Friends and brothers and sisters, I have some prepared remarks, but that's a little unfair to follow Rosalind. There are commencement ceremonies like this happening all over the world last month and next month. And I dare say there won't be any student speakers who will teach you that for the rest of your life, if you and I will follow those gentle promptings, it will make all the difference. That is so beautifully said, Rosalind. We are very grateful for your testimony and your example.
Introduction
President Porter, President and Sister Kauwe, parents, family, friends, and especially you graduates, you beautiful graduates, aloha! You’re an inspiring sight! As President Porter and I stood next to each other and greeted you as you walked in, it's a sacred experience. Your happiness is contagious, your confidence, laughter and smiles will brighten anyone's day! There is a light in your faces…which might actually just be relief from passing your finals!!! We are all thrilled for you today! We are so happy for you.
Prophetic Fingerprints
President Jeffrey R. Holland gave you some homework for days like today. You didn't think you'd get out of here today without a bit of homework, did you? He said,
“Every now and then…school is supposed to just be fun. Now, most days you won’t think that, but today is one of those, so I command all of you to be happy. You are to have fun today...” [1] So in a little while, when we’re outside on this beautiful new plaza, I expect all of you will follow President Holland’s counsel!
Throughout the entire history of BYU–Hawaii, prophets, seers, and revelators have carefully and personally guided this university and this university's students! At the groundbreaking and dedication of this school, at the very beginning, President David O. McKay charted our course when he said that the “purpose for which [this school] is being built [is] first, the things pertaining to God and His kingdom.” [2]
At President Kauwe’s inauguration, President Holland said, “The great work of BYU–Hawaii is still ahead of us…. Those great purposes of BYU–Hawaii will demand the very best of us.” [3]
President Henry B. Eyring described BYU‒Hawaii using very humbling words: “There is a divinity that shapes the remarkable development of this school. The Lord is its founder.” [4] Such a realization hopefully fills each of us with unbreakable resolve.
Finally, President Russell M. Nelson taught, “[You graduates now], you enter a world caught in a steep slippery slide of diminishing moral values….If you are true and faithful, you will stand out in stark contrast to the surrounding masses mired in mediocrity.” [5]
President Boyd K. Packer, once said those who now come to the Church as a trickle "will inevitably come as a flood to where the family is safe." [6] God and the Savior are relying on you to be exemplars of that.
Your Alma Mater (don’t you like the sound of that today) is growing from the small, unheralded Church College of Hawaii into BYU–Hawaii, a deeply successful university with crystal clear focus with an inspiring President and First Lady, talented administration seated here on the stand, and your deeply consecrated faculty, many of whom I know and I wish I knew all of them better. But I know a bit of you faculty members of your consecration being here. And each of you successful graduates who will continue serving, leading, and blessing your families, your communities, and the entire Church.
Prophetic Guides
Somehow, this university, and each of you, have taken your history from such simple beginnings, inculcated a deep spirit of Ohana, sprinkled in a bit of surfing, and somehow…somehow you’ve become a vibrant, visionary, university with academic discipline and excellence, bringing together all of you beautiful students, from 33 countries, who have committed yourselves to being a university with the Lord as its founder.
May I quickly tell you how I think that has happened for you and for this place? BYU–Hawaii as a university—and each of you as individuals—has chosen to be led by prophets, seers, and revelators who speak for the Savior, Himself.
Prophetic Governance
It is my incredible privilege to represent your Board of Trustees today here. They wish they could be here. Elder Ronald A. Rasband taught that as a university we operate “under the guidance of a unique and distinctive Board of Trustees … [which] is led by the First Presidency [themselves], with President Russell M. Nelson himself serving as Chairman…” [7] In fact, President Kauwe and I were with them just last week in Board Meeting. They talk of you. They love you. They pray for you.
Graduates, we love you. You are graduating from a university where you have learned to allow yourselves to be led by the Savior’s prophet and apostles. If you and I will intentionally, consciously, unalterably decide to continue that followership, they will lead us and prepare us for the Savior’s second coming.
An Easter Testimony
As my concluding testimony today, and as we consider the First Presidency’s invitations surrounding Easter, you know what today is relative to Easter? Today in history is the sacred morning when the Savior would have been crucified. This morning early is the morning when He would have been in the Garden of Gethsemane. If I could borrow words from one of the Savior’s living witnesses: “If the resurrection of Jesus Christ is a literal fact, all that is said and written about Him as being nothing more than a gifted and charismatic mortal is so much hot air and wasted paper; the arguments of atheists and humanists become meaningless; the search for purpose and meaning in life is at an end. The resurrection of Christ changes everything.” [8]
My young friends and old friends, I testify of Jesus Christ’s anointed witnesses and of the glorious and infinitely merciful Savior, Himself, who in Paul’s words is “the Apostle and High Priest of our profession, Christ Jesus.” [9] Following Him and them without flinching and without distraction leads to happiness here and forever. May God bless you in doing that and all of us in doing that for the remainder of our lives. In the name of Jesus Christ, amen.
Notes
[1] Jeffrey R. Holland, “A Historic and Special Day,” Inauguration of President John S.K. Kauwe III, BYU–Hawaii, October 19, 2021
[2] David O. McKay, “Groundbreaking & Dedication of CCH/BYU-Hawaii,” [Brigham Young University–Hawaii, February 12, 1955], speeches.byuh.edu/foundation-speech
[3] Jeffrey R. Holland, “A Historic and Special Day,” Inauguration of President John S.K. Kauwe III, BYU–Hawaii, October 19, 2021
[4] Henry B. Eyring, “An Influence for Good,” [Brigham Young University–Hawaii Devotional November 9, 2015] byuh.edu/speeches
[5] Russell M. Nelson, “Visions Past, Present, and Future”, [Brigham Young University–Hawaii Devotional, April 09, 2011], byuh.edu/speeches
[6] Boyd K. Packer, "The Father and the Family," Ensign or Liahona, April 1994, 21
[7] Ronald A. Rasband, “For Such a Time as This,” [Brigham Young University devotional, September 19, 2023], speeches.byu.edu
[8] D. Todd Christofferson, “The Prophet Joseph Smith,” [Brigham Young University-Idaho Speeches, Sept. 23, 2013], byui.edu/speeches/
[9] Hebrews 3:1