This Micronesian island just celebrated 40 years of the Church

Kosrae, a small island state of Micronesia about 400 miles from the equator and found between Hawaii and Guam, celebrated 40 years of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints on the island in March 2025, reported the Church’s Guam/Micronesia Newsroom.

But those good, celebratory feelings have not always been there.

A rocky start in Kosrae

Winding the clock back to 1985, Kosrae had been a “one-religion island” for over a century, dominated by the Protestant Congregational church. When missionaries and Church leaders stepped onto Kosrae’s shores on March 25 that year, they met a cold reception.

Local ministers warned, “There are already enough churches on Kosrae.” Strangers scowled at the pair of elders riding their bicycles down the jungle-lined road. The missionary’s apartment even had rocks thrown at it.

Yet the Church missionaries and leaders did not pack up and leave. Instead, they prayed — in fact, President Joseph B. Keeler, then-president of the Micronesia Guam Mission, said a prayer, inviting the Lord’s work to begin on that humble island.

In that March 27, 1985, meeting in the Sandy Beach Hotel, he also set apart two young elders from Pingelap, Micronesia — Elder Matterson Ramon and Elder Ioichey Diopulus.

Also in attendance were Latter-day Saints Roy and Helen Sievers and their four children, living in the Marshall Islands who were visiting a friend on the island, Sepe Hein, who was not yet a member but joined them at the meeting. Naomi Johnny, who lived on the neighboring island of Pohnpei was also there. She traveled to Kosrae two days earlier to find a place for the Elders to live. She would go on to serve as the Kosrae District Relief Society President and introduce the gospel to many. President of the Pohnpei District, D. Willard Paxman and his wife were also in attendance. At the conclusion of the meeting, those Latter-day Saints and friends shared their testimonies.

As they closed that inaugural meeting, a knock came at the door almost immediately. They opened it to find a Congregational deacon who had something to say about their arrival.

“I speak for the people of Kosrae,” he declared. “We would appreciate it if the [Latter-day Saints] did not try to establish their church here.”

President Keeler replied that they had come by God’s direction — and they would not leave unless God directed.

Two days later, as if to underscore the resistance, the Kosraean legislature passed a resolution asking the Church not to proselytize on the island.

With that challenging start, it would have been difficult to predict that decades later, Latter-day Saints would be singing hymns in the Kosraean language, running multiple congregations and working with the government to help those in need. But that is exactly what happened — one small miracle at a time.

It seemed that the Lord did remember those upon the isles of the sea (see 2 Nephi 29:7).

Slow and steady

In the summer of 1986, about a year after that fateful knock on the door, the missionaries in Kosrae held a baptismal service.

A mission history explains that only a handful of people attended, but those there witnessed “a glorious day”: the first Kosraean baptized into the faith on home soil. He was a 22-year-old named Isidro Abraham.

From that point, the little Church began to gain local members slowly but surely. A young sailor, Elisha Kurr, received a Book of Mormon from Naomi Johnny on a cargo ship and read it hungrily. When he returned home to Kosrae, he sought out the missionaries.

His wife, Rose Kurr, was skeptical — the story of Joseph Smith seeing God and Jesus, she thought, “couldn’t be true because it wasn’t in the Bible.” But Rose Kurr decided to pray about it. She had her own witness, and Elisha Kurr and Rose Kurr were soon baptized together in a river, becoming one of Kosrae’s first Latter-day Saint families.

Around August 1986, a chapel in Lelu was completed. Before then, meetings were held outside or in Church leaders’ homes.

By 1990, there were enough local converts to organize an official Kosrae Micronesia District of the Church. At a small meetinghouse in Lelu village, dozens of Kosraean Saints — most of them first-generation members — gathered for the district’s inaugural conference.

They sustained one of their own, Charley Japed Jim, as the newly called district president. Jim had been the Utwe Branch president, holding meetings in his home, and the first Kosraean to receive his temple endowment in 1989.

Those early days were not without turmoil. When the Latter-day Saints built their first chapel in Utwe, some critics tried to stop it — a few angry individuals even threw rocks at the missionaries’ windows at night.

But the harassment failed to drive anyone away. In fact, the opposition unwittingly produced a community tradition: because the Protestants pressured the village to forbid the Saints from holding activities in the town hall, a senior couple on the island, Elder Walter Elsby and Sister Marjorie Elsby, started hosting movie nights in their own backyard instead.

They played family films and to their astonishment, over 170 people squeezed in to watch.

Soon senior couples were also inviting neighbors over on Monday evenings for family home evening, teaching them songs and games. The ice was breaking. “We find them friendly and generous and kind,” Sister Georgia Whatcott wrote of their Kosraean neighbors in 1990, marveling at how the prevailing perception changed in five years.

Continued work and conversion

With friendly community and government relations, from 1990 onward, growth of the Church was steady and consistent.

On Jan. 24, 1992, the Utwe chapel was dedicated. In October, the chapel in Lelu was torn down to make way for a larger meetinghouse. On Dec. 3 of the same year, the Malem chapel was dedicated. Finally in January 1993, the new Lelu chapel, and a permanent baptismal font were completed and dedicated.

In February of 1992, the first sister missionaries were called to Kosrae: Sister Andrea Torgeson and Sister Myrna Finau.

In 1997, a selection of hymns was translated into Kosraean. Sepe Lowary, who attended that first meeting in the Sandy Beach Hotel, assisted in the translation of hymns.

For some three years, Latter-day Saints in Kosrae saved up enough money to travel to the Manila Philippines Temple to perform temple work. Finally, in 2000, 20 adults and 17 youth made the multi-day journey to Manila.

By the end of the trip, all of the adults had received their temple endowments, seven couples and eight families were sealed, and vicarious ordinances were performed for 157 individuals.

In 2007, six individuals joined the Church; in 2008, nine were baptized; and in 2009, upward of 20 joined.

Since April 2008, general conference talks have been translated into Kosraean. The Liahona has been translated into Kosraean since 2010.

With a young life expectancy at only 65 years old and coastal erosion around the island, some Kosraean citizens have opted to move to other islands or the United States. In 2001, the Malem Branch was dissolved, and those Latter-day Saints joined the Utwe or Lelu branches.

Sister Della Dyke, a senior missionary serving on Kosrae, also explained that the COVID-19 pandemic was detrimental to many members on the island.

“The missionaries all left, members couldn’t gather, and Church leaders couldn’t visit to give support,” she said.

The island was without missionaries until August of 2022. In 2023, the Kosrae Micronesia District was dissolved, and those branches became part of the Micronesia Guam Mission.

Despite these setbacks, the two young missionary companionships and one senior missionary companionship still find success on the island. Part of that success can be found in the continual growth of the Church. In 2024, 12 individuals were baptized and became members of the Church. In 2025, 10 individuals have been baptized thus far.

110th translation of the Book of Mormon

One of the most important events in the Church’s history in Kosrae happened in 2015, when the Book of Mormon was finally published in their own language.

According to a book called “Battlefields to Temple Grounds,“ published by BYU’s Religious Studies Center, the First Presidency approved the translation of the Book of Mormon in 2009 — a time when there were only 300 Kosraean-speaking Saints.

To celebrate the translation, Saints gathered for a Book of Mormon cultural celebration, reenacting key moments from scripture.

A senior couple, Elder Clark Hardy and Sister Lorna Hardy, wrote together that, “The cultural celebration included singing, dancing and crafts. The two branches also had a combined choir that was amazing.”

Humanitarian work on Kosrae

From 1985 to 2025, the public perception of the Church throughout Kosrae has completely changed. The Latter-day Saint community in Kosrae is still relatively small — a few hundred members among thousands — but its influence reaches far beyond its numbers. Perhaps nowhere is that more visible than in the realm of humanitarian service. The same Church that was once asked to leave has become known for its helping hands.

In 2003, Kosraean legislature even honored the Church with a resolution expressing “sincerest appreciation for the humanitarian donations of the Church of Jesus Christ.” The gratitude expressed then was only the beginning; they have given other formal resolutions of thanks, including in 2024 and 2019. David W. Panuelo, the president of the Federated States of Micronesia, has met with Church leaders multiple times.

From 1998 to 2025, the Church has participated in more than 40 humanitarian projects in Kosrae that included working with Kosrae’s departments of health and education. For 21 of those 27 years, the Church has facilitated invaluable service on the island through donating over hundreds of wheelchairs, greenhouses, hygiene kits and medical supplies.

40 years of Christ’s Church

This year, the Latter-day Saints on Kosrae celebrate the Church’s 40th anniversary on the island — four decades since that first prayer in 1985. They held celebrations where they sang hymns in Kosraean, shared memories and honored the pioneer converts who lit the way.

President Molton Mongkeya, Lelu Branch president — also a former member of the committee to approve the translation of the Book of Mormon into Kosraean — reflected on the Church in Kosrae: “I have seen members of the Church become more courageous and confident because of the missionaries and the wonderful message of the gospel of Jesus Christ.”

President Tom Stillwaugh, second counselor in the Micronesia Guam Mission presidency, explained that both members and non-members came to enjoy the festivities.

“They had fun putting together the pictures and talking about past events,” he said. “And talking about how the Church has changed and grown there.”

His wife, Sister Terri Stillwaugh, a senior missionary, said, “It’s just a big family and the locals that have been members for a long time love the gospel.”

President and Sister Stillwaugh shared that Latter-day Saints discussed and found God’s hand in the details of their history.

Indeed, God’s hand is evident over the last 40 years — in changed hearts, in thriving vegetable gardens, in full classrooms, in healed bodies and in the fellowship of former strangers.

The Church in Kosrae through pictures

40th anniversary celebration

2015 Book of Mormon celebration

Members, missionaries and good times

Service projects and humanitarian work