He helped translate the Book of Mormon into the Hawaiian language, as "Ka Buke a Moramona," working with missionary George Q.

Napela was born September 11, 1813,[3] to Hawaiʻiwaaole and Wiwiokalani; his father descends from Kuahaliulani, one of the numerous sons of Kekaulike, king of Maui at the beginning of the 18th century.

He was serving as a judge in Wailuku, Hawaii,[6] when he met George Q. Cannon, a British-born American member of the LDS Church who was on a mission to Hawaiʻi.

Napela, who had been present at the prayers, expressed surprise at their lack of faith; they followed his lead and held the meeting in a grove of trees.

[12] A short time later, at a conference in HawaiʻI, Napela stated to the assembled members of the church that "We were deceived and led away by Gibson's cunning words and thereby have broken the sacred covenants we had made.

Under laws of the period requiring quarantine of persons with leprosy, she had to relocate to the settlement of the Kalaupapa Leper Colony on Molokai and he accompanied her.

[14] Napela ran into trouble for failing to enforce the Board's demands for rigid segregation of lepers and non-lepers in the settlement and was replaced by William P.