“ We had been told by one of our native seers that the true Gospel of the Lord would be brought to the Maoris, by white men, who would come from 'the land of the rising sun.'
These men were very humble, and would not accept any of our lands, as pay; nor did they meddle with our women, but spent day and night in preaching and teaching us. We soon accepted the Gospel, and can not tell you half our joy and how the Holy Spirit was poured out upon us. And to know that we really were of the House of Israel. Why this alone brought joy unspeakable to our souls. ”

“ Every missionary owes it to himself, to his family, to the people among whom he is sent to labor and to the cause he represents, to take good care of his health, to consider differences in climate, and food, and water and altitude, any or all of which may affect him injuriously unless great care be exercised on his part until he become acclimated or accustomed thereto. ”

“ And then he offered a suggestion that convinced the brethren that he had already decided in his own mind that the Prophet should be sacrificed. He said "would it not be better for one or two men to be killed than for a whole community to be destroyed?" The response to this traitorous suggestion was, "No; we would all prefer to die in defense of innocent citizens rather than for one of our number to be massacred by a ruthless mob; and we will show you and all other men that we will protect one another in our rights." ”

“ When I embraced "Mormonism" I did it because I was sure it was the truth, and I afterwards tried to serve the Lord just as thoroughly as I had ever served the devil before. The truth is not affected by men's actions, and men's actions are not always affected by their knowledge of the truth. Brother T.. probably knows that the Gospel is true, but it has apparently not changed his nature. ”

“ The reason I am ready and willing to loan any number of books on the infidel side, is that if the young man will read the answer he will discover that his champion is lying; and every time a man discovers that his leader is lying, it weakens his faith in him even when he tells the truth. During my three years' presidency of the European mission, I never found any of the ministers over there who did not warn all their flock against the literature and the teachings of the Latter-day Saints ”

“ He became the grand old man, educationally, of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints—a man without a thought of personal aggrandizement, without a thought of seeking honor for himself, personally, but with only a desire to save souls, to build up the kingdom of God, and to promulgate this gospel at home and abroad. ”

“ Pointing to Shadrach Roundy and others he said "There are some men here who shall do a great work in that land." Pointing to Brother Call, he said "There is Anson; he shall go and shall assist in building cities from one end of the country to the other, and you, (seeming to include in the scope of his remarks many others) shall perform as great a work as has been done by man, so that the nations of the earth shall be astonished, and many of them will be gathered in that land and assist in building cities and temples, and Israel shall be made to rejoice." ”

“ So far as it implies that any man is born or predestined to be hung, it is not true. But that some have been marvelously and repeatedly preserved from drowning, and that there is evidently some reason for their apparent immunity, is true.
Brother Ernest R. S. Schnelle has had many narrow escapes from drowning, and been subjected to very many accidents of other kinds. He firmly believes that there has been a Providence over his life, and that his willingness to accept the Gospel and devote his life to the service of the Master may be the sequel therefor. ”

“ He was a leader among men, not alone among his own people, but among Europeans, with whom he mingled and had dealings; all learned to know his worth and that he was a man far above the average in knowledge and goodness. ”

“ About one o'clock in the night the alarm was sounded. "The mob is upon us!" The men rallied and prepared to offer the best defense they could, while the women hastily dressed themselves and the children and awaited in terror they knew not what. But to their surprise and relief the supposed mob proved to be a party of the brethren from Far West. The relief, however, was only temporary, for word was brought that the Saints in Far West had been besieged and had capitulated to save bloodshed; that the Prophet Joseph Smith and others were in the hands of their enemies ”

“ Sister Parkin was so impressed with the fact that the money had come as a special providence from the Lord, and so thankful that her husband's honor could now be saved that she actually shed tears of joy, and assured him that she would never more reproach him for being too rash in trying to do his duty as a Latter-day Saint, and hoped never again to be lacking in faith that the Lord will provide. ”

“ Brother Jedediah M. Brown, of South Bountiful, is a man of great faith. He feels that he has inherited the gift of faith, for he does not remember the time when he did not possess it. When he is in need of anything it is just as natural for him to appeal to the Lord therefor as it is to work for it, and he is an industrious man, who never fails when possible to combine works with faith.
When he was twenty-three years old he was employed by a co-operative sheep company, as superintendent of its three large sheep herds, that ranged during the winter on the Western Utah desert. ”

“ Anson, in subsequently describing this incident, said "I had before seen him in vision, and now saw, while he was talking, his countenance changed to white; not the deadly white of a bloodless face, but a living, brilliant white. He seemed absorbed in gazing at something at a great distance and said "I am gazing at the valleys of the mountains." Then the prophet gave a vivid description of the scenery of the mountains and valleys just as many of those who listened to him afterwards learned to know them in reality. ”

“ The good wife has long since gone to her rest, but she lived long enough to see many good crops of potatoes produced upon that same land and not one failure, nor has there ever been a failure since her death.
That proved a lesson to Brother Parkin that he has never forgotten. He has felt ever since that the Lord was entitled to a tenth of whatever crop he produced, whether good, bad or indifferent, and believes now that the measure of prosperity that he has since enjoyed has been largely if not wholly due to his willingness and faithfulness in the matter of paying his tithing. ”

“ The natives were eager for the Gospel, and he lost no time in commencing the work of proselyting among them. He also engaged in conducting day schools among the natives with good effect, the natives being anxious to attend and quick to learn. The Catholic priests of the region, however, who were making almost frantic efforts to proselyte as well as to establish schools in imitation of those of Elder Brown, were so jealous of his success and so chagrined at their own failure, that they set about devising schemes to discredit Elder Brown and gain an advantage over him. ”

“ Here, however, there was no demand for coal miners; in fact, the people of Utah all burned wood at that time, no coal mines being then developed. He readily adapted himself to the ways of the country, and made up by hard work for what he lacked in skill in whatever employment he was able to secure. He soon gained a reputation as a profitable person to employ, and was given the preference by a number of his well-to-do neighbors when they required help, and when he could work for others without neglecting the small farm which he was cultivating on shares. ”

“ In 1888, while sailing on the ship "Breton," commanded by Captain Ole Peterson, who was a Latter-day Saint, he first learned of "Mormonism." He had been investigating Spiritualism, but abandoned it on learning that the Spiritualists repudiated Christ as a Savior. He had heard of the "Mormons" as being a bad people, but was anxious to learn from the captain really what his belief was. He opened up a conversation by asking the captain his opinion of Spiritualism. The captain replied: "You are not a spiritualist. ”

“ He found that there was not a single house of ill fame in the whole of Utah. He found that the people went to bed at night with their front and back doors open. After reading all this he said to himself: "The man who wrote this illustrated article for the magazine is a liar. The fruits of honesty, industry sobriety, and brotherly love do not grow among immoral and wicked people," so he sent for some tracts, investigated the gospel and embraced it. ”

“ As the beholder views this impressive spectacle he is apt to yield to a feeling of fascination, until he contemplates the Power that controls the mighty forces of nature of which that before him is only a slight exhibition, when a feeling of awe and sense of his own insignificance overwhelms him. ”

“ In the exuberance of his young manhood he preferred to walk, and it may be said that he practically if not literally walked the whole of the way from Nauvoo to Salt Lake Valley. On arriving at Winter Quarters—the main camp of the migrating Saints—it was late in November, and he remained there personally only long enough to build a log cabin to shelter the family and then went to Missouri to find work. He was ambitious to journey westward with the pioneers, and to earn all he could in the meantime. ”

“ Elder Brown made the acquaintance of many ministers and missionaries of other creeds, some of whom professed to have a feeling of friendship for him and his work, but who secretly exerted all their powers and influence to oppose him and instigate the government to curtail his liberties and prevent the spread of the Gospel. Upon one occasion he was visited by two very pretty young native women who were attractively dressed and highly perfumed, and who expressed a desire to investigate "Mormonism." ”

“ Leaving the public road and taking a new route across the prairies, they escaped the vigilance of the mob under cover of darkness and arrived in Adam-ondi-Ahman at noon on the following day. Here they found a few of the people living in houses, but far more under tents and a variety of other improvised shelters, with very little to protect them from the elements. Anson selected the top of a fallen oak tree as a partial shelter for his family, and then conveyed some corn to a horse mill and returned with some meal for their supper. ”

“ Elder Brown had exhibited more zeal than wisdom in persisting in staying in the mission field after his President had advised him to go home, in enduring hardships and privations that were enough to break the constitution of a thoroughly healthy man in his anxiety to make a record as a missionary. ”

“ A minister visited the hospital early the next morning, having evidently been sent for, to controvert what Ernest had taught, but the converted patient put up such a strong defense of Ernest and the latter bore such a strong testimony of the Truth, that the minister was soon glad to retire discomfited. The patient praised God that the truth had come to him and related this circumstance to prove that Ernest's visit to the hospital was providential. He said he was a stoker aboard a British man-of-war in Hong Kong, China, when he developed hip disease, and was sent to a hospital. ”

“ That there is an abundance of material in the experience of faithful members of the Church to furnish subject matter for an indefinite number of volumes, of a faith-promoting nature, and that the young people of the community may be benefited more by that class of reading than any other, is as evident now as it ever has been in the past. ”

“ On embracing the Gospel he remarked to Captain Peterson that he supposed now his troubles were ended, but was told that he was wrong in that supposition, for his troubles were only commencing; that he should have the finger of scorn pointed at him, and find opposition even in his own household; but to be comforted, for the day would come when his wife would accept "Mormonism" and become a faithful Saint.
He found the captain's prediction to be verily true. ”

“ It is one thing, however, for a man to deny himself and quite another to deny a dependent wife and children the comforts or necessaries of life.
Charles Lambert had married during the first year of his residence in Nauvoo and undertaken the support of two brothers and a sister of his wife, who had recently been orphaned and were helpless. He felt keenly his responsibility, and wished for money as he never had done before. ”

“ One of the first genealogies I undertook to trace on this mission was that of a Williams family. An aged widow named Sister F—employed me to trace it, and the data she gave me to start from pointed to Newark, N. J. as the place in and near which her Williams kindred had lived, and thither I went. At this time I was an utter novice at such work, with not a soul to teach me the first lesson in it. I made my way to the surrogate's office and told the clerk in charge that I desired to trace the genealogy of the Williams family of Newark and vicinity. ”