“William is one of those people that is hard to use words to describe. He’s very interesting but in a very good way… Just talking to him you can tell that there’s something different about him, whether it’s serving his mission in Vanuatu or the goals and ideals he has… You’ll just have to talk to him for yourself,” said Erik Adams, a senior in biology from Oregon, who shares the same living space as William Walter Arnett III.Arnett, who is not of any relation to the celebrity Will Arnett (30 Rock, Blades of Glory, Arrested Development), is a junior studying music from Arizona. He served a full-time mission in Vanuatu, where he served in positions such as Zone Leader and even as a Branch President and learned a pidgin based version of English known as Bislama. Most of his mission was in small villages with no roads, and with a chance to email his family once every three months.As a zone leader, his duties included flying from one island to another once a week on planes that only flew once every three days. When asked if he was ever home, his response was “barely.” While landing one day, one of the planes suffered a wreck, which tore off half of the wing. Luckily nobody was injured.According to him, when he got off the plane the other missionaries asked him if he was okay, his response was “[Elder], the party don’t start til I walk in.” Arnett added that he still does not know why he responded that way, and that looking back it was definitely the Spirit protecting them.Arnett mentioned that one of the many lessons he learned on his mission is that education is not what gives someone value in society. He learned that we tend to respect people more for being well educated, for being doctors and professors, mathematicians and psychologists, when in reality that does not matter in determining the value of a person.While saying we should all seek out as much education as we can get, he also mentioned that many of the people he taught and baptized could not read, yet he describes them as some of the wisest, most intelligent people he has ever met.“It was amazing to see how happy they could be without having all these things we value, like education, money, nice things” said Arnett. “It was sad to see people who didn’t have proper medical care, and I tried to help them the best I could, but you really come away with a ‘life is good’ and ‘God is good’ perspective, because they are at the mercy of God at all times.”This past Summer Arnett took the chance to go back to Vanuatu to build houses for the church’s missionaries. During his five-week stay he lived in a tent before returning back to school in Hawaii.Arnett comes from a family of 5 children, he being the oldest. He was born on January 13th, 1992, during a snowstorm in Chicago at 11:11pm, “A make a wish baby” as he said himself, and the only white baby in the hospital born that week according to him.While Arnett has no concrete plans for a future career, he mentioned his various ideas of using his music major in the future such as owning a recording studio, performing, composing and even the idea of writing songs for other artists. “I think the correct answer to your question ‘what do you plan on doing with your degree,’ is making money,” said Arnett. “And you may think that’s funny, but some people don’t plan on that. They just think ‘oh, I’ll just be well rounded’ No, I plan to make money.”In closing, Arnett remarked that even though all these things have value for us, he learned that none of these things matter in life. “You can never forget everything that God has given you… these family relationships are what matters most in the eternal perspective. And nothing will make you happier than recognizing the people that are around you, and all that God has given you.”
Writer: Camron Stockford ~ Multimedia Journalist
