Missionaries Two

Rulon and Jo Burton—Mormon Missionaries to the Islands of the Pacific

By Rulon T. Burton

Cover Design Bryan Haslam

© Copyright 2003 Rulon T. Burton

All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a data base or otherretrieval system, or transmitted in any form, by any means, includingmechanical, electronic, photocopying, recording, or otherwise without theprior written consent of the publisher.

The picture on the title page is of missionaries Jo and Rulon Burton withPalau District president Ben Roberto.

Published byTabernacle Books, Inc.13267 So. Berry LaneDraper, Utah 84020

Printed in the United States

ISBN 0-9640696-9-5

In this book are recorded many of the most rewarding spiritual

experiences of my entire life. I am pleased to share them with you.

Rulon T. Burton

Contents

Illustrations of Couple Missionaries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ixAcknowledgments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xiIntroduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xiiPrologue . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xiiiChapter 1 Called to Micronesia Guam . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1Chapter 2 Learning to Love the People . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6Chapter 3 Leaders “Of Their Own Nation” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29Chapter 4 Thirty Days on Pohnpei . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42Chapter 5 “Only Material Things” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52Chapter 6 Ecclesiastical Challenges in Developing Nations 61Chapter 7 The Missionary Couples Solution . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74Chapter 8 Orienting Couple Missionaries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84Chapter 9 Crabs, Toads, and Foes on Kosrae . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106Chapter 10 One More River to Cross . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114Chapter 11 Leader Training Adventures

in the Chuuk Lagoon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141Chapter 12 Training Adventures on

Palau and Saipan Islands . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 166Chapter 13 Joy in Reactivation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 184Chapter 14 Teaching the Saints . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 196

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Chapter 15 Helping Young Elders and Sisters . . . . . . . . . . . . 213Chapter 16 A Couple Makes

a Difference on Majuro Island . . . . . . . . . . . . . 221Chapter 17 My Mother Dies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 227Chapter 18 Yuri Comes for Thanksgiving . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 231Chapter 19 Josephine Burton,

My Missionary Companion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 236Chapter 20 “Once There Was a King . . .” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 250Chapter 21 Lou and Linda Investigate the Gospel . . . . . . . 259Chapter 22 Trainers at the

Senior Missionary Training Center . . . . . . . . . 271Chapter 23 Called to Papua New Guinea . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 275Chapter 24 Seminary and Institute Coordinators . . . . . . . . . 286Chapter 25 The Seminary Program That Blossomed . . . . . . 305Chapter 26 Rain Through Our Ceiling—

On a Clear Day . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 330Chapter 27 We Cross the Stanley Mountains . . . . . . . . . . . . . 341Chapter 28 To Train a Stake President . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 357Chapter 29 Local Color . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 368Chapter 30 Incredible Adventures in Papua New Guinea 386Chapter 31 A Day to Remember . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 403Appendix A King Stories . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 413Appendix B SMTC Handout:

Training in Branches and Districts . . . . . . . . . 440

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Illustrations of Couple Missionaries

Abel, William and Harriet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 347Barlow, William and Lou Jean . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 140Bartholomew, Owen and Jacqueline . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 340Blyde, David and Bernice . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 367Breeze, Floyd and Janet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 329Burton, Rulon and Jo . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5Bushman, Nephi and Maxine . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 195Elsby, Walter and Marjorie . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113, 121Eppich, Wayne and JoAnn . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83Foust, Everitt and Melva . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 212Gibson, John and Kathy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 311Gill, Leo and Martha . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 274Going, George and Pamela . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 354, 356Green, Glen and Carol . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 412Harper, Blaine and Nevaida . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 226Hawkes, P. Blaine and Bonnie . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73Jensen, Grant and Joan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 385Merkley, Philip and Elva . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28, 85Nielsen, Kenneth and Beatrice . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 402Nord, Lewis V. and Joanne . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31

ix

Parrish, Frank and Annie . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 384Partridge, William and Jeannette . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41, 85Paulsen, Chris and Orla . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 249Pratt, Robert and Shirley . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56, 60Rencher, Jay and Louise . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86, 154, 157, 165, 197Robertson, Burtis and Elizabeth . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 270Schwerdt, James and Lois . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105Sherwood, Stephen and Shirley . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 285Smout, Joseph and Patsy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 304Styles, Kenneth and Peggy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 169, 183Trask, John R. and Joan K. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 230Vernon, Marvin and Nancee . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48, 51, 71Wells, Rulon and Veleda . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 339Whatcott, Carl and Georgia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 258White, Wendell and Gwennie . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 235Young, Brigham and Erla . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 220

x

Acknowledgments

Our English professor son, Gideon O. Burton, at BrighamYoung University encouraged this writing and spent hours

helping the book along with editing and suggestions.My wife, Jo, served by my side in the three couple missions

which serve as the foundation for this work. She compiled fourlarge picture scrapbooks in organized fashion that, along withmy missionary journals, helped refresh my memory and spell cor-rectly the names of people and places. Most of the illustrationsin this book came from those scrapbooks.

Jo read the entire manuscript from beginning to end, madevaluable suggestions and held the reins on some of my hastyobservations.

xi

Introduction

My wife, Jo, and I were called to serve a mission to Microne-sia Guam in the central Pacific. This was in the year 1990.

We next filled a service mission at the Senior Missionary Train-ing Center in Provo, Utah, followed by another Pacific islandmission to Papua New Guinea in 1995–96.

Our experience in the island missions brought us to theinexorable conclusion that the greatest possible service seniormissionaries can provide to the island Saints is leadership train-ing. To the extent that local leaders have not learned to functionas the Lord designed, newly baptized members with tender testi-monies may be lost.

Our first mission began on the island of Majuro, in theMarshall Islands. While we were becoming acclimated to thehot, humid, tropical living conditions, we were also learning tolive in a new culture, quite foreign to our Utah western worldexperience. While we were dealing with these new cultural expe-riences, we saw first hand that districts and branches of theChurch suffered woefully from lack of trained leadership. Later,when we were called into the mission presidency—whichexpanded our mission experiences to encompass all of the manyislands of Micronesia—we took some giant steps forward as weworked our utmost to make certain that valuable leader trainingtook place.

xii

Prologue

The Vital Power That Comes from Helping Others

A couple missionary is featured in a vignette at the end ofeach chapter of Missionaries Two. Most of these couples

have served more than one mission, some as many as four orfive. Why? The inner joy they feel motivates them. When mis-sionaries do a good service for others—many good services,actually—they rightly feel they are truly needed, and eagerlythey continue to lend a hand. (King Benjamin taught about thiskind of service when he ascended his tower to address theNephites.)

Serving others is nourishment to the soul. Those who findtrue happiness are those who have sought and found how to serve.

xiii

xiv

Guam was mission headquarters. The inset (lower right corner) shows the areacovered by the Micronesia Guam Mission.

Chapter 1

Called to Micronesia Guam

PAUL NENE ANNOUNCED IN A VOICE loud enough to be heardover the heavy torrential rain: “If the road is passable let us

go. I don’t care if I have to be baptized in the mud. Today is mybaptismal day and I shall be baptized!”

The weather had changed dramatically during the nightafter forty-five young people attended a youth conference. It wasa beautiful, calm, sunshiny day on the island of Kosrae, locatedsix hundred miles north of the equator and almost due south ofHawaii. The heavy rain began and continued most of Sunday. Sointense was the rain that eventually most of the roads wereflooded, some became impassable. A few of the members whowere planning to attend the conference could not get there.Even so, eighty-seven Saints in this small district gathered fordistrict conference at the Lelu Branch meetinghouse. Prayermeeting was held. All speakers were present and prepared.

As the conference began it became obvious no one wouldbe heard over the loud rainstorm which beat down on the metalroof of the chapel, so after the opening prayer we sang hymns forfifteen minutes. The storm abated a little as we read the sustain-ing of authorities. After another hymn we were able to gothrough the entire conference with all the speakers. A mission-ary was stationed in the rear to raise his hand when the speakerwas not being heard. That worked out well. The meeting lasted

1

two hours and the spirit was excellent. I talked on priesthoodauthority and on sharing the spirit using my king story about“talking chiefs” and “talking sticks” as symbols of their authority,and concluded with another king story about sharing the spirit.By using island stories of my own creation I was able to buildupon simple illustrations and preach the principles of the gospelon a simple story structure.1

More rewarding than the conference was the baptismalevent which followed!

It took considerable time after the marvelous district con-ference for those in attendance to return to their homes tochange wet clothes for dry after traveling in open pickup trucksin the heavy downpour. Paul Nene and Florian, his son, weregathered with some of us at the couples’ home. They were twoof the four persons slated for baptism. There we waited for theother two baptismal candidates from the Karrus family to arrive.Meanwhile reports of rain damage started to come. Now welearned that the road was flooded over at one place with a three-foot torrent. Cars were stalled. The courthouse was flooded.A number of the members were stranded and could not getto the baptismal site. Now we learned the dam in the hillsidestream had broken and nature’s improvised baptismal font wasemptied. Everyone was getting wet again. The day was ending.The already darkened sky was getting darker still. Wind and raincontinued. Every reason united to demand a postponement ofthe baptism.

It was then Paul Nene announced his determination to bebaptized, even in the mud if necessary.

That settled it! Through a side road we were able to maneu-ver for the drive up the mountain. Part way up a truck stalled,blocking the small roadway. Cars parked, doors opened, andeveryone emerged into the rain, which was much lighter now.

2 Missionaries Two

1 Appendix A contains the text of these king stories.

Up a beautiful jungle path we walked through a grove of citrustrees, ducking under a banana tree here, an orange tree there,walking gingerly through wet grass and over mud and water tothe sacred spot.

Under a magnificent mango tree a party of twenty-fourpeople had gathered at the baptismal site. With our arrival thegroup now included all four of the persons to be baptized. Fromour elevated position looking down on the stream about threefeet, we saw two local members and three missionaries fullydressed working in the swiftly moving stream, totally saturated.They were rebuilding the rock dam. The wife of the branch presi-dent had just been pulled out to make way for strong men to dothe work. Everyone was eager to help. The font filled again.Suddenly all work ceased. There was a brief prayer and thenElder Elsby in white clothes stepped down into the water, fol-lowed by the four persons to be baptized, one by one, each inclothes of white. Even as Elder Elsby performed the short bap-tismal ordinance, some of the rocks gave way with the muffledroaring sound that boulders make as they strike one another,rolling under fast-moving water. The dammed area became alittle more shallow. But this didn’t matter. Paul Nena was prop-erly baptized in water, not mud, and soon there emerged fournew members of the Church.

I had enjoyed the opportunity of giving Paul and his son,Florian, their baptismal interview prior to this event and partookof their excellent spirit. Educated and with a strong conviction,Paul would make an excellent leader in the Lelu Branch. Before weleft the mission field he was called as the Lelu Branch president.

Twelve years ago the Lord called us on a mission. The callwas not to preside, but to serve a couple mission where we joinedwith twenty-five hundred other couples serving the Lord in themissions of the world. That was a long time ago. Is twelve yearsa long time? As years go, perhaps it wasn’t; as changes in one’s lifego, it has been a lifetime since. That mission changed us wonderfully.

Called to Micronesia Guam 3

We received the warm well wishes of ward members whenthey first received the news of our call. A brother in the wardcongratulated us briefly in the foyer as we left the chapel thatSunday. This brother was a talented man who lived in one of thefinest homes in the ward. He took me aside; he had been think-ing. Looking me in the eye with a sober, piercing look of con-cern, he said—

“Will your law practice be well taken care of while you aregone? Are you dependent upon the practice financially?”

Yes, we were, I answered his second question.He then proceeded to give several examples of individuals

who were called to preside over missions and left their busi-nesses only to return to financial ruin.

“Rulon, you know you really don’t have to take this missioncall at this time!” He knew I was not yet retired. I was stillengaged in the practice of law forty hours a week and had notyet sought to serve a couple mission at the time the call came.“Perhaps you should wait until you are retired,” he thought.

“Thank you for your concern,” I responded, “If the businessfails, it fails. If we lose our home I guess you won’t see us in theward when we get home. But we would truly, truly prefer toplace our trust in the Lord and accept the call! Thank you foryour interest in our behalf. I know it is genuine.”

Our mission call was to the Micronesia Guam Mission. Wewould soon enter the Mission Training Center in Provo, Utah.There we would learn the same six discussions our two mission-ary sons had learned before us—that wonderful uniform methodof teaching the gospel to investigators I had earnestly desired,but which was not in existence, on my first mission to Denmark.

We had a confirmation of the Spirit that this call to serve acouple mission was going to be of singular importance in ourlives. It was our stake president who first planted that thought inour minds in the interview when he made the mission call. “I amimpressed to tell you,” he said, “that this is the beginning ofsomething very special for you, even beyond the mission callitself, that will affect the remainder of your lives.”

4 Missionaries Two

Missionaries Who Made a Difference

Couple MissionariesRulon and Jo Burton

Elder and Sister Burton pause as they make their way to dobranch leader training on Pohnpei Island. The Burtons have twelvegrandchildren. They have served three couple missions and eachof them served a mission when they were young and single.

Chapter 2

Learning to Love the People

The Island of Majuro

WE NEEDED TO BE EDUCATED. To prepare us for what layahead, the Lord sent us to the island of Majuro in the

Marshall Islands. There we began to be exposed to island cul-ture and to the infant church organizations struggling for exis-tence in a developing country.

At the Majuro airport we stepped off the plane andexclaimed, “Do you get used to this heat and humidity?!” Theair was hot and humid, so stifling we could hardly breathe. “Never!”came the startling reply from the Hartman couple who were fin-ishing up their mission there. Never? Our subsequent experiencewould prove otherwise. In time our bodies adjusted quite well.

The group waiting for us at the airport were two young mis-sionaries, Elder Harward and Elder Joseph; the missionarycouple, Elder and Sister Hartman; and a young local member,Will Swain. Like the climate they gave us a warm welcome.

The first ten days of our mission were spent on Guam,attending a missionwide couples conference. At 8:30 on themorning of Friday August 3, 1990, we flew to Majuro, the capi-tal island of the Marshall Islands group with a population ofnineteen thousand. The coral island is in the shape of an elon-gated crescent, about 30 miles in length and two blocks wide—

6

Learning to Love the People 7

except at the southernmost tip which broadens to about a mile.The two-thousand-mile flight eastward from Guam took ninehours because the plane made stopovers on the way—to Truk(later changed to Chuuk), to Pohnpei and finally to Kwajalein—before arriving late in the afternoon on Majuro. The weatherwas cloudy most of the way until, as we arrived at our destina-tion, the sun suddenly shone brightly and our new island homestood crystal clear in the Pacific Ocean. Clouds gave way to sun-shine with the promise of a beautiful spiritual adventure ahead.

The drive from the airport to our apartment gave us a feelof the island. It was a very thin string of land with varyingwidths. Often the ocean was clearly visible to both the right andleft of the road. Coconut palm trees with enormous fronds weregrowing profusely down to the edge of the beaches on both sidesof the road, exactly the kind of sight a poet’s eyes would pictureit to be. Hard reality was quickly thrust upon us as we observednumerous scattered dwelling places intruding upon the naturalisland beauty. These island residences were shacks of many vari-eties, roughly assembled from whatever materials could beobtained—mostly modern materials such as odd pieces of ply-wood, corrugated metal, and cement blocks. Absent were thegrass huts and flower-bordered paths of romantic imagination!Most of the single-room dwellings were incredibly small—which

We took this photo ofMajuro Island from theair as we approachedour field of labor. Thelong, dark streak isMajuro. The islandappeared from the air tobe only a long string ofland barely a few feetwide.

more than one family called home. Yet the scene was serene.The people seemed pleasant enough as we saw them for the firsttime through the windows of an air-conditioned car.

On the part of the island called “Long Island,” so named bythe American military during World War II, we saw the housewhere the Hartman couple lived. It was a modest, prefabricatedwood structure nestled under towering palm trees against abackground of beach and quiet sea. As the drive continuednorth, houses, or shacks, appeared more and more frequently asfoliage and palm trees became less and less abundant. Specificplaces were pointed out to us: members’ homes, a side road tothe Delap chapel, and, as we neared the town, little storeson the roadside, the police station, a fire station, the Gibsondepartment store, the library, a museum.

We arrived at our apartment. The Hartmans, who had notpreviously seen it, were surprised, as were we. Here was a small,new, smartly designed house—probably not more than five hun-dred well-utilized square feet. The entrance door opened to asmall kitchen with a new stainless steel double sink, a small hotwater heater underneath it. There was a new electric stove, uponwhich we faithfully boiled all our water for drinking and brushingteeth, and a new refrigerator. The bedroom, open from the kitchen,was barely large enough for a double bed and a narrow place towalk past the bed to get to the bathroom. We were pleased to seea small, clean bathroom with a large tiled shower. Off the kitchen,to the right of the outside door, and four steps down was adelightful living room, about 11 by 14 feet, which was open onthe wall adjacent to the kitchen. We sat for a moment on an L-shaped built-in bench with navy blue flowered cushions andobserved a small built-in bookcase. We walked on a slate bluecarpeted floor. All the rough wood walls were painted in a lightblue-gray color, very fresh and livable. The apartment appearedlight and cheerful, with high, narrow horizontal windows inthe living room. Oh, and we had air-conditioning! We found theliving accommodations to be superior to our expectations.

8 Missionaries Two

The Hartmans moaned as they inspected the quarters withus, “Our apartment has no shower room, just a shower head inthe bathroom into which we pour water from a bucket. We don’thave hot water, but you do!” They complained that their waterwas turned on for only a couple of hours in the morning and sev-eral hours in the evening. We, on the other hand, had been toldour apartment had its own twenty-four-hour water supply—atank that received drainage water from rain on the roof.

Shortly after we moved in we discovered a flaw with thewater supply. The toilet worked just fine, but one morning itfailed to flush. I looked. There was no water in the toilet tank.Promptly I walked three minutes to the landlord to complain.

“Your water system is perfectly fine,” he said.“Fine for you, perhaps, but we like our toilet to flush!”

I responded.He laughed. The man who owned and built the apartment

was an American. He knew something we didn’t. “The water toyour toilet is sea water—only the toilet, though. The shower andall other water comes from your water catchment. When thetide is out the sea water doesn’t come in—you get water for yourtoilet only when the tide is in each day,” he said.

We caught the idea: The toilet would work when its tankreceived water at those times the tide was in. We recalled an oldadvertising slogan for Tide soap and wrote our story home to thefamily under the title: Tide’s In Dirt’s Out!

Our culinary water was stored in a water catchment. Laterwe were thoroughly educated about water catchments. Through-out the islands of the Pacific, cisterns or water tanks are used tocatch and hold water. They are called water catchments.

Over the kitchen sink a full-size window was situated fromwhich, if one looked a bit to the right, one could see the narrowcoral beach and the rolling sea about a hundred or so feet in thedistance. Palm trees were visible from the window over the bed.What a far cry from what we fledgling missionaries imagined atour far-away vantage point of Salt Lake City! In our mind’s eye

Learning to Love the People 9

we had seen a rough grass hut with open air windows cut roughlyin the walls, perhaps a dirt floor, a single kerosene burner and noelectricity! What a wonder it was to step into not only a modernapartment but the glory of a full bathroom with running water.We wouldn’t have to do our toilet in the jungle after all. Muchlater in our mission we greeted the Grays, a newly arriving mis-sionary couple. Sister Gray’s first comment was, “Is there a bath-room in our apartment—with a door? All I have prayed for is adoor on a bathroom.” We were able to say, “Yes, there is a door,”and she relaxed. “I can do this now. I can have a good mission!”

After driving the Hartmans back home, we drove by achapel for a quick look and discovered the district choir rehears-ing for an upcoming conference. There were three modernchapels in use on Majuro at the time we served. We entered theDelap chapel and boldly joined the choir in rehearsal.

Yokwe (Hello), we said in Marshallese greeting, as we metthe Saints one by one. The members smiled and warmly greetedus in broken English. Jo turned to her husband and, remember-ing her own previous missionary experience to Samoa manyyears earlier, whispered, “The people are much darker than Iexpected, a little harsher looking than Samoans or Hawaiians.”The members of the choir sat there without much talking.Abruptly the sister at a Casio keyboard would begin playing ahymn, the director would speak out the hymn number and thesinging would commence. The male director led perfectly goodtime with proper beat pattern—but nobody followed him. Thesingers followed the accompanist. We observed the choir wassinging songs from a special book of hymns called Bok Al (song-book), a selection of LDS hymns written in Marshallese wordswith the melody music line only. Jo sat with the sisters, Rulonwith the brothers, as we joined in the singing as best we could—not knowing the language. This continued for about an hourwhen we decided to leave, being weary from our long journey.

10 Missionaries Two

The Teacher Who Ran Away“Sister Burton, I would like you to teach the early morning

seminary class, please.”Our assignment to Majuro as couple missionaries included

no specific instructions, except our mission president asked meto make friends with the district president, looking to the expec-tation of eventually being called to serve as his counselor. Wewere in District President Lanny’s little office. He suddenlychanged the subject of our discussion and turned to Jo. Hewanted Jo to take over the seminary from an American sister,Sheri Zingmark, who had been teaching the first seminary classon the island to a handful of students in her home, once a week.She and her husband, who had been employed on the island,returned to the United States about the same time we arrived.

“The mission president doesn’t permit missionaries toaccept callings in the district and branches,” replied Jo. “Is thereno local person who can do it?”

“Sure,” replied President Lanny. He was a big fellow with abig voice. “I already called Eileen Jorkan to teach, but as soon asshe said yes she ran away—down island. Our people do that, youknow.” We didn’t know that but were about to see it repeatedover and over again during the course of the mission.

Within a month of our arriving on Majuro, we did com-mence a seminary. But Jo was not the teacher. And now beganthe next phase of our education. In the process of establishing aseminary we were about to learn several valuable lessons, lessonsthat would stand us in good stead as our mission increased inresponsibility. These seminary classes started September 4, 1990,at 6:45 A.M. and were held five days a week in the MarshallIslands High School.

Instead of Jo, we trained that young local sister, EileenJorkan, to be the teacher.

“Where could we find Eileen? We would like to talk to her,”Jo asked President Lanny.

Learning to Love the People 11

“Oh, I think she is staying with her sister who runs a littletake-out store near Laura. It won’t do you any good, though.”

We found Eileen. We weren’t dissuaded one bit by the goodpresident. She was in that take-out store twenty-two miles downisland. We talked to her over the counter of the little store fromwhere we stood on the outside with Eileen inside.

“We’ll help you learn how to teach seminary, Eileen,” SisterBurton said as we missionaries peered into the face of a youngsister in her late twenties.

“I . . . don’t . . . think so,” she said smiling, with her eyesdowncast.

“Why?”Very quietly again, “I don’t think so . . .”“But really, Eileen we do want to help you.”A long pause. “A sister talked bad about me . . . I don’t think

so . . . I have never taught before . . . No, you don’t want me.”

12 Missionaries Two

“We’ll help you learn how to teach seminary, Eileen,” Sister Burton said aswe missionaries peered into the face of a young sister in her late twenties.

“But we can help, we will help you. Tell us about this sisterwho said bad things about you.” It appeared that Eileen had beeninnocently maligned. Sister Burton gave her a briefing in gospelprinciples on the spot. In the Church it is our duty to forgive.

“But she has not said she is sorry . . . not asked me to for-give her.”

“Eileen, we do not wait for her to come to you. It is our dutyto totally forgive people. We forgive even when they are notready to be forgiven!”

“Really?” That was a new idea! Eileen had a good spirit,was a quick learner. “Even if they have not repented?”

“Yes, even when they have not repented.” Jo sensed theteaching moment and read a scripture to her.

“Wouldn’t you like to do as the Savior taught? Wouldn’tyou like to go to the lady and tell her you forgive her, that youlove her?”

“Maybe . . .” she was thinking hard now, and she immedi-ately knew that she liked and could trust this new sister mis-sionary, “if that is what I should do . . . and I’ll tell her she betternot do it again!”

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Majuro seminary class in progress. Eileen Jorkan is the teacher.

“Not quite!” interrupted Sister Burton, kindly but firmly.“Forgiveness means you demand nothing, you forget about thewrong, you offer your love to her even when she has done a badthing. It will surprise you how good you will feel.”

In a day’s time Eileen accomplished her mission of forgiv-ing and felt “really good!” She was ready to be taught how to bea seminary teacher.

By month’s end the new seminary class taught by EileenJorkan reached an enrollment of over fifty students! Every eveningwe taught this new teacher how to teach the lesson for the nextday. Then each following morning at 6:45 we sat at the back ofthe classroom to watch and critique Eileen for the next eveningtraining session. This would be a pattern other couple mission-aries would follow. For example, we watched Sister Vernon onPohnpei, months later, as she carefully trained a local sisterto teach a Primary lesson—just one lesson. She would performmuch of this kind of service on her island, teaching a teacherhow to teach the next lesson, one lesson at a time.

We looked into Eileen’s quick-moving eyes as she scannedher brood over whom she ruled with a soft heart, much like amother hen. We were pleased with her and spoke to each otherabout Eileen.

“She is a natural teacher. . . with much need of train-ing . . . but a natural teacher!”

“Yes, and do you notice how her love for the childrenshows? She does a lot of physical touching.”

Eileen talked to the students, and as she talked she walkedup and down the aisles, lightly stroking the head of one girl,smoothing the hair of another. Under the caress of her hands,active bodies were soothed and spirits of children were com-forted and assured.

“What a beautiful, choice spirit she has. She is responsiblefor a month of great success.”

The success was not without considerable effort by theBurtons. The first week of training was laborious. We were

14 Missionaries Two

learning. Something more needed to be done because we felt wemustn’t spend the three hours a day this project was requiring.There was a good deal of other work we should be doing.

Jo had been a school teacher and had thought it through.“What Eileen needs is a daily lesson plan.” Already we had dis-covered that the existing seminary manuals were too difficult foruse by the Marshallese students. The teacher’s manual itself wastoo difficult for the teacher. We would find this to be truethroughout the mission, and we would find it true on a subse-quent mission to yet another third world country. Even studentmanuals were frequently an insurmountable challenge to someteachers. We went to work and within a week we had devised asimple, comprehensive daily lesson plan using the student man-ual, not the teacher’s manual, as a resource for the teacher. Thewritten lesson plan (subsequently approved by the roving CEScoordinator, Richard Harvey) was put into immediate use.Eileen smiled broadly, holding the lesson plan in her hands:“I think I can do it!” The lessons immediately went so smoothlythat the Burtons no longer had to give daily instructions.

One morning we arrived at the high school for a periodicmonitoring of the seminary class, to discover that only studentswere present, no teacher. Back we drove a few miles along thesingle island road to the approximate place where Eileen lived.After some inquires we found her door.

“Eileen, it’s the Burtons!” “Eileen . . . !”By and by a sleepy-eyed Eileen came to the door. She had

slept in. We whisked her to the high school where class began afew minutes late.

On another day Eileen forgot her key to the school room,and back again to her home we drove where the key was fetched.

One Monday morning, seminary class students and teacherarrived to find they were locked out of their classroom. With thepermission of the high school principal, an adjacent classroomwas used. It just so happened that an American teacher assignedto that classroom arrived earlier than normal that day, shortly

Learning to Love the People 15