Guest Blogger - Leland Ralph White

My cute dad sent us all this before we went on our Hawaii trip. I couldn't find it in my post about Hawaii but I finally found it today and he writes so eloquently that it had to be posted. Plus, Scott and I were reminiscing last night about how fun that trip was in November!

Love you, dad. Thanks again for that fabulous trip!

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GO TO HAWAII

In the early fall of 1970, I was at a crossroads in my life. Uncertain of my path in life and lacking a clearly defined value system, I began to question so much about what I was experiencing and started examining the foundations of faith and family that I had all but written off as irrelevant. It leads me to belief and experiences that I had never imagined I would be so fortunate to experience. In November of that year, I began a journey that profoundly influenced my thinking, my frame of reference and character. It started in Hawaii!

The first plane ride I ever took in my life started in Salt Lake City as I headed for Honolulu to attend the Language Training Mission in Laie, Hawaii. But the first leg of the trip took me from SLC to Los Angeles, where I met my brother John. He was just finishing his mission in Los Angeles and agreed to meet me for a two hour layover. We had just reconnected at LAX when a late model limousine drove up right in front of us. As the luxury auto pulled up to the curb, Bob Hope, one of the most recognizable individuals in the entire world, popped out of the limo, surveyed where he was and immediately headed over to chat with two Mormon missionaries. My brother tried the golden questions, but Mr. Hope seemed much more interested in discussing my suit with me. It seems that he had a suit that looked just like the suit I was wearing. The only difference was he purchased his in 1947 and it had gone out of style. He told me it looked terrific and he was going to take his suit out of his closet and start wearing it again, even though it was 25 years old! We talked for a very short time and then his ‘audience’ found him and the conversation was over. I wanted to be back on the plane, in a window sit, headed for Hawaii.


I remember every detail of that flight—the speed of the plane as it departed from LAX, watching the land disappear and a vast ‘blue’ overtake everything. I remember marveling at the miracle of flight and seeing if I could calculate what time we would arrive in Hawaii given the speed and distance involved. I missed by not much, but didn’t care at all as the plane neared the islands and the pilot announced our approach. I strained to see out my window the images I had seen on television and through my imagination. What I envisioned seeing was far short of what actually came into my perceptual frame. Growing up in mountain desert, I was accustomed to heat, but not in November. November, when I left SLC, was gray, wet and chilly. I got off the plane and was immediately transformed by the heat and humidity. The air smelled of tropical flowers. The pace of life seemed different. And I was different. I remember thinking that I felt more alive at that time than I had ever felt before. And it was just the first day.

Less than a mile from the BYU Hawaii campus is Laie Point. It is an outcropping of rock that appears quite ordinary from the shore. But I acclimated myself to the Hawaii sea by going out on Laie Point several times while I was in Hawaii and watching the waves come in and out. I developed respect and love for the sea that I never thought possible. Kim Mosier was my study partner. He and I would study Japanese together and were given the latitude to study where we thought we could be most productive. We were always most productive down at Laie Point. The mountains on Oahu were different than the Utah mountains I loved back home. The trees were huge and there were several layers of vegetation that comprised the flora of the area. On some parts of the trails I explored above the campus, the trees were so thick I had a hard time navigating. It’s not that I got lost due to the thickness of the trees and vegetation. I was so fascinated by how different it was that I did not pay attention to what was going on around me. The other transforming quality about all of this was the people of Hawaii. The native Hawaiians with whom I interacted on campus were different than other folks I had experienced. There was an unconditional acceptance with them. It didn’t seem to matter to them that I made mistakes. They made mistakes and shrugged them off as though that were really an expected part of life (and it is!). While my primary purpose in being in Hawaii in 1970 was to learn Japan and Japanese, I was so favorably impressed with Hawaii that I vowed at that time to learn more about how these people came to be, what made them different and how I could learn important life lessons from them. I left in mid-January 1971 committed to experiencing a successful mission, but also to returning to harvest more learning from these people and that climate.



I flew back through Honolulu on my way home from Japan two years later. I had acquired a distinct love of things Japanese and knew that it had become an irrevocable part of me. But as I spent that very short two days in Hawaii on my way home, I felt the healing and transforming breezes of Hawaiian air seducing me and beckoning me to return. It would be nearly ten years before I returned.

Marilyn and I visited Japan in the fall of 1982. As an afterthought, we booked 4 days in Hawaii to rest up after a ‘hard vacation’ in Japan. It was a moving and healing experience for us. The sea water, ocean breezes, unusual tree and plant life and an attitude of tolerance and acceptance made Marilyn and me feel as though we spent way too much time in Japan and not enough in Hawaii. We were at peace the entire time I was there. I recalled looking at Marilyn and wondering if I could ever love her more than I did at that moment. I recall attending a sacrament meeting in Honolulu and pondering about the feeling and commitment the ward members had to the Church and each other. I longed for that depth of connectivity in a community of faith. At the end of the trip I began to understand that my relationship with Hawaii went far beyond the possibility of describing this in words. I understand that I have gained something from an environment that is almost mystical and certainly spiritual. On this trip I started a study of Hawaiian culture that lasts to this day.

On Shannon’s birthday in 1988, we received the call from our Dr that confirmed Marilyn’s diagnosis of Multiple Sclerosis. She took on serious symptoms for 3-4 weeks and we all suffered as we watched her vibrancy and humor bleed out of her. We were all sick at that time. I needed to do something and I feared what I would do is flee from the situation because the stress of seeing her deterioration was becoming unbearable. As I prayed for answers that had been hard in coming, up to that point, I received a strange prompting to take Marilyn to Hawaii. That hardly seemed to be the appropriate thing to do when we were striving to understand and accommodate the illness. But I needed to be in a place that would heal me and possibly heal Marilyn. We took David and Lisa with us for five days. And once again, the buoyancy of the ocean waves, the gentle perfumed breezes and loving kind people provided an opportunity to transform and leave the worries and conflicts behind. Marilyn did not become better immediately. But she did get better and we know that getting her out of the sick role and to a place where she could heal made all the difference. We would remember that and take advantage of that understanding on many occasions in the next decade. Marilyn and I have been to Hawaii together no fewer than six times since 1988. I have been to Hawaii easily 25 times in the last 20 years. I have been there ten times in the past two years.


I discover things about myself when in Hawaii. It isn’t as though I transform into an unrecognizable character once I arrive there. On the contrary, I think I am quite consistent even when I am there. But I am more self-aware, more satisfied with myself and more curious about defining myself as better and more powerful than I am in my ‘natural state’. I feel more at ease in practicing being powerful in Hawaii. And for me the only real power is found in the power of love. I feel that in abundance when I am fully engaged in Hawaii.
As you contemplate this trip, attribute whatever goodness and relaxation works for you. If you find merit in merely taking a break from the flurry of everyday life, there is value in that. But I encourage you to be curious, much more curious about your experience there. What if there is healing in the air and water? What if the sacred experiences people have had in certain locations are transmutable to others? What if the combination of different climate, customs, people and experience tilt your perspective enough that you see something you might have missed had you not had your eyes wide open on this occasion? I love this place and want to share it with you. At my very best, in the very best of locations, you dominate my thoughts and bring me the most profound sense of joy I could ever ask for. I want you to know that my primary purpose in having all my family together for this experience is to come away from this caring even more deeply for you. You are worth every positive thing I have ever felt.

Aloha nui loa, my dear sweet babies!