On the Altar

In the late 1970s, several educators from Micronesia attended an advanced training program at Brigham Young University–Hawaii. Two of these students, Ohren Ohry and Naped Elias, were important to the early history of the Church in Micronesia. Both students were given a Book of Mormon and taught by the missionaries. However, after several lessons, Naped decided to focus on his studies and asked the missionaries to stop visiting him. Ohren, on the other hand, was baptized in August 1976 before returning home to Mand, Pohnpei.

Ohren had requested that missionaries be sent to Pohnpei, and they arrived in October 1976. In December 1976, Ohren received the Aaronic Priesthood, and the following March he performed the first baptisms in Micronesia when he baptized his wife, Rihne, and several of their children.

The missionaries in Pohnpei attracted the attention of Dersita Samson when they arrived in 1976. When she first saw them, she recalled, “I thought they were going mountain climbing. … All the white people are always hiking on the mountain.” One day, Dersita’s daughter came by to ask her to help the missionaries fix a flat tire. While Dersita’s husband, Perden, helped them with the tire, Dersita prepared a small meal. The missionaries asked if they could bless the food before they ate. “The first time they get in the house,” Dersita thought, surprised, “they kneel down in prayer?”

Dersita was not interested in the missionaries’ message. Each time they came to the house, Perden listened intently, but Dersita left the room. Perden was soon baptized. “I saw a big change happen in my husband from the day he was baptized,” Dersita said. “He used to drink every weekend after work. But after he was baptized, he stopped going out all the time and spent more time at home on the weekends.”

When Naped Elias finished his degree at BYU–Hawaii, he returned home to Pingalap, Pohnpei, and discovered that he had the blue copy of the Book of Mormon that the missionaries had given him. Feeling guilty for not paying for the book, Naped began reading and praying, as they had asked him to do. He soon received a spiritual witness and determined that he would join the Church as soon as he was able.

A few months later, Naped saw two young men in white shirts and ties riding their bikes down the street. “Mormons! Mormons! Mormons!” he cried as he chased them. When they stopped, he showed them the Book of Mormon and asked if they knew anything about it. The surprised missionaries arranged a return visit with Naped and his family. When they came to teach, Naped was drunk and asked the missionaries to come back later. When the missionaries returned, they taught the gospel to Naped; his wife, Srue; and their children to prepare them for baptism. On March 12, 1977, one week after the Ohry family, the Elias family was also baptized. “Before I joined the Church,” Naped said, “the children were not always happy to see me come home. Now they are happy, too, because I’m not drinking anymore.”

Members and missionaries in the Mand Branch, 1977. Ohren Ohry is the man in the center holding up three fingers.

That fall, Naped Elias was called as president of the Kolonia Pohnpei Branch.