Sisters and brothers, aloha.
While my devotional is not on gratitude, please permit me to briefly express my gratitude to the love of my life, my wife Karrie. She is my best friend, my partner, and my better half. This past summer marked 12 years since she and I deplaned with our children in Honolulu.
With only a handful of bags and an address, which we had received only just before departing, we set out for a house that we had never seen before. We had just sold a house, most of our belongings, rehomed my beloved geriatric dog Fetch with my parents, and were all feeling the trepidation and excitement of having flown almost 4,000 miles to start a new chapter in our lives.
Many of you probably relate to this story, as each of you has made a similar journey to BYU–Hawaii. Do you remember the first view when you exited the H3 tunnel? That expansive view of Kaneohe Bay, the turquoise blue water bespeckled with patch reefs before you, and the sheer green peaks of the Ko’olau behind? Do you remember your first view of BYU–Hawaii? What about the David O. McKay building framed by flags from all the countries represented by our international student body? In front of it all, the sign exclaiming, “Enter to Learn, Go Forth to Serve”. This common experience unites each of us here today.
I imagine that most of you were excited by the first invitation on that sign; excited to start your education. But what of the second invitation? While it is easier to envision what learning will look like at a university, where you will go from here and how you will use your education is probably less clear. It is difficult to picture how we will be transformed from our experiences here at BYU–Hawaii.
When I first began studying years ago as an undergraduate at Texas A&M University, I could never have imagined how that environment would shape me and would lead me here to BYU–Hawaii. It was on that campus that I first discovered the joy of supporting a college football team by standing for the entire game, 40,000 students communally yelling memorized cheers in unison: “Gig ‘em Aggies; Whoop!” It was on that campus in a large political science class that I met the love of my life, Karrie. It was on that campus that I discovered two other great loves in my life, marine biology and research. So many experiences in that environment and the subsequent environments of a mission field, marriage, graduate school, and fatherhood that have led to 12 years of my daily passing by that motto “Enter to Learn; Go Forth to Serve.” In this motto, I see an eternal principle: the relationship between growth and environment, a relationship illustrated in the life cycle of the o’io, or bonefish.
Were you to gaze upon a newly hatched o’io, you would not recognize it for what it will become. Most marine fish after hatching from their eggs drift for days, weeks, or even months in open water. O’io larvae drift for an astonishing two-three months. This process of larval drift and transport away from their origin to a new location is called dispersal. During this time, they are vulnerable as they drift, unable to swim against the currents, at the mercy of their environment. This necessitates vigilance. When food is present, the larva must eat for growth, as it doesn’t know when it may happen upon its next meal. Be it feast or famine, the o’io must be patient and always ready to strike if it intends to survive its dispersal. Line upon line, the o’io begins to grow, and with that growth comes an increased capacity to swim.
While it cannot swim against the current for long periods of time, it does learn to rise and fall within the water column, moving from surface currents to deeper counterflowing currents. This not only increases the o’io’s capacity for food foraging, but prevents the fish from being lost to the expanses of the pelagic ocean and helps to guide it toward the coastal reef environments in which the juveniles and adults will spend the rest of their lives. As adults, o’io feed and live on reefs and coastal flats. Here, essential nutrients exist to sustain life, and so fish and other animals aggregate on reefs to live and feed. When the adults reproduce, the larvae could be carried thousands of miles away during dispersal by currents. Those larvae that survive and ultimately grow into adults do so because they utilize those surface and deeper currents to remain in their spawned coastal environment or direct them to a new one.
As they are being dispersed, o’io also respond to environmental cues like light, sound, or geo- and biochemical signals that are present and being emitted from within these coastal environments; like beacons directing them to safe harbor. These environmental cues signal to the o’io that the habitat is suitable and can sustain their transformation and development into their juvenile and then later adult form.
O’io are from the same superorder of organisms as eels. If you look at the larva you can see that shared body type. When you look at the adults, it's not so apparent. But after they recruit to their nursery habitat, they undergo a metamorphic transformation into their juvenile form. Over a period of a week and a half they lose almost 50 percent of their length as their bodies reabsorb the tissue to provide the energy needed for juvenile tissue growth and gonadal development. Once this transformation is completed, they look radically different, a mini version of their adult form. This metamorphosis is only sustained if they settle in the right environment, one that provides enough food and shelter for survival and later reproduction. For it is not just their arrival in their nursery habitat but their successful integration into the existing population structure that defines the process called settlement and recruitment.
Is this not analogous to our own growth and development? As children you had little control over the environment created by your parents or guardians. At the mercy of that parentally cultured environment, you began to grow and develop both physically and spiritually. In the beginning, you had little to no control over that environment, but as your growth progressed, your capacity to exercise your own agency expanded and you became more capable. Moving from the carefully curated environment of your family you used your agency to transition to newer “environmental currents” like school, peer groups, friendships, even the internet. For each of us in this room today, those conscious and sometimes unconscious acts of agency placed us in environmental currents that ultimately directed our dispersal to BYU–Hawaii and even devotional today.
What can we learn from dispersal of the o’io?
Lesson one: We too are destined for a dramatic transformation.
Just like the o’io during their dispersal and recruitment to coastal environments to fulfill the measure of their creation; likewise, your eternal soul, a child of heavenly parents, was placed in its physical tabernacle to disperse in the epoch of mortal existence so as “…to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man.” [1] The prophet Alma while providing council to a wayward son described the plan as “…the great plan of salvation…”, the “…plan of happiness.”, and “…the plan of redemption…”. [2] I would encourage each of you to read his discourse of the mechanics of this plan in Alma 42.
President Dallin H. Oaks plainly summarized that the plan of salvation. Its “...purpose is to enable the children of God to be exalted and become like Him.… [3] mortal life and the postmortal growth that can follow it is for the offspring of God to become like He is.” [4] The metamorphic transformation from the baby o’io to its adult form is nothing compared to the awesome transformation provided through God’s plan of salvation. I have had the privilege for the past year to serve as a Primary teacher in my ward. If more Sunday school lessons were modeled after the pattern of Primary singing time and focused on simple eternal truths, I would wager, there would be an increased capacity for spiritual growth in our wards. I can’t count the number of times the Holy Ghost has witnessed to my soul that “I am a child of God. Rich blessings are in store; If I but learn to do his will, I’ll live with him once more.” [5] I sustain Sister Tracy Y. Browning's statement that “Primary songs can also be powerful doctrinal teaching tools” in our lives. [6]
Lesson two: For transformation to be successful, we must grow spiritually during our dispersal, not just after.
It is comforting to know that even though the difference in spiritual stature is almost unfathomable between us and God, growth is a gradual process. In 2 Nephi 28:30, we read “…I will give unto the children of men line upon line, precept upon precept…”. [7]
One of my first tasks during my graduate studies was removing the tiny calcium carbonate structures called otoliths found in the inner ears of larval fish that aid them in hearing and balance. These tiny structures contain daily mineral accretions that can be used to age the fish. During the day, calcium uptake from feeding is higher, so more calcium carbonate is added to the otolith, whereas at night the otolith growth rate slows, resulting in a daily pattern of growth rings.
This may look very familiar, as most of us have seen such patterns in trees where seasonal shifts in sunlight and precipitation result in similar banding periods of higher growth in the light-wide rings and lesser growth during the darker-narrow bands.
The needs of physical growth and spiritual growth are analogous, as are their fingerprints. To sustain life, the o’io must consume oxygen, organic biomolecules, and water fortified with essential nutrients and minerals. In John 4:13-14, we read the account of Jesus teaching a Samaritan woman at a well about the difference between water for physical and spiritual growth. “Jesus answered and said unto her, Whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again: But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life.” [8]
The spiritual water that contains essential nutrients for eternal life is found in the gospel of Jesus Christ. By following the gospel of Jesus Christ, we make sacred covenants with our Heavenly Father whereby we can fully access the power of the atonement so that we can be perfected in Christ. [9] Elder David A. Bednar stressed that “Every time we faithfully receive, review, remember, and renew sacred covenants, our spiritual anchors are secured more firmly and steadfastly to the ‘rock’ of Jesus Christ.” [10] That process of receive, review, remember, and renew is also illustrated in perhaps my favorite scriptural discourse on spiritual growth found in Alma 32 in the Book of Mormon. I invite each of you to review this chapter. In Alma 32:28 we learn that if a gospel principle is true then “…it will begin to swell within your breasts;…for it beginneth to enlarge my soul; yea, it beginneth to enlighten my understanding, yea, it beginneth to be delicious to me.” [11] As a scientist, I respect this principle of experimentation and testify of its awesome ability to build a testimony.
Lesson three: As we grow in stature and faith, like the o’io we will begin to use our agency to move from currents that are unproductive and hostile to our spiritual growth to safer currents that propel us forward on our journey of growth...
Some summers ago, my family met some friends at Waimea Bay for a lazy summer beach day. My son and his friend, during their turn on our paddleboard, got caught in a rip current that made it difficult for them to paddle back to shore. I watched over the course of a few minutes as they went from near the rock, to well past the rock, to finally outside the bay. I quickly grabbed my swim fins, mask and snorkel and raced into the water and began to swim. By the time I reached them, they were well past the bay and beyond sight of the sandy shore as they drifted toward Haleiwa. It was a long exhausting paddle back, me holding onto the back of the paddleboard kicking like an outboard motor.
Currents of sin are quick to sap us of the ability to grow spiritually. Once caught in sin, it can be painful and difficult to escape its hold. By applying the Atonement of Jesus Christ, we can be forgiven of sin and escape its telestial hold on us. I testify to you that this is true.
As a missionary in Germany, I loved the ease of explaining this eternal principle because the German word for repentance is “umkehr” which translates to “turn around” or “U-turn”. The action of a U-turn leaves little ambiguity of what must be done when our souls are confronted with sin. Because sin cannot dwell in the presence of God, and we are spiritual offspring of heavenly parents, our soul is initially repelled by sin. In the Guide to the Scriptures we read that “one manifestation of the light of Christ is conscience, which helps a person choose between right and wrong. As people learn more about the gospel, their consciences become more sensitive.” [12]
Everyone has access to this light. Through the restored ordinances of the gospel, once baptized, we can also receive the gift of the Holy Ghost, which can serve as an additional tool to discern when we have entered sinful currents and need to “U-turn.” Additionally, the relationship between spiritual growth and the spiritual power to discern right from wrong are intrinsically linked. As you begin to heed the promptings of the Light of Christ and the Holy Ghost, you will be led from hazardous currents to those currents that lead to spiritual growth.
Lesson four: Exaltation is not accomplished in isolation, but like the o’io recruitment, is guided by the cues of others and our environment.
When dispersing larvae near coastal habitats, they begin to detect environmental cues from the reef and biological cues from other fish that compel them to move in their limited capacity towards those cues. One well studied cue for reef fish is sound. The next time you go to the beach and snorkel around the reef, pay attention to the sound you hear underwater. A reef is a vibrant symphony of clicks, snaps, and chirps that even we can hear. If you record the sounds of a healthy reef and play that sound through underwater speakers on a highly degraded reefscape, devoid of sound and life, it will attract fish and invite recruitment of both fish and corals.
We respond to not only the Light of Christ, but also to the light and testimonies of those around us. In Doctrine and Covenants 87:8 the Lord gives a powerful invitation: “Wherefore, stand ye in holy places, and be not moved,…” [13] Here, the Lord talks about recruitment. In holy places, we begin to transform and become perfected in Christ. Holy places often bring images of monastic isolation or solitude, and while times of isolation and quiet are often necessary to hear the soft promptings of the spirit and revelation, in Matthew 18:20 we learn “…where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them.” [14] Quiet contemplation is compatible with revelation and prayer, but so is communal worship. In Matthew 5:14,16 we are instructed that “Ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hid.” [15] “Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.” [16] Christ personified this best during His ministry as He sought to share Himself with others through ministering. In the announcement of this devotional a request was inserted to invite a friend. How many of you heeded that invitation? For those that did, I testify that through you the Lord can influence the lives of others. Please continue to act on such invitations and promptings.
My wish for you is that you first recognize you are capable of dramatic spiritual transformation.
Second, seek to better understand the gospel of Jesus Christ and the plan of salvation as you make and keep sacred covenants with God and maximize spiritual growth.
Third, escape the dangerous currents of sin by accessing the power of Christ’s Atonement through repentance.
Fourth, follow the promptings of the Spirit and invitations of others to settle in holy places and once settled, invite others to also settle through your actions, testimony, and ministering.
From the third-floor window of the Science Building this week I have watched as the physical buildings of our campus have begun to come down. Our university is going through an amazing transformation and once rebuilt it will look dramatically different. Remember, the o’io will lose 50 percent of its total length as it breaks down its old body so that it can become something greater. I’m not sure what percentage of our campus is being dismantled. I suspect we exceed the percentages of the o’io, but the transformation is needed so the university can best fulfill the measure of its creation. My invitation for you students, staff, and faculty is to match that transformation in your own soul.
If you would indulge me for a moment, I would like to ask you to engage in a little thought exercise. Close your eyes and visualize your spirit standing in front of you. Now if we were like a tree and spiritual growth was deposited annually like growth rings, what would your soul’s cross section look like? What type of annual variation would you see? Do you see uniform consistent bands of growth, or are they highly variable in width and intensity? Now focus on the rings and analyze. Where are those bands of good spiritual growth? Where are those bands, were they wide and well defined? What happened during those times in your life? Could you count the years leading up to baptism? Analyze those ring patterns, do you see any trends? Do they reflect the spiritual growth for which you would have hoped? For those of you that still have your eyes closed, you can open them now.
I find this exercise to be incredibly sobering. When I peer into my soul stump, I find great variation in the widths of deposition. The patterns are difficult to see, and upon counting my rings, I find many altogether missing. In fact, the further I go back the less clear many of my rings become. Is that from lack of growth, or do those missing rings reflect spiritual loss and atrophy? My mission would easily stand out amongst the annuli. The years that Karrie and I married and started a family are there as well. For some of you, perhaps there was a great trial of faith. In such times I suspect the deposition of spiritual growth leaves a wide, visible ring. I have a few of those as well. And yet, I feel that I could do so much more to increase that spiritual growth. Remember, we are adaptive organisms. We can change our environment. I would like to suggest a few simple things we can do to maximize our spiritual growth and change that environment.
Make a simple plan to better understand and live the gospel of Jesus Christ. Remember to keep it simple. Choose maybe one thing to focus on at a time. May I also suggest you start with adding rather than removing something from your life as this is often easier to do and will build inertia for later subtractions. Maybe you decide to read in the scriptures a little bit each day. Or maybe you decide to start each morning off this week with a prayer. Make a small plan to include something to your gospel living this week and focus on that simple plan as you seek to make it a habit.
As you set about your plan, pay attention to how it makes you feel. Does it bring light into your life. Do you feel your spirit swell? Does it help you feel the Holy Ghost? Does it make you happy? Are you taking advantage of everything and everyone that this university has to offer? The second invitation is just as important as the first, you must inventory your incremental change in behavior to see if it brings more light into your life.
When you do feel the spirit enlarging your soul, you should acknowledge it, record it, and share it with others. As you share with others your testimony and spiritual experiences, you will help others feel the spirit and grow as well. You will establish holy places in your life for yourself and for others.
I testify to you that BYU–Hawaii is a holy place and that the greatest transformation in the years to come will not be the physical buildings but the spiritual growth that you will see in your lives and as you leave this institution and disperse and recruit to other reefs. This is how you will “go forth to serve,” by becoming a beacon to all others who are dispersing, guiding them to holy places, essential for their spiritual growth. I testify of your supreme potential, and do so in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.
Notes:
[1] Moses 1:39
[2] Alma 42:5, 8, 11
[3] Dallin H. Oaks, “The Great Plan,” Ensign or Liahona, April 2020, 93
[4] Dallin H. Oaks, “The Great Plan,” Ensign or Liahona, April 2020, 94
[5] “I Am a Child of God”, Children’s Songbook, 2
[6] Tracy Y. Browning, “Tune Your Heart to Jesus Christ: The Sacred Gift of Primary Music,” Ensign or Liahona, October 2025
[7] 2 Nephi 28:30
[8] John 4:13-14
[9] Moroni 10:32
[10] David A. Bednar, “Be Still, and Know That I Am God,” Ensign or Liahona, April 2024, 30
[11] Alma 32:28
[12] Guide to the Scriptures, “Light, Light of Christ”, Gospel Library
[13] Doctrine and Covenants 87:8
[14] Matthew 18:20
[15] Matthew 5:14
[16] Matthew 5:16