A journal of Mormon thought.

Peter and Helene Youngson family history. Immigrants from Denmark moved to and farmed near Valparaiso, Indiana 1858 thru 1876. Peter fought in the Civil War and in 1876 moved to Kearney County, Nebraska to Homestead. After Peter died in 1879, Helene farmed with her children, eventually moved into town, Minden, NE and later followed her daughters to Denver, CO where she lived until her death. Helene and Peter are both buried in the Osco cemetery, just south of Norman, NE. This book was initially compiled by stories put together by Charlene Villars in 1983 and in 2015 we have updated as much as she and I have been able to find.

2013 Best International Book Award, Mormon History Association From the arrival of the first Mormon missionaries in New Zealand in 1854 until stakehood and the dedication of the Hamilton New Zealand Temple in 1958, Tiki and Temple tells the enthralling story of Mormonism’s encounter with the genuinely different but surprisingly harmonious Maori culture. Mormon interest in the Maori can be documented to 1832, soon after Joseph Smith organized the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in America. Under his successor Brigham Young, Mormon missionaries arrived in New Zealand in 1854, but another three decades passed before they began sustained proselytising among the Maori people—living in Maori pa, eating eels and potatoes with their fingers from communal dishes, learning to speak the language, and establishing schools. They grew to love—and were loved by—their Maori converts, whose numbers mushroomed until by 1898, when the Australasian Mission was divided, the New Zealand Mission was ten times larger than the parent Australian Mission. The New Zealand Mission of the Mormon Church was virtually two missions—one to the English-speaking immigrants and their descendants, and one to the tangata whenu—“people of the land.” The difficulties this dichotomy caused, as both leaders and converts struggled with cultural differences and their isolation from Church headquarters, make a fascinating story. Drawing on hitherto untapped sources, including missionary journals and letters and government documents, this absorbing book is the fullest narrative available of Mormonism’s flourishing in New Zealand. Although written primarily for a Latter-day Saint audience, this book fills a gap for anyone interested in an accurate and coherent account of the growth of Mormonism in New Zealand.