A Family Home Evening Snippet.

I've never really been one to love history. For brief periods in my life I couldn't get enough information about WWII or even the Mormon Pioneers, but as of right now I am so amazed at missionary work especially in the area that I am currently living in. After looking more into the history of the area that we were for our stake activity I was pleased to be taken to the Wikipedia page of Samuel Taylor Blue, the chief of the Catawba Indians.(Let's just take a second to point out that he had between 9 and 20 children with his second wife. How on earth do you not know how many children you have?) I was impressed  that he was asked to speak in the April 1950 General Conference and the things that he spoke about. He, if anyone is truly someone who takes the covenant of giving all that he has to the Lord.  This talk is the route in which our Family Night decided to take. 

Below are 2 different addresses, one from Elder Chief Samuel Blue and the other from George Albert Smith which I found in an archived 1950 General Conference Report. 

ELDER CHIEF SAMUEL BLUE

Brethren and sisters, we are told that the Lord moves in mysterious ways, and I bear testimony this is true. It is wonderful to me that I have this privilege to enter this building and attend this conference. I have been a member of the Church, as you have been told, for sixty-odd years. I am one of the poor Indians down there on the reservation, and as we were told a while ago, "Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you." I surely bear testimony to this.

I was raised up as a poor boy, as I said before, and worked at 25 cents a day I fed my mother, brothers and sisters, and when I was fifteen years old, the missionaries came to my home and I have fed the Elders off my wages. I slept out in the woods to give my bed to the Elders. I have wondered to myself, how would I get through this world, but nevertheless, I seek to do the will of God. I fasted and prayed unto him for a blessing, and we have been told if we seek God, other things will be added unto us, and this is one of the "adds" that have been given to me. I am thankful for those blessings.

I have lived at home with two missionaries in my house. They were boarding in Rock Hill. Their room was costing them fifteen dollars a week. I said: "Elders, come to my home. I have a cabin with a room in it you can use, with two beds in it"; so they have taken the room, they eat at my table, sleep under my roof. They want to pay me wages for staying there. I say: "No. The Lord has provided for me and he is providing for you. I want no pay."

So when I left home the other day, Elder Price, he had a hundred dollars in his pocketbook. He offered me part of it. I said: "No, I don't want it." "Well," he said, "you made it for me." I said: "How did I make it?" "You did not charge me for my bedroom or for food, and by so doing I have been able to accumulate this much which my parents have sent to me." I said: "If I have done you that much good by the will of God, keep it and use it in your mission."

I know that this gospel is true. I have tasted the blessing and joy of God. I have seen the dead raised; I have seen the sick whom the doctors have given up, through the administration of the Elders they have been restored to life. My brothers and sisters, beyond a shadow of a doubt I know that this gospel is true. My wife is with me and she is not very well, and I have not been feeling well either. She told me last night, we had better go home.

I said: "Why? I have come here for a good purpose, and if I die here I would just as leave die here as in the world till I have filled the obligation that I am sent here to do. Now may God bless you, Amen.

PRESIDENT GEORGE ALBERT SMITH

When I was twenty-one years of age, I was sent on a mission to the southern states. I became secretary of the mission, and while there was called to Columbia, South Carolina, because some of our elders had become seriously ill. It was difficult to get word back and forth, so I got on a train and went down there. I found that they were improved and getting along all right. Missionary Experience When I bade them good-bye, I boarded the train and started home, and we passed a little Indian settlement at the side of the track.

I saw evidence that there were quite a number of Indians there, so I reached over and touched the man who was sitting in the seat in front of me, and I said, "Do you know what Indians these are?"He said, "They are the Catawbas." That is the tribe that Chief Blue represents, who has just spoken to us.

I asked, "Do you know where they come I replied, "Any Indians." He said, "Nobody knows where the Indians came from." "Oh," I said, "yes they do." I was talking then to a man about forty-five or fifty years old, and I was twenty-one. He questioned, "Well, where did they come from?" I answered, "They came from Jerusalem six hundred years before the birth of Christ." "Where did you get that information?" he asked.

I told him, "From the history of the Indians." "Why," he said, "I didn't know there was any history of the Indians." I said, "Yes, there is a history of the Indians. It tells all about them." Then he looked at me as much as to say: My, you are trying to put one over on me. But he said, "Where is this history?" "Would you like to see one?" I asked. And he said that he certainly would. I reached down under the seat in my little log- cabin grip and took out a Book of Mormon and handed it to him. He exclaimed, "My goodness, what is this?"

I replied, "That is the history of the ancestry of the American Indian." He said, "I never heard of it before. May I see it?" I said, "Yes" and after he had looked at it a few minutes, he turned around to me and asked, "Won't you sell me this book? I don't want to lose the privilege of reading it through." "Well," I said, "I will be on the train for three hours. You can read it for that long, and it won't cost you anything."

I had found that he was getting off farther on, but I had to get off in three hours. In a little while he turned around again and said, "I don't want to give up this book. I've never seen anything like this before."

I could see that he apparently was a refined and well-educated man. I didn't tell him I really wanted him to read the book, but I said, "Well, I can't sell it to you. It is the only one I have." (I didn't tell him I could get as many more as I wanted.) He said, "I think you ought to sell it to me."

I replied, "No, I'll tell you what I'll do. You keep it for three weeks, and at the end of that time you send it to me at Chattanooga," and I gave him my card with my address on, secretary of the mission. So we bade one another good-bye, and in about two weeks he wrote me a letter saying, "I don't want to give this book up. I am sure you can get another, and I will pay you any price you want for it." Then I had my opportunity. I wrote back, "If you really enjoy the book and have an idea it is truly worthwhile, accept it with my compliments." I received a letter of thanks back from him.

I speak of that because that was the first time I had ever heard of the Catawba Indians, and there were only a few of them. I understand now from Chief Blue that ninety-seven percent of them are members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Meeting 15 Years Later Coming back to this book again— Brother B. H. Roberts and I were sent some fifteen years later down into the southern states to visit the mission. When we arrived at the hotel at Columbia, we registered and went into our room, and soon after a knock came at the door and a colored man said, "There's a man downstairs that wants to see George A. Smith." That was the way I used to write my name, and I wrote it that way before I was married.

I said to Brother Roberts, "What will we do?" and he replied, "Send him up," so the man went back, and pretty soon up came a man and knocked on the door, and we opened it. He reached out his hand and said, "My, I am glad to see you."

I said, "I am glad if you're glad to see me; I am happy to see you, but who are you?" and he gave me his name.

I asked, "What can I do for you?" He said, "Don't you remember me?"

I told him, "Remember you? I don't believe I ever saw you before." He said, "Isn't your name George A. Smith?" and I said, "Yes." "Well, he replied, "I am sure you're the man. I met George A. Smith years ago as he was doing missionary work here."

I answered, "Oh, that is easily explained, there was another George A. Smith here doing missionary work, too." "Oh," he said, "it wasn't any other George A. Smith. It was you. Nobody that ever saw that face would forget it." "Well," I said, "I guess I must be the man." Then he related this story. He said, "You were on a train, and we passed the Catawba Indian Reservation."

I interrupted, "I remember all about it now." It all came back in an instant. He said, "I want to tell you something. I read that book, and I was so impressed with it that I made up my mind I would like to take a trip down into Central America and South America, and I took that book with me in my bag when I went down there. As a result of reading it, I knew more about those people than they knew about themselves.

"I lost your address; I didn't know how to find you, and all these years I wanted to see you, and today after you registered downstairs I happened to be looking at the hotel register and I saw your name. That is how I found you.

"I am a representative of the Associated Press for this part of the United States. I understand you are here in the interest of your people." - - And I answered, "Yes, Mr. Roberts and I both are here for that purpose," And he said, "If there is anything I can do for you while you are here, if you want anything put in the press, give it to me and it won't cost you a cent. But," he continued, "I want to tell you one other thing, I have kept your missionaries out of jail; I have got them free from mobs; I have helped them every way I could; but I have never been able to get your address until now."