George Q. Cannon — Sudden Gift of Understanding and Speaking the Hawaiian Language (1851)
Published September 2, 2026 at 3:45 PM
In 1851, while serving as a young Latter-day Saint missionary in the Sandwich Islands (Hawaii), twenty-three-year-old George Q. Cannon struggled intensely to learn Hawaiian. He and his companions, Elders Bigler and Keeler, lived among native Hawaiians in poverty. Cannon’s desire to learn the language was constant, and he sought opportunities to converse with the people while exercising faith for the gift of speaking and understanding Hawaiian.
At one point he withdrew to the mountains, where he prayed with great fervor for the ability to reach the native people. Later, while sitting on mats and visiting with neighbors, he felt an extraordinarily strong desire to understand what they were saying. Suddenly he experienced a peculiar sensation in his ears and sprang to his feet. He regarded this as a miraculous manifestation of the gift of tongues: he began to understand native speakers, soon acquired the ability to preach fluently, and eventually translated the Book of Mormon into Hawaiian. Cannon attributed his linguistic ability to divine assistance.
In Their Own Words
“I had been so anxious to learn the language that I would not read any book in English excepting the Book of Mormon and the Doctrine and Covenants, and had even trained myself to think in that language. I did this so that I might be thoroughly familiar with it, for I was anxious to preach the gospel in exceeding plainness unto the people. Of course, it required an effort on my part to thus train myself; but I was paid for it all, in the fluency with which I used the language. I was able to speak and write it with greater ease and correctness than my mother tongue. I well remember the day that the gift of speaking the language was bestowed upon me. I had been studying and praying for this gift, and had been trying to converse with the natives, but I felt that I was making very slow progress. I was sitting on a mat, with a number of the natives around me, and I felt a very strong desire to understand what they were saying. Suddenly, I felt a peculiar sensation in my ears, and I sprang to my feet, and I could understand every word that was spoken. From that time on, I had no difficulty in understanding the language, and I was soon able to preach in it with great fluency.”
— George Q. Cannon, My First Mission
Sources & References
George Q. Cannon, My First Mission (Salt Lake City: Juvenile Instructor Office, 1879), 15, full public text: https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/45049 The Journals of George Q. Cannon, Hawaiian Mission, 1850-1854 (Church Historian's Press), https://www.churchhistorianspress.org/george-q-cannon/1850s/1851/01-1851 Fred E. Woods, “George Q. Cannon in Hawai'i, 1850-54,” in Pioneers in the Pacific (BYU…) The Journal of George Q. Cannon, https://www.churchhistorianspress.org/george-q-cannon/about?lang=eng “Expect Miracles or ERA,” https://speeches.byuh.edu/devotional/expect-miracles-or-era-expect-recognize-appreciate-miracles “Remembering the history of the LDS Church on the Hawaiian Islands,” Deseret News, https://www.deseret.com/2016/2/18/20582711/remembering-the-history-of-the-lds-church-on-the-h… Full first-person account: George Q. Cannon, My First Mission (Salt Lake City: Juvenile Instructor Office, 1879), 15-16 https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/45049
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