In the heart of French Polynesia 40 Church members live on a tiny remote island - about the size of a Salt Lake City block - without stores, government offices, cars, telephones or doctors.
They live on fish, fruit, coconut milk and rain water, and don't have much in common with members of the Church who take modern technology for granted. However, they share with Church members across the world a strong love of the gospel."You find out it is the same gospel on this island as it is anywhere else in the Church." Elder V. Dallas Merrell of the Seventy said after a recent visit to Taenga, part of a chain of atolls known as Tuamotu Archipelago. "They worship the same God and use the same scriptures."
They also attend Church, do their visiting and home teaching and strive to keep active temple recommends - even though the nearest temple in Tahiti is two days away by boat.
Elder Merrell, first counselor in the Pacific Area presidency, and his wife, Karen, rode in both a plane and a boat to get from Papeete, Tahiti, to the branch. Trading boats frequent the island every couple weeks, but other outsiders rarely visit.
The remote island, part of the Tahiti Papeete Mission, is home to between 50 and 60 people, said mission Pres. Victor D. Cave.
Most of the power used in the small community is solar. The islanders rise in the morning with the sun and go to bed at night as it sets. The LDS meetinghouse is one of the island's few modern buildings.
Men and women spend an average day fishing, weaving or working in pearl farms. Pres. Cave said islanders also like to sing. Their children sweep the entire coral island at sunrise, attend school and spend their afternoons swimming or playing volleyball and basketball.
In order to use a telephone or see a doctor, islanders must travel one and a half hours by boat to Makemo - the closest modern island.
Full-time missionaries spend three weeks a year on Taenga, and members of the mission presidency make an annual visit to conduct temple recommend and priesthood advancement interviews.
Elder Merrell said the people living on Taenga have learned "the joy of the simple life, the devoted life."
Pres. Cave said he has never seen a cleaner, more immaculate place and explained that it is easy to feel the Spirit from the "very special people" who live on the island. Members on the island are currently helping to prepare, at a great sacrifice, a young man to serve a full-time mission, Pres. Cave added.
Elder Merrell said he could not believe how generous the people on the island were.
The branch president and his family moved out of their home so Elder Merrell and his wife would have some place private to stay during their three-day visit. Almost every branch member greeted the couple as they arrived and departed from the island. Elder Merrell described both the greeting and the goodbye as touching, adding that there was a special feeling on the island.
Elder Merrell, the first General Authority to visit the island in 10 years, spoke to the island members in a special mid-week Church meeting.
"I asked the Primary children to sing for me at the general membership meeting and they got up and sang `I love to see the temple.' Many have never seen a temple," he said. "They got up and sang it with all the feeling and tenderness of little children who have an ideal and love the Lord and recognize that as His house."
He also told the island Saints of President Hinckley's love for them.
"I told them I had heard President Hinckley say several times how grateful he was for the good and faithful Saints throughout the world," he remembered. "I said, `You're included.' "
