Elder Yoshihiko Kikuchi admonished husbands Sunday afternoon to treat their wives as daughters of God.

"A daughter of God: the words have a special feeling," declared Elder Kikuchi of the First Quorum of the Seventy. "Even as you say it, you feel a reverence."In reference to the commandment in Matt. 22:39 to love God and love one's neighbor, Elder Kikuchi said: "I believe that in this lifetime, the closest person or neighbor that you can have in your life is your sweet wife! She is your sweetheart! She is your love! She is your best friend!"

He cited the commandment, "Thou shalt love thy wife with all thy heart," (D&C 42:22) and the Lord's statements, "Marriage is ordained of God," (D&C 49:15) and, "Marriage is honorable in all." (Heb. 13:4.)

He recalled the incident in John 19 of the Savior looking down from the cross and saying to his mother, Mary, "Woman, behold thy son!" and to his disciple, John, "Behold thy mother!" Elder Kikuchi then asked, "Are we worthy to be entrusted by the Lord to take care of one of our Heavenly Father's daughters?"

Elder Kikuchi commented, "The Savior must have a special feeling towards the women of the world, because the first person that saw the resurrected Lord was a woman, Mary Magdalene. Oh, how special it was!"

Now president of the Hawaii Honolulu Mission, Elder Kikuchi told of a Hawaiian Latter-day Saint of the 1800s, Jonathon Napela, whose wife was stricken with leprosy.

"In order to prevent the spread of this disease, once you contracted it, you were forced to live on one of the seashores in the leper colony in Molokai," Elder Kikuchi related.

"Because his wife had to go to this island colony, Jonathon, too, wanted to go. He took her hand and they went there together."

In an emotional voice, Elder Kikuchi continued: "Why would he do this? Because he loved her so much! He knew that life is eternal and love is eternal even through days of sickness as well as health."

Napela worked in the leper colony and struggled to win government assistance to provide more comfortable living quarters for the lepers, Elder Kikuchi related. Eventually, he contracted leprosy also, and died two years before his wife.

"Oh, husbands, love your wives as a daughter of God even as Christ also loved the Church and gave Himself for it," Elder Kikuchi admonished.