“By Study and Also by Faith”

Doreen Huena was born in 1968 in the capital city Port Moresby. When she was about 9 years old, her father died and her mother moved to Popondetta. To support the family, Doreen’s mother planted a garden, growing taro, bananas, and sweet potatoes. “She worked really hard,” remembered Doreen. Her mother sold the surplus produce in the market in exchange for rice, sugar, salt, and protein. Ethel, Doreen’s 15-year-old sister, cared for the children. However, she became sick with tuberculosis and passed away, leaving 9-year-old Doreen to look after her younger sisters and brothers. She had completed just one year of formal education.

In 1984, at the age of 16, Doreen met and married Winceslas Huena. After several years, Winceslas invited the missionaries to share the restored gospel. He joined the Church first, in 1990, and Doreen was baptized later, in 1991. Doreen found employment doing laundry each week in the mission home. She would bring along her two small daughters, who liked to sing Primary songs as she worked. In the course of her work, in September 1992, Doreen became acquainted with senior missionary Luree Schmutz and asked Sister Schmutz to teach her how to read.

Around that time, under the leadership of General Relief Society President Elaine L. Jack, the Church had recently introduced a Gospel Literacy Effort to promote literacy, especially in women. Doreen and Luree began to work with the Basic Scripture Literacy Course and several beginning readers. Each day, Doreen arrived at the mission home eager to begin her lessons. They would begin with prayer, and Doreen would tell the Lord that she wanted to be able to “read your words.”

“My favorite scripture is 1 Nephi 3:7,” explained Doreen. “That’s my own scripture. Because that’s my literacy—that’s the first scripture I read. I fasted and prayed for how to read. I worked very hard. I prayed, and fasted, for help learning to read and write.” After about a year, a whole new world opened up to Doreen. She began reading scripture verses, Book of Mormon stories, and hymnbook lyrics. She copied scriptures onto paper and hung them on her walls so she could see them as she worked. She taught the words she was learning to her children during family home evening.

After two years of study, Doreen was called to be a Primary teacher. Although she still felt a little hesitant to be a teacher, since she still had much to learn, she said, “It’s not my will, but it’s Heavenly Father’s will, and the Holy Ghost will help me. So I taught the Sunbeam class and became a second counselor in the Primary.” Later, Doreen became Relief Society district president, in charge of visiting and training sisters in three branches and four smaller units.

Another favorite scripture, Doctrine and Covenants 130:18, holds special meaning: “Whatever principle of intelligence we attain unto in this life, it will rise with us in the resurrection.”