Sione Havili: One Choice That Changed Everything

All In

DB Podcasts

Religion & Spirituality, Christianity

4.8 • 6.3K Ratings

🗓️ 18 March 2026

⏱️ 33 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

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

Transcript

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0:00.0	In 1998, Sione Havili was on the verge of achieving two significant goals he'd had for his life.
0:06.8	One, play college football, and two, serve a full-time mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of
0:12.1	Latter-day Saints. His story took a significant turn, though, one fateful night when gang activity
0:18.4	in his neighborhood prompted Sione to participate in an act of
0:22.4	retaliation, one that although it took a bit to catch up to him, changed his life forever.
0:29.2	Sione Havili's parents immigrated from the Kingdom of Tonga, making him a first-generation
0:34.2	American citizen. He is the oldest of eight children.
0:38.3	Cione is a graduate of Texas Tech University where he played football and graduated as an
0:43.3	honor student with a bachelor's degree in human development and family studies in 2005.
0:48.3	He is currently regional vice president of sales at Domo, a tech company based in American Fork, Utah.
0:55.2	He is happily married to his high school sweetheart, and they are the parents of five children.
1:04.5	This is All In, an LDS Living podcast where we ask the question, what does it really mean to be
1:10.1	all in the gospel of Jesus Christ?
1:12.4	I'm Morgan Pearson, and I am so honored to have Sione Havili on the line with me today.
1:17.4	Sione, welcome.
1:18.3	Thank you.
1:18.8	Thanks for having me, Morgan.
1:19.8	Excited for today.
1:21.8	Well, Sione comes highly recommended by some of my dearest friends, and they speak so highly of
1:30.3	Yusione. And as I was prepping for this interview, I could see why you have a light about you,
1:36.6	and I just, I'm excited to learn from you today. I want to start out, you were raised in the Glendale
1:43.4	neighborhood of Salt Lake City, and you've
	...

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