President and Sister Kauwe, university and community leaders, stake presidents and ecclesiastical leaders, brothers and sisters – aloha! If you loved every performer and every performance at Culture Night on Wednesday and Friday, would you please raise your hand? And if you really loved every performer and every performance, would you raise both hands? And if you really, really loved every performer and every performance, would you wave your hands? Didn't everyone do spectacularly? Congratulations to everyone who was part of Culture Night.
Sister Gong and I are grateful to gather with you here in Laie. The last couple days, I felt again this blessed community is the only place in the whole world where we find [together] a holy house of the Lord, a Brigham Young University campus, a Polynesian Cultural Center, a Hawaii Laie Mission of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, stakes of Zion, and a gospel community of Saints in the household of faith all in one place.
This is a special season of inspired vibrancy and dynamism on this BYU–Hawaii campus. President Kauwe and BYU–Hawaii, thank you for your strategic focus to increase access to this wonderful campus for faithful, qualified students, including BYU-Pathway students, from Asia, Asia North, Pacific, and the Philippines areas of the Church. These are Church areas and members of prophetic destiny, close to all our hearts.
Thank you for enhancing BYU–Hawaii student capstone experiences so BYU–Hawaii students graduate in a timely way as successful leaders. BYU–Hawaii graduates contribute so much. Your faith, service, and personal integrity bless families, the Church, and your professions and communities.
And, third, we express gratitude to you campus leaders and the Church’s Board of Education for vision and generous support for BYU–Hawaii’s well-appointed buildings, housing, and physical plant. Yesterday, we spoke with the President’s and Dean’s Council about what President Boyd K. Packer called the pearl and the box. This is a special time of opportunity to seek the Lord’s inspiration in shaping both the pearl of student experience and the box of a beautiful campus for our future. The church’s principle and commitment to configure multi-use campus space maintains long-term future flexibility and community and to being united as a whole to serve students, while acknowledging with appreciation those who make accompanying sacrifices in the short term.
Thank you all for being dedicated disciples of Jesus Christ, who know and live your divine identity as children of God and children of the covenant.
This evening may I speak as if we were sitting at the kitchen table in my hale, sharing heart to heart and knee to knee? If we were sitting like that together, I would start by saying my dear mother grew up at 602 Holokahana Lane in Honolulu. She and my father were first-generation converts to the Church. They were the first in our family fully to speak English, the first to attend university, the first to become acknowledged professional educators. I honor my parents as pioneers in our family, as I hope you honor your parents and grandparents.
You are each pioneers in your families. Whether you are a first-generation convert or a third-generation Church member, you are a pioneer. In your family generations, please be a strong link of faith in Jesus Christ. Be a gospel covenant keeper. Be willingly and joyfully choose to bless your family, Church, and community in every way. The Lord will bless you as you do so.
Now, sometimes, it's not easy being a pioneer. You may be far from home, maybe learning a new language, deciding what to study. At times, you may feel lonely or uncertain. Perhaps you worry about money for food, rent, or books. I know when I was a student, I did so. Perhaps on occasion you feel unseen, less valued, or maybe misunderstood.
Please let me express the absolute personal assurance, in the words of President Russell M. Nelson, that, “In all of eternity, no one will ever know you or care about you more than [God] does. No one will ever be closer to you than He is. You can pour out your heart to Him and trust Him to send the Holy Ghost and angels to care for you.” [1]
After this devotional, when you return home and kneel to pray tonight, will you please know in your heart and mind that the Lord loves you. You are precious to Him. Knowing you are doing the best you can, knowing He is pleased with you. You have a bright future. With your faith and diligence, that bright future can unfold a day, a class, a good decision at a time.
If you need to put some things right with the Lord, please go see your bishop. Let him, through his priesthood keys, lighten your load and put a smile on your face. Please express love and appreciation to those who love and support you and they are all around us. If sometimes life seems really hard and you feel alone or unsure, will you please remember that tonight, Sunday, March 9, 2025, an Apostle of the Lord Jesus Christ promised that you are not alone, that you have divine capacity, potential, and gifts, and that you are loved, seen, and known more than you know. Will please remember that?
Would you please put your finger on your nose? Please promise tonight [that] this is what this is reminding us, thank you. Please promise that you will not let anyone sit alone if you come into a class, you come into a room, you come into someplace, and you see someone sitting alone. Please go and sit with them. This is the way to remember that we are not alone, and we help ensure no one sits alone. Please remember, we laugh with, we do not laugh at. Especially on this dedicated campus, we do not bully, shun, or make fun of others. We are kind, we welcome, we encourage, we treat others as the Lord would treat them. We build Zion gospel culture in what we say, how we say it, and in who and how we are becoming as true disciples of Jesus Christ.
If you confront questions or issues with which you are unfamiliar or unsure, focus on what you do know. You may not know everything, no one does. But you know and you will learn what you need to know to draw close to our loving Father in Heaven and our Savior Jesus Christ. He knows and loves you. He will help you. Trust Him. Always give the Lord the credit and glory with faith and gratitude.
Recently Sister Gong and I celebrated our 45th wedding anniversary. I have to tell you it was not easy for me to find Sister Gong that's because I have an unusual sense of humor. It was very hard to find someone who would laugh at my jokes.
For example, I make up quirky things like, “We hope those on the stand understand how long we can stand to sit.” Do you know what this is? Yes, a tie. In Mandarin Chinese, how do you say “wife”? Taitai – can you say taitai? The adjective for someone from Thailand is Thai, Thai food, Thai person. So I made this up, “His retired retiring Thai taitai tied in tying his tie-dyed tie.” That’s why I couldn’t find Sister Gong.
When [Sister Gong] and I were dating, she was in Provo, Utah, and I was in Oxford, England. It is why I can honestly say I have a degree in international relations. In a moment, we’ll come back to how Sister Gong and I met and fell in love.
This evening, I would like to share three messages with you.
First, this year we are studying the Restoration of the gospel of Jesus Christ in Come Follow Me. Please know each of you is a needed part of the continuing Restoration.
Second, especially our wonderful BYU–Hawaii students and those who serve at the PCC and elsewhere, you come from many nations, kindreds, and tongues. You have a unique opportunity to learn and exemplify gospel culture—to foster peace and understanding among people of all backgrounds; to be examples of family and community in a world seeking gospel faith, integrity, competence, and goodwill.
Third, this is a wonderful time of hope, promise, and opportunity for you. Your future is bright. All things can work together for your good as you look to Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ, keep your covenants, and live with joy.
Let’s begin with message one – my testimony that the restoration of the gospel of Jesus Christ continues in our day.
I bear testimony of the First Vision. God our Father and Jesus Christ did come in answer to young Joseph Smith’s first vocal prayer.
Despite intense opposition, Joseph never wavered, “I had actually seen a light,” he testified, “and in the midst of that light I saw two Personages, and they did, in reality, speak to me; and though I was hated and persecuted for saying that I had seen a vision, yet it was true; I knew it, and I knew that God knew it, and I could not deny it”. [2]
Church history and Joseph’s experiences let us see the Lord tutor and guide the young prophet of the restoration. In multiple volumes, Joseph Smith’s written records and documents are now available in The Joseph Smith Papers, published in print and online at josephsmithpapers.org. Although, in the world’s eyes, Joseph was an “obscure boy” [3] the Lord guided His prophet to restore His gospel and His Church—The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Early in this dispensation, on September 21, 1823, the young Prophet Joseph received a remarkable prophecy. It is a prophecy in which BYU–Hawaii and each of us is invited to be part.
That prophecy is about us, it's about you. It was received here, at the Smith family log home in Palmyra, New York. [4] You may recall this photo from the January 2025 Come, Follow Me, lesson.
This second-story bedroom occupies the same 18 x 30 x 10-foot physical space where Moroni as a glorious messenger from God came to the young Joseph on the evening of September 21, 1823. [5]
You may remember the Prophet Joseph’s humble recounting of the remarkable visitation he received:
“[Moroni] said … God had a work for me to do; and that my name should be had for good and evil among all nations, kindreds, and tongues….
“[Moroni] said there was a book deposited… that the fulness of the everlasting gospel was contained in it” [6]
Here's something that always astounds me. In 1823, when Moroni was sent by God to young Joseph, Joseph was an unknown 17-year-old teenage boy living in an obscure village, in a newly independent country. Unless it were true and it is true, how could Joseph imagine saying he would be an instrument in God’s work and translate by God’s gift and power sacred scripture that would become known everywhere?
How many of you are returned missionary? How many of you are preparing to serve a mission? Think of all the places where this group has been. You, each of you is among the nations, kindreds, tongues spoken of by Moroni.
As of January 2025, members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints live in some 209 nations and territories, with over 3,600 Church stakes in 91 of those areas. Our 31,676 wards and branches speak over 123 languages. We represent both geographic breadth and centers of strength.
But let’s be more specific. Let’s celebrate the faith and destiny of the countries from which you BYU–Hawaii students come.
That brings us to our second theme – the special opportunity, in fulfillment of prophecy, to be faithful examples of gospel culture. Gospel culture recognizes our unique heritages within a united household of faith and community of Saints.
Recently, I enjoyed viewing 118 art pieces from 22 countries illustrating 200 years of Latter-day Saint testimony and gospel culture at the Church History Museum’s exhibit Work and Wonder. [7]
Selected by the exhibit’s curator, Laura Paulsen Howe, to whom I express appreciation as well as to the Museum’s Director Riley M. Lorimer, here are five images representative of the exhibit’s broad array of visual traditions, materials, and styles. Each piece can help us see ourselves as children of a loving Heavenly Father. We bear testimony of Jesus Christ’s restored gospel as we seek to live its fullness in our everyday gospel culture.
First piece, Relief Society sisters in the Salt Lake City 14th ward. This is the ward Sister Gong and I go to in Salt Lake created this quilt in 1857. Each sister contributed her own quilt square, but taken as a whole this quilt symbolized Zion community. This particular quilt was raffled to raise money for the Perpetual Education Fund.
Here is the second piece. In a West African artistic language of episodic scenes, this carved piece shows family progression on the covenant path: learning the gospel, baptism and receiving the Holy Ghost, attending church and studying scriptures, family home evening, making temple covenants.
This beautiful woven rug gives voice to Navajo or Diné artistic language where shearing, carding, spinning, and dyeing wool all become part of this native American testimony of covenants in the temple.
Some of you may know Elder Taiichi Aoba, a former Area Seventy and president of the Fukuoka [Japan] Temple. He uses centuries-old artisan tradition to make his own glazes and fire his pieces in a wood-fueled kiln. This particular and beautiful piece depicts Book of Mormon scenes including, at the center of the piece, a living tree representing the love of God.
This piece comes from central [Australia]. Look at it very carefully. It testifies of Christ and His message of healing in an Aboriginal language. Aboriginal art is viewed from above, as one might read a map. Seen from above, a person sitting down may look like the letter “U”. The central “U” is the glorified Savior, arriving in the Americas, with Nephites as “U”s surrounding Him. In the corners, Aboriginal traveling vessels hold medicinal plants, as Christ’s healing message is carried to the four corners of the world.
I hope you have felt faith and testimony in these artistic expressions of gospel culture. We saw so many similar wonderful artistic expressions at the PCC yesterday.
Of course, in terms of gospel culture, BYU–Hawaii is a special place as you each know. Here is a living laboratory to learn and share gospel culture.
All students of course are welcomed here. But, as we know, BYU–Hawaii is increasing university opportunities for students from Mongolia to Micronesia, from Australia to Samoa, Tonga, and the islands of the sea, across some 33 countries and territories, as well as other international areas.
Yesterday, Sister Gong and I loved being at the Polynesian Cultural Center. We loved the canoes, villages, cultural shows, kitchens, and luau. We even met a shaka the robot. We learned about “One Ohana Sharing Aloha.” and "Sharing Aloha around the world." [8]
We learned first-hand how the PCC and this is you, “preserve[s] and portray[s] the cultures, arts, and crafts of Polynesia,” contributes to educational development, and demonstrates and radiates a spirit of love and service. [9] Thank you, those of you that we met yesterday at the PCC so warmly, not just us but everyone who comes in. As you shared the gospel culture and the faith and goodness of the people of the islands of Polynesia. We loved learning about traditional Hawaiian knowledge, and seafaring methods and practices as Captain Mark Ellis showed us at the Iosepa.
Gospel culture reflects the spirit and values expressed in Moroni 7:12: “That which is of God, which inviteth and enticeth to do good continually, to love God, and to serve him.” [10] Gospel culture also reflects our 13th Article of Faith, it seeks after all things “virtuous, lovely, or of good report or praiseworthy.” [11]
As stated in our 2020 Bicentennial Proclamation, gospel culture encompasses God’s love for His children in every nation of the world – in every culture. [12] In gospel culture, in the household of faith, there are to be no strangers, no foreigners, no rich and poor, no “outside” others. Gospel culture respects and includes all.
Gospel culture does not include worldly cultural elements which are inconsistent with the restored gospel of Jesus Christ. For example, cultural practices or traditions which lead us away from God our Father and His Son Jesus Christ, which detract from faith, prayer, chastity, honesty and integrity, the Word of Wisdom, or which may lead us away from reverence for priesthood ordinances and covenants, none of those things are part of gospel culture wherever we may find them. Any cultural practice or tradition which demeans, abuses, or belittles, especially children and women, is not a gospel practice or tradition.
So much is and here at BYU–Hawaii have a great opportunity to learn gospel culture. Often we learn about culture when we can compare a familiar and a less familiar tradition or culture. You do this every day.
Gospel culture also not only preserves the past but also recognizes current and future patterns which draw us to even greater faith, understanding, and lived gospel experience.
We are doing ok? Are we still awake?
Thus far my first two messages have celebrated the restoration of the gospel and the special opportunity we have to learn and live gospel culture here on this multi-cultural BYU–Hawaii campus.
Our third message tonight is this is a wonderful and hopeful time in the history of the earth–for each of us. Give yourself every opportunity to dream, to work with faith that means work hard and work smart, and to make a positive difference in your family and the world.
First, may I mention perfectionism?
A campus environment like BYU–Hawaii is exciting and challenging. But as Sister Gong was teaching us, sometimes we may feel imperfect, inadequate, not good enough, insufficiently prepared. Humility is good. But please remember the world’s perfectionism is a treadmill that never ends. Please avoid the “insta-perfect” trap, which curates body image, social circles, travel, and adventures, smartest person in the room with the best shoes. These curated images as you know are not real. They are not realistic.
Sadly, the more we focus on our inadequacies or imperfections, the more inadequate or imperfect we may feel. Don’t let perfectionism undermine your self-esteem or your faith. Don’t let worldly rip tides pull you away from Jesus Christ.
The prophet Moroni invites us to be perfect but to be perfect in Jesus Christ. “Yea, come unto Christ, and be perfected in him, and deny yourself of all ungodliness; and if ye shall deny yourselves of all ungodliness, and love God with all your might, mind, and strength, then is his grace sufficient for you, that by his grace ye may be perfect in Christ” [13].
Let me say something about artificial intelligence (AI). We are eager that the rapidly changing field of AI be situated on established moral and ethical foundations, including religious principles and values.
As a tool, artificial intelligence has much potential and many uses. But please do not let AI get between you and the Spirit of the Lord, or between you and direct, loving, real (not artificial) relationships with yourself and those around you. Spirit connects with spirit. You do not connect to spirit through computer algorithms.
We are not afraid of AI, nor do we think it is the solution to everything. You might look if you want to see the church's guiding principles for AI at AI.ChurchofJesusChrist.org.
Earlier I mentioned that Sister Gong and I recently celebrated our 45th wedding anniversary. As you've seen Sister Gong is quite amazing. Sweetheart, I love you.
As you think about dating and getting married, may I promise you can do so with faith and not fear? When I was a student Stake President, I taught our stake, I said, "CTR the DTR. Choose the right as you determine the relationship.” Be open, honest, faithful in your dating. Ensure the Lord’s commandments and covenants guide your physical and emotional relations. Invite the Lord to help you.
As Doctrine & Covenants 88:40 teaches, likes attract. [14] Become that which you seek. Look for someone with whom you can grow together. Grow together means each of you grows as an individual spiritually, intellectually, socially. But grow together also means you fulfill your full potential as you grow together as a couple and as a family.
Marriage is not a match of two individuals who feel they are perfect for each other, although you may feel that at some time. Marriage is when two individuals love the Lord and each other by covenant and seek through life’s sunshine and storms to create and nurture a celestial relationship you can bring back into the presence of God the Father and Jesus Christ.
A day at a time, those who covenant to make their marriages celestial fill their relationships with joy and delight, with learning, service, and growth. They welcome children and raise them in righteousness with joy. They serve in the Church, thereby blessing others and themselves. They experience the personal and family exaltation which comes from accepting sacrifices and life-stretching challenges they would not have anticipated nor perhaps have chosen.
Yet, what we find is personal liberation and the greatest spiritual growth comes from trusting God and letting Him prevail in our mortal lives. Put another way, come find the joy at the right time with the right person in the right place which is the house of the Lord by the proper authority to the fullness of joy that our Father [in Heaven] wishes for each of us.
Now is the time for each of us to feel that we can with faith and hope and joy, to plant trees for your children and grandchildren. There are many kinds of trees but every tree invites us to live with faith for the future. Please be a good gospel steward; recognize the earth is full and there is enough and to spare. Seek joy and rejoicing in your family and its generations.
I testify God our Father and His Son Jesus Christ desire to bless each of us and bless each of you—in every way, with every good gift, as you choose to come to them in willing joyful obedience.
Please remember, this is a time of great opportunity and great hope particularly as we come to God and through our covenants seek in every way to bless ourselves and those around us by doing the things which we know in our hearts and by the spirit can guide us. God, our Father lives, Jesus is His Son, the Living Son of the Living God. What a blessing to have a living Prophet, President Russell M. Nelson, and as we spoke earlier to have the connection, an unbroken connection of priesthood authority and ordinances and covenants from the beginning of the Restoration in the prophet, Joseph.
Dear Brothers and sisters, may the Lord bless each of you. May you in your heart, I pray and hope you have felt something tonight that was especially for you. As I was preparing, I had a feeling that there were messages that if you would listen to them by the spirit with an open heart and an open mind would be a blessing to you. That's why he sent me to be with you tonight. I hope in whatever inadequate way for me that you have felt those things that come from Him for you because He's real in His love for each of you. May He so bless us, may He so bless each of you I pray.
In the sacred and holy name of Jesus Christ, amen.
Notes:
[1] Russell M. Nelson, “Choices for Eternity” [worldwide devotional for young adults, May 15, 2022], Gospel Library
[2] Joseph Smith—History 1:25
[3] Joseph Smith—History1:22
[4] A few hundred yards from the Smith home back door is a grove of trees, which became our Sacred Grove ‘the morning of a beautiful, clear day, early in the spring of eighteen hundred and twenty,’ Joseph Smith—History 1:14
[5] Being in the specific, physical location of a known historical event can powerfully connect time and place. Still, our testimony of the sacred events surrounding Moroni’s appearance to the young Prophet Joseph Smith is spiritual.
[6]Joseph Smith—History 1:33-34
[7] Appreciation to Church History Museum director Riley Lorimer and Work and Wonder curator Laura Paulsen Howe for organizing and sharing the Work and Wonder: 200 Years of Latter-day Saint Art exhibit in a spiritually-focused way encompassing 200 years of world-wide Church member artistic testimony expressions of faith-filled gospel culture.
[8] “Huki,” Pageant of Long Canoes, Polynesian Cultural Center, accessed March 7, 2025
[9] “What is the Polynesian Cultural Center’s history?,” About Us, Polynesian Cultural Center, accessed March 7, 2025
[10] Moroni 7:12
[11] Articles of Faith 1:13
[12] “The Restoration of the Fulness of the Gospel of Jesus Christ: A Bicentennial Proclamation to the World,” Gospel Library
[13] Moroni 10:32
[14] Doctrine and Covenants 88:40