Excerpts from
Juvenile Instructor - 1887
Written by Thomas A. Shreeve (1851-1931)

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The Experience of a Young Missionary in a Lonely Field,

10,000 Miles from Home.

BY THOMAS A. SHREEVE.

CHAPTER I.

CALLED TO AUSTRALASIA—THE MODERN IMITATORS OF JOB'S FRIENDS—OUR "SPECIAL INSTRUCTION" IS TO "BUILD UP THE KINGDOM OF GOD IN THOSE LANDS" —A DISAPPOINTMENT ENDS IN A BLESSING—PROMISES BY AN APOSTLE WHICH WERE LITERALLY FULFILLED—WE REACH SYDNEY, AND I AM SEPARATED FROM MY COMPANION.

   If a relation of my missionary experience can give to my young brethren and sisters one tithe of the strength and blessing which that experience itself imparted to me, I shall be more than repaid in relating it. From the reading of similar accounts by other Elders I have derived much benefit myself; but I realize that words are powerless to convey a full description of the events which befall every missionary of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. No man can serve his Savior faithfully in distant lands, among strangers, without receiving and keeping constantly the Spirit of holiness, and without experiencing miraculous interpositions in his behalf. At the time of their occurrence they are subjects of wonder and thankfulness; but as years pass by, it becomes extremely difficult to put them into words so expressive that they do not seem either too fanciful for reality, or too cold to be interesting.

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