TOGAN UPDATE 17 JANUARY 2009 THE SPERRY'S ARE HERE

Tongan Update, January 17, 2009 "The Sperrys are here!"

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.)

‘Ofa ‘atu, Elder and Sister Thompson

TONGAN UPDATE 09 JAN 2009 NO WHALES, RAINBOWS, OR MIRACLES

Tongan Update, January 9, 2009 "No Whales, Rainbows, or Miracles"

‘Eua…we’ll never forget the island of ‘Eua

and the miracle conversion of Matelie Havea who felt the Light of Christ out in ‘the bush’ and accepted Elder Thompson’s challenge to be baptized.

We, six senior missionaries, felt the “fruit of the Spirit” that weekend. (Galations 5:22 The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, gentleness, goodness, faith…) Wow! What an amazing experience! And a few breaching whales spraying under a glorious rainbow added to the experience.

This trip to ‘Eua was much different. Elder Thompson and I were the one lonely senior couple to return to the island this time.

The Embleys have returned to their home in the states, and the senior sisters (Kinikini and Vuki)

were transferred to Niuatoputapu or so we thought. There were no whale sightings. The huge ocean mammals have migrated south, and there were no rainbows spanning across the sky. Our main goal for this visit to ‘Eua, besides a District Meeting

and house inspections,

was to teach Matelie’s wife, Kalo.

Even with the encouragement and testimonies of her husband and family, she has still refused to listen to the gospel lessons from the young Elders. It was hoped that the “goldie oldie dual” might have an impact on her, and the spirit would touch her heart.

Elder T. and I went to the Havea’s home thinking that we would have a personal, one-on-one discussion with Kalo. Instead, the entire extended family (It was New’s Year Day.)

clamored into their living room to hear the plangi missionaries. Elder Thompson gave a wonderful lesson on “the family”, and I bore my testimony. A couple of the women in the crowd were tearful, but NOT KALO. One man, not a member, told her that she needed to listen to the missionaries and to follow her husband and be baptized. Elder Thompson asked her if we could return later that evening and continue to teach her. She said, “No.” What could we say? “ Ohh….wellllll… if you change your mind, give us a phone call.” We waited for some kind of response that evening and the next morning. No call! Finally Elder Thompson gave it the old college try and called the Havea’s home. We were informed Kalo didn’t want to talk to us. Darn it! No miracle…at least not yet!

By now we had completed our other missionary assignments so…we spent some time walking the sandy beaches of ‘Eua.

We said we were not going to gather any more shells, but…we hope all of you who are chilling in the snow and seven degree weather back in Salt Lake like shells because you’re all going to get them for souvenirs from Tonga when we get home.

While we were “slaving” on ‘Eua, our fellow senior missionaries, Sister Kinikini

and Sister Vuki,

were flying towards the equator to the further most Tonga island of Niuatoputapu. (This is Elder Groberg’s island where the movie “The Other Side of Heaven” was filmed.) The Sisters were filled with trepidation when the Mission President asked them to become proselyting missionaries (they had been working in Family History) on this tiny island with no internet, no cell phone usage, and electricity produced by a village generator for only a few hours a day. They were not sure how they were going to survive the heat without air conditioning and the million of mosquitoes for which Niua is famous. (Sister Vuki is 75 years old).

As those sweet sisters were boarding the plane, Sister Kinikini turned around and waved as she yelled, “Hurrah for Israel!” (Sister Kinikini’s family in America was pretty impressed with the fact that their mom was going to Groberg’s island because they all know Elder Groberg. One of her children even named their latest grandchild “Niua” in honor of their valiant and faithful mom's assignment to that island.)

Well, as air travel goes in Tonga, the smaller plane that was to transport them from Vava’u (the half-way mark) to Niua had developed mechanical difficulties, and so the rest of their flight was cancelled—indefinitely! The President didn’t have the heart to send them on the eighteen hour broken-down-Olovaha-boat ride to their destination.

(It turns out that the Olovaha hadn’t even left the wharf yet due to inclimate weather so there really is no way at this point to get the Sisters to Niua.)

FLEXIBILITY IS STILL THE NAME OF THE GAME HERE! These dear sisters are now nestled into a little missionary house on Ha’apai. Their luggage, however, made a trip back to the main island of Tongatapu, but eventually it found its owners in Ha’apai.

We love Tonga! ‘Ofa ‘atu, Elder and Sister Thompson

TONTONGAN UPDATE DECEMBER 26, 2008 CHRISTMAS

Tongan Update 26 Dec 2008 Christmas

Ahh….the Christmas Season! Our choir of carolers grew by four new missionary couples this month—Woods (ITEP), Sings (CES), Hawleys (CES), and the Heimulis (teacher). The Sperrys (Mission Office Couple) will come in three weeks. It looks like it’s the changing of the guard, except all the previous missionaries have long gone home…excluding us! And we celebrated Christmas big time!

Our little branch had a branch party where the Primary children reenacted the “First Christmas.”

We used the old script John has used at our own family’s eve celebration. One Christmas our grandson, Luke, was designated to be a cow in the manager. “I don’t want to be a cow,” he said. None of the children here wanted to be the cow either (cows get eaten). To encourage his child to be the mooing animal, one father bought his boy a set of flashing red devil horns (like you find at Halloween).
It added an interesting affect to the nativity scene. Our Baby Jesus was interesting too. He was a blue teddy bear.

The children, dressed in their Biblical attire,

had their story parts memorized. Young and old joined in the retelling of Luke 2 and the singing of traditional hymns. We weren’t exactly a professional acting troop, but we did receive a taste of the real meaning of Christmas.

This event was followed by a visit from Santa;

and Santa would have look very familiar to you all. Elder Thompson just happened to buy a 30 pa’anga Santa suit in town that morning. When asked to play the role, he was ready to go…and he was funny! At the appropriate time, he grabbed a red sock stuffed with presents.

The sock was as tall as he was. He entered the party with a big Ho Ho Ho. The kids were mesmerized by this jolly old elf

as he passed out a gift to every Primary child.

He even had a few older Tongans sisters sit on his lap.

As Santa was skipping out the door, making his departure and singing dashing through the snow, his red trousers slipped down around his knees. It brought a roar of laughter and became the big topic of discussion in Primary the next day. In his class of 3-7 year olds, they all speculated who Santa was and giggled about the pants falling down.

And then (after Santa left)…would you believe? We had a feast!

Later in the week, we, being the “old timers,” gave the new missionaries a tour of the island. The mission nurse had us stop at a home or two sick Tongans to sing carols and deliver hand-made Christmas bears to the children. We made over 40 teddy bears and delivered them to children.

On Christmas Eve we had a spaghetti dinner with the seniors, Office Elders, and APs. Elder Thompson and I thought we’d give the new arrivals to the island a little flavor of Tonga by insisting that they use different cooking utensils for inserting their food into their mouths instead of forks and knives. Tonga is kind of a quirky and unpredictable place…so was our dinner; quirky that is. The group also wrapped ribbon around 50-60 Church videos and DVDs for the Elders to pass out on Christmas Day as an approach to opening a dialogue for prospective investigators. The seniors then watched the DVD of “Mr. Kruger’s Christmas.” And Santa showed up again and distributed his VHS’s to all. That guy gets around! (With all the ufi that he and the reindeer ate, it’s a wonder that his sleigh was able to get off the ground.)

On Christmas Day we had breakfast with the Office Elders and the APs. (It seems like we’re feeding those boys a lot!) Who made the scene again? Santa, himself! He was a busy man this season! He even made a trip to President McMurray’s home. This time it was Sister McMurray, Michele, and Danny who got to sit on Santa’s lap and had to answer his clever questions. He had gifts for all including four rolls of toilet paper—two ply, and really difficult to acquire in Tonga. “Ho, ho, ho! Merry Christmas!”

We ended the day with a picnic at the beach with the other senior missionaries and the McMurray family. (The infamous Office Elders and APs were there too. They are always where the food is, and we wouldn’t have had it any other way. We like these guys—Elders Iketau, Karratti, Lyon, Haltli, and Uluilakepa.) There were choices of beach activities--frisbee, miniature golf (using long poles we had found on a previous beach and tennis balls), shell-gathering, swimming in the ocean for the kids, visiting, and helping the chefs prepare our meal over an open fire.

The McMurray family also joined us for the afternoon activities. The President has his own way of having fun! Once, when we turned around, he was giving the “first discussion” to some people lounging on the beach. President McMurray is such a great example to all the missionaries on how to get the Lord’s work done!

When he got through with his discussion, he challenged each of the missionaries to walk the beach, introduce ourselves, and engage in a gospel message.

Well, Merry Christmas and a giant Ho Ho Ho to all.

‘Ofa ‘atu,

Elder and Sister Thompson