A group of members and friends of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in New Caledonia enjoyed a special experience recently.
The occasion was a small gathering to help a young woman, Sylverine Ouamambare, prepare to embark on 18 months missionary service in Vanuatu.
President Georgie Guidi, a local lay Latter-day Saint leader who came to "set apart" Sylverine for her mission, conducted the special evening.
Latter-day Saints are "set apart" through a special prayer before engaging in full time missionary service as well as begin other church assignments.
During the prayer, President Guidi mentioned the chiefly lineage from which Sylverine descends. He acknowledged her father, Serge Ouamambare, the current Kere Tribal Chief, who attended the small gathering with his wife, and their youngest daughter, Emma.
After the closing prayer, Chief Ouamambare asked to speak. "We have seen a tremendous change since our daughter attended your church,” he began.
“I'm proud of her. She is an example for her siblings and cousins in the tribe."
He expressed a desire that others would "follow the same path."
Once Chief Ouamambare had finished speaking, Mrs Ouamambare also spoke to the gathering.
She related that at one point in her life, after bearing her first child, she could no longer have children. She tried everything to solve the problem, then she and her husband asked God to grant their wish.
Sylverine was one of three children born after that request. To show her gratitude, she covenanted with God that she would give him one of the children to serve Him.
She explained, "When Sylverine announced that she had found the Church and that she was going to be baptised in it, I was happy because I knew that the Lord was the One taking her to fulfil the wish I made several years earlier."
"Even if I am Catholic," she said, "I am very happy to let her go on a mission, and I know that God is almighty and that He will protect her."
Sylverine remembers that at the close of the meeting, "We could feel the Spirit so strong, so much so that we had trouble getting everyone out of the parking lot at the end of the evening.”
She will attend the Church’s Missionary Training Centre in New Zealand for approximately six weeks before flying to Tahiti to get her visa. She will then travel to her mission in Vanuatu where she will spend the rest of her 18 months. She is expected to return to New Caledonia in January 2018.
Sylverine is the third Latter-day Saint missionary from the Isle of Pine. The others are Ititiati Gretta (now Bouanaoué) and Michel Taoupoulou.
There are around 75,000 Latter-day Saint missionaries serving in countries around the world. They teach interested people about the restored gospel of Jesus Christ and give community service wherever they are asked to go.