Aloha! What a wonderful thing it is to be here in Laie and in this beautiful university. As a member of the Presiding Bishopric, I receive a variety of assignments, and they are all equally enjoyable and valuable. But, I think there are those that are more equal than others, and this one is certainly one of them. And particularly, this is an assignment that I can have with my eternal companion, which is always a joy. As I felt this morning, having that breakfast together, it is a unique place. It is a place of love, a place of aloha, a place of brothers and sisters from many places around the world or from this place but coming together in such a peaceful, enjoyable and brotherly kindness kind of gathering. I really enjoy that particular spirit. Thank you for that, it was, for my wife and I, such a wonderful thing to be able to shake hands this morning to be able to give a few hugs and I apologize for those, there was a long line so I hope everyone one of you got breakfast but I particularly value the opportunity that we have today to hear from many of your leaders including President Kauwe.
This university, as he said is a unique university. It is a one-of-a-kind. It deserves a lot of support from the church because every one of the students that come here to study here are precious sons and daughters of God and disciple of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, talking about you, brothers and sisters, you are a remarkable group of men and women. You are talented employees. You are consecrated missionaries, experienced professionals, and recognized scholars in your own fields of knowledge and expertise. But this only doesn't distinguishes you from the most renowned universities in the world. What really makes BYU–Hawaii such a unique place is that you have consecrated your lives to teaching and serving the rising generation of the church. You could have been in many other institutions. You could have been in some other places and maybe with some rewards. I mean, material rewards would be superior, but you've decided to come here because of that unique opportunity to be working in one of the Lord's choices vineyards. Your influence on the young men and young women who attend this university is remarkable. It's not merely measured by the grade levels or the academic indicators. It can extend to their whole life, even into eternal life, which is really one of the key aspects of your work.
I've been, as President Kauwe said, I've been a member of the Church's Board of Education and BYU–Hawaii's Board of Trustees for almost nine years now. And I must say I greatly enjoy this assignment, although I often feel humble and very little considering how much experience there is around the table. It is a great honor to learn at the feet of prophets and apostles and benefit from their counsel and experience. I have been deeply impressed by the powerful and unequivocal direction provided by members of the First Presidency and members of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles to church university leaders over the past few years. I greatly admire your commissioner or our Church Commissioner of Education, Elder Clark G. Gilbert, and also President John Kauwe, your outstanding university president. I wish you would attend these board meetings when President Kauwe comes, and typically, he's been on a redeye flight, right? And he comes and delivers the most irresistible presentation, and that's how you get all this funding, right? No leis, just a big smile, but there is really something in this man, and he understands the university. He understands the Lord's will. He's very committed to the direction he received from the brethren. He understands the people of this university, the people around in this island and around in Hawaii, in the Pacific area and Asia. So, we feel his love, and this is what is irresistible besides the quality of the presentations. This is the love for the people. This is what makes the difference because there is nothing else in the mission of this church than making sure that every student, one by one, of this university is going to bring something home.
Not only professional expertise and abilities that will bless them for their own life, but also that spiritual transformation that only happened through the gospel of Jesus Christ. So, I repeat what we heard from Laura this morning: the mission. I had a chance to read again the mission statement for BYU–Hawaii. It says the following, "The mission of BYU–Hawaii is to prepare students of Oceania and the Asian Rim to be lifelong disciples of Jesus Christ and leaders in their families, communities, chosen fields, and in building the kingdom of God." [1] Knowing that this statement was inspired and approved by prophets, seers, and revelators. This mission becomes a sacred stewardship and abiding commitment to God of what should be accomplished here in this university. Then President Kauwe added this, referring to the vision we should have in accomplishing that statement that I just read. "Our mission is to be and build people who follow the example of Christ. This capstone experience prepares students to be lifelong disciples of Christ, who can be leaders and examples of intercultural peace." [2] And so I would like to offer a few remarks this morning in support of this mission statement and of this vision. And I will emphasize your role, our role to build up the rising generation of the church for them to become lifelong disciples of Jesus Christ, that will bless their families, the church, and their surrounding communities.
I would like to start with a little story of mine. It happened at the beginning of my service as a General Authority of the church. I was called in 2008 and assigned to be a member of the Area Presidency as a General Authority Seventy in Europe Central. Six months after I was called, President Monson announced the construction of the temple in Rome, Italy; which was received with a great wave of enthusiasm by all the members of the church. A few days later, I was back in Frankfurt, Germany, and we were reflecting as an Area Presidency on what we would have to do to prepare the way for this temple to be built in Italy. The Area President turned to me and said, "Gérald, we need to tell the Vatican that we're going to build that temple, and I thought a lot about this, you need to be the one going to the Vatican to tell them about the temple". And of course I reacted by saying, "Why me? Does really someone has to do this? Is it me?" and he said, "Well, we found out that the Cardinal at the Vatican in charge of Interfaith relationships is a Frenchman. He was born in Bordeaux, France." This is where I was born, and actually, we went to the same high school. So he said, "You are the one", and so I had a chance to go to the Vatican and meet with that wonderful man. I show you a picture, is another of these meetings after, a few years later. I was then in the Presiding Bishopric, and we went with President Eyring and Elder Perry and visited with Cardinal Tauran of this man, you see here.
Unfortunately, he passed away just a few months before the temple was completed in Rome. But let me tell you a little bit about our first visit with Cardinal Tauran. He was a very amicable, very welcoming person and very respectful of our religion but I remember him looking at me, saying and asking, "You know, we don't know your church so well. What kind of church is this? Are you even Christians?" And I had with me an issue of the Liahona magazine, the general conference issue, and so I opened it to a talk from President Jeffrey R. Holland that was about the Atonement of Jesus Christ, His Resurrection and a beautiful testimony, apostolic testimony of Jesus Christ. I read that little paragraph to him with that testimony and I shared mine to which Cardinal Tauran said, "Thank you, I believe you must be Christians from what I understand and what I'm hearing." But he said, "Let me ask you another question. What kind of Christian church are you? You're not Catholic. You're not Protestants. Who are you?" and then he said, "Well, follow me," and he took me to a meeting room that was just next to his office. It was a room with a big table, big enough maybe for 20 people to sit around with microphones all around and a translation booth in the corners, and he said, "What about having a meeting together? I can take my best experts in the doctrine of the Catholic Church, and please come with your best experts in the doctrine of your church, and we can have them meet and maybe find some ways that we can get together." As he was saying this, I thought, I don't know that our doctrine can get closer, but maybe there are a few things we can do together, and so I said our doctrine will be difficult to change, but we can talk together and find ways that we can act together.
So it was a positive meeting, but what I want to tell you is what I had in mind that I didn't say that day. When he asked about who, well, come with the experts of your church. I thought, who in the world are the experts in the doctrine of our church? And then another thought came to my mind, so maybe I will go back with our children, and we will sing "I'm A Child of God". And suddenly again, another prompting saying it's not about experts, it's about witnesses. This is what the world needs during the dark times of the apostasy. There were a lot of experts around the world that could tell you everything about the Bible, but the Lord had removed the witnesses from the world. And so, a disciple is a witness. It is us. The truthfulness of the restored gospel is found in the individual witnesses of prophets and apostles and of millions of members throughout the world.
There is a scripture in third Nephi that talks about the story of Jesus Christ appearing, and He was asked a question by the Nephites, and there were, as it says, disputations among the disciples of Christ about this question, and the question was the following: "...Lord, we will that thou wouldst tell us the name whereby we shall call this church;..." [3] What is interesting is the way the Lord answered. He didn't directly answer the question about the name that the church or the institution should bear. But he'd rather talk about the disciples, the members of the church. His first answer was ye, brothers and sisters, members of my church, "...ye must take upon you the name of Christ,..." [4] Second answer, "...whatsoever ye shall do, ye shall do it in my name; [and then] therefore ye shall call the church in my name;..." [5] The sequence here is absolutely important. First, the people, "...it is my church..."[6] because every member of this Church is bearing my name has made covenants with Jesus Christ. Second, because everything you do in the Church, you do it in my name, therefore the name of the organization is Jesus Christ. The Church is Jesus Christ. [7] So, what is the Church? The Church is not merely an institution of building or even programs. It's all about us, the witnesses of Christ who bear His name and act in His name. So I'm talking here to teachers, professors, administrators, facility managers, and others; and what I'm saying to you is about your primary role. Your primary charge as you come to this university is very simple: it is the mission of the Church to invite others to "...come unto Christ..."[8] So, whatever your responsibility in this university, this is the very reason you are here.
First and foremost, to invite others, mostly and primarily, the wonderful sons and daughters of God who are here studying here. Invite them to come unto Christ. This is the Lord's reason for having His Church on earth; including His reason for having this university. If you think about this invitation to invite others to come unto Christ, it is the most important invitation that anyone could offer to another person. It is the most beautiful invitation, the most forward-looking invitation anyone could accept. But what does it mean? We use this phrase all the time. It's become like a slogan for the Church. This is what we do. Every missionary knows that it is also his or her mission statement [and] purpose as a missionary to invite others to come unto Christ. What does it mean? The way I understand it, we invite others to receive the full blessings of the Atonement of Jesus Christ. This is what it means. Jesus is the only way back to the Father. Our purpose for this life is one day to return to the presence of our Heavenly Father. We can't do so unless we'll be perfect, perfected, purified; we'll be sinless, and so we can be good enough to live in the presence of God. And this we cannot achieve by our own means, despite all our best efforts. We need the strength, the power that comes from the Atonement of Jesus Christ. So, talking about this, I think the best allegory of that mission that we all have is found in the Book of Mormon in Lehi's dream.
I was, a few years ago, in San Paulo and teaching a full mission, we had hundreds of missionaries with us. We spent quite a bit of time together studying Lehi's dream and its powerful allegory of the path that leads to Christ and that leads to receiving the blessings of His Atonement. I asked a missionary to draw the main elements of this dream on a whiteboard, and I will show you what I thought it was a beautiful drawing he did. He began by drawing the tree of life and its fruit, and as we know, it represents the love of God characterized by the gift of His Only Begotten Son. Then he traced the straight and narrow path that leads to the tree of life, and he also put here the iron rod or the word of God or His gospel. It's interesting to also think that in John chapter one, it uses the word as one of the names of Jesus Christ. Jesus is the word, and so when we say the word of God, it is also Jesus Christ or His gospel. So Jesus here, in this dream is found in both the gospel or the word leading to the tree and the Atonement of Jesus Christ, which is the fruit that we can all partake.
Then these are the narrow path and the iron rod [that] keep us from the obstacles on our way, and there are many of them; [such as] in the midst of darkness, the great and spacious building, and here you see the river of water. Then I asked the missionary how a person could access the straight and narrow path, and he drew a gate at the beginning of the path, indicating it was the gate of baptism. He explained that once the gate was crossed, the path continued toward a succession of ordinances and covenants that culminate in the house of the Lord. And he drew a beautiful image of the temple. So this path, which is a straight and narrow path, has another name that President Nelson has used very often, which is a covenant path. If you think about this, if you see this, this is our path. Every son and daughter of God—this is our path to get to the fruit, which represents the blessings of the Atonement of Jesus Christ. Our role is to lead and invite people to this path and in a way, we find ourselves like Lehi—may I say that we're all Lehis. We stand at the tree. We hopefully have partaken of the fruit, and we call on people. Particularly those people we love and we invite them to partake, also to come and to partake also. And so let me suggest that in your different roles in this university, you are Lehis. You are having a role similar to Lehi, which means that you have, you need to to partake of the fruit as often as possible and receive that strength and that joy that comes from partaking of the fruit that leads you to reach out to those you love and invite them to join.
Gospel Ministering Activity
Ministering is how we call it. We've used that word so many times, but ministering is nothing else than inviting people to come unto Christ. It is really composed of three things. Loving. Lehi loved his family, and because he loved them, he shared with them his testimony and the gospel, and then he invited them to join and to partake of the fruit. So, this action of ministering through loving, sharing, and inviting is most often a one-by-one and one-on-one approach and interaction. I'm not saying that you cannot teach in groups. You do it all the time. But this gospel ministering activity of loving, sharing, and inviting has to happen at some point outside of the classroom or outside of the office if you want to be in a very personal and individual approach. It has to be simple, natural and informal in a way and that reminds of President Nelson and his birthday. I know a few of you have just recorded videos talking about how we can reach out to the one following the invitations from President Nelson. But this is what it is, loving someone, sharing someone something with someone, and inviting someone. And it's not just someone, it's someone we love, someone we cherish, someone that is valuable to us.
Loving
Loving others is seeing them as the Lord sees them. So, as I talk about love, I would like to share with you another story. It's another story of mine, a story that is found in a beautiful novel that I personally love. It's called Les Misérables, and I will just tell you one episode of that book that has inspired me for many, many, many years. So here it is—Jean Valjean. Jean Valjean is a prisoner that was just released from prison. He's journeying back home and he's exhausted. He's walked all day long in the mountains and is dying of hunger and thirst. He arrives in a small town in a little community seeking a place to find food and shelter for the night. When the news of his arrival spread, one by one, all the inhabitants closed their doors to him. Not the hotel, not the inn, not even the prison would invite him in. Finally, with no strengths left, he collapsed at the front door of the town's Bishop. The good clergyman that you see here, Monsieur Bienvenu, was entirely aware of Valjean's background. But he invited the vagabond into his home with his compassionate words. Come, this is not my house. It is the house of Jesus Christ. Then as they talked, he mentioned to Jean Valjean that he already knew his name, and Jean Valjean was very surprised and said, "How do you know my name?" And the Bishop replied, "Yes, I know your name. You are called my brother."
So I think that's an inspiring thing, thinking about what this university is and how meaningful it must be in the lives of every student. This is not only BYU–Hawaii. This is not my university, this is not your university. It is first the university of Jesus Christ. Everyone who comes here should find that loving [and] welcoming feel[ing] of when you get called and invited into the family of Jesus Christ. "A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another. By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another." [9]
Sharing
Now thinking about sharing, I will only focus on one aspect of sharing. which is that we should take every opportunity to bear testimony. Even if you have one minute, even if you have only 30 seconds. You should never lose an opportunity to bear a testimony. This can be out of the classroom time, or it can be at any time. It could be during classes. But I thought about a talk that was given by President Packer many many years ago and he referred to a declaration of love. He said a lot of poets and writers [where] a lot of people have tried to express love in the most beautiful ways with words and with singing and with art.
But there's nothing like the three-word declaration, I love you. Ultimately, I tried with my wife. I tried to do poems and things, but at the end of the day, the most powerful thing is, I love you. I think I cannot find the best way to say it. Same with testimony, sometimes we are thinking about things that are too elaborate and trying to find a way to do a testimony that will be different from the last one we shared. But a testimony is very simple. Just those two words, "I know" could be sufficient with a few other words to express and state what we know to be true. So my wish is that this university would be a place for testimonies to be shared all the time—that be shared from student to teacher from teacher to student; from administrator to other employees, and to everyone sharing of what we know to be true.
Invitations
I will just finish with this inviting invitations. Invitations are key. It's probably one of the ministering verbs: Love, Share, Invite, the most difficult part. Often, we fall short of inviting people because it could be scary at times to turn to someone and say, "I invite you to do something." But is it not what the Lord has taught us? He's inviting Himself, all of us to come to Him. "...Behold, mine arm of mercy is extended towards you, and whoever will come, him will I receive; and blessed are those who come unto me." [10] But it's not just that. He's making us the agents of His invitation. We have a role to play. "Have ye any that are sick among you? Bring them hither..." [11] We have a role to bring those to Christ. "...Have ye any that are lame, or blind, or halt, or maimed or leprous, or that are withered, or that are deaf, or that are afflicted in any manner? [Bring, Bring them] Bring them hither, and I will heal them, for I have compassion upon you; my bowels are filled with mercy." [12]
Brothers and sisters, it is my personal testimony, personal invitation and expression of love to you to invite all of us to be agents of the invitation of the Lord. Inviting others to come unto Christ and to recognize Him as their Savior and Redeemer. Let's be Lehi's. Those people that stand at the tree have partaken of the fruit and have be filled with joy, that makes us agents to invite others in turn to come and to partake also. May I say that this university can be a beautiful tree, full of its fruit, which is a fruit that is unequal and that can't be found in most universities around the world, but here this fruit can prosper and grow. Thanks to you, brothers and sisters. I testify to you, I know Jesus is the Christ. He's the author of our salvation and our exaltation. Through His atoning sacrifice and using the gospel and all the covenants we have made can come to Him, particularly because He's the only way back to the Father. I testify to you that it is a privilege to be involved in His work in any responsibility that we have. Our primary responsibility is to be the disciples that are witnesses that love, share, and invite others. My prayer is you will be blessed in this endeavor. In the name of Jesus Christ, amen.
Notes:
[1] BYU–Hawaii Mission Statement
[2] John S.K. Kauwe III, BYU–Hawaii Mission and Vision
[3] 3 Nephi 27:3
[4] 3 Nephi 27:5
[5] 3 Nephi 27:7
[6] 3 Nephi 27:8
[7] 3 Nephi 27:9
[8] Moroni 10:32
[9] John 13:34-35
[10] 3 Nephi 9:14
[11] 3 Nephi 17:7
[12] 3 Nephi 17:7