TEMPLES AND OTHER CHURCH BUILDINGS

There has been expended, up to date, on the erection of the new temple at Cardston, Alberta, Canada, $209,668., and it is still in process of erection. ¶

There has been expended in the erection of the temple in the Hawaiian Islands, and which will be completed during the current year, $50,520. ¶

There has been paid out of the tithes during- the year 1916 for the support of the missions, $213,610. In addition to this, property has been purchased in Brooklyn, New York, and a mission house erected thereon, which has cost the Church $51,802. ¶

The Church has purchased mission property in the South African Mission during the year which has cost $9,333. ¶

The Church has purchased, also, additional real estate adjoining our mission property at Independence, Missouri, at a cost of $5,000. ¶

We have paid for a new chapel in St. Louis, Missouri, $6,400. ¶

In the year 1915, the Thomas D. Dee Memorial Hospital, of Ogden, was transferred to the Church, and since that time there as been expended for its maintenance and erection of a beautiful nurses' home, $33,587. ¶

During the year 1916 the Church has contributed toward the erection of ward and stake meeting houses $177,736. ¶

OTHER EXPENDITURES. ¶

We have not been unmindful of the poor, not only in the stakes of Zion, but in the missions. There has been expended for charity through the different Church activities, for the year 1916, $308,951. ¶

We have continued to maintain the Church schools, and there has been paid out for this purpose, during 1916, $365,832. ¶

No doubt the Church Auditing Committee will give you other items, and more in detail, of the expenditures which have all been made for the benefit of the Church. ¶

MISCELLANEOUS STATISTICAL AND OTHER INFORMATION. ¶

There has been the usual increase in the membership of the Church. Information concerning the increase in the missions is incomplete, this year, in consequence of the Great War. ¶

At the close of the year 1916 there were 819 wards and 73 organized stakes of Zion, and there were 21 missions There were in the mission field, one patriarch, 61 high priests, 209 seventies, 876 elders, and 188 lady missionaries, making a total of 1,335 missionaries in the field. ¶

There has been a very marked improvement in ward teaching, both in the quality of the teaching and in the regularity of the visits to the homes of the Latter-day Saints by the teachers. Some of the stakes of Zion have had every family visited every month of the year, and in two or three stakes of Zion, every family has been visited every month for ¶

10 GENERAL CONFERENCE. ¶

several years past. This regular work of the ward teachers is having its effect in improved attendance at sacrament meetings, priesthood meetings, and other ward and stake activities. As you know, my brethren and sisters, the main object of this work, the visiting 6f the teachers to the homes and the families of the Church, is to ascertain whether there is any need there, whether any are sick or poor or faithless, or in any way in need of succor and assistance, that that which is needful might be rendered unto them. ¶

A considerable increase is shown in the labors of our people in the temples. During the year 1916, 419,257 ordinances were performed in our temples. Of that number, 66,035 were performed in the Manti temple; 131,805 in the Logan temple; 28,003 in the St. George temple, and 193,414 in -the Salt Lake temple. In 1916, the ordinances performed were 88,000 in excess of the previous year, and is the largest in the history of the Church. ¶

The Latter-day Saints Hospital has reached its full capacity in the accommodation of patients. The Dee Hospital has also been running at its full capacity. ¶

Since our last conference, the Idaho stake of Zion has been organized, being part of the Bannock stake, with Nelson J. Hogan, president ; and the following wards have been organized : ¶

Ogden 13th, Ogden stake ; Richmond South, Benson stake ; Highland Park, Granite stake; Montpelier 3rd, Bear Lake stake; Meadowville, Idaho stake; Crystal, Pocatello stake; Marysvale, Sevier stake; Farmington North, South Davis stake. ¶

Elder Sylvester Q. Cannon has been appointed president of the Pioneer stake, and Elder S. Norman Lee, president of the Box Elder stake. ¶

President Wm. Gardner, of the New Zealand mission, who returned in 1916, was succeeded by Elder Jas. Lambert as mission president. ¶

Elder Hyrum W. Valentine, president of the Swiss and German Mission, has succeeded in getting home safely, and Elder Angus J. Cannon has taken hjs place as president of the Swiss-German Mission. By the way, we have been warned that it was not prudent to use the word "German" mission, in connection with the appointment of our elders, as our dear English neighbors were a little jealous of that name. We therefore dropped the word "German," and it now is the Swiss M:ssion. ¶

Since our last conference, President Francis M. Lyman of the Council of the Twelve, has passed away, and Elder Heber J. Grant has been appointed President of the Twelve. Elder Stephne L. Richards has been appointed a member of the Council of the Twelve. ¶

Elder Joseph S. Wells, of the General Church Auditing Committee, has also passed away. ¶

Of the presidents of the stakes of Zion, we have lost by the hand of death since our last conference, President Oleen N. Stohl of the Box Elder stake, President William McLachlan of the Pioneer stake, and President George E. Stoddard of the Union stake. ¶

The following brethren and a sister laboring in the mission field have passed away: ¶