Thank you so much, Brother Tee and Sister Duerden, for that beautiful medley and for inviting the spirit into this meeting. My heart is full.
My dear sisters and brothers, good morning and Aloha!
It is a blessing and privilege to be with you today. I would like to first express my heartfelt gratitude to President and Sister Kauwe for the invitation to speak with you today and to share my simple but firm testimony of Jesus Christ.
Being born and raised in Laie I grew up in faculty housing in a cul-de-sac on Naniloa Loop. Living across the street from the House of the Lord was truly a sacred blessing. Laie and this university have a special place in my heart, which makes this opportunity to speak with you today very special and significant for me.
I pray that my message today will strengthen your testimony and faith in Christ, and your desire to follow Him. I have spent much time laboring in prayer, fasting, and supplication [1] to know what He would have me share with you today. I know that He has brought you here today “by divine design” [2] that you may receive a special message He has for you. I invite you to be sensitive and responsive to the promptings you will receive today, and that you may know that He hears you and loves you dearly.
In this April’s general conference, President Russell M. Nelson said, “As we diligently seek to have charity and virtue fill our lives, our confidence in approaching God will increase. I invite you to take intentional steps to grow in your confidence before the Lord. Then, as we go to our Heavenly Father with increasing confidence, we will be filled with more joy, and your faith in Jesus Christ will increase. We will begin to experience spiritual power that exceeds our greatest hopes.” [3]
The prophet invited us to take intentional steps to grow in our confidence before the Lord. Growth is a key principle in the gospel of Jesus Christ as it closely relates to the word, progression.
As I pondered this thought, the word, “hypertrophy” came to mind.
Hypertrophy is often used to describe the growth or increase in size of an organ or cell. It is often used to describe our muscles. For example, a body-builders' main goal is muscular hypertrophy.
They spend hours in the weight room, adding more and more weight to increase their muscle mass and achieve muscular hypertrophy. By stressing their muscles in such a way, repetition upon repetition, the muscles respond by increasing its mass and growing stronger so that it can withstand increasingly heavier loads and stress.
On the other hand, when our muscles go through a period of time when it isn’t exercised or used, they experience atrophy or the loss of mass.
Some of you may have experienced significant atrophy after removing a cast from your arm or leg after many months. There is often a stark difference between the leg that was in the cast compared to the one that wasn’t. The atrophied muscle becomes weak and unable to handle the same weight or stress that it could prior to the injury.
Now, let's apply this concept of Hypertrophy and atrophy to our spiritual growth. We have seen examples of both spiritual hypertrophy and atrophy. Devoted followers of Jesus Christ who are truly converted can expect significant spiritual gains, adding strength and fostering hypertrophy to our testimonies. Our ability to withstand trials and temptations will be strengthened. We will also grow in our confidence before the Lord.
However, when we fail to put up the reps to exercise our spiritual muscles, we will experience spiritual atrophy. Our testimonies become weak and frail and then our ability to withstand the forces of the adversary become compromised.
Spiritual hypertrophy will strengthen us to withstand the persistent pressures and cunning attacks applied by the adversary to lead us away from our Savior and weaken our confidence in His presence.
It is vital that we implement measures that ensure that we are consistently and faithfully promoting spiritual hypertrophy.
I would like to now suggest four specific actions that we can take to promote spiritual hypertrophy:
My first suggestion is to:
Recognize, develop and use your spiritual gifts and talents.
Each of us has been blessed with unique gifts and talents that will help us learn, grow, and build His kingdom. As we strive to follow Jesus Christ, He will help us develop these spiritual gifts to uplift and inspire those around us because “…every good gift cometh of Christ.” [4]
We have been blessed with six children and so, as you can imagine, we’ve accumulated an impressive amount of toys over our 18 years of parenthood. A few years ago, we brought out our Toy Story collection for our youngest keiki and found that our Woody’s pull-string mechanism wasn’t working. When we pulled the string, nothing came out from the voice box. Suspecting dead batteries, my wife, Amy, changed the batteries for the first time since we bought the toy. After swapping out old batteries for new ones, Amy noticed that the switch was on “TRY ME” mode and not switched to the full “PLAY” mode. For 12 years, our Woody Cowboy had been limited to just three phrases.
Once he was switched to PLAY mode he said four times as many phrases, sang “Home, Home on the Range,” AND there are sensors in his head, so he knows when someone takes his hat off! After 12 years, the Woody doll that we all loved was markedly better than he was when he was stuck in the “TRY ME” mode. Needless to say, it was quite the mind-blowing experience for us all.
Brothers and sisters, how many of us are stuck in our own “TRY ME” mode; not utilizing or magnifying the talents our Father in Heaven has blessed us with?
Are we content just giving 50% or 75% effort within this great and marvelous work? Could we let God more fully in our lives? Can we pray harder? Study the word of God more intently? Magnify our callings in church or in our homes more fully? Apply more effort in our ministering duties to our brothers and sisters? Partake in temple and family history work more regularly? Can we serve with more of our heart, might, mind, and strength?
From this pulpit [in] this university just four months ago, Elder Ronald A. Rasband encouraged us to "Give the Lord equal time." He reiterated that counsel just last month in General Conference when he said to give the Lord "equal time, not spare time." [5]
"Faithful stewards seek for and invite spiritual gifts into their lives and use those with which they have been blessed to lift and serve others. Each of you, children of God, has been given gifts and special talents." [6]
The Lord has made it clear that it is not good enough for us simply to return to Him the talents He has given us. We are to improve upon and add to our talents. He has promised that if we multiply our talents, we shall be blessed with eternal joy. [7]
I invite you to ask Heavenly Father to help you see your spiritual gifts and the talents He has entrusted to you and how you can use them to lift, love, and strengthen His children.
Your spiritual gifts will be a reminder that God sees you, knows you, and trusts you to be a part of His work. You will then gain a greater desire to be like Him in word, deed, and thought.
This brings me to my second suggestion:
Emulate the Savior and become a true disciple of Jesus Christ.
Recently, I came across this quote, “roughly half of Jesus’ miracles were interruptions. He had a plan. He had a destination. But He was interruptible. I wonder how often we miss what God is doing because we hold too tightly to our own plans.” [8]
In the book of Mark, a Jewish synagogue ruler named Jairus faced a time of great uncertainty and fear. His 12-year-old daughter was on the brink of death. He found himself on his knees “and besought [Jesus] greatly, saying, My little daughter lieth at the point of death: I pray thee, come and lay thy hands on her, that she may be healed; and she shall live. And Jesus went with him;” [9]
While Christ was making His way to Jairus’s house, there was an overwhelmingly large group of people following and crowding Him. Jairus anxiously trying to navigate his way quickly back home to his daughter, realizing that every second that passed brought her closer to her death.
I can only imagine that Jesus Christ, however, was likely calm and sensitive to His surroundings and those He passed. While making His way through, a woman of great faith with an issue of blood, who was ostracized and considered unclean, who had also waited for His healing hand, touched His clothes.
“For she said, If I may touch but his clothes, I shall be whole.”
“And straightway the fountain of her blood was dried up; and she felt in her body that she was healed of that plague.”
“And Jesus, immediately knowing in himself that virtue had gone out of him, turned him about in the press, and said, Who touched my clothes?..."
“…And he looked round about to see her that had done this thing.
But the woman fearing and trembling, knowing what was done in her, came and fell down before him, and told him all the truth.
And he said unto her, Daughter, thy faith hath made thee whole; go in peace, and be whole of thy plague.” [10]
Jesus Christ is the perfect example of always being on His Father’s errand rather than His own. He allowed himself to be patient and interruptible. He could have ignored this woman with an issue of blood and rushed past her but he paused to acknowledge and show compassion to her and declared her faith had made her whole.
Brothers and sisters how often are we in the busyness of our day so focused on getting from point A to point B that we miss opportunities to serve, to lift, and to love? As we strive to show Christlike patience and prioritize connection with our loved ones and others, we will see His hands working with and through us. As we pause and listen to the promptings of the Spirit, He will teach us love, patience, and service.
It is with this same faith that we, as His disciples, must press forward and minister to the One. To have our hearts open to His promptings and be willing to be interruptible while we are on our way.
Elder Dieter F. Uchtdorf has shared, “I think of our Lord and Exemplar, Jesus Christ, and His short life among the people of Galilee and Jerusalem. I have tried to imagine Him bustling between meetings or multitasking to get a list of urgent things accomplished. I can’t see it.
Instead I the compassionate and caring Son of God purposefully living each day. When He interacted with those around Him, they felt important and loved. He knew the infinite value of the people He met. He blessed them, ministered to them. He lifted them up, healed them. He gave them the precious gift of His time.” [11]
Consecrating our time and efforts to His work requires us to be interruptible. There are interruptions and distractions in our day that are by divine design to encourage the depressed, strengthen the weak, help the confused or love the unloved. Becoming a true disciple of Jesus Christ will make you more accessible, more interruptible. More like Him.
I invite you to stop viewing interruptions from strangers, friends and even your family members as distractions from your day but an opportunity to be on the Lord’s errand and willingly say, “…Here am I; send me.” [12]
My third suggestion to promote spiritual hypertrophy is to then:
Remove impurities in our lives by repenting daily.
When my daughter, Oakley, was in kindergarten she loved swinging across the monkey bars. She would spend the entire recess swinging across and then back again and across again. One day, after days, weeks of going back and forth on the monkey bars, she came home in tears and showed us her hands.
One of the calluses she had developed on her palm tore off and she had a big fresh, open sore where the callus once was. She was sad and confused as to how her most favorite park activity could lead to such a painful consequence.
She didn’t realize that slowly, over time, her skin was trying to protect itself against the friction and pressure it was being exposed to with each swing on the monkey bars. As time passed the callus grew bigger and bigger until, finally, the skin was not strong enough to support the excess mass and it tore away.
However, that one broken callus didn’t take away from hours of strength training the inner muscles of her hands developed and once the wound healed, her hands–Oakley’s grip was stronger and better able to withstand the friction and pressure from the monkey bars and she was able to hold fast and firm to the bars.
As we come to understand the blessings of the Atonement of Jesus Christ and what He can do for us, we will find joy in repenting daily. [13] Yes, we will falter and fall often. But, as we put our faith in Christ and His everlasting and infinite atonement, strive to repent and keep our covenants, every time our grip loosens and we fall, He will lift us back up onto the bars and walk with us to make sure He catches us when we fall again and again. Over time as we continue to put our trust in Him with all our hearts [14] our grip will become tighter, and our weaknesses will become strong in Him. [15] We will be able to press our way forward, continually holding fast to the rod of iron, until we come forth and fall at His feet [16] and He will say, “…Well done thou good and faithful servant:” [17]
As children of God, we have so much eternal potential. Our divinity is that of our Heavenly Father’s. We accepted His plan knowing that we will face trials and hardships and that this mortal journey would be difficult.
In Hawaiian culture, when a bowl broke, it was not discarded. Instead, they mended it using another type of wood and shaped it in the form of a fish (known as the pewa design) and this was part of the mending process.
The more a piece was mended, the more pewa designs were added. The more the bowl was seen as beautiful because it had history, and the unyielding love of someone who cared enough about the bowl to keep mending it. The real value of an object was not determined by how flawless it looked but it’s worth was found in how it survived, the history held within and how it was cherished generation after generation.
We, as imperfect beings, stumble often and our imperfections—the cracks in our bowl, our callused hands—are very apparent. But that is the beauty of His great plan of happiness and the miracle of Christ’s Atonement. We can be reinforced, repaired, and healed through Him. Because of His unwavering, infinite love, whether it’s one crack or a hundred, He will mend every one of us without fail. For He has suffered these things for all, that we might not suffer if we would repent [18] and follow Him.
Removing the impurities through repentance will qualify us to enter the Lord’s House, which will further promote spiritual hypertrophy.
My last suggestion is to attend the House of the Lord more frequently.
Recently Elder Neil L. Andersen shared a notable statistic at RootsTech, a global genealogy conference. He said,
“In only a few years, 80% of all the temple recommend holders in the Church will be within an hour of a temple. It is a glorious day, isn’t it? The love of our Savior Jesus Christ and the power, the protection, the peace—all of which comes from His holy house—will be so important as we prepare for our Savior’s Second Coming.” [19]
We often say that we’re going to the house of the Lord or the temple, but imagine the greater impact if we were to say instead that we are going to visit the Lord in His holy house? [20]
Remember when I said I grew up mere steps away from the temple? I knew, even as a little boy, that proximity to the temple is a special blessing. A blessing that served as a foundational piece of my faith and trust in the Lord and His plan for me. I pray that you will also take advantage of having the House of the Lord within footsteps to seek Him and receive the blessings He has prepared for you.
In a devotional address earlier this year, our dear and beloved President John S.K. Kauwe III, shared, “Now, our ’circumstances’ here at BYU–Hawaii are very favorable. It takes 238 steps to get from the edge of campus to the temple recommend desk!... I am so grateful for the effort that I see each of you making to worship and to serve as ordinance workers in the Laie, Hawaii Temple. I invite you to sustain those efforts if you are doing well and to elevate your efforts if there is room to improve.” [21]
Brothers and sisters, I pray that you will take these four suggestions to heart and act upon the promptings you received this morning. I know that as you follow through on those things, you will be able to walk with strength on the covenant path with increased spiritual hypertrophy. You’ll have an increased ability to resist temptation and receive personal revelation from your Father in Heaven.
I know that in the strength of the Lord we can do, endure, and overcome all things. “The Lord God showeth us our weakness that we may know that it is by his grace [and strength]…and his great condescensions unto the children of men, that we have power to do these things.” [22] I bear you my testimony that He lives, Jesus is the Christ, and He leads His Church through our prophet, President Russell M. Nelson. Of these things I testify and declare my humble witness in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.
Notes:
[1] Enos 1:4
[2] Ronald A. Rasband, “By Divine Design,” Ensign or Liahona, October 2017
[3] Russell M. Nelson, “Confidence in the Presence of God,” Ensign or Liahona, April 2025
[4] Moroni 10:18
[5] Ronald A Rasband, “Right Before Our Eyes,” Ensign or Liahona, April 2025 and “Give the Lord Equal Time,” [Brigham Young University–Hawaii devotional, January 28, 2025], speeches.byuh.edu
[6] Bruce R. McConkie, Doctrinal New Testament Commentary, 3 volumes. [1966–1973], volume 1, 688
[7] Matthew 25:14-30
[8] Mark W. Matthews, LinkedIn post. LinkedIn, December 2024, linkedin.com/posts/mark-w-matthews
[9] Mark 5:23-24
[10] Mark 5:28-30, 32-34
[11] Elder Uchtdorf, “Of Regrets and Resolutions,” Ensign or Liahona, October 2012, 22
[12] Isaiah 6:8
[13] Doctrine and Covenants 18:13
[14] Proverbs 3:5
[15] Ether 12:27
[16] 1 Nephi 8:30
[17] Matthew 25:21
[18] Doctrine and Covenants 19:16
[19] Neil L. Andersen, “2025 Family Discovery Day: President Holland and Elder and Sister Andersen” RootsTech conference, 2025
[20] Gerrit W Gong, “Holiness to the Lord in Everyday Life,” Ensign or Liahona, October 2024
[21] John S.K. Kauwe III, “Freedom from Fear,” [Brigham Young University–Hawaii devotional, February 18, 2025], speeches.byuh.edu
[22] Jacob 4:7