Hawaiian Book of Mormon unveilled in Laie

From Ke Alakai:

One of the 30 surviving 1855 copies of the Hawaiian Book of Mormon was presented on display Friday at the La’ie Hawai’i Temple Visitors Center after an unveiling ceremony. “Ka Buke a Moramona” or the Hawaiian Book of Mormon was a result of a two and half year work of Elder George Q. Cannon’ s inspiration with the help from Judge Ionatana Napela, a descendant of the great chief of Maui. Three thousand copies of the Hawaiian Book of Mormon were printed in 1855 and later were burned in fire, except for 200 copies. Most of them were destroyed, but 30 survived.

Mark James, from the English Language Teaching and Learning Department said, “My main interest in seeing this rare edition is because I am serious student of LDS Hawaiian history. It’s so amazing to me that BYU Hawaii has three copies of one of the rarest books in church history. A copy of the 1855 Hawaiian Book of Mormon is more valuable than an original 1830 Book of Mormon.”

Elder George Q. Cannon wrote in his journal that he felt like a stranger among the native Hawaiians while he was on his mission and was homesick. He found comfort through the Book of Mormon. At that point of his life, he said that he found more value in the Book of Mormon than he ever has before.

“But there was no Book of Mormon in Hawaiian that he could share with the Hawaiian people that he loved so much, and so he said, ‘Well, we’ve got to get this translated,’” said Elder Jacobs of the Hawaii Temple Visitors Center.

In January 1851, the translation work began with few pages and finished in July 1853. In January 1855, 3000 copies of the Hawaiian Book of Mormon were printed.

Only about a dozen of the 200 remaining books survived this one because in 1920, it was given to N. Ford Clark, as a gift after in three and half year mission in Hawaii.

James said, “What I really enjoyed the most about the unveiling ceremony, was listening to brother Ellis read from his grandfather’s Journal about the experiences he had as a missionary from 1917-1921. Because he loved the Hawaiian language so much, a Hawaiian family decided to give him such a valuable possession–an 1855 edition of the Book of Mormon. And of course it’s such a beautiful thing that his descendents would want to give it to the BYU Hawaii archives, to preserve it and show it.”

Dean Clark Ellis, grandson of N. Ford Clark said.”He was a collector of books, and I’m sure this was his most prized possession.”
Two Hawaiian ladies, who are the descendants one of the people that Elder Clark taught, were introduced as special guests in the meeting.

Rhonda Martinez, from Colorado explained that she and her husband had never seen the Hawaiian Book of Mormon before. Both found out about the conference through the newspaper. She shared that her favorite part of the conference was when the descendants of the people that elder Clark taught were introduced.

Martinez said, “My favorite part was when he’s introduced the ladies who are part of the history.”

In order to gather pieces of history of this Book of Mormon, it took a year and $15,000 to restore it page by page. Moreover, Ellis was able to trace back the history of his grandfather’s mission companion who liked to take pictures and negotiate to have his grandfather’s mission pictures donated to BYU-Hawaii as part of the history.

Spencer Haynie, senior in psychology from California, said, “I liked the presentation by Dean because I liked the story about how they got pictures from his grandfather’s companion and donated them to BYUH.

James said, “The stories that Dean Ellis read from his grandfather’s journal remind me also of how important it is for each of us to keep a journal.” He continued, “And most importantly, I thought about how little of our church history is available for people to read and see and learn about. We have thousands of people coming to Laie every year, but if visitors want to learn about the history of the Church and the people of this community, there is nothing for them to see and no place to go. I think we really need a small church history museum somewhere in our community. This would be a great benefit not only to visitors but to each rising generation here in our community.”

Ellis said. “This is where it belongs. This is where my grandfather wanted it to be, where my parents wanted it to be, and I’m glad now instead of it being in a vault that is on display.”

You can see “Ka Buke A Moramona” at the Visitors Center near the temple. It’s open every day.

Link to article

This entry was posted on Tuesday, November 25th, 2008 at 10:38 pm and is filed under BYU, LDS Church, Scriptures. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.

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Hawaiian Book of Mormon unveilled in Laie

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