I will make one last request

Conference Report Sunday April 4^th, 1920. Salt Lake City, Utah

With the celebration of the 100th anniversary of the FIRST VISION the President Heber J Grant made some additional meetings in different buildings.

Third Overflow Meeting

A third overflow meeting was held in the Bureau of Information Hall at 2 o'clock p. m., April 4, 1920, Elder John M. Knight, President of the Ensign stake and of the Western States Mission, presiding.

The music was furnished by the Swanee singers. The chorus sang, "Let the Lower Lights be Burning."

Prayer was offered by Elder Benjamin Goddard of the Bureau of Information.

Participants:

Elder Nephi Jensen, Elder Heber C. Iverson, Elder Rey L. Pratt y Elder John M. Knight

The chorus sang "The Palms."

“I will make one last request.”

Elder Rey L. Pratt (President of the Mexican Mission)

I rejoice very greatly, my brethren and sisters, in having this privilege of meeting with you here, and I have listened with great appreciation and interest to the testimony of the brethren that have spoken this afternoon. Also, I was very greatly interested and edified by the remarks of President Grant and President Lund in our session in the Tabernacle this morning.

I am thankful to the Lord for these gatherings; for the privilege that we as a people have of coming together and being instructed, and listening to the teachings and the testimonies of men whom we know are inspired by our Father in heaven. I am thankful to the Lord that my lot is cast with the people of this Church; and though I have many, many things to be thankful for, and for which I, day by day, thank my Heavenly Father, I think there is no thing that I so genuinely thank him for as I do for the gospel that has been restored in these days in which we live; for the gospel, in very deed, as has been referred to this afternoon, and as defined by the Apostle Paul, is the power of God unto salvation, unto all who will believe, as, of course, those who believe will obey it.

I am thankful to the Lord for the testimony and the knowledge concerning our Father in heaven that came into the world about one hundred years ago, when the boy prophet, with a keen desire in his heart sought to know which of all the sects of the day was the church that Christ recognized. The greatest revelation that has come to the world, in all the history of it, was given to Joseph Smith, when he discovered that our Father in heaven was in very deed a perfect, tangible being. The Christian world had gone astray, and believed in the kind of God defined in the English prayer book; and other religious peoples worshiped the creations more than the Creator, not knowing who God is. But, through that glorious vision, the truth has been borne in upon the world that God is, in very deed, our Father in heaven, and that we are made in his likeness.

It is a very strange thing, coming at the time when it did, and a very hard question to answer: Why should Joseph Smith, had he been a mere reformer not inspired of God, have conceived of the great things that he revealed to the world? Why was he not like other reformers have been, ever since men have taken it upon themselves to reform the religious thoughts and creeds of the world? Why should Joseph Smith have been singled out to have announced this all important and great truth to the world, if he had not been what we claim that he was, inspired of the Lord, and if he did not receive-as we testify that he did receive-this glorious vision of the Father and of the Son? I am thankful for these things and for the restoration of the Gospel through this mighty prophet that the Lord raised up in these the latter days.

There are a great many things connected with the coming forth of the truth and the life and the prophecies given to Joseph Smith, that to me are wonderful. I challenge you, brethren and sisters, to imagine any young man being able to say what Joseph said that the angel told him concerning himself, under similar circumstances, and see it so literally fulfilled as it has been in his case. When the angel came, in answer to his prayer to. our Father, that he might know his standing before him, after some years had intervened after the first vision-when the angel came and taught him, that heavenly messenger quoted ancient Scripture to him and outlined to him the mission that the Lord had called him unto; he told him about the history that through him would be made known unto the world, of the ancient people of this land, and he said to him: "Your name shall be known for good and for evil among all men everywhere." Now, just keep in mind the fact that he was an obscure boy, away back in a New England town; but O, how literally has been fulfilled the word of the angel, as Joseph said it was told unto him!

At dinner today, I was in conversation with a man who has spent four or five years in South America-in Bolivia, in Peru, in Chile, in Brazil, and if I mistake not, I think he said he was over in Argentine. He says that away down there, there is no place that you can go that the name of Joseph Smith and the fame of the "Mormons" is not known. True it is, that in many places it is known for evil, but even in that, it fulfils the prophecy of the Lord. It is a fact that we have never put forth any very great effort to carry the message of "Mormonism" into South America. One mission was established there, the land was dedicated to the preaching of the gospel, but missionaries have never labored in South America. I know of but very few copies of the Book of Mormon that have been sent into that land. They would have had to be in the Spanish language, to have reached the peoples of most of those countries, and I am pretty well conversant with all that has been done with regard to the distribution of Spanish literature for a number of years, and I know that it has not been sent there; but still, this man, who is by the way, not a member of our Church, testifies that away back in the Indian towns, away back from the centers, away back where the Spanish language is scarcely spoken, but where the native languages of those South American Indians is spoken, the name of Joseph Smith is known.

To me, it is a wonderful thing, and I thank the Lord for the testimony of the divine mission of Joseph Smith that there is in my heart.

I was particularly struck this morning with the testimony of President Grant. He testified that he knew that Joseph Smith was a prophet of God, and that the gospel has been restored in these the last days. He said, there will be some of you who will say that you cannot accept it, that you cannot believe it, but all the disbelief and all the ridicule and all the denial of those who cannot believe cannot take that testimony out of the hearts of thousands of people-from the land of the midnight sun in the Scandinavian countries, to South Africa, and from the north of North America to South America, in this land, among men and women everywhere upon the face of the whole earth (though it is true in sections they are few in number). The testimony of the divinity of the mission of Joseph Smith in the earth as a prophet of the Lord, is being borne daily throughout the world, everywhere; and I have heard men testify until it seemed that their testimony pierced the very center of my soul, here from the stand in the Tabernacle; I have heard them testify in the stakes of Zion, I have heard them testify in the wards of the Church; and I have heard them testify in the mission fields, here in the United States and in Mexico and all over and up and down the land; but the testimonies of the leaders of the Church do not differ in sincerity or in genuineness, from the testimonies of the humble members of the Church everywhere. For, as my heart has been touched here by the testimonies, those unmistakable, spiritual testimonies that carry conviction to the hearts of men, so has my heart been touched by the testimonies of the simple natives of the land where I have been called to labor for so many years.

I recall now having held meetings in their little dwellings, built perhaps of corn stalks and thatched over with banana leaves, and in the night time, when we have gathered together, after these same people had worked during the tropical heat of the day and nearly worn themselves out we have gathered together, and with the light of a mere tallow candle, scarcely enough to see to read by, I have seen them stand up and I have seen their countenances brightened by the same spirit, and heard them bear the same strong testimony that carries conviction to the hearts of men, that I have heard from our brethren here; and I want to bear to you this afternoon, my testimony that I know that this is the Lord's work: I know that it shall go on triumphant, and shall spread and shall be established in all the earth-and ultimately the time will come when all men everywhere will acknowledge that this is the truth. Just as I expect to see the day come, some time, somewhere, when every knee shall bow to Christ, and every tongue confess that he is the Savior of the world, so do I expect to see the time come when every tongue will confess this great truth, that Joseph Smith is a prophet of God. Men may not confess it because they want to. All men that will confess it, perhaps, will not repent of their sins; but conditions will be brought about by the calamities that the Lord will send upon the world and his punishments meted out to men, until men cannot deny, but will confess, even though they will not repent, that these things are true.

It is a wonderful thing to know that this is the truth. We are a remarkable people in that respect. I have attended testimony meetings in many churches-only the other day, when I was stopping off a few hours at Trinidad, over in Colorado, I saw a little hall lit up, and went in to the service that was held there, and it was a testimony service, and I listened attentively. I listened anxiously, and I wanted to hear somebody say that they knew that they had the truth, and while many testified, none testified that they knew, and never have I heard anybody outside of the membership of this Church, stand up and say that they know that the gospel that they have embraced is the truth and is the power of God unto salvation.

This Church, brethren and sisters, has been built upon the rock of testimony. Joseph Smith, when he came home from this remarkable vision, brought down upon himself, by a recital of what he had seen, the hatred and the persecution of all the world, it seemed, and he was never free from it from that day until he gave his life, sealed his testimony with his blood; and he tells us in this book, The Pearl of Great Price, in the Writings of Joseph Smith, that he was given to understand that if he would only forsake that testimony or forsake that story and say that he had been deceived, he would end all the persecution that had been heaped upon him, and that he would be received as all other men again; and that his sorrows should not continue in that regard; but, he said, How could I? I knew that I had seen a light and I knew that within the light I had seen two personages, and I knew that I had heard their Voices, and I knew that they had spoken to me, and further than that, I knew that God knew that I knew those things, and who am I that I might withstand God?

My brethren and sisters, his testimony was faithful and true to the end of his life; and the same has been the case in regard to many of the members of this Church, some of them in obscure circumstances, and some perhaps that will never be heard of, but were in their sphere and in their place just as valiant in their testimonies and in their defense of the truth as was the Prophet Joseph Smith. And that is one blessing in this Church, we do not all have to be prophets, in the sense that he was, in the Kingdom of God, but we do all have to have faith, we do all have to repent, we do all have to live right, and we must, each one of us, have the same testimony that he had, or we cannot be saved in the Kingdom of our Father in heaven. Heroism is not confined to those alone who are great in the eyes of men.

I recall an incident just now that I shall beg your indulgence to speak of, that happened away down in the land of Mexico, where I have been laboring. In the year 1913, conditions became so bad in Mexico that upon the advice of President Smith, we decided to leave the mission for a time and move out of the country, and with my family and the seven elders that were left with us then, we were making preparations to go. I sent word to the branches round about. We had been preparing them for it for two years. We had every branch, as we thought, that could be organized into a branch, fully organized, and we had told the people that perchance we might be called upon to leave them for a time, but wanted them to be in a condition to take care of themselves; but just in the afternoon of the day upon which we were to leave in the evening, a young man, who only two months before had been baptized a member of the Church with his two sisters and a little later his mother and his wife and a young friend of the family and, I think, one or two more in that particular locality, came into the mission house, and there was sorrow in his face, and as he clasped my hand, he said: "Brother Pratt, is it true that you are going away? Is it true that the missionaries are going to leave us?" I said, "Yes, Brother Monroy, it seems that that is the wisest thing to do." And he said: "Well, I have been around and visited the other conferences and branches some, and I know that they have their branch organizations and their conferences and the Priesthood of the Lord, and they can get along in some sort of way; but what is going to become of us? We have no branch. Who will teach us? Who will guide us? Who will carry us forward in this great work?"

Well, it seemed to me I could not do other than I did. I said, "Dear brother, please sit down in that chair;" and I called the secretary of the mission into the room and said, "Brother Young, we will ordain this good brother an elder and set him apart to preside over the branch in San Marcos, though there are perchance only ten people there members of the Church. And we set him apart as branch president, after having ordained him an elder in the Church; and I said, Brother, you go back up there and gather your little branch of people together, and tell them of this. We have not time to go and tell them about it. And I gave him a letter. And I said, you take care of them as best you can; put your faith and trust in the Lord and he will bless you and magnify you, and you will be an instrument for good in that community.

That night we left, and he took the train back to his home. For two years during the troublous times that followed, I received letters from him, and they are among the things that I treasure most in life, for they are full of faith and they are full of devotion to the Lord, and they are full of love toward his fellow men. He went to work and gathered his people together and began to hold meetings; and from that humble beginning, it was not more than a year until from seventy-five to one hundred people were meeting there regularly, and in the two years that he presided over that little branch, something like sixty people were added to the Church as a direct result of his humble and faithful labors.

But in the events that have swept over Mexico like a scourge, the revolution came to his town, and the opposing factions from the north and south were contending, with the little town of San Marcos between them, the Saints living virtually and literally upon the firing line, and day after day the conflict raged, and the Saints one Sunday held their meetings while the shells from either side were falling over their meeting house, but they continued with their services.

Finally the faction from the north were driven out, and the men from the band of Zapata came in, and someone said, "There is a man over there who has been assisting the people of the other faction, he has been a colonel in the other army. These people from the south are infinitely fanatic. I never saw anything like it. They go to war with an image of the Virgin Mary tied around their necks; and everybody who will not believe as they do, they think they have a perfect right to exterminate. They arrested this dear brother of ours, and they asked him if he had a store of arms, and he said no. It seemed to be a habit of his from the time he was converted, always to carry in his pocket the Bible and the Book of Mormon, and he drew them out and said, "These are my arms, and I have carried, and I carry them to benefit, not to destroy my fellowmen." And they took him and a young man who was in the same house, a member of the Church also, to a big tree and put a noose around their necks and strung them up until they had fainted, and then let them down and revived both of them again and gave them another chance if they would only tell where their arms were and say that they would renounce their strange religion-for among the accusations brought against him was this, that he was teaching a strange religion and strange gods and carrying the people of the community after him.

He said, "I cannot do it, for I know that what I have received is true and I cannot renounce my religion."

His two sisters, on learning what had become of him, went up and asked the general to release him, but they were thrown into prison with him. Instead of sorrowing, he took his Bible and Book of Mormon and among the other prisoners tried to teach the gospel. About eveningtime the good, old, widowed mother sent a little basket of food to the little adobe house where they were confined. And this brother, before they prepared the supper, out in that little humble place, asked the guards to give him some water. He said he wanted to wash himself, his neck was chafed where the rope had been. And he carefully washed himself and combed his hair, and then when they spread the food out, he said to those present, "If you have no objections, we would like to ask the blessings of the Lord upon this food." In a voice that all could hear, he asked the Lord to bless that food, but in a voice that only his sisters could hear, he said, "I will not eat tonight, I am fasting and praying to the Lord."

It was not ten minutes before they said they wanted these two men outside. The girls stopped eating, of course, and the two men were taken out. It was then just dusk, and they were backed up against a great ash tree-I can see it just as plainly as if it were here; for I have seen it and I have heard the mother and the daughters recite the sad experience-and six men were lined up to shoot them, and another said, "Now, as one last chance, we tell you if you will renounce your religion and confess before the Virgin Mary, we will forgive you and we will spare your lives."

He said, "Gentlemen, I cannot, for I know that what I have taught and what I have accepted is the gospel of Jesus Christ."

They said, "All right, then prepare yourself, but have you anything to say before you are executed?"

"Yes," he said, "I will make one last request, that I he permitted to kneel here and pray." And he knelt there and prayed. He prayed first that the Lord would bless his widowed mother and provide for her, and bless his wife and little child, who would be left a widow and orphan; then he prayed for the little branch, and he said: "Lord bless this little flock that they may not go astray, but that someone will be raised up to lead them." And then he turned and said: "Lord, forgive these men, for they know not what they do," and as he arose from the ground, he folded his arms and said: "Gentlemen, I am at your service."

A moment or two later, the daughters in that little adobe room, and the mother a quarter of a mile further on, heard the sound of the guns that killed their brother and their son.

Brethren and sisters, what was it that took that man smiling and with faith like that to his execution? It was none other than the same testimony that Joseph Smith bore to the world to the very day that he sealed his testimony with his blood. And I would rather be in their class and give up, if the Lord required it at my hands, my life, than to be the owner of all the world and not have that testimony with it.

Brethren and sisters, we are not all privileged to die in that way for the work of the Lord, but it is required of each and every one of us to live each day in fulfilment of the principles of the gospel and to bring our lives into harmony with this great scheme of the gospel, for only as we do so, will it be unto us "the power of God unto salvation." The Lord bless you. Amen.

The Chorus sang, "The Palms."