Family Returns to the New Zealand Temple to Celebrate an Extraordinary Legacy

After 50 years, the living posterity of a French Polynesian couple has returned to the Hamilton New Zealand Temple for a glorious anniversary celebration of their parents’ lives and legacy.

In 2011, Thomas S. Monson (1927–2018), President of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, told their story to a worldwide audience in a televised general conference.¹

Tihi and Tararaina Mou Tham were the happy parents of 10 children when they joined the Church in the 1960s in Raiatea, French Polynesia. As new members of the Church, they soon had a powerful desire to be sealed in the temple, but getting this ordinance at that time was very difficult. The closest temple was in Hamilton, New Zealand—4,000 kilometres (2,500 miles) away from their home.

Tihi knew the family farm’s income was not sufficient for the whole family to travel, so, in 1969 he went to New Caledonia to work in the mines and earn enough for the trip to New Zealand. One of his sons, Émile, was already there, and a year later another son, Gérard, joined them. The rest of the family stayed behind in French Polynesia.

It was not easy for the family during this time. “It was hard for us to be separated,” daughter, Gisele Tefan related about that time. We felt loneliness [and] struggled with financial problems.”

It took Tihi and his sons four years of hard work to earn enough money for the trip, and when they returned from the temple in New Zealand, they went back to New Caledonia and worked an additional two years so that another daughter could also go to the temple and be sealed to them.

Six years and a tremendous effort later, the family was finally all sealed together in 1973.

After this wonderful blessing was obtained, Tihi and Tararaina went on to give many hours of their own service to others in the Papeete Tahiti Temple, the first temple built in the French republic, which was dedicated in 1983. When the couple eventually passed away, they left a legacy of a posterity strongly rooted in the gospel of Jesus Christ and eternal family values.

In September 2023, fifty years after their first trip to New Zealand, the remaining Mou Tham children and other family members gathered in the Hamilton New Zealand Temple for this incredible anniversary.

“Our family on both sides, my father in New Caledonia and my mother in Raiatea, have unforgettable memories about those times,” Gisele shared. “Being here 50 years later, it’s a wonderful way to thank Heavenly Father for the help He gave us to make that dream come true.”

She said the family is united in gratitude to their parents for the gospel legacy they left, and their example of temple work. “We deeply felt their presence around us, as well as the presence of our beloved ones who are gone.”

“We are aware of the huge responsibility it is to pass on this legacy to our children, grandchildren, and next generations,” Gisele continued to share. “The light our parents started must stay strong. It will guide our steps on the covenant path leading to our celestial home.”

Her brother Gérard, who never returned to Raiatea after working with his father in New Caledonia, adds: “The blessing of this temple sealing 50 years ago is with me every day of my life. It helps me to stay strong in my faith and in the testimony of the true house of the Lord.”

As he attended the temple, he said he also felt his parents’ love there. “I felt their joy to see all their children in the temple so many years after their first visit. I felt Heavenly Father’s love through the Atonement of His Son, Jesus Christ.”

As President Monson pointed out to a worldwide audience, the Mou Tham family is an example of perseverance and faith in the Lord in two island nations. They stand as an example for future generations.