Digital Only: Early Women of the Restoration
Telii: Friend, Teacher, and Leader
Telii’s faith and actions were fundamental to the growth of the Church in French Polynesia.
On April 30, 1844, the ship Timoleon came in sight of the small Pacific island of Tubuai, 640 kilometers (400 miles) south of Tahiti. Canoes filled with men paddled out to greet the passengers. When they met Elders Addison Pratt, Noah Rogers, and Benjamin Grouard, the first Latter-day Saint missionaries to arrive in the region, they greeted them happily. For nearly 50 years, Tubuaians had received Christian missionaries—most from the London Missionary Society—and embraced Christian teachings. Previous missionaries had occasionally visited the island’s two villages, Mahu and Mataura, but they usually stayed only a short time. Telii,1 a local woman from Mataura, was also excited when she learned that new gospel teachers were on the island. The island’s kings and chiefs attempted to convince one of the missionaries to remain as their teacher, and Telii and her husband, Nabota, offered their home as a place for the missionaries to stay.2
The missionaries initially declined these invitations. The people, anxious to have them stay, persisted. “I took the subject into prayerful consideration,” Elder Pratt said, “and was soon convinced that should I leave this island, I should be running away from duty.”3 Elders Grouard and Rogers sailed on to Tahiti while Elder Pratt remained and accepted the invitation to live with Telii and Nabota. The couple immediately began helping Elder Pratt study the local language, and they learned the gospel as visitors asked Elder Pratt to interpret scripture, offer spiritual guidance, and provide healing blessings.4 As Telii and Nabota listened to Elder Pratt preach, the fire of a growing testimony was kindled in their hearts. In late July 1844, Telii and Nabota were the first natives of Tubuai to be baptized. Many others soon followed.
As Latter-day Saint missionaries continued to visit Tubuai over the next several years, Telii and Nabota became a source of strength and support to them and the island’s growing Latter-day Saint community. Telii became a friend, teacher, and leader to the missionaries and local members.
Friend
Telii, Nabota, and Elder Pratt developed a deep and loyal friendship. “The native family with whom I live are much attached to me; where I go, they go, and where I stay, they stay,” Elder Pratt wrote to his wife, Louisa.5 With small but growing groups of converts in each village, Elder Pratt soon began alternating locations, spending a week in each place. While in Mataura, he lived with Telii and Nabota. When he went to Mahu, they traveled with him and stayed with Telii’s relatives there.6 In addition to being the first local converts Elder Pratt baptized, Telii and Nabota were frequently his most ardent defenders, sharing with others the insights they had gleaned from the many sermons and conversations they had heard.7
Early in 1846, Elder Pratt announced that he would be going to Anaa, an atoll 780 kilometers (490 miles) northwest of Tubuai, to assist Elder Grouard, who was enjoying incredible success there. Telii and Nabota insisted on accompanying him. When they arrived in Anaa, they found more than 600 converts in five branches. As Elder Pratt fell into administrative duties in the branches, Telii and Nabota traveled with him, preaching the gospel, visiting the people to attend to their needs, and bringing the sick to Elder Pratt to be blessed.8
Teacher
Telii helped spread the gospel by translating Latter-day Saint hymns and scriptures and setting them to himene, a singing style common in the region. Many evenings, Telii gathered large groups together at dusk to sing these songs, which often lasted until late into the night. By singing Telii’s songs, many of the local people learned gospel principles and cemented passages of scripture in their minds and hearts.9
In September 1845, the John Williams, a ship carrying two missionaries from the London Missionary Society, visited Tubuai to speak with Elder Pratt. While Elder Pratt carried on a lively debate with one of the missionaries, the other sought out those who had accepted Elder Pratt’s message. He “upbraided them for being baptized,” Elder Pratt reported. The missionary attempted to prove with scripture that they had been deceived, but Telii stood up to him and “maintained the point from scripture so well,” Elder Pratt said, “that he could not confute [disprove] her from it.”10
Leader
In February 1846, Elder Pratt left the branches in Anaa and Tubuai, bound for the United States. He promised to return with additional missionaries. Four and a half years later, on October 21, 1850, 21 travel-weary Latter-day Saints—seven men, five women, and nine children—arrived on the shores of Tubuai.11 Elder Pratt, called to lead a contingent of missionaries back to the islands, had returned in advance of the rest of the group but was detained by colonial officials in Tahiti who were suspicious of the missionaries. Louisa Barnes Pratt, Elder Pratt’s wife, and their four daughters, however, were with the company. Louisa immediately asked to be introduced to her husband’s “old friends” Telii and Nabota. An older man guided her and the other missionaries to Telii and Nabota’s home, where, despite having been sick for several days, Telii had prepared a feast of pork, fish, po’e (a local dish made from taro root), and fruit. The rest of the evening was spent celebrating their arrival by singing himene late into the night. “The music was delightful,” Louisa said. “Their voices are loud and clear.”12
Elder Pratt was soon reunited with his family on Tubuai, and over the next 18 months, he oversaw the Church throughout the islands. Louisa and Telii became close friends, often working together to serve the women of the Tubuai Branch.13 In 1852, compelled by tensions with the French colonial authorities, Louisa and the other missionaries prepared to leave French Polynesia. In a final sermon to the sisters of Tubuai, Louisa begged them to continue in faith and entrusted their teaching to Telii. “We appointed Telii their guardian,” Louisa recalled.14
Telii’s acceptance of the gospel, careful teaching, and service to her fellow members left a lasting impression on those who had been converted by her words, deed, and songs. For 40 years, French officials refused to allow Latter-day Saint missionaries to return to the islands. Contact with Telii and the Tubuai Branch was lost, and no records of this time remain. When missionaries returned to Tubuai in 1892, however, a small group of the early converts enthusiastically welcomed their return.15 Although Telii died before the missionaries returned, her legacy of service and missionary work had sustained the Saints in Tubuai.