Missionaries Called to the Gold Rush

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The connection of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and early California settlement is full of exciting stories of gold, miracles and faith in God. An incredible account of Gods miracles starts in the Gold Rush in the Sierra Nevada Mountains. A young group of men were called serve in the California Gold Rush. George Q. Cannon, a future apostle of the Church was one of the young men called to serve at the Gold Rush. He was twenty-four years old when he received the call to "obtain financial means to support the Church". The missionaries learned to rely on the Lord, Jesus Christ. Sometimes, it is through being faithful to the Lord in the unusual callings that the greater opportunities become available. This is what happened to George Q. Cannon on his mission from California to Hawaii.

The environment of the Gold Rush was terrible on the young missionaries. Lawlessness, drinking, gambling and more. These missionaries were surrounded by sin and evil all day long, and it was draining on them. The young missionaries “spent an unpleasant and unfruitful year away from home,” with nothing to show for it. They were discouraged and wondering if this call was of any importance. They were not having any success in finding gold, and the environment weighed on them.

It was then that this small group of California missionaries received a new call! They were called to Sandwich Islands of Hawaii by Apostle Charles C. Rich. Elder Rich informed the missionaries residing at the Slapjack Bar mining camp high in the Sierra Nevada, to go to the Sandwich Islands for the winter, with the thought that it would be as cheap for them to reside there as to remain in the mining camps where they might fall prey to the gambling and drinking associated with a miner’s life.

The missionaries were informed that they needed to find enough gold to pay their way to the Sandwich islands. The young missionaries had been working on a dam to work the claim, but a flood came through and destroyed the dam, and all the dams in the American River had been damaged or destroyed due to this flood.

“While others along the river immediately left the mines, these Hawaii-bound missionaries, needing a miracle, chose to rebuild their dam and work their claim,” said historian Brother Orton. “And their efforts paid off: they struck gold.”

The missionaries worked for two weeks successfully mining gold. They had all the money they needed to make their way to Hawaii, just in time. After two weeks the gold had completely dried up.

“No doubt it is all right,” wrote missionary Henry Bigler in his journal, “for our eyes might have been so filled with gold dust that we might not have been able to see.”

It was with considerable difficulty that they sailed for Hawaii; a storm struck the area and trapped the ship in the harbor for a week.

“While trapped in San Francisco Bay under these unpleasant circumstances, George had a dream that would have a great influence on his life and the course of the Hawaiian Mission,” Historian Brother Orton recounted.

In the dream, the men were struggling to raise the ship’s anchor that was held fast in the mud. George saw the Prophet Joseph Smith on the deck and approached him. The Prophet prayed aloud that the anchor might be loosed. Thereafter, one of the men raised it with ease. George told the Prophet he wished he had such faith. Joseph responded that it was his privilege and that he ought to have it.

The experience was harrowing, but the ship finally left the harbor, finally reaching Honolulu on Dec. 12, 1850, nearly three months after the missionaries received their call.

The call to go to Hawaii was an answer to many prayers, and the missionaries were tried and tested to see if they were worthy to go to the Hawaii islands. The mission in Hawaii was difficult but packed with miracles. It seems like the time in the mines of California was to prepare the missionaries for the great work ahead.

“The Lord ordered all things for the best; and I could not help thinking of my dream and Joseph’s words in regard to faith,” Elder Cannon wrote.

One of the missionaries called to mine gold in California almost did not accept his call. This young man was told in an earlier blessing that he would serve in the Islands, and he anticipated this call from the Prophet. When he received the call to mining in California he was close to rejecting the call. Instead, relying on the Lord, he accepted the call to mine gold in California which tested his faith. After a year working on the mines the Apostle extended the calling to Hawaii, this young missionary could see that it was all part of the Lords plan from the very beginning. He was very pleased that he had accepted the calling in the first place, acting in faith that it would all be right in the end.

The group of ten missionaries left San Francisco to Hawaii and started one of the most successful missions of the 19th century. These missionaries spent three and a half years on the islands and nearly five years away from home.

George Q. Cannon and the other missionaries were able to witness the changing of lives because of the gospel of Jesus Christ. George Q. Cannon led the process of translating The Book of Mormon into Hawaiian. The Hawaiian mission was full of miracles “When George and the other former gold miners-turned-missionaries sailed for home after three and a half years in the islands and nearly five years away from home, more than 5,000 individuals had been baptized, which was more than 5 percent of the island’s population.” 

“Hundreds came out to bid them goodbye in sharp contrast to when George had found himself in a distant land among a people whose language and habits ‘are strange to me and I a stranger among them.’”

The Lord knew who to call to the California Gold Fields, to ultimately bring the gospel of Jesus Christ to the islands of the sea. The people of Hawaii were prepared to accept the gospel of Jesus Christ, and changed their lives and their families lives for generations.

"The foremost quality of our pioneers was faith, with faith in God they did what every pioneer does- they stepped forward into the unknown" Dallin H Oaks.

References:

https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/church/news/george-q-cannons-faith-led-to-miracles-in-early-hawaiian-mission?lang=eng

"Belonging to Heaven" by Gale Sears