Sione Havili: One Choice That Changed Everything

About this episode

Sione Havili shares how a single choice tied to gang violence drastically changed his life and led to essential personal growth.

In October 1998, Sione Havili's future looked incredibly bright. Earlier that year, he had signed a letter of intent to play football at BYU and was preparing to serve a mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in New York City. But in a single moment, everything changed. A decision to take part in an act of retaliation tied to gang violence would alter the course of Sione's life forever. In this week's episode, Sione opens up about the difficult lessons that followed, and why he now believes the experience was essential to his personal growth and progression. 1:40- Two Sets of Friends 3:53- Retaliation 5:57- Extradited 9:07- The Response of Others 12:23- From NYC To SLC 13:38- Prison 17:00- High School Sweethearts 18:13- Continued Consequences 22:23- Leaving That Kid Behind 31:01- What Does It Mean To Be All In the Gospel of Jesus Christ? "We can't look back…Whenever we encounter any challenges, even if we have successes, we need to look forward." Links: KSL Documentary about Sione: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5rwSILAXH0Y&t=745s

People in this episode

Guest: Sione Havili

Topics covered

• gang violence
• personal growth
• retaliation
• faith
• life choices

Keywords

• BYU
• mission
• New York City
• prison
• consequences

Mentioned in this episode

Places: New York City, NYC

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