Venus Rossiter

Venus Rossiter followed her husband Ernest on several missions throughout the process of her marriage, including Tahiti and France. She could have been content to go along for the ride, but Venus looked for (and found) opportunities to serve everywhere she went.

As a young bride in Tahiti, after adapting to the initial shock of living in a new place (with new diseases), Venus went to work. She travelled all over the islands with her husband, taught about modern hygeiene & nutrition, and organized branches of the Relief Society through Tahiti. She raised funds to buy organs for their meetings, and for the building of the temple. She even went to an island that was being ravaged by the Spanish influenza to provide aid.

In France, she organized the first French-speaking relief society at Lyons. Later in life, when they returned to Tahiti, she translated many of the church hymns in Tahitian. And if all that isn’t enough, she served on the General Boards of both the Primary and the Young Women’s Mutual Improvement Association. Busy gal.

I’m grateful for her example of courage and tireless service.

Sources:

Ardis Parshall, Venus Robinson Rossiter: Learning to Serve, Times and Seasons, October 2006.