Hawaii Church History

History of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
History of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Hawaii:

1844 Missionaries of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints intending to sail to Hawaii arrive at Tubuai instead, 300 miles south of Tahiti. Joseph and Hyrum Smith are martyred. 1850 Brigham Young sends George Q. Cannon and nine other Latter-day Saint missionaries to Honolulu. Businessmen begin to arrive in Hawaii. 1851 First Latter-day Saint convert baptism in Hawaii. Nalilmanui offers her home to George Cannon and missionaries. George Q. Cannon receives revelation at Lahaina, Maui, that the Hawaiians are the seed of Abraham, through the posterity of Lehi. 1852 Jonathan and Kitty Napela are baptized and Jonathan helps George Q. Cannon translate The Book of Mormon from English into Hawaiian. First branch organized at Pulehu, Maui. Total Church membership in Hawaii is 841: 196 from Maui, 71 from Oahu, 43 from Molokai. 1853 Membership at April conference in Hawaii totals 1,131. A smallpox epidemic kill 5,000 to 6,000 Hawaiians, 400 of them Latter-day Saints. 1855 Printing of the Book of Mormon in Hawaiian begun. Joseph F. Smith, age 16, is appointed to preside on the island of Maui with Elders Sixtus E. Smith and Simpson Molen as assistants. 1857 Joseph F. Smith is nursed back to health by Ma Naoheakamamalu Manuhii. He blesses her that she will “live to see the day when a temple will be built in Hawaii.” 1858 The Utah war brings missionaries home in December. Hawaiian Elders Kelehune, and Solomon Umi are left in charge. 1862 Lorenzo Snow is drowned in Lahaina harbor, Maui, and is resuscitated. He goes to Palawai. Walter Murry Gibson is excommunicated for simony and apostasy. 1865 Laie is chosen as the new gathering place for the Saints by Francis Hammond and George Nebeker. Total Church membership in Hawaii is 500, with 22 missionaries. 1870 Church membership in Hawaii is 1,611. 1875 Membership in Hawaii is 4,092. 1885 Joseph F. Smith tells Hawaiians not to leave Hawaii, but to be patient and love the Lord. 1889 The colony of Iosepa is established by Hawaiian Saints in Skull Valley Utah. 1900 Church membership in Hawaii is 6,978, with 22 missionaries. 1906 Queen Liliuokalani is baptized into the Church by Elder Abraham Fernandez. 1915 Joseph F. Smith arrives in Honoloulu and sees Manuhii again. He dedicates the temple site in Laie. Church membership in Hawaii is 9,443 with 46 missionaries. 1917 Queen Liliuokalani dies at age 79. 1919 Hawaii temple dedicated by President Heber J. Grant 1920 Genealogy of Kamehameha printed in Abraham Fornander’s Polynesian History and Ethnology. 1921 Elder David O. McKay visits Laie Elementary school and sees the vision of a university in Hawaii. 1927 Robert Plunkett and Clinton Kanahele become first Hawaiians in a temple presidency. 2008 Church membership in Hawaii is 67,106.