Editor’s note: This is the second in a three-part series on the “Living Record: A Church News Documentary Series” on BYUtv called “People of Faith.” Part 1 features pioneers from Brazil, and Part 2 tells the stories of pioneers from Hawaii. Part 3 highlights pioneers from the Philippines.
On a sunny day in Hilo on the east side of the island of Hawaii, Celeste Ha‘o and her eight children sit around a large circular mat depicting the hōkū pānānā — the Hawaiian star compass.
“This is what we use to tell direction,” she explains to her children, who range in age from 3 to 15. She then shows them a miniature model of a Hawaiian canoe called a wa‘a. “In our oceanic cultures, the wa‘a is such an important piece to our entire history,” she says.
Ancient Polynesian wayfinders were the first to voyage to the Hawaiian islands, possibly as early as 300 A.D. They navigated the ocean using the stars, planets and moon.
“I guess my kūpuna must have been astronomers,” Ha‘o said. “And if they were, I can be one too.”
Like her ancestors, Ha‘o is a wayfinder.
“I am very proud of my heritage,” she said. “One of the beautiful things about being a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is that there are so many similarities between my culture and between the gospel.”
Along with Ha‘o, Ryan Tanaka and Mufi Hannemann also share faith-building experiences from their lives as members of the Church in Hawaii as part of the “People of Faith” Church News documentary series on BYUtv.
Celeste Ha‘o: Bridging the gap between astronomy and Hawaiian culture
Shortly after Ha‘o’s 17th birthday, her grandfather — a Samoan chief — sat her down for a conversation that would change the course of her life.
“He says, ‘I would like to make you my taupou.’ In the Samoan culture, the taupou is the female leader of a village and a family,” Ha‘o explained.
“Would you accept it?” her grandfather asked her. “There is no greater gift that I could give you, other than lay my own life down for you.”
She humbly accepted. Her grandfather counseled her to gain an education to “bring it back to your people.”
Ha‘o pursued a degree in astronomy from the University of Hawaii at Hilo and started working at the ‘Imiloa Astronomy Center on campus to help bridge the gap between astronomy and Hawaiian culture.
“I knew that this was my place,” she said of the astronomy center. “In Samoa, we have a long-standing history of being the first navigators. And at that time, there were no navigators [included in the astronomy center]. That art was lost. Part of my calling would be to bring it back.”
In 2012, Ha‘o received a phone call from her grandfather. “It’s time,” he told her. “You must come home the way your ancestors did. You must come home by way of sea and stars.”
A few months after the phone call, Ha‘o embarked on a 2,583-mile journey from Hilo to her village Faleapuna on the island of Upolu, Samoa. Her crewmates on the wa‘a understood the significance of the voyage for her and allowed her to be the lead wayfinder.
To help her navigate, she had been taught to look for strange clouds on the horizon, which indicated land. During the challenging weekslong voyage, she spotted a strange cloud and was charting toward it. Suddenly dark clouds started moving in, and strong winds hit the sails.
“I had never experienced rain that hard in my life,” she recalled. “I was completely lost. I said, ‘Heavenly Father, please. You created this earth, this ocean and these islands. Please, send my ancestors, send my kūpuna, because I know that they have sailed it.’
“Then I heard this voice, clear as day, say, ‘Home is up ahead.’” After passing through the thick wall of rain, she saw the island directly in front of her.
When Ha‘o had nearly completed the journey, she called her mom and asked her to tell her grandfather of her arrival. Her mother began to cry. “She said, ‘Your grandfather has suffered four heart attacks, and he is in the hospital in critical condition. I’m not sure if he’s going to make it.’
“And I thought: ‘What was this all for? All of this sacrifice, all of this time. A promise being made, a promise being kept. Why? Why did this happen?’”
After her grandfather died, Ha‘o realized she had learned how to navigate the ocean — and life — without him. “I was going to find my way and be guided, no matter what.”
Wayfinding is an act of faith, she said. “We are so blessed to be able to navigate both spaces — of our culture, of our Church, our understanding, our history as a Hawaiian, as a child of God — at the same time be able to yearn and live for home that is beyond here, in the eternities.”
Ryan Tanaka: A pioneering business leader who serves the community
In Honolulu, on the island of O‘ahu’s south shore, Ryan Tanaka and his family deliver homemade butter mochi to friends. The chewy, coconut-custard rice cake is a classic Hawaiian treat.
Tanaka, a business leader who was born and raised in Hawaii, said serving others is a distinguishing characteristic of Hawaiian culture.
“What makes us so special is the ‘aloha’ spirit, giving and receiving love in ways that go above and beyond,” he said. “Helping one person might not change the world, but it could change the world for that one person.”
Tanaka is the CEO of several companies, including a restaurant group and a structural engineering firm.
“As a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints doing business in Hawaii, I haven’t seen it as an obstacle,” he said of his faith. “You’re always trying to just treat people kindly, and that allows me to be able to do what I do, which is continue to serve in our community.”
Tanaka said faith drives all of his decision-making “because there’s situations and challenges that we can’t always foresee.”
He recalled buying a top restaurant in Waikiki 45 days before the COVID-19 pandemic. “We were forced to close for seven months of that first year in 2020,” he said.
But this difficult time provided an opportunity for Tanaka to be a leader in the community.
When lawmakers got together to distribute funds from the U.S. Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act, they asked a group from the private sector — including Tanaka — for advice on how to spend it.
“I knew the answer — commercial rent relief,” Tanaka said. Tanaka’s landlord had many tenants in Waikiki, and none of them were paying rent in full. Tanaka himself had accumulated a large debt to his landlord.
Tanaka put together a survey to collect and analyze rent data to inform the market of how many businesses were struggling and why. The day before he launched the survey, Tanaka was approached by the chief state economist to partner together.
And it was successful. The mayor at the time allocated a large amount of federal funds to help small businesses.
“It de-stressed that very sensitive relationship between landlord and tenant during this crucial time of COVID. A lot of my efforts to help the small-business community helped all of the tenants,” Tanaka said.
“Today, most of us are still there, working together, coming out of COVID. All that time and effort that I’m thinking, ‘I’m just serving my community,’ it came back tenfold.”
Tanaka has been publicly recognized for his vision and leadership in business and for his contributions in the community as a philanthropist. “You don’t serve to receive; however, it’s just this miracle that happens,” Tanaka said.
He ties it all back to faith — faith he has had since he was a young boy. “At a very early age, I had faith in God, in the Church, and I’ve carried that with me my entire life,” he said.
“Having faith, for me, isn’t hard. It’s just how I live my life. That has anchored me so that no matter what I’m facing in life, there’s always a bright side that’s coming.”
Mufi Hannemann: First Samoan to graduate from Harvard
Looking out at the horizon at the popular Ala Moana Beach Park in Honolulu, Mufi Hannemann reflects on his parents’ pioneer legacy.
“This was my mother’s favorite place for us to come as a family,” recalled Hannemann. “For me, the Church began with my mom and dad. They really instilled in me and my siblings that everything begins and ends with Heavenly Father, and everything that we do in life has to be where we trust in the Lord with all our heart.”
Hannemann, now in his 70s, was baptized in the Honolulu Stake Tabernacle in 1962. Before he was born, his parents emigrated to Hawaii from American Samoa — what Hannemann described as “a bold decision.”
“They had everything back there,” Hanneman said of his parents’ life in American Samoa. “So why would they even think about going into the unknown? They said, ‘You know what? It’s not about us, it’s about our children.’
“Of all the places they could have gone to, they came here — Lā’ie. And that community has been very much a part of the Church’s growth.”
Today, Laie is home to the Polynesian Cultural Center, Brigham Young University–Hawaii and the first temple built outside of North America. Hanneman’s uncle, David Hannemann, was the first manager of the Polynesian Cultural Center, a place where visitors can see and experience the story of Polynesia.
As they raised their family in Laie, Hannemann’s parents had an “American dream” for one of their children to attend Harvard University.
“I saw how much my mom and dad would sacrifice for this dream. But at the same time, I told my mom, ‘Mom, they don’t take people from Kalihi at Harvard,’” he said, referring to their neighborhood in Honolulu.
“They had never taken a Samoan. And she just said, ‘Never you mind. You need to aspire. You need to reach for the stars.’”
Hannemann was accepted at Harvard University, Yale University, Princeton University, Brown University, Cornell University and Stanford University — all on scholarship. “All because these two people believed that their son could be somebody, could be as good and excel as anyone else,” he said of his parents.
Hannemann ultimately decided to attend Harvard, becoming the first Samoan to attend and graduate from this prestigious Ivy League school.
During his freshman year, his parents traveled from Hawaii to visit him in Massachusetts. “I felt very fortunate and blessed that she was able to see that, because that was her dream,” he said of his mother. She died after his first year.
He credits his parents for teaching him that if he has the opportunity to make a difference — if he can make people’s lives better both inside and outside the Church — then he should do it.
“The more that I’m able to attain, the more that I’ve been able to do to help others,” he said.
Hannemann is a prominent leader in both business and politics in Hawaii. In addition to being president and CEO of the Hawaii Lodging and Tourism Association, he founded a leadership development program called the Pacific Century Fellows and was elected twice as mayor of Honolulu. He also enjoys coaching girls’ basketball and hosting a radio show.
“What the Church has taught me, it’s not where you serve, it’s how you serve. … Sometimes people place too much emphasis on positions and callings. To me, it’s to make the most of whatever you’re called to do.”
Looking back, Hannemann said he can see how God has guided his path all along.
“Everything that I have, everything that I’ve aspired to, everything positive that has come before me, I know it’s because Heavenly Father has directed me,” he said.
The Church in Hawaii
The first Latter-day Saint missionaries arrived in Hawaii in 1850. In 1852, Elder George Q. Cannon, a missionary who later served in the First Presidency, baptized Jonathan Napela, a prominent Hawaiian lawyer and leader.
After tutoring Cannon in the Hawaiian language, Napela and Cannon worked together to translate the Book of Mormon into Hawaiian — the first translation of the book into a non-European language.
By the 1870s, more than 4,000 Hawaiians had joined the Church. Today, more than 76,000 Church members live in Hawaii, across more than 140 congregations. Hawaii is home to two dedicated temples and two more announced and in planning.
Correction: Jonathan Napela was baptized in 1852, not 1853, as previously stated.
