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.
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