TONGAN UPDATE DECEMBER 1, 2007 "wHO DONE IT/"

Tongan Update, 01 December 2007, Mystery: Who “Done” It?

Hi Everyone,

We have a real mystery on our hands. It’s the “Case of the Disappearing Items from the Mission Office.”

It all started about two weeks ago when the Primary President in our Branch asked me if I would like a squash. “Well, sure,” I said. She proceeded to drop off about twenty squash at the Mission Office. We stacked them up on the bench in our courtyard just outside our apartment door. We knew we would never eat all those squash, so we decided to give some to the senior missionaries. But in our rush to get to Family Home Evening, we forgot to take the squash. No problem…we’d just take those green veggies out to the missionaries the next day. On arrival home from the meeting, we were surprised to see an empty bench where the squash once were. Being the sleuths that we are, we questioned the Office Elders and the APs, Elders Olsen, Finau, Jones, and Hikila. No one knew anything about the squash. They had vanished!

“Oh, it’s just squash,” you might say. No, we’ve had bananas out of the missionaries’ kitchen disappear too. So now you’re thinking only food is missing. No, much more.

We had a little kitten stroll into the complex the other day, and she decided to take up residency here. We know that pets are against the Mission Rules, but what do you do if she wouldn’t leave? She was only about eight weeks old, and she kept following Elder Jones around so he named the cat “Jonesey.” (We just want you to know that we senior missionaries were having nothing to do with the cat. We obey the rules!) Anyway, we were just getting use to having the little gal around, when…GONE! Vanished!

We also have noticed that some of the unlocked rooms in the office complex have been rummaged through.

What’s the deal? Who is snooping around the place and swiping our things? Elder Holloway says that Tongans do not come into missionary living quarters because they think God will strike them. So who is taking our stuff?

We think we got a clue yesterday. John and I asked the Elders if they wanted to play a hot game of Sorry. We had inherited the game from the other office couple, the Christensens, before they went home. They had had the students at Liahona make this game for them in their wood-working class. You need a dice and sixteen marbles to play the game. Back to the events at hand… we pulled out the game, and over half of the marbles and a dice were missing. Who “done” it?

I had last played the game with a couple of neighbor kids in the courtyard. I remember that I had been called to the office for some emergency. After I handled the problem, I paniced thinking I had left my apartment door unlocked with the little darlin’s still outside our door. I rushed back to find the kids gone and everything looking OK. Is it a coincidence that the next time we brought out the game that the marbles and dice were missing? Furthermore, we haven’t seen the children since? Hmmm……

How do we solve this case?

The work is good!! We love the Lord!! We’re hanging in there!

‘Ofa ‘atu, Diane and John