Sunday, June 2^nd

It rained all night last night. That cooled it down a little but the humidity is awful. This morning it was still raining, cool and dark when the alarm went off. It is getting harder and harder for me to get out of bed. Even on Sunday we have to get up by 6:30 in order to make it in to town in time for church.

A lot of people were either late or didn’t come to church today because of the weather. We had a small group in our Sunday School class but we still had a good discussion and everyone participated. There is such a good feeling in that class, we are really enjoying it.

The Forsyths are here from Vava’u for some training. That is the couple that we stayed with when we were in Vava’u. We had them over for dinner today. It was fun to spend some time with them and get caught up on what is happening in that area of the mission. Elder Forsyth has a bad cold so he hasn’t been feeling very well the whole time they have been here. He seemed a little better today. We are hoping that we don’t catch it from him. Colds seem to be going around right now.

After dinner we went to talk to the Szokas. The missionaries called and said that they want the senior missionaries to teach a religion class at one of the primary schools every Friday. There are 100 kids in the class and it lasts for 1 hour. That would take a ton of preparation and non of us have the time to do that. Elder Szoka is our District Leader so we are going to let him handle it.

Saturday, June 1^st

We had to get up early and take the missionary money out this morning. It about killed me to get out of bed. By Saturday I am exhausted! I need some down time. But once we got going we had a great time. We love being with the young missionaries and now that we know them it is really fun to be with them. We didn’t give out a lot of Snickers today but I have raised my standards, especially when they know that we are coming. I was encouraged though, most of the MQ’s were pretty clean. The missionaries are doing better.

I had an “a hah” moment today. It seems that this mission is upside down. The young missionaries get up at 6:30, exercise, eat, get cleaned up and then study. They leave their MQ at 11:00 AM. The senior missionaries get up between 5:00 and 6:00, exercise, eat, get cleaned up and leave to start their various callings by 7:30 to 8:00 AM. What’s up with that? I want to leave for work at 11:00. We’re old, we should have an easier schedule than a 19 year old! Who do I contact about this??

We spent the afternoon doing laundry and cleaning and then decided to relax and watch a movie. We watched Baptists at My Bar-B-Q. It was kind of dumb but funny and we enjoyed it.

Friday May 31^st

When we got to the office today I had settled down enough to make a call to New Zealand. I decided to call Elder Reynolds and get some help. He was so kind and understanding. I had him pull the contract up on his computer so we could go through it together. It was great, he didn’t know any more than I did so he put us on a conference call to Salt Lake. We talked to Christy who is the secretary to the big boss in the Church Office over water projects. She told me to just save the contract to the computer desk top and work on it there. I can do that but then we have to scan it to send it and we don’t have a scanner. It just keeps getting better and better. If all else fails I will copy it and send it to Elder Reynolds and he will take it from there. I was so grateful for the help. They were both so patient and kind. Elder Reynolds said that he feels so bad about our working conditions. It’s like sending a senior couple into the field and asking them to run a race with a ball and chain tied around their necks. He and Steve Stebbings are working hard to improve the conditions here. When Steve left Tonga he said, “either fix it or move them!” We will see what comes of that.
 
We had movie night tonight so I made a Zebra Cake this afternoon. It is a Ukranian cake and I didn’t know if anyone would like it but it was something different and it was easy. I needed easy, I have enough stress in my life right now. We watched a Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers movie tonight. It was really OLD, but the dancing was wonderful. I loved it, Alan endured it.

Thursday, May 30^th

It’s a good thing that my computer would not stay connected to the internet today because if it had I would have booked a ticket for home!!! I worked for 2 hours filling out that legal contract for the Lavengatonga project. I saved it 4 times during the process --- just in case --- and come to find out, I had been off of the internet the whole time. When I left it to retrieve the project number and then went back to finish it up ---IT WAS TOTALLY BLANK!!!!! Really, what is a woman to do? I cried.

Alan had gone to pick up missionary supplies for tomorrow so I just sat there and felt sorry for myself for a few minutes. Then I ran off a copy of the contract and started to fill it out in pencil. At least I will have a copy if that happens again. I didn’t get anything done at the office today, although I worked hard all morning.

When I got back to Liahona I decided not to tackle the contract again today. The headache I already had was sufficient for one day. I worked on my journal and put some things on the blog.

We tried to call Annette for her birthday but she wouldn’t answer the phone. We were sad to miss talking to her.

Thank heaven it was Thursday, once again the temple saved my sanity.

Wednesday, May 29^th

My meeting with the Stake Relief Society President was at 10:00 this morning but she was at our office at 9:00. I think that might be a good sign. She is excited and ready to get started. Thank heaven I was prepared with everything I needed. Ana Ika came into the training and we had a really good discussion. It took about an hour to explain everything to her and make sure that we are all on the same page. We decided which lessons we are going to use and she took them with her so she can translate them into Tongan. She already has people in mind that she wants to use to help her. I was a little worried about them all being members of the church, but they are people she knows well and can trust, which is so important. That should lay a firm foundation for us to build upon as we go out and teach the villagers. We set up another meeting in 2 weeks to go through the translation and then we will be able to get started.

I also got an email from Elder Colson today with some help on the legal issues for our project. I was so grateful for his help. I feel a little better now. It was a good day at the office!

We stopped on our way home and I got my hair cut. It was curling up in every direction and if it gets a little long I never know what I am going to look like. With the humidity and rain that we are having now, I just had to have it shorter. Baby does a good job cutting it and I feel much better now.

Alan and I walked over to the FM offices and talked to Supie about a key for the Fellows office. She had talked to Sister Fefieta and new that we would be coming. No one knows where the key is or if the Fellows turned it in. Supie is going to have the locksmith make us one so it may be Monday before we actually get in there. Oh well, at least there is hope!

It was cloudy and windy all day today and that really cooled things off. IT FELT SOOOOOOOO GOOD!!! Alan and I went for a walk before dinner, it was actually cool enough to do that at 4:00 in the afternoon. When we got home I made some ham fried rice. We don’t have any celery here or water chestnuts but I found some fresh bean sprouts so I decided to go for it. I missed the crunch of the celery but it actually tasted very good. It was something different!

Tuesday, May 28^th

I spent the morning getting ready for my hygiene training meeting tomorrow. I had pictures and booklets to run off and organize. We also spent some more time with the computer guys. I think they were hiding out at our office today. Those guys from America have been putting a lot of pressure on them to make things better at the schools and there really isn’t much they can do to change the internet coverage on this island. They came to our office because the CES guys don’t know where it is. We learned today that the church pays $50,000.00 a month for internet service in Tonga. WOW!! And it is terrible. That is sad.

When I went to Liahona this afternoon the 10 nurses were in the conference room trying to do their homework. It was a circus. I need a QUIET place to work. I saw Verna in the hall and asked her if she had talked to the principal yet. She said yes and that the principal thought we could use the TVET office for awhile, but that they are trying to replace the Fellows with a local couple and then we would need to give the office to them. Anything is better than what we have now so I will go talk to FM tomorrow and see about getting a key.

We were able to talk to Kimi today --- finally!! It sounded so good to hear her voice. We really do worry about her. It is hard to be so far away when she is so close to having this baby! When we called she and Mike had just finished up a Baby Shower at his parents house. She was excited about all of the fun things they received. It sounds like this will be the best dressed baby in Colorado. She said she is feeling good and she sounded good. It was a big relief to me to be able to talk to her. We have got to find a way to stay in touch with them.

I went to the relief society enrichment meeting in our old ward at Liahona tonight. They are making Tongan outfits and I wanted to make one too. They invited me back and said that I can come all the time to enrichment. I think I will, we don’t have them in our ward down town, people have to travel to far to get there. It was fun to see all of the sisters again, I have missed them! The principal of Liahona is in that ward and she was at the meeting tonight. I asked her about getting a key to the Fellows office and she didn’t know what I was talking about. She had not talked to Verna at all! Verna just made all of that up to appease me. Sister Fefeita, the principal, said that she was fine with us using the office and to go get a key from the FM. She doesn’t think that they will replace the Fellows this year so we should be able to stay there for awhile. Then she got her phone out and sent Verna an email to tell her that she had given me permission to use the office. I sure would have loved to have seen the look on Verna’s face when she got that email. It will be interesting when I run into her again.

Monday, May 27^th
 We had two of the computer specialists in our office all morning trying to make things work. I really think we are beyond help. Although it is especially frustrating when things won’t work -- then the specialists show up and they do work -- and as soon as they are gone they won’t work again. I often wonder if they think we are all crazy. We had some of that going on today but they also saw some of the problems first hand. We are grateful for any help they can give us. Today they also worked to make sure that everyone is hooked up with the new printer. We do have a wonderful printer! It’s not all bad.

We stopped in town to check on some missionary supplies and ran into Sione Tonga, the water project man. He had been looking for me to tell me that his aunt, who used to be in our ward before she went to America, had just passed away. I was so sad to hear that. We celebrated her 80^th birthday before she left. She had a bad fall one night and suffered a lot of pain on her left side after that. She flew to California to be with her daughter and I guess they took her straight from the airport to the hospital. She was full of cancer. She was the sweetest lady. I will miss her but I am glad that she made it to America. She has always wanted to be buried by her husband and he is buried in Arizona. Now that will be possible.

This afternoon at Liahona there was a meeting in the small conference room which meant that I had no where to go to get my work done. Howard, the Service Center Manager is in New Zealand so I went to see Verna, his assistant to ask for an office at Liahona. We know that the Fellows had internet access in their office and since they went home it is vacant. We have got to have a place to go! She said she would call the school principal and see if we can use that space.

Family Home Evening was torture for me! Elder and Sister Bean were in charge and they gave us a SPELLING TEST! I hate spelling tests and I especially hate spell-offs. I hated them when I was in school and I still hate them, mainly because I never was good at spelling. It is especially embarrassing when people know that you are an English teacher and then find out that you don’t spell well. The test tonight was on words from the Scriptures, and there were some doozies! Thankfully I didn’t come in last, there are also other seniors here who are very successful people, who don’t spell well. Alan did great and he ended up in the spell-off. He didn’t win, but he got a prize so I was proud of him. He can represent us well in spelling competitions.