Brigham Young University–Hawaii is known for its diversity of students, Christ-centered values and the “aloha spirit.” In this episode of the Church News podcast, the second of a two-part series, the Church News returns to the island of Oahu to talk to students and leaders of BYU–Hawaii and the neighboring Polynesian Cultural Center — where many BYU–Hawaii students work.
Concluding this episode is a conversation with P. Alfred Grace, president and CEO of the Polynesian Cultural Center. He shares the history and values of the cultural center and answers the important question, “What do you know now?”
Listen to this episode of the Church News podcast on Apple Podcasts, Amazon, Spotify, bookshelf PLUS, YouTube or wherever you get podcasts.
Transcript:
President P. Alfred Grace: I know now from the PCC, more than I ever knew before, to appreciate my fellow men. That’s important because it’s where I find real joy. My favorite times are with my family, and my favorite times are coming to work with my Polynesian Cultural Center ʻohana. I go away on vacation, and most times I can’t wait to get back to work. There’s not a lot of places to work like here in Laie, where you’ve got this beauty of Hawaii, you’ve got the temple, you’ve got Brigham Young University, or you’ve got the PCC, and you’ve got this amazing community of Laie where everyone treats your children like their own children, where they watch out for each other. We are sort of one big family sharing aloha. And, again, the spirit of aloha is basically another way of sharing the values taught by our Savior, Jesus Christ.
1:03
Sarah Jane Weaver: This is Sarah Jane Weaver, executive editor of the Church News, welcoming you to the Church News podcast. We are taking you on a journey of connection as we discuss news and events of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Brigham Young University–Hawaii is known for its diverse students, Christ-centered values and, of course, the aloha spirit. In this second episode of a two-part series on the Church News podcast, we return to Laie to talk to students and leaders of BYU–Hawaii and the neighboring Polynesian Cultural Center, where many BYU–Hawaii students work.
We begin today with BYU–Hawaii President John S.K. Kauwe III sharing his impression and vision of the university.
1:51
President John S.K. Kauwe III: This area of the island has always been known as a “puʻuhonua,” or a “place of refuge.” It’s always been a place where all were welcome and all were safe and all were protected. And President McKay came here in 1921, when he was first made an Apostle, and he was touring the world. And he had experiences here, both at a flag-raising ceremony and then in the Church, where he said was even the most impressive thing he felt was being in the chapel with people from all these different countries, one in Christ. So, you think about that, that was more than 100 years ago.
And that hasn’t changed since then. I mean, that inspired him to push for the establishment of the Church College of Hawaii, which is now BYU–Hawaii. And the temple was here, and the Polynesian Cultural Center, created after the Church College of Hawaii; all of those amplify the unity in Christ that’s felt in this place.
And President McKay’s words are really powerful. He said — and I’m going to paraphrase; I should have prepared to exact quote it, but we’ve adapted his words into the vision of BYU–Hawaii, which is: “To be an example to the world of intercultural peace ... through living the [gospel] of Jesus Christ.” And I think when you say, like, you feel something special on this campus, that’s what you’re feeling. You’re feeling a place that is an example to the world of how we can be one in Christ.
Again, going back to President David O. McKay’s words, he prophesied that BYU–Hawaii would produce leaders that the world would hunger for. He called them “genuine gold.” And so for us, like, the mission is to bring those students who are doing wonderful things, who are stalwart, who the Church has invested in by other parts of the Church Educational System, and give them a capstone experience to where they can deliver to the world those promises that President McKay laid out.
3:48
Sarah Jane Weaver: President Kauwe is joined by his wife, Sister Monica Kauwe, who also has something to say about what makes BYU–Hawaii unique.
Sister Monica Kauwe: Well, I think what makes BYU–Hawaii special is the students. As I’ve talked to students and heard their stories, because all of them have a story, and I just know that through education — not only secular education, but the spiritual education they get here helps them so much. And I know that as their testimonies grow and they become stronger disciples of Christ, that they’re going to be able to go back to their home countries and be leaders in the Church and in their communities. And I know that through Christ, all this is made possible.
I’ve learned that when people come together and they are one in Christ, I guess you could say, that you can have so many differences and so many different cultures, and yet we all believe the same thing, and we can all get along and enjoy being around each other. And it’s just fun to see the students of all different cultures being together and interacting and becoming friends. And it’s neat.
5:15
Sarah Jane Weaver: The mission of BYU–Hawaii is “to integrate both spiritual and secular learning and to prepare students with character and integrity who can provide leadership in their families, their communities, their chosen fields, and in building the kingdom of God.” Young adults from all over the world — and particularly the island nations of the Pacific, as well as Asia — come to BYU–Hawaii. Many who also work at the nearby Polynesian Cultural Center share their personal stories of coming to Laie and what they have learned along the way.
5:48
Kundan Yadav: My name is Kundan Yadav. I’m from India, New Delhi. Well, I had a friend; she joined the Church first, and then she one day, out of nowhere, asked me, “Would you like to come to church with me this coming Sunday?” I was like, “Sure, why not.” So, I went with her. And since then, till date, I have been active in the Church just because of that one small invite. But my family is not a member of the Church. It’s just me. I got baptized in 2013, when I was 16 years old.
Well, I was born in humble circumstances when it comes to financial terms, but I joined the Church. And then when I turned 18, that’s when I became the primary breadwinner of my family because of the circumstances. And that’s — I am fortunate to the Church that I was able to pick up English. So I learned English. And then after a couple of years, I was like, “I want to go on a mission,” but I was not willing to go on a mission because of my family circumstances, of what will happen when I leave. But then God blessed me enough that I was able to go on a mission after, when I was 21. And then I went for two years, came back, my family was taken care of because of the blessings that I experienced in my life.
Well, I did not have plans to study, because of, as I said, my family. But then when I was on mission, I understood the importance of, like, education. And there was one of my friends who knew about BYU–Hawaii, he was applying for it. I was like, “What is this all about?” I was like, “This is weird” — there is an IWORK scholarship, where you can work and study simultaneously. I was like, “This will be perfect,” because back home, I could not study and work simultaneously. So I was like, “If I can go there, work and be able to earn at the same time so that I can look after my family still” — because I’m still the primary breadwinner of my family — “to be able to obtain education, something what I love about computers,” and I was like, “Oh, this will be perfect.” So that’s why I chose to come here and study.
But there has never been a single minute or a second when I regretted the decision to come here. It’s because not just the academy life that I have been able to improve, but all the other major aspects of my life. I got to learn more about relationships, I have been able to work with the stake presidency and be able to learn how the stake functions. And I’ve met with some of the greatest people here, both inside the Church and outside the Church. And because of their testimony, my testimony has been strengthened because of these wonderful examples. And what I say here is just: This school is not helping us do better just in my academy life, but all the aspects of life. And then there is this common thread of the gospel, which binds us together, so I have grown to love those people from different places.
One of my biggest goals since the time I’ve been here is to appreciate the opportunity that I have been given. And how I can do that is just doing well in my academics, striving to become the best version of myself, and preparing myself to lead the kingdom wherever I go after this school. So, I’ve just been truly grateful, first of all, because I could have not done it on my own. As I said, that back home, I cannot study and work at the same time. And the only thing I had to do was work, look after my family and cannot do anything else. But after coming here, I have been able to look after my family, being able to study and prepare myself for the future, get married.
So I’m truly, very deeply — I can say whatever word is available in the dictionary to be grateful to those people. And there has never been a day that I’m not grateful. And I do not have any reasons to complain about life. Whatever kind of situations I am in, I’m always grateful for whatever things I have been blessed with. And that is only because of the gospel.
9:24
Jennifer Lock: So, my name is Jennifer Lock. I’m from Hong Kong. I’ve been — grew up as a Church member my whole life. But both of my parents are all converts. So, both my parents go to school here at BYU–Hawaii. And so, growing up, I always heard wonderful stories about the school and how diverse it is. And my sister, who, she has also graduated here, were also telling me the same experience. And so that really inspired me to come here.
So, when I first got here, being in Hong Kong for almost my whole life, there’s definitely a culture shock, especially the island lifestyle. Yeah, so, at first coming here, I was in this class, anthropology class that I was taking, and we talked a lot more about culture aspects. And we learned about the languages, the culture, the values, the traditions, and I am really fascinated about how some of these values were shared by many cultures or countries, and some things that’s held really dear to myself are also valued by other people. And so I think, being able to see the diversity but also see the unity inside with each of the uniqueness. It’s awesome.
So, when I first got here, I worked at the Polynesian Cultural Center. I worked at the luau. And so, the spirit of aloha, it’s the biggest thing that they wanted to express to everybody who comes here. And to me, the spirit of aloha means welcome, it means friendliness, it means family, and it also means love. And so I’ve learned so much about loving others, I’ve learned so much about treating others the way I wanted to be treated, despite of the backgrounds, all the different backgrounds that we all came from, and just to make everybody feel like home. It’s really awesome to see people come here to — maybe just here for vacation, maybe just here to get a little glimpse of Hawaii, but little did they know, they’re able to experience the spirit of aloha and the different cultures in the Polynesian Cultural Center. And we try our best to make them feel like they have the best time of their life.
So, I would say my perspective of the world changed tremendously. Back in Hong Kong, we don’t really have a lot of diversity. Most of them are just Chinese, maybe some from the Philippines or in the States. But here, you’re surrounded with people from almost, like, 70 countries, and my perspective of seeing people as who they are, and the hope for world peace also tremendously increases because, especially during Culture Night — that’s one thing that we usually do on every semester. Everybody will share their culture and perform. And in that setting, I remember President Kauwe said, like, “Oh, wow, that’s what world peace would look like if everybody are willing to, you know, be open about themselves and to learn from each other.” And so, I think that’s one thing that I changed, is to see things in the holistic perspective.
12:41
LoPati Burgess: My name is LoPati Burgess. I’ve been dancing for two years and a half. It’s a dream come true. To me, it’s an opportunity that a lot of people doesn’t really get. Because when I was back home in Samoa, I went to schools, and I feel like it’s not really for me because of my standards. So, I feel like BYU is the answer. Not only that it has the standards of the Church, but also the resources that helps me pursue my career. It’s something that I really appreciate.
Coming here, I was kind of nervous at first, dancing in front of the whole crowd, like, hundreds of people. And right now, like, I’m confident in myself dancing in front of them. Being able to share them part of my culture is all the dream, make them know that my culture is something that is precious to me and is important for them to know how that feels. It doesn’t even feel like a job to me, because I’m doing something that belongs to me, but also it belongs to some of my other brothers of ʻaiga. So, every night, I perform Tonga, Fiji and Samoa, and I also play the key role of a father for the show. So, I feel like portraying that to the people and helping them connect to the story that we’re portraying helps them feel connected to our ʻohana and what we’re trying to help them feel about our culture. It’s a blessing to me to be able to do that and to perform in front of them.
The one thing is being able to connect with them and learn about their culture and being able to dance in their own culture. I’ve always loved learning about new experiences. And that is one of the greatest blessings of what I’m doing right now. I’ve been able to dance — Fiji was very unique from the Samoan dance, and also being able to dance Tonga as well, which is an entirely different dance as well. And dancing it makes me feel like, “Well, when I’m on stage, I’m not going to be Samoan. I dance Tongan, I’m going to be Tongan. If I’m dancing Fiji, I’m going to be Fijian at that time.” So, I feel like that’s the greatest blessings of being here.
I feel like despite our differences, when we come and work here together, I feel like our principles in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints really brought us together. It’s our one culture no matter where we’re from, what color of skins. Under that, we’re just all children of our Heavenly Father, so I appreciated about that.
14:55
Sarah Jane Weaver: Last October, the Polynesian Cultural Center celebrated its 60th anniversary. The cultural center is a place where tourists can explore the rich heritage of the Pacific Islands and meet students who exemplify the motto: “One ʻohana sharing aloha.”
P. Alfred Grace is a convert to the Church and the current president and CEO of the Polynesian Cultural Center. He attended BYU–Hawaii as a young adult from New Zealand, becoming a dance and tour guide at the PCC then moving up the ranks to his current role. He credits his education at BYU–Hawaii for teaching him values that left an enduring imprint on his life. I recorded a conversation with him at the PCC, where he shared the history and values of the cultural center and answered the important question “What do you know now?”
We’re sitting here in Laie, Hawaii, at the Polynesian Cultural Center. Last year, the center celebrated 60 years, 60th anniversary. And I want to start by just talking to you about what the draw is of this place. What makes it so special?
16:05
President P. Alfred Grace: Yeah, I think if you listen to what our guests have said over the last 60 years, the biggest draw here is our young employees, particularly our students attending BYU–Hawaii. They represent to many of our guests a spirit and attitude that isn’t really found a lot of places in the world anymore that people visit. So when I talk to the guests, when they give us feedback, typically it will be about how wonderful the young people were here at the PCC, how much they loved their guide, how much they love their waitress, how much they really appreciated learning from the young men and women in the villages. So, the most memorable thing here at the Polynesian Cultural Center is definitely our employees but especially our student employees.
16:54
Sarah Jane Weaver: You know, we were here two days ago, and if you had asked us what our experience would have been, it would have been identical. We loved the young people that we met from the performers to all the folks who were working. We met a young man who worked in the dining hall, who was an art major. And he said he walked into the dining hall and saw that big mural and just felt like he was home. He was happy to be here, happy to be working any — he was delighted to be among all of the guests.
17:26
President P. Alfred Grace: And that’s very important for us. We are here not only to provide an opportunity for students attending Brigham Young University–Hawaii, to help subsidize their education. More importantly, our goal is to help them develop skill sets and talents that will aid them in their future careers and in their future service, wherever it may take them. And so, many of the students come here, and they actually take on responsibilities that are counterintuitive to their upbringing.
For example, many of our younger Asian students, particularly the females, are raised with the cultural ties that you don’t look at older people, particularly older men, in the eyes, and so forth. And yet here at the PCC, they’re required to take around Americans, North Americans, Europeans and so forth who expect that kind of interaction. And so, our young people learn how to accommodate literally hundreds of different nationalities through their experiences here at the Polynesian Cultural Center. So when they graduate, they have a much better ability to accommodate and to engage and to communicate with people from around the world.
18:44
Sarah Jane Weaver: Well, and can you just give us an overview of the history; over six decades, how did this place come about? What is the goal? And how has it evolved over six decades?
18:58
President P. Alfred Grace: So, when Brigham Young University–Hawaii began, originally as Church College of Hawaii back in the mid-’50s, it was here to accommodate students from around the Pacific Rim and the Pacific Islands. However, most of those students could not afford to pay for the education through their own funding or their family’s funding. So, it became apparent relatively quickly that they would have to have some employment opportunities here. The Polynesian Cultural Center had been thought of many years ago by Elder Matthew Cowley as an opportunity for the Saints from the Pacific Islands to come to Hawaii to visit the temple — at that time, there were no other temples in the Pacific — and to be able to stay in villages of their own making, perform for guests and help subsidize their costs of travel to the temple.
And so, that idea was revisited in the late ‘50s. And the thought then came that we could build a cultural center, a Polynesian Cultural Center. And there were a couple of activities at the time that really supported that thought. One was the famous Hukilau, taking place right down here, where guests would just have an amazing time on the beach, dining at the Hukilau luau experience.
The second thing that was happening at that time was students were already performing in a show called “Polynesian Panorama” down in Waikiki, which had proven to be successful. Now, the Polynesian Cultural Center was taking it significantly further than that. And there was a statement made, as the center was being built, that it would be a flop. And the statement was made by tourism executives who said, “Who in their right mind is going to drive all the way out to the other side of the island to see amateurs perform at the Polynesian Cultural Center? No one’s going to do it.”
And so, that was a challenge that we had to overcome. And at the very beginning, the students used to line the road that went by the Polynesian Cultural Center and try and wave to the buses, wave to the people and invite them to come into the PCC. And there were some hard times at the beginning, but after a few years, it became very obvious that the Polynesian Cultural Center was going to be a success, that visitors to Hawaii did really enjoy meeting these amateur performers, these young men and women attending at that time Church College in Hawaii, and now Brigham Young University–Hawaii. And so, there was a subsequent newspaper article that said, “The Polynesian Cultural Center: The flop that flipped.”
21:52
Sarah Jane Weaver: Well, I’ll tell you, they don’t feel amateur.
President P. Alfred Grace: They’re not. Many of them come having a very good understanding of their culture and their heritage. And yet, many others come having no clue about their culture and heritage, having been raised in cities not only in the Pacific, but also in the USA. They come from Salt Lake City, they come from Carson City, they come from San Francisco — all these cities where their families immigrated to, they come to the Polynesian Cultural Center, and they learn their heritage. They learn who they are. And that’s extremely meaningful to them, but also to their family.
22:33
Sarah Jane Weaver: And in the process, they learn a little bit about other people, other cultures, other countries. I noticed in the evening show the other night that the same performers were dancing the Samoan dances and the Tongan dances and the Fiji dances. And it felt personal every time.
22:52
President P. Alfred Grace: Yeah. Well, you know, one of the greatest experiences — and I’m a graduate of Brigham Young University–Hawaii, and my greatest learning experience — was to appreciate my fellow men.
At that time, when I was going to school here, there were over 72 different nationalities. And so, you come from reserved upbringings where you know your own culture very well, and you’re now exposed to not only other Polynesian cultures, which are very similar to your own, but you’re also exposed to other cultures from around the world; different languages, different beliefs and values. And all of those enrich the experience tremendously and allow you to apply what you learn in the work environment once you graduate and move on. The best education I got was learning about different people from around the world.
23:47
Sarah Jane Weaver: Well, I’d love it if you could share your story. You come from New Zealand and up at BYU–Hawaii and then sort of make that your life and your career.
President P. Alfred Grace: Yes, I was following the program. I came here to attend BYU–Hawaii, where I diverted from the program as I fell in love with a Hawaiian girl. And she decided that she did not want to leave Hawaii. So we have been here ever since, raised our family here. And I’ve had this amazing opportunity to make the Polynesian Cultural Center almost my entire career while I’ve been here, starting as a student employee, dancing in the shows and then working in sound crews, light crews, then working in reservations, learning a lot of different skill sets, learning how to deal with people, communicate, and then moving into marketing and then into operations and eventually into this role.
So, it’s been a wonderful journey. I really couldn’t think of a better place I’d enjoy to work. Every day, I get to come here and enjoy these wonderful young people who are full of faith. They have great aspirations. And we’re actually engaged in helping them to achieve their lifetime and eternal goals.
25:11
Sarah Jane Weaver: And after spending so much of your career in marketing, how hard is it to market this place?
President P. Alfred Grace: You know, it’s interesting because there will be people always trying to divert the guests elsewhere. What I’ve learned most of all is how important it is to make sure you have the best product possible. And so, what we focus here on at the cultural center is providing our guests with the very best experience that they have, they can receive, so that when they leave the Polynesian Cultural Center, they become the best sales promotions that we have. And so, we have — we monitor our guest satisfaction ratings very carefully. We have our management team monitor our guest satisfactions very carefully. We have our student employees engaged in identifying ways to improve the experience. And many of the improvements that you see here at the center are actually thought of and instigated by the young men and women, our student employees.
In fact, the Polynesian Cultural Center is one of the few places I know where we take our most important guests, we turn them over to a student employee and say, “Goodbye,” you know. “See you later.” It could be a leader in the Church, it could be one of the Brethren, it could be a dignitary from a different country, it could be a famous movie star, sports star or so forth — we send them away, because the real experience is obviously not with guys like me, old guys like me; it’s with the young people who take them around. And they develop such wonderful relationships with these people that many of these very important people will just say that the highlight of their visit to Hawaii was being with this young person.
27:02
Sarah Jane Weaver: And we’re far from your most important guests. But we spent some time with some really great young people who were studying marketing. I thought, “Isn’t this amazing that they’re actually getting some life skills and some career preparation?”
27:18
President P. Alfred Grace: Well, and what I love about that, too, is everyone to our PCC, ʻohana in our PCC, is important. Doesn’t matter who you are, what trek you come from. Yes, there’s some we want to take photos with, but everyone is treated the same here. Everyone is treated with great respect. One of our core pillars is to live the values taught by Jesus Christ. And so, we reflect that in how we treat all of our guests here at the Polynesian Cultural Center.
27:51
Sarah Jane Weaver: Well, and I want to talk to you; recently, we went through a global pandemic. The PCC had to have been impacted by that in hard ways and in ways that allowed you to look at what you’re doing. How did the pandemic hit and affect your operations? And then, how did you get through that? How did you figure out how to sort of weather that time?
28:15
President P. Alfred Grace: The COVID pandemic was a huge blackout for the Polynesian Cultural Center, but it did have a silver lining. We were closed for over nine months. And Hawaii, if you will recall, had very strict regulations regarding COVID. If you flew into Hawaii, you had to remain in your room, isolated for 14 days. Now, the average length of stay is seven days, so that basically shut down Hawaii as a destination. We closed. It gave us an opportunity to repair a lot of our facilities.
But it was very trying, too. It was sad because all the students had to rush home. And some of them couldn’t make it home; the borders closed before they could return home. So, many of our students who would have returned home to Tonga, for example, could not return home. They had to remain here. They had to find accommodation because the school had to close down. And we were able to keep some of them gainfully employed, but the vast majority were returned to their home or returned to family. So, here we are closed down indefinitely. We thought at the beginning it would be for a month, maybe two. Actually, we thought it was going to be for two weeks, then a month, then two months.
Sarah Jane Weaver: We all thought that.
29:33
President P. Alfred Grace: And then it ended up being closed for nine months, over nine months. And then, when we reopened, we had these incredibly strict regulations. There had to be six feet between the guests if they were not in the same party. That meant that in the theater, for example, you had to leave three seats empty between each party, and one row empty between each party on either side. We had to have that spacing in the seats and so forth. So we opened, being able to accommodate only 200 people a day. We recognized that to sustain ourselves, we would have to charge a premium price. But to validate a premium price, we’d have to provide an exceptional experience.
So, that was our goal when we reopened. There would only be 200 guests a day, but they would have the very best experience ever at the PCC and the very best experience anywhere in Hawaii. And we strive to do that. And when they got up and left, then we went in with the misters that sprayed that eliminate COVID, we wiped down everything; it was just an ongoing process. And we continued to do that until the restrictions were raised and then removed. But we learned something very important. We realized that when we can control what we can control, that means when we control the kind of experience that we give guests, we recognize that we could provide a premium experience at a premium price at that time.
And so, when we reopened fully, we actually ended up reducing the number of people that could come into the Polynesian Cultural Center because we recognized that there were certain caps that, once we exceeded them, the experience started to diminish. There were just too many. And so, we reduced attendance at the Polynesian Cultural Center, including remaining closed on Wednesdays. So, we went from a six-day work week to five days being open to the guests. And that allowed us to control the experience. Then, as time passed by, we were able to add in additional services that were able to appeal more to the family market, to the local market and so forth.
So, we’ve been able to rebuild the Polynesian Cultural Center back very carefully. Post-COVID has provided us with some of the greatest years we’ve ever had. We’ve been able to bring our student staffing back to over 800 students, which is where we want to be, and then it’s allowed us to maintain very high levels. Our guest satisfaction right now is at 86%: Excellent. And 87% net promoter score, which means 87% of our guests are defined as being strong promoters of people visiting the Polynesian Cultural Center.
32:30
Sarah Jane Weaver: Well, it feels like when you’re here, that everyone can sort of pick up the best virtues, the best values of Polynesia. Are there values that you think people can learn as they come here, things that they may observe or experience and say, “Wow, I want to be a little more like that.”
32:49
President P. Alfred Grace: Yeah, excellent. So, our motto is “One ʻohana sharing aloha.” “ʻOhana” is a Hawaiian word for “family,” and so we see ourselves as one family sharing aloha. Our vision is to spread aloha around the world. And the way we do that is we spread aloha around the world by, first of all, sharing it with our guests. Well, but even before that, we’ve shared one with another. And again, the spirit of aloha is basically another way of sharing the values taught by our Savior, Jesus Christ.
Now, the way the guests spread that is many guests will look at this and say, “Well, there’s something special about this place. Everyone was so nice, at first I thought they were just acting. But then I could see that they were treating everyone that way — not just me, but everybody — their fellow employees and everyone else. There was a respect for each other that I really liked. I felt comfortable with it. I enjoyed it. And I have this desire now to actually act the same way with other people that I come in contact with wherever I go, because I enjoy this kind of feeling, this relationship,” the spirit of aloha, that we like to call it.
So, that’s really our aspirational vision; it’s to spread aloha around the world by allowing our guests, all 500,000 of them annually, to experience the spirit of aloha, where everyone is considerate, neighborly and treats them like family; and to recognize that they can treat other people that way.
34:42
Sarah Jane Weaver: I love that this place that has, you know, represents cultures and islands and countries feels actually unified. How does that happen, that in a place where you’re celebrating Tonga and Samoa and Fiji and Tahiti, you somehow leave and feel like, Wow, there’s a oneness here.”
35:01
President P. Alfred Grace: I think the easiest way to sum that up is that the Polynesian Cultural Center preserves and perpetuates the cultures, arts and crafts of Polynesia. Our goal is to uplift and inspire, but there’s a presiding culture at the Polynesian Cultural Center, and that’s the gospel of Jesus Christ. And everything is subject to that culture. And that’s what brings us all together.
35:28
Sarah Jane Weaver: Here in Laie, you have sort of three staples; you’ve got the university and the PCC and the temple. How do those three things kind of work together?
President P. Alfred Grace: The temple, again, is a bedrock on which everything here in Laie stands. And Brigham Young University—Hawaii, in its own way, has such an amazing mission. It is literally creating the leadership of the Church in some of the developing countries now throughout the Pacific, throughout Asia. Many of the wonderful leadership that we have in the Church can trace its roots right back here to this relatively small campus but highly impactful campus.
And the Polynesian Cultural Center, first and foremost, exists to support Brigham Young University–Hawaii and the students, not only in providing employment opportunities, but, again, much more importantly, exposing our young people, our young students, to people from all around the world. These are discerning customers. They are coming here expecting to get their money’s worth. And these students not only meet the expectations, they far exceed their expectations. Their kind of confidence in achieving that kind of rapport with students, they take their confidence with them, and they return to their homelands. They return with a degree, and they return with a resume and experiences that are really hard to beat. These are highly competent young men and women that leave their campus.
I count it as a huge, huge blessing to have gone to school here at Brigham Young University–Hawaii and to count people from all around this world as my good friends. And when we had our 60th reunion, when we had our 50th reunion, the greatest joy was, as Alma said, basically, when he met up with the sons of Mosiah, and his joy was that they were still brothers in the gospel (see Alma 17:2). And so, when we have our reunions here, and you haven’t seen someone since your college days, and you come back, and you find out that you’re all still strong in the gospel, that’s one of the best things you have as well.
37:53
Sarah Jane Weaver: How has the gospel of Jesus Christ blessed your life?
President P. Alfred Grace: I’m a convert to the Church. Even though my mother comes from a very strong LDS member family, Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, I was raised around my father. And so, the Church has been a huge blessing to me. It’s provided me — first of all, I would say this: It’s the best decision I’ve ever made, to join the Church. And by making that decision, I was able to understand what provided real happiness for me. It allowed me to come to BYU–Hawaii. Here in BYU–Hawaii, I met my wife. So, the gospel has just been basically everything in my life. Along with my family and my loved ones and the gospel, it’s basically everything.
38:47
Sarah Jane Weaver: Well, I have one final question. It’s my favorite question. I love to ask it in interviews, and it’s: “What do you know now?” What do you know now that you’ve learned from the PCC?
38:57
President P. Alfred Grace: I know now from the PCC, more than I ever knew before, to appreciate my fellow men. And that’s important because it’s where I find real joy. You know, my favorite times are with my family, and my favorite times are coming to work with my Polynesian Cultural Center ʻohana.
I go away on vacation, and most times I can’t wait to get back to work. there’s not a lot of places to work like here in Laie, where you’ve got this beauty of Hawaii, you’ve got the temple, you’ve got Brigham Young University, or you’ve got the PCC, and you’ve got this amazing community of Laie where everyone treats your children like their own children, where they watch out for each other. We are sort of one big family sharing aloha. And that’s what I learned. That’s what I learned most, is it’s much better to be a part of an extended family than to be by yourself.
40:10
Sarah Jane Weaver: You have been listening to the Church News podcast. I’m your host, Church News executive editor Sarah Jane Weaver. I hope you have learned something today about The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints by peering with me through the Church News window. Please remember to subscribe, rate and review this podcast so it can be accessible to more people. And if you enjoyed the messages we shared today, please make sure you share the podcast with others. Thanks to our guests; my producer, KellieAnn Halvorsen; and others who make this podcast possible. Join us every week for a new episode. Find us on your favorite podcasting channels or with other news and updates on the Church on TheChurchNews.com.
