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Modern-Day LDS Pioneers - Growth of the Mormon Church - 28   2008-06-05

Latter day Saint missionary work did not begin in New Zealand until 1854, and even then progress was slow. Because of difficult conditions for the Church in Utah, the mission in New Zealand was an on again, off again operation until the late 1870s. By that time several branches of the Church had been established among the European part of the population. But little had been done by our missionaries to attract the native people, the Maoris, to the Church. Most Maoris had been converted to Protestant and Roman Catholic Christianity by the 1850s; but because they believed they had been cheated in land deals by the whites, whom they called pakehas, the Maoris made war on the pakehas. These wars lasted from the late 1850s until the 1870s. When the wars ended, the time seemed to be right to take the restored gospel to this outstanding part of the Polynesian race. When William Bromley was called as New Zealand mission president in 1881, President Joseph F. Smith told him that the time was right to take the gospel to the Maoris. The first successes among them came in 1883, but once the Maoris and the Mormons got together, Maori converts flocked into the Church. By the end of 1884 the missionaries had firmly established the restored gospel among the Maori people. The next several years were very satisfying to most of the elders and sister missionaries (several couples were sent to New Zealand beginning in 1885). In August 1885, there were 16 Maori and 4 pakeha branches of the Church, and this number continued to grow steadily for the next 15 years. At the close of 1887, there were 2,573 Latter day Saints, and by the turn of the century there were nearly four thousand members of the Church in New Zealand. Most of the Maori tribes, including large numbers in the north, around Whangarei and the Bay of Islands, had been introduced to the gospel. In 1901 there were 79 branches. The best known and most important prophecy, as far as most New Zealand members of the Church are concerned, is that from Paora Potangaroa. In March 1881, Elder Matthew Cowley reported, a large convention was held among the Ngatikahungunu tribe. Many Maori chiefs assembled at Te Ore Ore, near Masterton, to discuss political, social, and religious problems. The established churches were well represented, but the chiefs shared a feeling of discontent about the lack of unity among them. Why, the natives asked, were there so many different churches within the bounds of Christianity Which one should the Maoris join so that unity could again be restored among them After considerable debate and discussion, the chiefs decided to place the questionsspecifically Which of the churches is the church for the Maori race Which of them should we joinbefore the most respected and wisest chief among them. This was Potangaroa, who, when asked the questions, answered with one word, Taihoa, which means wait. He retired to his own home and meditated, fasted, and prayed about the problem for three days. When he returned to the convention, he addressed his people, saying: My friends, the church for the Maori people has not yet come among us. You will recognize it when it comes. Its missionaries will travel in pairs. They will come from the rising sun. They will visit with us in our homes. They will learn our language and teach us the gospel in our own tongue. When they pray they will raise their right hands. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter day Saints has been in Hawaii since 1850, when Elder Charles C. Rich, an apostle, called ten LDS men from the gold mines of northern California to open missionary work in the Sandwich Islands, now Hawaii. Within several months five of the elders left the mission, but George Quayle Cannon, Henry William Bigler, James Keeler, William Farrer, and James Hawkins remained. Initial conversions came on the island of Maui, where the first branch was organized in the Kula District, near Pulehu, on August 6, 1851. The Church made remarkable headway, with more than 4,000 Hawaiian convert members in fifty three branches by late 1854. By this time, several small schools were under way, meetinghouses were constructed, and the Book of Mormon had been translated into the Hawaiian language by Elders Cannon and Farrer and Jonatana H. Napela, a local member. It was printed in 1855. In 1990, the 49,000 members of the Church in Hawaii, both native Hawaiian and others were found in thirteen stakes, constituting more than a hundred wards and branches. A temple has served members in Hawaii since November 1919. Information from .lightplanet