From a Church news article about Kiribati:"Made up of 36 Micronesian islands in the mid-Pacific where the equator and international dateline meet, Kiribati is a republic which became independent in 1979. The island's population speaks Gilbertese and English. About half of the population is Protestant and half Roman Catholic.
"The Church was introduced to Kiribati when Waitea Abiuta, a school teacher and headmaster of a school, asked to have graduates from his school attend Liahona High School in Tonga. Fijian mission president Eb L. Davis visited Kiribati in September 1972 and approved 12 students to come to the Church school. Students were converted at the high school and they began serving as missionaries in Kiribati on Oct. 19, 1975.
"Among those who joined the Church were Waitea Abiuta and several of the staff and students of the school. However, when opposition to the Church arose, enrollment at the school declined. In August 1976, Grant and Pat Howlett, Church educators at Liahona High, were called to teach at the Kiribati school. Through their efforts, enrollment increased and government relations improved. Later, the Church purchased the school, renamed it Moroni Community School, and other teachers arrived from Tonga as enrollment continued to increase."
Find this and more in the LDS Newsroom.
MY PARENTS are that Grant & Pat Howlett, and I was the oldest of the 6, then 7 children they had with them there.
Brother Alton Wade, then VP of Student Life at BYU, gave an excellent summary of what led up to our being there, in his 2000 devotional address, “And Ye Shall Be Witnesses unto Me."
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