History of the Pacific Islands Commons^™

Lds Church History Sites In The Kingdom Of Tonga, Riley Moffat

Mormon Pacific Historical Society

The Kingdom of Tonga in the South Pacific is known as the country with the highest percentage of Latter-day Saints in the world. Out of a population of about 100,000 people in the Kingdom about 60,000 are baptized members of the Church according to Leitoni Tupou, recently released president of the Tongan mission. Of that number he says about 30,000 are active, 30,000 are less active and the other 40,000 haven’t been baptized yet. Tongan government statistics give lower figures but the fact that there are 166 congregations meeting in 106 chapels organized into 19 stakes (soon to be 21) …

President Emile Craner Dunn And The Tongan Mission: 1936-1950, Mark D. Ogletree, Ph.D.

Mormon Pacific Historical Society

Several years ago, Elder James E. Faust related the following experience. He and Elder Spencer J. Condie were in the Salt Lake City Airport and as they were walking down the terminal, they met a devoted and faithful couple that they both had known for many years. “This couple had spent a lifetime of service, meekly, faithfully, and effectively trying to build up the Church in many places in the world. Elder Condie noted, ‘Isn’t it remarkable what people with five loaves and two fishes do to build up the kingdom of God.’”1 Elder Faust then stated, “This kind of …

Nuku’Alofa Tonga Mission 1989-92

Mormon Pacific Historical Society

No abstract provided.

Mormon Intruders In Tonga: The Passport Act Of 1922, R. Lanier Britsch

Mormon Pacific Historical Society

On 29 June 1922 the Legislative Assembly in the island kingdom of Tonga enacted a law that prohibited all members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints from entering that country. 1 This event occurred after considerable discussion and debate among governmental officials in Tonga, Fiji, Great Britain, and the United States. This study reviews the Latter-day Saint exclusion issue as it relates to the historical development of Christianity in Tonga, including sectarian relationships and government involvement in ecclesiastical affairs, the official attitude of the U.S. government regarding the Latter-day Saints and polygamy, and the United Kingdom's official …

“We Rang The Bell”: Olonzod. Merrill’S Mission To Tonga (1892-1895)

Mormon Pacific Historical Society

No abstract provided.

A Gift Of Tongues Ermel J. Morton And The Translation Of The Book Of Mormon, Brent R. Anderson

Mormon Pacific Historical Society

Wherever the Gospel of Jesus Christ has been established, there are stories to be told and experiences to be shared. These often, if not always, include difficulties and challenges, but also blessings and miracles.

2016 Mphs Program

Mormon Pacific Historical Society

No abstract provided.

Mphs 2016 Presenter Biographies

Mormon Pacific Historical Society

No abstract provided.

2015 Mphs Program Final

Mormon Pacific Historical Society

No abstract provided.

2015 Mphs Call For Proposals

Mormon Pacific Historical Society

No abstract provided.

2015 Mphs Registration Form

Mormon Pacific Historical Society

No abstract provided.

Evolution Of La'ie's Landscape, Riley Moffat

Mormon Pacific Historical Society

As we celebrate the sesquicentennial of Mormon Laie we must remember that all history occurs on a stage, a geographical landscape that effects how that history can evolve. There are natural limitations to what the human occupants of a particular landscape can do and this therefore affects their decisions. This has certainly been the case with Laie since the beginning of time. As Marshall Sahlins has written: culture “transforms its landscape and so must respond anew to changes that it had set in motion”. (Sahlins. “Culture and Environment: The Study of Cultural Ecology” in S. Tax, ed. Horizons of Anthropology. …

Sacred And Historical Latter-Day Saint Places Of Laie, Mary Jane Woodger

Mormon Pacific Historical Society

Through the ages, the locations at which sacred historical events occurred have traditionally become holy. How holy or sacred a site is depends on the understanding of those beholding it. Elizabeth Barrett Browning wrote that “Earth’s crammed with heaven, / And every common bush afire with god; / But only he who sees, takes off his shoes— / The rest sit round it and pluck blackberries.”1 Though some may consider some of the locations listed in this paper to be mere “berry picking sites,” for those who lived there, these places became consecrated by their sacrifices.

The History And Archeology Of Laie Wharf At Pounders, Benjamin R. Jordan

Mormon Pacific Historical Society

Introduction Lai’e, Hawai’i, is a small village on the windward side of the north shore of the Hawai’ian island of Oahu. In 1865, the area of Lai’e was purchased by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints as a place for new Mormon converts to gather and form a community. In 1868 the area of Lai’e, in order to become self-sufficient, was turned into a large sugar plantation with a sugar milli. Originally, the processed sugar and molasses was stored at the mill until a ship came in to shore. When that happened, the mill was shut down while …

Kalaupapa: Another Gathering Place

Mormon Pacific Historical Society

No abstract provided.

Elder William Mark Waddoups: Called And Served With Aloha, Carol Helekunihi

Mormon Pacific Historical Society

The beautiful new Temple of the Latter-day Saints at Laie, Oahu, Hawaii territory, was dedicated on Thursday, Nov. 27, 1919, by President Heber ]. Grant. The services were attended by a number of the general authorities of the Church, and by many local officers and Saints, and the religious ceremonies and the dedicatory prayer delivered by President Grant were impressive and inspiring to the last degree. It was a solemn and in many other ways memorable occasion, when the past and the present were linked together in ceremonious religious observance, and another epoch in the history of temple building was …

The Search For Laie, Eric-Jon Keawe Marlowe

Mormon Pacific Historical Society

No abstract provided.

Five Decades Of Marketing The Polynesian Cultural Center, Eric Workman, David Preece

Mormon Pacific Historical Society

No abstract provided.

Mphs Flyer

Mormon Pacific Historical Society

No abstract provided.

Mphs Program Byu-Hawaii

Mormon Pacific Historical Society

No abstract provided.

Kaleohano 1860s, Dr. Ishmael Stagner

Mormon Pacific Historical Society

No abstract provided.

La‘Ie: 1865-1963: The Pre-Pcc Years, Dr. Ishmael Stagner

Mormon Pacific Historical Society

No abstract provided.

To: Tavita “David” Tausilinu’U Hannemann, Max E. Stanton

Mormon Pacific Historical Society

Regarding: Max Stanton’s Experience at the Polynesian Cultural Center, 1964-1965

Altered and revised August 26, 2013 for presentation via Skype from my home in Portland, Oregon (where I was recovering from a recently a severely broken left ankle I had received on August 2, 20123, just five weeks before in Vancouver Island, in Canada.) This was my verbal presentation for the Mormon Pacific Historical Society –at the “Little Theatre” at BYU-Hawaii for the Joseph Napela Centre for Pacific Studies Fiftieth Anniversary Celebration of the Polynesian Cultural Center, September 7, 2013. I wish to extend my sincerest thanks to Drs. Riley …

Pcc Night Show Update, Craig Ferre

Mormon Pacific Historical Society

In 1940 the original chapel in Laie, then 75 years old was being readied for a much need repainting. At the time it was common to remove old paint with a blow torch. This proved fatal to the old wooding structure as it subsequently burnt to the ground. I can imagine that the poor saint whose blow torch ignited the blaze felt terrible, and that he and the other workers were inconsolable with their loss. They could never have envisioned that this tragic act would give rise to one of the world’s most popular tourist attractions, and blessing beyond measure …

“School Thy Feelings”: The Critical Years At The Church College Of Hawaii And The Polynesian Cultural Center, 1955-1970, Alf Pratte

Mormon Pacific Historical Society

Shortly after he was introduced to LDS president David O. McKay, Ishmael W. Stagner was invited to show McKay around the scrubby and waste-like North Shore area in 1955. It had not yet blossomed into the yet unfinished and unnamed cultural institution that in future decades would, in the words of Harold B. Lee, “…tie together the La’ie temple, the Church College of Hawaii, and the Polynesian Culture Center as the paramount activities of the Church.”1

Howard W. Hunter And The Development Of The Polynesian Culture Center, Chad Orton

Mormon Pacific Historical Society

While the vision behind the Polynesian Cultural Center may never have been realized without the efforts of Wendell B. Mendenhall, it is also likely that the center may never have celebrated fifty years without the work of Howard W. Hunter. In January 1965—fifteen months after the PCC opened its doors—Elder Hunter, then a member of the Quorum of the Twelve, received a letter from LDS Church President David O. McKay appointing him to replace Mendenhall as Chairman of the Board of the PCC, a position he would hold for more than eleven years. Elder Hunter’s service, coming as it did …

George Paele Mossman’S Lalani Village As A Model For The Polynesian Cultural Center, Riley Moffat

Mormon Pacific Historical Society

As we consider the history and legacy of the Polynesian Cultural Center I think we ought to recognize that while the Center is in many ways unique in its development and purpose it was not the first attempt to create a cultural village with the goal of displaying and preserving Hawaiian culture. That honor goes to George Paele Mossman and his Lalani Village. Indeed, the Lalani Village can and probably was viewed as the model for what was attempted in La‘ie with the PCC.

Maui

Mormon Pacific Historical Society

Maui is the second largest island in Hawaii and is basically two volcanoes, Haleakala and Puu Kukui with a connecting central valley in between. In the early years of the LDS mission in Hawaii the greatest success in terms of baptisms seems to have been on Maui. In 1853 out of 17,574 people on Maui over 1000 were LDS.

An Interview With Barnard Stewart Silver

Mormon Pacific Historical Society

An Interview with Barnard Stewart Silver (Great-grand nephew of George Q. Cannon)

Born March 9, 1933, currently living in Holliday, Utah

Lived in Lahaina, Hawaii from 1963-1966 as a research engineer in conjunction for the Pioneer Sugar Mill.

Interviewer: Shannon Lee Kanekoa

Date of Recorded Telephone Interview – April 22, 2012

SLK: “Brother Silver, will you tell us about your adventure when you decided to follow your great, great Uncle George Q. Cannon’s footsteps, over 150 years ago, and climb up through the Olowalu canyon and over the West Maui Mountains down into Wailuku?” BSS: “Gladly. After studying the history …

Lorenzo Snow Drowned In Lahaina Harbor (From W.W. Cluff’S Journal)

Mormon Pacific Historical Society

On the 29th of March (1864) we sailed for Lahaina, on the schooner Nettie Merrill, Captain Fisher, for the island of Maui, a distance of about ninety miles from Honolulu. On the morning of the 31st of March, we came to anchor about one mile from the mouth of the little harbor of Lahaina.