Elder Taniela B. Wakolo, a General Authority Seventy and member of the Pacific Area presidency, met with the president of the Republic of Kiribati, His Excellency Taneti Maamau, and first lady Teiraeng Maamau during a dinner reception at the State House in Bairiki, Tarawa, Kiribati, on Saturday, Jan. 14.
Elder Wakolo and his wife, Sister Anita Wakolo, and Elder Iotua Tune, an Area Seventy, and his wife, Sister Maii Tune, presented the president and first lady with a framed picture of Jesus Christ and thanked the couple for being champions of religious freedom.
Kiribati (pronounced Kee-ree-bus) is a collection of more than 30 Micronesian islands in the mid-Pacific, near where the equator and international dateline meet.
The Church has grown steadily in the island country. The first stake was created in 1996 by Elder L. Tom Perry of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. Today, the country is home to roughly 22,000 Latter-day Saints in 42 congregations.
Elder Wakolo invited President Maamau to attend the upcoming, but not yet scheduled, groundbreaking and open house of the Tarawa Kiribati Temple, which President Russell M. Nelson announced in October 2020 general conference.
Two small choirs of former Latter-day Saint missionaries provided music for the occasion. They had returned home to Kiribati after serving in Kiribati, Africa, Australia, the United States, England and the Philippines.
According to the Church’s Pacific Newsroom, Maamau told the returned missionaries, “Your country is very proud of all of you.”
During Elder Wakolo’s visit, he also traveled with the Kiribati vice president, Honourable Teuea Toatu, and his wife, Madam Toatu, to Abaiang Island, where they met the mayor, Madam Neilson Ua Ariera, and presented a donation of laptops. The screens will help to enhance teaching in secondary schools.