---
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: 23
number: 11
published: 1920-09
publisher: Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations
publisher_place: Salt Lake City
language: en
type: magazine
reference: 'Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations, "Where Are the Men to Lead?," *Improvement Era* 23, no. 11 (September 1920): 977.'
source:
  url: https://archive.org/details/improvementera23011unse
  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: improvementera23011unse
start_page: 977
end_page: 977
rights:
  status: public-domain
  basis: US publication 1930 or earlier (published 1920-09)
  source: https://archive.org/details/improvementera23011unse
  publication_year: 1920
  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 1920, before 1931; a scan-level notice does not restore copyright.
---

# Where Are the Men to Lead?

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A FAITH-PROMOTING EXPERIENCE                     979

     Up to this time I did not know what the future might bring
forth, as those ministers were still striving to persuade me to
join their churches, especially the Methodist minister, who came
to me and proposed to make me one of his fellow preachers.
Besides this, he said he was willing to pay me two hundred dollars for the last four months during which time we had been
engaged in discussion, and he added the promise of a good
salary in the near future. I was more than surprised, and after
a sharp discussion, I told him that even for a million dollars I
could not preach something I did not believe.
     He then went to my father and induced him to intercede for
him. My father, having no knowledge whatever of the truth
and thinking it would be educational and profitable temporally
as well as spiritually, thought I was foolish in refusing it. When
my father found I could not be persuaded, he decided to send me
away from home.
     At this time, I had already been invited by President Tenney
to attend the first conference in Mexico, to be held in Cuernavaca, about eighty miles from home. The minister knew about
it, and used the argument that going there would cost money

and waste time. My father did not want me to go. When I was
wandering upon the street not knowing what to do, I thought of
the sacred teachings and example of my darling mother.
     Allow me to say a few words about my dear mother. Though
she was a Catholic, she never bowed before any image, but in
time of need and sorrow, she always went into a private place
and shed tears in supplication to the living Father in Heaven.
How many times in my childhood days I found her in such a
state, without her knowledge!     My soul was full of joy to hear
her prayers and petitions; for, indeed, it was the sweetest thing
of my whole life. To* imitate her was natural. In time, the imitation became a practice, and that practice became a habit, and
that habit my Rock, and the refreshing Fountain of my poor and
thirsty soul.
     Coming to my subject, what could a helpless boy like me
do in such a condition? What, if I had chosen to do as the
minister wished me to do? So, full of hope and confidence,
more than ever, in the Lord, I went to my heavenly Father in
prayer. Among other things, I prayed that the Lord would soften
my father's heart and that he would come to me at five o'clock
in the morning in answer to my prayer and further testimony of
the divinity of the truth.
     While I was praying, I felt as if my body was dissolved. I felt
the power of faith within my soul. With the exception of one
other occasion of the same nature, I haven't enjoyed a similar
privilege, which I regret very much.
     When I arose from my knees, an unusual peace filled my