Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints -- Missions; Latter Day Saints -- Missionary experiences
"I had not proceeded more than a mile when I found a man's coat lying
in the middle of the road; picking it up I found a money purse in one
of the pockets, containing some papers and three five dollar gold
pieces. Being just the amount we needed and finding them as I did,
the first impression was that it was a Godsend. There being no one in
sight, I started across the country to intersect the brethren, thinking
I would bury the coat with all it contained except the money, in a
deep ravine, and cover it over with lava rock. I had not gone fifty
yards when another thought suggested itself, and I asked myself the
questions: Do you really think the finding of the coat was a Godsend?
Could it not be a temptation? It certainly belonged to some person to
whom the papers might be valuable. With these thoughts and reflections,
and that the Lord would not bestow a blessing at the expense of another
of His children, my conscience smote me, and, still seeing no one in
sight, I turned back to the road and proceeded to the house where our
things were left. Only the woman was at home; to her I related the
finding of the coat, and, taking out the pocket book, showed her the
money and papers which proved to be of great value to the owner, a
white man who lived about fifty miles east, and of whose hospitality we
had a number of times partaken. As a guard against the woman keeping
the money, I let her see me take a memorandum of the money and papers,
and also told her I would write to the owner. On overtaking the
brethren, I told them about finding the coat and the fifteen dollars we
needed to pay our passage, and asked them if they did not think it a
Godsend; they replied that it really looked like it.
"'I thought so, too, at first, but on second thought I feared it might
be a temptation, in our straitened circumstances,' I replied.
"On explaining what I did with the coat and contents, they expressed
great pleasure and satisfaction, approving heartily my actions. That
night we stopped with a white man by the name of Lincoln who had
married a native woman who was a member of our Church. We had stopped
there a number of times before. Mr. Lincoln had always made us welcome.
"The next morning we bade the family good-by, and started on our
journey, our host following us out of the house, saying: 'If you are
going to your conference, on Lanai, you will want money to pay your
fares, here is five dollars for each of you, if you will accept it.'
We did accept it with heartfelt thanks both to Mr. Lincoln and to our
Father in Heaven, believing He had put it into his heart to give us
just the amount of money we required. In proceeding on our way, we all
felt and acknowledged that this really was a Godsend, as Mr. Lincoln
and his family had never before given us money, and during our stay
this time not a word had been said about our needing money to pay our
passage to Lanai. We recognized that the Lord had really heard and
answered our prayers."
CHAPTER XIV.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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