The Baháʼí Faith in Samoa and American Samoa begins with the then head of the religion, ʻAbdu'l-Bahá, mentioning the islands in 1916. This inspired Baháʼís on their way to Australia in 1920 to stop in Samoa. Thirty four years later another Baháʼí from Australia pioneered to Samoa in 1954. With the first converts the first Baháʼí Local Spiritual Assembly was elected in 1961, and the Baháʼí National Spiritual Assembly was first elected in 1970. Following the conversion of the then Head of State of Samoa, King Malietoa Tanumafili II, the first Baháʼí House of Worship of the Pacific Islands was finished in 1984 and the Baháʼí community reached a population of over 3,000 in about the year 2000. Early history The first mention of the Samoan Islands in Baháʼí literature is in a series of letters, or tablets, to the followers of the religion in the United States in 1916–1917 by ʻAbdu'l–Bahá, head of the religion until 1921 when he died, asking the followers of the religion to travel to other countries; these letters were compiled together in the book titled Tablets of the Divine Plan. The seventh of the tablets was the first to mention several island nations in the Pacific Ocean. Written on 11 April 1916, it was delayed in being presented in the United States until 1919 – after the end of World War I and the Spanish flu. The seventh tablet was translated and presented by Mirza Ahmad Sohrab on 4 April 1919, and published in Star of the West magazine on 12 December 1919. "A party speaking their languages, severed, holy, sanctified and filled with the love of God, must turn their faces to and travel through the three great island groups of the Pacific Ocean—Polynesia, Micronesia and Melanesia, and the islands attached to these groups, such as New Guinea, Borneo, Java, Sumatra, Philippine Islands, Solomon Islands, Fiji Islands, New Hebrides, Loyalty Islands, New Caledonia, Bismarck Archipelago, Ceram, Celebes, Friendly Islands, Samoa Islands, Society Islands, Caroline Islands, Low Archipelago, Marquesas, Hawaiian Islands, Gilbert Islands, Moluccas, Marshall Islands, Timor and the other islands. With hearts overflowing with the love of God, with tongues commemorating the mention of God, with eyes turned to the Kingdom of God, they must deliver the glad tidings of the manifestation of the Lord of Hosts to all the people." Following this call to pioneer in 1919, Clara and Hyde Dunn moved