Aloha! One of the objectives of our year long Jubilee celebration is not only to make us all more aware of our heritage as a campus, but to open our hearts with gratitude for the blessings of the university which are the results of the labor and sacrifice of many people who went before us.
My heart is very full today. For as the Jubilee year progresses, there is an intensity of feeling and gratitude for what God has wrought over the last fifty years in the form of BYU-Hawaii and the Polynesian Cultural Center. This intensity of feeling includes a number of things, first, an increased awareness of how Heavenly Father works through living prophets and by the power of His spirit through other people to bring about his purposes. These are ordinary people who do extraordinary things, monumental things in spite of their weakness and frailties as human beings.
Second, that intensity of feeling also includes the reality that the BYU-Hawaii and the Polynesian Cultural Center play key roles in his purposes of expanding Zion across the earth, and "to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life" of his children.
I believe these key roles are bigger than any one of us can fully imagine.
Third, I have the distinct sense that not only Heavenly Father and our Savior are very much aware and interested in what is happening to preserve, strengthen, and magnify these institutions, but the men and women who carried the work forward from the beginning, who are now beyond the veil, are still involved in some meaningful way, and are part of the Jubilee, if not as direct participants, then as special visitors.
President Hinckley, who is very much aware of the prophetic foundations of La'ie and its institutions, has said on more than one occasion that when he steps through the veil he expects to meet President Joseph F. Smith who will ask him, "Gordon, what have you done for La'ie"
If that is true, and I believe it is true, then it is just as likely that I and Von Orgill and all of you who are involved with the university and securing and magnifying these institutions in La'ie will be facing other people who loved and served this community, and who receive both revelation and energy to bring to past what we have today--especially President David O. McKay.
Two weeks ago in the unveiling of the beautiful "genuine gold" display in the Aloha Center Mall, I sensed President David O. McKay would be looking in. During the Jubilee season we will memorialize many times that "first vision" when in 1921 he and Hugh Cannon visited the little Church elementary school in La'ie and during a flag raising ceremony envisioned an institution of higher learning in this little community. In the years that followed, he showed deep affection for this place. Here are some never before seen shots that show that affection and the quality of the man who was the prophet and his attachment to our people in the islands.
*PRESIDENT MCKAY DVD*
When President McKay became the prophet in 1951, a college in La'ie was still heavy on his mind. After calling the first president of the college, Reuben Law, President McKay broke ground here on February 12, 1955. At which time he articulated the prophetic mission of this school, a mission that is still unfolding with ever more dramatic results.
After the turning of the soil with a single shovel, during the ceremony, President McKay offered the dedicatory prayer, having passed the shovel to Edward LaVaughn Clissold. Vaughn Clissold holds the shovel during the prayer. To me that shovel is the symbol of the mighty faith, hard work, and sacrifice it would take to create the institution the prophet saw in his vision.
Who were those men who would bring substance and reality to the prophetic vision: Vaughn Clissold, Ralph Wooley, Arthur Haycock, George Q. Cannon, Larry Haneberg and Wendell Mendenhall, the force behind the vast building missionary program in the Pacific that built schools and chapels in Samoa, Fiji, New Zealand, Hawaii, our campus, and the Polynesian Cultural Center.
We are specifically honoring this month those we call the university's and the Polynesian Cultural Center's first donors, that first cadre of people who gave time, talent, treasure, and testimony. These men and women did not give out of their affluence, but out of their poverty. In the prime of their lives, when they were most productive, they accepted mission calls to construct this campus.
Joseph Wilson, the head of construction, and Pearl Wilson. Who can forget the Robinsons, Paul and Alice Pack, Jack and Ilene Pierce, the Manwarings, the Hathaways, the Cottles, and the Boes. Brother Boe is the man who pieced together the David O. McKay mosaic in the foyer entrance of the campus.
These represent only a few of the hundred plus journeymen builders who left their homes, jobs, and businesses in the mainland to create in reality President McKay's vision in Hawaii.
In that first wave of construction, in building the initial buildings of this campus dozens of local brethren were also called as building missionaries to assist the mainland USA builders. Thomas Kaleo was the very first to accept his call and come to the building site. Muelo Meatoga, Pauaea Aumua, Valovalo Salanoa, John Keawe, Uele and Alapeti Magalei, John K. Kinolau, Joseph Kamai, Tony Haiku, Bill Kanahele, William Akau, Pupi Alisa, Issac and Emerson Stant, David Kekuaokalani and Samuel Makanoa. John Kapu and Nonaina Makahi. These are only a few of our local Hawaiian and Samoan brethren who worked to build the campus.
In the second wave of construction the Church called dozens of building missionaries from among the young men of southern Polynesia to assist the builders from the U.S. mainland. Despite the challenges of their youth and inexperience, their lack of English skills, they labored with their might. The American builders were their mentors and their role models on the job site and in the church.
There were accidents but no serious injuries, in spite of falls from thirty feet, a leg run over by an 8 ton truck, car crashes, and electric fires. Each day was begun with prayer. From foundations--to walls--to roof--to the finishing touches, the school took shape into a thing of beauty and utility.
Certainly one of the great moments in this massive effort was when 47 of the Polynesian building missionaries received their own endowments in the Hawaii Temple. Who were these original Polynesian donors? What were there feelings about their call to serve? Brothers and sisters of the BYU-Hawaii/PCC family of 2005, to listen to the testimonies from across 50 years from some of the men who built what you have here today. As you listen to their testimonies, as you assess their gifts that resulted in the opportunities and blessings you have now, listen with hearts of appreciation and gratitude.
*LABOR MISSIONARIES DVD*
On Monday of this week our Polynesian Cultural Center Promo team performed for President Hinckley in Satl Lake city. Included in that performance was a special hula composed for the music "My Hands are the Lord's Hands." I would like to conclude this tribute to our labor missionaries whose hands were the Lord's hands in creating this school. And I would plead with every one here to take into our hearts the following words:
"My hands are the Lords hands, without me, how can his work be done? I will reach where he would reach, loving kindness in my touch, I'll be his healing hands to everyone.
"My feet are the Lord's feet without me, how can he walk with the poor? I would go where he would go, blessing others as I do for him, I walk where I've never walked before.
"Help me Lord, let me give to my neighbor what you would give if you were here. Help me, Lord, let me live so my neighbor will know that you are always near.
"My mouth is the Lord's mouth, without me how can his voice be heard? I will say what he would say speaking love and life each day and everyone who's near will hear his word" (by Carolyn Pearson).