Mutual Work

: MUTUAL, WORK General Y. M. M. I. A. Meeting Helpful Hints on How to Make this a Banner Y. M. M. I. A. Year A special officers' meeting was held on Sunday morning, October 8, 1916, at 8.30 o'clock, in theassembly room of the Bishop's building. Elder Heber J. Grant presided. After the opening exercises each of the speakers on the program was given five minutes in which to treat the subject, "What three suggestions can you make to Y. M. M. I. A. officers that will assist them in making the season of 1916-17 the banner year of our associations?" A synopsis of the remarks follows Dr. John H. Taylor: Thoroughly organize scout work. It is really a part of M. I. A. work and needs the same kind of supervision. Help the boys to get the spirit of the gospel, that is the main thing. We want the boys to understand that they are a part of the Priesthood. All our labors as boy scouts, we also do as members of the Church, and our boys, the deacons, must not get the idea that they must do their work as boy scouts and not their work in the Priesthood. We must co-operate with that great, big, fine — movement the Priesthood. The boy scout work is one means of getting them to see and understand it. Roscoe WEardley: We have held a number of splendid conventions . in the majority of the stakes, and the pre-season work indicates that this is going to be the best year in the history of our organizations. In our visits among the stakes, we have found the engine of Mutual Improvement fully steamed up; fires under the boilers, the tender filled with coal, and it has appeared to us that the tracks over which we are to travel are perfectly clear. The engineers have been found at the throttle and the firemen ready to perform their part of the work. "The steam that blows the whistle is not the — steam that turns the wheels" is an old saying and the steam we have already exhausted in these conventions is not the steam that will turn the wheels during the season. If we are to continue successfully, the engineer must constantly be at the throttle, the fireman must constantly heave new coal into the furnace box. When the track becomes too smooth, sand must be let out. In a word, if we are to be successful we must have a splendid system of good follow-up work in every stake of Zion. Follow up the good work which we have already started and follow it up every week of the season. To follow it up properly, first, as stake officers, hold regular stake officers' meetings; second, have a definite order of business; third, check up on what has gone before, and what will come in the future. (2) You must have a perfect system of receiving reports, and know what the wards are doing. Encourage your ward officers to render regular reports, then you will be kept in touch with the work. Then, if you will in turn render to the General Board reports on your stake work we will be kept in touch with you. We can watch the stakes and you can watch the wards. We must co-operate and work together. (3) Arrange frequent visits on the part of stake officers to the wards. Keep in personal contact with the work in your stake. I re-emphasize, that you must work closelv with the Priesthood of your stake. Don't think that any organization is big enough, notwithstanding the fact of the splendid men who are directing its work, to succeed without the help of the presidents of

MUTUAL WORK 83 stakes, and the bishops of wards. Co-operate closely with these brethren, in this work, and you will find strength greater than you have ever had in the past. Nephi Anderson: (1) We must be thoroughly converted to the truth that the salvation of souls is the greatest work that we can be engaged in; (2) that we should have a keen, lively realization of the fact that we are in a large measure our brother's keeper; (3) that we should see to it that the proper environment is placed about our young people, so that they may be spiritually, morally, and mentally awakened and developed into perfect men and women to the end that their souls may be saved. B. S. Hinckley: These are what I regard in a very broad way, the essentials for success in Mutual Improvement work. (1) Perspiration, (2) Inspiration, (3) Organization- No man ever received inspiration without first paying the price in perspiration. I do not think that the Lord ever revealed any truth worth having to a man who did not seriously and earnestly seek for the truth. There is no organization in the Church that makes such a constant and immediate demand upon that great factor as does the Y. M. M. I. A. Get down to work and you will get the inspiration, and without inspiration you will fail signally. Can you not see that if your organization is intact, if you have the right men in the right places, and then if you are right in the line of your duty, you will have power to inject into those men the inspiration that will lead them to put forth the effort that is so necessary to success in this great organization? It is a crisis in a man's life when he is called to a place in this organization. Brother Eardley spoke of the sand on the track. I was thinking of the sand when you travel over the roads. I know certain classes of men who travel very well until they strike the sand, and then they either turn out and go around the other way, or quit. I am sure you will find patches of sand everywhere, and it requires work and inspiration to go through them successfully. This is a great organization. It gives a man a good chance to show what is in him, to really test himself to the limit, and when he does, he grows. When he puts forth his highest effort then he takes on a new growth. Edward H. Anderson: We have held fifty-two conventions thi6 year, and have about twenty more to hold. It has been the general expression of members who have visited the conventions, with very few exceptions, that been the most perfect of any ever held. The programs this year they have have been thoroughly carried out, showing the stake officers and their boards perfectly conversant with the machinery of the work. This perfection is due to a great extent to the labors of the General Board, their advice, letters, instructions. We wish now that stake officers would create a like perfection in every ward, so that every item carried out so thoroughly in our conventions may also be carried out in every ward in your stake. Here, then, are my three suggestions: (1) Make the ward officers as efficient as the stake officers are. Have a heart in the work, feel the work. Then make all (2) officers and members feel like you feel, that they may render service and be helpful. (3) Get the Spirit of the Lord and the spirit of your work, through prayer and supplication, and through energetic action. Oscar A. Kirkham recommended John Henry Evans' new book as a help in Special Activity work. Junior class and scout work is a problem. We make this suggestion: Let the boys meet with you from 7.30 to 8 o'clock. At 8 o'clock let them go to their class rooms, and let them remain there for their closing exercises, thus giving them 15 minutes more time. That will give you an entire hour with a live junior class leader, with a live scout master, and they can put over the scout lesson and junior class work in one night, and you will not have the trouble of fifty boys on Thursday at scout meeting, and five in Mutual, on Tuesday night. Half an hour for each department, or twenty minutes for the manual and the remainder of the time for scout work, just as you wish! Don't forget the Church merit certificate.

84 IMPROVEMENT ERA The junior class leader is a fine man to follow up that work. You may have heard of the big brother movement. Here is your chance to work it out. (2) A new thought. Get your wife interested and thoroughly in love with the work. When I feel that my wife is behind me in anything, I tell you I can make the dust fly. If I feel my wife is dragging on me, it is a great big load, so heavy I can hardly do anything. Convert your wife. (3) We have about so much energy to give to the work of the Lord, then we have to devote the rest to getting bread and butter. We must be consistent. If you check it out for this, you haven't it for that. My opinion is this, in the way — of supervision and execution let it be about fifty per cent to each. Spend about fifty per cent of your energy on planning your work, getting the blue print on it, and then save the other fifty per cent to put it through. Don't spend ninety-five per cent on building up a big, fine structure and then find you haven't the time to put it through. A poor plan well worked is much better than a fine plan poorly worked. B. H. Roberts: (1) Appeal to the spirit possessed by each member of the association that was conferred on him by the laying on of hands by the elders when he was confirmed a member of the Church. I sometimes think we forget the great and important truth that there is more than mere human intelligence in the membership of our associations. There has been a divine planting in their souls, a divine spiritual germ given to them, and it only — awaits development to reach its richest and highest results, the highest results that it is possible for men to attain unto by the co-operation of his own spirit and the Spirit that is given unto him, even the Holy Ghost. My suggestion is that we appeal to that Spirit and make our members conscious of his presence in their lives, conscious of the added strength of their own strength that that Spirit gives to them. Teach them that they have a union with the very Godhead, that the wisdom, power and righteousness of God may be brought into their lives through the rich possession that we have received from the gospel of Jesus Christ. Appeal to that Spirit, as Paul appealed to the spirit that was in his young missionary friend Timothy. We want the union of the two forces in every life of our young men. (2) My — second suggestion is closely associated with the first -prayer, individual prayer. Appeal to the Source of prayer as a means of individual strength and power; that is, prayer in the sense that it shall be communion with God. No prayer is worth while that isn't that. Prayer is something more than a mere begging for things, a mere asking for things, that may be more or less convenient to us and necessary in our daily lives. What we need to learn, in our prayers, is to commune with God, talk with him, draw near unto him in fellowship, and so pray that the veil that separates us from the Divine presence shall grow exceedingly thin, so thin that we shall feel the pulsation of God's life in our lives! We have never learned to pray until we can do that. I sometimes think that we permit ourselves to let our prayers be mere words, words, words. The great English poet told us that words were not sufficient. (3) That you impress upon the members of your association that they are engaged in an individual work. That they must do much outside of the association hours of exercises. That they must be individual students. In other words, that our Mutual work is something more than mere attendance upon the Mutual Improvement meetings, that there must be individual efforts made outside of these times of coming together. Realize that these are times for giving expression to what has been mastered as private students, that their Mutual Improvement work extends through many, many hours of individual preparation. Members come to meetings so that they may give expression to that which they have mastered as individual students. Members of the associations should be taught to regard the associations and what is done there, not as an end, in and of itself, but as a means to an end. In Mutual Improvement work it should always be borne in mind that the end, the thing sought for, is the making of men. That our associations are

MUTUAL WORK 85 only helps, one of the helps, one of the many helps towards that end the — making of men, the building of character, that God may have men in this God's world through whom he may be revealed in his Spirit and power unto the inhabitants of the earth. Also that there shall be in his servants, thus created, such a likeness of the Divine that men will feel the power and force that there is in consecration to the work of God We want to keep that image before them always. Heber J. Grant: (1) That we follow the admonition of the Savior to love the Lord our God with all our might, mind and strength, and that we love our neighbor as ourselves. Any man engaged in Mutual Improvement work must succeed who loves the Lord, and his fellow man, and desires to benefit mankind. If we love the Lord, we will serve him. We will feel that the first great object, then, is to seek for the ability, the strength and the power to fulfil those things that we feel the Lord desires us to fulfil. If we love the Lord, we will take an interest in this work, and be able to benefit our neighbor. (2) That we do not forget, and that we labor with particular zeal to accomplish the slogans; namely, "We stand for a weekly half holiday and a sacred Sabbath, and we stand for a weekly home evening; and for state- and nation-wide prohibition. Those are the slogans, and my suggestion is that you emphasize these. I confess that I felt humiliated, as I walked from my home to this place this morning, to find the contractor employed by my agent and your agent, contractors paid with our money, working on the Sabbath day grading one of our streets and arranging to pave it. I think it is a disgrace to the city, and to the city commission, who will contract with men to break the Sabbath. I appeal to the legislators from the country districts to stand in favor of a Sunday law, and for prohibition. (3) That we read carefully the record in the Book of Mormon of the commandment of the Lord to Lehi to send his sons back to secure the brass plates from Laban. Read it and re-read it, and it will be one of the guiding stars of your lives, and will prevent you from becoming discouraged in the labors you are called upon to perform. Elder Junius F. Wells, organizer of the first Y. M. M. I. A., under Brigham Young, closed the meeting by prayer. Stake Work For November We take it for granted that ward and stake officers have their organizations complete, that they have obtained the manuals in each ward and provided class leaders for each class, for the season's work. We presume that the ward membership work has been seen to, and that the opening social in the wards has been a success, also that the wards have held their entertainments for the raising of the full amount of the Fund, and that this will be forwarded without delay. In the monthly officers' meeting, however, particular stress should be laid upon the necessity of further missionary work, so that your membership may be raised to the required standard of efficiency and you be able to report your stake "10" on the first of December, in membership, as per efficiency schedule published in the August "Era" and in the convention circular. Check up the other work also. You should check up the ward canvass for the "Era," and if all your wards have had a proficient and spirited man visit every family in the wards with a view to having them subscribe for the "Era," you may put "10" in that space for your stake, which we hope may be the case; and also that you have given us a splendid circulation for our magazine. In case the work is not done, however, it should be fol-

86 IMPROVEMENT ERA lowed up; and here, by-the-by, this word "follow-up" means either success or failure in your associations. It is the slogan that your stake board should adopt and carry out. The work for November should be a thorough entering into the spirit of class work, and every class should be checked up to see that it has prompt, punctual and capable teachers. We have two manuals this year, one for the junior and one for the senior classes, both of which are intensely interesting and can be made very attractive to the young people, both boys and seniors with the proper kind of teachers. Another point that you should lay stress on now is the Church merit certificate. Let the junior class teachers work to get as many boys as possible between twelve and twenty to make an effort to obtain this certificate this season. The requirements were explained in the convention circular and in the August "Era" and should be reiterated to the officers in your stake. Read the suggestions elsewhere on how to make this a banner Y. M. M. I. A. year. Suggestive Preliminary Programs (As presented in late M. I. A. Conventions) General topic, "Courage." Song, "One Fleeting Hour," Lee. Retold story, "Thirty Pieces of Silver" (Kellerman, Harper's). Talk on "Courage" (10 minutes). General topic, "Eugene Field." Song, "The Tin Soldier." "Life and Works of Field" (10 minutes). Male quartet, "Winkin, Blinken and Nod." General topic, "Blessed are the Peacemakers." Talk (5 minutes) on the general topic. Song, "Peace, be still." Talk, "The Andean Peace Monument" (5 minutes). Mixed double quartet, "How Lovely are the Messengers." General topic, "Wild Flowers." Junior girls' quartet, "Forget-me-not." "Ten Reasons why the Columbine should become the National Flower.' Talk (5 minutes). Recitation, "The Daffodil" (Wordsworth). Organ and Violin Solo, "To a Wild Rose" (Macdowell). Talk (10 minutes), "Wild Flowers of Our State." Vocations and Industries Notice to Stake Superintendents The Committee on Vocations and Industries of the General Board request the stake superintendents to write at once by return mail, to Secretary Moroni Snow, giving the names and addresses of their stake vocational supervisors. They are asked further to see to the following items: Call the stake supervisor's attention to our boys' industrial contest work, and have him urge the boys of your stake who entered these contests to report at once, not later than November 10. The committee suggests that each ward vocation counselor arrange for a series of talks in the different wards, where successful farmers, business and professional men, and tradesmen, may discuss their calling and the necessary

MUTUAL WORK 87 preparation for entering it. One or two such men in one evening, with good music, would furnish a very inspirational program. If your stake vocation supervisor and ward vocation counselors haven't as yet done any work in the vocational department, their attention should be called to the duties of vocation counselors, in the Y. M. M. I. A. Hand Book, pages 35 to 46 (note specially pages 44 to 46), and they should proceed as there instructed. The committee is pleased to announce to the workers in this department that they are preparing a text book for ward vocation counselors which will prove a great inspiration and help to them in their work. What Utah Products Week Means By L. B. Hampton, Chairman of the Utah Products Week Committee The week of November 19 has been designated as Utah Products week. Itspurpose is to direct special attention to the industries of the state, and the opportunities which exist in our different communities for the development of new enterprises. Because of their environment, education, and training, the people of Utah are naturally interested in resources which abound in all parts of the state, and in the processes that will transform them into articles fitted for the comfort, convenience and use of man. From the earliest pioneer days there has been a strong sentiment favoring home industry. President Brigham Young, and other early leaders taught the importance of home manufacture, and their teachings have been continued and emphasized by the present leaders of the people. The Church has always taken a deep interest in industries which were deemed of importance and for the welfare of the people. It is estimated that the value of the manufactured products of the Territory of Utah amounted to $290,000, in 1850. Since that time there has been a steady increase in the number of factories and in the values of the output. The safest guide to the figures at the present time is given by the federal government, and according to the latest industrial census (1914) Utah has 1,100 factories, in which there is a total investment of $75,000,000. The value of the output for 1914 was $87,112,000, and for the present year is is estimated by good authority that it will exceed $100,000,000. In 1914, 16,128 persons were employed in the factories, and they were paid $14,250,000 for their services. In addition to this $30,000,000 was distributed to Utah farmers, and other Utah producers, for raw materials which entered into the manufactured articles. While these facts are common knowledge, it is thought that great good will result from calling them to the attention of the people, at least once a year, in a special way. Everybody is invited to participate in the activities of Utah Products week. According to the plans which have been prepared, all the churches will be asked to deliver sermons on the value of home industry to the community, Sunday, November 19. The clubs and societies composed of women are being invited to request their members to serve at least one meal during the week, which shall consist entirely of the products of the state, and they are being asked to call this fact to the attention of their families and their guests, if any are present during the meal. The schools of Utah have always taken special interest in Utah Products week. Speakers will be provided to address the universities and colleges, and many of the high schools, and the teachers in the grades will give talks, on Utah and its industries, to the children in their classes. Additional interest will be aroused through the contests to be held, in which all high school and upper grade students may participate. The business men will join in the movement through their commercial

88 IMPROVEMENT ERA clubs, and as individuals. The show windows of the stores will be filled with the products of the local factories, and Utah-made goods generally put to the front. The committee having the plans for the week in charge have suggested that the M. I. A. can do their share by choosing "Home Industry" as the subject for the preliminary programs to be given during the week, November 19. A number of songs appropriate for such a program are found in the Sunday School Song Book. (See also January, 1916, "Era," page 280.) The talk given on the subject should be constructive, and should point out how the community and the state are benefited by home industry. Reference may also be made to opportunities which exist in the community for new industries, or a talk may be given on this topic. The vocation counselor could aid in giving suggestions. Home industry is the best and perhaps the only kind of industry that will prove of real benefit to a community. It builds roads and bridges, furnishes men and women with employment, makes good markets for the farmers, produces revenue for schools, supplies the funds to build churches, and makes for a bigger and better state. Since Utah Products week brings some of these common truths home to the people, and encourages them to do their share towards building the community in which they reside, its celebration is generally approved by all classes of our citizens. Scout Work What Does "Scout Work" Mean? "Does the efficiency scheme in its reference to scout work mean that a stake should have 50 per cent of its wards with troops registered in the National organization of the Boy Scouts of America, in order to place "10" in the scout column?" The General Board have decided "Yes." Boys should not be known as M. I. A. scouts who can do scout work, until they have passed the Tenderfoot test, and are registered at national headquarters. Before that they are only candidates to become scouts. They are not doing "scout work," in the sense required in the efficiencv report. A Profitable Hike E. Ray Guymon, stake clerk of the Cassia stake, sends a description and account of the boy scouts' annual hike held in the Cassia stake, August 21, Dr. John H. Taylor giving instructions, Monument Peak, Idaho

MUTUAL WORK 89 1916, for five days, to thegovernment ranger station, twenty miles west of Oakley, Idaho. Only three wards in the stake were unrepresented. The bishopric of half the wards which participated had a representative there which added materially to the company. Dr. John H. Taylor of Salt Lake, M. I. A. Scout Commissioner, and Stake Deputv Commissioner Howard Price, supervised the trip. Thirteen organizations were en route. The entire distance was made on foot, the boys walking in double file carrying their water canteens and their medicine kit for emergency cases. Games, appropriate programs, and bonfires were indulged in on the way. Monument Peak In Camp was visited, elevation 8,400 feet, overlooking the great snowsheds of the Goose Creek. Mr. Campbell, forest supervisor of the Minnidoka forest reserve, lectured on the work of this department, the need of preventing forest fires, and the different species of pines growing on the mountain, and the estimated length of life of each. William A. Martindale lectured on Monument Peak and on early incidents of history connected with it. Demonstrations in cleanliness, and camp sanitation, were given. The government aided in the loan of camp equipment, and three prominent sheep men were responsible for the extra fine muttons given the boys on the trip. Camps worthy of mention for camp sanitation and camp arrangement were Burley Exercises and Games on the Way

90 IMPROVEMENT ERA First, Oakley First and Unity wards. No accidents occurred and a profitable and enjoyable time was spent. Ensign Scouts Have Permanent Camp "Camp Ensign," the permanent camp of the Ensign Stake M. I. A. Scouts, is located at Brighton, in Big Cottonwood Canyon, thirty miles east of Salt Lake City. The cabin is finished except the porch, which is built around the four sides, and when finished will be twelve feet high and thirty-five feet wide by fifty feet long. The Great Western Mining company, with Mr. Jesse Knight at its head, is the kind donor of the permit allowing the scouts to locate on its ground. The plans at present are to open a nature school at Ensign Stake Scout Cabin, Big Cottonwood Canyon, seen from Campus the camp, at the beginning of the summer vacation, to run until the opening day of school in the fall. Ferns, grasses, bugs, animals, trees, minerals, and kindred subjects will be studied in connection with the regular scout work. Any M. I. A. Scout will be allowed to come and stay at camp as long as he obeys the camp regulations and pays for his food. Swimming pool, tennis court, baseball diamond, and a zoological garden will be built for the benefit of the boys. Bishops and Clerks Appointed since April, 1916, Conference Sixty-six bishops and eighty-eight ward clerks have been appointed since last conference, 46 bishops of old wards and 20 bishops of new wards; 68 ward clerks of old wards and 20 of new wards. There have been 22 new wards organized 6ince last April conference. There are now 72 organized stakes of Zion, with 816 wards and independent branches. There are 22 missions.