Maori Memories

Matt Chote learned his love of gospel service at the knee of his grandmother, Ani Kairuma Tamihana, who raised him. Sister Tamihana always kept a room in her home set aside for the missionaries. When land was needed to build a chapel at Tahoraiti, Matt’s grandmother donated it. When there was a district conference, a Hui Pariha, Matt would sit beside Sister Tamihana in the horse and gig as they traveled up to sixty miles to attend.

Conference numbers would range from five hundred to two thousand, and the people traveled great distances to be there.

But distance was never an insurmountable barrier for those intent on living the gospel. Matt remembers his grandmother and her second husband, Whatu Renata, preparing to travel with thirty others to the temple in Hawaii. “This trip was made with tremendous dedication and the sacrifice of their life’s savings. This was their once-in-a-lifetime visit to the house of the Lord,” he says.

Matt and Neat agree that some of the happiest years they have known were the twenty-five years they followed his grandmother’s example by having missionaries live with them. From 1951 to 1955 Matt was president of the sole branch in Auckland, which covered an area from Wellsford to Pukekohe—about one hundred miles. At that time, there were two cars and 120 families in that vast area. He later served as Auckland district president until the formation of the first stake in New Zealand in 1958, when he was called to serve on the first high council.

He also served as a counselor to two stake presidents and two mission presidents. In all, Matt Chote has given forty years of continuous Church service.—Tina Dil, Auckland, New Zealand

Amid change, Matt and Neat Chote have remained constant to each other and to what they believe. (Photography by Tina Dil.)