--- 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: 32 number: 10 published: 1929-08 publisher: Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations publisher_place: Salt Lake City language: en type: magazine reference: "Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations, “What Our Missionary Work Is Accomplishing,” *Improvement Era* 32, no. 10 (August 1929): 868–869." source: url: https://archive.org/details/improvementera32010unse 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: improvementera32010unse start_page: 868 end_page: 869 rights: status: public-domain basis: US publication 1930 or earlier (published 1929-08) source: https://archive.org/details/improvementera32010unse publication_year: 1929 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 1929, before 1931; a scan-level notice does not restore copyright. --- # What Our Missionary Work Is Accomplishing What Our Missionary Work is Accomplishing There is nothing stagnant about the "Mormon" people. A short time ago, on a Sunday evening in Salt Lake City, fourteen Church members met at the conclusion of a sacramental serv- ice. They were not all from the same ward, and their meeting was a some- what casual one. The group was in- vited to the home of one of the party, and all accepted the invitation. Their ages ran from nineteen to sixty years, and five of them were unmarried. Quite by accident the conversation turned upon sea travel, and before it had proceeded very far, it was dis- covered that thirteen of the fourteen present had been passengers on ocean- going vessels, traveling either eastward or westward, from the United States. These people were not outstanding because of their earthly possessions. Indeed, the most prosperous one pres- ent would only be considered in com- fortable circumstances, and some of the number were having a serious struggle to provide even the ordinary necessities of life for their families. The sum total of their travels had taken them into nearly all parts of the United States, into Canada, the Pacific Isles, New Zealand, Australia, the Holy Land and almost every country in Europe. Several foreign languages were at their command. One lady had journeyed to Hawaii to meet her husband, who was there on business and who was anxious for her to see that beautiful land. The other twelve voyagers had done their traveling as a direct result of mission- ary calls. In any other community in the world, how much searching and care- ful selecting would have to be done in order to bring such a group to- gether? Even in many good-sized cities it would be impossible, but there is hardly a village whose population is made up of "Mormons" where this experience could not rather easily be duplicated. It is perhaps not too much to say that, in proportion to population, there is no other com- munity where one finds so many men and women who have visited far- distant lands. Such a statement could be emphatically made if wealth, too, were taken into consideration. The educational value of such a condition is worth a moment's thought. In the Church every mem- ber should be and most of them are active contributors to their fellow-men of their knowledge and experience, and herein lies one of the important factors in the intellectual growth of the Lat- ter-day Saints. A well-traveled peo- ple will naturally become an intelligent people, and this is particularly true when the traveling is done not merely for pleasure but in serious mood and with a definite purpose in mind. In this spirit the members of the Church have always gone out. They have not skimmed superficially over the surface of things, merely looking at a castle here or a waterfall there, but have settled down in the country visited, have studied the hearts as well as the language of the people and have come back home with an intimate acquain- tance with the history, the language and habits of thought of those among whom they have spent their time. They know something, too, of the art, the literature, social, economic, agricultural and industrial conditions of these countries. Aug.. 1929 EDITOR'S TABLE 869 Of course it would be absurd to claim that our missionaries absorb as much knowledge as they should. Their youth, if there were no other reasons, would make so desirable a result impossible, and regrettable carelessness often contributes to a loss of oppor- tunity, but these missionaries do obtain much information, and some of them are real students. They return with the feeling that all they bring back with them belongs to their community. The Almighty works on natural principles, and one can see in the mis- sionary system of the Church a means of bringing to fulfillment the state- ment made concerning those who are faithful. "Great shall be their reward and eternal shall be their glory. And to them will I reveal all mysteries, yea, all the hidden mysteries of my king- dom from days of old, and for ages to come, will I make known unto them the good pleasure of my will con- cerning all things pertaining to my kingdom. * * * And their wisdom shall be great, and their understanding reach to heaven; and before them the wisdom of the wise shall perish, and the understanding of the prudent shall come to naught." — C. For Smoking Women to Think About By Will H. Brown A young woman passenger on a Los Angeles street car sat down next to a plasterer and lit a cigarette. The labor- er, after taking one good look at her, arose and walked into another section of the car, where he stood in the aisle, rather than have anyone mis- judge him because he sat next to a smoking woman. Many smoking women do not seem to realize that the habit places them among a certain class of women who are not held in the highest esteem by self-respecting men. No self-respect- ing woman can afford to forget this important viewpoint of a vast army of clean-cut, clean-living men. Women should not only protect themselves but the race from the stain of tobacco upon their name or their person. Parents in every state in the Union are calling out for help to pro- tect their boys and girls from the to- bacco propaganda that is flooding the land for the purpose of inducing the youth of America to take up cigarette smoking. Every woman should pro- test against this onslaught, in every legal way possible. Officers everywhere should be called on to enforce the law against selling tobacco to minors. Tobacco men do not hesitate to call for government aid in their behalf. When the black-root rot struck the tobacco fields of Kentucky and Vir- ginia, the wail for help from the to- bacco raisers brought government agricultural experts to the scene in a hurry. The loss of the entire tobacco crop in the United States would be small compared to the loss the nation is suf- fering in the enslaving of boys and girls to the tobacco habit, to the profit of greedy tobacco men in raising the weed and in manufacturing it into smoking products.