Sunday in Laie

Jan 22, 2017
Church for the YSA 8th Ward (my ward) starts at 2:00 pm and it never changes year in and year out. It is good for the young adults because they can play all night and sleep all Sunday. Some of them attend two wards. They go with their friends earlier in the day and then back to the regular ward in the afternoon. It is very interesting in our ward.

   

 We meet in a big building next to another "regular church building".


We have 2 wards meet at the same time so there are eight wards or more in our building on Sunday and 3 or 4 wards in the regular church building next to us and then a church just down the from our home that has 3 or 4 wards. There may be more that I don't know about. The 8th ward has no marrieds (except for two missionary couples and 2 single sisters) and no children but many engaged couples. The young girls are very pretty and "young." Not fair to be around so many beautiful young women and many handsome young men of all cultures and nationalities of the world, and speaking many different languages. I am learning so much about the world and its different cultures. Many of them have only been in the church a short time and are so anxious to share their testimonies of the gospel.

Today we had an interesting talk and a story from a young man named Keoki-Leo ____?_____. He is a Samoan who works in the Samoan village on the PCC. He is here with the IWORK program and is probably in his 20's. The story he was telling us was about his father. His father was a bishop for 12 years and then a high councilman and a stake president, a very honorable man and loved by the members of his village and others in Samoa. The story takes place when Keoki was five years old. He had six other brothers and sisters. Keoki said that "the powers in their village" decided that they didn't want the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints in their village anymore and started persecuting the saints. (Have we heard this story before?) The men went to Keoki's father and told him to stop preaching the gospel in that village. Keoki's father did not listen and stayed true to what he believed. Again the men came to Keoki's father and told him if he did not deny his faith he would be severely punished. Others told him to deny his faith but he would not listen and went on as usual. One day the men again came to Keoki's father and told him he had one more chance or he would be severely punished. Once again he said he would not deny his faith, so they tied him up and was going to torture and burn him at the stake. They dragged him to the middle of town, tied him to the stake and put wood all around him with solvent. They tried to start the fire but it wouldn't start at first. They tried again and the second time it started but out of a clear blue sky it started raining very very hard and doused the fire.
Keoki was walking home from school that day and he walked into the house and his mother was sobbing but didn't tell him what she was crying about. Later when he was older his father related the story to him. He said he was very proud of his father and told us how much he loved the Savior and the church. When the meeting came to a close our Bishop stood up and said that he had heard of this man when he was in New Zealand and again when he was in another country but until Keoki told his story today did not know that it was this young man's father. The meeting house was totally quiet as this young man related his father's story and I was stunned to think that this was only about 15-20 years ago that this could have happened. Satan tries to get his way but I didn't realize that this type of persecution still existed.