From this conference, these excellent sessions which have been held, with the Spirit of the Lord in attendance, we have been fed the bread of life, and we have been fed those things pertaining to eternal life which will help us in our daily lives here in mortality. I believe there are a few lines which would sum up very beautifully the truths that have been spoken from this pulpit.

It is a simple prayer, and as far as I am concerned, the author is anonymous. "O God, our Father, always keep us thankful, and never let us forget the source of all our blessings and our great privilege to share them with others."

I am so grateful for those words because I feel they sum up beautifully the things which have been given in these marvelous sessions from those who have preceded me. The opening remarks of President McKay, saluting youth, commending them for their courage and fortitude in seeking to know the truth and to follow it, were most inspirational, as has been each of the brethren, to Brother Romney who has just preceded me with his beautiful testimony of the divinity of Jesus Christ. There is one, I should like to say at this point, whom I have missed, and I am sure I voice the thoughts of thousands who have been and are here; the voice and the words of President J. Reuben Clark, Jr. God bless you, President Clark.

Because of this sharing, there was an assignment that came to Sister Longden and me last November—it came earlier than that but because of the conditions and circumstances over which we had no control, we were not able to start our journey until the fourth of November 1960.

We left Salt Lake City with President and Sister Kendall W. Young, who were to be installed in the French Polynesian (or Tahitian) Mission, and with us were their four little children—the oldest not yet seven. You talk about faith—here it is exemplified—these people willing to leave the comforts of home and the pursuits here of their daily labors to go out and serve the Lord in those beautiful but faraway islands of the South Pacific.

We arrived in Papeete, Tahiti, after twenty-seven hours. The final journey from Honolulu to Papeete took ten hours and fifteen minutes which is quite a long time to be in the air. But we were blessed. We arrived there Saturday morning. On Sunday, the next day, President Young was installed as the new mission president. President Joseph R. Reeder was released as president of the French Polynesian Mission. In a few days President and Sister Reeder, their son and daughter and a young elder, Ralph Anderson from Brigham City, Utah, who was in the Tahitian Mission presidency, started for Rarotonga on the Church ship, Paraita, so named after Addison Pratt, one of the first missionaries to labor in the South Pacific isles as early as 1844. That will give you an idea of how our "sharing" was taking place even in those early days.

President Reeder was installed the following Sunday as President of the Rarotonga Mission. We had eighty-one percent attendance in our meeting that day. That is something for you stake presidents here in the States to shoot at—eighty-one percent of the total membership of the Church on the Island of Rarotonga—as we created a new mission in the Cook Islands with headquarters in Rarotonga.

The missionaries in Rarotonga as well as those in Tahiti, Tonga, Samoa, Australia, and New Zealand, are dedicated young men, giving their all in sharing the gospel.

I shall always remember one missionary who wished to stay several months longer after completing his full term in the mission field, but he sensed that finances might be running short at home so he wrote to his mother, who is a widow, asking her advice. While we were in Tahiti he received a letter from her stating, "If necessary, I'll scrub floors in order to keep you in the mission field your full time and longer." Faith, sharing with others!

The missionary activity in these two missions, the increasing baptisms, the stepped-up interest of investigators is most heartwarming. I believe our members there are fully converted to the truth and know why they are being baptized. There is a lovely missionary endeavor which takes place every three weeks as each Matson liner comes into Papeete. The French and the Tahitian branches, combined, furnish a forty-five-minute program for all the tourists on board ship, and there is usually a full complement of passengers. The program consists of classical as well as native music sung by a chorus of beautiful young Tahitian members led by one of the missionaries. There are also some impressive native dances by young and old, and you would thrill at the music—the choruses, the individual numbers. We were told by the captains of both ships on which we witnessed the show that this was always the favorite entertainment of their passengers.

Our journey then took us to Suva, Fiji, and to Nuku'alofa, Tonga, where we met with President M. Vernon Coombs and Sister Coombs. They have been in the mission field in Tonga on and off since 1911. The people love them, and they love the Tongan Saints. President Coombs had arranged an interview with Crown Prince Tungi, who was very grateful for the courtesy and hospitality extended to him by President McKay on a visit here a few years ago. Perhaps one of the most thrilling, humbling moments of our lives was as we arrived at the Church college in Nuku'alofa. The Saints were all dressed in pure white, mostly sitting on the floor to make more room. As we arrived they stood and sang like angels, "We Thank Thee O God For a Prophet." Right then I had the privilege of telling them I knew they were singing their thanks for our prophet, David O. McKay, and I would convey their love and greeting to him.

I shall never forget the 1,400 Saints assembled at a music and dance festival presented by several branches of the Tongan Mission. This time we saw the great MIA program in action. I am ready for any stake president now, or anyone in the Mutual organization who says, "It won't work in our stake." We saw it work. We saw this marvelous program in action—dancing, singing, the drama, speech. Also we met with Tongan Master M-Men and Golden Gleaners.

Yes, sharing the gospel is a happy experience—more so when we see the gospel principles applied in the daily lives of others. I am grateful for the faith of the missionaries in the South Pacific and, though we are limited in number in some of these missions, the mission presidents are meeting this challenge through the development of; young Tahitians, Tongans, and Samoans who are qualified and worthy, who already know the language. These young people are called as missionaries to serve with the missionaries from the States. That is doubling our number of missionaries, and great good is being accomplished.

From Tonga we moved on to Samoa, where a fine work is being accomplished. Here we saw much of another phase of activity in the Church—the labor missionary program. It was my privilege to hold a special meeting with seventy-seven of them, and then as the Apia Chapel was dedicated with 526 in attendance, to see and hear a chorus of fifty young labor missionaries dressed in white shirts and trousers with black bow ties, singing under the direction of Sister Barker, whose husband is the principal of the Church school at Pesega. They sang with so much meaning, and they sang not only in Samoan, but they had learned also the English interpretation. The building program is going forward in Samoa, as will the proselyting and school programs.

Last year in Samoa there were 2,393 baptisms. That is about an average of forty for every missionary. I am sure that will make President Moyle happy. We talk about "sharing the gospel." They have been doing that down there. Three years ago there was one entire village of forty-five converted because of the activity of our missionaries. When we held a service there, three years later, there were 150 in attendance in that little village.

They have many ideas that they are putting into effect in order to bring to these wonderful people of the South Pacific the Pearl of Great Price. I cannot say too much for the work that has and is being done by President Charles I. Sampson and his most dedicated counselors, President Rivers and President Harrington. President Harrington, a stalwart young man graduated from Stanford University, a Samoan, his parents living in Honolulu, will soon be winding up his two and a half years in the mission field—a tower of spiritual strength to his people.

We were so pleased to see the schools as well as the churches teaching people to develop and utilize the talents with which God has blessed them! Yes, we are truly sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ with these wonderful people of the South Pacific.

Our journey was extended to include those great countries of Australia and New Zealand. We had the opportunity of touring the Southern Australian Mission and the Australian Mission. When you travel from Melbourne, which is the headquarters of the Southern Australian Mission, and go around to Perth, it is like traveling from Salt Lake City to New York. And in the other direction, when you leave Sydney, of the Australian Mission, going north to Cairns, it is a similar distance. At the time we left, a new area was being opened, as Brother [Spencer W.] Kimball had encouraged them to do, in Darwin and Port Moresby and Thursday Island in New Guinea. This was after a survey had been made at the time of the visit of Brother Kimball.

Christmas Eve we were in the railroad yards at Perth—106 degrees, and we saw a little train—not the luxury and the comforts and conveniences to which we are accustomed in this nation. Twenty-five of our members, including one little family of seven, mother and father and five children were leaving for New Zealand to go to the temple to be sealed to one another. I called Sister Longden's attention to the little canvas bag on the back of the railroad car, and in that bag was the culinary water which was to sustain them until they were able to refill it. Faith! Because they had received that witness Brother Romney has just spoken of I They had that evidence in their souls. The light of the gospel of Jesus Christ had penetrated the darkness, and they felt the spirit of urgency to go to a temple of the Lord. They were willing to sell all their possessions. It would take some three weeks for their journey, changing to four different trains going through Australia, and then in Sydney they would board a ship which would take them to Auckland. They would then travel another eighty miles to the temple site. They knew they were doing the will of the Lord. We shall never forget the look of hallowed, excited expectation on the faces of each of those dear Saints.

We truly saw the gospel of Jesus Christ in action. President Moyle used the word this morning—applying—application. We hear, we read, we have an opportunity to believe, and then we must apply these truths in order to reap the blessings. I am so thankful that our journey was extended to Australia and New Zealand, that we came to know these wonderful people. I held three stake conferences in Australia, in Melbourne, in Sydney, and Brisbane and was privileged to see the faith of the people there and the attendance at our meetings and to hear some faith-promoting stories and witness them.

I could mention other similar experiences. Sixty-nine Tongan Saints, when we were in Suva, were just returning from the temple, happy and at peace because they had realized lifelong dreams. Another thirty-eight disembarked from a huge plane in Auckland three days before we left for home. We met them in Auckland at the airport. Nine couples, nine fathers and mothers and twenty children were going to the temple to have that eternal union. God bless them.

After spending ten days each in the New Zealand South and New Zealand missions, we held three stake conferences in New Zealand: Hawkes Bay, Hamilton, and in Auckland. I am grateful for the memories I have of these experiences. The attendance was excellent in all stakes. Fifty-three percent were present at our meetings in Auckland, even though the Auckland Stake had been divided two and a half months before when Brother Kimball was there creating a new stake, Hamilton, leaving only part of Auckland Stake. It has been wonderful to shake the hand of President William Roberts, from Auckland, here for this conference, also of President Higbee from Hawkes Bay and others here from these stakes of Zion down under.

Now in conclusion, as we share this gospel with others, may I give you the words of the Lord as recorded in the seventh chapter of Matthew. Christ had been teaching the people in his customary way—by parables. He spoke of one of the men who was wise, because he built his house upon the rock, and the one who was foolish, because he had built his house upon the sand. I am interested in the closing words of that chapter, "And it came to pass when Jesus had ended these sayings, the people were astonished at his doctrine.

"For he taught them as one having authority, and not as the scribes"  Matt. 7:28-29

May we then be wise and follow the teachings of our great prophet and mouthpiece of the Lord today, as well as of those who have been called to labor and serve with him, and the leaders in the missions and in the stakes and wards and branches, and all the auxiliary organizations, for we are being taught and led by authority and not by the teachings of the scribes. We then will be true Latter-day Saints.

I am deeply thankful for my membership in this, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. May I give you in conclusion the words of Karl G. Maeser. The gospel has been summed up for us—the kingdom. Those who will inherit the kingdom must be true Latter-day Saints. This is Brother Maeser's definition of a true Latter-day Saint. "A true Latter-day Saint is one who has dedicated himself soul and body to God in all things, temporal and spiritual, in all his doings, in all the meditations of his heart, in all his desires, his anticipations and hopes for the future, in life and in death to belong to the Lord only, and has based all his actions, all his thoughts, all his endeavors, all his interests upon that foundation that he belongs to the Lord." As we truly belong to the Lord we will feel called to share that belonging with others.

May we be true Latter-day Saints, sharing the gospel freely with others, I humbly pray as I bear my witness to you that these things are true, in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ our Savior. Amen.