Elder Kyle LaBarre's Hawaiian Mission: February 9, 2009

Monday, February 9, 2009

February 9, 2009

Here is the latest and greatest from the Hawaiian Island of Kaui:

its hard some days with my companion ... so i just lead by example and try to be the best i can be...but its hard and it can be discouraging sometimes...:/ oh well i know that God loves me and will bless me for my efforts!
we found a potential investigator this past weekend and we have a return appointment with him on saturday! hopefully he is receptive!
also we found this woman who tried to bash with us and we destroyed her doctrinally and all she could come up with is 'why wont your church let the hill cumorah be excavated and how come there arent any bones or armor from that battle there?' and then she said that a friend of her mother in law apparently 'dug up some false documents in the church records and because he found them the church sent him a mail bomb!' wow. thats so believable! haha and then she sent my companion some anti stuff that claims the church contradicts itself on several points so we just told her to check out lds.org and mormon.org to find out info on our views as a church. i used the anology of you dont go to a foot doctor for open heart surgery. (further clarification about the "bashing"):
we didnt really bash. she just raised the questions and we answered them with true doctrines. (she couldnt get a comback to those) and it wasnt an atmosphere of anger or anything, but she sent the anti stuff and its kind of runny because the guy she used as a source is an ex-mormon atheist. and yet she views him as a viable source of info on our faith! haha she did ask us how joseph smith died and i told her and bore my testimony of the divinity of his call and work and his death sealing his testimony in blood! and the Spirit was very strong in that moment (for me at least) and it renewed my testimony!
i dont know if that is his case but i know i havent had many opportunities to teach and i havent baptized anyone so far! but thats ok because im not here to baptize. im hear to invite!
hopefully she finds real truth and stops being an enemy of truth. :D
i love you sister and i thank you for your prayers and support!
kyle

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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

Monday, February 9, 2009

February 9, 2009

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Zones of the Hawaii Honolulu Mission