Tonga!

Monday, April 28th

After our devotional this morning I talked to Enismore about the Johnson’s house not being cleaned yet. She about died. She thought it had been done last week. She went into fast forward and started making phone calls to get it cleaned before noon. I told her I would check it when we go in to put the food in, just before the couple arrives.

We went into work for a couple of hours and then headed to the airport to pick up the Woods and the Simmons. They are both going to be great additions to our mission. Sister Wood was so excited to finally be here after waiting such a long time, that she was jumping up and down at the airport. She will be a lot of fun. President and Sister Tupou took both couples out to lunch and we took their luggage back to their houses on campus. When we got there the houses had been cleaned, not as well as they would have been if there had been more time, but they were in pretty good shape. We were able to put the food in and have everything ready for the new couples when they arrived.

FHE tonight was really interesting. President Hopoate and his wife came and talked to us. They are the former temple president and matron. They were released last November. They have been pillars in the church here. He was called to be a Stake President when he was 29 and the Tonga Nuku’alofa Mission President when he was 33. Sister Hopoate had 3 children while they were serving. He told us the first baby, a boy, was born 3 weeks after they started that mission so they named him Stamis, a combination of “stake” and “mission“. Up to that point they had had a boy then a girl etc. The second baby that was born while they were serving was also a boy, which threw the sequence off. President wanted to name him “mistake” but Sister Hopoate wouldn’t let him. His next calling was to serve as an Area Authority, then an Area 70 for 13 years. Now that they have finished serving in the temple, they will be leaving to serve a mission in Papa New Guinea next month. There has to be a special place in heaven for this couple!