September 8, 2023 

Aloha Family and Friends, 

The time is flying by for us here in Hawaii. We have now been missionaries for 13 months. I feel our view of the church and the world has been expanded exponentially. The mission statement for BYUH is:  

‘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.’ 

I was very unfamiliar with this area and I’ve learned so much. We are assigned to the Tongan Ward. I’ve learned the history of the Tongan members is as old and as rich as the history of my pioneer ancestors. We’ve made great friends with students from India and my daughter pointed out to me that one of our ancestors was called as a missionary to India. That was in 1852. One of our office aids is a delightful student from Kiribati. She helped me understand the areas of Micronesia, Melanesia and Polynesia. We see sweet young couples with the most diverse and beautiful babies ever. This semester we teach students from Fiji, China, Cambodia, Japan, Tonga, India, the Philippines, Hong Kong, Guam, Samoa, and Indonesia. They always post enrollment numbers at the beginning of the new school year. Here is the enrollment for this year.  

I have great admiration for the faith of these students to come to another country, sometimes with a family and learn in a second language. I also admire faith of the many senior missionaries who serve with great health challenges.  Thinking of faith, I prepared a little devotional entitled 'Step into the Water'. I started with this quote from the Come Follow Me manual.  

“What could have inspired Peter to leave the safety of his boat in the middle of the sea of Galilee during a boisterous storm? What led him to believe that if Jesus could walk on water, he could too? We can’t know for certain, but perhaps Peter understood that God came not just to do wonderful thing for the people – but to EMPOWER people like Peter to do wonderful things too.”  

Sometimes if we have faith like Peter and step into the water, we can do wonderful things. 

Think of the children of Israel when after 40 years, they were to cross the Jordan to enter the Promised Land. This was different than the crossing of the Red Sea with Moses. The Red Sea parted, and the winds blew all night and the land was dry before the people entered the water. For Aaron, the River Jordan was flooding. He was told by the Lord to have the priests bearing the Ark of the Covenant to first step into the rushing waters. It was only after they showed their faith and took the step that the river stopped. The River Jordan was backed up for an estimated 17 miles and the children of Israel crossed on dry land. 

We have been so blessed to rub shoulders with so many missionaries who manifest their faith by stepping into the water to serve others. We are inspired by the students who do hard things. There is a Gospel hymn that says: 

Step into the water, wade out a little bit deeper. 
Wet your feet in the water of his love. 

We love you all and are blessed by the many examples of faith you’ve shown us throughout the years. 

BTW: We will be home in December at the end of the semester!