Meet Hana Mauga

Sister Spotlight

Hana Mauga

Origins in Paradise:

Hana was born in Oahu, Hawaii and lived in Kahuku until she was six years old. From there, the family moved to San Antonio, Texas. Then, when she was 10, she moved to Oceanside, California, the place she still calls home. She has fond memories of each of these places,
including going to school in slippers in Hawaii, and always having a lot of family, especially cousins, around. San Antonio is where she got into competitive springboard diving, a sport she really enjoyed. 

But she truly loves California. By the time her family moved to Oceanside, her cousins had moved there, and they grew as close as brothers and sisters. She loves the beach, surf PE in high school, and graduating on the peer. She likes to return as often as she can to see her dogs and visit the ocean.

Hana has fond memories of trips with her dad when she was younger, memories that would become more important to her when he became sick. At eight, she and her dad took a trip to San Francisco together. Later, when they had moved to the mainland, she and her dad traveled all around Hawaii and then went to Samoa for her cousin’s graduation.


Living in the Real World (Employment & Education):

As a teenager, Hana was active in volleyball, Polynesian dancing, and participated in shot put, the 100-meter dash, and discus in track and field events. At the age of 14, she was employed to help make signature and company logo rubber stamps. At 16, she worked at Taco Bell (and still likes to eat there, and then started working for Sports Authority. Later jobs included working at a physical therapy office and working as the unit secretary putting in doctor’s orders in the emergency room. Hana currently works at Varilease

Corporate Finance as a leasing agent. But her dream occupation would be to be a caterer because she likes food and the events remind her of her own family’s gatherings where there was always food and music. Hana wants to finish her bachelor’s degree at UVU in Business Finance, and hopes to be able to begin that program this fall.




The Pursuit of Happiness:

In her discretionary time, Hana likes dancing, meditating, and spending time with friends.

She used to enjoy sewing and designing, but hasn’t make time for that lately. Hana is a free-spirited soul, who likes to hang out with go-with-the-flow friends that can uplift and support each other. To feel relaxed, she likes to get a facial. 

Hana likes to read and currently has Killing Reagan on her bed stand. Pride and Prejudice is her favorite book. She likes a variety of music, but leans toward Hip-hop and R&B. She likes to go out to eat and recommends Teri Café, a Japanese, Hawaiian fusion restaurant in California, and Red Maple, a Chinese restaurant in Salt Lake. She likes to cook and bake and is known for her cinnamon rolls, pani popo (sweet rolls with a coconut milk sauce at the bottom), and beef burgeon. She still enjoys surfing and has hiked to Donut Falls. She has four dogs that she loves, but they are all in California.

If she could go to lunch with anyone, it would be Richard Armitage, the British Actor on

North and South and Batman vs. Superman. There isn’t anything in particular she would want to ask him, just sitting and gazing at him would be enough. Maya Angelou said in her book, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, that she has learned that:

“people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.” 

That is a quote that has always stuck with Hana, and she tries to live up to that call to make people feel special.


First Things First--Family Ties :


Family is very important to Hana, and she has made family a priority in her life. She has four siblings and she is the oldest of the group. When she was 13, her youngest brother, Ike, a
surprise baby, was born. He was two weeks early, but still weighed in at 13 lb 1 oz. Afterward, her mother got a staph infection and had to go back into the hospital. Her dad was working two jobs, so she took care of Ike and the two became very attached. He was four when she was a senior, and she enrolled him in a preschool attached to the school. She’d pick him up and they’d have lunch together and then they’d go to the beach where she had surf PE. 

Also during this time, she had an aunt with cerebral palsy living and severe brain damage living with them and she’d bathe her and get her on the bus to go to school each morning. Later, her dad experienced a series of strokes, leaving him needing constant care. Her mother was left supporting the family and she tried to juggle working and taking care of him, but it was a lot of strain on everyone. So, Hana quit school and became the primary breadwinner for the entire family, working multiple jobs to support the family so that her mom could stay home and take care of her dad and the younger siblings. 

Finding Peace in Christ:

Hana was born in the church, but has been relatively inactive since she was 18, about the time she started taking full responsibility for the family financially. There was one brief phase at the age of 24 where she started going back to church, but it didn’t stick. Then, she began to evaluate her life and realized that she wasn’t happy going out all the time and the she was headed down a dark path. She only worked and lived for the weekends. Everything in her life started going downhill, and she remember that the one of the few times she really felt at peach in her 20s was when she was attending church. She hit a point where she had to make a huge decision about whether or not she was going to be really converted to the church. She decided it was time to commit fully. 

Sherri Dew has been an influential church leader in her life because she is a strong woman who is not afraid to speak the truth and refuses to be apologetic about her beliefs. One of her favorite hymns is “I Stand All Amazed.” She loves the reflective message in the lyrics. Hana has much to add to our relief society and our ward. I hope you will reach out and get to know this incredible woman.

I stand all amazed at the love Jesus offers me,

Confused by at the grace that so fully he proffers me.

I tremble to know that for me he was crucified,

That for me, a sinner, he suffered, he bled and died.