Sister missionaries are making history. The Church’s missionary force is now at an all-time high, and this record reflects a new wave of 18-year-old sister missionaries.
These sisters join a long line of faithful women who have served missions across the globe since 1898. Here are five fascinating facts about the first single female missionaries for the Church: Lucy Jane (Jennie) Brimhall and Amanda Inez Knight.
1. They received surprise mission calls.
Starting as early as the 1850s, women occasionally joined the mission field without official callings, serving alongside their husbands.
In March 1898, the First Presidency authorized the calling of married or single women as full-time proselytizing missionaries. Several mission presidents had written to them to request “lady missionaries,” with one leader noting, “if a number of bright and intelligent women were called on missions to England, the results would be excellent.”
During this time, Jennie Brimhall and Inez Knight initially planned to leave Provo, Utah, for several months to visit Europe. The friends both had attended Brigham Young Academy and came from prominent Utah families.
Instead of moving forward with their trip, they were invited to consider serving missions in England by Sister Brimhall’s bishop, J. B. Keeler. He wrote to President Wilford Woodruff about the idea, which the First Presidency approved by letter.
The sisters were set apart on April 1, 1898. At the time, Sister Brimhall was 22 years old, and Sister Knight was 21.
2. Sister Brimhall was engaged (and served near her fiancé).
Before receiving their calls, the friends had intended to visit Sister Knight’s brothers—Oscar Raymond (Ray) Knight and Jesse William (Will) Knight—who were serving in the British Mission. Will was Sister Brimhall’s fiancé.
On April 22, 1898, Will greeted his sister and fianceé when they first arrived in Liverpool, England, as missionaries. The next day, the sisters joined the elders for a street meeting in a manufacturing town called Oldham. A member of the mission presidency famously invited the crowd to hear these “real live Mormon women” speak at an upcoming meeting. The need for Latter-day Saint women’s voices was urgent: Hostility toward the Church was intense in England, where rumors painted Latter-day Saint women as mistreated and oppressed.
Sister Knight and Sister Brimhall helped to clarify these reports, speaking about their positive experiences in Utah and testifying of the gospel. As one elder described their service:
“The duties of a lady missionary are essentially identical with those of a Traveling Elder, as regards tracting, preaching upon the streets and addressing audiences within halls, introducing the Gospel at the fireside, and endeavoring to allay prejudice on all sides. But in the matter of performing in the ordinances of the church, that entirely rests in the hands of the Elders and the Priesthood.”
3. The companions sometimes served apart.
Unlike today’s mission rules, which encourage companions to be within sight and sound of each other at nearly all times, Sister Brimhall and Sister Knight served apart at times.
As Gale Sears, author of The Sister Preachers, explains:
“The rules for missionary conduct were much different from today’s strict standards. All sister-missionary journals from this period reference times when elders and sisters paired off together to tract, attend cottage meetings, or sightsee.”
According to Sears, mission areas were called “conferences” during this time. Sister Brimhall and Sister Knight were originally called to serve in the Cheltenham Conference, but they traveled to outside areas, including Manchester and Nottingham, to preach and participate in mission-wide meetings.
Leisure time also looked much different for early sister missionaries. Sears writes:
“Though these early missionaries did not have scheduled preparation days, as present-day missionaries do, Inez’s journal mentions theater outings, walks, book reading, bicycling, tea, and dinners with Church members, as well as sightseeing adventures.”
4. Sister Brimhall served for 8 months, and Sister Knight served for 2 years.
Sister Brimhall returned from her mission earlier than Sister Knight due to her health. Although she hoped to serve longer, she ultimately decided to come home after consulting with her father and Church leaders. She left England on November 17, 1898, and received an honorable release in October 1898. She married Will Knight on January 18, 1899, in the Salt Lake Temple, and they later adopted two sons.
Sister Brimhall’s departure must have been a difficult transition for Sister Knight. Her journal shows a break in entries from September to November before Sister Brimhall departed. In a historical note to The Sister Preachers, Sears included this journal entry from Sister Knight about her companion’s departure:
“After leaving Jennie and Will in Liverpool went with Ray to Hull where we stayed in quiet lodgings. Walked out on the pier of the docks where the sight of the ships seemed to fascinate me, but at the same time caused me to feel what a long way I was from home and my lonely condition more than ever before.”
Sister Knight was assigned to serve with her new companion, Sister Eliza Chipman, on December 2, 1898. Sister Knight went on to train several early sister missionaries in Great Britain.
On June 11, 1900, Sister Knight returned home to Provo. She married a prominent banker and developer, Robert Eugene Allen, in the Salt Lake Temple two years later. They had five children together.
5. They hoped more single sisters would serve in the future.
Sister Brimhall and Sister Knight paved a legacy of faithful service that continues to this day.
They had faith that many women would serve after them and voiced their trust in future generations of single sister missionaries. In a letter to their mission leaders, these pioneering sisters wrote:
“We feel that the Lord is blessing us in our attempts to allay prejudice and spread the truth. We trust that many of the worthy young women in Zion will be permitted to enjoy the same privilege we now have, for we feel that they can do much good.”
To learn more about the first single sister missionaries for the Church, read Gale Sear’s historical novel The Preaching Sisters. You can read an excerpt from the novel here:
▶ The first single sister missionaries: A glimpse into their inspiring service
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