“I Never Felt the Spirit Stronger”

Magiba Natua and Rome Kavera lived in the village of Girabu, 80 kilometers from Port Moresby. They were members of the London Missionary Society church, which had long been the dominant church in Girabu. When their son Vaiba told them he and his wife, Mauveri, had been baptized into The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, they were curious. A pair of senior missionaries, Nita and Douglas Campbell, taught them about the restored gospel.

Magiba and Rome’s baptism created tension with some of their fellow villagers. Some threw rocks at Magiba and Rome’s house while they were holding sacrament meetings. Others broke into their home and smashed some of their possessions. Logs were placed across the road to keep members from traveling to church. Some even threatened to shoot those who had converted. Despite these difficulties, the family bonded together and remained strong in the gospel.

Magiba and Rome and family

Latter-day Saints, including members of Magiba and Rome’s family, in Girabu village, ca. 1982.

Rome accepted a calling as president of the Girabu Branch. In 1982, Deanna C. Flake and Dennis D. Flake, who presided over local missionary efforts, arrived to organize the branch and set Rome apart.

Magiba and Rome had already prepared for the sacrament ordinance with fry bread cooked over the community fire in the center of the village. They invited Deanna and Dennis into their home, a six-by-eight-foot structure on stilts, the roof and side walls skillfully thatched. There they held sacrament meeting. Rome and the other Church members who held the office of priest did not know how to read, but their younger sons who went to school read the sacrament prayers in Tok Pisin, and the older men repeated after them, line by line.

During the meeting, Rome spoke. He said that he had encountered over 50 different Christian denominations, but “I never felt the Spirit of the Lord until Elder and Sister Campbell taught me the gospel.” He and others in the small room were moved to tears.

Afterward, Dennis reflected on the powerful spirit brought by Rome’s testimony. “I’ve been to meetings in the garden of Gethsemane and special experiences in the temple,” he said, “and I never felt the Spirit stronger than we felt it that day in that remote little village in the jungles of New Guinea.”