Faithful ancestors

In his farewell talk Jared told this story about our 4th great grandmother Elizabeth Buck Garlick. She was born May 2, 1795 in Bedford County, Pennsylvania. She married David Garlick October 1, 1816 in Pennsylvania. They lived in Providence, PA. This is her conversion story-One morning Elizabeth told of a dream she had the night before. In her dream two strangers had come to visit them. Over their heads was a large motto bearing the words “Truth will prevail.”In her dream she heard a voice say, “These are true messengers of God. Hear and obey." This dream disturbed the Garlick family considerably. Then about a week later, two
Mormon missionaries came to their home. Elizabeth recognized the missionaries as the two men she had seen in her dream. The missionaries, Elder William Howard Bosley and Elder John Fleming Wakefield, taught the family about the new Mormon religion and Elizabeth and her three oldest daughters, Hannah, Susannah, and Mary Jane, were baptized 5 October 1837 along with sixteen other converts of the Cambelite faith. Elizabeth often bore testimony during the years that followed, "I knew it was the true gospel, and I never could deny it.” Within a few weeks of joining the Church, 20 others were baptized and then the mob spirit arose against them. Their friends and relatives turned against them. After two years they left everything behind and headed for Missouri, but the Saints had been driven out of there and so they headed to Commerce, later called Nauvoo. They arrived in November. All the houses were full and so they had to live in a blacksmith shop. It had no floor, door, or chimney. . . .

Later her whole family joined the church with some of her kids being baptized in the Mississippi River by the prophet Joseph. Some of her daughters worked in the house of Hyrum Smith. They eventually went west with the Saints and settled in Sandpete County. Her daughter Talitha Cumi Garlick Cheney wrote a history of her life that I will share later. I am very grateful for my ancestors who lived in the early days of the church and stayed faithful. There lives are a great example to me.  I am especially grateful for Elizabeth listening to the Spirit, because of her many generations have had the Gospel in their lives!

A Prophet's Voice

Earthquake and a Baptism

We had an earthquake here! My first one! 4.4! It was crazy. Pretty scary but it was only for a few seconds. We were studying as a companionship when it happened. Very distracting...stupid Satan...oh well. I also had couple more "Firsts" this week. We went tracting and we walked up to a truck, they all had bongs and were smoking weed. We tried teaching them but they were SOOOO high that they couldn't understand. But we also had a first that was VERY positive. First baptism. I met Ha'o the first night I arrived. First Saturday I was here was his first lesson. He was baptized Saturday...so 2 weeks after his first lesson. So awesome. His full name is Kuha'omekeanokalani Hitoshi Tesuo Faumuina. It was a relief that I didn't baptize him cuz I wouldn't be able to say his name haha. The baptism was so awesome! His family definitely felt the Spirit.

I'm definitely growing every day a considerable amount. One of the sisters from the district in the MTC who is in the same mission, Sister Wright, said something her dad told us. "The days are long, but the weeks go by fast" Mostly true, but the days go by quickly as well sometimes! D&C 84:85...I think that's is it. "Neither take ye thought beforehand what ye shall say; but treasure up in your minds continually the words of life, and it shall be given you in the very hour that portion that shall be meted unto every man." But what that says is very true. Here's a saying I've heard several times already here..."Winners listen, losers wait for their turn to speak." If I think about what I'm going to say and ignore the Spirit, I won't know what to say. If I just have a clear mind and trust that I'll know what to say and when to say it, I'll say things I'd never normally say. Very cool. I had that experience tracting a few days ago. Aloha! Mahalo!

Kansas City Temple Open House Invitation

Be Still my Soul

A few days into being here I was in my first lesson, but since we learned nothing about Preach My Gospel and the lessons I couldn't really chime in since I had no idea what was next. But I helped teach this young man Kuhaomekeanokalani (Hao for short) twice already, teaching him again tonight, and baptism interview wednesday and baptism saturday! He is so ready! We taught his family last night with a recent convert. It rocked.

 In the MTC we taught an "investigator" to practice for the real world. Our lesson was supposed to be less than 30 minutes. It was 70 minutes of absolute rubbish. No spirit at all. We just went around in circles. My companion was almost ready to give up and go home it was so bad. I wasn't quite at that point but I was extremely frustrated and angry at myself. I had planned to go to choir but after that lesson I didn't feel like singing. After some convincing from one of the sisters I felt like I needed to go. We sang "Be Still my Soul". Holy wows that made my day so much better. The whole thing is amazing. My new favorite hymn! The last line of the first verse is probably my favorite. "Through thorny ways leads to a joyful end" or something like that. Just thought I'd share that with you. not sure if i told you this but Jeffrey R Holland came to speak to us at the MTC. It was sweeeet. I got my first sunburn doing some yard work for 2 hours at a members house.

 The pictures are... President and Sister Dalton with me the day I arrived in Honolulu.  Sister Wright has a teddy bear as herself. It's funny because her full name is on the 2 tags. Sister Wright is what her name tag says but the bears is Elder Teddy...her first name is Teddy haha. Picture of us pointing to where we are going...From left to right...kinda.... Elder Bateman, Sister Smoot(in blue) Sister Mallory (in green) Sister Wright (floating head), me, Elder Garcia, Elder Hunter, Sister Duke...all of us are in Hawaii! Elder Streeter and Buckley are in Guatamala MTC. Last picture is the view right outside my pad. The sky and the ocean really blend in today. Hope you can see it clearly...I love this place.

Your Day for a Mission Video

This is a story from a talk by Neil L. Andersen that was used in Jared's farewell talk.

MTC

Write to me!

Elder Jared Matthew Ross Hawaii Honolulu Mission 1500 S Beretania St Ste 416 Honolulu, HI 96826 United States

First month

Here are some highlights from Jared's emails-

Our district is amazing, we all get along famously, and I love them all...and we haven't even been here a week! I'm so happy to be here and very glad I decided to go on a mission. I am in an amazing district, all but 2 of us are going to the same mission. We are also lucky enough to have sister missionaries with us, and they rock! They keep us in line when we need to be, so don't worry about me and the other elders joking around too much.

 Hi! my entire district except for 2 elders are going to Hawaii. We are a family. We all get along great! I am companions with Elder Bateman and share a room with him, Elder Garcia, and Hunter. Our district contains those 3, Elder Streeter, Elder Buckley, who are going to Guatamala, and 4 sisters that are going to Hawaii also. Sister Mallory, Sister Wright, Sister Duke, and Sister Smoot. Things are going by so fast. Halfway done with the MTC! It'll be so sad to leave, this is the best place on earth besides the temple (which I went to today!)

The spirit is so strong here it's insane! I'm on the big island in Honoka'a. My companion is Elder Hammond. He has only been out 3 months. They are implementing a new program, it's 12 weeks of training new missionaries and the goal is to train the new missionaries so well that in 3 months we'll be able to train the newbies. I've almost been out 1 month! I'm not sure if it feels like longer or shorter than that. I haven't ate anything too weird yet but I'll have to get back to you on that. They are feeding us choke food yeah? There's a little pidgin for you, choke i guess means a lot. Even with all the food I'm losing weight. Maybe I have a parasite. It'd be good because I can't afford to gain any weight with having only 1 pair of pants that match my suit.

Where I am