Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints -- Missions; Latter Day Saints -- Missionary experiences
President George Q. Cannon relates how he was in a marvelous manner
enabled to understand the Hawaiian language. He had been sent while
quite a young man, as a missionary to the Sandwich Islands. He soon
found that the white inhabitants of the islands cared very little
about hearing the Gospel, so he resolved to master the native tongue
and deliver his message to the Hawaiians. How he was divinely aided in
carrying out his determination is given in his own words:
"My desire to learn to speak was very strong; it was present with me
night and day, and I never permitted an opportunity of talking with the
natives to pass without improving it. I also tried to exercise faith
before the Lord to obtain 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 a peculiar sensation in
my ears; I jumped to my feet, with my hands at the sides of my head,
and exclaimed to Elders Bigler and Keeler who sat at the table, that I
believed I had received the gift of interpretation! And it was so.
"From that time forward I had but little, if any, difficulty in
understanding what the people said. I might not be able at once to
separate every word which they spoke from every other word in the
sentence; but I could tell the general meaning of the whole. This was
a great aid to me in learning to speak the language, and I felt very
thankful for this gift from the Lord."
CHAPTER VIII.
PRESENTING THE GOSPEL TO THE PEOPLE.
The experiences of missionaries in getting the Gospel before the
people are varied and interesting. The general method of presenting
the message is by distributing tracts from door to door, and seeking
in this way to get conversations with the people. In addition to
this, meetings are held and the people invited to attend them. In
Great Britain and some parts of the United States street preaching is
done to a considerable extent when favorable weather permits. In some
countries out-door meetings are not allowed in the towns and cities. In
such places the meetings are generally held in public halls or private
dwelling houses.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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