Lanai Mormons - Palawai Experiment - Lanai Culture & Heritage ...

Friday 13 th April/55.
The storm still continues. It held up this forenoon till I fixed down a doorstep. It then
commenced to rain and rained all day. I have remained at home today. [page 187]
Saturday 14 th April/55.
I have remained at home all day on the account of the rain. It comes in torrents and the
whole face of the country is all afloat. I should judge that it has fallen five feet of water in
the last three days all over the face of the country. We have a cistern twelve feet deep
and there was not a drop of water in it when the rain commenced, and now there is more
than six feet of water in the cistern and all the water that was catched in the cistern fell in
with out any sheet or conductor. Whatever therefore the cistern stood the same chance
as the same highness of ground elsewhere.
Sunday 15 th April/55.
The storm has rather abated though the weather is not yet settled. This morning I
received the valley news together with several letters. The news is cheering from the
valleys of the saints. I have remained at home and read the news. The roads were so
very bad that there was but few out for meeting.
Monday 16 th April/55.
This morning the sky was covered with clouds and bids fair for more rain. Bro. Rice and
myself set out six hundred cabbage plants. The sun has scarcely shone itself today, but
no rain. I have been to work around the house all day. The native brethren are hoeing out
their potatoes towards the sea, southward. This rain has injured many kinds of crops very
much beans & vines &c. [page 188]
Tuesday 17 th April/55.
I have remained at home all day. The native brethren are hoeing out their potatoes. This
evening the boat arrived from Lahaina with mats to fix the house to receive Bro.
Hammonds family. They also brought a keg of molasses and one of vinegar. I also
received four volumes of the Deseret News & several letters. One from Bro. Karren from
San Francisco. He arrived there safe after a passage of twenty days. Found a Mister
Hooper there, a merchant from great Salt Lake City that he was going to the states for
goods. Gave Bro. Karrens & Johnson his carriage and four mules to take through the
Valley.
The news is cheering from the valley and all things are going off right. The Chief Judge
has become a Mormon and many more of the merchants in that place. The work of the
Lord is rolling on, and who can hinder it? No one thanks be to the name of the Lord.
Wednesday 18 th April/55.
This morning I wrote a letter to Bro. Hammond in Lahaina to let him know that the house
was ready to receive him and family. I then ordered all the pioneers to go down to the
sea and bring up the things. Bro. Rice and myself then went to planting corn. We planted
two acres and a quarter. By this time the pioneers had arrived with the things. By the time
we got them all set in their place we found that we were tired enough to retire, but we still
had our suppers to get. This is rather a hard way of serving the Lord, but we have to
suffer many [page 189]
Läna‘i (1853-1864) – A History of the Mormon Mission at Päläwai
Working Manuscript of the Läna‘i Culture & Heritage Center (November 2009) 38