Qualities and Virtues Needed Today

Qualities and Virtues Needed Today By J. C. Hogenson, of the Utah Agricultural College In Proverbs 6, we read: These six things doth the Lord hate, yea, seven are an abomination unto him — A proud look, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood, a heart that deviseth wicked imaginations, feet that are swift in running to mischief, a false witness that speaketh lies, and he that soweth discord among his brethren. All of us hare seen people who possess one or more of the above bad qualities and know how that even we hate any and all of those things in our fellows. Qalities which young people as well as older ones need for success and happiness may be mentioned as follows: Reverence for God.— Love God and keep his commandments and you will' never go far astray. Respect for Law. — Too many people today glory in the fact that they are able to break the law. This is bound to have an evil effect sooner or later. Appreciation. — In many places and among many young people there appears to be an utter lack of appreciation of what other pepole do for them and for their welfare. Cultivate that spirit of appreciation. It will help so much to make the world better, brighter and happier. Do not carry about with you the matter-of-fact spirit that the help of other people come to you because they owe it to you. Appreciate it and show your appreciation. Dependability. — Do not make promises lightly. Mean what you say and do what you say, so that other people can absolutely depend upon you at all times and under all circumstances. Accuracy. — Learn to be accurate in every detail. Never slip over any task lightly, but always put into every effort the very best there is in you. Thoroughness. — Be thorough. Success is never attained by careless or slip-shod methods, but by those who master and practice every detail. Honesty. — To be honest for honesty's sake, and because it is right, and not because it is the best policy means a big measure toward success. Knowledge. — Know your work and love it. Success comes to those who master every detail of the business or work which they are called upon to do. Know your work and you will love it. Fitly the man who continually has to do work he does not love. Each day for him is drudgery, and happi- ness is not his portion. He never tries to increase his knowledge, regard- ing his work and hence promotion never comes. Respect for other people's rights. — How often we see people who never think of the rights of the other fellow, but who guard very jealously their

724 IMPROVEMENT ERA own. We must always remember that the other fellow has rights equal to, and similar to our own. Responsibility.— Learn to take and appreciate the responsibility that comes to you. Never shirk it. We are told that responsibility makes men. The person who shrinks from having responsibility placed upon him never amounts to anything. He is always a follower and never a leader. Humility. — Be humble. Never feel yourself puffed up with pride. It is the humble person who always gains the respect and confidence of his fellow men and who comes nearest to his God. Love our fellow men. — Love warms the heart and makes us kind and truly great. Sympathy. — Cultivate a sympathy for all living creatures and this sym- pathy will return love to you. Efficiency. — This is the watchword of today. You can get nowhere unless you are efficient in everything you undertake to do. Example. — Example is always better than precept. Be what you want others to be and be in very deed what other people think you are. When we can banish selfishness and forget self in the wel- fare of others; when we can dedicate our life to service; then we are helping and doing our full share in bringing about the universal brotherhood of man as Cod would have us do. Logan, Utah. Two scenes on Main Street, Salt Lake City, in the great Boys' Parade, April 28... More than ten tltousas.d boys were in the procession tliat day.

New Mission Presidents Angus T. Wright, the Recently Appointed President of the New Zealand Mission Elder Wright was born July 24, 1856, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and is the son of William H. and Emma Taylor Wright. With his parents he came to Utah in 1859, settling in Richmond, Cache Valley, where they Angus T. Wright

726 IMPROVEMENT ERA remained until 1878. W. H. Wright established a mercantile house in Ogden, in 1875, in which Angus T. and the other sons joined. It is still one of the leading business institutions of that city. Elder Wright was one of the first members of the Y. M. M. I. A. Weber stake central committee, in 1878. He was appointed the corresponding secretary of the Young Men's Mutual Improvement Associations of that stake, in 1881. He was elected to the school board in 1884, to the city council in 1885, serving until 1887, when he was re-elected but served only until he was called on a mission to New Zealand that year. He presided over that mission until released in 1889. Returning to Ogden in 1890, he was ordained a high priest, and in September succeeded Edward H. Anderson, who was then called to pre- side over the Scandinavian mission, as superintendent of the Weber stake Y. M. M. I. A. In this position he continued for a number of years until May 21, 1899, when John L. Herrick, later president of the Western States mission, succeeded him. In 1897 Elder Wright was appointed a member of iht Board of Trustees of the State Industrial School, and became the presi- dent of the Board in 1899. In 1901 he became the president of the Weber Club; and the following year, was chosen a member of the high council of the Weber stake of Zion. In 1911 he was appointed a trustee of the Agricultural College in which position he served until he resigned to fill his present and second call to New Zealand. Elder Wright has always been active in business and public affairs and a diligent laborer in the Church. His wife, Martha J. Wright, is a daughter of the late Hon. Charles F. Middleton. She accompanied him to his new field of labor, being set apart by President Anthony W. Ivins on the 30th of March. Elder Wright was set apart on the same day for his present duties by the First Presidency, President Heber J. Grant being mouth. They sailed on the 27th of April from Vancouver. Elder Wright's skill in the language, his wide experience in temporal affairs and in general as- sociation with business and religious people, together with his extended service in the Church at home and abroad, eminently fit him for the mission to which he has been appointed. Sister Wnght's experience in the home and in the presidency of the M. I. A. and other organizations well qualify her to do the work, as the mother of the mission. John Soren Hansen, Recently Appointed President of the Danish Mission John Soren Hansen, recently appointed president of the Danish mission, left for Copenhagen, Tuesday, April 3, 1923. Born September 6, 1877, in that city, he is a son of Soren Hansen and Christina Andersen. His parents joined the Church in 1880, and he was baptized, April 5, 1889. He was ordained a deacon, August 2, 1891 ; a teacher, February 5, 1893 ; and a priest, December 30, 1894. He was always a faithful attendant in the Sunday school, and a diligent student of English under the missionaries in his native land, taking advantage of every opportunity to learn. While in Copenhagen he acted as teacher among the Saints, and assistant superintend- ent of the M. I. A., the president usually being an elder fcutu £ion. At the age of 13 he was a teacher in the mission Sunday school. In company with his father he emigrated to Utah, October 6, 1898. His mother, sister, and his fiance, Anna C. V. Jensen, followed the next year, and he was married to her June 15, 1900. In Utah, he continued his interest in Church activi- ties. He was ordained an elder by Edwin Bennion, acted as superintendent

NEW MISSION PRESIDENTS 727 of the Grant ward Sunday School for two years, was president of the Y. M. M. I. A. there for three years; was class instructor and later, president of the twelfth quorum of elders in the Granite stake, whicn at that time comprised also the Cottonwood stake; ordained a Seventy, January 15, 1912, by President Charles H. Hart, and filled a two-year Mission to Scandinavia, April, 1912-14, laboring as writer and translator for Skandi- naviens Stjerne. He compiled a Sunday School outline in Danish for use in the mission Sunday Schools, and during his stay, baptized 18 converts. Returning, he acted as a home missionary and was set apart as president of the 140th quorum of Seventy by Elder Rulon S. "WJells. He was ordained a high priest by President Frank Y. Taylor, April 21, 1918, ana set apart as second counselor to Bishop Stayner Richards of the Highland Park ward in the Granite stake of Zion, where he has labored up to the present with energy and enthusiasm in ward and stake affairs. On the 30th of March, 1923, he was set apart for his present mission by the first Presidency, President Charles W. Penrose being mouth. Since April 1, 1915, he has John S. Hansen aited as editor of Bikuben, the Danish Church paper, as publisher, and translator of a number of well-known Church books into the Danish lan- guage, comprising eleven volumes of original translation anions them the following: Journal of Wilford Woodruff,, Life of Brigham Young, John Stevens' Courtship, The Rule of Anti-Christ, Teachings of Joseph the Prophet, Biography of CCA. Christcnsen, the latter being from original notes. His experience, faithfulness, and integrity should enable him to carry on the labors of the mission to which he has now ueen called with great success.

728 IMPROVEMENT ERA Hugo D. E. Peterson, Recently Appointed President of the Swedish Mission Elder Peterson is the son of Isaac Peterson and Anna Sophia Gardstedt Peterson, and was born in the city of Wisby, Isle of Gottland, Sweden, Aug- m± j _^^^^fl 1 i W&WK. Jb'm HI Hugo D. E. Peterson iibt 14, 1860. He was baptized into the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, May 11, 1873, his parents having become converts to the gospel a few years before. He was ordained a priest, April 27, 1880; an elder, August 31, 1881; a seventy, February 23, 1885, and is at present a member of the council of the Fourth Quorum of Seventy. At the age of 19 years he was called to go to mission headquarters at Copenhagen, Denmark, to edit the Swedish mission monthly, Nordstjernan, under the direction of Presi-

NEW MISSION PRESIDENTS 129 dent Niels Wilhelmsen and Christian D. Fjeldsted, serving in that position for about two and a half years. Emigrating, to Utah, he arrived in Salt Lake City, July, 1883, and located in Scipio, Millard county, the home town of his parents. Here he worked for some time as tithing and store clerk for the late Bishop Thomas Yates. In the early part of 1884, he was em- ployed in the Deseret News office, where he continued his trade as com- positor. He has been active as a Church worker, especially as choir leader in the Scandinavian meetings, in Salt Lake City, serving in that capacity under Presidents Andrew W. Winberg and J. M. Sjodahl for about 25 years. On January 26, 1906, Elder Peterson was called and set apart as the first president of the Swedish meetings in the Ensign stake, which position he held for ten years, when, owing to other duties, he was honorably released. In 1909, he was appointed by the First Presidency to compile and publish the two Scandinavian psalmodies, Zions Sanger in Swedish, and Zions Sange in Danish-Norwegian, which were completed and printed the following year. In June, 1914, the First Presidency placed him in charge of Utah Posten, a Swedish weekly publication, which he has edited and published up to the present time. For several years past he has been one of the 28 elders called to administer to the sick daily in the Latter-day Saints' Hospital in Salt Lake City, in which labor of love he continued until his departure to fill his new calling in the mission field. He has been one of the special missionaries in the Ensign stake during the past year. Brother Peterson was married to Axeline Manuella Nielsen, May 23, 1884, in the Endowment House, Salt Lake City. The couple have been blessed with four sons and five daughters, all living. Two sons have filled missions in Scandinavia, and a third son served during the great war under the late General Richard W. Young, in France. Sister Peterson and the 14-year-old daughter, Mildred, accompany Elder Peterson to his new field of labor. They left Salt Lake City, May 25, and were to sail from New York to Copenhagen on Oscar II, May 31. Temple Worker to his Wife My loved one. As the years so swiftly run Another passes — you are seventy-one, The past is gone, the future speeds this way — We may review and speculate today. You have to me been truest, kindest wife — « My soul's companion, partner of my life, Sharing my sorrows, making joys more sweet, Life's dreams and aims and duties more complete. Stand by me still, dear heart, and when you can, Step forth and aid again Christ's saving plan, Assisting in the temple of the Lord To bring to others highest, best reward. Then with our children in the time to be — Serving our Father still, from earth-cares free; Rejoicing still, true husband and true wife, We shall progress through everlasting life. — L. Lulu Greene Richards.