It is not my custom to write thus freely about myself; but I am writing
for children to read, upon whom I would like my experience to make an
impression. I desire that they should make God their friend, and seek
unto Him with faith for that joy, peace and perfect love which He alone
can give.
Shortly after we moved into the house of Na-lima-nui, I was called
by letter to go up to Honolulu. The partner of the president of the
mission had concluded to return home, and I was requested to remove to
Honolulu to act in his place.
This was unexpected news to me, and my parting from my companions was
nearly as painful as leaving home had been. Besides the Elder of whose
proposed departure I had heard, I found there two others--to whom the
island of Kauai had fallen as a field of labor--ready to return home.
There were but few whites on that island, and to them they had
preached, but had received no encouragement. They had written to the
president of the mission, describing the situation of affairs, and he
had counseled them to come to Honolulu.
The idea of leaving the islands, because there were not enough white
men to preach the gospel to, was so foreign to the minds of my
companions on Maui, and to myself, that when I heard these Elders were
there with the intention of returning home, I was surprised.
I did not conceal my feelings from them; I told them that I could not
go home under existing circumstances, without feeling condemned. The
Lord, in my opinion, I said, would hold me accountable for not doing my
duty to that people, if I were to leave them; and the people might rise
up in judgment against me at some future day, for not having given them
the privilege of hearing the truth. My prayer was that the time might
speedily come when all should know the Lord, and when His knowledge
would cover the earth as the waters covered the deep; and I believed
in uniting works and faith. It would sound badly for ten Elders to be
sent out to the islands by Elder Charles C. Rich, one of the Twelve
Apostles, to preach and to act as the Spirit and circumstances might
dictate, and when we found there were not whites that would receive
us, turn around and go home, and leave a whole nation to welter in
ignorance, because he did not happen to tell us that we were to preach
to them in their own tongue. Much more in this strain I was led to say,
which it is not necessary to repeat here.
Brother Whittle had been told by Elder Rich that he could return home
after filling a short mission. The president of the mission had done
all the preaching at the meetings they had held, and had not even
given him an opportunity to bear his testimony. His position had been,
and still was unpleasant; and he saw no way to remedy it. If he could
do any good, he was willing to stay; but he thought that, under his
circumstances, it was useless.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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