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PRESIDENT WILFORD WOODRUFF

said: I feel thankful, my brethren
and sisters, that I have the privilege
this morning of attending this Sixty-
sixth Semi-Annual Conference of the
Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day
Saints, with the Elders of Israel and
the Saints of the living God. My first
attending any conferences of this
Church was in 1834, and from that day
till the present, from time to time, a[s]
circumstances have permitted, I have
enjoyed this blessing. And while the
Prophets, and Apostles, and Elders
and Saints of God, a grea[t]
many of them, and a number of them
who have assembled in these days, are
today upon the other side of the vail,
still other men as Apostles and
Prophets and Elders and members of
the Church stand in the flesh, follow-
ing in their footsteps. I feel thankful
to have the privilege of meeting with
the Apostles and the various quorums
of the Church of Jesus Christ of Lat-
ter-day Saints today. And while we
are together during this conference, I
hope and trust that we may all of us
have our hearts lifted up in prayer
and thanksgiving to God and ask His
blessing that we may be guided by
His Holy Spirit in whatever we are
called to teach to the Saints, and the
labors we have to perform as the
people of God. We have great reason
to rejoice, great reason to be thankful
to our Creator, to God, our Heavenly
Father, for His mercies and blessings
over us today.

The hand of the Lord may very
clearly be seen, I think, by all men who
enjoy the Spirit of God, in the past
history of the Latter-day Saints. His
hand has been over us since our or-
ganization in 1830, until the present
time. We have passed, of course,
through many trials and tribulations,
but the Lord's mercy is over us, and
we are pla[n]ted here in the mountains
of Israel, the Zion of God, and placed
here with responsibilities resting upon
us to be carried out in our day and
time. I am pleased to meet with the
Apostles, and trust, as far as we have
time and opportunity, we shall have
the privilege of hearing from them.
But I will say that President Snow is
expected to be absent from us for a
day or so, in attending the funeral of
Judge Smith, of Brigham City, and I
will call upon him this morning to
occupy a little time in talking to us.