Many Tongan congregations of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints have a family history centre in their building.
Volunteers are there to help beginners search for information about their ancestors and to assist more advanced users with their research using the online resource FamilySearch.org.
For Latter-day Saints, family history is an important part of temple worship.
Sosaia and Maile Neiufi are temple and family history consultants for the 21 stakes (groups of congregations) in Tonga. They were recently challenged by their local leader, Elder Inoke Kupu, to encourage Tongan Latter-day Saints to be involved in temple and family history work.
Sosaia explained, "Using FamilySearch.org in the Tongan language, we teach all who want to, how to submit their own family names. We are here to teach, and they do the work."
Maile added, "Our main goal is to have the members be more self-reliant in doing family history. Consultants are a resource and can help.”
She continued, “I feel like I am sharing the Spirit of Elijah* when sitting beside an elderly member or any member at any age doing this work. We pass the keyboard to them; they create their own account and we witness the joy they have in that simple accomplishment."
She also explained that this new gain of confidence encourages them to return and continue the work.
One such example is the Faanunus from the Vava'u North Stake. Neither of the Faanunus had ever touched a computer but after some instruction, they spent an hour adding photo memories to their family history website. It was clear that Mr Fanunu was proud of his new found talent in navigating the site. They were able to add pictures of each of their children and their recently born grandchild.
Since June 2020 the Neiufi’s have seen temple and family history work in Tonga more than double.
"We need everyone to do the work," Sosaia Neiufi encouraged. "The success shows on our graphs because everyone is doing the work.”
Maile Neiufi attributes the rise in activity due to the “faithfulness of the Saints and their love of the Lord.”
Recounting a temple training session by Elder David A. Bednar, she added, “Missionary work and temple family history is one work. Some may think one is more important than the other, but they are equally important.”
Even with the recent volcanic eruption and tsunami, family history work continued.
“Amongst all the disasters and challenges people in Tonga were facing, the Tongan Saints remained overly represented in the number of people working on their family trees when compared to other locations around Oceania,” said Michael Higgins, Pacific Area Family History Manager.
“I felt quite emotional when I saw these results, especially in respect to the love that the Tongan Saints were demonstrating towards their ancestors by preparing to perform sacraments for them amongst their own very real difficulties.”
*Latter-day Saints believe that the Spirit of Elijah is the Holy Ghost as His directing influence guides those who participate in family history and temple work.