Elder and Sis. Noorlander were the first agricultural missionaries called outside the United States

Sis. Noorlander: “We were taken from the Language Training Mission or LTM to the Church Offices in Salt Lake City, where we were interviewed by the Presiding Bishopric: Victor L. Brown, H. Burke Peterson, and Vaughn J. Featherstone.

“They counseled us on things we should know. They told us that if we didn’t do anything but give the Indians ‘hope,’ and pull them up by their ‘bootstraps,’ it would be a great blessing in their lives. We soon learned that we couldn’t pull them up by their bootstraps because they didn’t have shoes to wear. The hope came as we became one with them, and they began trusting us as their brother and sister. We weren’t just two gringos from North America.

“We laughed, played, and cried with them as they buried their children, and especially as we shared together our testimonies, our love for the gospel of Jesus Christ and the blessing it is in all our lives.”