TONGAN UPDATE 22 JUNE 2008-WAKE UP LITTLE SUZI

Tongan Update, 22 June 2008, Wake up Little Suzi

We’ve come up with another “new” idea. It’s called “Wake up, Little Suzi.” When we were young, the kids in our neighborhood would put on theatrical programs for anyone who was nice enough, kind enough, or crazy enough to come watch. For a minimal fee they could see a bunch of seven or eight year old children sing, dance, and whatever. The only song that I remember us singing was “Wake up, Little Suzi” because I was lucky enough to play the role of Suzi, and during practices I had to keep acting like I was waking up over and over and over as the rest of the gang sang. Now back to the project at hand. It’s the perfect title for our “new” idea—the Garretts, Thompsons, Sister Kinikini, and Sister Vuki are visiting each of the missionary companionships between 7:30 am and 9:30 am when the cute missionaries should be up, dressed, and doing their individual scripture studies and then their companionship studies. The senior troops are going to do early morning scriptures reading with the young missionaries. We tried it last week, and it was really fun. The seniors had a prayer with the younger missionaries, read together with them, and left them a treat.

So why call it “Wake up, Little Suzi?” You probably can guess—many of the missionaries were still sleeping when we arrived.

Somewhere along the way, they haven’t been trained on what it means to STUDY the scriptures. Maybe it’s more inclusive than that—they don’t know what HARD WORK is…

Not only are we throwing in a little “Wake up, Little Suzi,” we are also adding “Whistle While You Work.” (For those who don’t remember that project, it was super cleaning the missionary houses.) The missionaries will earn points for cleaning this time. The zone with the most points receives a “Free Zone P-day.”

In my college days, a professor of mine drew an analogy on how to get children (missionaries) to work compared to how to get a donkey to work. You can push, pull, or ignore the donkey. Or you can dangle a carrot in front of his nose. We are trying the carrot approach.

“ Wake Up, Little Suzi” and “Whistle While you Work” are the “carrot” approaches. We are hoping to improve the cleanliness and spirituality of the missionaries with rewards, then hopefully they’ll eventually do it for the Lord instead of a treat.

We have also had Zone Conferences with the four zones on Tongatapu. John prepared a power point presentation about “Houses of Worship.” He showed pictures of the temple and discussed the sacredness of the temple.

He then showed pictures of several chapels and discussed their spiritual worth.

Then he showed pictures of some of the missionary houses that we have inspected, and they weren’t a pretty sight.

It was an eye opener. Pictures are worth a thousand words. He finished the presentation with quotes from prophets and other church leaders. The final slides showed missionary houses that are kept clean,

then chapels,

and then the Tongan temple.

Two weeks ago the same presentation was given to all the Stake Presidents in the Kingdom of Tonga, but instead of focusing on having missionaries maintain their houses better, it was directed to parents. Stake Presidents were challenged to teach parents that they need to teach their children how clean a house, how to respect the property of others, particularly church property, and how to care for personal belongings. So many of our missionaries were not taught how to do these things when they were growing up, therefore, the challenge of teaching, has become ours.

Hey, we’re trying! ‘Ofa atu, John and Diane

TONGAN UPDATE 16 JUNE 2008- REALITY CHECK

Tongan Update, 16 June2008, Reality Check

Reality…viewing things as they really are—corrective confronting of reality in order to counteract one’s expectations. (Webster's Dictionary)

Sometimes the cold harsh reality of life is a bummer. For example, I wanted to sail through this mission bug-free. Well, here I sit with fungus on my arm, scabies (egg-laying mites) under the skin on my neck, a small infected wound on my thumb, and some kind of bug bite on my face. Yikes! How is that for the “real thing?”

We just completed our monthly inspection of the missionary houses. The reality of it all is… we took two steps forward with our Super Clean Day, and now we are back to square one. Most of the houses are a mess again.

One set of Elders lost their key so they just broke down their door ripping out the door frame.

At another house it looks like the neighbors have moved in with the Elders.

Their washing machine is on the porch of the missionary home with the electrical cord threaded through the window and plugged into the socket of the missionary house. The neighbors have hung up their wet washed clothes on the Elders’ clothes line so when the Elders return, they will walk under the neighbor’s drying shirts, pants, and underwear. It also looks like one of the neighbor’s kids has been sleeping on the floor of the missionary house.

He followed us from room to room to see what we were doing during our inspection, meanwhile declaring his total innocence. The door lock had been broken on this house so anyone can exit and enter at will.

We went to inspect the house in Folaha at 1:45 pm in the afternoon, and we woke up two sleeping missionaries. No, they weren’t talking a nap after a morning of hard work. They just hadn’t quite got up out of bed yet—this is for real!

So we won’t become totally frustrated, Elder Thompson and I keep saying to ourselves, “Remember Hoi!”

We inspected the Hoi house at 8:00 am. The Sisters were dressed, reading their scriptures, and had a clean house—bless the Sisters.

The national champion Highland High Rugby Team from Salt Lake City flew into the Fua’amotu airport the other night.

We were welcoming back to Tonga a senior couple who happened to arrive on the same plane as the team. (Elder Jensen returned to Logan, Utah to have his pacemaker replaced. After a month of recuperation, the Jensens were returning to finish the rest of their mission.) These boys had an aura of confidence about them like they knew all about winning. Later we found out that there was a reason for that --this team had never lost a game—23 to 0.

We kept bumping into these boys. (You couldn’t miss them. There were about 50 people in their group being driven around the island in two buses.) They were at our branch dance which was held on the tennis court adjacent to our church building. They swarmed the court in their white shirts and ties asking the Tongan girls to dance with them. I have to admit, they were friendly and fun. Next they showed up at church on Sunday filling our little chapel. Wow, there were a lot of white faces!

By now we were kind of bonding with these athletes so we decided to go to their game—Tupou High School vs Highland High. It had rained all morning so the stadium field was wet and muddy. The cute USA team had brought brand new uniforms for this occasion, and it was quite amazing how quickly you couldn’t even see their mud-coated uniforms as the game began.

The Tongan crowd roared ferociously for their team as the few Highland supporters cheered their champions. Thank goodness, Ryan’s coworker’s husband coached the team, and she explained the rules of the game to us. (She also had some nice things to say about our son, Ryan.)

Tupou High scored first…then second…then third. Finally Highland touched the ball over the end zone. Then Tupou High scored again—the final score—28 to 5—the first defeat for Highland. Cripes…time for a reality cheCK.

Reality can be a bummer. Here is a quote from President Thomas S. Monson: “Life is full of difficulties, some minor and others of a more serious nature. There seems to be an unending supply of challenges for one and all. Our problem is that we often expect instantaneous solutions to such challenges, forgetting that frequently the heavenly virtue of patience is required.” (I’m not sure this quote applies to the afore mentioned situations, but it’s a good quote from Preach My Gospel.)

Here is a quote from us: “Remember Hoi!”

You know, Tonga would be a good place to film one of those TV reality shows. ‘Ofa ‘atu, John and Diane

PS Mom, don’t worry. Sister Garrett, the mission nurse, is treating all my little ailments.

.

TONGAN UPDATE 12 JUNE 2008- GOD'S MAGIC

Tongan Update, 12 June 2008, God’s Magic

What can be more magical than the birth of a baby? Today Mandy Diane Thompson stepped through the veil and has joined us on this earth. She weighs seven pounds and is seventeen inches long.

Dusty, the proud dad, said she has dark hair and is beautiful. She’s our eighth grandchild, and our third granddaughter. What a blessing!

We waited all day yesterday to get the phone call about her arrival. It didn’t come! We knew Melissa was going to have this little gal C-section on June 12. Where was the phone call? Needless to say, Ding-dong Diane forgot to factor in the time difference between Utah and Tonga. But Mandy is here now and all is well. New life is not only magical, it is a miracle when you consider how cells divide, multiply, organize, and define body limbs and parts.

We’ve had other incidences where God has worked his magic.

One of my responsibilities of being the mission secretary is recording the information on new converts onto a computer program and then submitting that information to the Salt Lake Church Head Quarters. One of the new convert’s card was not complete so I could not file this person’s baptism and conversion. I tried several different means to get the information that was required, but no luck. I was getting discouraged and was trying to come up with a new game plan when the bishop of our newest Church member called on the phone with the information I needed. I was able to submit the information and now this individual is officially on the records of the Church! That was pretty good timing you’d have to say!

Whenever Elder Thompson has to speak in church, he has this cunning ability to look over his audience and adapt his talk to meet the needs of the congregation. To me that is magic. I like to follow my script, and I don’t diverge very far from it.

Last week I attended a branch leadership meeting where everything was spoken in English. I understood what was being said and was very comfortable. At the same time, John was in a stake meeting where everything was spoken in Tongan…everything, except the talk he was to give. Instead of being calm like me, he was nervous and worried about his talk delivery. A silent prayer was offered before standing at the pulpit, then, he began his message. After giving the talk, he learned that most of the congregation understood what he said. How is that? It is magic.

I went to a wonderful Stake fireside sponsored by the Young Women Organization of the Church. About four hundred sisters were there. The decorations were amazing, the use of technology was incredible, and the speakers were excellent. Sister Shumway, the temple matron, was the main guest speaker.

The whole evening was uplifting and spiritual. Then it was my turn to say the closing prayer. I usually say very simple prayers, but this night I really wanted to end the evening with the spirit that the others had radiated. I said a little prayer to help me to find the words that would be meaningful and appropriate. Oh my…I gave a beautiful prayer. You would have never guessed it was little old me…because I had a lot of help.

You can see Heavenly Father’s magic all around us in the beauty of the land-- the sunsets,

splashing ocean waves,

and swaying coconut trees.

You can feel the magic through the smiling Tongan people, the faithful members,

and a reverent temple session. ‘Ofa ‘atu, John and Diane

TONGAN MISSION 08 JUNE 2008 MISSION MAGIC-MAKES US LAUGH

Tongan Update, 08 June 2008, Mission Magic Make Us Laugh

Aren’t magicians suppose to entertain us? “Yes!” Aren’t they suppose to make us laugh? “Yes!” Do any of these experiences at least make you smile?

#1 Elder Thompson was trying to give a very spiritual talk in Sacrament Meeting at one of the Tongan speaking wards. Just as he began his talk, the bell at the Weslayan Church right next door started bonging loudly. When the vibrations stopped, John proceeded on with his sermon only to be interrupted this time by two dogs snarling, growling, and then fighting with each other by the open door located at the front of the chapel. Yes, very spiritual indeed!

#2 I made arrangements for President McMurray to fly to Vava’u on the 9:30 am flight. As you now know, flight schedules usually change here; and as expected, the flight was changed to 6:00 am. Good Elder Thompson left our apartment not long after 4:00 am to get the President to the airport an hour before lift-off. When they got to the airport…I can’t stand it…the flight had been changed back to 9:30 am. The airline had just forgotten to contact anyone about the change. YAWN for those early risers!

#3 Then there’s Elder Olsen. He is being released in a few days, and his Dad came from St. George to see the Kingdom of Tonga and take his boy home.

They went to the airport for the 9:30 am flight to Vava’u only to find out that their flight had left at 6:00 am. You have to laugh or you’d go nuts!

#4 I needed to go to the post office. There were a bunch of Elders just hanging around the office so I asked if any of them would like to walk to the post office and help me bring back the mail and packages. The missionaries were mulling over my “great idea” when President McMurray walked into the room. He related an experience about two Elders going to the post office: Two missionaries drove to the post office and retrieved their mail. The passenger Elder opened the envelope of his letter and inside was a “Dear John.” His companion tried to console him and told him, “It’s all part of the missionary experience. You’ll be OK.” When the missionary who had been driving the car opened his mail, there was also a “Dear John.” Both Elders had their hearts broken on the same day.

Now do you think any of the missionaries wanted to walk with me to the post office after that story? They debated among each other whose girlfriend would remain true and faithful for the whole two years. Finally, two courageous Elders agreed to take the challenge, march to the post office, get their mail, and prove to the others that their relationships with their girlfriends were true and long lasting by not getting rotten “Dear Johns.” It turned out……….there was not one scrap of mail….nothing. The missionaries were all safe…….at least for today!

#5 The other day the Embleys (a senior couple) teasingly said to a Tongan couple with whom they have truly grown close, “Our children are planning on putting us into a nursing home when we get home.”

The response was, “Oh no! They can’t do that! We hear they do mean things to people in nursing homes!” And it was left at that.

Elder and Sister Embley went to visit their friends a couple of months after this conversation. The roof of their house was torn off, and they were putting on a second floor. The surprised Embleys asked about the new addition. The friends replied, “We are building the upstair rooms for you. If you don’t like the nursing home, you can come and stay with us!”

No one has offered to do that for us…so Troy, if you’re still thinking about sending us to a nursing home, hmmm….what are our options?

#6 One more…are you smiling? Maybe you have to be here to think these experiences are funny…

This happened after we had a bunch of flight schedule changes, plane ticket mix-ups, and one lost missionary somewhere between here and Nomuka. John bought four Tongan-English Dictionaries as requested by President McMurray. When he turned the cover page, he discovered that the entire book was backwards and upside down.

Ahh…the magic of Tonga…it keeps us laughing! ‘Ofa ‘atu, John and Diane

TONGAN UPDATE JUNE 4, 2008 MISSION MAGIC, THE VANISHING ACT

Tongan Update, 04 June 2008 Mission Magic, The Vanishing Act

Not long after we were married, John and I went to Las Vegas to see Siegfried and Roy’s Magic Show. We had heard from friends that these magicians not only made lions disappear, but also made elephants vanish before your eyes. That’s kind of what happens on a mission—only it’s people who disappear from our lives.

Like “wala ka bam”…our family and friends slipped out of sight. We got on one little airplane, and the world as we know it vanished.

Every six weeks we have transfers…and “wala ka bam”…the office missionaries and the APs (Assistants to the President) disappear to other islands and other assignments.

Our sweet helper at the mission complex, Pele, just retired.

She is a Tongan woman who greeted us the first day we arrived here with a “malo e lelei,” and that’s about the extent of our verbal communication with each other ever since. She speaks little English, and we speak even less Tongan. We’d all do the smiling, miming, pointing, waving acts for each other. It was at her retirement party that we actually found out about her life. She has five children. After their fifth child was born, her husband decided to go to New Zealand to see if he could find a better job to help support the family. They never heard from him again, and Pele was left with raising their kids. She has had several different jobs, but ended up working at the mission office for eight years. She’s been our overall maintenance person-- sweeping, washing windows, dusting, emptying garbage cans, and doing general clean up.

“Wala ka bam!” She’s gone. Elder Thompson and I had a difficult time saying good-bye to her. Why is the vanishing act so darn hard on us?

I came up with a theory. See what you think?

When we left our family and friends, it left big holes in our hearts. In fact, it felt like our hearts were taken out and trampled on by one of those Las Vegas disappearing elephants. But as we make new friends and have positive experiences, we figuratively place band-aids over the holes in the pulsating organs that sustain our lives. We reach a level of comfort. But then we have the “vanishing act”, a band-aid is ripped off exposing our open wound. Then we feel all the pain of losing a new friend plus the pain of leaving home. It becomes a double whammy! Does that make sense?

I guess we need to get a giant box of band-aids and just toughen up!

Then there’s the gal that we wish would disappear. The other day a young gal from our Branch asked us if she could borrow $40. She needed it to help pay her mortgage and would pay us back in one week. What could we say? “Why of course we could help.” Two days later, 10:30 at night, she needed a ride to other side of the island because her sister had Dangue Fever and needed her help to tend the children. “Why of course we could help.” The next day she said she needed help with her water bill. Guess how much this time! $150…$150! “Whoa…can’t help this time!” She settled for $3 for the bus ride home. It’s not over yet. She came asking AGAIN. This time she needed more money AND a ride to the other side of the island because her sister was still sick. “Sorry…we just cannot help out anymore!” We haven’t seen her for a while. Where did she go? She vanished along with the $40.

We would like to help all the poor people here, but we just can’t go into the “bank and loan” business. Senior Missionaries are not to get involved in finance matters with members or non members! We learned our lesson.

‘Ofa ‘atu, John and Diane

TONGAN UPDATE 29 MAY 2008-OPENING OF PARLIAMENThttp://www.blogger.com/post-edit.g?blogID=2605787600922974928&postID=4704019604142619727

Tongan Update, 29 May 2008, Opening of Parliament

“Give me liberty or give me death!”

“I regret that I have only but one life to live for my country.”

These are famous quotes given by what we consider American Revolutionary War heroes, Patrick Henry and Nathaniel Hale. Back in 1776 the colonists were rebelling against King George III of England and what was perceived as his tyranny. They were called the Patriots, but many people were still loyal to the king, thusly named the Loyalists. Once the war for independence was won, the people were then faced with framing a set of laws which this new country would abide by--a constitution. The people did not want a king or any person who would or could rule over them. They were inspired to come up with a government consisting of three branches—each branch having equal powers (a balance of powers) with the representatives of each branch elected by the people…a democracy. (Do I sound like a school teacher?)

Unlike the United States, the Kingdom of Tonga has a constitutional monarchy—way heavy on the monarchy side. They also have three branches of government—the king and his cabinet, the nobles (the rich dudes chosen by the king), and the commoners (elected by the people.) Some Tongans are pushing for more “common people representatives” in parliament and for more voice in their government because most of the nobles vote for what the king wants. We can see red signs painted with sayings like: “Parliament is corrupt.” “Parliament is stealing from us.”

Change has been slow in coming in the last few years, and many impatient Tongans have resorted to demonstrations, strikes, and even the burning of 80 percent of Nuku’alofa, the capital city. (Sound a little familiar--like the Boston Tea Party?) This occurred before our arrival, but the debate is still ongoing between the Kingmen and the Rebels. We hear support for both sides, but we are just “little missionaries” so we remain neutral. However, we did think it was interesting that the ultimate insult for the Kingmen was when the “democracy people” suggested the “noble” language be eliminated. You have to speak a “special” Tongan dialect when talking to the king or the nobles (the rulers of each village.) Each group calls the other “evil” and that they are each seeking power. There are a lot of heated feelings.

A couple of weeks ago was the general election for the commoners’ representatives, and today was the official opening of parliament. It started with the royal princess (the king was in China) being driven through the streets which were lined with the school children of Tonga.

All the members of parliament were waiting in the small parliament building for her royalty.

The princess sat on a large ornate chair next to a couple of rows of smaller blue chairs which were occupied by the nobles. On the other side of the room, sitting on even smaller red chairs were the representatives of the common people. (There is really a caste system here.) Then the members of parliament made the decree that the opening of parliament was now official.

As the princess glided out of the parliament building onto the red carpet, there was an eight cannonball salute. (That was pretty impressive.)

Then all the school children marched past her highness. It was a great parade with high stepping kids and loudly played instruments.

Scholars write books analyzing the pros and cons of different forms of governments, and they are way smarter than we are; so we are only going to just say a couple of things.

1. As Elder Thompson and I were trying to shift through our feelings about a democracy vs a monarchy, we got thinking that it really doesn’t matter your type of government IF the head, leader, president, king, premier, ruler, or whatever is righteous, if he really serves his/her people. Look at King Benjamin and King Mosiah from the Book of Mormon as examples of righteous kings who loved the Lord and created great civilizations because of it. But you also have the likes of King Noah who through his wickedness allowed his people to become servants first to him and then to the Lamanites.

We think it is great that none of the four sons of Mosiah wanted to reign as king as requested by their father as he got older. Finally Alma the Younger agreed to do the job only after refusing to become king, but by becoming the chief judge instead. These young men were worried that eventually a wicked king would destroy the people and the Church.

2. We take for granted our freedoms, our advance style of life with all the modern conveniences, and the blessing to live together as families. These people are trapped. They really live in a world of bondage because of their form of government. There is very little opportunity to promote industry. The king owns the land, the power company, and satellite companies. The people are taxed on everything they buy with a consumption tax of 15%. Competition is limited. These monopolies of the king choke the people. Because there is limited opportunity to earn money here, families divide and go elsewhere. Many people rely on relatives living in other places for their limited income. Consequently, most live a welfare style of life wanting government and families abroad to provide for them. Doesn’t it make it sound like the good old USA is a pretty great place to live?

We are blessed with hot water…nothing like a hot shower. We have hot water in our apartment, but we’re lucky! None of the missionary houses have hot water and neither do most of the Tongan houses and (for lack of better word) motels. At a couple of the places we’ve stayed on other islands, I’d just stick my toes into the shower stall, get goose bumps, and say, “Clean enough!”

In America we’re blessed with curbs, gutters, and drainage systems. Here the water piles up on the road and along the roadsides creating flooding and pools until it evaporates off.

We’ve got our poorer sections of town, but it’s not 80 percent of Americans in poverty like here.

We’ve got super markets, fast food places, huge grocery stores to make fixing dinner a breeze…Cosco and WalMart.

Hey, we have Malls that you can buy NEW clothes and all kinds of items in ONE handy location.

We have schools with pencil sharpeners instead of using knives to stripe the wood surrounding the lead.

We could go on and on about the blessings of living in the USA. But most importantly, all our family and friends are there. IT’S OUR HOME! (I know. Some of you think it’s time to start singing I’m Proud to be an American.)

Well, we are!

‘Ofa ‘atu, John and Diane