Editor's note: This is one in a series on the Book of Mormon translations and translators. The Pacific Islands span multiple languages and a variety of translation stories. From Tongan to Maori, from as early as the 1840s through today, translating the Book of Mormon for faithful members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints on these hundreds of islands has been a constant work in progress.
According to the Deseret News’ 2011 Church Almanac, the first missionaries to venture into the Pacific were called in 1843 for the first non-English proselytizing in the history of the church — only 13 years after the LDS Church was organized. Aiming for the Sandwich Islands (now Hawaii), they wound up in Tubai, part of French Polynesia.