DK Orchard

In 1860 missionaries from the church came to Samoa from Hawaii.  They were continually harassed and threatened and once had their dwelling burned down so they had to sleep wrapped in banana leaves to keep out of the rain.  They continued their missionary work in spite of their hardships and over the years, after making friends with a village chief, baptized hundreds into the the church.  They appealed for help from the church in Hawaii many times but their pleas went unanswered.  Finally, after 25 years the church sent missionaries to help them.  A picture of this is depicted in the Bountiful Temple at the bottom of the stairs near the cafeteria. (Note one of the missionaries only has one hand.  The other was blown off fishing with dynamite.) As it turned out the leader in Hawaii who sent them to Samoa had fallen away from the church and never forwarded the requests for help.  Church members were continually threatened by the communities so the church in Salt Lake City purchased over 800 acres of land in the high mountain valley of Sauniatu.  The saints thrived there with farms and plantations and were free to practice their religion.  David O. McKay visited the saints there as an apostle. and blessed them.  He called the place one of the most beautiful on the earth.  From there the church went on to flourish and now 1/3 of the population of Samoa is LDS.  Bless those missionaries who continued to labor and teach for 25 years wondering if the church had abandoned them.  We visited Sauniatu last week.  There is a beautiful Fale there dedicated to President McKay, a church school, a beautiful chapel, a lovely village, and a spectacular waterfall

If you look real close you can  see a guy who jumped from the cliff