Aloha, and aloha from the bottom of my heart. Especially to you who are new to the campus or returning do I express our love and welcome. I am always moved by this sight of our university family coming together in devotion.

Looking into your faces and feeling your collective spirits, it is as if the very heart of the international Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is beating right here. The Spirit of God rests down upon this campus and is prepared to work miraculous things in our hearts and minds if we are prepared to receive them. More important, the Lord intends to work his miracles on this planet through you as he establishes His Zion across the world.

My words today are directed especially to you students. I would like to speak to the subject: "Work, Watch, and Pray." I should like to emphasize again certain sources of knowledge and understanding that, as students on this unique campus, we are blessed to have and are expected, by divine mandate, to use. Heavenly Father told Adam and Eve that this planet was created for them and their posterity. Think of it. It was created for you, for us. Like this planet, this university was built for you, and the Lord has brought you here to train and groom and prepare you for his service in the world. Like the temple, this university was dedicated for learning and other spiritual functions.

Also like the temple, it is a place of faith, a place of prayer, a place of glory, a place of holiness, a place of God. In the Church the temple is often referred to as a university, because of the emphasis on learning there. Likewise the university is often described as a temple, a temple of learning. It is profoundly significant that the Lord should build a temple and a university in this place. J. Reuben Clark attached so much importance to learning at the university that he said it was akin to worship. Learning, that is gaining knowledge and experience, is connected directly to eternal life and eternal progress.

And this is my first point. Every class offered on this campus, every textbook, every computer assisted learning procedure, every instructor, every counselor is a vital resource that will open up opportunities to learn. Please do not be casual about them. This is your time, your opportunity, and your choice. Seize these opportunities with a profound sense of duty and privilege. Every year, my heart breaks over some students' casual attitude toward this privilege. They toss it off as a thing of nought.

Sister Marjorie Hinckley, wife of President Hinckley, described a moment of deep regret in her life when she was sitting among a group of magnificent women in Argentina, who of course, spoke only Spanish. In her words, "These were delightful, beautiful women . . . I wanted so much to be a part of that group. I was straining to catch any Spanish word I could and failing miserably."

Sister Hinckley then describes how in this moment of regret and confusion her memory takes her back to a Spanish class she had taken years before. "I could see [the class] as plainly as if I were back there," she says. She remembers the sights, the smells of the classroom including a friend who sat right next to her looking on her paper and popping gum in her ear. In her words:

I did the very minimum required to get a respectable grade in that class, and I promptly put every Spanish word out of my mind when I left. I took the class because I needed the credit. I certainly did not take it to learn Spanish. Who needed to know Spanish, anyway? I didn't know a single person who spoke Spanish . . . [Well,] I missed out. I missed out on a valuable experience because I did not have a love affair with my Spanish textbook when the opportunity was there and the time and season were right. So, [you students] no matter the class, or how irrelevant it may seem, learn, learn, learn, as if your life depended on it. Perhaps it will. Learn the thrill of digging for fossils on the mountainside or working over a test tube until dark, or getting on the trail of something in the library and searching it down feverishly for hours. Learn to be a real student, an excellent student. (Glimpses into the Life and Heart of Majorie Pay Hinckley, 229-230)

Bob Thomas, beloved and highly influential teacher on the Provo campus during my undergraduate days, lamented once in a talk that most students don't have close interaction with faculty because they do not come [to the teacher] to learn, but to explain or complain; explain why they missed a quiz, complain about having to get up so early, or a test score, or the difficulty of the writing assignment. ("Academic Responsibility," Educating Zion, 101 112)

What Sister Hinckley and Brother Thomas are saying is "Jump into your studies with both feet." Consider them a matter of life and death. Because it might be what you learn, even in a class you didn't want to take, which may save your life someday or someone else's.

Let me share with you an encounter with a student of the kind Dr. Thomas describes. He was bemoaning the fact that he had to take Introduction to Literature. He was especially indignant when he discovered that one of the pieces of literature he would study was Shakespeare' play Macbeth. The dialogue went something like this:

Student: Hey I read Macbeth in the 9th grade, why do I have to read it again? What a waste of time. I've been there, done that.

Teacher: But you were 13 years old at the time, now you are 21 and a returned missionary. Wouldn't your present maturity help you get a lot more out of the play?

Student: I still remember the story, that's enough. The Queen kills the King, so her husband can be the new King, she kills herself, and others kill the new king. That's about it.

Teacher: But the play is infinitely more than that thumbnail sketch. Macbeth is a veritable treasure trove of insights central to the human predicament, relationships in marriage, the problems of evil in basically good people, ambition, suffering - the real heavy stuff of life.

Student: Whatever!

Teacher: Okay, what was your favorite movie as a teenager?

Student: Grease.

Teacher: How many times did you see Grease?

Student: Maybe ten times.

Teacher: What great ideas or thoughts or insights do you get out of watching Grease?

Student: Hey, in Grease you don't think, you feel.

Teacher: You mean to tell me, you will watch Grease ten times, (that's about twenty hours) for the animal feeling, but you resent the six hours of having to read and watch and discuss a literary masterpiece full of profound human as well as eternal insights.

Student: Hey man, I'm an accounting major, minoring in IS, when will I ever use Shakespeare in my life?

Teacher: You're a human being aren't you?

Student: Obviously!

Teacher: You're going to be married, aren't you?

Student: When the right girl asks me.

Teacher: You don't think an accountant will ever need insights relative to the uses and abuses of power, temptation, the terrors of a violated conscience or how human choices set in motion events that draw themselves and others into suffering and destruction?

Student: Who needs it, I can get that stuff in the Old Testament.

Teacher: It's certainly possible, but do you get it out of scriptures?

Student: Hey, that brings up another thing that bugs me. Why do I have to take all these religion courses in the same subjects I took in seminary in high school. I'm a returned missionary. Why can't you just waive religion for returned missionaries?

Alright, Brothers & Sisters, enough of this dialogue. Granted, this is an extreme student in an exaggerated case. But frankly, I hear echos of this student's arguments every time someone complains about "having to" take a General Education course or something he or she is not particularly interested in. The University is where you do that. College is where you expand your horizons, expand your interests, expand your desires for greater knowledge. It is true we have greatly reduced the number of GE courses that are required. Most majors have been trimmed and refined so that students who stay on task can easily graduate within four years. But it is our goal to make every course that is offered a masterpiece of learning.

In contrast to the above student, let me introduce you to Stanley Wan, now president of the Hong Kong mission, and graduate of BYU-Hawaii who met us recently in Hong Kong. When we were settled in his office a few weeks ago, his first words were "I graduated in business from BYU-Hawaii, but one of my best academic experiences was creating a journal for one of my religion classes, in which we organized and wrote up all of the great thoughts and feelings generated by the class. I remember how some students groaned that the teacher was making an English writing class out of a religion class, or was just requiring busy work. Some argued it was way too much work for two credit hours, but for me it opened the doors of my capacity to think and write about my deepest religious feelings."

President Wan's comments reminded me of a more recent student in business from Fiji, who took my Introduction to Literature class. He fretted and stewed over an assignment to write a love poem. Athletic and very macho, he had never written a love poem before, much less in English. He pleaded for another kind of assignment, but I wouldn't let him off the hook. With this particular assignment, the students gathered at our home for dinner and a session of reciting their original poetic works. Nervous and fidgety, Semisi was there with his wife. When he stood and began to recite his poem entitled "My Laie Morning," I felt a slight sensation run through the whole group, not unlike what we local people call "chicken skin."

Without mentioning his wife's name, Semisi recited his poem. We all knew that she was his "Laie Morning" and all of the beauties of this Garden of Eden we call Laie, the sun, the air, trees, ocean, birds, the healing breeze - all were ascribed to his Laie morning. After the applause, Semisi's wife said with a smile and a twinkle in her moist eyes, "Well President Shumway, I don't know what grade my husband will get on this poem, but it has certainly saved our marriage." I do not think the marriage needed saving, but I do know that no matter what success Semisi achieves from his business degree or his employment in business, his ability to write an occasional love poem to his wife will provide a dimension of romance, humanity, and godliness in his life that his major courses may not offer.

Again, the point of all of this is to stretch, expand, be grateful for hard teachers who care about your competence, as well as your souls. Give every course your best, "your special best" even, nay especially, the courses not in your major. They can all have a profound impact on your life.

Our son Jeff graduated from BYU-Hawaii in History and went on to complete a Ph.D. in Latin American history, but he will tell you one of the most life changing, life enriching courses he took here was Dr. Preston Larson's Music Appreciation course. Today Jeff's little home is like a veritable symphony hall, and I never visit there but what he insists that I enjoy a new musical experience he has prepared for me, usually a little lecture from him and then my listening to the new CD recording he's just purchased.

What about the student failing a required GE course, who complained about the professor of the course as the most boring teacher he has ever had. "He's the number one sleep maker at this University," cried this student. "He's so boring the clock stops in his class." I agree, Brothers and Sisters, a truly dull and boring teacher is more than problematic. He is a pestilence at a University. A boring teacher can stifle a student's enthusiasm for learning faster than nearly anything. But frankly, I don't know any such teacher on this campus. There may be one, but I don't know one. Let me tell you one of my favorite stories from the life of S. Dilworth Young, late member of the First Council of Seventy. I heard him tell this about himself. He said that as a General Authority, he traveled every weekend, and seldom got to attend his own ward. On one rare occasion he found himself at home on a Sunday and went to Church with his wife. I'm sure I don't have all the details straight or remember the exact wording, but here is his story as I remember it:

As I settled down in the Chapel for sacrament meeting, I was greatly annoyed to discover that old Brother Smith of the high council was to be the main speaker. I turned to my wife and said, 'Just my luck. The one time I get to come to my own sacrament meeting and who's the speaker? The most boring speaker in the Church.' Well my wife frowned at me and said that wasn't a very nice thing for a General Authority to say. I sat there glumly looking up at Brother Smith who had a sweet smile on his face. I had heard him talk a dozen times before. Finally I said to myself, 'At least he has a nice smile.'

The longer I sat there, the more ashamed I became of my attitude. So ashamed that I determined that I'd try hard to make up for the talk by concentrating on other aspects of the sacrament meeting. So when the opening hymn was sung, I sang with gusto all the verses, concentrating on the text of the hymns. I listened carefully to the opening prayer and made it my own. During the sacrament hymn I sang fervently and thoughtfully. I listened with attention to the meaning and the beauty of the sacrament prayers. While the emblems were being passed I concentrated hard on Jesus Christ and his atonement. I pondered on his life and teachings.

By the time old Brother Smith started to speak, I was thrilled at how wonderful the meeting had been so far. Surprisingly, even Brother Smith's opening words were interesting. Then I became quite absorbed at what he was saying. At midpoint of his sermon I was even excited about his address. It was brilliant. And when he concluded with a resounding testimony, I turned to my wife and said, 'Why honey, that was one of the finest talks I have ever heard anywhere.' To which my wife responded 'Sweetheart, Brother Smith does this every time he speaks and always has.'

Then Elder Young, looked at his audience with a very poignant expression and asked, 'And where was I when Brother Smith was giving those powerful, eloquent sermons? I was in boredville, being bored, feeling sorry for myself.'

Well, that's the hard work part of my address. Now for the "watch and pray." I am convinced that one of the greatest sources of power and knowledge in this world is consistent, humble, personal prayer. The greatest thing missionaries teach investigators or parents teach their children is how to pray, how to get answers to prayers. Of all the resources at your disposal, intimate private prayer is the surest means for coping and for hoping. One of the most important things to remember about true prayer is that it requires your and my humble willingness to put ourselves in the Lord's hands.

This means that all prayers are answered, but not always in the way we want. Remember a no answer is just as good, maybe better, than a yes answer if it's the Lord's answer. And you will know its His answer if you humbly ask. I remember the sweet, faithful sister on campus who prayed her boyfriend would ask her to marry him. When he dumped her she was devastated and wondered why the Lord let her down. I said the Lord answered her prayer, "You weren't dumped, you were rescued." She hadn't thought of that. Today, she is so thankful. She really was rescued from that guy.

I'm thinking about the faithful young man, a returned missionary who desired, worked, and prayed to be a seminary teacher. He wasn't chosen. Then he joined the Army aspiring to be an officer, but was washed out of officer candidate school training. There was a period of self doubt and the inevitable asking why. Recently, he graduated with a medical degree and, in hindsight, he recognizes all those disappointments were the Lord's real answer to his prayers, nudging him in the direction he can serve best. All those disappointments gave him experience, maturity, and humility.

I played basketball on a full ride scholarship at BYU Provo my freshmen and sophomore years then went on a mission. I came back with high expectation of making the team again. I worked on it. I prayed for it. I told the Lord all the reasons why I should and wanted to make it. Well, I was cut from the team, lost my scholarship, and had to go to work as a custodian to support myself. Talk about pain and humiliation. Now I see the Lord wanted me to be a student, not a competitive athlete. My life then took the direction the Lord wanted. We really need to learn to say with Christ, "not as I will, but as thou will." (Mathew 26:39)

We are instructed by scripture not to ask amiss (2 Nephi 4:35; Helaman 10:5), not to ask for that which is not right and that we should always submit to the will of God. That counsel is good because most of the time we ask God to remove obstacles from our paths or to protect us so nothing bad ever happens to us, so we can sail breezily through to happiness and contentment without any storm or conflict. We are instructed in scripture that to ask aright or to ask for the right things, is mainly to plead constantly for humility (Alma 34:19), faith, hope, charity (Moroni 7:48), knowledge, wisdom, and the ability to cheerfully endure. The instruction is to give thanks in all things. We are to "watch and pray" that we enter not into temptation greater than we can bear. (Alma 13:28)

I am amazed how many of us can say prayers without praying; mouthing beautiful, soaring words but our hearts remain earth bound. The "heart and soul prayer" is born out of struggle and distress and/or an inward awareness of a great need.

Again why do we pray? Because the Lord commands us to pray. (Nephi 18:16) He begs us to ask in order to receive and to knock in order to have it opened unto us. (Mathew 7:7) You students must know that an intimate prayer relationship makes you partners with Heavenly Father. I have a close friend who through a series of tragic choices, lost his wife and children, his privilege to come to BYU-Hawaii, and his membership in the Church. After a long time he came to report that he was being restored to the Church and miraculously his family was coming back to him. Knowing the depth and the complexity of this man's environment and his struggles, I asked how he was able to rise from the ashes, as it were. "Prayer," he said. "Every day, every hour, every minute. Everywhere I go, whoever I'm with, it's a constant conversation with Heavenly Father in my heart."

As I listened to this man, the prophet Alma's admonition rang more clearly in my mind. He said,

"Yea, cry unto him for mercy; for he is mighty to save. Yea, humble yourselves and continue in prayer to him. . . . Yea, cry unto him against the power of your enemies. . . . Yea, cry unto him against the devil, who is the enemy to all righteousness. . . . But this is not all; ye must pour out your souls in your closets, and your secret places, and in your wilderness. Yea, and when you do not cry unto him, let your hearts be full, drawn out in prayer unto him continually for your welfare, and also for the welfare of those who are around you." (Alma 13:18-28)

We have learned from sad experience that one of Satan's most desperate far reaching efforts is to keep you from praying. His basic objective is to isolate you away from any spiritual connection with Heavenly Father. Nephi says that we must hearken unto the spirit which teacheth a man to pray. "For the evil spirit teacheth not a man to pray, but teacheth him that he must not pray." But behold I say unto you that ye must pray always, and not faint. (2 Nephi 32:8-9)

How does the evil one get us not to pray. Sometimes he and those who assist him just laugh at it. They insist that prayer is a superstition, a sign of weakness. Unfortunately, Satan has been very successful within academe over the last hundred years especially, where the things of the spirit, religion in general and prayer specifically, have been trivialized by many intellectuals. For them God is a figment of a frightened and ignorant mind, and early on God was simply invented out of human desperation because of a terrifying world they couldn't explain. Certainly not all academic types are vulnerable to this anti-religious, anti-prayer, anti God doctrine, but many have been wearing their anti-religious ideologies like a badge of honor, and denouncing the life of the spirit with their own form of passionate revivalism.

Consider 20th century philosopher Bertrand Russells' famous declaration,

That man is the product of causes which had no pre-vision of the end they were achieving; that his [mans'] origin, his growth, his hopes and fears, his loves and his beliefs, are but the outcome of accidental collocations of atoms; that no fire, no heroism, no intensity of thought and feeling, can preserve an individual life beyond the grave; that all the labors of the ages, all the devotion, all the inspiration, all the noon day brightness of human genius, are destined to extinction in the vast death of the solar system, and that the whole temple of man's achievement must inevitably be buried beneath the debris of a universe in ruins - all these things, if not quite beyond dispute, are yet so nearly certain, that no philosophy which rejects them can hope to stand. Only within the scaffolding of these truths, only on the firm foundation of unyielding despair can the soul's habitation hence forth be safely built. (Mysticism and Logic, London: Doubleday, 1917, 45-46)

What an eloquent and monumental lie. But Satan is more clever than just orchestrating passionate denunciations of things of the spirit. The Korihors of the earth will always have limited influence upon those who long to believe. Satan is generally more successful in supporting simpler, more effective notions in keeping you and me from our knees. Notions like, "You're not worthy. You're full of sin." If total worthiness were a pre requisite to prayer, few prayers would be uttered on this earth even among people in this room. Sometimes even more effective are the Satan-supported suggestions, "You're too tired to pray, too sleepy, too busy." Or "wait until later for a better time and place." Or "look, things are going well, you've got things under control, you prosper, look what your own hands have built, you don't need this as much as so-and-so." And thus, as the scriptures state, we are lulled into a sense of carnal security, and led carefully down to Hell. (2 Nephi 28:2)

Tragically, in our day, Satan has been able to disrupt the prayers of many people by helping to saturate our environment with lustful ideas and images. These images, given even a little space in our minds, drive us into a sort of solitary confinement, imprisoned by our own sensualism, locked away from any sweet spiritual communication. I'm referring to pornography, the pornography of sex and to some extent violence.

Why is pornography so insidious and evil? Why do our prophets so urgently exhort, warn, plead with us to avoid it like the infectious disease that it is? I believe it's not so much that you will run out and act out the hideous suggestions. More likely it becomes a carnal preoccupation of the mind. As Elder Oaks often points out, our bodies have a marvelous mechanism to vomit out or eliminate through the bowels and bladder the swill and poison of contaminated food and water. But the brain cannot automatically regurgitate and eliminate the poison of pornography. It requires enormous struggle. A basically good person, trapped by carnal thoughts and sensual images due to a diet of pornography, is one of the most pitiful persons of this world.

One such person described it as a living horror. He said, "I get no respite. I can't pray without those familiar images flooding my mind. I can't sit at the sacrament table without fighting them off. I have no sweet moments to ponder things spiritual in the temple because of the intrusion of old sexual fantasies. I seem to have no control. In my carefree days I thought it was cool, intriguing, irresistible fun to feed my desires just to look. But now when I'm about to have a warm spiritual experience, it's as if the devil jumps up and says, 'Oh yeah, remember this!' Because I have fed on entertainment from him, it's like I myself have now become his personal entertainment, wiggling on the end of his spear."

Pornography is aggressive and ruthless, mainly because it seems otherwise. It savages our tender, pure feelings toward love and intimacy, but beyond that it clutters the mind and fills the soul with a dissonance that makes prayer difficult. The internet is fast becoming the chief information source in our society. It has also become, in the words of a cowboy philosopher, the "uncontrolled manure spreader" in the world. Consider this quote from the San Francisco Chronicle, "In the first comprehensive poll of sexual habits in cyberspace, a team of psychologists concluded yesterday that 'erotic pursuits' are among the most frequent uses of the internet and that 'sex' is the most searched word on-line . . . sexual activity on line is a form of escapism, particularly in males." (______ 1998)

Imagine the irony of it, Brothers and Sisters, an escape to mental prison.

Brothers and sisters, you keep your own personal internet channel with Heavenly Father open and free from all contaminants. The work hard/pray continuously formula is still the best way I know to succeed as a student, and in everything else. The formula will reveal hidden treasures of knowledge, knowledge about yourself, knowledge about the Lord's purposes for you. I am grateful beyond words that I can testify this is true. I have tasted the sweetness of personal revelation through consistent humble prayer. I have learned that it is only by the grace of God we are saved from our mistakes and weaknesses after all we can do. (2 Nephi 25:23)

Exactly 40 years ago this fall, in a steamy little missionary apartment in Tonga, suffering from culture shock, an identity crisis, unbearable homesickness, discouragement with the Tongan language, and self doubt, I knelt weeping before the Lord asking to be rescued from my despair. I had pled for this with humility and desperation for several weeks. The result was the first unmistakable, divine communication of my life, unforgettable in its sweetness and power. There was no vision or thunder clap, but it was as if I were enfolded in Heavenly Father's love, and his promise of support was impressed indelibly on my mind. All of those promises came to pass. I know many people who have had similar experiences.

In nearly every case there was a great need. And the petition was usually in connection with the Lord's work or some personal sorrow. Your being here at this time is just such a special moment in your life, a moment of great significance in your eternal learning. You are, indeed on the Lord's errand. Therefore, you have claim upon the Lord's promises to bless and sustain you if you ask, nothing wavering. (James 1:5-6) I am eternally grateful for a wife and companion whose life of continuous prayer brings peace and light and joy to our marriage and family. Our children tease her affectionately about the "legions of angels" she has at her command through prayer. "Could you spare me an angel or two today, Mom?" they frequently asked.

I bear testimony also to the truthfulness and eternal significance of the Gospel of Jesus Christ in our lives, the divinity of the calling of our Prophet, President Gordon B. Hinckley, and all of the prophets from Joseph Smith to the present time. I testify of the truths within the Book of Mormon, particularly as they relate to our conduct and relationship with Heavenly Father and his Son and their work here upon the earth. And I bear this testimony in great love for all of you in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.