I can't tell you how grateful I am to be here today.
Brothers and Sisters, aloha.
What a wonderful sound to hear you say, "Aloha." And what a wonderful place to be. Brett, thanks for the great introduction, and President Wheelwright, thanks for allowing me to be here. I am especially grateful to be among so many friends: Von Orgill, a good man and a good friend of mine; and, as a teacher here, I had the pleasure of having an office next to Brother Tew I am grateful to see him here; Bill Neal, and so many great friends. I wish I could see you as an audience, but these lights dim it a little bit. I know that within the audience there are many friends that I have out there as well: Brother Huff, I saw you come in, thank you for coming; and some good friends, Chelsea and Shaka, and other great people.
I have to admit, one of the things I'm most grateful for is this box of tissues right next to me because I plan to talk today about some things that are very close to my heart. These tissues might just come in handy. Don't laugh at me, I'm a softie. As my son had said, I was once in these chairs. I was once in these chairs as a student, and I was once in these chairs as a teacher. This place is a sacred place to me, Laie. It's a place where a lot of important things have happened, and what I would like to do with you, if you will permit me, is to take a journey. I want to take a journey down a road with you today, and share with you some of the events of my life that I think are probably the most personal events that I can think of. I do this because I love you. I may not know each of you by name or face-to-face, but I believe that I know why you're here and I'd like to make sure that you know why you're here. I would like for you to dream with me a bit today.
I would like you to walk down a road of my dreams and your dreams. For a moment, without any PowerPoints or any slides, I want you to take your own slides through your life and think about when you were children, and what dreams you had as children. I would like you to think about when you were young men and young women, and think about your dreams there. Then ask yourself, what is it that brought you to BYU-Hawaii?
I know as many times as I have thought about my own life, I find myself walking in quiet places. I find myself walking on the beach sometimes by myself, when the wind is blowing and the waves are crashing, and maybe they're crashing so loud I can't even hear my own voice. At times like that, sometimes I sing to myself. I like to choose places like that because I don't sing so well, and yet my heart is filled with these songs. One of my favorite songs was sung today, and you saw me weeping as I thought about my Savior. One of the songs that have been important to me in my life is a song that I once heard at a play. It's not a scriptural song; it's a song about a young man who is sitting in a garden. He has a book and he's drawing pictures of himself of what he wants to become. The song goes something like this:
I take some paper in my hand[And I take paper in my hand almost everyday, brothers and sisters]and with a pencil draw a man.The dream of what I'd really, really like to be.The dream of what I'd really, really like to be.A brave and noble, fiery youth.Who's not afraid to die for truth.Who's tall and straight, but best of all he's free!But who am I? Just a wandering kid.A cipher on the wall, not even brave at all!And where's my dream like his that I would fight for?And where's my cause like his that I would die for?And in his eyes he's not afraidBecause you see he's got it madeThis dream of what I'd really like to be.(Lyrics from "Paper Dream", Saturday's Warrior)
I hope that you have dreams like that. I hope you have dreams about what you want to be and that you have figured out in life how to get there. On my mission, I had some of the most spiritual experiences in my life until that time. I was talking to my son just a couple of days ago, and he said, "You know, I hate it when people say they're going to have the most spiritual experiences of their life on their mission. I had some great experiences there, but I didn't want that to be the end of my spiritual experiences either." And so when I left my mission, I remember somebody gave a talk, and they said, "Well, what do you have to do to carry that spirit with you?" The answer was you have to keep doing what you did on your mission. You have to keep praying. You have to keep reading the scriptures. You have to keep living a life of service. You have to keep dreaming of what you want to be.
I want to take you down a road today, like I said, and tell you some stories about what has gotten me through life. Some of those stories are mine, some are friends', and some of those are the Savior's stories. Let me start with when I was a small boy.
Once upon a time, this group of boys was out playing baseball. We were having a great time playing baseball. I was about ten-years-old, and our parents had left us there. I was there with my older brother, and we got tired of playing baseball after awhile. There was a dry riverbed in front of the baseball diamond, and across the river bed there was a cliff. My friends and I decided we wanted to go across that river bed and climb that cliff. It seemed like the right thing to do for a bunch of ten-year-olds. Maybe it wasn't all that smart to do.
We went across the riverbed, started climbing up the cliff, and it was difficult, so we went over to the edge of the cliff, where there was a hillside. One by one, we filed up this hill, but the boys ahead of me I thought were going too slow, so I thought, "Well, I need to get ahead of these boys, so I can lead the way and show them how to climb up this hill a little faster." So I got off of the trail and climbed over through some bushes, and pretty soon I found a place where I could climb up more rapidly. But the soil was very soft there, and I found myself slipping, slipping, and slipping! Pretty soon, I looked behind me, and I was just a few feet from this cliff. I had climbed up over the top of the cliff and I was about to fall down it. A little boy, I started grabbing plants. I grabbed this one little plant, which held me for a while, but it came off, and I slipped down closer to the edge of the cliff. I grabbed another little plant, and I remember grabbing that plant and kneeling on that hillside. I prayed with everything that a ten-year-old boy could pray with. I asked my Father to help me. I remember that time; an image came into my mind. The impression was to put my left foot back as far as I could. So I stuck my left foot out and felt it go over the cliff. Then the feeling was, "Keep going," so I did. I put my foot down over that cliff and my toes went into a crack in the cliff. I was then on solid ground. I put my other foot down, and sure enough, I found the same crack. Plant by plant, step by step, I worked my way over to safety.
Two things happened to me that day, maybe three. One, I knew, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that God knew me, and that He loved me. He would answer my prayers. More than that, at that moment, I knew that He wanted me alive for some reason. I didn't know what it was I still am not sure that I know what it is but He wanted me alive. He wanted me to do something.
Now go back to your dreams and ask yourself what it is He wants you to do. Almost everyone in this room, I'm going to easily bet, has a series of miracles that have brought them to Laie, this wonderful place; that brought you to this university, where you have an opportunity to do something that millions and millions of people would give their lives to be able to do. As a matter of fact, I'm sure you know those people. As you have gone through this road of life you've seen them; they're still back there. They didn't have this opportunity. What is it that taught you English? What is it that put it in your mind that dream to go on a mission? What is it that put into your heart the desire to come to BYU-Hawaii? And what is it you're supposed to do here? Do you realize that during this talk, as I stand here and give this devotional today, that people are dying all over the world, and it's very likely, if statistics are accurate, that 6,000 people will starve to death during this hour, somewhere in the world? Well, why are you here? What makes you so special to the Father that he would have put your life in order so that you could be here today? And why did you come to Laie?
Let's take another story. This one happened a long time ago. A lawyer met with the Savior toward the end of the Savior's mission, tempting the Savior, and said, "Master, how is it that I can inherit eternal life?" Now, there are a lot of lawyer jokes that come up about how a lawyer inherits eternal life, but we'll skip past that. The Savior answered the man and said, "What sayeth the law?" The man said, "Well, that's an easy one. You need to love the Lord with all your heart, might, mind, and strength, and love your neighbor as yourself." And the Savior said, "Thou sayest well." Then the lawyer, still hoping to justify himself, said, "but who is my neighbor?" And the Lord gave one of the most profound parables. He said,
"There was a certain man, who was journeying from Jerusalem to Jericho, and along the way, he fell among thieves. They beat him, robbed him, stripped him, and left him half-dead, expecting him to die, I imagine. And along came a priest, who saw the man, and walked to the other side, away from him, leaving him to die. And along came a Levite (one of the people who would have been set aside to take care of the temple), who looked upon the man, and chose the other way. And along came a Samaritan."
What is a Samaritan? The Jewish people and the Samaritans loathed each other. It was as much as a racial hatred as exists anywhere. And for this example of the Savior to say that a Samaritan came along would have been a very poignant lesson for these Jewish people, especially this Jewish lawyer, I suspect. And he said that the Samaritan stopped, bound up the wounds, poured in oil, and gave the man wine, put the man on his own beast, and carried him to safety. He rescued the man, and placed him in an inn, gave him shelter, and in the morning, told the innkeeper, "Anything this man needs, you give it to him and I will repay you when I come through again." Then the Savior asked this lawyer, "Who, then, is the neighbor?" And the lawyer said, "Well, he who showed the greatest mercy." And the Savior said, "Go, and do thou likewise." In there is all the message: go and do thou likewise.
I would like to point out a couple of lessons in this parable. One is that the man that was robbed obviously had to choose to go down this road, and it may be that he made a bad choice. We don't know that it doesn't discuss it in the scriptures, but obviously, this road to Jericho was a road where thieves were. He was headed from one area to another, maybe going through the bad area, and because of a choice that he made, he fell among thieves. I think sometimes in our lives we make bad choices and we fall among those who we've chosen to go with. Sometimes that's not a good choice. Another thing that you learn from this is that not everybody chooses to lift and carry those in need, so we have in our lives these hard choices we have to make.
I would like to share a couple of hard choices and then we'll wrap up the talk.
When I first moved out here to Laie, I attended the 2nd ward. At the end of one day, I went to Elders' Quorum, and I ran across a very handsome young man, who had many dreams of what he wanted to do with his life. His name is Shaka Malufau, and Shaka is in the audience today. He's wearing a military uniform and is as handsome as he ever was. As he sat in this Elder's Quorum, he talked about the dreams that he had for his life. I won't go through those dreams, but Shaka has dreams! At the end of the quorum, I pulled him aside. I said, "Shaka, you have marvelous dreams. You no doubt will be somebody someday, and the Lord has a place for you. But in all those dreams, I didn't here anything about a mission."
And Shaka said, "Well, you know, my mother is poor, and I need to help take care of the family. My income is important to her."
And I said, "Shaka, do you believe in the Book of Mormon?"
He said, "Oh yes!" and you could tell from the depths of his heart, Shaka Malufau believed in the Book of Mormon.
"Shaka, do you believe the Joseph Smith was a prophet of God?"
"Yes. I believe it with all of my heart."
"Do you believe that there is a prophet of God on the earth today?"
"Yes, I do."
"If God Himself came down into this room today and gave you instructions for your life, would you take those instructions?"
"Oh yes! Absolutely."
"What happens if God tells the prophet what you should do with your life? Then would you do it?"
"Absolutely! I would do it."
"Then Shaka, of all those choices you've got ahead of you, only one matters today, and that is, are you going to follow the prophet or not?"
Shaka thought about that for a while. I think he thought about it for a long while. The next week, Shaka came back to quorum, and he said, "Brother Carrington, I'm going to go on a mission."
Shaka did go on that mission. He put his papers in, and he served a mission in the Philippines. From what I hear, he served as a great missionary in the Philippines. He made that tough choice.
Let me tell you another story about a tough choice. I felt, that when I got home from my mission, I wanted to carry this [same extraordinary] spirit [I felt] with me. I knew that in order to do that, I had to have a great wife. I thought about my life, and I thought, where am I going to find this great wife? I remember thinking, "Am I going to find her in Japan? Am I going to find her in China? Should I go back to Mexico where I served a mission? Maybe she's in Provo? Where is this woman that I need to meet?" and I prayed about it many, many times, trying to understand from the Lord where I should go to meet this woman. One night, I had a dream, and in my dream I was standing on a hillside. There was a small house behind me, and I was on a hillside that overlooked an area that I recognized, so it was familiar. I looked down at my foot, and under my foot, I saw a single daisy. I moved my foot, and as the daisy came up, the impression came to me, "She's right under your feet." I thought, "Well, maybe I don't need to go to China; maybe she's right around here somewhere."
A couple of weeks later, an old friend of mine from high school, who had been a non-member at the time, who chose to come to BYU-Hawaii and while she was here, gained a testimony of the Church, and was baptized at Temple Beach her name was Jo Ellen, met me at Young Adult meeting after church one day.
We reminisced for a while, and she came back to me and said, "I'm going on a mission." I thought, "Great! You're going to be a great missionary! You're going to have a great time! My good friend, Jo Ellen, go have that mission." "Would you mind I would like to go to the temple one last time before I go on my mission. I don't you suppose you would and this is kind of embarrassing, but I don't suppose you would mind going to the temple with me?" "What's the harm in that? I would love to go to the temple with you."
We went down to the Los Angeles temple, and while we were in the temple oh my goodness, in white, she looked beautiful. I couldn't take my eyes off of her; she glowed. I remember I had forgotten about this dream, but while we were in the temple this dream came back to my mind, and I thought, "here's my daisy." So for anniversaries, we give daisies to each other.
She was supposed to go on a mission, but I knew it was her. The thing about this dream, though, in the temple, at that moment, I recognized the house: it was hers. I recognized the hillside: it was hers. And I knew that I had found my daisy. She went on a mission. I wrote her every week. She sent me two "Dear John's." We got married shortly after her mission.
I made the right choice, and it's made all the difference.
One time the impression came to me and said, "Quit your job." I had a great job; I lived in San Diego. The Lord came and said, "Quit your job," and I didn't. Months later, the same inspiration. A year later, the same inspiration over and over again, the Lord said, "Quit your job. Go get another one." I wanted to be promoted. I was well-respected in the company. I was advancing rapidly. I wanted more money, more prestige; I thought, I'll quit later after I get up a few levels. I have to tell you that I then went through one of the darkest times of my life. Coming out of that experience, I thought, if those feelings ever come again, I'm going to do it. I'm not going to put myself in a situation where the spirit will remove itself from me and leave me by myself, saying, "If you think you can handle this, you go ahead and try it on your own." I tried it on my own, and I fell on my face.
A few years later, I had another great job. We were living in Peachtree City, Georgia, one of the prettiest places on the planet” almost as pretty as Laie. And the spirit came to me again, and said, "Quit your job, and move to Salt Lake City." I was relatively successful, having a great life, but I thought, "Whoa! That was the same message as last time. How fast can I quit? Let's get out of this town. I'm moving to Salt Lake City." We sold the house, quit the job, got in a moving van, and, a few days later, we woke up in Salt Lake City and said, "Now what do I do? Here I am?"
The inspiration came and said, "Serve a mission." So at 39-years-old, no questions asked, I turned my paperwork in. I served a full-time service mission four kids at home, took myself out of the job market, and served my served my second mission. At the end of that mission, the spirit came again, and said, "Move to Laie." I said, "Laie? I have taken myself out of the job market, I no longer have an income, where I am now, on this mission in Salt Lake, the Lord has brought me here, and you want me to move to Laie?" So I said, "Yes, Sir. I will do it. We packed up the family, Brett and I moved out here first, didn't have a job, didn't have a place to live just moved to Hawaii.
In preparation for that, I started studying everything I could about this place. Did you know that Brigham Young bought the land here in 1865? Did you know that the Church owns all of the property from the top of the mountains down to the beach? Did you know that the first temple built outside of the United States was built in Laie as a gathering place for the Polynesians? I started going through this process and I said, "These Polynesian people must be something special. Why did the Lord do that for them?"
I started listening to stories about these wonderful Polynesian people. One of their names is Iohani Wolfgramm. The story came up about a young man who went through the veil, talked with angels, had the gift of healing his daughter was run over by a jeep at one point, her head was crushed, and she was dead. He listened to the spirit, and the spirit said, "Bless her that she will rise with the sun in the morning." He gave that blessing and she rose, a five-year-old girl. I ask myself, why? What is it about these Polynesian people that gives them that kind of faith? And why did they let this girl live? All the parents in the world that have let children die, who would have loved to have that inspiration come to them, would have loved to have the priesthood to be able to say, "Rise with the sun," why her?
Let's go back to why you. Why are you here? What mission does the Lord have for you? Why has he rescued you and brought you here? I would like you to look around the community some time. There are hundreds of Iohani Wolfgramm's out here: the janitors, your stake presidents, your bishops many of them have the faith of this Iohani Wolfgramm, and they are here to teach you. The education at this university is great. You will do well to have this great education, and this great university president, and this great Polynesian Cultural Center president, and these great stake presidents to lead you and guide you and take you through your life. But all around you, the Lord has gathered these great people from all over the world and brought them here to be your teachers, your servants, and to teach you to be great leaders. David O. McKay came here and said that from this place would go forth men and women of gold; leaders whose influence would be international, leaders of peace, but I think it's the Lord's peace.
I think, to have a prophecy like that that men and women would leave this place as leaders is an easy prophecy you just have to do one thing: bring leaders here. You were leaders before you got here. There is a very good chance that you were leaders before you came to Earth. And the Lord has picked you out of Kiribas, Mongolia, Thailand, China, Tonga, Samoa, Cincinnati, San Diego and for whatever reason he has picked you to be a part of this great dream. You will have many difficult choices ahead of you. Like David and Goliath, you will confront many great "Goliaths" in your day. There is a very good chance, that on your "road to Jericho" you'll not only find the fallen friend here and there, but you'll encounter Goliath between you and that friend. You will have to exercise the faith of a David, the faith of a Iohani, the faith of a Shaka Malufau, to accomplish whatever the Lord wants you to do in your life. So I want you to dream with me.
Just think back about your life, and think, your life is the road to Jericho, and along that road, I'd like you to think back and ask yourself, if you may have perhaps already left people along that road, and they're still there in a ghetto, maybe the one you came from; on an island; just outside your home. Are those people still there? Are they waiting for you to come back to lift them and guide them? Don't be afraid of anything. Find your daisy. Get married in the temple. Exercise your priesthood. Use it to command the storms to depart. Use it to defeat the Goliaths in your life. Fear nothing. The Lord will be with you and you will conquer. You will have an opportunity to go back and find those people still lying in the road waiting for you to lift them and love them along your way. I pray these things will happen.
I would like to share my testimony that I know the Church is true, that I know God lives, that I know Jesus is the Christ. I have this testimony not because I've heard it, but because he has been with me every step of my life, and He listens to me sing in the ocean waves. He'll listen to you, and he'll save you, and he'll rescue you. I pray that you will do one thing: pray that the Lord will let you be a servant for Him and use you to your best use. The Church is true, the Book of Mormon is true, and I bear my testimony in Jesus' name, amen.