1843 Four missionaries called to serve in the Pacific

1844 Work opens in French Polynesia

1850 First missionaries arrive in Hawaii

1851 Missionaries open work in Australia

1852–54 George Q. Cannon translates the Book of Mormon into Hawaiian Creole

1853 First company of Latter-day Saint emigrants leave Australia for Utah

1854 Missionaries carry gospel from Australia to New Zealand; these countries form Australasian Mission

1857 Missionaries withdrawn at outbreak of Utah War

1861 Walter Murray Gibson arrives in Hawaii

1863 Hawaiian Samuela Manoa preaches in Samoa

1865 Laie purchased as new gathering place in Hawaii after Gibson’s excommunication

1867 Gospel again taught in New Zealand

1873 RLDS (Community of Christ) missionaries arrive in Tahiti

1879–98 Three branches operating in Australia

1880s Great success among the Maori in New Zealand; first Church-operated elementary school opens in the Pacific

1888 Samoan Mission officially organized

1892 Society Islands Mission reopens

1900 Samoa divided between U.S. and German spheres of influence

1903 Mapusaga becomes gathering place in American Samoa; Samoan Book of Mormon printed

1904 Sauniatu becomes gathering place in Western Samoa

1913 Maori Agricultural College opens in New Zealand

1919 Laie Hawaii Temple dedicated

1919 Hawaiian Mission headquarters moved from Laie to Honolulu

1921–22 Elder David O. McKay visits Pacific missions

1922–24 Tongan government prohibits Latter-day Saints from entering country

1935 Oahu Stake dedicated, first outside of North America

1939 World War II begins in Europe

1940 Missionaries evacuated from Pacific missions

1941 Oahu Tabernacle dedicated

1945 World War II ends

1952 Building missionaries construct Liahona High School in Tonga

1953 Church elementary, junior high, and high schools open in Samoa

1954 Missionary work begins in Fiji

1955 Church College of Hawaii (now BYU–Hawaii) founded

1955 President David O. McKay visits Pacific missions

1955 President Joseph Fielding Smith dedicates Guam

1958 Auckland Stake created, first international stake

1958 Hamilton New Zealand Temple dedicated

1963 Polynesian Cultural Center opens

1972 First stake in Tahiti

1975 Missionaries sent to Saipan in the Mariana Islands

1978 Early-morning seminary classes introduced in Tonga and Samoa

1980 Four new temples announced for the Pacific

1983 Papua New Guinea dedicated by Elder L. Tom Perry for the preaching of the gospel

2000 First small temple in Pacific dedicated in Kona, Hawaii

2003 Apia Samoa Temple destroyed by fire

2005 Apia Samoa Temple dedicated by Gordon B. Hinckley

2006 Announcement to close the Church College of New Zealand; Marshall Islands Majuro Mission created

2008 Fiftieth anniversary of the Hamilton New Zealand Temple

Adapted from Donald Q. Cannon and Richard O. Cowan, Unto Every Nation: Gospel Light Reaches Every Land (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 2003), 139, 160, 181, 209.