WILMER JOEL
A high-level visitor from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has not been to the Marshall Islands since 2011. This reality was brought home during Apostle Elder Quentin L. Cook’s two-day visit to Ebeye and Majuro last week.
Cook is the second apostle from the Quorum of the Twelve to visit the island nation after Elder David A. Bednar. Before his arrival, he was in Australia, Fiji, and Kiribati as part of his ministering tour in the Pacific, which started on May 19.
Accompanying Elder Cook were Pacific Area President Peter Meurs, Area Seventy Iotua Tune, Laie Hawaii Temple President Finua Hakofa, Mission President John Kendall, and their wives Mary, Maxine, Maii, Megan, and Lucy, along with his security detail and church media.
Elder Cook reads from Section 1 of the Doctrine and Covenants, a canon of scripture used by Latter-day Saints. The verse begins, “Verily, I say: Hearken ye people from afar; and ye that are upon the islands of the sea, listen together.” He added, “The Lord loves the people who live on the islands of the sea.”
Both stakes centers on Majuro and Ebeye were full to capacity when this address was made. Cook said one of his responsibilities is to “testify of Jesus Christ (that) He lives, that He is divine, that He is our Savior and our Redeemer.”
In his final moments on Majuro during a “special” conference, he bestowed an apostolic blessing on the leaders of the nation, members of the church, and to further missionary work in the islands.