Fishing in Hawaii

Nkosi Stewart is our student aid in the Office of Honor. He is a 6’6” young man that is from St. Vincent in the Caribbean. He came to BYUH about 3 years ago as a non member of the Church, on a basketball scholarship. He was baptized a member by one of the players and 1 year later was called on a Mission to the West Indies Mission. He served in his home country of St. Vincent. He had some wonderful leadership experiences on his Mission and is now back to play basketball for BYUH again.


A couple of the kids that he knew before his mission have had him come fishing with them and he invited Elder Olson and I the other day. They had set the gill nets out the night before and we went with them to pull them. They take a 2 man kayak out about 200 yards and load 3 of the nets on and bring it back to the shore and we pick the fish out of the nets. It was just like back in Utah helping the Fisheries Biologists with their sampling of the reservoirs there, except I don’t recognize any of the fish over here. We didn’t catch as many fish as they usually do but it was just like talking to the Fish Heads back home that can look at a stream and tell you where they will catch what fish. Amit Lal, from Fiji has been doing this with his family his whole life and can read the ocean. He pointed out where the breakers are, the water is only about 3’ deep and the channel that comes through is where you want to set the nets. The large fish come in at high tide and then we gather nets at low tide. Of the 4 nets, one had about a 4’ shark in it and the one next to it only had 2 fish. He knew that the shark had thrashed around enough to scare the other fish off before they got caught. He gave the shark to a Tongan friend. He said back in Fiji, they make fish for fish and chips out of shark and they really do taste good.

We met President Uchtdorf in the Laie Temple

Wednesday was our first day back at the Temple for 2 weeks. It was closed for summer cleaning. During our prayer meetings Eileen and I were both told that President Uchtdorf and his family were in town and would be at the Temple sometime during our shift. He had not told them if the group wanted to go on a session or do initiatory or what his time they were going to come. We were told to just keep doing what we were doing if he came by, to greet him if he greeted you. President Workman told us the only reason the First Presidency has security is to keep the members of the Church from wearing them out with hand shaking and wanting to visit. They had geared up to send as many of us as they could to the 2pm session, and then he didn’t come. There is no 3 pm session and the 4pm session is geared to deal with handicapped people. They go to the last ordinance room in an elevator and do the whole session there. About 3:45, my assignment was to go to sealing room 5, which is just off of the Celestial room. They told us that the group had just arrived and were with the Temple President. As I was climbing the stairs, They came out of the baptistry on the second floor and walked up the stairs ahead of me. President Uchtdorf smiled and waved at me and then I was able to hold the door for the rest of the group. When I got up to the celestial room, there stood Eileen. She was the only one in the Celestial room, other than President Uchtdorf’s small group. It was the first time that we had seen each other all afternoon. After admiring the beauty of the Celestial room, the group went to the ordinance room. Eileen and I just stood there in the Celestial room and talked of how neat that was to have seen them that close and in the Temple. About that time they came out of the Ordinance room and back into the Celestial room. President Uchtdorf shook hands with Eileen and then shook hands with me and then gave me a Hawaiian hug greeting and told me “thank you for your service” and I told him “thank you for your example”. They stood there and President Workman told them some information about the stained glass in the doors and about the old chandelier. I went on to my assignment in the sealing room. I had been just behind another worker as he climbed the stairs. He had heard the baptistry door open and turned around and saw the group. When I got to the sealing room, he smiled and said, “I just saw President Uchtdorf”. I said “I saw him too, and just shook his hand and he hugged me”. He was feeling bad that he hadn’t got to shake his hand, and President Workman opened the sealing room door and asked if they could interrupt us for a moment, then the group walked in to the sealing room. President Uchtdorf walked around the room and hugged all of the ladies and shook the men’s hands. There were several patrons that were helping with the sealings and they were just elated and so very emotional at being greeted by a Prophet of God. One of the workers was still sobbing 5 minutes later. As our sealing group went to another room, I was able to greet Eileen again and we talked for the second time how neat that moment was.

We will always remember what a spiritual experience it was to be greeted by a Prophet of God in the Celestial room of the Laie, Hawaii Temple.