A 1917 Sunday School lesson for young adults concerning missionary service included this substantial section on sister missionaries.
Lady Missionaries.
The first lady missionaries were married women, appointed to accompany their husbands, mainly to the Pacific Islands to teach and train the native women. Nineteen years ago two young ladies responded to the call of the First Presidency to perform missions in England,. They had the honor of being the first to go unaccompanied by husbands and to devote all their time to preaching.
Since then increasingly large numbers are called yearly. There have been six hundred and sixty-eight in the last five years.
The lady missionary’s sphere is less broad than her brother’s, because she does not hold the Priesthood, but there are phases of the work in which she has the advantage. When tracing in a large city, a lady gains admission to many homes closed to elders. Honest-hearted women whose husbands or fathers, suspicious of strange men, object to their having Gospel conversations with elders, are permitted to learn of the Gospel fro the lips of the lady missionary.
Perhaps her greatest field of usefulness is among the sisters of the branch, holding cottage meetings to discuss gospel subjects as related to woman’s life. Recent converts need much instruction, sympathy, and encouragement.
A young lady, however, may do vastly more harm than good in the mission field unless she is discreet. She should understand that many pleasures and practices, legitimate at home, are out of place there. She must lay aside the frivolities of life, studying to make her manner, her speech, her dress, her mode of living, conform to the most rigid standards of propriety.
This is necessary because she is away from the protection of home, the chaperonage of mother, sisters, and friends; and because having been called and set apart by the Priesthood, she stands as the representative of Christ’s Church, a Saint whose character and conduct should be above reproach. She must temporarily submerge the normal impulse toward love and courtship, firmly repulsing the attention and admiration of men. She must learn to trust the advice of those who preside over her, cheerfully conforming to the regime and strictly obeying the rules of the conference.
If the young women of Zion would be more circumspect in their conduct at home, living their religion strictly, they would more perfectly fit themselves for the varied experiences of missionary service – experiences which bring to the earnest girl pleasures undreamed of.
Ardis, What do you suppose is behind those last three paragraphs?
Years ago, Edje Jeter did a series at Juvenile Instructor about lady missionaries in the early 20th century where he addressed this term. The rhetoric always seemed to include the descriptor “discreet,” which seemed to mean serious, sober, steady, calm, in contrast to silly, giggly, flirty, vain.
I don’t know whether this was in response to anything that had actually happened, or whether it was addressing the cynical expectations of traditionalists who might have objected to women’s intrusion into the male world of missionary work, but I’m certain that it means only that: Proper missionary decorum.
I can think of lots of brother-missionaries who could have used the advice in the last few paragraphs. I don’t mean to suggest that sisters are incapable of frivolity or indiscretion. Maybe it’s that they had to defy expectations to go in the first place, but the ones we got were not as likely to cause problems as the brothers.
My great-grandmother served in the Northern States mission in 1924 (at age 20!), so it is interesting to see the kinds of expectations that had been set for her.
Those last three paragraphs could just as easily apply to the Elders as to the Sisters.
Thanks for posting this. My grandmother, as a 16-yr-old, single woman, left on a mission to the Samoan Islands in Oct 1912 and returned April 1916. She would have been one of the “six hundred and sixty-eight in the last five years” mentioned in the lesson. I have a copy of what looks like a mimeographed form letter sent to her from the church giving her directions regarding her preparation before leaving on her mission. The printed salutation to “Elder _______” was simply crossed out and the word “Sister” written above it. There were still so few women being sent as missionaries, that new form letters were not deemed necessary yet. Or perhaps church headquarters was just being frugal?