Ancestor Spotlight: Anna Kirstina

Anna Kirstina was just 16 years old when she heard the missionaries preaching the Gospel on the street corner of her Scotland town. She was drawn by their kindness and the light in their eyes. She listened to their teachings and was filled with excitement. She went home and shared with her father what she had learned. Her father was heavily Protestant and a leader in their community that believed the Mormons to be a cult and of Satan. He was actually one of leaders of the group that persecuted Mormons. He forbade her to learn anymore and told her to stay away from them.

She could not, and continued to sneak out and listen to the words of the Gospel. The Book of Mormon and the plan of salvation described therein touched her heart. Eventually she was baptized. Anna had long, dark, thick hair that she wore in a braid, it was still wet when she returned home. Her father noticed her damp hair and demanded to know how it had gotten that way. Anna was forced to admit that she had disobeyed him and had indeed been baptized. Her father threw her out of the house with just what she had on, she was forbidden to have any contact with her family.

Because her father was a wealthy and prominent member of the town, everywhere she went to work no one would hire her. He had told them not to. She finally found work as a house maid for one of the other Mormon families in the area. Eventually she saved enough money to buy material and started making her own underwear and clothes.

In her journal she wrote about, walking down the street with four of the children from the family she worked for when she saw her mother straight ahead. She mentions the great joy she felt at seeing her. Anna, said “Oh, Mamma!’ and was crushed when her mother ignored her and just kept walking.

Soon all the Mormons in her town were leaving to make the journey to Salt Lake City, Utah. She did not have enough money to go, and there was no place for her in Scotland. Her only choice was to marry the man she worked for as a second wife in polygamy, she was still only 16 and he was 45. They married and his first wife hated her. They sailed across the ocean and made it to Salt lake, she had 9 kids and was married to the same man her whole life.

Her life was never easy; her husband’s first wife continued to hate her and even blamed Anna for the accidental death of one of the children. She was married to a man almost thirty years her senior. She literally sacrificed everything she had in the world to have the Gospel in her life. Despite her hard life, she was always happy, with a smile on her face. Anna was very much in love with the Gospel and was incredibly grateful to have found it, that sentiment influenced her outlook on life.

When she was ninety six years old, with all her grandkids gathered around her she would tell the story of her baptisms and say that it was worth every sacrifice to have the Gospel in her life.