Pres. Eb Davis and the start of the LDS Church in Kiribati

President Eb Davis and his wife currently serve a the Temple President and Matron at the Suva, Fiji Temple.  He was on assignment from the Brethren to attend the stake conference of the Kiribati Tarawa East Stake as discussed in a previous post.  He was asked by the presiding authority - Elder Kevin W. Pearson to relate his story in Kiribati 40 years earlier.  The following is a summary of his remarks

President and Sister Eb Davis, President and Matron of the Suva, Fiji Temple

President Davis served as the mission president of the Fijian mission in the early 1970's. The mission included many of the islands in the Pacific including what were then known as the Gilbert Islands which later became Kiribati which also included the Phoenix and Line Island groups. At the time there were no members, no chapels, no missionaries in the Gilbert Islands.

President Davis related how he received a letter from Waitea Ataria, the principal of AKAS, a small private primary school in Tarawa. The letter was a request to allow some of his students to attend the church school in Tonga (Liahona High School). So Pres. Davis made the 2000 plus mile trip to Tarawa where he met with Waitea. He also met with the British authorities who ruled the Gilbert Islands. He was told that the British did not want any more Gilbertese students attending secondary school. The only wanted enough students graduating from high school to fill the available government and other jobs. This meant only about 5 to 6 percent of students were allowed to attend secondary school. The British felt if more were educated and couldn't get jobs they would become dissatisfied with the government.

Pres. Davis returned to Fiji, but he had felt a special spirit among the Gilbertese people.  His heart was touched by the Lord's Spirit and knew that the Gospel needed to come to these island people.  So he again returned to Tarawa to request from the British permission to establish a church in Tarawa and begin missionary work. He was told by British officials that there didn't need any more religions in the Gilberts.

He was also informed that to start a church there had to be 30 members. Foreign missionaries could not be brought to the Gilberts until the church was officially recognized by the government, nor could any baptisms be performed.  So again President Davis returned to Fiji.

But the Lord is wiser than the Devil and the British Government. A request was made by the Church Commissioner of Education Neal L. Maxwell to send students from the AKAS school to Liahona High School. The Brethren were concerned about what would happen to the students if they were baptized and returned to the Gilberts where no church organization or structure was in place. Finally, after deliberation and prayer - approval was given for 12 students from AKAS to attend Liahona on a trial basis. In 1972 President Davis and George Puckett, Superintendent of Church Schools in Tonga, returned to Tarawa and to the AKAS school to select 12 students to attend Liahona High school. President Davis came to know that the school was the key to the future of the church in the Gilbert Islands.

All 12 students joined the church while at Liahona and a few years later 6 of these students returned as the first LDS missionaries. The British Government would not let foreign missionaries in but, they didn't know the Lord was years ahead of them and was preparing Gilbertese missionaries to come to Tarawa. From this humble beginning, when the first missionaries arrived in Tarawa, there are now about 15,000 members in Kiribati.

President Davis said it is a Dream Come True for him. Seeing the growth of the church, the chapels, church school and faithful members in Kiribati. The pioneers helped get things started but those in the audience have done the work in building up the Kingdom. But, the work is not done, there are thousands more who need to hear the Gospel. There are those who are lost, who need to be rescued and brought back into the church.

The Lord is in charge of the work and when he is ready to open the work in a country "no unhallowed hand can stop the work.