12th A company started out this morning to examine the coal & Iron
the & council remained in fort to hold a cooncil &
do such business as was necessary. A meeting was called at
4 oclock to ascertain the minds of the Brethren it was found
about 30 wished to go home 15 to get their families & the other
15 to remain at the each one made there excuse
President Young then addressed them & said he would express
his feelings upon the subject to those who wished to go home
If you were now on a mission to or any other
part of the Earth preaching the gospel you would not sit down
& council together about going to get your families or go
home untill your mission was ended. this is of quite as
much importance as preaching the gospel for the time has now
come when it is required of us to make the wilderness blos-
som as the rose. Our mission now is build up stakes of Zion
& fill these mountains with cities & when your mission
is ended you are at Liberty to go & be free & ownly do right.
When I go on a mission I leave my affairs in the hands of
God. If my house fields, flocks, wife or children die in my
absence I say Amen to it. If they live & prosper I feel to
say Amen to it & thank the Lord. He wished the Brethren
to finish the fort & secure their grain &c wished the land to
be surveyed so that the Brethren who laid the foundation
could have their choice of farms. He councelled the Brethren
to buy up the Lamanite children as fast as they could &
educate them & teach them the gospel so that not many
generations they would be a white & delightsom people
for the Lord could not have devised a better plan than
to have put us whare we are in order to accomplish this
thing
