HOW SUCCESS IS GAINED.
By H. G. B.
ELDERS TO GO OUT TWO AND TWO—YOUNG MISSIONARIES INCLINED TO SHIRK—ELDER MOSES THATCHER—HIS DIFFIDENCE—THE WAY HE WAS BROKEN IN—HIS SUCCESS—ELDER M'ALISTER—HIS BACKWARDNESS IN SPEAKING—FORCED INTO IT—HIS TESTIMONY—ELDER CORAY'S EXPERIENCE—PROMISES OF THE LORD PROVED TRUE.
We are informed in the book of Doctrine and Covenants, sec. 42, verse 6, that the Elders are to travel "two and two," and in sec. 84, verse 106 (latest edition) that the strong in spirit are to take with them the weak. That is, as I understand it, those that are experienced are to take with them the inexperienced.
Thus has it always transpired in my missionary labors.
The first mission I ever was called upon to perform was to the State of Virginia, in 1844. During that mission I traveled successively with Elders Sebert C. Shelton, Chapman Duncan and Robert Hamilton.
These Elders had more experience than I had, consequently, it was very natural for me to depend upon them to do the preaching, allowing the burden of our labors to rest upon their shoulders. But if they had humored me, and allowed me to shirk my legitimate share of the work, I am satisfied that I would have failed to succeed on that mission.
They, however, took great pains to see that I should not neglect my share in all the labors. They put me forward, and not unfrequently managed to leave me to fill appointments alone, and sometimes to travel alone for a week or two at a time. This left me to depend upon God and His Spirit entirely, and I can truly testify that this course was very valuable to me. I was often very much surprised and encouraged at the assistance afforded me through the Spirit on these occasions.
Since that first mission I have been sent on many others, and have traveled with seventeen other Elders at different times, most of whom were without experience. Among these were several more or less like I had been—backward, and inclined to shirk the responsibility of preaching.
I have had to resort to some pretty sharp management in breaking them in. A few of these instances I will relate.
When Elder Moses Thatcher was only between fifteen and sixteen years of age, he traveled with me as a missionary in California.
He was naturally inclined to modesty and diffidence, and said to me one day that he would black our boots, curry and saddle our horses, and do all that was to be done except the preaching, if I would do that part of the work and excuse him.
Naturally I entertained a great amount of sympathy for him, on account of his extreme youth, also because I remembered my own shortcomings when out on my first mission, during which time nothing ever so frightened me as the thoughts of being called upon to arise and try to preach. I therefore favored him until I thought it unwise and an injury to him to indulge him farther.
Having been invited to visit and preach in a new locality, I asked Elder T. to take some tracts and visit the place, and see the trustees of the school house. If the liberty to preach in the house was granted, then he was to proceed to notify the neighborhood of the meeting, distributing the pamphlets as he went. I also told him if anything happened to prevent my being there he was to fill the appointment.
At this he trembled, and with a face white with fear he begged me not to fail to be there, until I nearly repented of my intention.
He succeeded in obtaining the use of the house, and in notifying the people he came upon a quilting party of women and girls, who readily promised to be at the meeting, provided he (Elder T.) would preach.
He replied that his colleague would most likely do the preaching. But it turned out otherwise, and Elder T. was left to his fate; but he filled his appointment like a man.
Judging from the report that spread from that meeting, Elder T. preached as good a discourse then as at any time since, and probably with greater satisfaction to himself.
From that time forward he never failed to do his part in our labors, and I have no doubt that he looks back upon that achievement as one of the greatest of a very eventful and useful life.
Elder J. D. H. McAllister traveled with me in Arkansas, and for the first two months of our labors, when called upon to talk, would not occupy above five minutes, and often not half that time. It would then occur to him that the audience would rather hear some one else than him, after which he would not possess courage to try to talk longer, and would take his seat.
He would often say that he could not account for his being called on a mission. "What can I do? I do not even know that this latter-day work is true. My father has often borne testimony that he knew this work to be true. He is a good man and I believe his testimony; but I do not know it to be true for myself."
However, an opportunity occurred that dispelled all these doubts, and planted in the place thereof, facts and certainties.
I had taken a severe cold, and was so hoarse that I could not talk. A meeting was to be held, and at that meeting some one would have to preach.
The only alternative was for him to attend and do the preaching. To do this he had to travel five or six miles across the "slashes," face a large congregation composed almost entirely of strangers, and do all the preaching, and that, too, alone.
I never, while in that country, heard the last of the praises heaped upon him by the people for the "best sermon" they had ever listened to. He had no difficulty in testifying to the divinity of the great latter-day work. The Holy Spirit rested upon him, and he could not keep back this testimony, which was as new to him as it was to those that heard him.
That day's work is no doubt remembered by him with the greatest pleasure of any event of his life, and will prove as profitable as any in his future career.
Elder H. K. Coray was the most bashful of all the young Elders I ever traveled with, and it was more than a year before he overcame this fault. I had almost despaired of his ever making a success as a missionary. But I am proud to say he did finally succeed, and during the last year of our labors together, through the blessings of the Holy Spirit, he became an able speaker, and our hearers listened to him in rapt attention.
He has often said that the experience he gained during that mission was worth more to him than all the wealth of the world.
I could refer to the experiences of many other Elders who have traveled with me, which were, in many instances, similar to those that I have related. Some of them have been so far discouraged that they would weep like a child; others would beg of me to release them and let them return home, who at brighter moments would charge me not to permit such a thing, as they did not wish to disgrace themselves or their parents.
I can think of nothing that would so blight a young Elder's future usefulness and destiny as a failure to make a success of his mission, or any work that the priesthood may have set him apart to do. And I feel it my duty in this connection to bear my testimony to the truth contained in the book of Doctrine and Covenants, that has never failed to be verified in my experience, and in that of all other Elders whose labors have come within my observation. These promises are as follows:
"Any man that shall go and preach this gospel of the kingdom, and fail not to continue faithful in all things shall not be weary in mind, neither darkened, neither in body, limb, nor joint: and an hair of his head shall not fall to the ground unnoticed. And they shall not go hungry, neither athirst." (sec. 84, verse 80).
"Neither take ye thought beforehand what ye shall say, but treasure up in your minds continually the words of life, and it shall be given you in the very hour that portion that shall be meted unto every man." (verse 85).
I have written the above incidents of missionary life and made these quotations in connection with them for the encouragement of young Elders now on missions, and the thousands of boys and young men that may, and will yet have to take missions to the many nations of the earth.