… But, the point, as overlooked, see, just you remember, the priesthood does not save you. And remember this thing. In order to get in the celestial kingdom, you can get in the highest degree in the celestial kingdom without the priesthood.

But the [00:33:00] priesthood can keep you out of a lot of places. Because if you have the priesthood and you desecrate that priesthood, your curse is worse than the person who has the priesthood.

That doesn't satisfy you, does it? Well, it does me. Does it satisfy you? Yes, it does satisfy me. All right. Have you seen any noticeable change in the attitude of the Church towards Negroes? Well, four years ago, uh, President Richards, by the way, that's President Richards, my friend, we went back East, we were classmates in the University of Michigan. President Stephen L Richards and Don B. Colton, myself. We're classmates in the University of Michigan, and he was a good friend of mine. But he called me into his office four years ago, and he said this thing. He said, [00:34:00] It's about time that the church did a little more on what we're doing for the Negro race.

He says, uh, you have been here longer than anyone. He says, I want to know if you will go on a short mission and see if you can't get some of them to come back into church who left the church. And some who would have been baptized in the church because their parents were. I said, uh, I'll, I'll certainly go.

He says, I'll give you Brother Claude Petersen. Brother Claude Petersen is, uh, Mark Petersen's brother. And so we went for six weeks, and we got 20 to come back into the church. But, they didn't stay long. But we got them to come back in. He also made this statement to me. He says, if we can get them to come back in, if we can get them to come back in, If they don't want to mingle with us, we'll build them a church of their own, like we have done the Spanish people here.

A lot of people don't know that. They're, they're trying hard. But it's just [00:35:00] almost impossible. You know, this thing. The church is not yet bringing the gospel to the Negro. But there's this thing about it. When you go down south on a mission, and one of them wants to join the Church, there's no way to keep him out.

You must baptize him. And that's a must to every missionary. You must baptize him. I was going to ask a question. How many Negro members are there in the church now? About 40.

Is that there has been more than that. There was at one time 500, I know of. …