Tonga!

Jan. 10th, 2013

I didn’t sleep very well last night worrying about that stupid CD. Alan didn’t worry about it at all, but this morning when he realized that we had a meeting at 11:00 that we didn’t have the material for, he started to panic. How do men do that? Sleep all night and then panic in the morning. I don’t get it! Anyway, I took the computer over to the school before we went into the office. No one was there to work on it so I had to call one of the computer specialists and tell him the problem. Later he called me and said that there was no CD in the tray. Duh!!! I explained it all to him again and he took the computer apart and found the CD. Somehow it sucked it up off of the tray and it was stuck just above it. It scares me, I am a little bit afraid to use it now.
It wasn’t a great start to our day, but by 11:00 everything was back in order and we were able to do our first orientation for the new missionaries. There were 9 of them, 5 from the states, 3 of which were Tongans and 2 white boys. We felt good about what happened in the meeting and the president seemed pleased, so I guess I lost all that sleep for nothing. I’ve got to learn to think like a Tongan --- oh well, not to worry.
This afternoon I spent an hour and a half sending an email to our friends and family with pictures attached. The internet was so slow that by the time I got the pictures downloaded, it had kicked me off. I got back on and by the time I had selected the people that I wanted to send it to, I was kicked off again. Then when I finally got it all put together and sent, 12 came back with failure notices! I had to go back in and send it again with no pictures attached. By the time I was done I was so frustrated! And I thought the internet was bad in Ukraine! The fact that we have to go to the school to use it just makes it worse. It is really hard not having it in our home. They tell us that they will have a new system up and running here in July. We just aren’t sure in July of what year. Everything moves according to Tongan time. We will wait and see. Pray for us!
We did end the day on a much higher note. Thursday is the day all of the senior couples go to the evening session at the temple. They do it in English and it was a perfect escape from the frustrations of the day for me. I love the temple! As we came out, we talked to a young sister who was in the parking lot. She is a student at the high school here. She was born in Taylorsville but when she was a small child her grandmother, who lives in Tonga, told her mother that she needed a girl to live here, to grow up in her home to take care of her. The mother sent her young daughter over to live with the aunt and the grandmother, who is now 93. She has lived here the whole time and has not been back to America. When the grandmother dies, she will be able to go back to her family in the states. The grandmother is the head of the family in Tonga, and it is tradition for her to make the decisions for the family. This young woman felt no bitterness about what had happened, but she is looking forward to being reunited with her family again in the near future.