|  What
If...
By Davis Bitton
M. Vernon Coombs, mission president
in Tonga, thought he saw his valiant efforts going down the tube.
It was 1924, and the Church authorities in Salt Lake City had
decided to close the mission. What, if anything, could he do?
A currently popular approach to history,
designed to bring out the significance of individual decisions
and turning points, is sometimes known as virtual history. Robert
Cowley has published two separate volumes entitled What If
and What If 2, containing articles on everything from "The
Plague That Saved Jerusalem, 701 B.C." by William H. McNeill
to "The Presidency of Henry Wallace" by James Chace.
Latter-day Saint history offers many
intriguing events worth considering in these terms. What if Joseph
Smith had not entered the grove? What if those Missouri missionaries
had not stopped in Kirtland, where Sidney Rigdon had a congregation?
What if missionaries had not been sent to England in 1837, or
if those sent had fallen so ill that they had to stop before embarking?
What if the transcontinental railroad had taken a different route?
The importance of key decisions or
circumstances can be demonstrated in every settlement and every
country to which the gospel was carried. For that matter, we have
only to think of our individual lives to recognize the pivotal
importance of conversion or, sadly, decisions that take one down
a path that leads to destruction.
Tonga was the scene of the mission
of Elder John H. Groberg in the 1950s. A young man from Idaho
Falls, Idaho, Elder Groberg made a difference. The movie The
Other Side of Heaven has been enjoyed by many people, but
I hope no adult Latter-day Saint who can read English, or teenager
for that matter, deprives himself of the experience of reading
the book on which the movie is based. Entitled In the Eye of the
Storm, it is a Latter-day Saint classic.
But back to M. Vernon Coombs. Fewer
than a thousand Tongans had joined the Church. Missionaries were
few, and the government did not readily grant visas. Coombs slipped
in because he was a Canadian.
A law prohibiting any new LDS missionaries
from entering the country was passed in 1922. President Coombs
saw the number of his American and Canadian missionaries go down
to five. Opposition was intense.
Finally, in 1924, the prohibition
was revoked. In a fascinating article in a F.A.R.M.S. publication
entitled “Mormons, Scripture, and the Ancient World,”
R. Lanier Britsch has recounted the behind-the-scenes maneuvering
that finally brought about the change of policy.
Now hoping to see missionary reinforcements,
Coombs was dismayed to receive a letter from Church headquarters
informing him that no new missionaries would be sent. Instead,
concluding that the expenditure of time and money was not producing
sufficient results, the Church leaders tentatively decided to
close the mission. His heart full to overflowing, Coombs sat down
and penned a letter, expressing his great love for the Tongan
people. Then this:
But oh, Brethren, if it is not
too late, let me plead for my people. This is the hardest proposition
that I have ever faced in my life, and Brethren, I would rather
lay down my life for them than to run off and leave them leaderless.
They are my people. I have made my greatest sacrifices for them
and have used my God-given talents in their behalf. I have bought
them with seven years of my youth. I have rejoiced when they
have rejoiced and have gone down in sorrow with them. I do not
want to persuade you against your better judgement, but if we
could have only four missionaries, we could, at least, hold
our own.
Anyone without a heart of stone can
sense the depth of this letter. Coombs had poured out his heart
to his leaders. In October 1924, the First Presidency wrote an
answer. They had received Coombs's "very earnest appeal for
the continuation of the Tongan mission and have decided that it
shall continue." Missionaries would be sent "at once."
"Coomb's efforts to reopen Tonga
to Latter-day Saint missionaries and his heartfelt pleading to
the First Presidency," writes Professor Britsch, "changed
the history of the church in that land."
The Church Almanac reported for the
end of 1999 that more than 44,000 members, 16 stakes, and 100
wards were in Tonga. As of December 31, 2004, forty-six percent
of Tongans listed their religious affiliation as LDS.
Click
here to sign up for Meridian's FREE email updates.
© 2007 Meridian
Magazine. All Rights Reserved.
|
