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Severe weather over Valentine’s Day weekend caused some damages to the Hawaiian Islands. “From what I felt, we had a ton of rain. I was unaware of the damage caused in other places,” said Caleb Ripley, a sophomore majoring in finance from Arizona. A high wind warning was issued for parts of Kauai and Oahu and the summits on the Big Island, according to Hawaii News Now. There were gusts that got up to 50 mph in some areas, especially in the Puna region on the Big Island and caused toppling trees, blocked roadways, and ruined buildings. One roof was completely torn off.There were power outages on the Big Island, and some people received their power back on Feb. 18 after not having power since Friday, Feb. 13. There was also damage on Oahu and some power outages near the Kaneohe area, leaving 1,600 people powerless on Valentine’s morning alone, according to the Associated Press. “Usually when it’s raining here, I actually go into Honolulu. When I head into Honolulu, it’s really warm,” said McKenna Hawkins, an undeclared freshman from Colorado. “That day when I went into Honolulu, it was even colder.”Some students said they were not affected by the weather. “I spent my day at the temple so I didn’t really know what it was like outside,” said Ricky Tu’ihalangingie, a freshman from Tonga studying biomedical science. Additionally, there were some medical consequences from the rough weather over Valentine’s Day weekend. A plane flying into Honolulu from New Jersey on Feb. 14 encountered sudden turbulence, injuring seven people on board. Five were taken to Queens Medical Center when they landed, according to Hawaii News Now.Another consequence of the weather on Valentine’s Day was damage to a popular and illegal hike, Stairway to Heaven. A small landslide damaged the stairs. The Board of Water Supply, the organization in charge of maintaining the stairs and the security, sent some people to examine the damage done to the stairs, according to Hawaii News Now. Despite the rough weather, some students said they were able to enjoy Valentine’s Day but others said they didn’t. “The Internet was down around the school Friday night and Saturday morning, which was hard for us single people because we couldn’t watch Netflix on Valentine’s Day,” said Hawkins.

Uploaded 2/26/2015“Go Set a Watchman” is the upcoming sequel to Harper Lee’s “To Kill A Mockingbird.” It is scheduled to be released in July. This sequel is set 20 years after “Mockingbird’s” time period, revealing a grown-up Scout returning to her Alabama hometown from New York to confront the attitudes of the 1950s.The recently revealed sequel was discovered when Lee’s lawyer, Tonja Carter, found the manuscript attached to an old manuscript of “Mockingbird.” Despite saying she was never going to publish another book again, 88-year-old Lee decided to print the sequel now. “Watchman” was actually written in the 1950s before “Mockingbird.” But due to an editor suggestion, Lee released “Mockingbird,” set 20 years before “Watchman.” “Mockingbird” immediately became popular, sold millions of copies, won a Pulitzer Prize, and soon became required reading in U.S. schools nationwide. The film version of the book allowed for a larger audience to hear the story of “Mockingbird.” Angie Messer, an employee at the Seasider originally from San Diego, said “I think it’s pretty cool. After I read ‘To Kill a Mockingbird,’ I would definitely read it (‘Watchman’).”Brittany Wilcox, a senior studying English from Alaska, said she was excited to read the sequel. “Just knowing that she wrote this story before ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’ and the fact it’s about Scout when she’s older, I want to know how she’s progressed.” Faculty members at BYU-Hawaii said they are also excited for the book. Patricia Patrick, an English professor, said, “Reading ‘Mockingbird’ was one of the most memorable things I’ve read in middle school.” When asked if she would read the sequel, Patrick added, “I’m just going to be open minded and happy to read it. It’s going to be exciting to read it, knowing the quality that she’s (Harper’s) done before.”Monroeville is the place where Lee was born and where she returned after living in New York. Mockingbirds are on signs everywhere in Monroeville, and the old courthouse, a model for the movie made from the book, is a museum and a gift shop for the first book. Despite the excitement building, some people who live in her town have questioned if Lee is competent enough to decide to publish the book, according to the Associate Press, because she is nearly deaf and blind. Some even questioned that her lawyer was taking advantage of the sequel and the money it could make.“She is a very strong, independent and wise woman who should be enjoying the discovery of her long lost novel...Instead she is having to defend her own credibility and decision making,” said Lee’s lawyer, Carter in an interview with the New York Times. Despite the controversy, people in Monroeville and at BYUH said they are excited for this new book to be revealed.

Fluency in a foreign language is now one of the most valuable skills in the job market. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, roughly 25,000 new jobs are expected to open over the next decade for interpreters and translators. Businesses around the globe are searching for people with language skills as well. However, according to a study from Modern Language Association, foreign language enrollment is lower now than it has been in over ten years. Students learning languages will have a leg up on the competition as they pursue their careers after graduation. Dr. Timothy Richardson a Professor of Spanish and Chinese at BYU-Hawaii, said, “It's clear that there are benefits to learning languages. We have a scriptural obligation to share the gospel with the world, and languages can help us with that. If you have a language (or languages) in your tool bag when you're in the market for a job, you have more leverage and are more competitive. There are many other benefits.”In an increasingly globalized economy, being a multilingual is definitely advantageous for corporate success. The benefits of effective communication with people through multiple languages have long been known by the international business community as an indispensable tool for relationship building and financial success, said Lisa Chau of U.S. News.Those entering the workforce in 2014 with second language fluency can expect an additional 10 to 15 percent pay increase, said Chau.Jarek Buss, a junior from Wyoming who speaks Chinese and French, said that there are only benefits to learning a second language. Travel becomes a very different and more fulfilling experience. The way you connect with people and places is enhanced and you can understand so much more around you. Your resume is enhanced as well and you become increasingly more likely to get a job and be paid more. The benefits and pay increases do have a price though: time. Learning a new language takes time and some experts suggest that is why we have seen a decrease in foreign language class enrollment in the past decade. “Language learning is a challenge, but it will pay off if you persist. No matter what the advertisements say, you cannot be fluent in two weeks. It takes time,” said Richardson.Buss, who works at the Language center as a French tutor, said, “Learning a language just takes time and dedication. It is important to set aside time for learning your language and that’s a sacrifice.” Jehonna Kane a senior studying Elementary Education from Hong Kong said, “Learning different languages has benefited my life in a way so that I could understand people better. When you learn a different language, you learn its culture as well. Different cultures think differently, and there's no better way to understand how the people think and how they are than by leaning their language.”According to studies from the Modern Language Association, Umea University and others, there are also many psychological and anatomical benefits that come from learning a second language. Business Insider reports on research suggesting your brain actually increases in size with language learning. The increased growth can prevent later mental diseases such as Alzheimer’s. Wall Street Journal article suggest the bilingual brain to be sharper and more focused. The benefits of language learning are clear. Sacrifice, time and dedication will separate those that want to reap the benefits of a multilingual lifestyle. Uploaded Feb. 26, 2015.

After a grueling weekend of the world’s best Sevens rugby players going head to head—quite literally—in Sam Boyd stadium in Las Vegas for the USA Sevens title, Team Fiji takes home the gold, USA trailing behind as a strong 4th place on Feb. 15, 2015. "This year’s USA Sevens tournament started with spectator expectations high. The previous tournaments in the season have brought such a different level of competition and just pure skill,” commented Luisa Racava, an avid sophomore rugby player majoring in communications. Racava mentioned that her family attends the USA Sevens every year and, “It’s always Fiji with the biggest fan presence, it’s no surprise that with all that support, and refined skill of the players that they took this tournament’s cup.” The USA Sevens official website reported in their recap, “Unlike seven of the nine tournaments in the Series, the USA Sevens spans three days of international play.” Due to this extended version of play, each team played two pool matches on day one, with the final pool match paired with quarterfinal matches played on day two. Fiji played an amazing game against New Zealand, stunning everyone with the amount of improvement by both individual players and as a whole unit flowing together more naturally than they ever have before. Critics of the match claim that an injury affected New Zealand’s ability to match the power and pace brought by Fiji. Though New Zealand brought it back in the second seven minute half, scoring 19 points, it was too little, and too late. Though the main focus of the event is rugby, vendors from both international and national bases come to sell their product to fellow rugby fanatics and players alike. This year, the local chapter of the Fiji Business Bureau had a booth dedicated to providing support services to undocumented Pacific Islanders. “Among other things, I always enjoy the food. Second to watching a solid three days of rugby, there’s nothing better than an international palette’s worth of good eats,” said Emory Williams, a Sevens player who attended the Las Vegas tournament as a spectator from Sacramento, CA. In the current 2014-15 season, the USA Sevens tournament is part of a nine-tournament circuit in eight different countries, touching on five of the six populated continents. Teams compete for the Sevens World Series title by accumulating points based on their finishing standings in each of the international tournaments. In the early years of the tournament, New Zealand dominated the Series, coming out with the first six titles from 1999-2005. However, Fiji, South Africa, and Samoa have each broken this winning streak since then.So far, the winners of each sub-tournament have been as follows. Australia at Cbus Super Stadium, Gold Coast: Fiji. Dubai at The Sevens: South Africa. South Africa at Nelson Mandela Stadium in Port Elizabeth: South Africa. New Zealand at Westpac Stadium in Wellington: New Zealand, and most recently in the United States at Sam Boyd Stadium in Las Vegas, Fiji took the title, winning against New Zealand. Ace Vuikadavu, a hospitality and tourism management major from Fiji remarked, “I felt humbled and proud of the achievement the boys have made. This is the only time you will see Fijians go crazy, wild and loud. Rugby is in our blood, whether we play it or watch from the sidelines.”The next tournament in the Series will be held in Hong Kong in the Hong Kong Stadium from March 27 to the 29. Uploaded Feb. 26, 2015.

vs. UH HiloA three pointer by Robbie Mitchell got things started early for the Seasiders as they began the game against the UH-Hilo Vulcans with a 7-2 run. The Vulcans battled back to close the deficit but the Seasiders’ bench came up with back-to-back three pointers to give the Seasiders a 24-12 lead and they never looked back.“I felt good that the team played hard and really played together for the most part. We need to keep improving though...I still think we can play better” said Coach Ken Wagner. The Seasiders’ bench continued to be effective, lengthening their run to 15-2, and later extending the lead to 30-14.Continuing to build on their lead the Seasiders went into halftime with a 46-23 lead. The Seasiders finished the half shooting 45.5% as nine different Seasiders got on the scoreboard.Both teams came out of the half-time break trading baskets as the Seasiders had to battle to maintain their 20-point lead. Midway through the second-half the Vulcans cut the Seasiders lead down to 15-points due to a number of Seasider turnovers.The Vulcans continued to cut into the Seasiders lead, getting within 10-points with 10 minutes left in the game.With the Vulcans continually putting on the pressure and trying to close the gap, the Seasiders’ Pablo Coro hit back-to-back three pointers to put the Seasiders up 87-78.In the closing minutes of the game Scott Friel hit two free throws to hit the 100-point mark to give Seasider fans free scoops of ice cream following the game.vs. Holy NamesSeven different Seasiders scored in the first half against Holy Names University and rolled to a 95-36 victory. The Seasiders dominated the inside out rebounding Holy Names 22-12 and out scored Holy Names in the paint 24-16.Forward Tyler Tuliau, a junior from California studying EXS, came off the bench to finish with 15 points on a perfect shooting night. “Our team is pretty balanced, so I guess it was just my night.” said Tuliau.The Seasiders came out strong after the break, led by Pablo Coro, with three three-pointers, and Jordan Stone, who continued to dominate the paint. The Seasiders biggest lead was 65-35.The Seasiders finished the game comfortably, winning 95-63.Uploaded Feb. 26, 2015.

Cast members of “Mary Poppins,” the musical, sang and danced in front of a sold-out house Friday and Saturday night. The production aimed to emphasize the importance of family. “The message of the show is looking beyond yourself, and your own needs, and your own concerns, and you’re part of a bigger world. You’re part of a community and you’re part of a family,” said Cameron Abaroa, a senior in interdisciplinary studies from Arizona, who co-stars as Mr. George Banks. “It’s a really important message for today and one I think will ring with an LDS audience. That’s what we’re taught that life’s all about the family. Having a father and a mother in equanimity raising children together.”Mary Poppins, played by Kaylee Buss, a senior in music from Colorado, flies to the aid of Jane and Michael Banks, two children struggling with the habit of throwing tantrums and running nannies out of the house. Their real struggle, however, is love. Jane and Michael have a hard time seeing their parents as people, people who need love. “Were you ever a little boy, father?” asks Michael in the play, sparking laughter from the audience, but a sadness in Mr. Banks whose hard childhood, a product of Nanny Andrews’ “brimstone and treacle” treatment, has turned him into a bitter, unhappy adult. To teach the children about seeing the humanity in their parents, and everyone else they meet, Mary Poppins sings “Feed the Birds” with Jacosa Limutau-Ainu, who played the bird woman in the BYUH production. Not only does Mary Poppins teach the children to be better, but she also teaches Mr. and Mrs. Banks what should be their roles and priorities with help from Bert, played by Doug Bush, a senior business major from California. Bert sings, “You’ve got to grind, grind, grind at that grindstone. Though childhood slips like sand through a sieve. And all too soon they’ve up and grown, and then they’ve flown.” These lyrics inspire a change of heart in Mr. Banks. The audience saw this change as Mr. Banks embraced fatherhood by flying a kite with his son, Michael, at the end of the play.Through the music in “Mary Poppins,” the audience can experience the characters’ changes more deeply than just a cut and dry list of their changes. “Mr. Banks learns the importance of his family, Winifred finds her place as a mother, and the children find out how hard life is for their parents so they start becoming supports and helps for their parents and you really see the creation of a family unit,” Abaroa said. Abaroa said he has a testimony of the power of music and theatre, paraphrasing a quote from Brigham Young who said if he were sent to a cannibal island and tasked with the education of the natives he would not build a school, but a theatre. The power of the arts cannot be understated, especially at an LDS school built in the name of a man who was an actor himself, said Abaroa. Michaela Bayona, an assistant director for “Mary Poppins,” and sophomore in English from California, said, “There’s something about a show that’s just so magical. There’s just this crazy high you get, a performance high, that’s just so beautiful.” “Mary Poppins’” audience fed off that high three nights in a row this past week as seats were filled by students, faculty, and community members to be entertained and inspired by the family focus of the production. Uploaded Feb. 26, 2015.

From 41 years of experience as a librarian in the Church Education System, Riley Moffat knows about books and has even written them. He said about 10 of his books on maps and history can be found in the BYU-Hawaii Library.“I’ve been mostly a librarian,” said Moffat. “In the South Pacific, I was the director of Library Services for church schools in Tonga, and when they were building new schools in Samoa and Fiji, I would design the library and train the people to work in them.” After retiring from the BYUH Library in June 2014 as head of reference, Moffat said he continues to research and write about the history of the LDS Church in the Pacific and is staying busy in retirement. “My wife and I have been volunteering in New Zealand for the past few months at the new branch of the LDS Church history library down there,” he said, where they have been cataloging oral histories and other assignments. “Over the years you get all these projects you want to do,” he said.In addition to that, “I’m also working on a history of what’s called the Maori Agricultural College. The church had a high school about 80 or 90 years ago, which was destroyed by an earthquake and was never rebuilt,” said Moffat. Moffat is currently working with BYU Provo Religion Professor Fred Woods on “a guidebook to LDS Church history sites around around the Hawaiian Islands. I just got back from Maui, trying to find sites of old chapels and talking to old timers about what it was like when you just had a little wooden church,” he said. Moffat said he is planning to help commemorate the 100th anniversary of the Laie Hawaii Temple, coming up in 2019, and this year’s celebration of the 150th anniversary since the LDS Church bought the Laie Plantation on Jan. 26, 1865. Activities are being planned for later this year to celebrate this milestone.Writing histories and gathering information about the past has been an integral part to Moffat’s life in libraries. That life started with his mother, who was the library director at BYUH when it was Church College of Hawaii. “That is what brought us to Hawaii,” he said.Moffat has continued the family profession. “It was an honest way of making a decent living. Living in the library world for the last 40 years has been fun. You don’t have to know all the answers, but you are supposed to know how to find the answers or help people find the answers,” said Moffat. Moffat has seen a lot of change in the library over the course of his career. “When I first came here back in the ‘60s, the wind just blew threw the windows and you’d have to go through the collection periodically and wipe down the leather spines with alcohol because the mold would grow in the books.” They stopped doing that, he said, when the library conditions could be controlled with air conditioning.Cold kills insects and mold, so it is good for book preservation. “In the library, we apologize that it’s cold, but that is the way the books like it. You can put a coat on. The books can’t,” said Moffat with a laugh.Paper books still need to be cared for despite all of the information online, said Moffat. “Be aware that for some of the most important information, you’ll still have to see a paper book.” The reason is not all books will ever be digitized, said Moffat. “New books may come out as an electronic version and paper version, but not everybody, because of copyright laws and demand, is going to go back and scan or digitize the old books, unless they are really old and out of copyright.”“We realized electronic information is more popular and easier to use in some cases. We have been able to replace almost all of our paper periodicals and magazine subscriptions to electronic. That’s where I think most of the students here are going for good information. We always had a challenge teaching that Google can give you a million answers but maybe only two or three are the right ones,” he said. Students need to learn “how to be discerning consumers of digital information,” he continued, “and how to recognize a scholarly journal instead of pulp.”He explained why hard copy books can be more reliable than Google. “When you are putting up money to publish the book, the printer usually has quality control. Especially if, for example, the book is published by a university, they’ll be very careful to make sure that they are not going to publish anything that is really bad and get a bad reputation. They are not going to spend the money to print it and try to market it unless they are confident that it is providing the most accurate information.”Uploaded Feb. 26, 2015.

Hundreds of youth from across the island of Oahu gathered together to participate in BYU-Hawaii Department of Educational Outreach’s Keaulani Enlightening Youth fireside. The theme of this session was “You are the Light,” referencing Doctrine & Covenants 50:24. The event, which was held in the CAC, included special guest speakers Darin Southam and his wife Michelle. Southam is an LDS actor and movie producer who displayed his acting skills in the recent Mormon produced film, “Ephraim’s Rescue.”Darin said, “I love the thrill of being able to influence others. The lights go off in the theater and there is just a captive audience. There is nothing like it. To be able to help people feel emotions and influence people and inspire people. When they forget they are watching a performance, that’s why I do what I do. I feel like it is really important which roles I chose to do.” Having this passion for acting has led him to influence others, especially the youth, who were eager to hear him speak about being the light. The fireside started off with a brief introduction of Darin and Michelle Southam. Michelle attended BYUH 13 years ago and shared her thrill to be back on campus. Michelle related the theme “You are the Light” to her own life by sharing her spiritual path and how she overcame her issues through focusing on the Savior and temple attendance. Michelle emphasized one of the principles of Christ’s teachings: that He may make weak things become strong. She told the youth that, when they are strong, they are the example and the light to others. Michelle also shared that, “If you want to know value, pray for Heavenly Father to show you.” Students were entertained by Darin’s sense of humor and acting skills. Darin spoke to the youth about being the light as he related the principle to his life and acting experiences. Southam explained, “To be the light you have to first have the light. The only source of light is Christ. Once you find him and come to know him, you begin to be filled with Christ-like attributes.” He linked most of his talk to a talk given by Thomas S. Monson titled “Decisions Determine Destiny.” Darin’s advice to youth was to choose friends with caution, plan for the future with purpose and to frame your life with faith. Youth participant Malie DaMate, from the north shore area, said, “I liked the part when he told us that we should choose our friends wisely.”After the talks were given, the youth had the opportunity to go meet Southam, ask questions and take pictures. The rest of the night included dinner, a movie at The Hub for the participants 13 and younger, and a dance for the kids 14 and older. The eventful evening was put together by the BYUH Department of Educational Outreach, who has plans to hold another similar event in October of this year. Uploaded Feb. 26, 2015