Moments of Reflection-Appreciation and Gratitude
This morning I woke up before the sun was up. As I got out of bed I noticed that the room was cold, so I shut the air conditioner off and went into the bathroom and took a shower. My shower was cold at first but then it warmed up. When I stepped into the cold water I thought about the missionaries. They have no hot water. They take cold showers every day. After the shower I went into the living room to work on a lesson. As I began to work on the computer, I kept thinking about the missionaries. I kept thinking about our surroundings verses the challenging life of our missionaries, especially the palangi (American).
When Diane awoke we discussed some of their conditions. We would like to share them with you to help you understand the challenges of our missionaries. We love them for enduring and dealing with these challenges.
Diane and I live in a small but comfortable apartment with air conditioning. Each room has a small room air conditioner that allows us to control the temperature to our liking. The missionary houses are hot. They have no air conditioning and they have no fans. They can open windows and hope for a cool breeze, but the air is usually warm here.
We have carpet in our bedroom and living room. We can keep them clean because we have cement walkways leading to the apartment. The missionary houses have painted plywood flooring. Some houses are tiled, but most have a vinyl floor covering called “carpet”. The floors are hard to keep clean because the pathway or entrance to the house is dirt instead of cement or gravel.
We have a bathroom with a tiled floor and a tiled shower. After the initial cleaning, it has been easy to keep it clean. Some of the missionary bathrooms have plywood floors that are painted or are covered with vinyl carpet. Some have painted cement floors and a few have tiled floors. The painted plywood floors look dirty because the paint gets stained from the dirt or the paint is peeling. The vinyl covered floors look fairly good but the vinyl traps water, therefore, the wood flooring under the vinyl rots. The tile has a rough surface so the grit makes the tile look horrible and unsanitary. None of the houses have a shower mat or a door mat.
We have a washer and dryer that make it easy to wash our clothes, sheets, blankets, and drapes. The missionaries use 5 gallon buckets to wash their clothes in. They hang the clothes up to dry on makeshift clothes lines or on the fence. Because of the humidity and rain it takes a long time for things to dry. Have you ever washed drapes or sheets in a 5 gallon bucket?
We have a kitchen to prepare food to our liking. We can prepare meals anytime of the day. We have a refrigerator that allows us to store food. Our drinks are cold and other food items are kept fresh. We have a stove that allows us to cook any time we want to satisfy our hunger pains. We can even bake cookies and cakes. We even have a microwave that allows us to zap food for a quick meal. Missionary houses do not have kitchens. Only a few of the newer houses have a kitchen type sink and cabinet. Therefore, they have no means to cook or store food. Fortunate members provide dinner meals, but they no ability to store food.
We have furniture that is used, but is comfortable. The two lounge chairs are fairly new and are comfortable. The couch is worn, but is ok. The missionaries have a small table, 1-3 folding chairs (usually taken from the ward).
Our windows are sealed, thus we have fewer mosquitoes and bugs. The missionary houses have vane windows. Most have bug and security screen, but none of them have screen doors. They use mosquito smoke booms at night to kill the mosquitoes. Little critters run freely all day and all night.
We have a water filter system that purifies our drinking water. The missionaries have large water tanks that are filled with rain water. The rain water is collected from the metal roof of their home.
Why are we sharing these things with you? Are we unique here in Tonga? Probably not! Other missionaries have challenges as well. We just want to share with you why we love these missionaries and appreciate their strength and courage in dealing with their environment. It is definitely a culture shock for our palangi missionaries. We hope you will include them in your prayers because so many of them are having health problems.
The missionaries are loved by the members. The people care for them and they feed them. Not too long ago a palangi elder alerted us to a bunch of dumb things missionaries were doing. As a result of this truthfulness, several missionaries were sent home or were put on probation. In telling us the truth, he suffered the raft of some of the elders. We brought him into the office for a few days, and then sent him back to his area. A couple of weeks later we went to Ha’apai to inspect houses and to have a zone meeting. After the meeting we had a Tongan feast. It was a royal feast. Later we learned that the people in this area (they are really, really poor) prepared a royal feast with pigs, lobsters, and crabs to honor the elder for standing up for the right. He was the honored guest along with President McMurray.
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