Temple moments: Strengthened families strengthen Church - Published on Jan 31, 2004

PORT VILA, Vanuatu —

In June 2000, on the 10th anniversary of their marriage, Katimal and Mariella Kaun, and their daughters, Raizza and Leizan, were sealed in the Fiji Suva Temple.

Tony Mahid, who with his wife, Marian, and their children, was among first ni-Vanuatu members to attend the Fiji temple.

The Kauns are examples of the many families in this archipelago nation who have been strengthened by the Church, and now strengthen the Church. Once known as New Hebrides, Vanuatu, with about 2,000 members, dots the west South Pacific about two-thirds of the way between Hawaii and Australia.

The Kauns' joyous sealing event contrasted sharply to a marriage that only a few years earlier, before they joined the Church, was all but over. Brother and Sister Kaun, anchors for the Church in Port Vila, said gospel principles saved their marriage. At that time, the prospect of their daughters being reared by both loving parents was remote.

"My concern was for the two little girls we had," explained Katimal Kaun, a college-educated administrator for UNICEF.

He said that after four years of marriage, "Love was not there any more. We were faithful, but we had no more feelings for each other. I prayed to Heavenly Father to find a way that these little girls could be taken care of. But I did not expect we would come together again."

He experienced a sense of peace through prayer, and knew there must be a way, somewhere. Two months later, his younger brother who had joined the Church brought in missionaries "to help us understand marriage, eternal marriage."

As the missionaries taught, she sat alone on one side of the room, he alone on the other side. After the lesson, the missionaries "spent three hours answering questions."

Couple missionaries met with them to help resolve their differences, and they were given a manual, "Achieving a Celestial Marriage."

"I just knew there would be a marvelous change take place," he said. "After the fourth or fifth lesson, we were sitting together again."

They were baptized on the same day, March 7, 1997, and "we both began to strive to keep the covenants we made during baptism," he said. Within a few months, he was serving in the branch presidency, then as branch president, then as district president's counselor. He is now president of the Port Vila 1st Branch. Sister Kaun, a business owner, is director of public affairs for the Church in Vanuatu.

The Kauns, said President Paul G. Hilliman of the Port Vila Vanuatu District, are among a select group of about a fourth of the 2,000 members in the district who have gone to the temple.