TONGAN UPDATE APRIL 13, 2007 WILDEST RIDE IN THE WILDERNESS- HA'APAI TRIP

Tongan Update, 13 April 2008, Wildest Ride in the Wilderness

John and I have been rehashing some of our high-adventure experiences. We’ve rafted a river with 2-3 category rapids outside of Cancun, Mexico. (In fact, a fellow Japanese cruiser fell out of the raft while going through one of the rapids.) We’ve hiked down the Grand Canyon to Havasu Pi Falls and camped for a few nights. (Actually I flew in a helicopter down and rode a horse back out of the canyon, but it was still pretty exciting!) We’ve snow-shoed several miles into a Uinta yurt (small round cabin) during a snowstorm at night with temperatures around zero degrees. (It was so cold that the dogs, even in snow booties and fleece jackets, would not walk.) These experiences are kind of pale compared to our recent “wildest ride in the wilderness,” and I don’t mean the train ride at Disneyland!

On Wednesday President and Sister McMurray, Danny (their son), Elder Thompson and I took the 35 minute flight to the Ha’apai group of islands. (Our plane was only an hour late!)

We landed on the island of Lifuka. The runway runds from one side of the island to the other. The main street of the island runs through the runway.

While the President had zone conference with the missionaries and members, Elder Thompson and I inspected four missionary houses. After this was completed, we joined the rest of the group for “the feast.” Oh yes, Tongan food…and so much of it. On the plates which were placed before us was a whole fish, a chicken leg, a hunk of pig including the skin, and some part of a lamb. Then they passed us a lobster and an octopus. John cracked open the lobster tail, and we devoured it. We passed on the octopus. In addition to our plates of food, there was the ufi, kumala, crab salad, noodle stuff, and orange pop.

After attempting to taste the various foods, I decided that the crab salad was delicious. But before I could finish the portion that was given to me on a separate plate, the sweet lady next to me picked up my plate and finished eating my salad. Oh well…

Late in the afternoon we rode the new mission boat to Ha’ano to take missionaries back to their house and to inspect it. Their house is located in Fafakakai , a small village on the island of Ha’ano. The boat was loaded down with missionaries, and it was a rough ride…only a prelude to what was yet to come.

That night we stayed at the Sandy Beach Resort that night—private beach house, king- size bed, hot water, deck facing the ocean, clean, and fabulous!

Our Room

The view from our room

Now the adventure begins…Thursday morning it was windy and raining. Does that stop the work of the Lord? No way! We (4 missionaries, the President and his family, John and I, and two boat drivers) hopped into the mission boat and headed towards Nomuka. Our plan was to visit several islands, hold district meetings, and to inspect houses on several of the remote islands. Our first stop was the island of Uiha.

Due to the high tide, the cement pier was about a foot under water.

We left the President, Sister McMurray, and the drivers in the boat, and the rest of us waded through the water to the shore.
The missionary house was about a quarter of a mile from the rocky and broken down pier.

Some missionaries in this mission live in tough circumstances. The Uiha house has no power and water is limited.

They have no cooking facilities so they rely on members to feed them or they go without. When we arrived, two pigs were sleeping next to the missionary house. The missionaries call them their “guard pigs.”

The neighbors had ten to fifteen pigs in their yard. When the missionaries call “Maaaaa, maaaa,” the pigs came running for food. We got surrounded by those oinking, snorting fellows.

This island is also known for its mystic well and cemetery stone.

The legend says that the water in the well turns to red whenever a Tongan king dies and fire shoots from one of the stones in the cemetery.(I don’t know. Some things you have to see to believe).

From Uiha we headed towards Nomuka. The ocean waters were rough, and we needed to travel about the distance from Hite to Wahwep. Those of you who have been to Lake Powell might compare the waves we were driving through to the largest waves you’ve seen at Lake Powell and then multiply it by five or six, maybe seven. We’d dip down into the swells, then pop up onto the top—dipping, plopping, crashing, bamming. The president, how do I say this nicely, threw up once, and dear Sister McMurray three times before we got to our destination.

The members of the Church on the island of Nomuka were thrilled that the president had come to meet with them. They thought, because of the rough seas, he might not make the journey.

Once again, the president did the conference and had interviews while we did the inspections…

Next to the missionary was an old cement water tank than had been converted into a kitchen.

The kitchen has two doors that provide cross ventilation. The Tonga people are creative. If the can save or use something for another purpose rather than destroying it, they will. Sitting with us is a woman who is nicknamed "Big Mamma".

After the meeting we had another feast. Oh yeah!

During the feast President Mcmurray sang a song that they made up. It is an intertaining song that the Tongans like.

After all was said and done, the members followed us out to the dock to see us off.

It was quite a sight to see those few faithful saints waving until they could no longer see us. “Big Momma”, one of the larger sisters, was dancing and crying at the same time as we left. They just did not want us to leave. What wonderful people!

Next we backtracked to Ha’afeva where we stayed the night.

Our accommodations were very different than the previous night. We slept on a mattress on the floor of a little house in back of the church. We shared everything with about 500 ants and had only cold water for showers. Hey, we had another feast! After the feast we went with the sister missionaries and participated in the first lesson of “Preach My Gospel”—spoken half in English and half in Tongan. It was fun to observe the missionaries in action. Who were the missionaries? One was Sister April McMurray (the President’s daughter). April speaks Tongan and is doing a fine job as a missionary.

During the boat trip elder Olsen was dretched by sea water. What do you do? You hose down with fresh water and have the truest form of wash and wear.

The next morning we needed to pick up a couple of missionaries on another island and inspect their house. So, while the president had interviews, John and I jumped back into the boat and went to O’ou.

It is a small island with one village, no motorized vehicles, and a village phone boot made of plywood.

Children love to be photographed. We made a mistake by taking pictures. Some kids were out on recess, but when others learned we were taking pictures then came running out of the class room to join us.

This bike has been use so much that the rubber tires were gone, so they ride on metal rims.

After inspecting the house, we returned (with the missionaries living on O’ou) to Ha’afeva for the district meeting.This toothless Tongan sent us off from O'ou.

After O'ou it was back to Ha'afeva.

While the district meeting transpired, we inspected the houses in Ha’afeva, and John met with all the boat drivers. It was necessary for him to clarify policies and instructions and to discuss damage to one of the new boats. A trim tab and transducer had been knocked off their mounting brackets. The boat was only a month old and had been used twice.

Elder Thompson pulled Elder Olsen out of the district meeting and had him interpret for him. He questioned the drivers, but they didn’t know how the damages occurred. After hearing their stories, John then sketched out what he thought the problem was. The damages had occurred by how they were anchoring the boat. The drivers were throwing the anchor out in front of the boat and tying the anchor rope to the front of the boat. Then they took the remaining rope and tied it to the dock. That’s sounds ok, doesn’t it? No! That was not good. Here’s the reason. On a windy day the boat would float over the rope running from the front of the boat to the dock because the rope was loosely tied and dragged in the water. What caused the damage (in John’s opinion) was the rope would catch onto the trim tab and transducer. The force of the boat moving against the rope broke the parts off. Now, why did John think this? When we went to the boat to go to O’ou, John noticed how the boat was tied up. He watched as the boat floated over the anchor rope. The drivers of our boat did exactly what the drivers of the damaged boat did. Solution…take the rope from the bow and tie it to the rear ski eye, then to the dock. That keeps the rope away from the trim tabs. When the boat drivers saw the sketches, then it all made sense to them. Problem solved (hopefully).

Wait…There’s more action! When it was time to depart Ha’afeva, we got a message that there was a high wind warning. We cancelled our stops at two other islands and decided to head straight back to Lifuka where we had originally started. It usually takes an hour to travel the distance, but it took us two hours because of the rough waters. The waves were higher than the day before and would splash up and over the top of the cab drenching everyone in the back part of the boat. Sometimes it felt like the boat was flying. I thought of the movie, “The Perfect Storm” with George Clooney as the main actor. . . well, maybe the waves weren’t quite that big, but in the small boat it felt like it. On a high-adventure scale of 1 to 10, I’d say this was an 8. It really was the “wildest ride in the wilderness” or at least the Pacific Ocean.

You got to love this mission!

‘Ofa ‘atu, Diane and John

TONGAN UPDATE APRIL 6, 2008 MUSIC OF THE NIGHT-'EUA TRIP

Tongan Update, 06 April 2008, Music of the Night

Hi Everyone!

‘Eua, an island, is a two and one-half hour grueling boat ride from Tongatapu. The boat must cross one of the deepest sections of the ocean and therefore, may get really “rocking and a rolling” on those ocean waves; or a airplane ride takes six minutes. The missionaries escorted us to the airport and were our sky cabs. It was embarrassing as we walked into the airport with these missionaries carrying our luggage and helping us in every way. Other passengers were smiling, some laughing, as they watched the elders help us.

When flying in the smaller planes, they weigh everything. After the luggage is weighed, each passenger is weighed. With assistance from the elders, Diane is weighed.

We opted on taking the twelve passenger plane and landed on a bumpy dirt strip which is equally “rocking and rolling” but not for such a long duration as the boat ride.

We landed on this strip. After a major rain storm the Tongans have to fill the holes before planes can land. It is completely grass and dirt, no cement or asphalt.

We took off on a short runway. The plane rolled out onto the grass at the beginning of the strip. Then the pilots put on the brakes, revved up the engines until the plane shook, then they released the brakes. We had a fast start and raced to the other end of the runway. From where we were sitting we could look out of the cockpit window.

We became concerned because we could see the end of the runway, and we were still on the ground. Finally, right at the last minute (just before we were back on grass), the plane lifted up. Within minutes we landed on the island of ‘Eua.

The Stake President picked us up at the airport. He is tall, slender, and a humble man and only 32 years old.

After loading our luggage, we began our work of inspecting houses and meeting with the missionaries.. I rode in the cab of his truck, and John rode with the missionaries in the back of the pickup.

These two missionary houses were in pretty good shape.

This is a member's house that is used by the missionaries.

The house is a wood shell with no interior paneling , so tapa cloth is used to cover the boards.
There's no bathroom attached to this one room house, so they use a common bathroom with the family, which is about 50 yards from the house.
Since they don't have their own bathroom, the elders found another creative way to use the toilet plunger that we sent them months ago.

The island has every interesting church buildings.

TheLDS Chapels are conservative and easy to identify with their groomed yards and surrounding fences. You always know you have passed a LDS Chapel because it is so well kept and doesn't look old.

We always like seeing the pigs. You see them everywhere. When not eating, they are soaking in the water and mud.


For dinner we went to the place that we really wanted to stay at. It is called the Hideway. It has 5-6 rooms and has the only restaurant on the whole island. It is located by the ocean and has a wonderful view.



President McMurray also wanted us to give some remarks at the Missionary District Meeting.
These are the Missionaries that form the 'Eua District.

During the meeting we gave John’s formula on lives eternal. It was fun as we presented our remarks in English and had Elder Haslem (the district leader) translate them into Tongan. Can you figure the formula out?

FA+B+F+R+TC+AMC+B+A+MP+E+GW+PUF+NECM= LIVES ETERNAL

The day went by quickly, but the night… well, it was endless! Elder Thompson and I are used to living in an insulated apartment. The windows are frosted and sealed. No one can see in, and we can’t see out. At night you can only hear the hum of the air conditioner and just very soft sounds from outside our apartment. In ‘Eua we stayed at a “Bed and No Breakfast” place.

At this place the windows of our bedroom were horizontal louvered panes. We left them opened because it was so warm in the room—no air-conditioner or fan. The room was about 9'x9'. The bathroom was a common bathroom for several rooms that you entered into from the hallway. John took out his hearing aids and immediately drifted off to sleep. I lay there in that double-sized lumpy bed and listened to “the music of the night.”

It started with the singing of the grasshopper-like insects joined by the beeping of the smoke alarm. (I was surprised the house had a smoke alarm, but I was not surprised that it needed new batteries.) The barking dogs joined the chorus. Then there was the thumping sound on the wall next to us. I fell to sleep only to be awoken at 4:15 a.m. with the chiming of church bells. The bells ring to alert the local Church of Tonga members that they need to get ready for church. Fifteen minutes later the church bells chimed again, and the Tongan singing began—beautiful hymns sung in harmony. The birds could not resist stepping up to the microphone and belting out as lead singers trying to outdo the roosters. A pig snorted and squealed as the yelping dogs added the percussion instruments to the orchestra which I was listening, and the smoke alarm kept beeping. Finally…time to get up! At least John was rested.

P-day! Well, we were calling it P-day. We had made arrangements with our Stake President driver to show us and the District Leaders around the island. What a beautiful island it is—very different topography than Tongatapu. One side of the island has pine trees—you’d think you were in the Unitas. The tropical look is minimal--there are very few palm trees. The pine trees are harvested as an experimental project to provide local wood for the Tongans. It appears to be working.

We even found a logging truck that is used even though the condition of the cab would suggest differently.

On the other side of the island you’d think you were in the Sacred Grove.

Hey, the tour book calls ‘Eua a rain forest. We saw waterfalls, cascades, cliffs, sink holes, beaches, lime stone arches, and huge banyan trees.






Some of the banyan trees were pretty impressive also. The Tongans call one of them the “Big ‘Ovava.” It’s huge, growing out of a sinkhole, and its root network is amazing. We couldn’t even begin to imagine how old the tree must be.


Halfway up the tree in something interesting. Another type of tree is growing in the tree with the roots intertwined with the banyan tree.

By this hudge tree we found something interesting. The leaf system of a plant climbed the tree and was attached, in perfect order, with its roots in a manner that made it look like it was stapled into position.

Our favorite place was the Rock Garden on Lakufa’anga Cliff.

We drove through a few plantations before we reached a gate with a “Jesus Loves You” sign attached to it. We passed through onto a green pasture punctuated with grey, tomb-like outcrops of coral. There was a herd of nervous horses in the meadow.

We had fun watching two young colts flipping their tails and prancing around.

From here we could also look over the cliffs and see the ocean waters crashing onto the rocks below.

Before we left one of the villages we drove to the high school to watch a track and field event. They were having an island-wide contest to select participants to compete in a large event (the entire Kingdom) in Liahona. When we drove to the field of events, we were humbled in what we saw. The kids were excited. Many of the participants had uniforms. Some worn team uniforms. However, the students ran with no track shoes, in fact, no shoes at all. The track, sand pits for jumping, hurdles, etc. were primitive to our standards.

This is part of the oval track
The long jump pit
The high jump and pole vault pit

The hurdles

Even though the field was primitive, the activities provided excitement for all. Those watching cheered with excitement for their school and children. It was an island-wide gathering.

So often we see sights like this where things are made in their most rudimentary stage. It makes us realize how fortunate we have been living in America where things are improved, that our family has had the best of things, and have been given the greatest opportunities. However, the wonderful thing that we witness every day, is how people who have so little, can be so happy..

Our return flight was leaving at 3:45p.m. so we dropped the District Leaders off at their little missionary house, and the Stake President drove us to the airport. We had to wait for the arrival of the plane, this give us some time to visit with this young, thirty-two year old Stake President, Brother Havea.

He was born and raised on ‘Eua. His parents are members of the Weslayan Church. When he hit high school age, he wanted to go with his friends to Liahona High School on Tongatapu, only to be with his buddies. His parents at first said no, but with continued requests they finally said yes only if he would not go to the Mormon Church. So for two years he attended Liahona, but he did go to the Mormon Church, and he was converted and baptized.

When he returned to ‘Eua, his parents told him he could not go to the Mormon Church even though he was a member. Therefore, Brother Havea boycotted going to any church meetings of any denomination. After several weeks of not attending any church, his parents gave in again. It was OK for him to go to the Mormon Church, but he could not go on a mission. So he attended the Mormon Church, and after a couple of years he secretly turned in his mission papers to the Church. His parents found out about his missionary application from the neighbors.

At first they told him he couldn’t go. Then his parents finally decided they couldn’t and wouldn’t fight with him over his religious decisions any more. He had a strong testimony of the gospel, and they couldn’t persuade him otherwise, so they allowed him to go.

He was called to the Nuku’alofa Tonga Mission where he served as an Office Elder and Assistant to the President. The mission president did not want to release him and asked him to extend his mission for six months. Elder Havea said he would do whatever the president wanted him to do, so the mission was extended. After three months, leaders of the church realized that he was still in the mission field and instructed the Mission President to release him. He was released even though he was willing to stay for the entire six months.

After his mission he met a girl at an institute class who later became his wife. He has remained active in the church and two years ago, at age 30, was called to be the Stake President. He and his wife now have two little girls.

It is interesting. He is a farmer, but farms only enough food for the family’s needs. Nothing his farm produces is sold to make money. His wife is a school teacher and the bread winner for not only their immediate family but also her husband’s parents with whom the Havea’s lives.

Brother Havea’s father is not a very good example to the kids. because he smokes, drinks, and swears. The President hides away with his children in the bedroom to have Family Home Evening. It seems that the father got into financial trouble a few years ago. The President and his wife are living with his parents so that they can use their money to pay off the father’s loan. It will take five more years to pay off the debt. Then they can move out and use their money to buy their own home. President Havea is a wonderful, kind-hearted man trapped with his father’s debt.

That’s ‘Eua!

‘Ofa ‘atu, Diane and John