Healing of a Sick Maori Child through Administration

On December 24, 1882, in the town of Cambridge, New Zealand, Mission President William Michael Bromley, along with his companions William John McDonnel and Thomas Cox, experienced a pivotal encounter that accelerated the Church's progress among the Māori. McDonnel, who served as an interpreter due to his mastery of the Māori language, had journeyed to Cambridge with Bromley to reconcile with Cox, a former adversary. While in the area, the group was invited by a Māori family to explain the principles of the Gospel. Among those present was a man named Hari Teimana. Teimana informed the missionaries that he had recently received a vision in which the Apostle Peter—clad in white—had appeared to him, specifically identifying Bromley and his associates as the authorized messengers of the true Gospel. Having been prepared by his own spiritual traditions, Teimana readily accepted their authority. During the visit, the family asked the brethren if a sick child among them could be healed through the power of God. The missionaries administered to the child by the laying on of hands, and the child began to recover immediately. This event, recorded in Bromley’s personal diary, served as a catalyst for the work; the very next night, the brethren baptized two men and one woman, marking the beginning of a period of rapid growth in the region, with approximately one hundred people joining the Church shortly thereafter.

Fuller account of this event (the complete account as preserved in The Latter-day Saints' Millennial Star, Vol. 47, No. 1, 5 January 1885, p. 11):

On the 24th of December, 1882, we visited a Maori family at Cambridge, who had a sick child. We administered to it, and it began to recover from that hour.