THE FIRST time Vai Sikahema's family
traveled from their island home in Tonga to have a sacred ceremony performed at the nearest Mormon Temple, in New Zealand, it took four days, three modes of transport, and so much money that Sikahema's parents had only enough for one-way tickets for their family of five.
Sikahema's dad sheared sheep for three months to earn funds for the family's return trip. Their faith in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints later took the Sikahema family to Hawaii and Arizona.
Today, Sikahema, 53, a former Philadelphia Eagle and current morning news anchor at NBC10, is a "stake president," or local leader, of the Mormon Church, presiding over 13 congregations in New Jersey.