Comments on: “To Appreciate Our Homes … When Once We Are Permitted to Return”: Sister Missionaries in Samoa, 1892

By: Anne (UK)

Anne (UK) — Fri, 16 Sep 2011 10:41:55 +0000

“That these sisters lost 9 of 13 children, and one husband, is a level of sacrifice I can’t even start to wrap my brain around”.

Other Clark: +1. Incomprehensible, especially knowing it would most likely be impossible to visit the graves once you went home.

By: Jeff Johnson

Jeff Johnson — Fri, 16 Sep 2011 05:16:33 +0000

My grandfather was called to Samoa in January 1898. He also was there three years, but he was unmarried. He always blamed his stomach problems on the food he eat in Samoa. I have never been to Samoa, but have the same problems he had. I wonder if I can blame my stomach problems on his mission. He loved the Samoan people. Thanks for giving me some insight into his experiences.

By: The Other Clark

The Other Clark — Fri, 16 Sep 2011 01:41:41 +0000

if we learn nothing more while we are here, and that is to appreciate our homes and their surroundings when once we are permitted to return.

…is another timeless lesson nearly all missionaries learn.

That these sisters lost 9 of 13 children, and one husband, is a level of sacrifice I can’t even start to wrap my brain around.

By: middle-aged Mormon Man

middle-aged Mormon Man — Fri, 16 Sep 2011 00:11:39 +0000

Too funny!

By: Ardis E. Parshall

Ardis E. Parshall — Thu, 15 Sep 2011 18:36:34 +0000

They sent me from the deserts of the Intermountain West to the Mediterranean coast with its myriad of mysterious sea creatures which surely God never intended me to find on my plate, no matter the amount of butter or fine sauces that disguised them.

But yes, woe is me. I served in the Alps and on the Riviera. Quite the hardship mission, especially when you throw in the patisseries and the hospitality of the French at all levels. I was forced to declare my hips at Customs on returning to the States, for surely I had not LEFT the country with them!

By: middle-aged Mormon Man

middle-aged Mormon Man — Thu, 15 Sep 2011 18:19:24 +0000

Ardis: For some reason I thought you went to France on your mission. Did they offend you with that horrible, third-world French Cuisine? How terrible for you!

By: Ardis E. Parshall

Ardis E. Parshall — Thu, 15 Sep 2011 14:59:48 +0000

Yes, both couples served approximately three years. I don’t know about mission funding in this time and place — I suspect, based on (perhaps stereotypical) impressions of Polynesia, that cash needs for transportation and a few other necessities would have to have been taken care of from home, but that the hospitality of Samoans, even without the added layer of church fellowship, would have gone a long way toward supporting the missionaries with food and shelter and other necessities that could be furnished by generous people.

And yeah, we probably all have a lot to learn, even when we enter a new culture with the best of intentions and a desire to love and serve. Strangeness is still strange, and adaptation takes a little time.

By: Amira

Amira — Thu, 15 Sep 2011 14:44:05 +0000

Thanks for posting this, Ardis. And honestly, who hasn’t read an email from a missionary serving in a new place that doesn’t sound a little (or a lot) like this? We’ve at least left the “degraded” and “rude” parts behind, I hope, but the rest is familiar, whether it’s a sister, an elder, or a senior couple writing.

Do you happen to know how their missions were funded? Did their families in Utah support them? Did the Hiltons also live in Samoa for three years?

I think, most of all, that Annie and Sarah were lucky to have each other.

By: Ardis E. Parshall

Ardis E. Parshall — Thu, 15 Sep 2011 14:26:55 +0000

I did, too, MMM! Still, I think I was more willing to eat it because it was part of *my* calling. Had the call gone to my parents or husband, with me expected to go along as a comfort and support but without the call coming directly to me, I’m not sure I would have been such a good sport …

By: middle-aged Mormon Man

middle-aged Mormon Man — Thu, 15 Sep 2011 13:53:12 +0000

What a fascinating read. I sat here wondering what my reaction would have been had my young bride and I been called to serve in some far-off land when we were a young couple. That kind of sacrifice seems so far removed from my modern experience.

But I did eat some weird stuff on my mission…