Senior Polynesian Cultural Center missionary Hella Lunnen—still spry at 89 years old—pulls her weight with the “younger” senior missionaries at the Mission Settlement, an area consisting of three buildings dedicated to honoring contributions of early Christian missionaries to Laʽie. There she demonstrates the art of Hawaiian quilting. Sister Lunnen is believed to be one of the oldest senior missionaries to serve at the Polynesian Cultural Center and is one of the oldest missionaries currently serving for the worldwide Church.
Her goal is to finish as many quilts as possible using the kapu lau method, which features a central applique design of four or eight identical segments, sewn to the background. Then, making it look easy to the visitors, she surrounds the intricate appliques with the characteristic “ocean wave” stitching, working in intricate patterns from the center of the colorful cloth to the outside edge. She’s completed five quilts so far and has another year to add more to the count.
This happens to be Hella’s second mission to Laʽie. She and her husband of 61 years John (Jack) Lunnen served here as temple missionaries in 2017, but their mission was shortened to nine months due to Elder Lunnen being diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. He passed away at their home in Hyrum, Utah, after 18 months of treatment.
Her indomitable will brought Hella Lunnen back to Laʽie to complete what she started. She developed this life skill as a child, in an East German orphanage in Berlin. Hella was only ten years old when she assumed the responsibility to help watch over her younger sister Brigite and other vulnerable children placed there after WWII.
Hella’s widowed mother needed to attend university to finish her teaching degree, enabling her to provide for her daughters. The girls were left in the care of the orphanage for their safety, and because food was more plentiful there in post-war Germany. They didn’t see their mother for two years, until she returned to gather them home from the orphanage.
She and her mother were the first members of the family to be baptized on a crisp October day in the frigid Baltic Sea near the city of Kiel. Hella was seventeen years old and remembers a tent was set up so they could quickly change out of their wet clothes.
Hella’s determination continued influencing her life as a young woman in 1956. She packed her bags, crossing the Atlantic Ocean aboard the US America in one week, hoping for better opportunities in the United States. She lived with Martha and Robert Albrecht in Logan, Utah. The Albrecht’s were the missionaries that taught her family about the Restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ in northern Germany.
Although Hella didn’t yet speak fluent English, she quickly got a job in a chicken hatchery and through the ensuing months learned the language. She worked at many jobs: motel maid, kitchen worker at a hotel, laborer in a sewing factory, and worker at the Logan Knitting Mills.
Hella met her husband when he came to visit his sister who was also living at the Albrecht’s home. They began dating and were later married in the Logan Utah Temple.
She always worked and helped support her husband through many years of school as he obtained a PhD in Physiology. They moved to Kansas City, Missouri, where he taught at the medical school. Eventually, she managed his optometry clinic in Seattle, Washington, which she did for many years.
All three of Hella’s adult children supported her plans to return to Laʽie a second time. After getting her affairs in order, she submitted missionary papers in March 2023.
PCC missionary coordinator Creed Archibald called in October to ask if she was familiar with the line/shadow quilting method necessary for the assignment, which she did. She heard back from the mission in late November asking her to come to the PCC on 18 December 2022 to demonstrate quilting at the Settlement.
One of the defining principles of Hella’s life is perseverance. She unabashedly just claims to be stubborn “If I want to get something done it better get done,” she says with a wry smile.
Sister Lunnen has extended her current mission twice and will have served 23 months at the conclusion of her time at the Polynesian Cultural Center on June 18, 2025. She will be 90 years old.
