MIRACLES IN AOTEAROA: Paora Te Potangaroa's Prophecy

Before the early 1880's the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints was not known among the Maori tribes of New Zealand. As God does in any age however, He prepares the way before the messengers of the Lord. Matakite are visionaries or seers within each Maori tribe. The Lord sent prophecies to some of these religious men and women to prepare the Maori people to receive the gospel when it began to be preached among them. One of this matakites was Paora Te Potangaroa. He was well loved and respected amongst his tribe. In answer to their questioning about which church to join and which was the only true church for them, Paora retired and sought council from the heavens. He received a remarkable prophecy that would prove to be fulfilled in every detail. Through his revelatory experience many Maori's accepted and embraced the gospel when it was preached to them, a short while later.

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CITATION:
Archaeological and Historical Evidences, Paora Te Potangoroa’s Prophecy: http://www.supportingevidences.net/pora-te-potangaroas-prophecy/

Global Histories: Church History: “My Heart Was Filled with … Understanding”: https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/history/global-histories/new-zealand/stories-of-faith/nz-02-my-heart-was-filled-with-understanding?lang=eng

The Intrepreter Foundation: The Lord Will Not Forget Them!
Māori Seers and The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Nineteenth-Century New Zealand: https://interpreterfoundation.org/journal/the-lord-will-not-forget-them-maori-seers-and-the-church-of-jesus-christ-of-latter-day-saints-in-nineteenth-century-new-zealand 

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:12

Hello, friends. Welcome to the Thinning of the Valve podcast. I'm your host, Tia Smith, and we have made it to another Testify Story Day. Now I'm hoping as we listen to all of the stories and really all the entirety of the channel, that it's not just a nice story, oh, that gives you an uplift for the day. I'm hoping that all of these stories add to your own testimonies that revelatory experiences can happen in everyday members' lives of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. That's the whole point of the stories. Uh, that you and I can have more courage to ask, to ponder, to pray, to receive revelatory experiences as we try to gather Israel. I don't think that we even understand or comprehend where we're at in the time frame of the Lord's gospel. Clearly, we're in the latter part of the latter days. And we hear all of these experiences from people, different people, walks of life, all different friends on my channel, that these things will be inherent the closer we get to the second coming. It is the gift of the latter days because of the work of the gathering. If you're not having revelatory experiences, either pray for ice to see because maybe you are having them, or maybe the prayer needs to be, please help me to understand who needs help on the other side of the veil so that you will receive those through in many rev different revelatory ways, whether it is a still small voice, or you're in the temple and you feel a pull to one of the names, or it's reading a road sign and you feel prompted to go look for a specific name or a specific person. All of these things are inherent in the work of the gathering. Temple and family history work most often consistently thins the veil or parts the veil, as testified of our dear late prophet Russell M. Nelson, you will learn how to part the veil between the heaven and earth in the temple. It's because of the work that it necessitates it. So that's my little plug about quote stories. I I feel like their revelatory experiences, I need to call them something else, I think. I don't, stories just seems like a children's story or something like that. But these are powerful, powerful testimonies, my friends, real true testimonies of saints receiving an opening of the heavens. And I'm hoping that it's adding to your testimony and giving you the courage to also seek to understand who needs help. Now, we heard from John uh Smith, he's one of my new Maori friends, and I'm actually getting quite a few uh new Maori friends, which I'm so very excited about. Because even just having conversations with them because of their language and their accent, I'm just mesmerized by the whole thing. But more importantly, I've noticed, especially within native peoples, they have this faith level. And I think it's because they grew up talking about revelatory experiences around the dinner table. I, for me, didn't necessarily have these conversations early on when I started having them, I started talking about them with my children. But really, there's value in testifying of revelatory experiences to our children, as I believe the veil thins easier for them. They don't have levels of unbelief to try to rid themselves of. It is the same for native peoples. Generally, when I talk to them, this is second nature to them. So what we're going to hear today is the Lord preparing a people through many different matequites, uh, which are visionaries and prophets and seers within these Maori tribes to prepare really en masse for them to come into the gospel of Jesus Christ. And it's because of these matequites and their prophecy and the revelations that they received that the Lord prepared them to have. Just very quickly, though, tomorrow we're going to have uh Colette talk about a new tool. It's amazing to me how the Lord is hastening his work. There's a new tool almost available every week, every month. It's called Scribe AI by My Heritage. And so you'll want to check that out. And then Friday is going to be a talk by Elder Matthew Cali. Uh, I'm calling it Building Bridges because it doesn't have its own title. And I think it's very, very poignant to end the week with, as we've talked to mainly about the Maori people, but this really extends to all natives in particular. Manasseh, my friends, has been on my mind for a very, very long time. And it just seems like there's more happening within that sphere sphere for me. So I'm excited to maybe share in just a little while what has been happening behind the scenes. But also just a quick reminder that the Gathering of the Gathers group on Facebook, we have just set that up. The link is in the description. And you will um it's a place and space for all of us who are having experiences to testify of these experiences in knowing that you're not going to get um an unbelieving response generally, if we can help it. The cool thing is about a group is you can monitor it, but feel free to share your experiences or something that you've learned, or even ask a question to the group. It's just barely getting started. So it's just kind of ramping up. But I hope that everyone will take advantage of that because there's really not that many safe places around to know that you can testify freely of these things. But I'm hoping that the totality of this channel is encouraging all of those to all of the believers and unbelievers to understand that this is 100% a part of the gospel of Jesus Christ, as evidenced in the scriptures all over the place. Now, today's prophecy, again, is going to be about a matekite. And I have been striving to try to learn the Maori language. Uh I prayed for the gift of tongues, but I don't think it comes that fast. So I hope that you will just give me space and grace in reading this. Literally, I've been dreaming about this for three nights straight and putting it off, knowing that I'm gonna have a hard time pronouncing uh these words, but really it's not about my pronouncing words. I hope you hear what the Lord did for these people and therefore the pattern says will do for us as we inch closer and closer to a second coming. So this particular um prophecy is going to be about, and I'm going to use his first and last name in the beginning, and then I'll just use his first name because his last name is what's giving me problems. But it's uh Po ora te pondagaroa prophecy. So the Maori appear to have been prepared in special ways for the coming of missionaries from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, at least in the Restored Church and some Maori tribal narratives. So as I tell this story, and it's going to be a combination from three different um spaces and places, and I will leave the link in that description. I'm also going to show pictures that relate to this particular prophecy. So you'll want to join me uh on the visual episode, which is the first link in every description. All right. Peora Te Pondogaroa was a spiritual leader or a matakite, which is a visionary prophet or holy man for the Ngati Kahunganu tribe. He had much influence both spiritually and also politically as he preached the importance of retaining native tribal lands. In 1881, at a gathering of his tribe in Teoriori, which is on the North Island of New Zealand, he prophesied that the right church had not yet come. So let me give you a little bit of background. By the 1850s, among the Maori people in New Zealand, various Christian missionary groups, namely the Presbyterians, the Methodists, the Baptists, and the Roman Catholics, had established their religions. And by about 1854, all but about 1% of the Maori people had become Christian. And while the earliest converts and branches in New Zealand had been among Europeans, the missionary work among the Maori took root in the early 1880s, flourishing in rural Maori communities, particularly on the North Island. At this time, many Maori had become dissatisfied with other Christian groups, and disease and war and colonation had disrupted many Maori cultural and social institutions. As the missionaries traveled from village to village, they sensed that the Lord was guiding them to people prepared to receive their message. They learned the Maori language, enlisted recent converts as tutors and interpreters, and appealed to the Rongatira, which are tribal chiefs, some of whom were followed and baptized by tribal members. In March 1881, a convention of representative natives from the Ngati Kahunganu tribe of the Maori people of New Zealand was called to discuss political, social, and religious problems. All in attendance at the convention were devout members of one of the several established churches. Some were Catholic, some were of the Methodist faith, and some were of the Presbyterian belief. Many were old enough to have seen the coming of the first Christian missionaries to New Zealand. They discussed the differences among the Christian religions and the diversity of beliefs, and subsequently confusion of ideas. They discussed which church the Maori should join so there would once again be a unity of religious belief among them, and asked where the power of God until salvation was for the Maori people. That should sound familiar to all of us, think Joseph Smith. And I think it's interesting that the gospel came to Joseph Smith, generally Ephraim, through dreams and visions, and now we're seeing the same pattern repeated coming to the tribes of Manasseh through dreams and visions. It was evident that not more than one of the churches could be the recipient of divine inspiration, nor be recognized as the church of Christ. After lengthy debate, they decided to present their problem to Paora, the wisest chief and the most learned sage among them. They asked him, Which of the churches is the church for the Maori race? Which of them should we join? He told the people to wait, and he would give them the answer after he had given the matter serious consideration. He left the assembly and retired to his own residence. For three days he prayed, fasted, and meditated upon the matter. He was aware that the true answer would not come without prayerful meditation and without invoking divine aid. After three days, he returned to the convention and addressed his people. A scribe Ranginui Kingi wrote the words of Peora or his prophecy called the Covenant, which is interesting. Freely translated, these were his words. You will recognize it when it comes. Its missionaries will travel in pairs. They will come from the rising sun. They will visit us in our homes, they will learn our language and teach us the gospel in our own tongue. When they pray, they will raise their right hands. Now note, early in the history of the Church of Jesus Christ, both hands were often raised when a prayer was given publicly. The practice was later changed to only the right arm being uplifted when blessing the sacrament or dedicating the grave. And both practices were later discontinued except in sacred temple rituals. Then the prophecy follows: This is the day of the fullness. The year 1882 will be the year of the sealing. The year 1883 will be the year of the great honoring. This covenant will be remembered by generations which follow after us. We are the people of the lost sheep of the house of Israel. We will learn of the scepter of Judah, of Shiloh, of the kingdom of heaven, of the sacred church with the large walls surrounding, of the increase of the races, of faith, love, peace, patience, judgment, and unity. All of this plan will be fulfilled by the people of the Ngati Kahunganu tribe during the next forty years. Peora died the following June 1881. In 1881, W. M. Bromley arrived to preside over the mission. He was told before leaving Utah that, quote, that the time had come to take the gospel to the Maori people. In pairs, the elders came from the direction of the rising sun to teach the fullness of the gospel. They taught the Maoris in their own language, and the elders ate, slept, and lived among the Maori people, and they would often raise their hands to pray. When the first missionaries or elders of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints arrived in New Zealand in the 1880s to live and proselytize among Maori, they discovered that many of the religious beliefs of Maori and the Latter-day Saints appeared to parallel each other in surprising and initially inexplicable ways. These included a common heritage, spiritual beliefs, in some respects culture and customary traditions, and hope for the future. In 1882, the year of the sealing, the Maori people were taught about the sealing ordinances in the temple. And in 1883, the year of the honoring, the Maoris joined the church in great numbers and paid tribute to the Lord as they worshiped. Elder Matthew Cali identified the sacred church with the large walls surrounding as the Salt Lake Temple. Elder Matthew Cali also pointed out that only the Maori people to participate in all the ordinances of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, the ordinances of the gospel during the next 40 years until 1921, were the members of the Ngati Gahunganu tribe. Later, many members of other tribes participated in all the blessings of the gospel. President William Bromley of the Australian Mission first visited a Maori village, Orokay, on March 6, 1881, ten days before the prophecy was given at the conference. By the end of 1884, membership in New Zealand included 265 Europeans and 811 Maori. Membership in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints among the Maori increased to nearly 4,000 in 79 branches by the turn of the century. Now there's also something cool that happened with the physical copy of this prophecy, or otherwise known as the covenant. This covenant was written down on a piece of paper, and at the top of the piece of paper, they drew an all-seeing eye. This prophecy was then placed in a cement monument in the eight years house where the convention was held. That's a sacred house for them. It remained there from 1881 until 1929, when a Maori sect known as the Ratana Church, in groping for substantiation that they were the true church of the Maoris, as foretold by Beora, broke open the cement monument to get at his prophecy, hoping to find something in it that would establish their claim to be the right church for the Maori. Unfortunately, the storage chamber which contained the prophecy had not been hermetically sealed and the paper had been so damaged by moisture that nothing was legible on it. Now here comes the cool part. In 1944, Elder Matthew Cali of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter day Saints was the New Zealand mission president. He was there during the war years, and the only American missionaries he had were himself, his wife, and their daughter. They held a convention for the Maoris in the same area where Peora Potagaroa gave his prophecy in 1881. Present at the 1944 convention was Edi Ada Nopera, another great Maori chief. When he rose to speak, he told his people that he had been a little boy there when Peora gave his prophecy and repeated what he remembered of the prophecy. At the end of the day's convention, one of the women attending the convention had her husband go fetch parcel wrapped in brown paper from a trunk in their house. When he brought her the parcel, she called President Cauley and Eriata Nobeda into an adjoining room and gave it to them. They opened the parcel and found a photograph of Peora's written prophecy wrapped up in it. What had happened was that in 1881, when the prophecy was written down by Ranganui, a photographer in Wellington had heard that a Maori had made a prophecy. He traveled out to that village and asked for permission to photograph it. This was granted and he photographed the prophecy before it was sealed in the cement monument. This woman's family got a copy of that photograph and had kept it since. She then gave it to Brother Nopeda, who turned in turn gave it to President Matthew Cali. This is the way we know what was in Peora's prophecy. Now they have that picture in the church historical archives that you can go look at it and have access to it. It is how we know that the Lord's hand moved upon these people. And it's extraordinary to me that the Lord would also preserve a copy of it in some way, shape, or form to also be able to show that his hand was in the fullness of it. As we've talked to John and realized and understood that we have been given an invitation from the Lord to participate in the gospel of Jesus Christ and in the gathering in magnificent ways. Let us remember how God has time and time and time again provided the miracles needed for the gathering. Therefore, that extends to you and I as well. I'm grateful that John testified of his own experiences and also some of the similar teachings of their culture and traditions that correspond, of course, because these things were handed down from generation to generation to our own temple worship, that they understand the sealing and the binding, the Moses and Elijah and the importance of what happened in the Kirtland temple that day. So I'm grateful for all of my friends, native and not native, as we gather together in numbers because power and glory will follow us and spiritual experiences will be had by all. Have a great couple of days. Remember, join me tomorrow, Colette, for Scribe AI, and then on Friday for Matthew Kelly's awesome Building Bridges talk. I hope that you are finding peace in the gathering, my friends. We'll talk to you soon. Bye.