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Around 1820, a canoe carrying a corpse washed ashore on the island of Tubuai. From the corpse, a plague spread death across the island, reducing the population from 3,000 to less than 300. As the survivors begin to rebuild their society, many embraced Christianity but had to choose which form to adopt as their own. By the 1840s, there was intense competition on the island of Tahiti for Christian converts. The English Protestants had been there for a few decades, and now the French Catholics were really establishing a presence, and there was a battle between the two for converts on the island. And then in 1844, missionaries show up on the island of Tubuai, 600 kilometers south of Tahiti. In 1843, when Joseph Smith calls Addison Pratt and Knowlton Hanks and Noah Rogers and Benjamin Grouard on this mission to the Pacific, it's really a landmark in the history of Latter-day Saint missions. It's by far the longest missionary journey that has been attempted in the history of the Church up to this point. When they arrive in what is now French Polynesia, they're about to embark on a mission unlike the experiences that other missionaries have faced up to this point in terms of bridging a greater cultural distance and even learning a new language in which to preach the gospel. While the ship's crew traded for supplies, the people of Tubuai invited the elders into their homes, fed them, and prayed with them. Though the missionaries were bound for Tahiti, King Tamatoa and a council of local leaders urged one of them to stay. "I took the subject into prayerful consideration and was soon convinced that should I leave the island, I should be running away from duty." --Addison Pratt [NON-ENGLISH SPEECH] Nabota and Telii, a couple in the village of Mataura, took Pratt in while the other elders sailed on to Tahiti. Over the next 4 months, with the help from Nabota, Telii, King Tamatoa, and then several English speaking sailors who are on the island, Addison Pratt's able to learn to Tahitian, becoming the first missionary to learn another language from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. With their help, he's able to navigate this new language, but at the same time, they're able to learn more about the gospel as they engage in this process together. [NON-ENGLISH SPEECH] On July 22, 1844, Nabota, Telii, Pauma, and Hamoe are the first Polynesians baptized into The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and they formed that first branch on Tubuai. Pratt embraced the local culture as he talked. Pratt insisted on eating what they ate and living how they lived and fishing with them rather than having them bring fish to him as they had done with previous missionaries. [NON-ENGLISH SPEECH] As the Church grew, Pratt split his time between the villages on the two sides of the island. When he was troubled, he would go into the woods to ponder and to pray. "A little experience tells me that to baptize and build up a branch is but a small thing to what it is to keep it in order after it is built up." --Addison Pratt A Protestant missionary soon heard there were Latter-day Saints on Tubuai and visited to rebuke converts. But he underestimated their knowledge and commitment. "He upbraided them for being baptized by me when they had been sprinkled by him. But Telii maintained the point from scripture so well that he could not confuse her from it." --Addison Pratt In Mataura, the Saints told the Protestant missionary they no longer needed his teaching. "We have got a man that we like, for he is satisfied to live as we do and fare as we fare." A year after Addison Pratt's arrival, 60 men and women on Tubuai had become Latter-day Saints. "I have friends here that nothing but the bonds of the everlasting gospel could have created. Less than one year ago, I landed upon this island a stranger, and to these inhabitants, a barbarian, for they could not understand a sentence I uttered. And what has the Lord accomplished by my feeble hands in this little time." --Addison Pratt But storm clouds lingered in the distance. Pratt hadn't received any letters from Nauvoo, and American newspapers carried rumors that Joseph Smith had been killed and the Church brought to an end. Though shaken by the reports, Pratt refused to give up on his mission. "If one-half of the Church is shot and the other half have denied the faith, I know the work is true. And by the help of God, I am determined to make all the noise I can about it and spread this gospel to the ends of the earth." --Addison Pratt On December 4, 1845, a ship arrived with letters from Pratt's wife, Louisa, confirming Joseph Smith had been killed. But the same ship also brought letters from Elder Benjamin Grouard with news that 600 people had joined the Church on the atoll of Anaa. Grouard begged Pratt to come. Nabota and Telii pledged to go with him and serve. Before they left, the whole island gathered together to wish them well on their journey. "Whenever it shall seem good for you to return to us, we shall hail that day with gladness. But wherever you go, our prayers and blessings shall attend you."

Telii in particular made huge contributions to the missionary work, especially on the island of Anaa, where she accompanied Addison Pratt, and her husband Nabota came as well. But Telii really kept tabs on all the people and who needed help and who was sick, and she would bring them to Addison Pratt and make sure that they were blessed and anointed. And she also sort of served as almost a Relief Society president there, bringing the people together. And she taught them the new hymns. So she would stay out from dusk until midnight singing these hymns in their language, helping the local members to learn them and get them really into their hearts and minds. With Telii, Nabota, and Pratt strengthening members in Anaa, Grouard felt free to spread the gospel to other atolls in Tuamotu. At the same time, Hamoe and her husband [? Taamatua ?] sailed from Tubuai to Tahiti to preach the gospel to family and friends. By 1846, the mission in the South Pacific is pretty well established. Addison Pratt decides he's going to leave Tubuai and go and meet the Saints. But he promises the members in Tubuai before he leaves that he will ask that more missionaries be sent to them. And they ask him to please return himself and to bring his wife with him. In fact, Telii and other sisters prepare a gift. They sew clothing that he can give to Louisa. Well, when he comes back in 1848, he does bring a group of 21 missionaries with them, and among that group are 5 women, including his wife Luisa Barnes Pratt. And while there have been a few women that have accompanied their husbands on missions previously, this is really the first time that we know of that a woman was set apart to venture into the missionary field with her husband. But French colonial authorities increasingly restricted religious freedom, and in 1852, the missionaries left. When Addison Pratt returned 4 years later, authorities detained him on Tahiti and refused to let him sail to Tubuai. For the next 4 decades, members maintained the faith on their own. Addison Pratt observed that it's easier to set up a branch than to maintain one, and that was definitely true for the branch in Tubuai, who continued their faith the next 40 years in isolation amid intense persecution--sometimes threat of death, often they were meeting in hiding. But they continued their faith because they believed in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. [NON-ENGLISH SPEECH] [NON-ENGLISH SPEECH] [MUSIC PLAYING]