Sonasi Po’uha left his native Tonga in the mid-1970s to start a new life and raise his family in the United States.
Arriving in Utah in 1976, Po’uha didn’t speak much English, but he loved his family, his faith in the gospel of Jesus Christ was strong, and he knew how to work.
The husband and father, who worked at odd jobs and regularly served in the Salt Lake Temple, was a wonderful example of how to actively “preside, provide and protect” — a reference to the role of fathers in “The Family: A Proclamation to the World” — according to his son, Sione Po’uha, former University of Utah and NFL defensive lineman and current BYU assistant football coach.
“Growing up with my dad, seeing him preside, provide and protect — the three staples of a priesthood holder and father of a family — I’ve seen his unique touch in each of those three categories, and I’ve learned and been the beneficiary of all three of those different roles. That has always been my reference point when it comes to my family."
Po’uha paid tribute to his father, sharing memorable experiences and lessons learned, in a recent interview with the Church News.
Saturdays at the temple
When Sione Po’uha turned 12 years old, his father began waking him up on Saturdays at 5:30 a.m. to perform baptisms for the dead at the Salt Lake Temple.
Initially, the deacon felt excited. He had observed his parents going often to the house of the Lord, and he was curious to know what they did there. But after four months, the half-awake youth couldn’t help but think about all his friends who were still fast asleep on Saturday mornings. However, going for an all-you-can-eat breakfast afterwards was always a big bonus.
Sonasi Po’uha persisted, and Saturday morning temple attendance for the two became a habit. Sione Po’uha can’t remember a Saturday from age 12 to 19 when his father didn’t take him to perform baptisms for the dead.
“I gained my own personal connection and relationship with Heavenly Father,” said Po’uha, who agreed with a 2024 Deseret News article on a study that correlated Latter-day Saint youth temple attendance with better mental health and more lasting faith.
Regular temple attendance with his father not only deepened their relationship; he said he felt added spiritual strength during his challenging teenage years, as Church President Russell M. Nelson has promised about spending time in the temple. Po’uha also found solitude and learned to appreciate sacred things.
“The practice of going to the temple molded the vision and focus of a lot of things I did in my life,” he said. “There were a lot of Friday nights, maybe, that I avoided going out with friends because I knew I had the temple the next morning. ... Now, was it one temple trip? I don’t think so. It was over the span of time that it started to have an effect.”
During those years, father and son were often joined by other ward young men and women. To this day, youth in the Liberty 3rd Ward (Tongan) of the Salt Lake Utah (Tongan) Stake regularly perform baptisms in the Jordan River Utah Temple early on Saturday mornings, Po’uha said, deflecting credit for starting any traditions.
“The Lord’s invitation was always to come to His house,” he said. “That was something that a dad from Tonga felt very inspired to do and said, ‘I’m going to practice my version of what this means to me, to tell my young son, let’s go to the mountain of the Lord, let’s go often and see what the effects are.’”
Lockers and teams
From 1998 to 2000, Po’uha served in the Pennsylvania Pittsburgh Mission.
He returned to play football at the University of Utah, where he completed his four-year career as a first-team All-Mountain West defensive lineman for the Utes’ undefeated Fiesta Bowl champion team in 2004.
Po’uha was drafted in the third round of the 2005 NFL draft by the New York Jets and played for eight years in the National Football League.
Following his playing career, Po’uha coached at the U.S. Naval Academy and Utah before joining BYU prior to the 2023 season.
For many years, Sonasi Po’uha served as an ordinance worker in the Salt Lake Temple. After he died of pancreatic cancer at age 76 in July 2009, his son was invited to come to the temple and clean out his father’s locker.
As Sione Po’uha sorted through the items in his father’s simple temple locker, he reflected on his own fancy lockers in highly regarded locker rooms from college to the NFL.
By contrast, he felt his father had the locker with the team — the Lord’s team — that meant the most from an eternal perspective.
“Out of all the lockers, this one is the most significant in its humble little way,” he said. “That has continued to impact me.”
A father’s legacy
As a husband and father with his own family now, Po’uha hopes to carry on his father’s legacy of faith, “to continue to keep the Savior at the center of our lives and live the gospel joyfully,” he said.
One of the most important lessons Po’uha learned from his father centered on the power of example, which reminded him of a thought attributed to Saint Francis of Assisi and quoted by Elder Dieter F. Uchtdorf of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles in April 2011: “Preach the gospel at all times, and if necessary, use words.”
Po’uha said: “I think the most important thing is that I didn’t really hear my dad teach as much — I felt guided. ... There was a lot of guidance. There was a lot of example. His life, the way he went about it, it spoke for itself. That was pretty significant for me to see, follow and do.”
