Thomas Monson Starts a Rumor

from "Attitude is Important, Missionaries Told"
Church News, August 16, 1997

President Monson met with some of the missionaries of the Canada Toronto East Mission serving in Kingston. He told the missionaries that when he had arrived as mission president, Kingston had the reputation as a place where no one was baptized. President Monson said:
While I was praying and pondering this sad dilemma, my wife called to my attention an excerpt from a book, A Childs Story of the Life of Brigham Young, by Deta Petersen Neeley. She read: "Brigham Young entered Kingston, Ontario, on a cold snow-filled day. He labored thirty days and baptized forty-five souls."

Here was the answer. If the missionary Brigham Young could accomplish this harvest, so could the missionary of today. Without explanation I withdrew the missionaries from Kingston, that the continuity of defeat might be broken. Then I started a rumor: "Soon a new city will be opened for missionary work, even the city where Brigham Young proselyted and baptized 45 persons in 30 days."

The missionaries speculated as to the location. Their weekly letters pleaded for the assignment to this "Shangri-la." More time passed. Then four carefully selected missionaries - two of them new, two experienced - were chosen for this high adventure. The members of the small branch pledged their support. The missionaries pledged their lives. The Lord honored both. In the space of three months, Kingston became the most productive city of the Canadian Mission. The city was the same, the population constant. The change was one of attitude.

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