By Tomson Cheang

with the advancement of social media, it is now easier than ever to connect with family, friends, and even the Prophet. The Church has created Facebook pages for members of the First Presidency and the Quorum of the Twelve. The pages will be maintained by the Church on their behalf and will be their official social media presence for each of them. “I just mostly use the church’s digital stuff for scriptures and manuals. It’s just super convenient. And on my blog I have a link to lds.org,” said Christina Larsen a junior studying pre-professional biology. Jared Covington, a senior adviser over social media for the Church, said the Church created these pages to “give people a safe place they could go on Facebook to ‘like’ the pages of the Brethren.” “I’d be friends with President Monson. I think it’d be funny to see what President Monson posts on Facebook,” said Katie Naea, a junior studying social work from American Samoa. Covington said that the goal for these pages is to show people content on LDS.org that they may not have found previously. “It allows us to highlight content that is tied to specific brethren. Our hope is that members will really dive in and feast upon this content.” These social pages boost the spirituality of the members, help missionary efforts, and have improved search engine optimization (SEO) for the Brethren. When people search for the names of the brethren, the top results are more likely to come from official Church content, both in online searches and within social media networks. Aaron Coffey, a senior studying communications from Atlanta, Georgia, said “I think it’s a good thing. It allows us to define ourselves instead of letting others define us.”

The Honorable J. Clifford Wallace, Senior Judge of the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, shared tips with the BYU–Hawaii Prelaw Society on May 2 to help them make the judicial systems in their home countries effective. He said this includes increasing the number of judges, moving cases out of the courtroom, and making the courtroom more efficient.

Elder Hunter Lock, a full-time missionary from Utah serving in Laie and Hauula, shares his experience working with members to increase missionary work.

Whether or not it really was the Islamic State that brought down a filled Russian passenger jet over the Sinai desert is to date uncertain, reported theguardian.com. But even in case they weren’t the cause, by simply claiming the credit the terrorists get publicity and attention, which furthers their endeavor.

Judges say the scoring between universities was close

Two of BYU-Hawaii’s golfers, Jacob Godfrey and Nicolas Herrera, tied the course record on the Turtle Bay Resort Fazio Course during the 2017 Hawaii Challenge on April 7-8, helping the Seasiders win the Challenge for the second straight year.

After Hawaii’s Attorney General Doug Chin challenged Donald Trump’s latest travel ban, Trump supporters started a social media campaign to “#boycotthawaii,” according to BuzzFeed. The boycott entailed people canceling vacation plans to Hawaii and vowing to not support the state through future ventures. However, local BYU-Hawaii students said they’re fine with less tourists though they know tourism is necessary to sustain Hawaii’s economy.

Because of tourists, able volunteers and international influence, the directors of the “Light the World” campaign with The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints shared how Laie is the perfect place for a Giving Machine. The Giving Machine campaign comes with the hope a more accessible opportunity to donate will help “ignite a global flame of doing good.”