Charles E. Rowan Jr April 1933

Sharing stories is a major facet of General Conference. Repurposed here is one such example about an old woman who found the restored gospel of Jesus Christ and what she did about it. 

Elder Charles E. Rowan, Jr.
President of the Texas Mission

My brethren and sisters, many years ago, as a young man I went out with a group of men hunting. After the first day's hunt there were many funny experiences told. One of them was this : Two of the hunters were together, two large, fine deer were jumped, and one of the men when he got through had all of his cartridges by the side of him, none having been fired. He had buck fever, it seems that when I stand in this pulpit, I become nervous — I cannot help it — and after it is all over, I wonder if my cartridges are not lying on the floor and nothing said.

I bow my head with gratitude to my Heavenly Father for membership in this Church and for the opportunity I have had of coming here and partaking of the splendid spirit and listening to the words of inspiration as they have fallen from the lips of these divine oracles of our Father in heaven. I thank him for the opportunity that has come to me to serve in his great Church. I thank him for the privilege I have of laboring as a missionary in the Texas Mission, for my association with your sons and daughters and with the Latter-day Saints in the Texas Mission who I say to you have found God. Hundreds of them bear solemn testimony that they have accepted the challenge of Jesus Christ and have determined positively that this is his work.

As I listen to the testimonies of those missionaries, those fine men who have been clothed with the holy priesthood of Almighty God, and those young sisters who have been divinely appointed to minister among the children of men, I am filled with joy and gratitude to my Heavenly Father. I feel to pay a tribute here today to the youth of Zion.

When President Grant yesterday morning in that wonderful address of his, speaking with reference to the Word of Wisdom, mentioned the fact that great blessings would come from observing it, I was reminded of an experience that had come to my attention. There was recently baptized into the Church in the Texas Mission a woman of distinction and prominence, a widow. At the time of her husband's death, he was president of five banks. She has always been a devout woman in one of the popular churches. She made a trip throughout the West and came to the city of Salt Lake with one of her sons who was a university student. She stopped at one of the tourist camps here, and one of the local missionaries called at the camp and gave her some literature and invited her to come to the Temple Block. Thanks be to the fine missionaries on the Temple Block, they appealed to her, they sold her some literature, and she started reading the Book of Mormon. She said she found it to be rather dry, but she could not get out of her mind the picture of the faces of these, boys and girls who had been born under the covenant, who had been reared by fathers and mothers who had kept the Word of Wisdom and they who themselves were keeping it. She said: "They are the most beautiful young people I have ever seen. I could not get interested in the book, but as I went on through the West into California, into Los Angeles and other great cities, I began comparing these children with other children." She said to her son: "Surely a religion that can produce such fine young men and women as the Latter-day Saint religion produces must have something of value in it."

She wrote a letter to President Grant and sent fifteen dollars as a contribution to further the work of Mormonism. President Grant sent me the letter with a request that call on her or have one of the missionaries do so. I had the district president call on her, and he spent some time with her and gave her some literature. She studied it scientifically, systematically and prayerfully, and in due time became thoroughly convinced that Mormonism is divine. I say, a fruit of Mormonism as depicted by the best crop in the Church, the boys and girls who are living lives of Latter-day Saints.

One of the Elders called on this good woman to baptize her. A man came to her home while the missionary was there, seeking charity. She gave hundreds of dollars to charity. She made him a contribution and then followed him out wanting to see who had brought him to her home. A minister of her church, but not of her city, was in the car. She introduced herself to him and said. "I am going to join the Mormon Church; I am going to be baptized." He said: "Woman, you are crazy. You do not mean it; you cannot mean it." And he told her more than that. He said: "You are going to hell."

She said to him: "Brother, I am earnest and sincere in this. I have made a serious study of Mormonism. I have been in Salt Lake City and other cities where the Latter-day Saints dwell, and I have found them to be honest, God-fearing people, men and women who are happy in their homes. Heaven is in their homes. I believe that I am doing the proper thing. Will you come in and show me where they are wrong?"

He started to get out of the car, and she said to him : "There is a young Elder here now ready to baptize me. He is a fine young man, a real Christian boy, and I am sure if you can convince him that Mormonism is what you say it is and that he is going to hell he will go back to his Christian parents."

The minister immediately became busy and said: "I am sorry, sister, but I cannot go in." He no doubt had met Elders before.

That experience irritated the woman just a little, so she immediately entered the house, called her own pastor, to whom she had given hundreds of dollars, and told him what she intended to do. To her surprise this preacher very nearly duplicated the words that the other minister had uttered. She invited him to her house, and he was coming until he learned that the missionary was there.

Thus, they let one of their best members go "straight to hell'' without coming to put her on the right track. She is happy in the Church and sends in her tithing every month regularly. She is preaching the Gospel to the bankers, the lawyers, and everyone with whom she comes in contact, and primarily this Gospel was brought to her attention because of the fine happy faces of our youth.

I am delighted to be engaged in this great work. I am delighted to report that our missionaries are well and happy; that they have the Spirit of the Lord with them. I hope and trust that we will be able to carry on this great work. We are utilizing as far as possible the local people and because of this I find a better feeling everywhere. The Saints are more united than they have ever been before in the history of the mission. Opportunities are greater for presenting the Gospel, and our people in the main are happy.

May the Lord bless you, my brethren and sisters, and to you who have sons and daughters in the Texas Mission I say they are all well. So far as I know they are all enjoying the Spirit of the Lord, and best of all, I have heard each one of them certify in words of soberness that he knows that God lives, that Jesus is the Christ, that Joseph Smith was a prophet of the living God ; and they all revere and reverence these men whom we sustain as prophets, seers and revelators, as do I.

May God bless us all that we may always live and do that which is right, I pray in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.