By some estimates, missionaries have knocked on the door of every non-member home on this island kingdom more than a hundred times.

Yet the work goes on and converts continue to come into the Church. Success of the missionaries is marked by a constant increase in membership that has seen the total almost double every decade since 1950.The mission president has an enviable problem. Rather than having a shortage of missionaries, he has the challenge of where to put missionaries. Recently, however, the number of missionaries has been greatly reduced as the mission age was raised from age 18 to 19.

Sustaining a missionary effort such as this has taken continual effort since the Church was introduced here more than a century ago.

One of the earliest members is Maile Mataele, son of pioneer member Siosaia Mataele. Maile Mataele, 91, was baptized Aug. 9, 1911, four years after missionary work resumed in Tonga after a 10-year hiatus from 1897-1907.

He recalled that early missionary efforts centered around schools, the first of which was held in his father's home. He attended this school but when World War I started, the missionaries left and the school was closed.

Another obstacle that he remembered, which had to be overcome, was a passport act, enacted in 1922, banning foreign missionaries. Two years later parliament repealed the ban. "Everyone was fasting," Brother Mataele said. "All the saints waited outside the parliament building for the outcome of the decision." After the ban was removed, "they were very, very happy."

Another convert, Atonio Tuiasoa, joined the Church in the 1940s, and now lives in Inglewood, Calif. "I was in a seminary preparing to become a priest," he recalled. During this time, he met a missionary who taught him the gospel.

"I believed the Church was true," said Brother Tuiasoa, who was one of the few converts of that era. He joined a congregation of about 40 members in Nuku'alofa. Brother Tuiasoa became a music teacher at the Church-owned Makeke School in 1944. When the school was moved to Liahona, the LDS high school on Tonga's main island, in 1947, he moved with it. He also started the now popular Liahona School brass band.

The hard work and good example of the members helped bring the Church into favorable opinion, Brother Tuiasoa said. "Everything we did, we did it well. Liahona High School is the light of Tonga."

Among the most recent converts in Tonga is Kathrine Tamara Vailala, a young woman who was taught by Sisters Linda Tuita, Sela Fa and Akesa Hopoate.

Visiting in Tonga from her home in Auckland, New Zealand, she took part in a dance festival. She'd had some association with the Church in her homeland, but in Tonga she found that influence to be pervasive. Missionaries here "kind of made me think about it a lot. I feel I have to be a member now."

Her baptism was well-attended. One friend said she came, despite scheduling problems, because, "How can I let you down? You are coming into the kingdom of God today."

Mission Pres. 'Isileli T. Kongaika agrees that the influence of the Church has become pervasive.

"The centennial [observing the 100th anniversary of the Church in Tonga last summerT was the greatest open house we ever had," he said. "It brought the Church out of obscurity."

He encourages missionaries to continue to use boldness in declaring the gospel "with grace."

He said the hospital equipment donated by the Church in honor of the centennial has helped the medical care. The royalty who were hosted by the Church at the celebration Tonga and in Salt Lake City have been most kind in their words about the Church. Favorable publicity continues.

As the Church begins its second hundred years in Tonga, the missionaries are in the process of knocking on doors, perhaps for the second hundredth time.