Tonga!

Jan. 21st, 2013

We had our Monday morning devotional at the Service Center this morning. This week it was only 30 minutes long. There was a quartet made up of men that work for the Service Center who sang the most beautiful song. They didn’t use the piano, they just stood up and starting singing. What amazing voices!! I could have listened to them for hours. Silone, who is the manager over the surplus items, took us to the warehouse to have a look at what is being stored there. When the Liahona High School replaces something they take the surplus to that warehouse and then we can ask for items that we need, like school supplies for other schools, tables, chairs and shelves. We saw some band instruments this morning and a small school had ask for some so we will write that up and try to get them. It was good to meet Silone face to face. Now we know where to go and who to talk to.
After the devotional we went to the Mission Office to plan our trip for next week. President is taking us to the other islands to check on the missionary housing and to speak at Zone Conferences. Alan is really excited. We will be seeing some of the places where he served when he was here. We are amazed at how quickly we have been able to travel. The Mission President wants us to see everything in the mission because he will be released in July and the new president will need our help. We are happy to be seeing so much of the mission so quickly.
It was another wasted day at the office. SSSSSSSLLLLLLLLLLOOOOOOOOOOOWWWWWW INTERNET!! I am going to write to our supervisor and tell him about this problem. We aren’t getting anything done in the time that we spend there.
We came back to the campus for a meeting with the Service Center Director. We will be working very closely with him and he helped us a lot today. We will set up a meeting with him every other week and talk to him about the projects we are working on. He has a real feel for what is happening on the islands and he is well connected, so he will be a great support for our work. We were pleased with the outcome of that meeting. Sure wish that we could get an office in the Service Center. That would make our lives much easier.
We didn’t have FHE tonight because of the dinner and fireside yesterday. It was nice to have some time to relax and get ready for our talks on Sunday. Alan is trying to catch another cold so he went to bed early.