[MUSIC PLAYING]
Elder James J. Hamula is currently
Assistant Executive Director of the Church History Department.
He recently returned from serving
as President of the Pacific area headquartered
in Auckland, New Zealand.
Elder Hamula practiced law before his call
to the First Quorum of the Seventy,
receiving his Juris doctorate from Brigham Young University.
He and his wife, Joyce, served together
in the Washington DC South Mission,
where he presided as mission president.
Later he served as an area Seventy
in the North America Southwest Area.
Elder and Sister Hamula now enjoy
being the parents of six children, two of whom
are currently serving full-time missions, one in Taiwan
and one in Mexico.
And one of their daughters just returned home from Japan.
Welcome, Elder Hamula.
Good evening everyone.
It's wonderful to be with you.
I'm honored and pleased to open this year's Church History
Library lecture series on pioneers in every land.
I'm grateful to all of you for attending,
but I'm particularly grateful this evening
to be accompanied by my wife.
Today is her birthday.
Our entire married life, she has sacrificed herself
to sustain me and my assignments always with a smile
and with devotion, and she does so again tonight.
If there's any room at any time in your prayers for the General
Authorities of the Church, please also remember the wives
and children.
In fact, remember them first.
They sacrifice as much, if not more so,
than the Brethren themselves.
The Lord gave a charge to his ancient Apostles
to teach His gospel to all nations.
In response, the ancient Apostles
went to all nations known to them
to preach the Lord's gospel.
However, they could not fulfill the Lord's mandate.
As the ancient Church fell into apostasy,
John the Revelator foresaw a future day
when an angel would be sent out of heaven to preach
the everlasting gospel to all that dwell on the earth,
to every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people.
At the outset of the Restoration,
the Lord told the people of His Church,
"Send forth the elders of my Church
under the nations which are a far off unto
the islands of the sea.
Send forth unto to foreign lands.
Call upon all nations, first upon the Gentiles,
and then upon the Jews.
And behold and law this shall be their cry.
Go ye forth unto to the land of Zion,
prepare yourselves for the great day of the Lord."
Then to the world, the Lord said this in the same revelation.
"All inhabitants of the Earth, I have sent forth my angel
flying through the midst of heaven,
having the everlasting gospel who has appeared unto some,
and have committed unto man.
Who shall appear and to many that dwell on the earth.
And this gospel shall be preached
unto every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people."
The sending of the elders of the Church to all nations
is fulfilling the prophecy made to John,
that God would send an angel out of heaven
to preach the gospel to every nation, kindred, tongue,
and people.
Joseph Smith's younger brother Samuel
was the first missionary of the Church since his call in 1830.
Well, more than a million missionaries of the Church
have been called and sent to preach
the gospel to the nations of the earth today.
There are more than 84,600 full-time missionaries
speaking more than 170, languages and proselyting more
in 176 nations of the earth.
Today the Church consists of more than 15 million members
who gather in more than 29,000 wards and branches operating
in more than 189 languages, in more than 190 nations
around the world.
While there are parts of the world where
the Church and its missionaries are not yet present,
we are as close as we've ever been
to fulfilling the Lord's ancient injunction to go and teach
all nations.
From the hundreds of thousands of missionaries who've
gone forth to preach the gospel to the nations of the earth,
and from among the millions of people who have joined
the Church in every land, think of the stories
that could be shared.
Indeed someday will be shared from the angelic records kept
concerning all these things.
The purpose of this lecture series
is to share some of the stories of the men and women
from all over the world, who with great faith, sacrifice,
and perseverance preached, or embrace the restored gospel,
built the restored Church, and in so doing inspired others
to do likewise.
We call such people pioneers, because there
are people who open and prepare a new way for others to go.
And we find such gospel pioneers in every land
from the outset of the Restoration
of the present hour.
Tonight I've been asked to share with you some experiences
from my five years of service concluded last July
in the Pacific Area.
As one of the Seventy, I am commissioned by the Lord
to preach the gospel and to be in a special witness in all
the world.
All Seventy are to act in the name of the Lord
under the direction of the Twelve
in building up the Church and regulating all the affairs
of the same in all nations.
In short, going to every nation, kindred, tongue, and people
is part of his Seventies' divine commission.
With that commission in mind, five years ago
the First Presidency assigned my wife
and me accompanied by three of our six children
to go to New Zealand.
There I was to join the Presidency
of the area headquartered in Auckland, New Zealand,
and using scriptural language preach the gospel,
and build up the Church in all nations within the Pacific Area
with two other members of the Seventy assigned to the area
Presidency.
Before arriving in the Pacific Area,
I did not appreciate the enormous geography or diversity
of the region.
The Pacific Area covers immense distances
from Perth, Australia, on the west
to French Polynesia on the east, a distance
of 9,000 miles that includes eight time
zones in the international dateline,
from the Marshall Islands in the north
to the bottom of New Zealand on the south, a distance of about
5,000 miles.
In this geographic immensity, there
are 21 different countries and territories,
the largest of which is Australia
with 23 million people.
Then Papua New Guinea with seven and a half million people,
followed by New Zealand with four and a half million people.
I will pause to note as many as that sounds.
My daughter who just concluded her mission in Tokyo, Japan.
Was proselytizing in a metropolitan area
whose population was larger than all the people in the Pacific,
35 million people.
The Pacific Area also encompasses an enormous range
of conditions.
Economically, the area includes first-world nations
such as Australia and New Zealand whose quality of life
consistently ranks among the top 10 countries in the world.
But the area also includes third world nations
such as Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands, Vanuatu
and Kiribis, where the people live largely subsistence
lifestyles, and have very limited educational, health
care, and employment opportunity.
In between these economic bookends
are countries such as Fiji, Samoa, and Tonga,
where economic conditions are slowly improving in urban areas
but are still quite impoverished in rural areas.
Culturally, the Pacific Area includes
the islands of Polynesia, Melanesia, and Micronesia.
Yet in each of these cultural regions,
there are many distinct subcultures and languages.
For example, Papua New Guinea itself
has more than 850 distinct cultures and languages.
Outside of Polynesia, Melanesian, Micronesia,
is Australia who's more than 23 million people come
from a mix of familiar European cultures and the almost
impenetrable Aboriginal culture.
Historically, there is great diversity too.
In some parts of the area the Church
has been established for only 50 years or less
such as in Fiji, Papua New Guinea, Kiribati
and the Marshall Islands.
In the Solomon Islands, the Church
was not established until 1995, but was essentially closed
down in 2000 when due to civil unrest,
the missionaries were withdrawn.
The Church was not reestablished until the missionaries returned
to the country in just 2008.
In other parts of the area, the Church
has been established for well more than 100 years
such as in Australia, New Zealand, Samoa, Tonga,
and French Polynesia.
In May of this past year, more than 10,000 people,
including the president of the country and his entire cabinet
gathered in a stadium in Tahiti to celebrate
the 107th anniversary of the Church in their islands.
Think of the significance of such an anniversary.
People in French Polynesia were singing the hymns
of the Restoration three years before Brigham Young entered
the Salt Lake Valley.
The arrival of the first LDS missionaries
in French Polynesia is a story worth knowing.
Historically, it is important being
the story of the first overseas foreign speaking
missionaries of the Church in this dispensation.
But spiritually, it is also important
being a story of faith that characterizes
not only the many generations of missionaries
that have served in the Pacific, but also the many people
of the Pacific who embrace the gospel at the outset
of the Restoration.
It therefore frames some of the stories
I will share tonight from my own experience in the Pacific.
In May 1843, Joseph Smith called four missionaries in Nauvoo
to go to the islands of the Pacific.
One of these was Addison Pratt, who in his younger days
had been employed on a whaling ship in the Pacific,
and had spent some time in the Sandwich islands,
now known as Hawaii.
Within two weeks of his call, Addison
departed Nauvoo leaving behind his wife Luisa and their four
children.
Addison's call to serve came as a surprise to Luisa.
Writing in her journal concerning this she said,
"Never had such a thought entered my mind
that he would be sent to a foreign land, my four children
to be schooled and clothed, and no money to be left with me.
My heart felt weak at the first, but I
determined to trust in the Lord and stand bravely and rejoice
that my husband was counted worthy to preach the gospel."
From Nauvoo, Addison and his companions
travel to New Bedford, Massachusetts.
There they sought passage to Hawaii, but could find none.
They therefore booked passage on a whaling ship
bound for the Society islands which are now
known as French Polynesia.
They set sail in October of 1843.
Later writing concerning the five months between Addison's
departure from Nauvoo, and his departure
from the coast of America in Massachusetts,
Louisa said, "By the grace we became
reconciled to the separation.
Disappointments crossed my path at almost every turn which
only made me more determined.
I sold the cow for a stove.
I had much business to perform and building a house.
Men were continually disappointing me
and doing the work."
That sounds familiar, does it not?
In the midst of this my children were all
taken with the measles.
Their Father had not yet left the coast of America.
I wrote him that all our children were sick,
and their sickness was very severe.
That was the last he heard from us for three years.
Addison and his companion spent six months at sea--six months
at sea before they arrived in sight of their first stopping
place.
During these months, rough seas had often
made conditions miserable resulting or contributing
at least to the death of one of Addison's companions.
He was buried at sea.
Finally, on April 30, 1844, Addison and his two remaining
companions approached one of the Society islands,
the little island of Tubuai located
350 miles South of Tahiti.
Entering a pass in the reef, Addison and his companions
are believed to set foot on a beautiful quiet sandy beach.
After several days in Tubuai, Addison's companions
determined to press on to Tahiti.
Addison decided however to remain in Tubuai.
While the 600 island residents were nominally
Christian due to the prior missionary efforts
from the London Missionary Society,
Addison found the people of the island eager to have
a resident minister.
By June, Addison had baptized his first convert.
By July, he had organized a Tubuai branch
which met in a Grove of trees, now known
to locals as the Sacred Grove.
Within a year of his arrival, Addison Pratt
had baptized 60 people which represented a third of the 200
people on the island.
While Addison was laboring in Tubuai, unbeknownst to him
the Church in Nauvoo was grieving
over the martyrdom of Joseph Smith and Hyrum Smith.
Excerpts from Addison and Louise Pratt separate journals
on that day following the martyrdom
tell a powerful story.
On June 1844 Louisa writes: "They
laid the bodies of the two noble martyrs
in the wagon in their bloody clothes
and drove them solemnly towards Nauvoo,
where thousands were waiting and breathless sorrow
for their return.
I rushed into my garden when the news was confirmed and poured
out my soul in such bitterness as I had never before felt
before.
The inconceivable cruelty of our enemies.
All could they have known what they have done--what they had
done."
On the same day, across an ocean of water,
Addison writes: "I have administered to two men.
One of them is a teacher, a bachelor,
and a very exemplary man.
He is with me much.
I think him the best Native I have yet seen.
He was taken violently ill with a fever
and was sick for 36 hours before I knew it.
Pa'amah is his name.
I immediately took some consecrated oil
and went to the house where he lived.
I told him I would administer to him.
In an hour he was well and we spent the evening
singing and conversing."
I think of the significance of this as some sort
to kill Mormonism by killing the Prophet and his brother,
the work of salvation was continuing with a Mormon
missionary exercising the priesthood power vested
in Him from the Lord through his prophet a world away.
Much transpired in Nauvoo that Addison knew nothing about.
Notwithstanding the unceasing threats and harassments
of the Church's enemies, the Nauvoo temple was completed,
and temple blessings bestowed upon many including Louisa.
At the same time, Addison is in the Tahitian islands
preaching the gospel, and feeling the long separation
from his beloved family.
He writes on November the 7th, 1845: "This is my daughter
Frances's birthday.
Where are they today?
Who can answer that question?
Two long years have passed since I have heard from them."
Three days later he writes, "This is my wife's birthday.
My dearest earthly friend.
Could I but know your situation this day?
What a burden it would remove.
The reports I hear caused my heart to ache.
May the Lord's arm be extended to save you
all from death and destruction.
May His Spirit rest upon you.
As another cold winter is pressing down upon you,
may you be provided the necessaries of life.
May there arise of friends on your right hand
and on your left to assist and comfort
both in temporal and spiritual things."
A year later, again with no communication
from Addison and Louisa find themselves
in very different circumstances.
During the winter of 1846-47, Louisa is in winter quarters,
and writes of this experience as follows: "The following day, I
was carried into camp half dead with cholera.
I shook until it appeared to me that my very bones were
pulverized.
I wept and I prayed.
I went to the store to get articles
I had ordered and paid for.
They had lost the receipt and would not
let me have the goods.
Returning after dark, I fell on the frozen ground
and sprained my knee.
I was down for two weeks and my limbs
swelled to an astonishing size.
The pain I endured, I will not attempt to describe.
At length, we moved to a dugout, a cave in the earth.
It was a very damp and unhealthy situation.
There I had the scurvy."
In stark contrast to Louise's circumstances,
Addison is in Tahiti at this time in relative paradise.
On the 13th of January 1847, he writes:
"Went to a political meeting.
There is the missionary station of Mr Henry.
The dwelling house has nine rooms in it,
and is surrounded by large trees of orange, breadfruit, coconut,
apple, lime, and guava.
The talk did not interest me and I left.
A messenger came for me and said some of the chiefs
wanted to see me.
I went back in a conversation soon
commenced respecting baptism and obeying the gospel.
Then they asked me what my intentions were,
and I told them to go to America and get my wife in return.
I said, be quick."
Note he had all the fruits and vegetables he needed
and a commodious accommodation, while she
was suffering from scurvy in a dugout in Iowa.
Addison Pratt departed Tahiti in March 1847,
and finally arrived in San Francisco in June of that year.
He could not depart California for the Great Salt Lake
until the following may.
Traveling with a remnant of the Mormon battalion,
Addison Pratt arrived in Salt Lake City in September of 1848
just eight days after his wife and daughters
had arrived there.
Concerning his return home, Addison
wrote: "Brother Haight told me he knew the house for my family
lived.
My oldest daughter Ellen was down on her knees
scrubbing the floor.
Brother Haight stepped in and said,
Ellen, here is your father.
She jumped up as I stepped in and caught hold of my hand
and exclaimed, 'Pa Pratt, have you come?'
The next two, Frances and Lois, were soon on hand
and looked equally surprised.
The youngest, Ann, was out to play.
She was called and when she came in.
She stood and eyed me a while with a very suspicious look.
One of her sisters said, 'This is Pa.'
'It is not,' Sshe replied and left the room."
After two years at home, Addison and Louisa Pratt,
along with their daughters and a number of other missionaries
and families returned to Tubuai arriving there in October 1850.
Addison and Luisa Pratt stayed in Tubuai until May of 1852.
During this time, Luisa and other women
were often alone while their husbands were on other islands
tending to a growing Church.
She and the other women stayed busy nonetheless,
conducting school for their own and the local children holding
women's meetings and teaching American homemaking
skills such as quilting.
The pioneering work of and Luisa Pratt in the Tahitian islands
had enormous long-term consequences.
Many of today's Haitian Latter day
Saints families trace their family genealogies
to Tubuai and other islands, where
the Pratt's and other missionaries labored.
Today there are eight stakes, a mission with 200 missionaries,
a temple, and many multigenerational
devoted Church families in French Polynesia.
I doubt that Addison and Luisa Pratt,
and the many other missionaries that serve with them
and subsequent to them could have appreciated what
fruit their labors would yield.
But that is the nature of all pioneering work.
The real benefits of faith, sacrifice, and perseverance
are not realized or seen until long after the pioneer is gone.
The stories of pioneer-like faith, sacrifice,
and perseverance can be found elsewhere and everywhere
among the people of the Pacific from the days
of Addison and Louisa Pratt to the present hour.
Let me share just a few such stories with you
from recent times.
The first comes from the island nation of Kiribati.
Kiribati is made up of 33 coral atolls scattered
across 1.3 million Square miles of ocean
in the central Pacific.
Approximately 100,000 people inhabit 20 of these 33 atolls
which are no more than 100 feet, a few feet in width,
and no more than 5 to 10 feet in elevation.
Think about that when a storm comes.
Kiribati is one of the most remote, least visited,
and most impoverished nations on Earth.
But the people there are some of the sweetest, most gentle,
and innately good people in the world.
Purity radiates from their faces.
Today there are more than 14,000 members
of the Church in two stakes and several districts,
which regularly send many young men and young women
on full-time missions around the world.
The Church also has a high school
in Kiribati, Moroni high school, which has about 500 students
and is considered one of the best in the country.
But in the early 1970s, there were no known members
of the Church in Kiribati, and there was no Church school
there.
Indeed schooling was extremely limited in Kiribati
The principal of one of the small elementary schools
on the main island of Tarawa wanted
to extend the opportunity for additional education
to his students.
He knew that some churches provided schools
in the Pacific, and so he wrote to them, including
our Church's longtime school in Tonga, Liahona High School.
Church officials decided to authorize a few students
from Kiribati to attend Liahona.
For the 1973 school year, 12 students were selected.
And after a few short months, all were baptized.
The following year, 13 more students
from the elementary school in Kiribati were sent to Liahona,
and all 13 joined the Church.
In 1975 six young men from these original groups
of students were ordained elders, and called
to serve missions in their homeland of Kiribati
and missionary work began in Kiribati
One of these young men was Iotua Tune.
Brother Tune was raised by his grandparents
on the small island of Kuria in Kiribati.
He grew up in the bush with only a few neighbors.
At age 14, his grandmother moved him to the main island Tarawa
so he could receive a formal education.
The first time at 14.
Just prior to beginning school, however, he
broke his hip playing soccer, which became infected.
He spent the next two years in the hospital in much pain.
While lying in bed, he overheard the doctor tell his family
he would not survive.
Having been raised in a religious environment,
he began to pray fervently to God
and said, "Please don't let me die; make me better."
Then he promised the Lord, "If you allow me to live,
I will be a missionary all my life and serve God."
Over a short period of time he was able to sit up in bed,
then stand on his own feet and assisted.
Next he was given crutches, and for the first time
in two years, he went outside and smelled the ocean breeze
in his face.
Eventually he was able to walk on his own.
Brother Tune attended Liahona high school.
While there, he was taught the gospel,
he recognized the truth of what was taught to him,
he accepted it and was baptized.
Here he's pictured with some of his fellow students
from Kiribati and on the day he graduated from Liahona.
Fulfilling his commitment to God for his recovery,
brother Tune sought to be a missionary
and was called to be among the first missionaries
to serve in Kiribati.
Prior to going on his mission, he
accompanied a group of Tongans to the New Zealand
temple for his endowment.
He stayed for a month in New Zealand.
And every morning brother would walk to the temple,
stay the entire day, walk home in the dark following
the last session.
He never missed a session the entire month.
He knew that he might never be able to attend a temple again
in his life, particularly in his home country of Kiribati.
After serving his mission in Kiribati,
brother Tune applied and was admitted to BYU-Hawaii.
He intended to marry his sweetheart who
had waited for him, and written him
the entire time on his mission.
Somewhat timid about marriage, however, she
wanted to go on a mission.
One night she went to speak to her bishop about her plans.
Brother Tune went with her.
He said to her, "When you speak with the bishop,
he will tell you that your mission is to marry me."
In the course of the conversation,
the bishop asked her who the young man was sitting outside.
She explained who he was.
He then turned to her and said, "Your mission now
is to marry that young man."
When she exited, Brother Tune said,
"What did the bishop say?"
She replied, "He told me my mission was to marry you."
Pleased with the answer he replied,
"Your bishop is inspired."
They did get married and were the first couple
sealed from Kiribati.
Brother Tune has kept his promise to God,
and made in his hospital bed so many years ago.
Following his mission, he served as a stake president
as principal Moroni High School as a CES director,
and as manager of the Church's service center in Kiribati.
His wife is an absolute angel who has supported and sustained
him in everything he's done.
Together they've raised children that have served missions
and themselves have attended BYU-Hawaii.
In 1996 Elder L Tom Perry of the Quorum of the Twelve
dedicated Kiribati for the preaching of the gospel.
When the first stake was created there,
Brother Tune is there in the picture.
Brother and Sister Tune are a powerful force
for good in Kiribati where the Church and missionary work
are prospering.
The future of the Church in Kiribati
is bright largely due to the faith, sacrifice,
and perseverance of brother Tune and his wonderful wife
and family.
The next story comes from Samoa.
A nation in the South Pacific consisting
of several large mountainous and verdant islands.
The history of the Church in Samoa
was long and rich beginning in 1863,
when two missionaries from Hawaii
were sent to Samoa to establish the Church.
They labored faithfully for nearly 20 years, isolated
from the strength and support of the Church back
in the United States.
In 1888, Elder Joseph Dean and his wife,
Florence, arrived in Samoa and formally established
the Church's first mission there.
Today there are 25 stakes in the Samoan islands,
a Temple in Samoa's capital, a mission, and two large Church
schools.
The Church in Samoa was a powerful influence
for good, respected by government religious leaders.
Nevertheless, prejudices and misunderstandings
about the Church remain particularly in rural villages.
The next story of pioneer-like faith
is the story of Lio Isaia who lives on the island of Savai'i.
Brother Isaiah is a very humble man, almost shy,
who does not talk about a miraculous experience that
occurred to him.
He simply says, it is very sacred to me.
After converting to the Church, Brother Isaia's father
donated family land to the Church to build a small chapel.
Because the village chiefs, or matais,
had previously forbidden other churches
from being established in their village.
Brother Isaiah went to the Chiefs in February
of 1996--note the date, to talk with them and received
their permission to build a chapel for the small branch
of Church members that have been converted in the area.
The matais gave their permission,
and the Church commenced construction.
After construction began, the matais
rescinded their permission and told Brother Isaiah
that the Church could not be built,
nor could anyone worship there.
In response, Brother Isaiah quietly
suggested that the construction should continue as planned.
"It was not right," he said.
After a few weeks, word was sent to Brother Isaiah
that if the construction continued,
the matai would take matters into their own hands.
Members of the branch were frightened and worried
about what would happen to them, but brother Isaiah told them,
the Lord would protect them, and they should not worry.
Soon word came, that the young men in the village
were coming to harm the branch members.
Brother Isaiah told the branch members to leave the village
and stay with other family members,
because it was only him the matais really wanted.
It was a beautiful clear day when brother Isaiah Lio
showered dressed in his Sunday suit
and waited patiently in his folly.
At mid-afternoon young men from the village
came to Brother Isaiah's, home and demanded
that he renounce His Church membership
or they would take him before the village council.
Brother Isaiah refused.
In response, the young man threw him to the ground,
tied his hands and feet, and took him
to the center of the village.
There the matai told brother Isaiah
that the Mormon Church was not welcome in their village.
He must renounce his membership, and they
must forget his desires to build the chapel, or he'd be killed.
Brother Isaiah told them this was the Lord's Church,
and he knew the Lord would protect him.
At the direction of the village matai,
the young man then carried brother Isaiah like an animal
and placed them on the ground in the center of a pile of wood.
Then they positioned themselves around the circle of wood
with lit torches in their hands.
As this was occurring, dark clouds
gathered above the village.
Brother Isaiah was given one last chance to change his mind.
But again, he expressed his firm faith.
The young men lit the wood.
Brother Isaiah felt the fires heat.
But suddenly, there was a brilliant flash of lightning,
a loud clap of thunder, and a sudden deluge of rain
from the sky which doused the fire.
The lightning, thunder, and rain frightened everyone
in the village.
Brother Isaiah was left on the ground for two hours
while it continued to rain.
When the police arrived at dusk with Brother Isaiah's wife who
had gone to them for help, brother Isaiah
refused to press charges.
He simply said: "I forgive them.
All I want is to be able to have our chapel built
and to be able to worship God as we desire."
Well, things quieted down for the Brother Isaiah,
and construction recommenced on the chapel.
The ordeal was not over.
One night the village of matais ordered brother Isaiah's house
to be burned, and for his family's plantation
to be destroyed.
Brother Isaiah and family, which included
his children, his siblings, and their families,
and his elderly father were all banished from their village,
and forced to move to the outskirts of the capital city
Apia, located on another island.
There they sought legal redress, and three years later they
got it.
He and his family were allowed to return
to Savai'i and their village.
When Brother Isaiah and his family to return to the village
they found things are completely changed.
Many of the villagers had joined the Church,
and they welcomed brother resigned his family back.
He was given a high-ranking matai title
and became a much-respected matai in the village.
He now lives peacefully with his neighbors, who have often
approached him on the street, shake his hand,
and acknowledge his faith and devotion to his Heavenly
Father and the Church.
Brother Isaiah forgave everyone, even
those who collected the firewood and tried to burn him
on that terrible day.
In fact, one of those men joined the Church later,
and Brother Isaiah called him to be hHis counselor
as he served in the branch presidency
in the village for 11 years.
Three years ago, due to Church growth,
Brother Isaiah was called and sustained
as the president of the newly created Savai'i Samoa Pu-apu-a
Stake.
The final stories I will share this evening
involve some of my experiences in Papua New Guinea.
Papua New Guinea is one of the most wild, untamed,
diverse, and dangerous places on Earth.
It is also one of the most enchantingly beautiful places
in the world.
Its beauty is found not only in the land and seas,
but in the people who are some of the sweetest
and most humble people on Earth.
The Church in Papua New Guinea is only 35 years old.
The first branch was created in 1979,
and the first missionaries arrived in the country in 1980.
The country was dedicated in 1983
by Elder L Tom Perry of the Twelve.
My wife and I were privileged to visit the site overlooking
the capital, Port Moresby, with one
of the first converts in the country
and the first district and stake president in the country
as well, Vaiba Rome.
Today in a country of seven and a half million people,
the Church has almost 20,000 members
in two stakes and two missions, with 11 mission districts.
There are many stories of faith among the pioneering members
of the Church in Papua New Guinea.
There is the story of the 10 young single adults
from rural Popondetta, who, with their district
president and his wife, walked 120 miles
to and from a young single adult conference
in the capital city of Port Moresby.
They wanted to attend the conference,
the young adults did, but did not
have the money to travel to it.
So they decided to walk to it, which required them to traverse
the infamous and treacherous Kokoda
Trail, a single footpath over mountains, across rivers,
and through dense rainforests.
It took them four days in each direction
to attend the conference.
Saying they would do it again, the district president
observed: "We have learned a lot about faith
and relying on the Lord.
I liken our walk to living in this world.
Though it is hard, we climb up and we climb down.
But once we reach our destination,
we are happy, hugging, and sharing tears of joy."
There is the story of Church members in [INAUDIBLE]
a village in a remote location, that traveled five days by way
of canoe down the Fly River to attend their district
conference.
The first year 102 members came by this route.
The next year 466 members came in 35 canoes.
Four of the five days in the canoes were not on a river
but on the open sea.
At one conference 52 men were sustained
to receive the Melchizedek Priesthood.
One of those who came down the river was on crutches.
You'll see him in the center of that center picture.
When asked what happened he replied, "Oh,
a crocodile got me, but I fought it off."
Such is the faith of the people in Papua New Guinea.
Not only do you need to fight off
crocodiles to get to conference, you
need to fight them off to be baptized.
The pictures on the screen are taken at a baptism
in INAUDIBLE Papua New Guinea.
There are no boardwalks or wharfs
in this remote region of the country,
so you must stand in mud.
Notice the picture on the right of the screen,
the several men standing to the side with spears and axes.
They are protecting those performing and receiving
baptism from the crocodiles that are ever-present
in the muddy waters.
There is then the story of the district conference in Minj
in the highlands, where we have less than 1,000 members,
but more than 2,000 came to a district conference
where I presided.
When I asked--when I arrived at the conference,
there were hundreds of people lined up to personally greet
me.
I asked the district president, "Who all these people
at the conference?"
He said, "Most are nonmembers invited
by their member friends."
The conference was held under a large tent with satellite tents
surrounding the main tent.
After the meeting, a number of men
came up to me, declaring they were
local preachers of the gospel, who said to me:
"Today we heard you preach the true gospel of Jesus Christ.
How can we learn more?"
There's the story of the small branch in Rabaul
that sits in the shadow of a very active volcano.
The branch president and members had never
seen a general authority before.
When I arrived, the branch president melted in my arms,
buried his head in my bosom, and wept like a child.
Later, he and his family, along with his counselor and his
family, made a once-in-a-lifetime trip to Fiji
to be sealed together.
And there's the story of the first General Authority's wife
to go to Papua New Guinea and penetrate
into the interior of the country with unrestrained love
for the people.
That act of faith opened the door to other General Authority
wives going to the country, and sent a signal
to mission president wives and to all the female Church
members in the country that they were
known and loved and valued too.
While I could share many more stories from Papua New Guinea,
I conclude with one that was one of the most spiritually
enriching of my entire experience in the Pacific Area,
one that inspired me to push out into regions of Papua New
Guinea and many other places in the Pacific
that had never been visited before by a General Authority.
Early in my experience in the Pacific,
I had the assignment to establish a new district
in a remote part of Papua New Guinea called Suki.
Elder Terry Vinson, then an Area Seventy, now
a member of the Africa Area Presidency, accompanied me.
And a former Area Seventy, Dirk Smibert,
who recently passed away while serving as temple president
in Brisbane, also was there.
To get to Suki we had to charter a plane
and fly for more than three hours from the capital
to the swamplands of the upper Fly River
in the western province of the country.
As we flew and after I landed, I looked out
on the remote and difficult swamplands of the upper Fly
River and asked myself: "What am I doing here?
What is the Church doing out here?"
Our party was taken by boat to the Church meetinghouse
that had been constructed by the local members.
Upon our arrival we were greeted by a large group of people.
As we got off the boat and began to walk up the path,
I found it decorated with flowers and reed fences.
We were welcomed with customary singing and dancing.
In looking at the dancers, I must
confess that I felt I had been transported back in time
a thousand years or more.
Forcing a smile on my face, I asked myself again:
"What am I doing out here?
What is the Church doing out here?"
At the meetinghouse, I gathered up
the men that had been designated to be the district president
and branch president in the new district
and began to interview them.
I asked the man designated to be the district president
to bear his testimony to me.
In reply he bore to me the most pure and authentic testimony
of God the Father, of the Lord Jesus Christ,
and of the Prophet Joseph Smith, of the Book of Mormon,
and of the Church that I had ever heard.
This experience was repeated with each
of the five men designated to be branch presidents.
As the meeting began to organize the district with about
60 people inside the small building
but with several hundred more outside the building
participating reverently and intently, I asked again
myself, this time a bit more subdued and a little bit more
prayerful: "What am I doing here?
What is the Church doing out here?"
As I reflected on how these people had traveled
two days by boat, had waited at the chapel for two
days for my arrival, and would see me
for only two to three hours before I
would return to my plane and comfortably depart,
these words came to my mind as clear
as if they had been spoken in my ear.
"Counsel me not.
I know it is a poor spot of ground,
but for mine own purposes have I planted my people here."
These sacred words moved me to press forward
in Papua New Guinea and every other place in the Pacific
that our Father's children are located.
In the five years my wife and I lived in the Pacific,
I placed my feet in every part of the Pacific Area,
in great cities and on remote islands.
In doing so, I came to know that there
is no place in this world, no matter how small or remote
it may be, that is beyond the redeeming interest, love,
and grace of our Father in Heaven and His Beloved Son.
Every person on this earth is a son or daughter
of a loving Father in Heaven and is the subject
of His plan of salvation being executed
by His Son, Jesus Christ.
And because of God's loving interest and redeeming
grace for His children on the islands of the sea,
I believe that in a coming day the Lord will literally
fulfill the promise made to His people, who
have looked to His coming and waited patiently for Him.
"For behold, He shall stand upon the amount of Olivet,
and upon the mighty ocean, even the great deep,
and upon the islands of the sea."
I leave this with you in the name
of the Lord Jesus Christ, amen.
You have 10 minutes for questions, if there are any.
I'm happy to entertain any.
Yes.
Were you able to go back to any of those places you had gone
[INAUDIBLE] first time?
Given the geographic immensity--the question was,
"Was I able to go back to any of the places I visited
for the first time?"
Given the geographic immensity of the Pacific Area,
it was not easy to get back.
And in most instances, where I visited for the first time, no.
It is remarkable to me that in the 21st century there are
still places--and I should say it's even more remarkable that
it can be possible after General Authorities such as President
Gordon B. Hinckley and others, that there are still places
in this world where no General Authority has been,
but there are such places.
And I hope that others in the future
will break the well-worn path and get out to the places
that good people and good Latter-day Saints are located.
Please.
I have a friend whose name is Wayne Chisholm.
Oh, yes.
I would like to know how his work over there
has affected the missionary work and perhaps the students.
Thank you.
Wayne Chisholm has been working in the Pacific for at least
20 years, if not longer.
He's a former area welfare manager.
He's a dentist.
I think he's now retired.
And he has been working in the Pacific on a volunteer basis,
having opened clinics, dental clinics, that
serve the people of these various islands, Tonga, Samoa,
Kiribati, other places.
He's now directing retiring dentists to those clinics.
And occasionally, I think annually,
he gets back to the Pacific to make sure those clinics are
operating well.
We're very grateful to him and others like him who
have a continuing love for the Pacific
Area, the people the Pacific, and serve them
in the best way they know how.
Thank you for that question.
Yes.
Are there many missionaries being sent out
from these islands?
And are there missionaries in these islands?
Thank you.
In total there are approximately 3,000 missionaries
serving in the Pacific.
And just recently the Pacific area became self-sufficient
and being able to send more missionaries out
than they receive.
So they now have more than 3,000 missionaries
serving from the Pacific as opposed to about 3,000
in the Pacific.
Missionary preparation classes in Tonga, for instance,
will have hundreds of young men and women
attending them, and not at the most convenient time,
by purpose.
They will hold them at 5:00 a.m.
Saturday morning and 5:00 a.m.
Sunday morning in order to create a sense of discipline
about what you need to be and do on your missions.
It's remarkable to me how many missionaries
come from these small and generally unknown places,
but they're some of the finest missionaries that we
have in the whole world.
Great question.
Thank you.
My daughter served on a tiny island
of [INAUDIBLE] in Micronesia.
I wonder if you were able to visit there.
I did not get to that island, but I did get to Micronesia.
My wife and I did to get there on several occasions.
And not knowing the particular island that you're referencing,
I do know something of those islands.
When we first landed in Micronesia,
my wife looked out the window of the airplane and said,
"We're landing on water."
Because the landing strip was as wide as the island.
And many of these islands are just like that.
When the Japan earthquake occurred a number of years ago,
that generated this tsunami that went into Sendai,
we received warning of a tsunami for the rest of the Pacific.
Now think about what you say to the mission
president in Micronesia.
Remember, those islands are no higher than 10 feet,
and that's being generous probably.
It's probably man built if it's 10-foot high, any berm or hill.
And so the mission president responded
by saying, "Well, I guess I'll go
to the roof of my two-story house and wait."
The energy of the tsunami blew through but caused no damage.
There was no visible or perceptible effect
of the Japanese tsunami.
Some months after this, I was in Micronesia
and determined that I would go to some of the remote islands
where we had North American missionaries
because, for a variety of reasons,
the mission president had not been able to get there.
And I wanted to assure myself that our missionaries,
particularly those from North America,
and were not as familiar with such conditions,
were in good straits.
So I visited these islands, and I found a missionary
who had been there four months.
I said, "How are you"--he's from Orem, Utah--I said,
"How are you doing?"
He said, "Well, I've lost 40 pounds in four months."
I said, "That sounds like a lot to me, Elder."
And he said, "Well, I was overweight,
but I feel a lot better now."
"How did you lose it?"
"Well, it's different diet, and it's hot and humid here,
and I'm walking everywhere."
He then told me that he had been born on this island,
and at six months of age had been adopted out
to this family in Orem.
And when he was called to the Marshall Islands--this was
actually in--he was in Kiribati--the mission
president, not knowing his background, had a feeling.
I think I need to send you to this island,
even though you've been sent to another part of our mission
and would normally stay there the entire time.
Missionary arrived.
It was the island that had been born on.
He was teaching his family.
I came back from this trip to call the mothers
around Mother's Day of the eight missionaries
I had seen out on these islands, not your child.
All first seven calls went wonderfully,
and then there was the eighth call.
And after I reported that I had seen the son,
he was in good condition, circumstances were fine--you
have to remember, you don't hear from these missionaries
on these outer islands.
I don't know how it was for you, but in these particular islands
there's no email, there's no phone.
You communicate to the mission office by satellite phone
once a week and report that you're still alive.
And then the mission office sends an email
to the family saying, "We've heard from your son."
I made the report to the mother, and the mother very politely
and respectfully said: "Thank you,
but now I have a question for you.
What are you going to do to guarantee that my son will not
be adversely affected by some tsunami that
blows through the Pacific?"
Remember, this was after the Japanese tsunami.
And I said: "My dear sister, I cannot guarantee his safety
from that.
But I will tell you this, that when the tsunami came through
recently, there was no effect on any of the islands
where your son is serving.
In fact, they have no recollection of any such event
because of the way, they say, their islands are constructed."
Tsunamis tend to roll up sloping beaches.
These islands were constructed primarily vertically,
therefore when the energy comes through,
it passes right by and doesn't accumulate
on the slope of the shore and go up over.
Interestingly enough, these islands also find themselves
in the latitudes where cyclones are generated but fall out
to other--either either north or south,
and therefore cyclones are extremely rare in these
islands.
The only thing that they really are concerned about--not
to diminish them--drought.
If you don't get rain on these places, you are in bad straits
because you collect the water off the roof,
and if it doesn't fall, you don't have water.
You can't take it out of the ground.
It's too briny.
And the second risk--I guess there's a third risk--the
second risk is rising oceans.
In fact, the country--the president
of Kiribati--I'm telling you more than you want to know--has
declared that in 30 years there will no longer be a Kiribati.
In fact, he's planning for the, as he
calls it, the environmental evacuation of his people
from these islands.
King tides can swamp, but slowly do, the islands.
And while that happens, there are challenges.
And those are the kinds of things that occur.
So a mother of a missionary in a Micronesian island,
I have a strong feeling for.
And I will just conclude my answer
by saying everything possible is done
to ensure the safety and security of these young men
and women who go out there.
And thank you for sending her.
Yes.
I just wanted to ask if you're going to people who have never
met a General Authority, and you have two or three
hours to spend with them, what do you say?
I learned that the first thing you do
is you listen before you speak.
You listen to what their concerns are.
I learned that it's too easy for us from the West,
from Western culture, to go and presume
that we have all the answers to all of the problems.
And so I learned to listen and observe
and then to speak to them as moved upon by the Holy Ghost.
My speaking was primarily focused on principles
that, if heeded and applied in their life, would benefit them.
One of the challenges is to go to any nation,
like the kinds I've been describing tonight,
and offload your knowledge, your resources, and your things,
which creates then a culture of dependency.
And there's been a lot of that in those islands,
and there's been a lot of that elsewhere in this world.
So the better thing to do, I learned,
is to listen, and then teach principles, and let them
as best they can learn to apply those principles
to their circumstances.
Now that doesn't mean we don't do specific things out there,
but generally speaking that's how
this General Authority approached the people out
there.
And for me, that worked.
And for me, I felt at peace about that.
Thank you for that great question.
Yes.
I loved the picture of Sister Hamula in the village,
and I'm just curious with the role of spouses
on missions around the world, and are they changing?
Are they adapting?
How often did she go out with you?
Especially as more and more sisters are serving,
it seems like the role of the mission president's wife--and I
hate that title.
You're not the only one.
Yeah.
It's changing and adapting, that they're becoming much more
of a--there's just so much potential for these women to do
amazing works.
And I'm just curious, have you seen that evolve and change?
Yes, there has been.
But that said, every woman's circumstance is different.
And so Sister Hamula, for instance,
had--at the beginning of our service--three children.
And for the entire five years we were there
had two children who were in school.
And so her circumstances were such
that she was quite careful not to go everywhere,
and nor would it have been appropriate.
First responsibility is our own family.
But when a General Authority is assigned to a tour a mission,
his wife is assigned by the First Presidency
to go with him.
And so together they go, and they
minister to both, elder and sister, both mission president
and his companion.
I'll use that term.
OK.
I indicated that in Papua New Guinea,
that had not--Sister Hamula was the first to go there,
first General Authority's wife to go there,
at least according to my knowledge.
And yet, we were sending mission presidents and their wives
to such places.
And having gone there first, I felt
as though it was sufficiently safe and secure for my wife
to go, and she did, and she felt safe and secure,
and she went back, and we went back again.
And you're right.
The women of the Church, women who are in these
position--either either as companion to a General
Authority, companion to a mission president--the sisters
out there in the missionary force that in many cases are
equal in number to the elders, are doing extraordinary things.
And I think we're only starting to tap the potential of that.
So let me just emphasize that my wife was restrained not
because of--there were security concerns in Papua New Guinea,
and there were also family restrictions, as well.
But we got along, and you can talk to her afterwards
about how wonderfully well she did there
and how much she loved the whole experience.
Yes.
Of those that are baptized over there,
what's their experience with those
who are baptized and then are unable to accept the fullness
of the gospel and fall away?
Do they have much problem with that?
Well, it's always been the case that seeds will
fall on a variety of ground.
And some seeds take root, some seeds don't, and thus
no growth occurs.
Generally speaking, the retention
of converts in the Pacific is about what it is worldwide.
It's generally good.
There are challenges in certain parts of the Pacific,
and those challenges tend to be where the Church is newer.
If you look back on our history here in North America,
you see the same kind of pattern,
where in the early Church there was turnover
and there was loss.
And we see the same thing where the Church is newer.
It's hard to let go of culture and customs
that are deeply entrenched in the soul.
May I just make the observation though that one
of the great things I learned in five years out there
is that culture is as much a problem here
as it is out there.
All of us inherit a culture that is man made.
And it is very difficult to see the filters that culture places
on us here or people out there because we're born into it,
and we're born with it.
And thus, it's hard to break beyond it.
You need revelation to break beyond the boundaries of one's
own culture.
And some people work harder to get that revelation
than others.
And when that revelation occurs, then the mists of darkness
begin to part, and you can make your way down the path of life.
That challenge is out there as much as it is here.
And I hesitate to go down this path too far with you,
but it was astonishing to me to come back after five years
and to see some of the issues that we're
dealing with here that are not even on the horizon of people's
minds and souls out there.
And maybe this overly simplifies the challenge or the issue,
but out there in so many cultures--and particularly
it's true in the Pacific--the orientation of a soul is not
on me, it's on you.
If you go to a Polynesian and say, "Oh, I love your shirt,"
the shirt comes off and is placed on you.
I saw a Polynesian mission president's wife respond
to Sister Bednar's compliment about her mat on the floor,
and she promptly--the Polynesian woman--got down on her knees,
began to roll up the mat to give to Sister Bednar.
The orientation is on, what can I do to make you happy?
It's not on, what do you need to do for me to make me happy?
And that pervades all of life out there.
Here--and I'm part of this--but I didn't really see it
as clearly as I saw it after being out there--the
orientation is, what are you going to do for me?
What are my rights, rather than what are my responsibilities?
Out there is a sense of responsibility to others.
Here, it's about my right.
I know that overly simplifies, but individualism
versus communalism, you don't see until you get out there.
And those kind of cultural issues
pervade everywhere and are causes,
I think, of some members getting it and some members not,
and some members staying and some members not staying.
It's a great question we could spend a lot of time pursuing.
What are some of the things that are happening
there regarding family history?
You know, with RootsTech going on,
I didn't think there'd be any family history
person here tonight.
[LAUGHTER]
The people of the Pacific do not have
a tradition of written records.
They have a tradition of oral recording,
saving by memory family history.
In some places, carving it into wood
that would go on a house or a communal building of some kind,
that would preserve the family history.
So it's instinctively difficult for many out there
to go searching for records that don't exist, number one,
or even to get the whole concept of that.
That said, we have family history centers
in all the places where the Church is well established.
We have people who lead those centers, people
who come in to those centers, both member and non-member.
Not at the rates that we see here in North America.
But it's an active part of many people's lives
out there, in large part because there is probably, generally
speaking, higher respect for prior generations
than we would have here for our prior generations.
There's deep respect, deep love, deep sense
of connection to fathers, grandfathers, mothers,
grandmothers, and so forth, and a lot of cultural tradition
that underscores that.
So there's love for extended family.
It tends to be a little bit challenging
to get family history work, as we understand it here,
to be fully pursued and done out there.
I think that's it.
That was a long 10 minutes.
[LAUGHTER]
I think we need to give Elder Hamula a large hand.
[APPLAUSE]