Elders Joseph Tanuvasa and John Berger knock the doors of Champaign, Ill., with all of the necessary missionary tools: planners, pass-along cards, scriptures, extra copies of the Book of Mormon . . . and a ukulele.
The two sing the song featured in this video clip in order to inspire members in the area to assist them in their missionary efforts.
"The song is called 'How Can I Be.' It's to get the members thinking on how they can be like the prophets in the Book of Mormon," said Tanuvasa of Torrance, Calif. "One way to do that is to invite people in church."
Lynn Erickson, president of the Illinois Peoria Mission where Tanuvasa and Berger serve, made a mission-wide goal to have 560 people who aren't members attend church throughout the 46 mission units on Sunday, June 8. He gave Berger and Tanuvasa permission to borrow their bishop's ukulele as a motivator for members.
"What we do is for our dinner appointments we do a presentation about June 8 and the member missionary work and get the members excited to invite their friends," said Berger, of Medford, Ore.
"Every time after we sing, they just start shouting names of who they're going to bring," said Tanuvasa, who has been serving just four months.
The missionaries' rendition of the song has now spread farther and wider than the local members' living rooms. Last Monday, Berger and Tanuvasa performed the song for Scott Kelley, a member of the Champaign Illinois Stake. The song not only motivated him to share the gospel with his friends, but with the world. Within days, he filmed the elders singing the song and posted it on YouTube.
"I said, 'Guys, I have got to videotape this,' " said Kelley. "It was so pure in heart."
He said he was motivated to record it because of "the pureness of the song and the pureness of the elders singing it."
Nela Otuafi, a relative of Tanuvasa, wrote the song in 1996. Upon turning in his mission papers, Otuafi's stake president asked him if he had read the Book of Mormon from cover to cover. He confessed that he hadn't. The stake president challenged him to read the book from front to back before he turned in his papers.
"I read it in a week. I was moved, really moved," said Otuafi. "The day I finished the book is the day I wrote the song. Twenty minutes after I finished I started writing the song."
The song identifies Otuafi's favorite Book of Mormon characters. The climax of the song talks about trying to be like Jesus Christ, who visits the Americas in the latter part of the Book of Mormon.
"The song just came out that way. It really did," said Otuafi, a Salt Lake resident and father of five. "All the prophets teach and testify of Christ. All of them were trying to be like Christ. In turn, (the song) was really how I can be like Christ."
Otuafi writes music every day, always starting and ending writing sessions in prayer. Another song that has received a great deal of online attention is a piece he wrote for his future wife, Nicole, before he left on his mission to Panama. The song is called "Two Years to Eternity." Both members of the LDS faith and non-members alike have recorded their own versions of this song, which can be heard on YouTube.
The song has taken on many renditions, alterations and arrangements since Otuafi wrote it, particularly within the Polynesian community. Lyrics and instruments may be adjusted, but as Otuafi said, "it all serves a purpose."
Tanuvasa wrote the ukulele accompaniment to "How Can I Be." Otuafi originally wrote the song with a piano accompaniment.
"Joseph (Tanuvasa) and his brother love to play the ukulele," said Tanuvasa's mother, Freida Robertson. "If you see him down here (in Southern California) he's always playing the 'lele' with his friends."
Tanuvasa hoped to be able to use music as a tool in the mission.
"I was told in the MTC from one of my cousins to use my tool of singing to the best of my abilities," Tanuvasa said.
Those interested in contacting Otuafi about using the song, or about his other works, can reach him at nelaotuafi@yahoo.com.
Lyrics to "How Can I Be"
How can I be like my brother Nephi?
My father Lehi of old?
How can I be like Captain Moroni
In the wars that were told?
How can I see forever
Like the promise to the three Nephites?
I wanna be Samuel the Lamanite
I wanna be Benjamin the Wise
I wanna be like Abinidi
Oh tell me how can I be like them?
How can I be like Alma the Younger,
Strong servant of the Lord?
How can I be like Mighty Ammon,
Whose heart was his sword?
How can I be a stripling warrior,
And learn to fight by faith?
I wanna be Samuel the Lamanite
I wanna be Benjamin the Wise
I wanna be like Abinidi
I wanna be like Jesus Christ
Oh tell me how can I be like them?
Oh tell me how can I be like them?