Various

“ In addition to this, the faith the Elders have been sent to teach is not only strange, but unpopular in the world. The sending of men, without money or learning, to establish a new religion, almost wholly in its nature opposed to the views of the people among whom they are sent, seems a strange thing. We confess it does; but God's ways are not like our ways, yet they are the best. His way of having the gospel preached serves other purposes as well as accomplishing the main object. It proves the integrity of the preacher, as there are no worldly benefits attached to the work ”

“ In the Spring of 1856, in the days of my youth, I was called by the First Presidency of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to go on a mission to Australia, to preach the gospel. I was young and inexperienced, and had but very little education. I had been to school but six months in my life, although I had been raised in the Church from infancy, and had been taught by my mother that God had spoken from the heavens in these last days and had sent a holy angel to reveal the gospel that had been lost from the earth. ”

“ I notified several Elders to meet me at his house. We met and held a council. I had nothing but opposition, the president saying, "Bro. Spencer, if you go to that place, I clear myself of the consequences; your blood be upon your own head."
I replied, "If my blood be shed, it will be upon the heads of those who shed it, and those who ought to have, but have not got, faith to sustain me." I then asked if any one of the Elders would volunteer to go with me. After considerable hesitating, the youngest Elder in the conference promised to meet me there. ”

“ I want you to invite me to your house; if you do so I promise you in the name of the Lord that every one of your family shall embrace the gospel, and everyone shall live to go to Zion; if you do not, and have not faith to stand up in your place as the head of your own family you are not fit to stand as president of the branch ”

“ Only a few minutes elapsed before I was on the way to Norwich.
I do not think any man ever entered upon the discharge of his duties as president with more distrust than I did; and I wish to record here that the great good afterwards accomplished was God's work, for He worked through me. I only knew enough to speak and act as directed by the Holy Spirit. The conference was represented to me as having refused to sustain, for its president, the man suggested by the presidency at Liverpool, and was otherwise in a somewhat peculiar condition. ”

“ If you will follow my recommendation you will comply quietly with the order you have received, and in selecting your destination, if you should still remain in Switzerland, you will do well to recollect that other cantons have the same laws in this respect as Zurich and that wherever you go it will be advisable for you to refrain from preaching doctrines, which, whatever may be your own belief, are abominated as in the highest degree blasphemous and immoral, by the whole civilized world. ”

“ Extremely little has ever been accomplished by the Elders among a Roman Catholic population, in consequence of the dense ignorance, in a general sense, of the mass of the people and their unwillingness to examine anything religious apart from their own faith—the result doubtless of an education which shackles thought and crushes out aspirations which would lead to religious freedom. ”

“ During the Winter of 1836, I attended a high school together with Brothers Joseph and Hyrum and most of the leading men of the Church; it was a fine opportunity for obtaining knowledge. The evenings were mostly spent in meetings for instructions on the principles of our faith and religion. It was then and there that the lectures in the first part of the book of Doctrine and Covenants were given. During this Winter and Spring the members of Zion's Camp were called together to receive an especial blessing, according to a promise which had been made in the before-mentioned revelation. ”

“ Some of the incidents narrated in this book are so miraculous that one is naturally led to exclaim, "truth is really stranger than fiction;" and occurring, as they have done, in the experience of our faithful Elders, they have a double interest for young Latter-day Saints, and will surely be the means of strengthening the faith of all those who expect to participate in the glorious labors that devolve upon this people. ”

“ A.—I would rejoice in knowing that all people believed in the Bible.
Q.—Do you believe that the Bible teaches that doctrine?
A.—Yes, most certainly; any one who believes the Bible must believe that doctrine. (I here offered to explain it from scripture, but was informed that they did not interfere with the faith of any man, and that everyone had a right to draw their own conclusions from the Bible; but he, the Stadthalter, wished to know if I desired to see that doctrine put in operation in Switzerland, to which I replied in the negative.) ”

“ At this conference Elder Francis was appointed to labor in Italy among the Waldenses who speak French; and I was appointed to labor under the direction of Elder Mayer in the Zurich Conference, a portion of Switzerland where the people speak German. It was with regret that I parted with my intelligent companion, Brother Francis. I heard from him at intervals afterwards; and, in the course of time and changes, under the providences of God, we met again in England to labor together in the Birmingham district.
Geneva, although not the capital of the Swiss Confederation, is its principal city. ”

“ After a fair voyage we arrived in Liverpool on the 14th of September, 1850. I spent a few days in that city, and was most kindly treated by Apostle Orson Pratt, then President of the British Mission.
I was sent from there to London, and Brother Pratt intended me to have a few weeks to rest, and learn the "ropes" among the branches, and Saints of that city. But the president of that conference sent me to Colchester, fifty miles from London. It was a hard place and in order to have raised any life there in relation to "Mormonism," one would have required the power to resurrect the dead. ”

“ Although there was nothing wrong about our acts or intentions, as our only desire was to remain that we might teach our brethren and sisters and preach the gospel, as required by the revelations of God; we wished to avoid bringing trouble on others, if we had to feel the effects of prejudice and persecution.
About this time Elder C. R. Savage, now of Salt Lake City, whose field of labor was at Lausanne, visited us. I was greatly pleased to see him. He was an old acquaintance, as we had been fellow-laborers in the Southampton conference in England. ”

“ My father made no profession of religion, but led a moral and virtuous life. My childhood was not marked with any crime, although I paid but little or no attention to religion until the seventeenth year of my age. In July, 1832, when I first heard the fullness of the gospel proclaimed by Elder Simeon Carter, I was convinced that the scriptures were true and that the Book of Mormon was a divine revelation from heaven. I was baptized and spent the following Winter in going to school, working for my board and in meeting with the Saints. ”

“ I had such feelings; and, in consequence of being acquainted with so many that were connected with missions on the continent, felt sometimes a little uneasy, like Elders at home who think it probable that they may be "called" at conference time. I was, however, ready to go if called.
My labors in the Southampton conference were greatly blessed. I had the pleasure of baptizing quite a number of people, and I am thankful in knowing that many of them are, to-day, faithful Saints in Zion. While laboring here, I was instructed by the president of the mission to prepare to go to the Shetland Islands ”

“ The Elders engaged in the British mission did not covet a foreign mission, although, probably, not one of them would have hesitated a moment about going if he had been sent. I never knew of one refusing, and I was as well acquainted with our missionaries, personally and otherwise, I believe, as any one man from 1850 to 1860. As I observed, the Elders did not naturally desire a mission that made necessary the learning of another language, and the meeting of other serious hindrances and, oftentimes, suffering and imprisonment on account of prejudice and illiberal laws. ”

“ In going through Salt Lake City I find prominent merchants who were poor lads in my field of labor. I find an owner of real estate on Main Street who used all the means his entire family could gather together to bring himself out here, so that he could raise means to emigrate them afterwards. I pass by costly shops of merchandise and find the owners are people who, in our Norwich Conference, were very poor. ”

“ In fifteen minutes she was eating supper and she sang several songs before I left.
I wish here to bear testimony of the kindness, obedience and love of the Saints at the Norwich conference. They were like my children and I was their father. In their poverty they gave to me liberally, and what I received I spent freely in helping the poor and the sick, and for the work of God. ”

“ The morning after the meeting alluded to in the last chapter we learned that the priests and parsons of the different denominations had met and decided to unite in preventing their people from coming to hear us preach, for they said that we were dangerous men, and we were of the class of false prophets of whom Jesus spoke, who should come in the last days to deceive the people. We had labored a few weeks in this city and had baptized a few into the Church, when we received a letter from Emue Plains, stating that the people would like to see and hear a "Mormon" Elder. ”

“ Near by was a high ledge of rocks, under which they saw some of the crows fly. They made their way under this ledge to where the crows seemed to be busy, when, to their horror, they discovered the remains of the missing little ones, but so disfigured as hardly to be recognizable. ”

“ In obedience only is their safety. Though those grief-stricken parents forgave, in their hearts, the little act of disobedience which robbed them of their loved ones, it was none the less true that had they been obedient, as they ought, to their mother, they would not thus have met their fate. ”

“ I could not tell all that I had said; but my companion told me it was an excellent discourse. When meeting was dismissed the judge came to us and said if we wanted the court-house again we could have it; so we gave notice that we would preach at that place on Sunday evening next. The next day we went through the city and talked with many of the people, and when Sunday evening came we lighted the chandeliers in the house, went up into the pulpit and sat and read the scriptures. The time arrived for the people to gather, but not a soul came. ”

“ On the second day of my arrival I was summoned before the police and examined, and had to telegraph to the ambassador, who replied that the passport was on the way, which for the time prevented me, I suppose, from being locked up.
My passport arriving on the 20th, I went to the police office and presented it, was closely questioned, and came to the conclusion that there was not liberty enough to teach the truth in this place. Schaffhausen is near the line between Switzerland and Germany, which accounts for the unusual severity of its regulations. ”

“ I walked into a respectable looking hotel and arranged for supper and lodging. The people were obliging, but to save trouble I concluded not to use any more German than a few words, such as any traveler is supposed to pick up in a few days. After drying my clothes a little, as they were wet through with rain, I sat down to supper. Men were coming and going during the evening as is usual in such places on the continent of Europe. They come to chat with their neighbors, read the papers, smoke and drink beer. ”

“ It requires, however, much faith to do this, and it brings us face to face with many trials, temptations and inconveniences; but it also brings us nearer to God, as our condition requires the help which He alone can give, in blessing us with His Spirit, raising up friends and opening up the way before us.
The Elders in modern times, like those of ancient days, have generally been unlearned, which, according to human wisdom, would be a very serious drawback in teaching a new faith. ”

“ At 3 p.m. we took our seats on the diligence and were soon traveling along towards Berne, the capital city of the Swiss republic, where we arrived at 5 o'clock on the following morning.
Berne has now a population of about forty thousand. It is the capital of the canton as well as of the nation. It is built on the River Aar. Numerous quaint and ornamental fountains decorate its streets; but the buildings are dull and heavy-looking, the windows being generally small. It is what might be called an old-fashioned place. The city derives its name from the word baren, the German for bears. ”

“ MY SWISS MISSION. BY WILLIAM BUDGE.
CHAPTER I. MANNER IN WHICH THE GOSPEL IS PREACHED—MY LABORS IN ENGLAND—CALLED TO SWITZERLAND—JOIN MY COMPANION AND TAKE PASSAGE TO FRANCE—PROCEED TO SWITZERLAND—MEET ELDERS IN GENEVA—OUR FIELDS OF LABOR ASSIGNED US.
In presenting a sketch of missionary experience as reading matter for the young people of modern Israel, I am aware that they may have read many such before; but there is so much variety and interest connected with the means and methods which have been, and are, used in the extension of the latter-day work, that I need not apologise. ”

“ There must be earnestness and faith on both sides.
The gospel has been carried to many nations, and will be preached to all nations before the end comes. It will be readily understood that the difficulties of missionary work are much increased when the gospel is sent to nations where a foreign language to that of the preacher is spoken, even if the laws are liberal enough to permit the Elder freely to do his duty.
I labored in the Southampton (England) conference, as a traveling Elder, in the years 1852 and 1853. ”