Show sunday services religious services were held at the k ra tabernacle bernacle salt lake city sunday may 1892 commencing at 2 pm Counis counselor lor joseph E taylor presiding the choir sang the hymn beginning zion stands with hills surrounded zion copt by power divine prayer was offered by elder walter J beattie the choir sang eang come thou glorious day of promise come bome and shed thy aby cheerful aay ray the sacrament was administered by the priesthood of the fourteenth ward ELDER EDWARD J WOOD was first called upon to address addria ge the congregation he spoke for about three quarters of an hour and devoted the entire time to a relation of his experiences pir perien lences ces as a missionary nary in the samoan liland he said be left home with several other elders for that mission field in the summer of 1888 having been authorized to go among the people and preach unto them the principles of the everlasting gospel gospe in the year 1830 ministers belonging to the london missionary society deput eu ed a few natives of toe the islands to open up its work three ur or four years later white preachers followed in 1836 the wesleyann wesleyans Wesle sent forth missionaries in 1840 the catholics did the same anil and so 00 at the present time here were four denominations each professing to be the only true sect represented there hence in the bemoan mean islands the latter day some opposition in the declaration 0 of their principles many no doubt especially strangers would wonder why the latter day saints went to tae tl samoan islands at all knowing that those other sects were already there but many reasons could be given for the sending bending of our elders into places where the people had bad previously had bad abe privilege of knowing abat was in the ible bible fox for all the ac denominations nominations i which he had bad named preached something ng of whitt what the bible contained and they hey had bad educated teachers scattered scattered from one end and to the other the speaker gaves gave a succinct description of the navigator islands which he said contained a population of nearly and alno almo of the people and their customs without any disrespect to outside churches he must say there were some things advocated bud and practiced by them in the samoan Is islands which were conducive to idleness intelligence non and even infidelity he did not wish to tear d down own the work they had done however for experience had taught him that it was preferable to show the outsider iome something that was better than that which he be possessed in order to convert him rather than actually pull to pieces that which he already had bad one of the uppermost armost laws of this church was broo free agency the right of all men to practice Justas j u at aa their consciences dictated were matters which other othe denominations ti taught to the samoans that certainly did not coincide with his bis own lea one ol of these had bad the effect of keeping the ns natives tives poor the samoans did not mind what they did in order to get ahead of each otheron the aay way of giving givin money when the white ministers vo collected lecter d contributions from they would even mortgage weir gieir houses and lands janda in order to enable them to pay mote friol e money into the contribution box than their neighbor As a natla they were very heavily in debt and wore were not so BO honest u I 1 right and energetic in the performance of their daily tabor labor is as they used to be the native samoan was natu raly intelligent oven even more so as far as he could learn than his brethren on the sandwich islands islan df the society island the marquis islands in new zealand and the inhabitants of a few other groups of to islands lands of the same race there were many traditions which informed them that the people of those islands which he had named originally came from south america and to these elder wood briefly adverted he also referred to the aborigines ol of the samoan islands he remarked that the samoans were a great people to inquire into imo the characteristics customs ste etc of others and would often ask the missionaries their opinion of them anti and where they thought their race originally cams came from they also wished to know from those who visited them religiously what they thought the consummation would be whether there would be a gathering of thim selves and their brethren on the other islands lands iii of the sea aea for tradition told them that they had bad brethren u upon on these other groups of islands the he language cu customs stomp cua tomp ways of living and many of the characteristics ot ol these peoples were the same proving provi ng beyond a doubt that they must originally have been one race abil was wap but the fulfilment fulfillment of bible 1 I rop prophecy becy the question was often asked what the latter day saints want to do with the samoan natives for what purpose did they go to samoa why did they preach the gospel there what was the object seeing that they did not colhof bollt ct money from the people as ministers of outside churches had done that was a question which possibly needed no ano answering so eo far me as concerned the members of this church not only did the elders not collect money from the samoans Sa moans but pointed out to them whenever the opportunity offered the advisability of their getting together as an much as they could derive from their lands and pay off their own indebtedness before impoverishing themselves by turning their means into other channels the elders sought bought to impress this upon them before beford preaching anything else to them false reports concern concerning 09 the latter day saints were circulated 03 03 the samoan islands the same as here at home in fact outside ministers and teachers seemed to delight in telling all manner of stories without the slightest foundation and oteous ourse arse these lost nothing by repetition among the natives hence to a certain extent there was the same opposition for the missionaries to encounter there as here but this was not always a detriment for those of the natives who did become converts to the true gospel having having formerly belonged to other chure chur churchea chec P invariably remained stead fast to the covenant which they made madd ith the lord when they entered the 04 aters of baptism summing up his him missionary experiences perien ces on the samoan islands the h speaker eaid he be never spent nt a linter happier or more profitable ste le time an and he e had received man many testimonies of the truth of this great latter day work which would remain with him to the end ot of his bis life by bt request of president george Q cannon elder wood spoke briefly in the samoan language with which he closed him bis address president PRESIDENT GEORGE Q CANNON dwelt upon the mishio missionary hAry work which is being carried on by the church throughout through but polynesia sia unit and expressed the great pleasure which he be had bad derived from listening ta to elder woods testimony A synopsis here would not do justice to brother cannons interesting and instructive address the choir sang the song light and truth vf the benediction was pronounced by patriarch john smith |