As thrilled as Muncie Pe'a was about the prospect of her son Ian Dulan playing football at Brigham Young University, the thought of him serving a mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints thrilled her much more.

In fact, before Ian was born, Pe'a started praying that he would be able to serve.

"Since he was in my stomach," she says.
 
And when Dulan arrived at BYU three years ago at the age of 17, he planned on serving a mission. As things turned out, though, the defensive lineman from Hilo, Hawaii, took an unusual path, playing three seasons for the Cougars before recently receiving a call to serve in the Illinois Peoria Mission.

"My mom always prayed that I would go on a mission," says Dulan, who's now 20.

"She had a saying: KYPC -- 'Keep Your Priesthood Clean.' She would always say that to me when I'd talk to her in hopes that I might serve a mission one day. God answered her prayers. I'm going to serve a mission soon. I wouldn't change it for the world. Those two years are like tithing, giving 10 percent of my life to the Lord."

The BYU coaching staff, of course, fully supports Dulan's decision to leave football behind for two years.

"It's a great success story because he's been wanting to go on a mission for quite a while," says head coach Bronco Mendenhall. "It's pretty uncommon for a guy to finally go just before his senior year."



In reaching this point, Dulan has faced challenges both at BYU and throughout his life, which have galvanized his faith.

"I came to BYU at 17, and I didn't really know if I was going to play or anything. I just tried my best," Dulan recalls. "I played my freshman and sophomore year. By that time, I felt like I was still young and I wanted to play another year. I just turned 19 my third season. So I figured I would play one more season, then turn in my papers as soon as possible. My desire (to serve a mission) has always been there. But as a young guy in college, there's always ups and downs -- good and bad experiences. Those experiences have shaped me into the man I am today. I always had that desire as a young kid to serve the Lord on a mission."

Dulan's mother had a lot to do with instilling that desire. Muncie Pe'a has five children -- Ian is the youngest of four boys -- and for the past 15 years has been a single parent. When Ian was 4 years old, his parents separated and later divorced. Ian's father died in 2002.

"Ian is so special because while he was growing up he needed a father so much," Pe'a says. "Being in a single-parent family, this child has succeeded emotionally, spiritually as well as physically. He seemed to have done it on his own, without his dad's help. He had to have a strong faith because we were separated from his dad. We had to live in a shelter, and we've had to move on with our lives as a single-parent family for 15 years. To see Ian where he's at right now is such a rewarding experience for all of us."

The eldest Dulan son had served a mission. Two others did not.

BYU defensive line coach Steve Kaufusi remembers recruiting Dulan a few years ago, visiting his house in Hilo and talking to his mom.
 
"Her biggest thing she'd always say was, 'I'm so happy for him to have a chance to go to school. But really, more than anything, I want him to go on a mission. Ian is my last (son) here, so I need to get him on a mission,'" Kaufusi says.

Hidden away on Hilo, Dulan did not receive much attention from college coaches. Weber State was the only other school that had offered him a scholarship out of high school.

"People usually don't go over to the big island, Hilo, to recruit," Kaufusi says. "I felt Ian could play. Because he's not real tall (6-foot-1), he wasn't heavily recruited. But I thought, 'I don't care how tall he is, he can play.' He plays big."

When Dulan reported for fall camp, he impressed and surprised the BYU coaching staff with his strong performance in the weeks leading up to the start of the 2006 season. Though he wasn't a highly touted recruit, he enjoyed a rapid ascent up the depth chart.

"He had great quickness off the ball," Kaufusi recalls. "We had some other highly recruited players that came the same year. He ends up getting here and outplaying our more heavily recruited guys. He ends up starting. He earned it. It's not seniority. I didn't care if he was a freshman or not. I want to play the best player. That's the way we do things here."

After starting the first four games of the 2006 season, Dulan suffered some injuries, the most serious being a season-ending broken leg during a practice in late October.

But he returned the following year and started 12 of 13 games as a sophomore, recording 24 tackles and three sacks.

But what about Dulan's dream of a mission?

"Every year, you wondered," Kaufusi says. "After his first year, we thought he'd decide to go. But he just felt like he wasn't ready. We didn't pressure him. We told him it was his own decision and that he shouldn't feel any pressure from Mom or from anybody. It was his own decision. Each year would go by, and we'd ask if he was going on a mission. He'd say, 'I want to. I don't know if the timing's right.'"

Last fall, as a junior, Dulan played in 12 games, recording three sacks, 20 tackles and a fumble recovery. He also suffered a shoulder injury.
 
"After this year (2008), I thought, 'For sure he's not going on a mission now,'" Kaufusi says.

But Dulan surprised him.

"He talked to me and his bishop and let coach Mendenhall know," Kaufusi says. "He said, 'Hey coach, I think I'm going to go (on a mission).'"

"Once I felt ready and comfortable," Dulan explains, "I put in my papers."

For Kaufusi and the other coaches, it's been gratifying to see Dulan's progress.

"I've enjoyed watching him mature and seeing the growth that's taken place these past three years," Kaufusi says. "It's been amazing. I'm happy for him. Going on a mission is the best thing for him. It's more important than football right now."

When Dulan received his mission call, he was in Provo while his jubilant mom was on the other end of a phone line in Hawaii, waiting for those words she had hoped to hear for so long.

"A mother would naturally have tears," she says of the experience. "He asked me before he opened the letter, 'Mom, where do you think where I'm going to go?'
"To me, anywhere they send our children, going on that mission path is important. It doesn't matter where. It's that call that's so important. I'm just excited for him."

Twenty years of prayers have paid big dividends.
 
E-mail: jeffc@desnews.com