This is a Church of Pioneers, past, present, and yet to come.
The stories of only a few are portrayed in this film as representative of the thousands,
some remembered, many forgotten, who unselfishly have devoted their lives and all they had
to building the Kingdom of God on earth.
To me it has always been a thing of wonder.
At a time when our people were struggling to establish themselves in these mountain valleys,
they put the spread of the gospel ahead of everything else.
They set aside every other consideration—the comfort and well-being of their families,
their own peace and security—to go abroad to preach the gospel of the risen Lord.
Across the broad prairie between the mountains of the West and the Missouri and Mississippi
rivers there were two bodies of Latter-day Saints moving in opposite directions.
The missionaries traveling to the eastern states of Europe, past converts gathering
from those lands to the Zion of the West.
There was likewise a movement to the West Coast and across the Pacific, with elders
going to Hawaii, even to China, Siam, Ceylon, and India.
This was all part of a grand vision of an end sign to the nations.
It has gone on ever since, and it goes on today at an accelerated pace.
The Church has been moving out across the world in a remarkable and wonderful way, and
the story of its growth and expansion is the story of God moving in His majesty and power.
Those who have labored in this great effort have not been engaged in an ordinary cause.
It is the cause of Christ.
It is veritably the plan and work of God, our Eternal Father.
It has to do with all of His children.
It is an end sign to the nations, a sign that God is at work in this world, gathering His
people and preparing them for the second coming of His Son.
In April of 1834, I arrived, a newly baptized member in Kirtland, Ohio.
It was the first time I had ever seen the Prophet Joseph Smith.
We met in the street, and he invited me home with him.
The next evening, the Prophet called on all who held the priesthood to gather into a little
log schoolhouse.
It was small, perhaps fourteen feet square, but it held the whole of the priesthood of
the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, who were then in Kirtland.
That was the first time I ever saw Oliver Cowdery, or heard him speak.
The first time I ever saw Brigham Young and Heber C. Kimball.
The Prophet called upon those present to bear testimony of this work.
Those I have named spoke, as well as many others.
When they got through, the Prophet said, Brethren, I have been very much edified by your
testimonies here tonight.
But I want to say to you, before the Lord, that you know no more concerning the destinies
of this Church and Kingdom than a babe upon its mother's lap.
You don't comprehend it.
It is only a little handful of priesthood you see here tonight.
But this Church will fill North and South America.
It will fill the world.
On Sunday the 4th of June 1837, the Prophet Joseph came to me while I was seated above
the sacrament table in the Kirtland Temple, and in a whisper said, Brother Heber, the
Spirit of the Lord has whispered to me, let my servant Heber go to England and proclaim
my Gospel and open the door of salvation to that nation.
The idea was overwhelming.
However, the moment I understood the will of my Heavenly Father, I felt a determination
to go at all hazards.
And although my family was dear to me and I should have to leave them almost destitute,
I felt that the cause of truth, the Gospel of Christ, outweighed every other consideration.
On July 1st, 1837, Heber C. Kimball and six companions boarded the packet ship Garrick
and set sail on the first overseas mission of this dispensation.
Three weeks later, the Garrick docked at Liverpool, main port of what was then the most powerful
nation on earth.
Feeling impressed to travel north to Preston, the missionaries were invited to address the
congregation of Rev. James Fielding, brother of one of Heber's companions, Joseph Fielding.
Vauxhall Chapel was filled to capacity on Sunday, July 23rd, as Elder Kimball arose
and declared that an angel had returned to earth with the fullness of the everlasting
Gospel.
He spoke on faith, repentance, baptism, and gave a brief history of the work which the
Lord had commenced in the latter days.
Orson Hyde then arose and bore his testimony.
In his journal, Heber recorded, it had a great effect on the congregation.
They cried, glory to God, to think that the Lord had sent His servants to them.
Rev. Fielding invited them to speak again that evening and then again the following
Wednesday.
The people paid the most profound attention, recorded Joseph Fielding.
Elder Kimball wrote, the power of God rested down on the congregation and many were pricked
to the heart.
Nine requested baptism.
Early on the morning of Sunday, July 30th, the missionaries and their converts walked
to the banks of the River Ribble.
Large numbers of people were strolling through a nearby park and when word spread that a
baptismal service was taking place, an estimated seven to nine thousand gathered to watch.
That initial mission of Elders Heber C. Kimball and Orson Hyde was amazing.
In the period of about nine months, approximately 1,600 converts came to the Church in and around
Preston, England.
They developed an incredible love and affection and trust and confidence in these apostles
who were in England at the time.
My great grandfather joined the Church in Switzerland in 1856 and then he came over
here in 1861 with a group of Swiss saints and he said at one time that one of the reasons
that he had come is because he wanted for himself and his family the society of apostles
and prophets.
Thousands upon thousands came into the Church in the late 1840s and early 1850s.
To the extent that by 1851 there were over 30,000 members of the Church in Great Britain
alone within the boundaries of the British mission, 31,000.
Think of that, that's twice as many as there were in the United States and Canada combined
at that time.
Some said, well, they're just picking up a lot of the riff raff.
But when Charles Dickens goes down, I think it's in the 1860s when the Amazon is getting
ready to leave and Dickens says some wonderful things as he goes and talks to these people.
He's surprised about them.
He said how orderly they are, what good sturdy people they are, and he said, this is not
riff raff.
This is the pick and flower of England.
From Britain, the preaching of the gospel expanded into continental Europe.
Between 1840 and 1888, under the direction of the first presidency, the gospel was introduced
in 15 European nations.
And while converts were made in each of these countries, proselyting in 19th century Europe
was risky and difficult.
In spite of those challenges, the missionaries really never gave up.
Denmark had a rich harvest of souls over the period of the next two decades, 1850 through
1870.
Then after 1870, religious freedom entered into Norway and Sweden and the Church grew.
The Scandinavian mission was the second most powerful mission next to the British mission.
It's hard to overstate the value of these European converts for the Church.
They provided the Church with the people on which the kingdom was built, and on the other
hand, that built the kingdom.
After touring the missions of Europe in 1862, Elder George Q. Cannon, himself a convert
from England, wrote, from every nation where the gospel is being preached, the Lord is
assembling a people whom he will yet make the mightiest power that has ever had an existence
on the earth.
In March 1881, on the North Island of New Zealand, a large convention was being held
among leaders of the Gati Kahungunu tribe of the Maori people.
Many in attendance were old enough to have seen the coming of the first Christian missionaries
to New Zealand, but the chiefs were concerned about the lack of unity among the different
Christian sects.
The question was raised, which of the churches is the church for the Maori race?
After much discussion, the problem was brought before their wisest and most respected chief,
the aged Faora Potangaroa.
His answer was one word, Taiahoa, wait.
The elderly chief then retired to his residence nearby.
For three days, he fasted, prayed, and meditated.
When he returned, he addressed his people, my friends, he said.
The church for the Maori people has not yet come among us.
You will recognize it when it comes.
Its missionaries will travel in pairs.
They will come from the rising sun.
They will visit with us in our homes.
They will learn our language and teach us the gospel in our own tongue.
When they officiate, they will raise their right hands.
There's little question as to the authenticity of the prophecies made by Potangaroa.
He was well known in his time, as were the prophecies of four other Tohunga, or Maori
priests.
Is it any wonder that the missionaries were so well received among the Maori people?
Within eight years after missionaries first arrived, there were over 70 Maori branches.
By 1892, 10% of all Maori were Latter-day Saints.
But the beginnings of the church in the Pacific came much earlier than that.
In 1843, the Prophet Joseph Smith called four elders on a mission to the Pacific Islands.
Their leader was Addison Pratt, an experienced mariner from Boston.
These four elders became the first missionaries in this dispensation to embark on a foreign
language, foreign culture mission.
One of them died at sea.
But after a six-month voyage, the remaining three reached their destination and labored
for several years on tiny islands scattered throughout French Polynesia.
By 1850, nearly 2,000 people living on these islands had been baptized.
With the success in French Polynesia, Brigham Young decided to call missionaries to other
Pacific Islands.
In 1850, 10 elders were sent to what was then called the Sandwich Islands, or Hawaii.
But living conditions were primitive and bug-infested, the food strange, the language virtually incomprehensible.
Four months after arriving, half of the 10 missionaries, including the presiding elder,
had left the field.
But the youngest, 23-year-old George Q. Cannon, fasted and prayed that he might endure and
master the difficult Hawaiian language.
I heard the Lord's voice more than once, he said, as one man speaks with another, encouraging
me and showing me the work which should be done among this people if I would follow the
dictates of his spirit.
By the time Elder Cannon left four years later, 3,000 native Hawaiians had been baptized and
53 branches established.
His command of the language was such that he had translated the Book of Mormon into
Hawaiian.
During the mid-19th century, the gospel was also taken to Australia, New Zealand, Samoa,
and Tonga.
But in each country, Missionaries I converts only after surmounting enormous challenges.
The sacrifices that these early missionaries made to take the gospel to the various nations
or island groups in the Pacific, to me, is one of the great, great chapters in LDS history.
They literally almost starved to death in famines.
They endured sicknesses of many, many kinds.
The housing they lived in was often flea-infested through all of this.
They grew to love the people more and more, and when they left those islands, they wept.
October 11, 1915.
We held a conference with the Haiku Eru branch.
It was glorious.
Almost all the saints were wiping away the tears, their big hearts brimming over with
joy.
The whole village came down to the shore to see us off and sang, God be with you till
we meet again.
Many cried.
I was sorry to leave.
I had become so attached to the people.
Ever since my first days as a missionary among the Polynesian people, I've had a deep love
and appreciation for them.
They seem to just have a genuine feel for the things of truth and for the things of
God.
They are people of faith and of love and true disciples of Christ.
Christmas morning, 1925, dawned bright and clear in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
Just before 7 a.m., three men walked across a city park to a quiet grove of trees.
They were elders Melvin J. Bowdard of the Council of the Twelve Apostles, Rulon S. Wells,
and Ray L. Pratt of the First Council of the Seventy.
Finding a secluded spot, the three knelt, and by the authority of the Holy Apostleship,
Elder Bowdard dedicated the nations of South America for the preaching of the Gospel.
There were only 12 members of the Church in all of South America in 1925 when my grandfather
Bowdard offered that prayer, and they were all Europeans.
There was not one Native South American member of the Church at that time.
At a testimony meeting in Buenos Aires on July 4, 1926, Elder Bowdard prophesied,
The work of the Lord will grow slowly for a time here, just as an oak grows slowly from
an acorn, but thousands will join the Church here.
It will be divided into more than one mission and will be one of the strongest in the Church.
The day will come when the Lamanites in this land will be given a chance.
The South American mission will be a power in the Church.
A decade after this prophecy, there were 329 members of the Church in all of South America.
By the end of World War II, the number had risen to only 1,200.
Then around 1960, membership rose dramatically to 13,000.
By 1986, it had soared to 790,000.
By 1997, Church membership in South America surpassed 2 million.
What has really happened on there is unbelievable, even for those of us who were part of it and
have seen it.
That's a fulfillment of Book of Mormon prophecy.
Recorded there is the promise that out of those nations would come the leadership that
would proclaim the Gospel of Jesus Christ to their own people.
In 1949, a young couple, Walter and Edith Spott, had just settled in São Paulo, Brazil.
Of German descent, Walter was a skilled and talented furniture maker.
Edith attended Protestant church services regularly, but her husband refused to go.
Well, my mother was a Methodist, and my father was a person of great spirituality and a lot
of knowledge of the Bible, but he didn't like to accompany my mother in her church because
he thought that there should be something better or more perfect than that, something
more true than that.
So every time he went to work, my mother would kneel and pray for him to have the knowledge
of this church, for it to appear in his life so that he could know this church that he
was looking for.
Several months later, in November 1949, two missionaries of the Church of Jesus Christ
of Latter-day Saints knocked on their door.
For five months, Walter studied the Gospel, read the scriptures, and attended meetings.
Before long, he became convinced that he had found the true church.
On March 20, 1950, Walter Spott entered the waters of baptism.
Seven months later, his wife, Edith, joined the church.
He made the decision at that point that he would be completely dedicated to the church
and do all that was asked of him, and consequently he was put into several leadership positions
almost immediately.
He was a branch president, he was an elders' quorum president, he was in the district council,
in the district presidency, and finally as a member of the mission presidency.
But Walter Spott, among all those who were placed in responsible positions, became an
anchor and a pillar of strength in a very small organization.
On a sunny morning in May 1966, a remarkable event occurred in Walter's life and in the
lives of all Latin American Latter-day Saints.
The first stake in South America was organized in the city of Sao Paulo, and Elder Spencer
W. Kimball called as the new stake president, Walter Spott.
The Sao Paulo stake was a very large stake, it covered basically one of the largest cities
in the world, so it was a lot of work.
He had never lived in a stake, he didn't know how a stake ran, and he felt inadequate because
of that, but that didn't affect his work.
He immediately plunged in, he used his high councilmen, his bishops, in order to organize
and build the stake.
And we were one, and I think we were one mainly because of him.
He was totally dedicated to the Church.
He seemed a little bit stern and harsh on the outside, but when something really happened
that was of importance to the person as far as their spirituality was concerned, there
then you found out he was very, very gentle and very kind and very forgiving.
Elder Spott was strong and tough on the outside, but he was soft on the inside.
When we left to come home, the Relief Society of Sisters in our ward had a little gathering
for Sister Faust, and as the meeting concluded, Sister Faust got up and went around and gave
each sister a sisterly kiss on the cheek.
And when she came to Walter, I didn't know what she was going to do.
She gave Walter a kiss, and he broke down and cried.
For ten and a half years, Walter served as stake president.
When ground was broken in Sao Paulo for the first temple in South America, he not only
helped in its construction, but was called as a member of the executive committee for
the opening and dedication of the temple.
He designed exquisite furniture for the temple and later, after serving as a regional representative,
was called as a counselor in the temple presidency.
Walter and Edith were serving as temple missionaries when Walter was stricken with cancer and became
bedridden for the first time in his life.
After a seven-month struggle, Walter Spott died on May 15, 1989.
When he joined the Church, there were about 800 members of the Church in Brazil.
Now there are over a half a million.
He was the right man at the right time, at the right place, to be the stake president
of the first stake in Brazil.
And I believe he was prepared by the Lord before he came to the earth.
And it is my testimony that he was a man of thought.
West of Brazil, sprawling for thousands of miles along the coast, lies another South
American country where the Church has experienced phenomenal growth, the nation of Chile.
In 1977, at a Chilean area conference, Elder Bruce R. McConkie of the Twelve prophesied,
I foresee the day when the seven stakes in Chile will be seven times seventy.
I foresee the day when the 250 active Chilean missionaries will be increased by the thousands.
I foresee the day when the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints will be the most
powerful influence in this nation.
The Lord will pour out blessings abundantly upon this nation because of the righteousness
of the people who live here.
In March 1997, Chile received its 100th stake.
The number of members in Chile has placed it fourth in the entire world behind the United
States, Mexico, and Brazil.
Today, one out of every 20 Chileans is a Latter-day Saint.
In Latin America, by 1997, the small acorn of which Elder Ballard prophesied had grown
to 753 stakes, 94 missions, six temples with six more in planning or under construction,
and 3.4 million members.
When President Howard W. Hunter came to Mexico to create the Church's 2,000th stake, the
129th in Mexico, he looked over the vast sea of faces and said, who could have imagined
that from its very humble beginnings the work in this land would have progressed to its
present state of maturity?
The Lord, through His servants, has brought this miracle to pass.
The promises made to Father Lehi and his children about their posterity have been and are continuing
to be fulfilled.
On July 14, 1949, a small group of Latter-day Saints stood atop Victoria Peak, the highest
elevation in Hong Kong.
Among them were Elder Matthew Cowley of the Council of the Twelve Apostles, Mission President
Hilton A. Robertson, and Henry Aki, a Chinese-American member of the Church.
Sister Cowley recalls,
We could see the beautiful harbor, the peninsula, and mainland China in the distance.
It was a beautiful, bright day.
Matthew called on Brother Aki to pray.
He poured his heart out to God, tears streamed down his face.
He was the only Chinese in all those millions who held the priesthood, and he felt it keenly.
Then Matthew dedicated the land.
When he finished, there was a dead silence.
The Holy Spirit enfolded all of us and the land.
Then Matthew said, I feel that these Oriental people will accept the gospel readily.
And in due time, there will be a temple built here to the most high.
That was a thrilling moment.
Asia is one of the truly dynamic and vital areas of the world.
Half of the world's population live in Asia.
For Latter-day Saints, Asia from the beginning has been a very vital and important area of
the world.
But it has also been perhaps the most challenging area.
The work began slowly in Asia, but the Lord had His own timetable.
And when that time arrived, He poured out His Spirit upon the people, and they responded
in a wonderful and remarkable way.
In 1946, a young Korean scientist, Kim Ho-jik, was working at an agricultural research facility
in Yersoul.
His assignment?
To find ways to improve nutrition in the Korean diet.
The president of South Korea, Sing Min-ri, learned of the work of this gifted young scientist,
and proposed sending him to America to study more efficient ways of feeding their country's
malnourished population.
In the fall of 1949, Kim Ho-jik enrolled at Cornell University in New York, home of one
of the world's top graduate programs in nutrition.
Kim Ho-jik had another important reason for going to America.
He was a devout Christian, he was a spiritually minded man who was always in search of light
and truth.
And he felt that America was a land of great religious opportunity where he could find
out more about what the Lord expected of him.
At Cornell, Kim Ho-jik shared an office with a graduate student in physiology named Oliver
Wayman.
One day as their studies were drawing to a close, Brother Wayman was approached by Kim
Ho-jik.
I have never seen you smoke or drink, the Korean said.
I've never heard you use vulgar language or profane the name of God.
You work harder and longer hours than the others, but I have never seen you here on
Sunday.
You are different in so many ways.
I wonder if you would tell me why you live as you do.
I told Dr. Kim that the pattern of my life was determined by the tenets of the church
to which I belong, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
I gave him a copy of the Articles of Faith by James E. Talmage.
He read it through in a week's time and came to me saying, this is the best book I have
ever read on the gospel.
Can you give me something else to read?
I then gave him a copy of the Book of Mormon.
He read that through in approximately a week's time and came with such enthusiasm, he said,
this book is the word of the Lord.
Dr. Wayman invited him to attend church services, which he did.
Then on the day Brother Wayman was leaving Cornell to accept a position in Hawaii, he
met Dr. Kim in the hallway.
Brother Wayman felt impelled to ask him if he knew why he had left Korea to come to America.
I felt impressed to tell him that I thought there was another reason that he came, that
the Lord had moved upon him to come to America to get the gospel so that he could take it
back to his people and enrich their lives much more.
I never felt the Spirit stronger in my life than I did at that time.
I felt as though I were standing three feet in the air.
And I knew that what I had told him was the truth.
Oliver Wayman never saw Kim Hojik again, but he left New York certain that the Spirit had
touched his friend.
I could see a change in his expression, he said.
Kim Hojik's outlook had indeed changed, and he now studied the gospel with a new intensity.
He was so hungry and thirsted after the things we taught.
When we taught the lessons that the Eastern States Mission was using, we would go back
to try to review.
And the second he recognized we were going back to review information, he would quickly
raise his hands and say, no, no, don't do that, I've already accepted that.
Let's go on, time is so short.
On July 29, 1951, in the Susquehanna River near Harmony, Pennsylvania, the first known
Korean Latter-day Saint was baptized.
As he came up out of the water, Brother Kim heard a voice.
On the inside leaf of his scriptures, he recorded the words he heard, feed my sheep, feed my
sheep.
Meanwhile, thousands of miles away, Brother Kim's homeland lay devastated by war.
North Korea had invaded the South, reducing cities and industries to rubble.
Thousands had died, and hungry refugees lived in makeshift huts.
It was into this setting that Brother Kim returned home and undertook the Lord's errand
to feed his sheep.
Brother Kim immediately began to share the gospel wherever he could.
In both public and private life, he was a zealous missionary.
He brought the gospel to quite a large number of young Korean students, and it wasn't long
before a nucleus of converts and investigators could be gathered together on Sundays where
he would teach them a Sunday school class.
Meanwhile, with a doctorate from Cornell, Brother Kim began rising in government and
educational circles.
He was named president of Hongik College, then appointed chief Korean representative
to UNESCO.
Shortly thereafter, he became chairman of the Seoul Board of Education, and finally,
vice minister of education for the Republic of Korea, a cabinet-level position.
He personally took a proposal before the government for the church's official recognition in Korea.
Because of long-held misconceptions about the church, passage was considered impossible,
but with Dr. Kim's endorsement, it passed.
One member observed, it was almost a miracle.
Dr. Kim put his reputation on the line again to gain permission for LDS missionaries to
enter South Korea.
After agreeing to be their financial sponsor and guaranteeing they would do no harm to
the Korean people, the first two full-time missionaries were allowed entrance into Korea
in April 1956.
And it's the first time I'd met him, and I thought to myself, what a giant of a man,
because here is an older Korean gentleman, and a man of obvious prestige and position
surrounded by a bunch of young people, students, some of them in college but mostly from high
schools, there to greet the missionaries as we came in.
And knowing the thing of status and face in Korea, I thought, this has to be a great man
to be willing to put his reputation on the line for the church.
We used to mention to everybody that we possibly could that he was our district president and
everyone knew him, and didn't just know him, but they thought highly of him.
He was well-respected.
It indeed lent a sense of respectability to the church that it didn't have at that time.
He was a strength to the missionaries.
We never had a moment's fear because Dr. Kim was there, and he was there to take care of
us.
Food was scarce, times were hard, and he fed us often.
You can't think about Korea in the early days and the harshness of the life and the conditions
under which people were living without having a profound love and appreciation for this
good man.
One Sunday in Seoul, Dr. Kim was teaching his weekly Sunday school class when an emissary
from the president of the country, Sigmund Rhee, came and told him that the president
wanted to see him right away.
I remember I was sitting in the front row.
Two distinguished-looking gentlemen came in, and they were whispering and asking him to
go with them.
Brother Kim graciously thanked him and said, when I finish my class, I'll be happy to go
with you.
Those two gentlemen were not happy at all, and they left.
So that very moment, I felt something in my heart.
This great teacher, I think, sharing the gospel is so important.
Dr. Kim continued to labor with a sense of urgency for his country and for his church.
Then, in August of 1959, a friend noted that he looked unusually tired.
Less than a month later, he died of a stroke at age 54.
Nearly every university and college president in the country came to pay their respects,
and almost without exception, they remarked that Dr. Kim had invited them at one time
or another out to church.
Dr. Kim Hosik was a member for only eight years, but the impact he has on the church
is immeasurable.
We have 16 stakes established.
We have a temple of the Lord in Korea these days.
We have Koreans who are nurturing and leading the church.
It's one of the great miracles of church history.
Dr. Kim has never been forgotten by the Korean saints.
There are second and third generation children in the church now who know of Kim Hosik, the
first Korean elder.
We could call him the founder of the church in Korea.
The first thing that impresses you about Africa is its sheer size.
I remember the first time I went there being so impressed by how big it was.
It occupies about a fifth of the world's land surface.
It's about four times the area of the United States, twice as many people.
More than 1,200 different dialects and languages, probably a quarter of all the languages on
the earth, are found in Africa.
But it's the people, I think, that are most impressive.
They're wonderful people, inherently spiritual, close to the Lord, and the story of how the
gospel of Christ in its fullness was brought to Africa is, I think, one of the greatest
stories in the history of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
In 1965, a schoolteacher named Anthony Obina was living and working in the village of Obambase
in southern Nigeria.
One night, Anthony had an unusual dream, which ultimately would change the course of his
life.
I was visited by a tall and majestic man who carried a walking stick in his right hand.
He took me to one of the most beautiful buildings I had ever seen, a tall and magnificent building,
and showed me all of the rooms.
A few years later, I had the same dream and was shown again the same building.
Then came the Nigerian Civil War, and one day, while confined to the house, I picked
up an old copy of the Reader's Digest from 1958.
Inside was an article about the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
I had never even heard of the Church, but there before my eyes was the same beautiful
building I had visited in my dream.
My whole being came alive.
I rushed out immediately to tell my brothers, who were amazed and astonished to hear the
story.
Writing to Salt Lake City, Anthony received a copy of the Book of Mormon and several pamphlets.
But when he learned that there were no immediate plans to organize the Church in Nigeria, he
was deeply disappointed.
Refusing to abandon hope, he continued to study and share the Gospel.
For more than ten years, he wrote letters pleading for missionaries to come to Nigeria
to teach and baptize his people.
In 1976, he wrote again to Church headquarters.
We are not discouraged, but shall continue to pursue the practice of our faith, which
we have found to be true.
We are very optimistic that our Lord Jesus Christ will make it possible in the future
for the Church to take more direct action.
On November 21, 1978, the first missionary baptism in Black Africa was performed as Anthony
Obinna received the ordinance from Elder Rendold M. Mabey in the Ekio-Numiri River in southern
Nigeria.
Brother Obinna's 13 years of waiting had come to an end.
On that same day, the Abo branch was organized with Anthony Obinna as president.
I remember sitting with Anthony one afternoon, a very, very hot day, in his humble house,
and the first question he asked me when we sat down was, how is the prophet?
My eyes filled with tears because I thought to myself, here is this wonderful, humble,
spiritual soul who's never been out of his own country in his whole life, who's never
seen the prophet and probably never will in mortality, and yet the first question he wants
to know is, how is the prophet?
After serving his people for 17 years, Anthony Obinna died on August 25, 1995, at the age
of 67.
In 1988, less than 10 years after the first baptisms in Nigeria, Elder Neil A. Maxwell
organized the Abo Nigeria Stake, the first stake in Black Africa.
During the late 80s and early 90s, stakes continued to be organized throughout Africa.
By 1997, there were 20 stakes and over 100,000 members, with an average of 6,000 being baptized
each year.
I'm convinced that only the gospel of Christ will save Africa.
The schemes of man, no matter how well-intentioned, will not do it.
Science and technology, economic investment, all desperately needed, will not be enough.
The salvation of Africa, like the salvation of the rest of the world, will come only from
the sweet fruits of the gospel of Jesus Christ.
Is anything too hard for the Lord?
He will open the gates and make possible the proselyting.
Of that, I have great faith.
There are thousands of people here in front of the wall at the Brandenburg Gate at this
hour.
Despite the drenching downpour, thousands of people are celebrating the reunion of a
city and of a people.
The years of political domination and the years of atheism never destroyed in the hearts
of the Eastern Europeans a desire to believe, a desire to do good, a desire to serve, a
desire to have warm and loving families.
All of the things that the gospel represents in its highest expression.
As the missionaries brought the message into the lives of the Eastern Europeans, they responded
and they responded quickly.
There is marvelous growth and attendance is high in all of the branches of the church
in Eastern Europe.
But it was not always so.
Following World War II, the light of freedom flickered, then vanished as country after
country fell to repressive regimes.
That would become known as the Iron Curtain descended over Central and Eastern Europe.
A small group of devoted church members in East Germany and Czechoslovakia quietly clung
to their faith as atheism was declared the official position of their countries.
For nearly 40 years, the Iron Curtain Veil remained impenetrable to any influence from
the West, much less the dissemination of any religious belief.
Then as President Spencer W. Kimball surveyed the world during his presidency, he said,
I feel the spirit of the Lord is brooding over the nations to prepare the way for the
preaching of the gospel.
He asked members to pray that barriers might be removed and the hearts of leaders softened.
I acknowledge the hand of God in what has happened since then.
Today we have a temple in what was formerly an Iron Curtain country and congregations
throughout Russia and Eastern Europe.
How different was my first visit to what was then East Germany in 1968?
Tensions were high.
Church meetings were watched and monitored by the secret police.
After my vehicle had been searched by border guards, I drove to the city of Gerlitz, deep
in East Germany, near the Polish border.
The faithful members of the tiny Gerlitz branch met in a battered old building, but as they
sang the hymns of Zion, they literally filled the hall with their faith and their devotion.
My heart was filled with sorrow, however, when I realized the members had no patriarch,
no wards or stakes, just branches.
They could not receive temple blessings, either endowment or ceiling.
The members could not leave their country, yet they trusted in the Lord with all their
hearts.
I stood at the pulpit and with tear-filled eyes and a voice choked with emotion.
I made a promise to the people, if you will remain true and faithful to the commandments
of God, every blessing any member of the Church enjoys in any other country will be yours.
When I realized what I had said, that night I dropped to my knees and pleaded with my
Heavenly Father, Father, I am on Thy arm.
This is Thy Church.
I have spoken words that came not from me, but from Thee and Thy Son.
Wilt Thou fulfill the promise in the lives of this noble people?
Can you imagine my joy in returning to the city of Gerlitz in 1995, wards and stakes
dotting the landscape and dedicating the beautiful Gerlitz Chapel?
Step by step over the years, every promise made to the Saints during my first visit had
been fulfilled.
As I looked over the audience, I saw many of our faithful leaders, even those who were
in attendance twenty-seven years earlier, and during the long period in between.
Henry Burkhardt, Walter Krause, Gottfried Richter, Hans Rinker, and many others gave
their all to this great cause.
These were true pioneers, for they went before, showing others the way to follow.
When Joseph Smith met with that small group of Brethren in the log schoolhouse in Kirtland,
they could hardly comprehend the prophetic vision he laid out before them.
But even when there were only a handful of members, the Prophet knew the destiny of this
Church, and what we see today in its growth and expansion across the world is further
evidence that he was a Prophet of God.
Lately I have been much out among our people.
In travels over the past two years I have participated in many meetings with more than
a million Latter-day Saints in thirty-eight different nations.
In the fall of 1995 I returned to the land where I served my mission as a young man,
Great Britain.
We held scores of meetings with members and missionaries and rededicated the newly refurbished
Hyde Park Chapel in the heart of London.
In May of 1996 we arrived in Asia, and in eighteen days visited seven countries, met
with over 75,000 Latter-day Saints, and dedicated the Hong Kong Temple.
What a significant thing that was!
One of our last stops on that trip was Manila in the Philippines, where we met with approximately
35,000 members in a huge sports arena, probably the largest assembly of Latter-day Saints
under one roof at one time.
As we entered the hall I could not hold back the tears.
It was my privilege to participate in the opening of missionary work in that land in
1961.
At that time we did not have a building of any kind, and we had only one native member
of the Church of whom we are aware.
Now to go back and realize there are forty-six stakes in the Philippines and a temple of
the Lord.
It is truly a miracle the Lord has wrought in that part of the world.
We had barely returned from Asia when we left again for Europe in the groundbreaking
of the Madrid-Spain Temple.
What faithful people they are!
Nearly two thousand of them gathered for that sacred event.
Then in November we traveled to South America and saw firsthand the faith and dedication
of our people in six different nations.
In Bogota, Colombia we toured the construction site where a new house of the Lord is being
built.
We held meetings in Peru, Chile, and Argentina, and broke ground for temples in Bolivia and
Brazil.
Church membership has passed two million in South America, but that is only the beginning
of what is to come.
As I have looked into the faces of Latter-day Saints in all parts of the world, I am humbled,
for I realize I am witnessing a miracle.
Each of us is a part of the greatest cause on earth.
His doctrine came of revelation, his priesthood came of divine bestowal.
It is literally the little stone of Daniel's dream which was cut out of the mountain without
hands to roll forth until it has filled the whole earth.
As the Prophet Joseph Smith wrote in 1842, the standard of truth has been erected.
No unhallowed hand can stop the work from progressing.
Persecutions may raise, mobs may combine, armies may assemble, calumny may defame, but
the truth of God will go forth boldly, nobly, and independent, till it has penetrated every
continent, visited every clime, swept every country, and sounded in every ear, till the
purposes of God shall be accomplished, and the great Jehovah shall say, The work is done.
He that embarked in the service of God give heart, mind, and strength unto him.
More prophets have spoken and angels have come to lift the world from sin.
That Christ we reign over all the earth,
and bless his hallowed king.
With faith in every footstep, we follow Christ the Lord.
And fill with hope through his pure love,
we sing with love of God, with love of God.
Those marvelous saints who embraced this great work,
and shared his in lands far and near.
Who gave all their hearts, mind, and strength to the Lord,
with wisdom and vision so clear.
Now stand as examples of virtue and faith,
of souls with them to hear.
Of knowledge sure, for a humble heart,
and love that banished, love that banished,
love that banished, faith.
We all desire to assist in this work,
and trust in our simple will might.
If we will enjoy in the service of God,
and all this deep guilt that abides.
Our souls may receive the salvation of God,
the fullness of his might.
That faith, free of sin and sin,
God to redeem us all.
With faith in every footstep, we follow Christ the Lord.
Amen.