Cook Islands: Church Chronology

1845–1899 • Mangaia, Cook Islands Missionaries made occasional visits to the Cook Islands but did not establish a permanent Church presence.

May 12, 1942 • Auckland, New ZealandCarl Fritz Bunge-Krueger, who had a home and business in Avarua, Cook Islands, was ordained an elder and set apart as a missionary by mission president Matthew Cowley. Carl and his wife, Maudina Ngawiki Krueger, returned to Avarua to share the gospel part-time.

June 1942 • Rarotonga, Cook IslandsMii Henry, Samuel Glassie, and Nooare Glassie accepted baptism.

kikau thatched chapel

1942 • Murienua, Rarotonga, Cook Islands

The first meetinghouse in the Cook Islands was built, made with burnt coral for the floor and a thatched kikau roof.

October 6, 1946 • MurienuaThe first branch in the Cook Islands was organized, with Harry Strickland as first counselor, Apainga Strickland as Relief Society president, and Ngapoko Dean as Primary President. On November 3, 1946, Manu Cummings was sustained as second counselor.

July 1, 1947 • RarotongaMatthew Cowley of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles dedicated the chapel at Murienua and then dedicated the Cook Islands for the preaching of the gospel.

September 12, 1947 • RarotongaFifty copies of the first issue of Te Reo Tika (The True Word), a Latter-day Saint periodical, were published.

1946–1948 • RarotongaPrimary was being held at Avarua, Murienua, Black Rock, Nikao, and Tutakimoa.

January 17, 1955 • Aitutaki, Cook IslandsAs Church President, David O. McKay toured all the island missions. His plane refueled on the island of Aitutaki, where he held a one-hour meeting with 66 church members and an even greater number of people who were not Church members.

November 25, 1955; October 17, 1958 • Avarua and Aitutaki, Cook IslandsThe first purpose-built Church meetinghouses, built by Samoan labor missionaries, were dedicated.

June 28, 1965 • Cook IslandsThe Cook Islands became self-governing.

1966 • RarotongaThe Book of Mormon was translated into Cook Islands Māori and published.

February 7, 1968 • Arorangi, Rarotonga, Cook IslandsThe Mutual Improvement Association and the Akaroa Youth Club of Arorangi held joint activities, beginning with a large umukai and followed by a variety of sports, with about 30 Church members and 40 club members in attendance.

July 8 and 13, 1970 • AitutakiBranch members held work days for maintenance of the branch boat.

March 17, 1973 • Mangaia, Cook IslandsMembers of the Mangaia Branch celebrated the anniversary of the Relief Society’s founding.

February 14, 1981 • AvaruaLatter-day Saints on Avarua welcomed President Spencer W. Kimball. There was not enough space on the Church grounds for the service, so it was held inside the airport hangar on the tarmac in the midst of heavy rain. Members shook President Kimball’s hand and presented him with flower garlands.

December 24–26, 1981 • Aitutaki and AvaruaThirty-eight members from the Aitutaki Branch spent the year preparing to go to the temple, fasting regularly and going out at night and in the early morning to collect ariri (turban snails) in order to make mitiore (seafood salad) to sell. Avarua members hosted them for three days until they departed for New Zealand on December 27.

March 26, 1989 • MangaiaNgatupuna Jonassen, Cook Islands District Relief Society president, presided over a district-wide Relief Society meeting on the theme of temple preparation, with special musical numbers from multiple choirs.

February 1990 • Cook IslandsThe Cook Islands government issued a series of postage stamps of the history of Christianity in the islands, including a stamp recognizing Latter-day Saint missionary work. An image of the Arorangi chapel (an image of the Kikau chapel was not available) and early missionary Osborne J. P. Widtsoe were featured on the stamp.

December 23, 1992 • MangaiaTwenty-five members of the Mangaia Branch patiently saved money to travel to the temple in Hamilton, New Zealand. They first flew to Rarotonga, where they were hosted overnight by the Rarotongan Saints, and then flew to New Zealand, where they stayed in Temple View for two weeks, attending the temple each day.

October 4–6, 1996 • RarotongaThe five branches on Rarotonga celebrated the 50th anniversary of the Church in the Cook Islands. Mii Henry, one of the first converts in the Cook Islands, was a guest of honor.

2001 • Cook IslandsThe Church distributed more than three thousand dental care kits to school children in Rarotonga, seven hundred kits to Aitutaki, and more than three hundred kits to Mangaia.

July 2010 • AitutakiThe Cook Island News reported that the Church had donated $165,000 to assist with building new homes and water tanks after the destruction of Cyclone Pat, which struck the island on February 9.

July 2014 • Avatiu, Rarotonga, Cook IslandsLatter-day Saint youth participating in a Helping Hands service project removed 70 kilograms (154 pounds) of waste from along the Avatiu Stream Waterway.

August 2017 • RarotongaThe Cook Islands Ministry of Justice and FamilySearch International collaborated in the release of 100,000 vital records from the Cook Islands.