My First Mission

by George Q. Cannon

Some of my readers may be placed in circumstances similar to those which surrounded me a part of the time on the Sandwich Islands; and it may be profitable to tell them how I kept from losing courage and becoming home-sick. My love for home is naturally very strong. For the first year after I left home I could scarcely think about it without my feelings getting the better of me. But here I was in a distant land, among a people whose language and habits were strange to me. Their very food was foreign to me, and unlike anything I had ever before seen or tasted. I was much of the time separated from my companions, the Elders. Until I mastered the language and commenced preaching and baptizing the people, I was indeed a stranger among them.

Before I commenced holding regular meetings, I had plenty of time for meditation, and to review all the events of my short life, and to think of the beloved home from which I was so far separated. It was then that I found the value of the Book of Mormon. It was a book which I always loved. But I learned there to appreciate it as I had never done before. If I felt inclined to be lonely, to be low spirited, or home-sick. I had only to turn to its sacred pages to receive consolation, new strength and a rich outpouring of the Spirit. Scarcely a page that did not contain encouragement for such as I was. The salvation of man was the great theme upon which its writers dwelt, and for this they were willing to undergo every privation and make every sacrifice.

What were my petty difficulties compared with those afflictions which they had to endure? If I expected to share the glory for which they contended, I could see that I must labor in the same Spirit. If the sons of King Mosiah could relinquish their high estate, and go forth among the degraded Lamanites to labor as they did, should not I labor with patience and devoted zeal for the salvation of these poor red men, heirs of the same promise?

Let me, recommend this book, therefore, to young and old, if they need comfort and encouragement. Especially can I recommend it to those who are away from home on missions. No man can read it, partake of its spirit and obey its teachings, without being filled with a deep love for the souls of men and a burning zeal to do all in his power to save them. Every Latter-day Saint should read it, as well as the other records which the Lord has given to us.

The conversations which I had with the natives concerning the Book of Mormon and the origin of the red men, made them anxious to see it. After branches had been built up at Wailuku, at Waiehu and other places around, by Elder F. A. Hammond and myself, I was led to commence the translation of the Book of Mormon into the language of the Islands—the Hawaiian language, as it is called.

My place of residence was at Brother J. H. Napela’s, Wailuku. He was an educated, intelligent Hawaiian, who thoroughly understood his own language, and could give me the exact meaning of words. The meaning attached to many words depended upon the context. It was important, therefore, in translating, to know that the words used conveyed the correct idea. Unless the language used carried to the Hawaiian mind the same meaning precisely which the words in our translation gave to us, it would not be correct.

Probably but few in the nation were as well qualified as Brother Napela, to help me in this respect. He was a descendant of the old chiefs of the Island of Maui, in whose families the language was preserved and spoken in the greatest purity, and he had advantages which no other equally well educated man, at that time, possessed. He had studied the principles of the gospel very thoroughly, he had a comprehensive mind to grasp the truth, and he had been greatly favored by the Spirit. As I progressed with the translation, his comprehension of the work increased. He got the spirit of the book, and was able to seize the points presented to him very quickly.

In the last days of the month of January, 1851, I commenced the work of translation. My fellow-laborers, the Elders, encouraged me, and from the First Presidency at home—Presidents Young, Kimball and Richards—came words of cheer, approving of what I was doing, and counseling me to persevere.

The labor of preaching, baptizing, confirming, organizing branches, administering to the sick and traveling around visiting branches, and over other islands, pressed upon me and claimed the greater portion of my time. Those were busy seasons for all who would labor, and they were exceedingly delightful. The Lord seemed very near to us upon those islands in those days.

The time occupied by me in translation, were the days and hours which were not claimed by other duties. In the beginning my method was to translate a few pages, and then, when opportunity offered, explain to Brother Napela the ideas, whether historical or doctrinal, in great fullness. By this means he would, get a pretty thorough comprehension of the part I was translating. I would then read the translation to him, going carefully over every word and sentence, and learning from him the impression the language used conveyed to his mind. In this way I was able to correct any obscure expression which might be used, and secure the Hawaiian idiom.