Oct 20 Saturday morning at 10 oclock the people assembled
& there were present of the Twelve &
W. Woodruff Also &
Conference was opened by Prayer by O. Pratt After
Singing P. P. Pratt Addressed the People for 2 1/2 hours
Evry missionary present had a cold sore throat & was
hoarse it had came on during the last 24 hours it was a
complaint that was quite universel among men women
& children many hundreds were Attacked in the same
way there was no change in the weather nor any thing
in the outward appearance of the Elements to cause it. Elder Pratt
was quite unwell He said He did not intend to preach this fornoon
but He had got to Preach or go to bed. He spoke in a vary interesting
manner for 2 1/2 hours upon the subject of the birth Life
& resurrection of Jesus Christ He took for his text the 10 & 11
verses of the 2nd chapter of St Luke "And the Angel said unto them
fear not for behold I bring you good tidings of great Joy which shall
be unto all people for unto you is born this day in the
A which is Christ the Lord" [Luke 2:10-11] This is the Saviour born in
of . He said one cause of his ^why ^ taking this tex[t]
was ^is^ that a school teacher in asked her
whole school if they would tell her whare Jesus was born
born & not one of them could tell her it is true they were
mostly small schollars but there was one almost a man
grown & he could not tell. I think theire is a neglect among
this people in not teaching their children as they should do
the & the History of the Prophets & Jesus
& the Apostles And I think it time to teach the people the simple
things of the word of God And this message of Good News is
as necessary to this assembly as it was to the people of Judea
we and our children should read the Bible more than we
do at least Our children should read it untill they should
learn whare Jesus Christ was born & understand his
History I wish to come down to the capacity of children
& if they can understand me their Parents can. Perhaps
almost evry child in these vallies at 8 years old know it
is necessary to be baptized at that age because they have
been taught it by their parents or others but many of
them do not know what they are baptized for. But was
it not for the name of Jesus Christ all our
& administrations would be in vain & of no Effect for
if we did not Baptize in the name of Jesus Christ our sins
would not be remitted & if we did not oin
his name for the Holy Ghost or the the
candidate would not receive the Holy Ghost nor the sick be Healed
for their is no other name given under Heaven whareby
men can be saved [2 Nephi 25:20] we have no promise of obtaining any
blessing from God except through & in his name. then it is
vary important that we sh& our children should understand
his life & History. some do not know whether He was born
in or America. Jesus Christ told his that He
had other sheep which were not of this fold [John 10:16] (those in )
He came to this descended from Heaven & stood
in the midst of a congregation of Saints that were assembled
to worship God [3 Nephi 11] but He was not born here but He preached
the gospel here after his death, and holding a three days
meeting in Hell & preaching the gospel to the spirits in prison [1 Peter 3:19]
while his body lay in the tomb then rising from the tomb
& asscending into heaven then He descended to this contin-
ant in his immortal body & not ownly preached the Gospel
here among the but chose twelve Apostles Here [3 Nephi 12:1]
& taught many plain, simple, Great & glorious things the
whole History of which you can read in the
He told the people He was Jesus Christ who was born in
& there for the sins of the world. He told them
He had other sheep yet which were not of this Fold neither
at Jerrusalem but were the lost sheep of the House of Israel He
must also go & visit them [3 Nephi 16:1-3] & when we get the record of of the
Ten lost tribes of Israel we shall get an account of his visit
among them I want to Preach Jesus Christ to you this day
Plainness & simplicity for untill you receive the fulness of the you arne not a proper candidate either for a fulness of
celestial glory or to become sons of Perdition For those who have
not received a fulness of the gospel & the Holy Ghost will not always
remain in hell but be redeemed in the own due time of the Lord
& receive some kind of a glory like the stars in comparison to the
son but whare God & Christ & celestial Saints dwell they cannot
come worlds without End but those who have partaken of
the fulness of the Gospel & the Holy Ghost & they deny the Lord
& shed innocent Blood or give there consent thereto they
commit the unpardonable sin & there is no forgiveness in
this world nor in the world to come, [Doctrine and Covenants 76:32-35] and wish you all to
understand that if you are Baptized & receive the Holy Ghost
& your Endowments & are sealed up unto Eternal life against
all manner of sins & blasphemies except the against the sin of
the Holy Ghost that mercy cannot rob Justice that after all
this th if you commit any sin you will have to answer for
it & pay for it in this life & if the sin is great enough tyou will
have to be destroyed in the Flesh & if necessary be deliverd over
to the buffitings of Satan untill the day of redemption & if your
sins are not unto death you may then come forth & be to glory Immortality & Eternal life but it is a great
deal better not to sin at all. I want all the children that
are 8 years old & all young persons & all old people & strangers
that have not been baptized to come foreward & be baptize
& also those who have commit sins for which they should
be baptized for that they may begin to be candidats
either for the fulness of celestial glory or sons of
perdition. Many other interesting remarks were made
by the speaker but no one reporting they were not taken
At 3 oclock PM. Elder addressed the assembly
He took for his text "examine yourselves whether ye be in the
faith or no [2 Corinthians 13:5] and said many may think they possess things
which they do not possess & this may be the case with
regard to their faith. do we feel as we once did I think
not at least I can say that many are not as faithful as
they once were I look upon the saints as subject to a comp[le]t[e]
warfare the question was asked anciently shall there
be faith on the Earth when the Lord comes. [Luke 18:8] I know of
No people on Earth that have to make greater exertions
to keep from being worldly minded then this people
for we have been broaken up so many times & driven
from place to place that we have had to night
& day in order to live or to obtain the necessaries of life
but in the midst of our labour do we remember our
prayers, do we pray three times a day but says one I
have to go to the canyons to get wood & I have not time
to stop to pray. But I can say I never knew a great
man in the kingdom of God but what was a praying man
was a great Prophet & business man yet He alway
found time to pray 3 times a day & he even kept up this practice
when He became prime minister of & presided over
all the princes & business of that great kingdom [Daniel 6:10] what a
glorious example for this people for let us have ever so
much to do we should never neglect our prayers
when see a saint eat & lie down & sleep without praying
I think that man is in the road to ruin. there is sufficient
before our eyes to cause us to pray. I do not think there
ever was a greater miracle than this people coming here
& doing what they have done How has this been accomplished
by the faith of the faithful of this people & the blessings of the
Lord upon us. I have often wondered why so few out of
the thousands who hear the testimony of the servants of God have
received it & again whoy so few remain faithful to the end
who do receive it. it is because they have lost their faith if
they ever had any. we should not ownly have faith but
works & treasure up evry useful knowledge within our reach
for I do not believe that the spirit of God will go out of his
course to te[a]ch men those things which they are to lazy to
learn when they have the means within their reach. I
know that this people can learn more in 3 months than
other people can in 12. He spoke of schools and the duty
of parents to children He said that the painter & artest presented
their paintings & sculpture which were preserved as the
choice monuments of art & greatness but mothers & teachers
will make an impression upon the mind of youth which
will last long after the painting is worn to threads & the
marble crumbles to dust.
At 7 oclock in the evening the People again assembled at
the school House & were addressed by Elder
addressed the people. He said I am appointed a
but in another part of the vineyard I felt a desire to come
to this place it does not seem but a short time since I began
travelling & preaching I have thought of the words of Brother Clemets
do we believe in God I have thought much upon this subject
I have spent most of my time for the last two years among the
I have seen much of the dealings of the Lord
among that people & we have been blessed in admin-
istering unto them. I have of late the History of
as published by the simple testimony
in that work is Good & is calculated to do much good
the instance of his lameness & under the necessity
of having a bone taken from his leg & the doctor
wanted to bind him He said no bind me not I
can endure what is necessary to be done I do not
wish my present as it will cause her pain
to see me suffer & I wish to save her all the sorrow
I can this act showed his strong character in the days
of his youth & his effection for his mother. God has
bestowed great blessings upon this People and I would
Here ask how many there are in this congregation
that are 8 years old who have not been baptized
& there are some parents who do not teach their
children the necessity of it every family should
have in their Library the bible & the Life of Joseph, & we should learn
to practice the preceps of our savior we should
love our Brethren feed the poor cloth the naked
for how can we Hate our Brother whom we have seen &
love God whom we have not seen. again if we have
ought against our Brother we should go to him &
be reconciled & not go to law & if we do wrong or
injure the feelings of another unjustly we should ask
forgiveness & make recincileation & when a person gets
a thorrough victory over themselves in thes matters they
gain a far greater victory than they would in taking
. listened with attention to the remarks
of Brother upon the subject of Prayer I believe
the Lord Hears prayer we had a sample of this in
the grasshopers had destroyed the crops in the settlemts
north of us & they began to approach our fields & began
upon our grain we called a meeting & made the matter
a subject of prayer at night we went out next
morning & there was no live grasshoppers to be to
seen but the ground was coverd with dead ones I have
spoken of my mission among the Lamanites the question has
been asked will the Lamanites work I will say that the
Lamanites work hard whare I have been some of them
have worked for me & they would do more hard
in a day than I could while making our picket fort two
of the would cut 100 cedar Pickets in a
day. I have known old Indians plant Acres of land
& dig up the ground with a paddle & when they saw us
plough the ground they rejoiced much to see how much
faster we could trurn over the ground with an Iron plough
than they could with a woodden paddle. Brother
said I was ingaged in the best ^work^ I could
be ingaged in I feetl that we are bringing that people
to a knowledge of the things of God when I have travled
among them they have treated me vary kind I called upon
a chief one day & I was hungry His squaw went to work
& dryed some wheat heads by the fire rubed out the wheat
in her hands put it onto a smooth stone & took another
smooth round stone & ground it fine & made me a
cake of it & baked it by the fire while she was doing
this her daughter made me some good wine out
of some buries she had preserved so I had bread &
wine for my dinner, all manufactured in a few
moments. they rejoicce at our visit with them &
many of them have been baptized & in some instances
try to imitate our practices. In one instance a company
of them came to visit us all highly painted up & dressed
in the best they had when they came to us we told them
the mormons did not paint they went to the creek &
washed it all off. we feel that much good is begining to
be done among that People
