If there are problems in the mission that you can give me light on so that I can help your president and help you, that's what I'd like. If there are situations that are difficult, if there are problems that are unknown—let me give you one example.

In one of the missions I found a bad situation. One or two missionaries had been breaking rules (as the president has talked about this morning). They began to break some rules, just—all they did was to just go over to a certain home every Sunday night for a dinner. The president didn't know anything about it. It wasn't very serious—they should have been home studying—but it was a regular thing every week. After a little while these missionaries were bringing others and pretty soon they were dancing on Sunday night, a few of them. And then they were doing a little flirting and then a few of them of to playing cards there every Sunday night. And then they were dancing in the dark with some of the Saints' girls!

The next thing we knew there was an excommunication. I came there and the things were revealed. found at there was only one boy who had actually gone to the extreme where he had to be excommunicated; ere were about eighteen missionaries in this area who had followed like sheep over the ledge. They had not intended to do anything wrong, but they had just kind of followed the leadership. They had gone there to the meals, and they had gotten into little flirtations—not too deeply, but the thing is that there were eighteen missionaries who knew that this boy had gone too far. They knew that he was necking and petting, but not one of them would ever tell!

When I interviewed them and visited with them, I said, "Why didn't you tell the president that conditions were bad?" One of them said, "Well, that's none of my business! This elder can do as he pleases! If he wants to wreck his mission, that's okay with me, it's his business, it's his mission! If he wants to ruin his life that's up to him; it's his life!"

And then I said to these elders, "Well, what about your mission? Isn't this your mission too? Are you willing that one person will do more damage than you can repair? Are you willing to have some missionary nullify all that you've done here? You've spent twenty months here, Elder, and done remarkably good work. Are you willing that one scandal—one scandal in this out-of-the world place should neutralize all that you've done? All of your efforts? That's what happens! Are you willing to do that?" He said, "Well, I hadn't thought of it like that."

"But that's what happened, isn't it, elders? This is your mission! This is your Church! One scandal in a community is enough to annihilate the work of all of you, maybe all the work you do cumulatively, for all your two years—neutralized by one scandal in the community! Do you think that you have a loyalty? Where are your loyalties? Are you loyal to yourself? Are you loyal to your companion? Are you willing to let him go on, and on, and on until he breaks his neck?"

When he was excommunicated, it was a sad day in that mission because he was a fine young man and all the missionaries loved him; and some of them were weeping at day. I remember! Some of them were weeping tears. Their brother was being excommunicated from the Church and sent home in disgrace!

And then I said to them, "Elders, do you know who excommunicated is boy? Not me, not your president, not the elders' court. It was you! You excommunicated your brother. How? Well, if you had gone to this boy when you saw him breaking mission rules and you'd said, 'Elder, let's not do at. That disturbs our whole program. We lose spirituality, all of us, when things like this happen!'" Now suppose that he didn't yield, and you said to him again, "Elder, you shouldn't do that. We can't be doing those kinds of things."

And then suppose you'd gone a third time and said, "Elder, I'm sorry, but if you don't desist I'm going to have to report to the mission president, because I'm not going to have you destroy yourself. I think too much of you. I'm not going to have you destroy this mission. I think too much of it. I'm not going to have you destroy my work. I've worked too hard to have it all go to the wind. If you don't desist I'm going to tell the president, not as a tattle-tale but so that he can protect the whole program."

You see, there is nothing ugly about that, is there? That's the way it should be because our loyalty is first to the Lord, to the Church, to the mission, to the world, isn't it?

One more little incident that is connected: In one United States mission, one day a neighbor came into the home of a new member. The neighbor was not a member, but she came and she was just used to walking through the door—you know, she didn't always knock. So she came over to this house one day and she saw her friend, the Latter-day Saints sister, sitting on a chair here and an elder at her feet—this will shock you—trimming her toenails or painting her toenails or something.

Well, now, that isn't unpardonable sin, but it was indiscreet, wasn't it? Even if nothing else happened, he was sitting on the floor and didn't have on his tie and coat; and here was a woman partly dressed, and he was painting her toenails or something! Anyway, that city was closed, absolutely closed to missionary work for twenty years! Do you think missionaries could go into that city? Why, of course, they couldn't! Because there w still the memory of this indiscretion. They hadn't committed sin; at least, I' quite sure he had never committed an immorality. I think it wasn't any more than an ugly indiscretion. It was ugly enough, wasn't it? It was what it led to—you see.

That's why I say this mission belongs to you. There are 150 of you, and this mission belongs to all of you. If anything happens to any part of this mission it gets a black eye. It makes it more difficult for us to get missionaries in. It makes it more difficult to do anything! And it makes it more difficult for you to go into the homes where they have heard ugly things about the Church. That's why one elder isn't by himself. He can't be a loner. He has got to fit into the program, hasn't he? And every one of you is interested. Every one! And you can't afford to let your companion or anyone you know do anything very serious because it all brings trouble to you and to the whole program.

Well, think about that a little because some people say, "I'm not going to be a stool pigeon! I'm not going to tattle. I'm not going to be telling on people." It isn't that at all. It's a reporting, just as if you saw a couple of robbers going into your neighbor's home. Would you say, "Well, I won't tell on the robbers. I won't do anything about it. Let them go. It's up to them. It's up to my neighbors." No! We do become involved. We'd rush to the telephone, we'd call the police, in every case, wouldn't we?