—
Very dramatic and picturesque have often been the situations of the Mormon sisters. Here is the story of one of them, among the natives of the Society Islands. She says:
"I am the wife of the late Elder Addison Pratt, who was the first missionary to the Society Islands he having been set apart by the prophet for this mission in 1843. My husband went on his mission, but I, with my children, was left to journey afterwards with the body of the church to the Rocky Mountains.
"We reached the valley in the fall of 1848, and had been there but a week when Elder Pratt arrived, coming by the northern route with soldiers from the Mexican war. He had been absent five years and four months. Only one of his children recognized him, which affected him deeply. One year passed away in comparative comfort and pleasure, when again Mr. Pratt was called to go and leave his family, and again I was left to my own resources. However, six months afterwards several elders were called to join Elder Pratt in the Pacific Isles, and myself and family were permitted to accompany them. Making the journey by ox-team to San Francisco, on the 15th of September, 1850, we embarked for Tahiti. Sailing to the southwest of that island three hundred and sixty miles we made the Island of Tupuai, where Mr. Pratt had formerly labored, and where we expected to find him, but to our chagrin found that he was a prisoner under the French governor at Tahiti. After counseling upon the matter we decided to land on Tupuai and petition the governor of Tahiti for Mr. Pratt's release, which we did, aided by the native king, who promised to be responsible for Mr. Pratt's conduct. The petition was granted by the governor, and in due course Mr. Pratt joined us at Tupuai. It was a day of great rejoicing among the natives when he arrived, they all being much attached to him, and it was also a great day for our children.
"A volume might be written in attempting to describe the beauties of nature on that little speck in the midst of the great ocean; but I must hasten to speak of the people. Simple and uncultivated as the natives are, they are nevertheless a most loveable and interesting race. Their piety is deep and sincere and their faith unbounded.
"Within a year I became a complete master of their language, and addressed them publicly in the fere-bure-ra (prayer-house), frequently. My daily employment was teaching in the various departments of domestic industry, such as needle-work, knitting, etc., and my pupils, old and young, were both industrious and apt."
Elder Addison Pratt died in 1872, but his respected missionary wife is living in Utah to-day, resting from her labors and waiting for the reward of the faithful.
—
A somewhat similar experience to the above is that of Sister Mildred E. Randall, who went with her husband, at a later date, to labor in the Sandwich Islands. Her first mission lasted about eighteen months, and her second one three years. On her third mission to the islands, she was called to go without her husband; thus making her to be the only woman, in the history of the church, who has been called to go on foreign mission independently of her husband.
—