My First Mission

ernor-Our First Public Preaching-We Determine to Lea

the sea at the town, it is not very imposing. It lies on a level strip of land, and is stretched along the beach, and th

l and some boarding houses; but we could not live at any of them very long, for our fu

afters is built, poles, about the size of hoop-poles, are lashed horizontally, about six inches apart, on to the posts and rafters. The house is then thatche

of the women, and a good housewife in that country is known by the quantity and fineness of the mats in her home. Such a woman is very particular to have no dirt brought into her house; for the mats answer the purpose of beds, tables and chair

cook our food, which consisted principally of sweet potatoes and fish, or meat, with occasionally a little bread, bought at a bakery in to

h him an introduction to the governor of the Island. He readily complied with

iting upon the leading and prominent men, stating my business, testifying to the work which God had commenced and asking their aid to enable me to lay the proclamation of which I was th

a strength given me which I would not have had if I had kept myself in a corner, and acted as though I was ashamed of my mission. I gained influence also with the pe

iians. We requested the use of the palace, which was not then occupied by the royal family, to preach in. He promised to write to his brother, the minister of the in

d asked the privilege of holding meeting in his chapel. He held meetings in the morning and evening. He consented, and gave out notice to the people in the morning that we would hold meeting in the afternoon.

. The question arose directly, "Shall we confine our labors to the white people?" It is true that we had not been particularly told to preach to the natives of the islands, but we were in their midst, had

each the gospel to the natives and to the whites whenever I could obtain an opportunity, and thus fill my mission. I felt resolved to stay there, master the language and warn the peopl

sion exercised the authority to dictate, he could have decided between these views; but he would not. He left each one to act for himself. We were in a foreign land, far distant from the Apostles and First Presidency, and, therefore, could not appeal to them. Our only resource was to obtain revelation from the Lord for ourselves.

among the natives, they could abandon all decency. The natives are very close observers. They soon saw that we were not like many of the whites whom they had seen, and they b

tain the gift of talking and understanding the language. One evening, while sitting on the mats conversing with some neighbors who had dropped in, I felt an uncommonly great desire to understand what they said. All at once I felt

ce to separate every word which they spoke from every other word in the sentence; but I could tell the general meaning of th

ed to go as missionaries to a foreign nation, whose language they do not understand, it is their privilege to exerci