Elder Lloyd O. Ivie
Former President of the Japan Mission 1921-1923

I am sure, my brethren and sisters, that I have never in my life had a surprise quite like this. It was something that I had never expected. I really have never felt it would be possible within my lifetime to be called to speak to an audience of this size, though I have spoken to audiences in our stake assemblies. I do feel that this is a place where, above all, we should be able to receive the blessings of the Spirit of the Lord. I have felt that Spirit whenever I have come to conference, here in Salt Lake. I have always felt it here, perhaps, as much or more than at any other place.

I was given an opportunity as a missionary to labor among the Japanese people. I am sure that I enjoyed the time that I labored in that land. I have had faith in that people. I know there are many good among them. I realize that in America anything concerning the Japanese is spoken of with considerable prejudice, due perhaps to political and other reasons. But in my association with them as a missionary, I have found much good among them, and have learned to love and respect them in very deed. I really think and feel that the Japanese people are worth while.

Our coming to Japan was, perhaps, the first contact of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints with other than Christian religions, with other people than those of Christian belief, the so-called Christian denominations of the world. It is our first contact, we might say, with Buddhism, a religion and philosophy which is so much different from our own; and I have found that in this we have a new work, a different problem to solve, and it is one that is going to tax the ingenuity and faith of our missionaries and of our people before that problem shall be entirely solved. At any rate, that is the way it has always seemed to me. We cannot go before those people and preach to them the gospel by quoting passages of scripture, and say that this is true or that is true, because it says so in the Bible. We must convince them with reason. But, of course, as Latter-day Saints, we know and understand that truth is reason, and that there is no other way by which we can receive knowledge and understanding except by study and by the Spirit of the Lord, and that we must reason these things out for ourselves. That is one of the strong points, I think, of the Latter-day Saints. We are not confined to what is said in any book of scripture, though it is true those books are the foundation of our religion. They make us what we are historically; but, at the same time, we as Latter-day Saints feel that we have individual testimonies, each and every one of us, concerning the gospel, because we have reasoned it out for ourselves, and such is the way that we must work. As Latter-day Saints, that is the way we must obtain our testimony, if we feel that we are strong enough to stand against those various doctrines that spring up against the work of the Lord throughout the world. I think that it is a good thing for us all to gain a testimony, not only by faith and prayer, but by reason and by study, until we can understand that these things are true, even though the scriptural books were taken away from us. I think that is one thing that we should all say as Latter-day Saints, that we could stand on the testimony we possess, even though, through some freak of nature, or otherwise, the very books by which we have been taught were taken away from us. We stand upon that. That is going to be the problem in my mind when our Church fully solves the methods, the correct methods, of doing missionary work among this people who believe in Buddhism. I believe that there will be a great work done among that people. Of course, we don't understand the origin of the Japanese. We don't understand entirely, that is of a surety, whence they came, though many opinions have been given, and much has been studied on the subject.

While I was in that country I had an opportunity to study in company with a native man, who used to come to the Book of Mormon classes. He was interested in the Book of Mormon from the viewpoint of his getting knowledge of early races; from the viewpoint of learning of the origin of the races. That was what he was studying, as a lad. He was a government employee, but as a hobby he had collected a large library. By the way, his library was destroyed in the great earthquake, and immediately thereafter he came back to the Church and bought a copy of the Book of Mormon, saying that it was the first book that he had purchased to begin his new library since the old one had been destroyed; and he had studied these problems and felt that the Japanese people had perhaps come from somewhere around Asia Minor, perhaps from Greece or from Egypt or in that district somewhere, and he had maps that he had collected showing something to that effect. It is probable that such might be the case. At any rate, it is my firm belief and opinion that there is the blood of Israel among that people. I believe that some day, although the time may not be fully ripe, that blood will show itself in greater good works in the land.

I want to bear my testimony that the restored gospel is true. I know this with all my being. The only problem in my life is to live worthy of those things which we know and understand are true and correct. I pray that the blessings of the Lord may be with us all, that we may seek continually to keep his laws and commandments, and I do it in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.