During the latter part of the 19th century, Mormon missionaries proselyted in the Sandiwch (Hawaiian) Islands. George Q. Cannon, one such missionary, made an immediate friend, Jonathan Napela.
Jonathan immediately embraced the gospel. However, his conversion cost him a great deal. Napela had been a civilian municipal leader, a city father, a landowner, a judge. When he converted, bringing many of the villagers with him, he lost the respect his peers and friends had for him.
Jonathan did not let this prevent him from serving the Lord or His gospel. He started an unofficial Mision Training Center in his home. He housed the missionaries and coached them in Hawaiian.
His sacrifice did not stop there, though. When his dear wife, Kitty, contracted leprosy, Jonathan stood by her. At that time, Hawaiian law made divorce very easy for couples in their situation, since the afflicted person was quarantined for life in a colony called Kalaupapa.
Napela chose not to abandon his wife. He went with her, living in the squalid conditions, as her kokua or help. He went to work as a branch president and government liasion to improve conditions in the leper colony. Two years before Kitty passed away, Napela died.
His testimony and faith sustained him throughout his trials. "It is very plain to us," he wrote, "that this is the Church of God, and that it is the gospel which is preached by the white men from the Rocky Mountains. There are many upon these islands who have obtained strong faith by the grace of God, through Jesus Christ the Lord, that we might receive the Holy Ghost. Amen."
So, for today, I am grateful for Jonathan Napela's example of testimony and faith.
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