They made it! Our replacements’ New Zealand jetliner landed at the Fua’amotu International Airport
at 8:30 a.m. on 15 January 2009. Elder Bob and Sister Elaine Sperry appeared a little frazzled after the thirteen hour flight from Salt Lake, but they both put on their best “game faces” and looked all smiles. We cheered and waved, and cried. The realization that our mission was coming to a close hit us. Our replacements are now here.
As we drove through the lush bush and past several villages, Sister Sperry talked and babbled (she had slept on the flight); and Elder Sperry hardly said a thing (he was comatose from the lack of sleep). We all had breakfast with the McMurray family, and then we took the Sperrys to their new little house on the Liahona campus. This is just short term accommodations for them. They will move into the ‘Office Couple/AP-Office Elder Complex’ after we depart. (Man, did I say the “departure” word?)
SPERRY’S FIRST OFFICIAL DAY ON THE JOB
The Sperrys first official day on the job began at 10:00 a.m. It was decided to let them catch up on a little sleep if they could. Therefore, they missed the Harbour Stake Young Men and Woman Carnival which was used as an activity to introduce the Church standards from “Strength of the Youth”. I had a fishing booth. The guy next to me had a ‘throw the ball and knock down the cups’ booth. If the kids missed hitting the cups completely, he would spray them with shaving cream. It didn’t take long for the kids to figure out that it was way more fun to get sprayed with the cream than knock down the cups. After all the action at his booth, my little ‘go fish’ booth was pretty pathetic.
While I was at the carnival, John was with the President and Elder Fineanonofo (Area Seventy) giving his power point presentation on “Houses of Worship”. The President and Elder Fineanonofo spoke about a new missionary program.
Next on the docket was the ‘Amoni Zone Conference at the Fasi chapel.
The Sperrys introduced themselves. The young missionaries giggled when Sister Sperry used her best MTC Tongan to greet them; and they were startled and totally laughing when Elder Sperry performed the “Haka”—a dance and war cry he learned in New Zealand when he was on his mission as a youngster. The Sperrys are already winning the hearts of the Tongan people. Elder Thompson and I gave out presentation about our “Eua experience. We have given this presentation in each of the zone meetings. The “Eua experience is amazing and personally is a very spiritual part of our mission.
We departed (yikes…the “departure” word) the Conference and meandered around downtown Nuku’alofa for a while. We showed the Sperys most of the “hot” spots like the post office, the bank, and the American Store.
(It’s really a Tongan store, but much of the merchandise is from Cosco.) As we drove by, I pointed out the coconut lady, the cat man, and the three con-artist sale ladies.
The Sperrys weren’t nearly as interested in seeing them as I was. Since we’ve moved out to Liahona, I’ve missed my walks on the ocean front and saying “hello” to my buddies.
Well, the Sperrys will make their own new buddies; and besides, they were more interested in getting “play” money at the bank so they could buy food…like that’s fun!
Earlier while we were at the Conference, Sister Masima and Sister Save invited us to go to the viewing of a neighbor’s baby. Because the Sisters had asked us, we decided to go with a group of young missionaries and President McMurray to the house and give our condolences to the family. Elder Thompson and I were so surprised when we realized it was the home on the same property as one of our missionary houses. We knew these people—not well, but we had inspected that house every month for our entire mission. This family had four daughters and one baby son. Their only boy was just six months old and now had recently died from complications with pneumonia. Needless to say, the parents were heart-broken. Our group sang and prayed with the family. Then the parents gave us a great honor by wanting us to actually view the little boy’s body which was being held in a refrigerated container covered with mats and tapa cloth. It’s traditional for you to kiss the deceased, and that is what we did. It was all so sad. His little body to stiff and cold. My, it’s nice to know of the Lord’s plan for us, and that we will see our loved ones again. Sister Sperry was wiping her tears, and Elder Sperry was already making friends with the uncle of the family. John and I were just numb with the experience and only our knowledge of the gospel, brought peace to our minds.
The Sperry's first official work day was over, and we hadn’t even peeked into the office. So Monday, we’ll hit the paper work! Oh Boy!
Later in the evening all the senior missionaries had pizza at a new establishment called “Little Italy”…it wasn’t exactly a Tongan experience, but the food was great! We are going to miss these people.
Elder Thompson and I are so glad the Sperrys are here! They will be wonderful for the office, the mission, and the Tongan people. Let’s just leave it at that! (Oh… I said “leave”…a synonym for the “departure” word.)
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