E minamina mākou iā ʻoe i kou hele ʻana, Sister Jara Galvin

Jara Galvin, the oldest of Brian and Kim Galvin's four children, has been called to serve in the Hawaii Honolulu Mission, one of two missions in America's 50th state (aka "Paradise"), where surfing was invented, where there are no snakes, from where you can mail a coconut (yes, JUST the coconut) ... and where everyone takes off their shoes before entering your home.  

Sister Jara, who is super excited about her mission call, spoke in Sacrament meeting on Sunday, July 31 then began a week of "at home" MTC on Monday, August 1, 2022 followed by two weeks in Provo.   

In 1850, when the first Latter-day Saint missionaries reached Hawai‘i, the islands were still an independent kingdom with a mostly native Hawaiian population. George Q. Cannon, one of the early missionaries to the islands, was particularly eager to learn the Hawaiian language. In the early 1850s he and an early Hawaiian convert, Jonathan Nāpela, worked together to translate the Book of Mormon into Hawaiian, which was the first time the book was translated into a non-European language.

Many Hawaiians embraced the gospel. By the 1870s, more than 4,000 Hawaiians had joined the Church. Because the death of many Hawaiians due to disease had led to laws restricting emigration, instead of gathering to Utah the Hawaiian Saints established gathering places on the islands—first in Lāna‘i, then in Lā‘ie. The first stake outside North America was organized on O‘ahu in 1935.

As Hawai‘i’s population became more diverse, so did general Church membership. In the early 20th century, for example, a Japanese mission was established in Hawai‘i, and work among Japanese Hawaiians flourished. In the 1950s the Church established a college—now Brigham Young University–Hawaii—in Lā‘ie with a mission to bring together students from around the world. A second temple, in Kona, was dedicated in 2000. By 2018 there were nearly 75,000 Latter-day Saints in Hawai‘i, organized into 16 stakes, the highest concentration of LDS members after those states bordering Utah.

The Hawaii Laie Mission, the church's 408th, opened in January 2022 with missionaries assigned to the Temple Visitor Center and/or at the Polynesian Cultural Center. 

The Laie Hawaii Temple, the oldest operating LDS temple outside of Utah, was dedicated in November 1919 by Heber J. Grant. The Kona Hawaii Temple, the islands' second temple located on the "Big Island" of Hawaii was dedicated in January 2000 by President Gordon B. Hinckley.

E minamina mākou iā ʻoe i kou hele ʻana, Sister Jara Galvin. Enjoy your time in the islands and return with honor.