In his journal entry for September 25, 1857, Joseph F. Smith recorded writing a song in the Hawaiian language. Here is the English translation thereof (do note how it is not ecumenical!):
Let us all gather together
This evening
to sing in joyous voice
For Lān’i is Zion (i.e., a gathering place)
we have been ridiculed
for our joy
What is it? We know
This is a second Zion.
So come and rejoice
ye saints
of the righteous Lord
Not of Man!
We were many in the beginning
undertaking together
then the “Preachers”
boasted
the famine is over now
The trouble is over
and they are ashamed
In their disappointment.
Why should we pay for
our preachers
When they know not
the righteous Lord
So let us go straight
before him
do not pay heed to the world
with its ridicule
with the Catholics here
and also the Calvinists
for they shall all be thwarted
when they fight against God
The Calvinist ministers
are for hire
the Catholic priests
Strange Shepherds
We Mormons
are indeed blessed
we lead a clean life
And live in righteousness
be industrious at Pālāwai
plant wheat
sweet potato, taro, squash, corn
and the delicious things
Let us eat and drink
and be joyous
a jubilee is ours
Let us sing in righteousness. (Joseph F. Smith Journal, September 25, 1857, in “My
Candid Opinion:” The Sandwich Island Diaries of Joseph F. Smith 1856-1857,
ed. Nathaniel R. Ricks [Salt Lake City: The Smith-Petit Foundation, 2011], 127-28)
