Tongan Update, 28 January 2008, Singing Sisters
This has been an enjoyable week. Our mission received a Tongan Sister missionary who had been released from the Colorado Springs Mission. Her mother passed away so the Church allowed her to come home early for the funeral and then finish her mission with us. Sister Fiefia is delightful, filled with enthusiasm for missionary work and the love of the gospel. What a great asset she will be for our mission, even if it’s for only eight weeks.
Elder Thompson and I have been driving the (for lack of better words) “AP Sisters” on exchanges for the last two weeks, with one more week to go for this transfer. (Exchanges: We pick up the two AP Sisters, drive to another village, drop one AP Sister off, pick up one of the sister from that village, then drive back to where we began. We do an exchange four nights a week for three weeks each transfer. Transfers are every six weeks.) Sister Fiefia was assigned to be with the AP Sisters until the next transfer so all three sisters crowded (These sweet sisters are not small girls!) into the backseat of our Toyota Corrola to make the exchange with the sisters at Hoi, a village about a forty-five minute drive from Nuku’alofa. Because Sister Fiefia can speak great English, we could talk and visit easily with all three sisters, Sister Fieifa acting as the go-between. She asked each us about our favorite hymn, and then we proceeded to sing them. The girls knew the English words better than John and me, and they sang with harmony and LOUD. So we sang Church hymns at the top of our voices all the way home from Hoi… And we sounded pretty good, if I say so myself! It was a real Brady Bunch Setting.
Ooo...it’s raining again! While you have been shoveling snow, we’ve had rain—three weeks of rain. Then for two days there were no clouds, and it was HOT and MUGGY. But the rain is really coming down now—I can hear it.
The nurse and her husband, the Garretts, arrived Thursday from Salt Lake City. Already we put them to work, and am I ever grateful! She saw or talked to four Elders her first day here. One Elder thought he had Dengue Fever, two the flu, and one a broken leg. They called me, and I referred them all to the Nurse. Yeah!
President McMurray wanted us to show Elder and Sister Garrett around the island. So while John was having a root canal (Fun, huh? We do have an American dentist in Tonga until May.), I walked the Garretts around town. It was a sunny day, they got sunburned, and I think I pretty well wore them out. Of course, they had been on a plane for 15 hours the night before. Do you think that might have contributed to their tiredness? They also liked the walk along the ocean front—the various shades of blues in the water, the little islands that dot the horizon, the small fishing boats, and the kids diving off the wharf. Elder Thompson finally made the scene, and we took them for a mini tour of the island. We loved this assignment!
The president’s daughter, April, was called on a mini-mission this week.
She’ll be serving on one of the little islands north of Tongatapu and is really excited about the call. At this point she is only serving for six weeks, but it will give her a taste of being a Tongan missionary. Her Mom, Charlene, has been busy making her the traditional Sister Tongan missionary uniforms. April is an amazing gal, and she’ll have a great experience! (I’d worry a little about the cleanliness of the drinking water and the cold showers on Ha’afeva, but they’ll figure it out!)
Another week has gone by!! Wow!
‘Ofa ‘atu, John and Diane
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