Jerome Uluave, the Vice President of the Polynesian Cultural Center’s Physical Facilities, encouraged students, through his personal life experiences, to educate themselves and listen to the promptings of the Lord during his devotional on March 5.
He emphasized, “You are representing the student body. As I review with you what we learn I issue you a challenge. First, education is a never-ending process. We educate ourselves line upon line, upon line, upon line.
“Don’t be afraid of failure. God gave us commandments to make us free. You’ve got a lot of decisions to make in your life, but those decisions are especially critical, and I request that you rely on the Lord as you make those decisions.”
Uluave was introduced by Elder David Settle, a service missionary, who said “It is indeed an honor and a privilege to introduce your devotional speaker today. Jerome Uluave is like a son to me, and someone I have grown to admire and respect.”
“From an early age,” Settle continued, “it became clear that the Lord was preparing Jerome for greater things.”
Settle spoke of the time when he met Uluave as he attended seminary in his late wife’s class. He was known as one of the “mixed nuts,” a group of boys who were simply put, “more challenging to teach than the rest.”
One day in seminary, Uluave turned to his cousins and told them “I’m done being good.” With permission from Uluave, Settle shared what happened next. “Jerome decided to attend a party. His friends handed him a hammock and two bottles of beer. He took the bottles, set them aside, and said a prayer. ‘Heavenly Father, if you love me, show me.’
“As soon as he finished his prayer, there was a commotion in the crowd. A van, driven by me, had made its way through the middle of the crowd and stopped with my wife shouting ‘Jerome, you little rubbish, where are you?’”
That moment was turning point in Uluave’s life, according to Settle, and he went on to serve a mission in Santa Rosa, California, and ultimately married his wife in the Manti Utah temple.
Begin with the end in mind
Uluave quoted a talk by President Russell M. Nelson, in which the prophet said life is like a race and everyone should begin their race with the end in mind.
Pres. Nelson said, “What would you like people to say about you at your funeral? Or if you were to write your own eulogy, and could only write three sentences, what would you want to say?
“I would like to write ‘I was able to render service to my fellow men, I had a fine family, and I was able to live with unshakeable faith in Christ.”
He continued, “One of the most remarkable things about these three objectives is they require education. The educational process is essential for success in each objective, the educational process is crucial and never-ending.”
“We all learn at our own pace,” Uluave said. “This is part of the Lord’s plan. When I was in elementary school I made some close friends, brothers, many of whom are in this room right now… As it is in most relationships, there is a period of time when relationships are tested.”
Uluave said he and his friends were playing at his house one day when his mother called him several times to come in. He told her no, not wanting to listen. Following this, Uluave asked the audience the rhetorical question of “have you ever told a Samoan mother ‘no?’ Well I’m going to explain what happens when you do.
“She picked up a rock, raised her hand behind her head, looking at me, waiting for a response.” Uluave decided to raise his fists up confidently at his mother.
“Like a quarterback, watching the defensive back, she did a double-pump. She got me in the air before she let the rock go. I looked around for my band of brothers and they were nowhere to be found.
“Would it have been easier for me to listen? At that stage in the educational process, I would have to say ‘no.’ So the Lord sent me to the back of the line upon line, upon line, upon line until I learned. Did the consequences of my actions teach me anything? I would have to say no.”
Lopaka Burgess, a junior majoring in political science from Aiea, Hawaii, said of Uluave’s stories, “We are all like a child who broke the rules in school and is waiting to get to lunch, and the teacher sends that child back of the line whenever the child misbehaves. The Lord does the same thing, and waits until we are ready to learn.”
In another story, Uluave shared how his friends decided to take him out to dinner and a movie for his 17th birthday. “The only problem was we didn’t have a vehicle,” he explained.
Uluave and his friends then decided to wait until one of their parents had went to bed. They took the car out of the driveway, put it into neutral, and pushed it down the hill. “We affectionately called it the hula car, because when you drove it, it swayed from side to side. On this particular night we ran into a bit of trouble and our night in Waikiki was cut short, so we drove home, fast. We arrived at home with a few hours to spare before church.
“The next morning, my friend’s dad knocked on the bedroom window and announced it was time to go to church. We got dressed and filed to the car. We drove about a hundred feet and the back of the car dropped on the right side.”
The back right tire of the car had rolled off into a ditch. The friend’s father later remarked, “Wow. There’s only one lug nut on the tire.”
Uluave continued, “Would it have been easier for us to listen to our parents and not take the car? At that stage in our educational lives, I would have to say no. So the Lord sent us to the back of the line upon line, upon line, upon line until we learned.”
Blessings
Speaking of living in the BYU–Hawaii community, Uluave said, “I have bosses that kneel in prayer with me. I have coworkers that celebrate and mourn with me. We have family in the same cemetery. Our family enjoys these blessings because we went where the Lord directed us to go. When we follow him, we are blessed. When I recounted my blessings I feel his love for me go to you.”
As students entered the CAC before the devotional, the first 150 received plain white T-shirts with the words “I Will Go and Do” on them in red lettering. These T-shirts were meant to coincide with Uluave’s overarching theme present in his talk.
Uluave requested all the students who took a T-shirt CAC to put it on. “A word about the theme ‘I Will Go [and Do].’ It doesn’t say where. It doesn’t say how. You’re going to have to figure that out on your own.
“When in doubt, stay on the covenant path. The challenge to us all: go where the Lord wants you to go.”
Writer: Elijah Hadley