History of Utah by Hubert Bancroft

Author:Hubert Bancroft
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Pronoun

MISSIONS AND IMMIGRATIN

1830 – 1883

Of the twenty-five or thirty thousand latter-day saints gathered in the valley of the Great Salt Lake at the close of the year 1852, less than one third came from Nauvoo; nearly seven thousand proselytes had arrived from various parts of Europe, and the remainder consisted principally of converts made in the United States. As to the number of those who had been baptized into the faith in various parts of the world, and were waiting for means or opportunity to emigrate, there are no reliable data; but they probably amounted to not less than 150,000, and possibly to a larger number.

Thus within little more than twenty years the church of Jesus Christ of latter-day saints had increased from a handful to an army. And theirs was a new religion, a new revelation, not an ancient faith; they chose for their proselytizing efforts civilized rather than savage fields. In their missionary adventures no sect was ever more devoted, more self-sacrificing, or more successful. The catholic friars in their new-world excursions were not more indifferent to life, wealth, health, and comfort, not more indifferent to scorn and insult, not more filled with high courage and lofty enthusiasm, than were the

Mormon elders in their old-world enterprises. In all their movements they were circumspect, moderate, studying the idiosyncrasies of the several nations in which they labored, and careful about running unnecessarily counter to their prejudices.

On reaching the scene of his labors, the missionary earned his daily bread by some trade or handicraft, not even refusing domestic service, in order to provide for his wants, and meanwhile studying the language of the people among whom he lived. Many were cast into dungeons, where they were forced to live on bread and water; many traveled on foot from district to district, with no other food than the roots which they dug near the wayside; many journeyed under the rays of a tropical sun, the water trickling from the rocks and the berries hanging from the bushes forming at times their only sustenance.

The term of their labors had no certain limit, depending entirely on the will of the first presidency. For the more distant missions it was seldom less than two years or more than six. They must remain at their post until ordered home; and when recalled, they were often forced to earn by their own labor the means of crossing seas and deserts. Restored at length to their families, they were ready to set forth at a day’s notice to new fields of labor; and for all this self-denial they sought no earthly reward, esteeming

it as their greatest privilege thus to give proof of their unfailing devotion to the church.

One of the first Mormon missions of which we have any record was sent forth in October 1830, in which year, as will be remembered, it was ordered that Pratt, Cowdery, Whitmer, and Peterson should go and preach the gospel to the Lamanites. Duringtheir progress they labored for a season among the Wyandots in western Ohio.

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