The Church in Laie from 1850-2024
Anciently known as a pu’uhonua or a place of refuge, Laie was once a small branch of 70 saints, “where transgressors of the law or the native customs could come to be safe and cleansed of their transgressions before returning to society,” according to the book “Gathering in La’ie”.
Laie has been set aside as a gathering place for Latter-day Saints in Hawaii since 1865, continues the book “Gathering in La’ie”. According to the book, Laie will influence millions of people seeking to know this town and its significance.
Laie through the years
Riley M. Moffat, an alumnus and retired BYU-Hawaii professor originally from Arizona, said he witnessed the changes and growth of the Laie community since 1968. “President Hinckley said Laie is unique in having the spiritual, educational and cultural aspects that no other place in the world has,” Moffat added.
Moffat was the lead author in writing the book “Gathering to La’ie” that includes faith-nurturing stories and the different phases Laie went through, said R. Lanier Britsch, a retired history professor at BYU in Provo and writer of the forward of the book “Gathering to La’ie”.
Labor missionaries for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints started
building the first and second phases of the Church College of Hawaii and the construction of the Polynesian Cultural Center from 1955 to 1963, according to the book “The Polynesian Cultural Center: Ambassador to the World”.
With the college’s and PCC’s establishment, the books says the population and economic opportunities grew in Laie for both townspeople and students. According to the book, the construction of the PCC provided work and income for CCH students.
Memories of campus life
During his time as a student at BYUH, Moffat said he worked as a sanitation engineer or a garbage collector and helped with landscaping for the PCC. “Before the tourists came in the morning, I collected the garbage, and in the afternoon, I would help with landscaping and bringing stones from the hills to build the villages in the PCC,” he added.
Philip Bruner, an associate professor in the Faculty of Sciences, said he studied at BYUH, then known as the Church College of Hawaii, in 1966. The student body was smaller and allowed everyone to know each other, at least by sight, he added.
Bruner added the first dorms, Hale 1 and 2, were built by the labor missionaries before second stories were added to them.
Roughly 40 percent of the student body was composed of nonmembers, and there were hardly any haoles, or white people, at Church College of Hawaii, he said. When he was a student, the college had less than 1,100 students, Moffat added.
Serving in the Church
While serving as a bishop in Laie from July 1988 to June 1993 for the Laie Sixth Ward, Moffat said general authorities often visited Laie and would sometimes show up unannounced at church.
Moffat said meeting general authorities were unforgettable experience. When Elder Dieter F. Uchtdorf visited Laie, Moffat was invited by the school to give him a tour around campus. He gave another tour to the Prime Minister of Samoa and his party, he said.
As a president of the alumni organization at BYUH in 1991, Moffat said he visited New Zealand for an alumni reunion with other BYUH leaders. “The Area Seventy down there was John Sonnenberg, and I had the chance to [speak alongside] him during the program,” he added.
One of his interesting and memorable experiences as a bishop was planning funerals, Moffat said.
“We will miss those who have passed away, but we knew we would see them again,” he added.
Another memorable experience for him was helping members with their mission applications, and at one point, his ward had 16 full-time missionaries out in the mission field, said Moffat. •
