Faithful Unto Death

Improvement ERA Vol. XXXII. JANUARY, 1929 No. 3

By Elder David O. McKay

Of Council of The Twelve

PRESIDENT JOSEPH WILFORD BOOTH

After a total of eighteen years of service in the Turkish and Armenian mission, President Booth has been given his final release from his earthly labors. Needless to say, it was a highly honorable one, for every day of all those years was filled with earnest, conscientious effort. A few days prior to his death the Era received a letter from President Booth in which he outlined his program of travel for the ensuring months. His plan was to visit Church members in Beirut, Damascus and Aleppo. On December 5, he died in the latter city and was buried there.

President Booth was born August 14, 1866, in Alpine, Utah County, Utah, and was set apart for his last mission Sept. 14, 1921, and left for his field of labor on the same day. He is the fifth missionary to die in the Armenian mission.

Elder Ralph V. Chisholm was sent by President John A. Widtsoe to accompany Sister Booth home.

IN THE bright sunshine of a Januray forenoon in the year 1924, at a customs house, on the coast of old Tyre and Sidon, I last shook hands with my beloved brother and esteemed friend, President Joseph Wilford Booth, of the Armenian mission. Little did I realize then, as we bade each other goodbye, that we should never in this life see each other again! That that was our final earthly parting, however is attested by the recent cablegram from President John A. Widtsoe, announcing the sudden and wholly unexpected death of Elder Booth on December 5.

At that farewell, just before I entered the auto bus that was to take me to Haifa, my friend and I embraced each other, and exchanged a mutual "God bless you!" "I'm sorry to have you leave me." Brother McKay" said he, as his eyes became tear-dimmed, and his countenance became saddened by a shadow of sorrow, That sentence was the nearest to a complaint that I ever heard Elder Booth utter. Through that remark, howeever, and the look that accompanied it, I caught a glimpse of a noble heart longing for companionship—the companionship and strength of a fellow-missionary who could help solve perplexing questions, and share the heavy burdens incident and peculiar to that far-off mission. A few minutes, thereafter, I was speeding on my return journey toward England to rejoin the five hundred other elders then laboring in the seven missions of Europe. Brother Booth returned to Aleppo alone, for Elder Earl B. Snell, his only missionary companion, had been honorably released to return home, and no other missionaries had as yet been called to the Armenian