Conference reports of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

90 GENERAL CONFERENCEWednesday, April 6 Third DayI remember having been the cause of sending conference greetingsto you a time or two while we were away.Really this crowd over-awes me ; I am not thinking properly, I amjust standing here seeing the sea of faces that are before me. It remindsme of looking down upon the many upturned faces as we stood on thedeck of the vessel before we sailed from the shores of New Zealand.We have been treated very kindly by the New Zealand government.Our records are constantly used to determine old age pensions, etc.There is a kindly feeling between the government officers and our Missionoffiice. There has also been a most friendly spirit with the officeof the American Consul. Mr. Walter I. Boyle, who until recently hasbeen American Consul in Auckland for many years, has often invited usto his home and many social gatherings.The Church owns property in New Zealand and the Elders who areamong the Maori people have their own homes, the headquarters of thedifferent districts. The Elders laboring among the Europeans are notso fortunate, but are still paying their board as other missionaries do.Your sons among the Maoris are not doing regular preaching, but areacting like bishops and helping with the taking care of the sick, buildingand gardening and other things to further the mission work. The Eldersare all very happy, they love the people of New Zealand and I bringtheir greetings to you Saints here in Zion.May God bless you and make you dear to me again as you alwayshave been, make you more dear than you have heretofore been, and I askhis blessings upon this work and those who are still conducting the greatship of Zion, in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.ELDER PRESTON NIBLEYPresident of the Northwestern States MissionI am pleased to report the activities of the Saints and the missionariesin the Northwestern States Mission.About forty-five years ago my father and David Eccles of Ogdenestablished a sawmill at Baker City, Oregon. They gathered aroundthem a few members of the Church as laborers and executives there,and gradually a little branch of the Church was formed, a SundaySchool was established, and, as far as I have been able to learn, thatwas the first Sunday School in what is now the Northwestern StatesMission. As a child I had the opportunity of attending that SundaySchool.does one behold.Returning after an absence of many years, what a great changeThere is scarcely a city in the Northwest in which we do not finda congregation of Latter-day Saints. We now have ninety-six SundaySchools scattered all the way from Alaska to southern Oregon and asfar east as Great Falls, Montana. We have a membership of fifteenthousand people. It is interesting to me to note that our people fromthe stakes are moving into the Northwest. During the year we received