On the lush tropical island country of Palau, where carved storyboards are cherished heirlooms passed down through generations, a sacred story unfolded not on wood but through the quiet redemption of a man’s life coming full circle.
Found in the western Pacific Ocean, the country of Palau consists of over 300 coral and volcanic islands and nearly 22,000 people. Palau has one branch, the Koror Branch, and 421 Latter-day Saints.
It was a quiet Sunday afternoon in 2025, in the island state Ngaraard, Palau, when a reunion took place that neither party had expected but both had unknowingly awaited for decades.
Tobias Kuchad, known as Toby, now 70 years old, welcomed two senior missionaries into his home—Elder Scott Lieber and Sister Kristin Lieber—unaware that they held pieces of his past in their hearts and home.
Elder and Sister Lieber began their mission in the Micronesia Guam Mission in January. Elder Lieber served in the same mission nearly 40 years ago, and as an early missionary in Palau, he wrote a Palaun language and culture introduction to help missionaries.
Kuchad began carving storyboards while incarcerated as a young man. During those dark years, two young Latter-day Saint missionaries had come to visit the prison regularly, reported the Church’s Guam/Micronesia Newsroom.
He couldn’t remember their names, but he never forgot the feeling of those visits or the first time he read from the Book of Mormon. It brought him light. It brought him Christ.
Years later, that same spirit prompted his baptism. He transformed not only as a man but as an artist. His work evolved from telling Palauan legends to depicting scenes from scripture, echoing the truth that had once been revealed to him in a jail cell.
As Elder Lieber listened to Kuchad’s story, memories stirred. He had served as a young missionary in Palau in 1983–84. And his companion at the time, Elder Kale Au, had once introduced him to a young man—an inmate, a carver. Could this be him?
Read the rest of the story at the Church News.
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