The Aloha Spirit

“ALOOOOOOOOOHAA!” “Aloooha” “You can do better than that! Let’s try it again. ALOOOOOOOOOHAA!” “AlooooHA!”

Contrary to popular belief, this staple Sacrament Meeting talk-intro is in no way an appropriate use of Aloha. Eric Snider, past columnist for The Daily Universe at BYU said, “If you are from Hawaii, you are entitled to force the congregation to scream “Aloha” at you. This is an official church policy. You preface it by saying, “I am from Hawaii, and over there, we greet each other by saying [this is the part where you yell really loud] ‘ALOHA!'” And then everyone will yell it back at you, partly because you told them to, but mostly because they think it’s kind of cool that they get to yell in church.”

When someone says Aloha, it means so much more than that! Aloha is used as a greeting, farewell, and expression of love. But even more than that, it is a way of life. It can be called the Spirit of Aloha or the Way of Aloha. The island children used to be taught the lesson of Aloha early on because it was about the world of which they were a part. The english translation of one of their early teachings is:

Aloha is being a part of all, and all being a part of me. When there is pain – it is my pain. When there is joy – it is also mine. I respect all that is as part of the Creator and part of me. I will not willfully harm anyone or anything. When food is needed I will take only my need and explain why it is being taken. The earth, the sky, the sea are mine to care for, to cherish and to protect. This is Hawaiian – this is Aloha!

To keep understanding Aloha, I’ve found some different translations of it. This is the breakdown from Hawaiian:
alo, 1. sharing 2. in the present
oha, joyous affection, joy
ha, life energy, life, breath

This is translated literally as The joyful sharing of life energy in the present” or simply “Joyfully sharing life”.

Here’s another translation, probably my favorite:
“A” means “to burn” (figuratively, to sparkle) and it is also the name of mold found in souring foods. “Lo” is short for lo’o and loa’a which mean “to obtain or procure”. Together these indicate a transformation of energy (burning, sparkling, souring food), a product of an energy transformation (the mold), and an effort to get or obtain something. So this is really giving and transferring your energy, your Ha, to whoever you are with.

Now, the truth of the matter and the most exciting part of this for me is that the Aloha Spirit is really just another name for the Holy Ghost. The concepts taught through Aloha are the same that Christ taught, and the Spirit he left is present here in Paradise. The feeling is real. When I came here in January with my mom and my Uncle Spencer, I felt something. Everything is more relaxed here, and time really just slows down. Aloha is the opposite of stress, and that meant it was the opposite of my lifestyle at certain times back at home. I’ve come to understand that absence of stress and feelings of love here are what it will be like in Heaven. I think Heaven in in Laie. So by slowing down and taking time to share and talk and learn and teach and feel and love, by living the Way of Aloha, we will come unto Christ.

To you, my friends, I say ALOHA.