Tongan Update, September 23, 2007 Release Day, Temple, Food Source, Picknick on the Beach

Tonga Update, 23 September 2007, Release Day

Another week! Friday was “Release Day.” We had eighteen missionaries (14 Tongans and 4 American) going home. Most of the Tongans are from this island so they didn’t have very far to go.

Elder Thompson and I had to pick up 6 of the missionaries who were on this island and bring them to the office. Here they are interviewed by the President, given lunch, participate in a career class, eat dinner at the President’s home, and then have a testimony meeting at the church with all their parents and families. We were given a very detailed schedule of who we were supposed to pick up, and where, and who we were suppose to drop off, and where etc. The missionaries need to be with a companion at all times so if we were taking one missionary to the office, his companion needed to be dropped off so he’d have a companion. Whoa!

Well, we go to the first house...no one was there. We go to the second house…no one was there. We go to the third house, and SURPRISE...six elders are there, and they aren’t even awake. They were supposed to be ready for pick-up at 6:00 a.m. It’s now close to 7:30 a.m. We waited for them to get ready. We only needed two of them. Anyway, we were hunting for Elders all over the island, but we finally got them all and only an hour late.

It was a wild day having the missionaries around the office complex all day. We had to set up tables and chairs, get food, have centerpieces. (Hey, this sounds like a ward activity. We thought we were getting out of that job.)

After the testimony meeting, guess who got to clean up? Yep!!! LITTLE ELDER THOMPSON AND ME! The missionaries are given by their families three or four leis , and many of the leis are made with candy in them. The wrappers were everywhere. Some cute girls took pity on us and started to help us, then other people joined in. It was not so bad! We made it through our first “Release Day.”

This has been an incredibly busy week. Any extra time we had, we ran over to help at the Temple.

What a treat!!! It’s incredible!! We are so glad that we can do anything to help. We’ve done some cleaning, fixing, and our favorite was to hang the crystals on the chandeliers.

(That is a time-consuming job!) Next week is the Open House, and the king is coming on Tuesday. We are even going to meet him. (We have an orientation meeting beforehand so we don’t goof up in his presence. Also they are going to train us to help usher during the Open House.)

The Sister Missionaries are also going to usher. They were all rounded up and brought to the mission office for training. Elder Thompson and I had to take a group of them back to their homes afterwards. One of the sisters asked me about my family. I proceeded to tell her, and I mentioned we had two little dogs that we bathed and took to the beauty parlor.

This sweet, demure Sister said as a matter-of-fact, “We eat our dogs!” Yes, it is true! They eat them!!! Yep, they are a food source. They put them on the dinner table and devour them…their pet dogs.

One Elder said he (and three other missionaries) was on the island of Vava’u, and the members had not fed them. They were so hungry that they dared each other to ask a member if they could eat their dog. The member said, “You want to eat our dog?” The members were so excited that the Elders wanted to eat their dog. They killed it, skinned it, cooked it, and…..yuck….ate it. They said it was delicious, but not as good as horse. Talking about horse…remember the horse that I said was in the neighbor’s backyard? It’s gone!! What do you think? Someone’s dinner?

We did have a beach party with the Senior Missionaries. We built a big fire and roasted hotdogs (notice the “hot”, not just “dog”).


These senior ladies know how to find stuff and make wonderful salads and desserts. (Is Tonga the place I’m going to learn how to cook? Everything has to be made from scratch because there are few packaged or canned items.) We walked along the beach, but it was too cold to snorkel, and the water was too rough. I know…you’re asking, “Too cold in Tonga? It’s still winter.

Here are a few things really hard about this mission:

1. To remember to call John, “Elder Thompson”

2. Typing the Tongan New Member names (like ‘Amanaki he Lotu Lelei Sa or Esther Ashiel Litiola ‘I Loto Suva) into the computer

3. To remember to wear my name tag

4. Where’s our family and friends? We miss you all!

‘

Tongan Update, September 16, 2007 Little old Lady and the three hairs

Tongan Update, 16 September 2007, Little Old Lady

I have a little story for you today. It was told in Relief Society by one of the Sisters. Try to envision in your mind this little lady in the story.

There once was a little lady, and one day she looked into the mirror, and she had only three hairs on her head. “Oh my,” she said. “I guess I’ll braid my hair today.”

The next day when she looked into the mirror, she had only two hairs. “Well, I can part them down the middle.”

The third day she looked into the mirror. You got it—only one hair. “I’ll wear it in a ponytail,” she thought.

Yep, the next day—no hair. “Now I don’t have to worry about my hair!”

NOW HOW IS THAT FOR HAVING A POSITIVE ATTITUTE!!!??? (I thought the story was kind of funny. What do you think? Come on…)

Talking about stories…once a week Elder T. and I are going to a village elementary school, Fatai Elementary Government School. I’m going to read stories and do some art with the children, and John is going to pull out his hammer, paint etc.

At the public schools the students where uniforms. Red is the uniform of this school.

Who said we were retired? I was really surprised at how clean and neat the five rooms of the school were. However, the teacher sharpened the children's pencils with a knife, and there were very few crayons and paper supplies.

Each village on Tongatapu has its own school, its own set of churches (usually an LDS, Catholic, Seventh Day, and Weslayan),

and a series of little stands that sell a variety of interesting items. The people used to walk everywhere so every village needed to have schools and churches close to them. That isn’t the case now. There are way too many cars here, and they’re all being driven on the wrong side of the road.

I thought I was ready to “drive” to the post office in Nuku’alofa with its many crazy drivers.

Not good! Believe me…the Lord watches over His missionaries.

These are pictures of one of the round abouts. Some are just a pile of cement blocks like this one below.

I went around a round-about (a corner where cars can go straight, turn left, turn right, or flip U-turns, or go any other direction that they want to go), and I thought a bus was blocking the traffic. So I zipped out across the lane and whoa!! A car came from behind the bus, slammed on its breaks, and came to a screeching halt barely missing me. Sister Christensen (She and Elder Christensen work in the office with us.) says she’ll always bring her walking shoes to the office from now on. We usually walk to the post office to get the missionaries’ mail and send the mail. She hadn’t brought her good shoes, so thusly, the “Mad-Hatter” drive to town. See…it was all her fault!

So, the University of Utah’s football team is the pits! The word Utah (uta) in Tongan means “bush.” It’s where the farmers plant their crops, out in the bush (uta). So when you say, “Go Utah,” we Tongans think, “Go Bush!” (Ha,ha! This is a little political joke…get it?)

Here is a little info about our mission. We have about 176 missionaries in 6 different zones. Four of the zones are on Tongatapu which is our island.

They names the zones HAMM , which is Hilamoni, Amoni, Molomona, and Molonai. The other two zones are on islands further north of us. They are called Nehai and Lehai. When we go to inspect houses, we go every Thursday, which is your Wednesday. We inspect one zone each week which consists of about 12 to 13 houses. The “cottages” (that’s what we are calling them) are very small and quaint.

Don't be mis-lead, these are the better houses for missionary use. Other are the same in size, but the setting is not as nice.

They have no kitchens or eating areas. The missionaries are expected to be feed by the members. (The members call it “missionary feeding.” I think that sounds like feeding animals at the zoo.) The cottages just have a bedroom and a bathroom—now that’s not much to keep clean, is it? Well, the missionaries move (transfer) every six weeks so they aren’t exactly getting greatly attached to any one cottage. What it boils down to, is that the cottages are not very clean. We need to do a lot of training with the Elders especially.

Friday the Sister missionaries came to the office area for special training. They will be ushers at the Temple Open House. Needless to say, that is the big topic of discussion for the Church members here in Tonga. Everyone is hoping that President Hinckley will dedicate the temple, but we hear that his health is really failing. Many people have been working night and day to get everything ready. John and I have even done a little bit of cleaning. Oh, it is a beautiful temple, just perfect for Tonga!

This week was the Church’s school, The Liahona, 60^th Anniversary. The school (middle and high school only) was organized 60 years ago. We were invited to go to their celebration on campus which is right next to the Temple. We wore earphones to interpret the Tongan speakers, and the Tongans had an interpreter to speak English for them. The meeting was looong, but at the end of the program some of the students performed some Tongan dances. The girls do little movements with their hand and take slight steps.

The guys, on the other hand, are jumping and knocking each other. They looked like they were having more fun.

A lot of people were happy here when the Tongan rugby team beat the USA. You could get free beer from 7:00 to 9:00 p.m. in Nuku’alofa to celebrate. Oh, brother!

We are doing well.

Tongan Update, September 9, 2007, The Mission Office, Elder May, Pictures of Tonga

Tongan Update, 09 September 2007, "The Mission Office"

Right now it is winter in Tonga. The temperatures run from around 70 to 75 degrees. It is perfect, but everyone says wait until December when temperatures are expected to rise! We’ve had a little rain, but not much.

Well, what do we do in the office from 8:00 until 5:00? Keep Busy! John is doing a lot of financial things, and I’m doing things that concern the missionaries—like getting their mail from home at the post office and sorting it, putting stamps on their letters to home, making files for new missionaries, taking care of flight plans for missionaries that leaving, keeping all the young missionaries healthy, etc.

Font of the Mission Office in Nuku'alofa, Tonga

Inside court yard of the Mission office

Keeping the missionaries healthy is fairly interesting since I have no nursing training. But we have a few items in the office to help with the minor problems.

Elder May has had a unique experience. He was angry with his companion. Instead of hitting him, he hit a wood post (neither one was too smart). He didn’t break his hand, but he tore open the skin. He now has an infection which is slowing been moving up his arm. We took him to the hospital, and he has now been there for four days and still counting.

We have been to visit him one or two times a day taking him food and water. This hospital is nothing like the hospitals at home. I pray I never ever need to go there. The new part of the hospital is not so bad, but the old section is frightening. You expect a hospital to be clean and bright. Well, this one isn’t. Missionaries with extreme problems are sent to New Zealand for treatment.

Another part of our jobs is to inspect the missionary homes. (We all need to count our blessings for the homes in which we live because the missionary houses are some of the nicest in Tonga, and they are in a world of hurt.) My, these are small (really small), two bedroom places with a tiny bathroom.

The bathrooms are hard to keep clean because of the high humidity, and there is only cold water. We take the missionaries cleaning supplies and check to see if repairs on their houses are needed. The sister missionaries have cute embroidered pillow cases and nice things hung onto their walls. The elders just exist in their places. Most of the houses are located in back of the church buildings which are beautiful with lovely landscaping, but there are some that are not the best places for missionaries to live in. We are moving them to other places.

The Church keeps the church yards so pretty and maintained. They certainly set an example.

You definitely can tell all the church-owned properties on the island. The properties have fences around them to keep especially the pigs out. Every chaple stands out as a place of beauty.

Oh, the pigs!

The come in all sizes

They run around everywhere—in town, out of town, in yards, on the side of roads, etc. The big pigs are “interesting”, but the little ones are fun to watch. They play with each other like puppies. They jump on each other and chase each other. It’s cute.

We saw some pigs rooting for food on the beaches where the tide had receded.In this same area the people were looking for shell fish and octopus. The people keep what they need and then sell the rest of the shell fish etc. at by-the-road shops or tables.

I had my first experience of driving on the opposite side of the road. (John made me!) I did OK, but it surely seems strange. John is always opening the door to the car for me because he has gone to the wrong side. I’m always going to the driver’s side, and John wants to give me the keys so I can drive. John is turning on the wipers when he goes to signal to turn because it is on the opposite side he is used to. You can tell the new drivers because their wipers are going! (We’re mixed up!)

Last Saturday we were invited to two little girls’ (Joanne and Tiki) baptisms. The fonts in Tonga are outside in a small court yards, and they are elevated. You climb up and in instead of down and in.

They were dressed in fancy, white dresses, not the usual jumpsuits. It was a simple, but very humble affair. After the baptism there was a dinner. Boy, these people know how to “bring on the food”! This next picture is at a zone conference, but a similar thing occurs at baptisms. It is a major party.

This reminds me of James who I wrote about in my last letter.

He works at an Australian pharmacy and actually lives in the back section of the pharmacy. His employers told him to stop talking to the Mormon missionaries or they would make him move out of their housing and threatened his job. So things have gotten a little tougher for James as far as the gospel goes. What do you think he will do?

On our P-Day we toured the east side of the island. We came across a white sand beach.

To get to it, we had to walk through a cemetery.

Their cemeteries are different than ours in that the Tongans don’t dig into the earth; they build a mound over the body. Then they decorate the mound with flowers, lava rocks, quilts, and beer bottles. Yes, beer bottles. They turn the bottles upside down in the sand so you see the bottom glass. It adds a sparkle to the grave site.

Oh, talking about the dead…we accidently got into a funeral procession. We thought we were in a parade or something because there seemed to be a float at the front of the long line of cars which were being driven down both sides of the road. All on-coming cars were yielding the right-of-way to this procession. When all the cars turned into the mortuary, we realized what was happening.

The float turned out to be a pickup truck with the body in it. The people had put a canopy over the bed of the truck with streamers hanging from it. The next truck in line was filled with the mourning family. There were about twenty people standing in the bed of that truck. The rest of the cars followed into the dirt parking lot of the small, blue mortuary (falemate).

We were told that this had to be a well-to-do family because they had actually gone to a mortuary. The common people do not go to the expense of embalming their dead.

Well, we had a picnic breakfast out in the courtyard with a few missionaries this morning.

Diane, Elders Fine'isaloi, Lauaki, Finau, Holloway

I even put flowers on the table. It looked pretty official. The poor Tongan Elders (Fine'isaloi and Lauaki) were intimidated and didn’t want to come. With a lot of coaxing, they came and seemed to eat just fine. (Our communication skills are lacking, but it’s was fun to try to figure out what everybody was saying.) We also baked cookies to take to our Tongan neighbors. Only one family was home. After they called off their two attack dogs, we had a semi-nice visit. Their children came over later and said the cookies were good!

Life here in the mission field is great!

Tongan--The Bad and the Good

Tongan Update, 01 September 2007, "The Bad and the Good"

We thought we would give you some thoughts about Tonga, in a fun way, but they present things as they really are.

The Bad thing is… The Good thing is…

*A 13 hour grueling plane trip. We arrived safely.

*John missed his birthday due to the hour changes. He got a birthday present in Samoa (t-shirt).

*Tonga is flat as a pancake. It is beautiful with green fields and palm trees .

*The windows in our apartment are sealed shut. We can’t hear the roosters crow at 3:00 a.m.

*Our shower has stuff growing in it. We’ve got “Crocs” and "flipflops.

*They put us to work immediately. We’re meeting a lot of great young & senior missionaries.

*The food is different. The apartment was completely stocked with American food when we got here.

*We had to send 6 missionaries to the doctor for minor ailments. They are all well. (We think they were faking).

*Our neighbor’s horse pooped on the driveway of the Mission Office. The maid, Pele, cleaned it up.

Our apartment has clouded windows and security screens. We can’t see out. We have a courtyard, that is full of flowers where we can sit and enjoy them.

John has to drive on the wrong side of the road. We haven’t had an accident yet.

When you go to turn on the turn signals, you turn on the wipers. Go to the right of the steering Column (instead of the left) and you'll find the turn signal lever.

*We got lost in the bush (jungle ) of Tonga. We saw parts of Tonga that other missionaries haven’t seen ( it was like 4 wheeling).

*We haven’t seen any deer. We have seen large flying foxes (bats).

*The roads are full of pot holes. We have a small car and can get around them .

*The maximum speed limit is 40 km/hr. We get to view the island a little faster than walking.

*We don’t understand the Tongan Language. *A lot of the people speak English.

*We are the only couple that lives in the Mission Office. *We don’t have to drive to work.

*There are no mountains. There are some spectacular blow holes along the shoreline of Tonga.

*There are no Wendys or McDonalds. We have mini-markets on about every corner.

*Judge Sam Alba’s (Sam is Hispanic) referred to Island people as “Water Mexicans.” *It’s true.

*When we stand in front, and in the middle of our bathroom vanity, the counter top is nearly to our chests. *If we take two steps to the right or left, the height of the counter top is about right.

When John goes to get in the car, he goes to the left side; but the left side here is the passenger side. He is a perfect gentleman because he opens the door for Diane.

Tongan Update, 24 August 2007, The Beginning in Tonga

Tonga 24 August, 2007

"Welcome from Tonga!"

Can you believe it? It’s been over a week since we left the mountains, Salt Lake, and all of you. Somehow it seems much longer. Needless to say, we are having a ton of new experiences and seeing many new things.

While we were at the LAX airport on the way to Tonga, we met a young Tongan named William. He is a member of the Church whose brother was coming home from his mission in the Philippines. We kind of befriended each other. It was nice to have someone “in the know”, especially when we had to go through Customs in Tonga with three suitcases full of illegal food items. (Hey, we didn’t know!) (Oh by the way, we did have a stop- over in Samoa.

We can only describe it as hot and humid, but at least we can say we’ve been there! Because of the time change , John just happened to lose his 62^nd birthday during the plane flight. In Samoa we did buy him a new t-shirt to celebrate his non-birthday.)

On Sunday we went to a Tongan branch with William thinking we were going to hear his brother’s homecoming. Instead they reorganized the Branch, and his father was put in as Branch President. So we listened to his father speak instead. The only thing we understood was “emeni” (amen), but we certainly could feel the spirit there and see the humility of the members. Wow, can they sing!

After that wonderfully long flight (13 hours from L.A.), the McMurrays (Mission president and his wife)met us at the little, tiny airport, took us to the Mission Home, and served us breakfast. They gave us a short tour of part of the island. It looks like Hawaii without mountains—but there are blue, blue oceans, lots of palm trees, lush ground cover, and beautiful flowers—Hey, I think we’re going to be alright!

Then they took us to the mission office where our home will be for the next eighteen months. From a satellite this is where we are in Nuku'alofa, Tongatapu, Tonga.

We are directly down from the warf you see in the ocean. There are two white buildings. One is a chapel and next to it is the Mission office. It is the rectangle building with a center court, kinda like a square donut as you look down on it.

We have a corner nook which will be just right.

(The shower is the only thing that is kind of scary. Black stuff seems to be growing in it.) We have a lovely courtyard in the center of the complex. It has a multitude of different types of flowers and bushes.

The senior missionaries brought a basketful of groceries, and it was waiting for us on the counter. What a very nice and good thing for them to do. You see, you do have to go to many different small market places to find your groceries—the vegetable market, the bread shop, the maybe- what -you -need shop, and then another maybe- what-you-need shop. It is quite an adventure just to see what is in these various little markets.

We’ve had to figure out the "food thing" and the "gas stove thing" pretty quickly because we also have young missionaries (A.P.s--Elders Lybert and Fine'isaloi and Office Elders--Elders Holloway and Lauaki) living at the Mission Office; and they "don’t know how to make pancakes." (Yeah, right!) So...we invited them to breakfast.

We had only been in Tonga six days when we had an investigator and the missionaries over for dinner. This investigator is a 27 year old Chinese kid who is very interested in the gospel, but he didn’t think my cooking was all that great. I love it when they speak English like James. That’s the kid’s name—a very nice and thoughtful person. We talked to him about eternal families and showed him pictures of our kids and grandkids. We also had a picture of our extended family at Strawberry Pinnacles. (What a happy group, and the gospel is happiness”.) We’ll see how it goes with James.

The senior missionaries have Family Home Evenings on Mondays. They are studying “Preach My Gospel.” They also have outings on Fridays. We hooped and hollowed it up with a real live square dance the first Friday. (If our kids could only see us now…)

The second Friday we went to a terrific restaurant (Kaatini) that served Tongan and American food. Most of the seniors ordered "swordfish", but I wasn't that daring. Courageous Elder Thompson went for the new delicacy and said it tasted great! The place is right by the ocean—very scenic. There actually is a few places that you might dare eat at.

My, I must be stuck on food because the next thing I’m going to tell you about is Zone Conference. Elder Baxter of the Seventies came and talked to the missionaries. (Sign him up as a great motivational speaker.) After the conference the members of the ward served us “lunch” (more like ten dinners in one). There was octopus, ‘ufi (yams), kumala (sweet potatoes), watermelon, sausage-like stuff, chicken, and stuff, and stuff, and fish, and stuff, and stuff that I had no idea what it was. The chicken was good!

Elder Baxter was the guest speaker at our own senior missionary fireside at the Mission President’s home. He said that about 53,000 Tongans are members of the Church, but only about 17,000 of them are active. Sounds like there is work to do!

This is getting pretty long, but I have so much to tell you. I guess we’ll save something for next time. So…

‘Ofa ‘atu (with love),