Just as currents mix while they make their way across the Pacific Ocean, powerful waves of foreign culture have mingled with the native cultures of the Pacific region of Micronesia. European, Asian, and American nations have variously claimed or colonized the islands of Micronesia, exerting influence in politics, education, and the economy and treating the islands as strategic bases or resources.[1]

The Pacific Ocean region of Micronesia contains the major island groups the Mariana Islands, Caroline Islands, Marshall Islands, and Kiribati (Gilbert Islands) (“Micronesian Cultural Area” by Kahuroa / Wikimedia Commons).

The indigenous peoples of Micronesia have adapted to each wave of outside influence, pragmatically tolerating an intermixing of foreign cultural elements. Thus, the indigenous peoples have preserved core cultural values while outwardly complying with colonial demands. Despite Spanish, British, German, Japanese, and American cultural pressures, indigenous culture continues in values, in traditions about weddings and funerals, in housing styles, and many other forms not obvious to outsiders. Father Francis Hezel wrote, “Foreigners had come and gone for years, often imposing new obligations even as they peddled their trade goods or proclaimed new religious beliefs. The islanders, unfailing pragmatists that they were, took what they thought they could use and found ways to humor their guests even as they parried demands they were not prepared to meet.”[2]

Gonzaga Puas, a scholar from the state of Chuuk (pronounced Chook) in the Federated States of Micronesia, explains how the Micronesian people used these outside elements to enhance, rather than destroy, their cultures: “Their success rested in the indigenous doctrines of adaptation, assimilation and accommodation deeply rooted in the kinship doctrine of eaea fengen (sharing) and alilis fengen (assisting each other).”[3] In essence, these qualities can be summarized as caring and sharing within a tightly woven and interdependent community of family and friends. This chapter features stories, achievements, and voices of women who have shaped, refined, and helped realize the Latter-day Saint experience in Micronesia through their caring and sharing.

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Micronesia

The rise of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Micronesia began during World War II. In December 1941, war broke out in the Central Pacific with the bombings of Hawai‘i, Wake Island, Guam, the Philippines, and other islands. The US military counterattack deployed waves of military personnel into the region, including many Latter-day Saints. If there was a silver lining to the dark clouds of war, it was that Church members began to share the story of the restored gospel in Guam, Kiribati (pronounced kee-ree-bas), the Marshall Islands, and later many other Micronesian islands.

The gospel continued to spread after the war. Servicemen groups established during the war became branches in the 1950s and 1960s. Church leaders organized the Guam Ward—the first ward in Micronesia—in 1970. Latter-day Saint missionaries and members eventually became part of the landscape in Guam and Saipan in the late 1970s and spread throughout eastern and western Micronesia by the 1980s. In quick succession, Pacific Area supervisor Elder John H. Groberg and Hawaii Honolulu Mission president William Cannon sent missionaries to the Marshall Islands (February 3, 1977), Palau (July 5, 1978), and several states in the Federated States of Micronesia: Pohnpei (pronounced Pohn-pay, October 23, 1976), Chuuk (July 7, 1977), and Yap (November 14, 1977).

The gospel message took root and spread quickly in Micronesia, especially in Kiribati, the Marshall Islands, Guam, and several islands in the Federated States of Micronesia. As of 2024, Kiribati and the Marshall Islands each have several stakes, and Guam and Pohnpei have a stake on each main island. Chuuk is close to having a stake. The rest of the islands have small branches. In percentages of population who are Latter-day Saint, three Micronesian nations are among the top ten countries in the world: membership is about 18 percent of the population in Kiribati, just over 12 percent in the Marshall Islands, and about 6 percent in the Federated States of Micronesia.[4]

Memnet Lopez, Filipina Convert from Southern Guam

After the Pacific War brought American military and professional personnel to Guam, the Church began to grow there. In 1953 Latter-day Saints dedicated a chapel made of two Quonset huts in Anigua, Guam. In 1970 the first ward in Guam was organized, and in 1978 Guam was rededicated for the preaching of the gospel by a prayer held atop one of the western mountains. That year Church leaders opened a branch in Merizo in the southern part of the island. This branch eventually moved to Agat,[5] which resulted in more people joining the Church in that area. One family in Agat, Sal and Purificacion Panes and their children, began studying Latter-day Saint teachings in 1978. Here is oldest daughter Memnet’s story:

My family and I emigrated from the Philippines to Guam when I was nine years old. We resided in Agat where I spent my teenage years. I am the oldest of five children. My family were nonpracticing Catholics, but I went to Our Lady of Mount Carmel Church sporadically in Agat. At the Lord’s timetable he sent his missionaries Elder Spencer and Elder Brown to find me at the age of nineteen back in 1978. They knocked on our door one day, and they managed to get a few return visits, but they were not effective. My parents were not about to change religion easily. But one day a senior couple, missionaries Elder and Sister Andrew Kamaouha, visited my parents, and that was where it all started. The Kamaouhas’ small and simple yet patient ministering efforts led to our whole family’s baptism on June 24, 1978. But over the years, I was the only one left to cleave unto my covenants with God. It was a choice on my part—when everyone else in my family drifted away—to choose Heavenly Father and my Savior Jesus Christ. I love my Heavenly Father so much and his Son Jesus Christ, and I love their divine work of salvation. I suppose that my family and I were probably the first local Filipino family in Guam to be baptized. . . . And probably I was also the first Filipina convert who joined the Church in Guam to serve a mission, though I sent in my mission papers from BYU–Hawaii.[6]

Memnet explained how she navigated a cultural conflict with her parents, who wanted her to focus on education rather than serve as a missionary:

My full-time mission for the Lord in the Illinois Chicago Mission from January 1980 to June 1981 has helped pave the way for my earnest pursuit of self-confidence and personal development. I have no regrets that I followed my heart in my decision to serve the Lord without my parents’ blessings, because their dream for me was to become a doctor, and any deviation from that course was perceived as rebellion. I was a disappointment to them and my siblings when I put my education on hold to go and serve the Lord. I dearly love my parents, and I’m grateful they brought me into this world, but I love my Heavenly Father too. I had to make a choice. And I chose to please my Heavenly Father and my Savior.[7]

Memnet P. Lopez about the time she joined the Church in 1978. Courtesy of Memnet P. Lopez.

Memnet graduated from BYU–Hawaii with a bachelor’s degree in biology in 1985. She attended Far Eastern University Medical School–Philippines for two years and married Marlo O. Lopez in the Laie Hawaii Temple. The Lopezes moved to Guam in 1990, where Marlo worked with Seminaries and Institutes of Religion. Throughout their life together, Memnet and Marlo have had many opportunities to use caring and sharing to blend the different cultures they are a part of.

The Lopezes served as mission leaders of the Philippines Bacolod Mission from 2012 to 2015. It was an edifying spiritual experience that Memnet and her husband have forever etched in their hearts. They then moved to Salt Lake City, Utah, in 2015. Memnet was called to the Relief Society general board in 2017. This gave her many opportunities for caring and sharing, as caring and sharing are vital parts of the Relief Society. She also served as a member of the seminary and institute research committee from 2016 to 2020, using this role to nurture young people.

Memnet remembers being in the Conference Center in Salt Lake City when she heard the announcement of the Yigo Guam Temple in 2018. She was excited and hoped she could attend the dedication with her husband. Then in March 2020 they received a phone call asking them to come to an appointment at the Church Administration Building. There President Henry B. Eyring, Second Counselor in the First Presidency, extended a call for them to serve as the first temple president and matron of the Yigo Guam Temple.[8]

Memnet recalls “When we left Guam [years ago], we thought that was it—we would never be coming back to the island. But the Lord sent us back to serve the people. . . . It was very humbling to know that I would be returning back to the island as a temple matron and that my husband and I were called to this sacred assignment.” She added, “The Lord entrusted us with this calling, and so it’s just very humbling, and we’re grateful that we’re given a chance to grow more spiritually in this calling.”[9]

Rosalind Meno Ram, CHamoru Convert Navigating Cultural Currents

Rosalind Meno Ram. Courtesy of Rosalind Meno Ram.

Rosalind Meno Ram, a member of the indigenous CHamoru people of the Mariana Islands (including Guam), navigated cross-cultural currents when she left the Catholic Church of her youth to join The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and when she left her native Guam to study in Hawai‘i and the mainland United States:

Growing up in southern Guam, I found great joy looking at the many tide pools during the low tide. Most of the tide pools had tiny fish swimming in them. They reminded me so much of my upbringing. I lived in a small village where everyone knew each other and where CHamoru customs were deeply enriched with Catholic rituals and teachings. Each church in the village had a patron saint. Malojloj [ma-LO-lo] is my town, and our patron saint is San Isidro. Malojloj is situated in the southeast of Guam with beautiful rolling hills called sabanas and rich soil for farming. Just south of Malojloj is the famous village of Inarajan, which has another Catholic church. The patron saint there is St. Joseph.

Village life revolved around the Catholic church. There was mass, Confraternity of Christian Doctrine (better known as CCD), and service to the parish and the parishioners. Growing up in this very rich culture that intermingled Catholicism and CHamoru, I watched my mom faithfully attend mass and help the Carmelite sisters, the Christian mothers (being one herself), and the parish priest to keep things going for the Catholic Church and the parish—which included the whole village. Mom was devoted to God, the church, and family. I witnessed my father support my mother and our family. He was reserved in his practice of Catholicism; nevertheless, he was known for being a great support to the parish especially in donating crops, holding fiestas, and supporting activities for the parish.

Just like those tiny fish in the tide pool, I was brought up to engage in this Catholic-CHamoru way of life and knew no different. I remember once having a special audience with the Carmelite sisters in their convent along with other parishioners. I must have been twelve years old. I remember saying to one of them that I would like to be like her, a Carmelite nun, one day. She said, “No, Rosalind. You have other things that you need to do.” Needless to say, her response bothered me. It made me sad. Yet that response stuck with me.

My observation led me to be more cognizant of establishing a relationship with God himself and Jesus Christ. At age seventeen (in 1980), I had completed high school classes and was doing an internship with the Seventh-day Adventist Clinic in Tumon. I used the forty-five-minute drive to Tumon from Malojloj as my time to converse with God. I would pour out my heart and soul to God, something that I did not openly do at home because most of our praying was using the rosary to say set prayers. I kept these prayers to myself so as not to offend my parents. Up to the time that I left Guam to attend school on the US mainland, I was very active in the weekly masses, special rituals, rosaries, and teaching of CCD. Many of the Christian mothers observed how faithful I was to the Catholic church. Again, I knew no different.

The little fish in the tide pools experienced the rising of the tide and the change in its ecosystem. No longer did it have the tide pool but instead it had the vast ocean to swim in and explore. That was what going away to college felt like to me. This would not have happened if it were not for a great high school teacher. (This teacher was a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, but he never once spoke at school about his religious affiliation. I found out about it later when I was investigating the Church.)

I attended a vocational high school in Guam. The curriculum structure was such that in a given school day, half my day was spent attending general courses such as English, social studies, and mathematics, which were geared towards preparing for the world of work and not necessarily higher education. The other half of my school day was spent in what was designated a chosen “shop.” A shop ran for a period of three hours and was focused on a trade such as automotive repair, heavy equipment operation, air-conditioning/refrigeration maintenance, secretarial skills, etc. I enrolled in computer science as a shop. There were mainly CHamoru students enrolled. I spent hours trying to learn how to program and through my teacher’s help, I was able to program in five different computer programming languages by my senior year. During our senior year, several of us were placed in internship positions with actual companies in Guam. I worked for the Seventh-day Adventist Clinic full-time.

Before graduation, our teacher pulled three of us, best friends, together and asked what our plans were. We each said that we would work full-time. He offered us an opportunity to go to the mainland for college. It never dawned on me that I could go to college off-island. I did really well in high school and was awarded a full-ride scholarship to the University of Guam (which I turned down), but I had never thought of leaving the island. With the help of our teacher, we each were able to prepare ourselves to go to Mesa, Arizona, and attend Mesa Community College. In Mesa, we were all taught the gospel of Jesus Christ. I was the only one of the three that joined the Church.

In 1981, as I was heading to Mesa, I stopped on Oahu to visit my older sister and her family. My brother-in-law was attending Kapiolani Community College. My sister and brother-in-law took my brother and me around Oahu, and we stopped in the small town of Laie to see this magnificent building. I had no idea what took place in that building, but I felt a very spiritual connection to it. I distinctly remember driving away from the beautiful, white building with immaculate gardens, and a thought came to my mind that someday I would go through that building. I didn’t think any more of it then, but I was reminded of those thoughts about two years later as I was entering the temple for the first time. I was preparing to go on a mission for the Church in Los Angeles.

After I joined the Church in January 1982, I had to face my parents about having changed my religion from Catholicism to being a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. My mom called it the church of the Americanos. It was a painful thing to tell my parents, because I knew they were disappointed in me. I also know that they faced humiliation and shame from family members and villagers because I had changed religious affiliations. I remember my father saying to me, “How could you do that to your mother?” The only words that I could humbly utter were, “Just watch me.” Needless to say, my time back in Guam was brief.

Because of the uncomfortable home situation, I decided to leave for BYU–Hawaii in late July 1982. I walked onto the BYU–Hawaii campus with two pieces of luggage and $65 in hand. I was determined to work at paying my way through school without monetary assistance from my parents. Like most first-generation college students, I struggled navigating college life. In my case, the struggles strengthened my relationship with God. I recall one pay period only having enough money to do one wash and dry load but I did not have laundry soap. So, I prayed to Heavenly Father. The answer I received was to ask Evie for a cup of soap. Evie Malea is my Hawaiian friend from the Big Island. She is a humble and kind sister full of the Aloha spirit. It really humbled me to go and ask Evie for the cup of soap. I did not realize that my determination to be self-sufficient meant I’d have humbling experiences like this. Many experiences at BYU–Hawaii led to my desire to go on a mission. I put in my mission papers in the spring of 1983 and then entered the MTC in the fall of that year. As the second CHamoru sister missionary from Guam, I served from fall 1983 to spring 1985 in the California Los Angeles Mission.

The ocean tide pulls out, and the tide pools return with the tiny fish in them. After completing my mission, I chose to go home to Guam instead of returning to BYU–Hawaii. The Seventh-day Adventist Clinic hired me back. As a returned missionary, I was asked to speak at a Church district conference. Soon after, I also was called to be a district missionary. District president Bill Davis called me, and I worked with President Joseph Keeler, who was the mission president for the Micronesia-Guam Mission at the time. He assigned me to work with the elders based in Agat, my mom’s village. I didn’t waste any time. I went tracting with them and visited with CHamoru families. President Keeler later decided I should not go with the elders and made arrangements for me to go proselytizing with the senior sisters who were serving in the mission office with their husbands.

I distinctly remember going with one of those senior sisters one afternoon. We went to Piti or Asan to do some tracting. One of the doors we knocked on was my first cousin’s husband’s family. It was the greatest feeling to meet up with family. We visited for a while, and we shared a brief message of the gospel. I still remember feeling the Spirit there. It got me excited to be able to share the gospel to the CHamorus, my family and friends, and to be confident in doing so. That is what my mission in LA taught me. In time, President Keeler brought in full-time sister missionaries from Kiribati, Tuvalu, the Marshall Islands, and Palau to proselyte with me. He placed them in Malojloj, my village. I would work during the day at the clinic, and after work, I would come home and do my family responsibilities. Then I would go with the sisters and share the gospel with friends and neighbors for a couple hours. I spent many Saturdays and Sundays doing the same. About fourteen months later, I received an impression to go back to college and pursue my studies, which I did. By then, there was a small branch that was meeting in Merizo. All our labors in the past fourteen months helped to move God’s work in the southern part of Guam among the CHamoru people.[10]

Rosalind graduated from BYU–Hawaii in TESOL with a minor in linguistics and married Tulsi Ram of Fiji. She earned her master’s degree in library science and a doctorate in educational leadership. She was hired as a library faculty member at Brigham Young University–Hawaii, where she became an original cataloger specializing in Pacific materials. For some time, she also managed the Pacific Island Collection there. Her doctoral research involved the study of CHamoru parental involvement in elementary-age children’s lives. Rosalind now serves the BYU–Hawaii community as the associate academic vice president for curriculum and assessment at BYU–Hawaii. She continues to nurture her family and gives back to her Church community by volunteering time as an early-morning seminary teacher. Just as tiny fish experience both the vastness of the ocean and the smallness of tide pools, Rosalind too navigates complexities of being an indigenous CHamoru woman trying to be a disciple of Christ.

Caring Women and Their Families in the Federated States of Micronesia

On July 12, 1978, the people of four former Trust Territory districts—Chuuk, Pohnpei, Kosrae, and Yap—met in a constitutional convention and voted in a referendum to create a body later known as the Federated States of Micronesia.[11] Creation of this sovereign nation reestablished rule by the indigenous peoples of Micronesia.

The various island cultures have much in common. Most Micronesian islands have a matrilineal society that includes a power system of chiefs and noble families.[12] Most islanders belong to Christian churches, and island life focuses on farming, fishing, and community activities.[13] Despite having so much in common, each island group has distinct linguistic and cultural differences that have developed because of the vast distances between islands and the separate colonial and cultural influences that unfolded over hundreds of years.

Following are stories of early converts from Chuuk and Pohnpei who navigated cultural challenges through establishing traditions of caring and sharing.

The Federated States of Micronesia is a country within the region of Micronesia. US Central Intelligence Agency, Federated States of Micronesia (Political) 1999, Perry-Castañeda Library Map Collection: Federated States of Micronesia Maps. Public domain.

Tasiana Walter Wolbert, Seminary Teacher in Chuuk

The first converts in Chuuk, T. M. Conrad Mailo and his wife, Nisor Cerly David, joined the Church on October 22, 1977. Branches soon formed in the villages of Mwan and Sapuk on the main island. Branches later formed on many other nearby islands.

Tasiana Walter (Wolbert) and Rendi Wolbert. Photograph by R. Devan Jensen

Tasiana Walter Wolbert is a seminary teacher in Chuuk who is working to help Chuukese youth overcome societal challenges and prepare to serve as missionaries and future leaders. She joined the Church in the early 1980s. She became one of the first full-time sister missionaries in the Micronesia Guam Mission, serving in Pohnpei from 1987 to 1988.

Shortly after serving as a missionary, Tasiana married Rendi Wolbert, and they have twelve children. Then Tasiana was called as a seminary teacher, and many of her children were in her class.

Tasiana Wolbert said, “We have fourteen seminary kids in my class, and I teach them about the Old Testament. And we learn about the gospel, like more about Jesus Christ, and we verily enjoy the scripture mastery that I give them. They like to play with the scripture mastery. They really work hard on their attendance so that they can take their certificates.”[14] Several of Tasiana’s seminary students, including her children, were featured in the New Era in an article about keeping the Sabbath day holy. As the pioneering converts in Micronesia grow older, young leaders such as these are rising to take their place.

Corruption in government, child abuse, and domestic violence are extensive challenges in Chuuk. Latter-day Saint leaders, teachers, and young people provide counterbalances to those cultural challenges because of the focus on Christlike values of faith, honesty, love, and service and the Church’s emphasis on family unity and the Word of Wisdom. Still, both positive and negative peer pressure continue to powerfully influence Chuukese members. Like the tides in the Chuuk lagoon, membership has risen and fallen and risen again. Many indigenous leaders are rock-solid and are establishing a rising generation of faithful future leaders who will care for their communities and heal family rifts.

The Joel Family, Converts from Pohnpei

Pohnpei is a lush, rainy tropical island-state in the Eastern Caroline Islands. It is home to Palikir, the capital city of the Federated States of Micronesia. Surrounding Pohnpei are the islands of Mwokil, Pingelap, Kosrae, Nukuoro, Kapingamarangi, and Sapwuahfik. The currents of chiefly and clan structures, colonialism, and Christianity have mingled to create strong cultural waves for islanders to navigate.

Left to right: 1977 photos of Bella Joel with son Ricky, Elder Alan Winter, Rinster Joel with daughter Jayleen. Photograph by Chris Harrison.

Rinster and Bella Joel were among the first converts in Pohnpei. In March 1977, Rinster was employed at building a new lighting system for the airport runway. He had seen the Latter-day Saint missionaries on the streets of his village and thought about chatting with them.

One day Rinster met the missionaries at their apartment, where he had lingered outside for two hours in the rain waiting to talk to them. “As he entered our home,” wrote Elder Chris Harrison, one of those missionaries, “he said he had been waiting for us so he could set up an appointment. He said after the first time we talked for only five minutes, he knew that we had a true message and he wanted to know what he and his wife must do to hear our message and be baptized.” Harrison testified, “I know that it was nothing we said in those five minutes that got him so excited. I know that it was the Spirit touching his spirit.”[15]

Rinster felt the Spirit’s witness and joined the Church, but he faced opposition from his fellow islanders, including his wife Bella’s grandfather, who was a minister in another Christian church. Living on Pohnpei is the ultimate small-town experience: people know each other so well that they sometimes exclude or criticize those who are different.

Rinster and Bella lived with Bella’s grandfather, so they felt uncomfortable about having the missionaries visit them at home, and they sometimes made up excuses so the elders would leave. Sometimes when the missionaries arrived, Bella would begin chopping wood or cooking, signaling that she was busy. However, the missionaries were patient and promised to return, which they usually did an hour or two later. Bella remembers them as being very persistent. She joined the Church on September 24, 1977, because of her husband’s wishes. After joining the Church, Rinster and Bella were persecuted by people of other faiths. “One day after I had joined the Church, our neighbors, who were mostly Baptists, claimed that I burned a pamphlet made by their church,” Bella recalled. “They said that they felt sorry for me and my husband and our two young children because I had put kerosene on the pamphlet, lit it, and watched it burn all the way to light a cooking fire. I can’t recall if I had actually burned the pamphlet, but they just said I was a worshiper of the ‘anti-Christ.’” Bella’s testimony began to grow as she continued to attend Church meetings. Bella is grateful for the impact of the gospel on her children, who were spared from many of the challenges Western culture has brought to the islanders, including alcoholism. “Above all the other reasons I am thankful for the Church is that when I hear screaming [by young men drinking and disturbing the peace] I know that Ricky is not involved,” she noted when her children were teenagers. “My mother says I am a lucky mother because of what the Church has done for my children.”[16]

President Gordon B. Hinckley visited the Brigham Young University–Hawaii campus on January 22, 2000. Ricky Joel, front left, worked at the cafeteria. Courtesy of Ricky Joel.

Rinster and Bella’s son Ricky eventually served a mission in Los Angeles, California, and attended college at Brigham Young University–Hawaii. Ricky remembers several encounters with Church President Gordon B. Hinckley during those years. “President Hinckley spoke during some of the major highlights of my single life, during my mission in Los Angeles, where three missions gathered to hear him speak, while being a college student [January 2000], and during my graduation ceremony at BYU–Hawaii,” Ricky wrote.[17] Ricky was later called as the branch president in Kolonia, Pohnpei, and served there for several years before moving to Utah for more economic opportunities. Inspired by the spirit of family history, he began gathering stories and photos of many early pioneering members before they died.

Kathy Joel Matthew, one of Ricky’s sisters, who also lives in Utah, is the communications director of United Micronesian Women (UMW), where she has worked closely with two of the founders, Melsihna Ramon Folau and Persida Samson (originally from Pohnpei) and the group’s accountant, Elina Fred (from Kosrae). Consisting of women who have emigrated from many Micronesian islands, the organization helps islanders find resources available to them in the United States.[18] They received a Spirit of Collaboration Award from the Utah Pacific Women Health Coalition for helping Micronesians with healthcare. Ricky and Kathy both continue the legacy of caring and sharing that their parents taught them.

Micronesian Women in the Diaspora

Because economic development in Micronesia trails behind that of many nations, emigration is an important tool for individuals and families seeking to improve their economic and educational conditions. Though some have seen emigration as a negative factor, taking away educated people that might help solve their countries’ problems, emigration is actually essential to these tiny countries, providing more room for a growing population and access to worldwide resources.[19] In fact, emigration, “far from being seen as a menace that threatens to deplete the islands’ human resources, is counted upon as an essential element in the Micronesian states’ strategy for economic and political survival.”[20] So emigration may be viewed as a beneficial strategy for many Micronesians. Today there are substantial Micronesian Latter-day Saint congregations in Hawai‘i, Washington, Oregon, Iowa, Utah, Arkansas, Missouri, and North Carolina.[21]

All these congregations have their own networks of caring and sharing, connecting Micronesians at home and in the wider world. Whether on their native islands, in other areas of Micronesia, or in other countries, Micronesian women have found success by following “the kinship doctrine of eaea fengen (sharing) and alilis fengen (assisting each other).”[22] We see the traits of caring and sharing in the women of Micronesia as they navigate cultural waves throughout the world.

Notes

[1] James B. Tueller, “Networks of Conversion: Catholic Congregations in the Marianas Islands, 1668–1898,” in Conversion to Christianity from Late Antiquity to the Modern Age: Considering the Process in Europe, Asia, and the Americas (Minneapolis: Minnesota Studies in Early Modern History, 2009), 333–60.

[2] Francis X. Hezel, Strangers in Their Own Land: A Century of Colonial Rule in the Caroline and Marshall Islands (Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press, 2003), 9.

[3] Gonzaga Puas, The Federated States of Micronesia’s Engagement with the Outside World: Control, Self-Preservation and Continuity (Acton: Australian National Press, 2021), 1.

[4] David Schneider, “Which Countries Have the Largest Percentages of Their Populations as Latter-day Saints?'” Church News, December 16, 2021; Matthew Martinich, country resources, https://www.cumorah.com /countries; “Growth of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church),” April 25, 2018, http://ldschurchgrowth.blogspot.com /2018/04/percent-lds-by-country-2017.html.

[5] Newton R. Passauer, comp., “Church History on Guam,” in Newton R. Passauer Guam Church history collection, 1986–2014, 17–18, MS 28080, Church History Library, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Salt Lake City.

[6] Memnet Lopez, email to Christina Hicks and R. Devan Jensen, August 4, 2021.

[7] Memnet Lopez, email to R. Devan Jensen, February 20, 2023.

[8] Marlo Oliveros Lopez and Memnet Panes Lopez, Zoom interview by Po Nien (Felipe) Chou

and Petra Chou, November 23, 2021.

[9] Lopez and Lopez, interview.

[10] Rosalind Meno Ram, email to R. Devan Jensen, May 8, 2022.

[11] Michel R. Lupant, “From the Trust Territory of Pacific to the Federated States of Micronesia,” in Proceedings of the 24th International Congress of Vexillology–2011 (Washington, DC: 2015), 694.

[12] Lin Poyer, Laurence M. Carucci, and Suzanne Falgout, “Micronesian Chiefs under American Rule: Military Occupation, Democracy, and Trajectories of Traditional Leadership,” Journal of Policy History 28, no. 1 (January 2016): 105–32.

[13] David G. Stewart Jr., and Matthew Martinich, “Federated States of Micronesia,” in Reaching the Nations: International Church Growth Encyclopedia, 2014 ed. (Henderson, NV: Cumorah Foundation, 2013), 1:507.

[14] Wolbert, interview.

[15] Journal of Chris Harrison, March 17, 1977.

[16] Bella Joel, interview by Ricky Joel, February 2007, in author’s possession.

[17] Ricky Joel, email to R. Devan Jensen, May 23, 2007.

[18] Melsihna Ramon Folau, email to R. Devan Jensen, December 28, 2020.

[19] Francis X. Hezel, Micronesians on the Move: Eastward and Upward Bound (Honolulu: East-West Center, 2013), 3.

[20] Francis X. Hezel, “Micronesian Emigration: The Brain Drain in Palau, Marshalls and the Federated States,” http://micronesianseminar.org.

[21] Benjamin T. Beasley, “Recent Convert Helps Teach Other Micronesians in Their Language,” Church News, January 23, 2017.

[22] Puas, Federated States of Micronesia’s Engagement, 1.