Last Friday the General Authorities met with the mission presidents who had been serving in this country and in Central America. It was an inspiring meeting, and they who were there expressed their gratitude and appreciation for the privilege of coming here to the headquarters of the Church and meeting with their brethren and reporting their labors, feeling the spirit of testimony as expressed by their associates and by all who were privileged to speak in the meeting which was held in the temple.

Then we have had our brethren who have offered prayers or spoken, express their gratitude for the privilege of being in attendance at this conference. We, ourselves, have partaken of that spirit, grateful to the Almighty that we are here, that we can sit under the sound of the voice of the prophets of God and of the other General Authorities as they have spoken and listen to their counsel, and partake of their spirit. We are grateful for this privilege and blessing.

You people who are listening in and who are watching on television are also grateful. Yesterday this latter privilege was extended wider than ever before in the history of the Church, and I know we were all thrilled as we heard President McKay tell of the extent of these televised and broadcasted services.

But this raised a question in my mind, as did our meeting with the mission presidents. I thought of some of our mission presidents over in the old country who are working faithfully, who are devoted to this work, giving of their time and their means, faithful to their trust, and yet they could not be with us.

I thought too, of the thousands of Saints, in the islands of the sea, and in the old country, and even in this country, who cannot partake of the spirit of these services because they are not able to be here or to come within the radius of television or of the radio, and yet they are just as anxious as are we, and they are just as devoted as are we, The Lord will not forget the He will in his own way bless them, and they learn of these services; as they read the testimonies of these meetings, they will partake of the same spirit, perhaps not so potently as we; but the Lord will bless them, and they too will share with us because he will not leave them alone,

Brother Christiansen has been telling us of our obligations to those who have gone, of the revelations of the Lord that the hearts of the children shall be turned to their fathers, and the hearts of the fathers to their children, for "were it not so the whole, earth would be wasted at his coming"  D&C 2:3 In listening to Brother Christiansen we have been impressed with the magnitude of this work, and we have been given an insight into the mercies of our heavenly Father.

As we are permitted to enjoy the blessings of being here and are made aware of the blessings and privileges that come and will come to us through the atonement, we cannot help being made aware of and be concerned with the thousands of God's children who, through no fault of their own, are not blessed as are we.

I was in the home two weeks ago of one of our brethren where there is a little girl who is deficient, a little child who never will have the opportunity in this life to fulfil the purposes of the lord for which she was paced here, unless God shall intervene with a miracle and heal her little body and her mind. Her mind apparently through some physical pressure and through no fault of her own, nor is it through any failure of her parents to do the will of the Lord is not able to grasp the things that you and I are able to grasp, and thus she will go through life underprivileged, not physically only, but lacking in the expression of mental powers. It is not her spirit that is injured, but her body, and the body is the medium of expression of the spirit in this life; and when the body is injured either in birth or before or afterwards, and as a result the spirit cannot give expression to a normal life here, then we speak of such as being defective, and handicapped.

And there are thousands of such everywhere. I wish you could go with me to our state training school in Utah County and see the hundreds of little children and men and women who are thus afflicted. As I have observed these, the question has arisen in my mind, "What is the answer to this problem of these underprivileged children, these people who are not blessed as are we?" come back to the same conclusion that as those who are not here will also sometime share in the blessings that we are enjoying in these meetings, and as those who do not know the law will be judged without the law, even so will the Lord grant to these who are not privileged, his blessings so that nothing will be withheld from them if it is through no fault of their own.

The Lord has said that those who live without law shall be judged without law  Moro. 8:22 and by the same token those who are not privileged to have the blessings in this life that you and I have who are mentally and physically able and strong, they also shall ultimately receive blessings from our heavenly Father, and through the atonement of Jesus Christ, blessings that are withheld from them through no fault of their own shall not be withheld from them.

The Book of Mormon prophet has told us that the atonement is an infinite atonement  2 Ne. 9:7 This means that there is no limit to its blessings and privileges, and these blessings and privileges will be extended to all who have not received them in this life. What these afflicted ones lose in this life will be made up to them in the life to come.

And so I am grateful with you, my brethren and sisters, for the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ It is not narrow in its application. It is unlimited in its privileges and blessings to all of God's children who will/ to do right when once they understand. For those who are mentally deficient, through no fault of their own, someday these pressures will be lifted. The healing power of the Almighty will come to their bodies, just as it will come to ours, and as it came to the body of the Savior; and their spirits, which are the offspring of God, will have the privilege of inhabiting bodies, their own bodies that will be healed and free from pressures and affliction so that there will be no limit to possibilities of the spirits, their minds, and their souls.

Now these are blessings that are ours. They are a part of the gospel of Jesus Christ, and just as the gospel provides for those who will not have the privilege, and who have not had the privilege, of hearing it in times past, and who may not in the future, just as the gospel will be ultimately made possible for them through the great vicarious work, the atoning sacrifice of Jesus Christ, so through this infinite atonement will there come blessings to those who now are deficient and from whom are withheld blessings that you and I enjoy.

May the Lord help us to appreciate these things. To me this is one of the great blessings of the gospel of Jesus Christ. It is one of the great revelations that have come down through the Prophet Joseph, as expressed by the prophets in the Book of Mormon. We do not understand the processes, as we do not understand the processes in many things, but that does not make the fact untrue. It is as real and true as are many of the things that are apparent to us today.

May the Lord help us to understand these things better than we have in the past, and may he give comfort to the hundreds and thousands of mothers whose hearts are bleeding because of the deficiencies in their children, deficiencies that have come through no fault of the parents or no fault of the child, I humbly pray in the name of Jesus. Amen.