STIMULATOR message for the week of October 12, 1971
Message from President Eugene C. Ludwig, dated October 12, 1971.
“WORK! WORK! WORK! BE WORTHY OF SUCCESS!” “600” in 1971
Dear Missionaries,
“But be ye doers of the word an not hearers only, deceiving your own selves.” J. C. Penney once said: “I believe in hard work. The only kind of luck any man is justified in counting on is hard work; this means sacrifice, persistent effort, and dogged determination.”
May I share with you again a bit of my philosophy, told in the story of “The Little Red Hen”.
Said the big white rooster, “Golly gee, things are getting tough.
It seems that worms are getting scarce, I cannot find enough.
What’s become of the big fat worms? It seems a mystery to me:
There were thousands through the rainy spell, but now where can they be?”
The little red hen who heard him talk didn’t grumble and didn’t complain;
She had gone through lots of long, dry spells, and she had lived through floods of rain.
She flew right up to the old grindstone, and she gave her claws a whet.
Then she said, “I’ve never seen the time when there were no worms to get.”
She picked a new and undug spot, the earth was hard and firm.
The rooster jeered, “What’s this? New ground? That’s no place for a worm!”
But the little red hen just spread her feet, she dug both fast and free.
“I must go to the worms” she said, “the worms won’t come to me.”
The rooster vainly spent the day, through habit, by the ways,
Where worms had passed in rows and squads, back in the good, old days.
When nightfall found him hungry and lean, he growled in accents rough,
“I’m hungry as a fowl can be, conditions sure are tough!”
He turned to the little red hen and said, “It’s probably worse with you!”
For you’re not only hungry and weak, but you must be tired too.”
“I rested while I watched for worms, so I’m feeling fairly perk,
But how are you? Without worms too? And after all that work?”
The little red hen hopped to her perch, and dropped her eyes to sleep.
She murmured in a drowsy tone, “White rooster, here this and weep!”
“I’m full of worms, and happy too, for I’ve dined both long and well;
The worms are there as always, you see, but I had to dig like … well?”
Do we have any white roosters in our mission? The little red hen can teach us all a lesson!
Sincerely your companion,
President Eugene C. Ludwig
“A DIAMOND IS A PIECE OF COAL THAT STUCK TO ITS TASK!”
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