Elder Kyle LaBarre's Hawaiian Mission: The Call to Serve

Friday, September 26, 2008

The Call to Serve

We went to Colorado on the last weekend of May to see Kyle graduate from high school! His graduation took place at Red Rocks Amphitheater, which was an amazing venue. After graduation we went to lunch at Olive Garden and then went to our mom's and checked the mail. In the mail was Kyle's mission call!!! We all ran inside and started making phone calls to our sister Aaron, our brother Peter and Kelly's husband, Jason for all to hear where Elder LaBarre would be sent. Of course we gave Kyle rules, such as he was not to jump ahead and read where he was going before reading it out loud, and he had to read every line. As Kyle began reading the spirit hit me so hard that here my baby brother was going on a mission, something he has been preparing his whole life for. Kyle is called to the Honolulu, Hawaii mission and reports to the Missionary Training Center in Provo, Utah on September 3, 2008. Kyle will be English speaking. This is so exciting!! I am so excited for Kyle! Since he received his call, he went to the temple in preparation for his mission. Rob was his escort and it was a wonderful day. It was a very filling weekend!

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Mission Information

The church and missionary work have a long history in Hawaii beginning with the arrival of a group of missionaries in 1850 that included George Q. Cannon. There are number of sources on the internet where you can learn much about the history of the church in Hawaii. One I have run across is an excellent brief history, located here, that was written by R. Lanier Britsch. There is also a great deal that can be learned by reading from the many papers (available here,) presented over the years at conferences of the Mormon Pacific Historical Society.

The Hawaii Honolulu Mission encompasses the entire state of Hawaii as well as 11 islands in the North Pacific. Within the state of Hawaii, the mission is broken into eleven zones (see map below). Of those zones, seven are on Oahu. The bulk of the population of Hawaii lives on Oahu, and the church has 10 stakes on Oahu. The stakes and zones match up one for one with the exception of the Laie zone. Laie is where BYU-Hawaii, the Polynesian Cultural Center, and the Hawaii temple are located. It is also (not surprisingly) where the highest concentration of church members can be found. There are two student stakes and two regular stakes located in this zone. The majority of the missionaries serving in the Laie zone are sisters who are assigned to the Visitor's Center.

The Maui zone is unique in the fact that it covers three islands. There is one branch on the island of Lanai, and two wards on the island of Molokai that are part of the Maui stake and zone.

Missionaries assigned to serve on Molokai or Lanai get a rare experience, although most missionaries have an opportunity to serve "off island" (on any island other than Oahu) at least once.

With regard to the 11 islands of the North Pacific that fall within the mission, only 2 have branches of the church. Christmas Island in the Republic of Kiribati is part of the mission and, as of last report, the branch there is doing so well that in addition to the missionary couple that has been assigned there for several years, a pair of elders have recently been assigned as well. Johnston Island also has a dependant branch which is directed by the mission.

The mission "officially" teaches in nine languages (as of last report,) but the bulk of the missionaries called are English speaking. The other eight languages are Tongan, Samoan, Ilocano, Tagalog, Japanese, Mandarin, Marshallese, and Korean. While missionaries are called to teach in these languages, there are usually not very many serving (only 1 or 2 for some languages) and they rarely have a companion who has been called to teach in the same language.

Elder Kyle LaBarre's Hawaiian Mission

Friday, September 26, 2008

The Call to Serve

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Zones of the Hawaii Honolulu Mission