine owners are discharging laborers by the hundreds, the cause being largely political, in order that the owners may gain popularity and so further obtain a hold upon the land. In this way they do not consider the people, only themselves. I have seen some of the workings of the mines and expect to see more in the near future."