The first tender branches of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Laie — a community found on the northern shores of the Hawaiian island of Oahu — began to sprout at the arrival of missionaries in December 1850.
However, the fledgling Church struggled against neglect, persecution, poverty and apostasy. The purchase of a 6,000-acre plantation in January 1865 provided a safe place — a refuge — for Latter-day Saints to gather. From that plantation grew a community of Saints, which in the years since has been visited, praised and blessed by kings and queens, prophets and apostles.
“Those who went before and built up the Church and kingdom of God in these islands were not perfect,” noted Elder D. Todd Christofferson of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles in relating the above history. “Not all their decisions were the right ones or bore the fruit that was expected.
“What is most significant, however, is that so many of them persevered. They rose each day and went to work. They prayed and worked some more. When they needed to, they repented and began again. They loved and taught their children and each other’s children. They reached out to others with the gospel of Jesus Christ.”
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