--- title: Improvement Era description: Monthly periodical of the Mormon church, 1897 onward. This library holds the issues of November 1897 to December 1930. authors: - Cluff, W. W. collections: - periodicals tags: - magazine - improvement-era periodical: Improvement Era volume: 2 number: 9 published: 1899-07 publisher: Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations publisher_place: Salt Lake City language: en type: magazine reference: 'Cluff, W. W., "Temptation or Godsend?," *Improvement Era* 2, no. 9 (July 1899): 687–689.' source: url: https://archive.org/details/improvementera29unse transcription: Transcribed from the Internet Archive scan of each issue (the item for each issue is named in the issue's own source); unnumbered advertising leaves are omitted, printed page numbers are kept as page markers. identifier: improvementera29unse start_page: 687 end_page: 689 rights: status: public-domain basis: US publication 1930 or earlier (published 1899-07) source: https://archive.org/details/improvementera29unse publication_year: 1899 note: The Internet Archive item metadata carries a blanket "© Copyright by Intellectual Reserve, Inc." notice. The library owner judged it inapplicable because this issue was published in 1899, before 1931; a scan-level notice does not restore copyright. --- # Temptation or Godsend? * MISSIONARY EXPERIENCES. 687 we could see two women peeling apples, while two men stood by a well busy in getting the women a drink. On nearing the place, I thought we were asked to come in. They brought us two chairs, and asked us to be seated, we accepting the invitation. One of the men gave us to drink, and the women gave us apples. They wished to know who we were, and upon being told by me seemed much surprised. One of the men said he would like to hear us preach our doctrine, and I told him we would be pleased to speak if they would secure their school house for our service, whereupon the other man said that he was a trustee of the district and furthermore owned an interest in the house and the land upon which it stood, and declared that we could preach there as long as we desired. I then thought we gave out an appointment for a meeting at ten o'clock the following Sunday morning, and we were invited to stay with them. At this juncture, I awoke, and told my dream to my companion both of us feeling reconciled. After breakfast, in the morning, we proceeded on our way in a northerly direction, taking care to follow the scenes of my dream, as near as we knew how. During that day's travel everything came to pass as I had seen it in my dream: the school house, the children, the people at the well — every detail was fulfilled to the letter. The school house was offered, the appointment made, the people at the house entertained us, and became our friends. Further than this, we opened up a prosperous field of labor, and it was only a day's journey from where every avenue seemed closed and we could do nothing. During our further labors, we received many additional testimonies, proving to us that the prayer of faith is answered by God, and that in the hour of trial and need, the Lord opens the way and comes to the rescue of his servants. TEMPTATION, OR GODSEND? BY PRESIDENT W. W. CLUFF, OF SUMMIT STAKE. In the year 1866, Elders Joseph F. Smith, Franklin W. Young and myself had been traveling as missionaries on the island of 688 IMPROVEMENT ERA. Hawaii, laboring about ten months in the Helo and Koohala Conferences, on the north and east side of the island. A conference of all the Elders laboring in that mission was called to meet on the island of Lanai. It required five dollars each to pay our fare from our field of labor to the place of conference. In starting from Helo and traveling by land to Upolu, a distance of about one hundred and fifty miles we would visit about ten branches of the church. At each of these we held meetings and reminded the Saints that we were on our way to conference and that we required so much money to pay our passage across the channel to Lanai. Money among the natives was scarce and difficult to get. When we left Waipio, the last and largest branch on the way, we had only received seventy-five cents in money and five or six goatskins, worth 12^ cents each. While it looked very discouraging, we had faith that by doing all we could the Lord would open the way for us to attend the conference with our brethren. On leaving Wimea, fifty mil^s from Upolu, where we would embark on the vessel, the road forked, one going north and one going west. About three miles west on the road, a family of Saints lived; with this family we had left some of our books and clothes, and to go that way would take us about three miles out of our way. I being considered the best walker, it was decided that I should go that way and the brethren continue on the direct route. I had not proceeded more than a mile when I found a man's coat lying in the middle of the road; picking it up I found a money purse in one of the pockets, containing some papers and three fivedollar gold pieces. Being just the amount we needed and finding them as I did, the first impression was that it was a Godsend. There being no one in sight, I started across the country to intersect the brethren, thinking I would bury the coat with all it contained except the money, in a deep ravine, and cover it over with lava rock. I had not gone fifty yards when another thought suggested itself, and I asked myself the questions: Do you really think the finding of the coat was a Godsend? Could it not be a temptation? It certainly belonged to some person to whom the papers might be very valuable. With these thoughts and reflections, and that the Lord would not bestow a blessing at the expense of another of his children, my conscience smote me, and, still seeing no one MISSIONARY EXPERIENCE. 689 in sight, I turned back to the road and proceeded to the house where our things were left. Only the woman was at home; to her I related the finding of the coat, and, taking out the pocket book, showed her the money and papers which proved to be of great value to the owner, a white man who lived about fifty miles east, and of whose hospitality we had a number of times partaken. As a guard against the woman keeping the money, I let her see me take a memorandum of the money and papers, and also told her I would write to the owner. On overtaking the brethren, I told them about finding the coat and the fifteen dollars we needed to pay our passage, and asked them if they did not think it a Godsend; they replied that it really looked like it. "I thought so, too, at first, but on second thought I feared it might be a temptation in our straitened circumstance," I replied. "True, it is not the way the Lord would come to our aid," they said. On explaining what I did with the coat and contents, they expressed great pleasure and satisfaction, approving heartily my actions. That night we stopped with a white man by the name of Lincoln who had married a native woman who was a member of our Church. We had stopped there a number of times before. Mr. Lincoln had always made us welcome. The next morning we bade the family good-bye and started on our journey, our host following us out of the house saying: "If you are going to your conference, on Lanai, you will want money to pay your fares, here is five dollars for each of you, if you will accept it." We did accept it with heartfelt thanks both to Mr. Lincoln and to our Father in Heaven, believing he had put it into his heart to give us just the amount of money we required. In proceeding on our way, we all felt and acknowledged that this really was a Godsend, as Mr. Lincoln and his family had never before given us money, and during our stay this time not a word had been said about our needing money to pay our passage to Lanai. We recognized that the Lord had really heard and answered our prayers.