Robert L. Simpson
Now, young people, as I bear my testimony to you this morning, I want to relate some very intimate happenings. I want to tell you some things that have been important in my life, things that have been main structural supports in my testimony, and I want to tell them to you in all humility. I hope you will not misconstrue these remarks. I want you to be sure and realize that I tell them to you not in a boasting way. I tell them to you just because they are a part of my life and so much a part of my life that I do not know how to separate myself from them. I give them to you in hopes that you might be able to at least remember the spirit of what I say and perhaps make it a small part of your testimony, too.
"I would like, in making reference to these wonderful people from New Zealand-especially the Maori folks here today-to turn to Alma 53:5Alma 53:6Alma 53:7Alma 53:8Alma 63:5-8, and read a very significant quotation. It talks about a man called Hagoth, a man who set sail from these Americas many centuries ago. (quotes Alma 63:5-8).
"I would like to tell you young people that in a great gathering of Polynesians held right in Salt Lake City just prior to 1915, a prophet of the Lord, President Joseph F. Smith, addressing a group of Polynesians who had come to Salt Lake City to participate in their temple endowment work, made the statement that without a doubt this man Hagoth and his company were the progenitors of the Polynesian races, and that this migration was the beginning of the Polynesian population in the South Pacific.
"Now up until very recently men of science have said, no, the Polynesians have come from the Malay States, they have come from the African, from the Asian side, and they have migrated from a westerly direction to the Polynesian islands-not from the Americas. This has been popular thinking until about 1940, when a very bold scholar by the name of Thor Heyerdahl made the observation that indeed these people must be from the Americas. He set out to prove this by building some balsa rafts on which he set himself adrift off the shores of South and Central America. He and his companions drifted for about one hundred days, and depending only on the prevailing tides and winds of that area, they found themselves cast upon the shores of these South Pacific islands, not far from Tahiti. It seems rather significant that all of a sudden scientific opinion began to change and Thor Heyerdahl, since that day, has presented additional evidences that have further made it a very important consideration-that the Polynesians did originate from the Americas.
"Now the Maoris themselves have something to say about this theory. They all have the same answer to the questions, ’Where did your people come from? Where did you originate?’ The answer is always the same:
’I haere mai matou i tawhiti nui, i tawhiti roe, i tawhiti pamamau i te hono i te wai e rua.’ (’We came from a great distance, from a still greater distance, from a very, very great distance, from the joining place of two great waters. ’)
"Perhaps by the narrow neck of land that separated the two great seas, the narrow neck of land which led into the land northward. This is Maori tradition and I want to tell you that those who have joined the Church believe without reservation, that these things I have told you are part and parcel of Mormon doctrine. (BYU Speeches of the Year, April 4, 1962, p. 6.)
Mark E. Petersen
“…the Polynesian Saints are characterized by a tremendous faith. 10217Why do they have this great faith? It is because these people are of the blood of Israel. They are heirs to the promises of the Book of Mormon. God is now awakening them to their great destiny.” (Conference Report, Apr. 1962, p. 112)