Jan. 6th, 2013
It was fast Sunday and a very tender one for our family. We were fasting for Kimi and her baby. What a special experience. We felt so very close to the Lord all day and to our family. Even thousands of miles away our faith and prayers bind us together and strengthen us. Oh how we love our children, their spouses and our grandchildren!
Our Fast and Testimony meeting was wonderful. There was a constant line of people to bear their testimonies and they were beautiful. These people have so little and yet they have great faith. It is a privilege to serve among them. One of the men we work with in the FM group, he assigns the cars, died last night. We didn’t know him well, we just met him, but he works closely with the missionaries. He mowed his lawn yesterday and then had a heart attack and died at 11:00 last night. His funeral was today at 3:00. They do it within 24 hours here. He was only 45 and left a wife and family. It was so sad! Tongans look at death in a very matter of fact way. You die when it is your time to die. They don’t question why and how you die just doesn’t matter. Still it is devastating for his family.
Sister Fellows came to see us tonight. She needed some information about a book I had. She and her husband are here from Australia. He is a vocational education teacher at the high school. They are in their late 70’s and she is not happy about being here. He has a lot to do and she has nothing to do. She is the cutest lady, totally blunt. She says exactly what she thinks and if you ask her how she likes it here she will say, “next question.” She has a wonderful accent and so many cute phrases. She thought she and her husband would serve in the temple in Australia until “they turned up their toes.’ I LOVE HER!! She is very careful with her money and she and Alan were talking about how expensive it is to live here. She looked right at him and said, “now don’t you worry about it one more minute. You are here doing the Lord’s work and he will watch out after you. I mean it! Don’t think about it again. It will all work out, you’ll see.” She is great. We are so blessed to have them here. They got here the week before we did so we will serve the whole time with them. I’m so glad, she is a breath of fresh air.
I baked some banana muffins tonight. YUM! We have so many bananas that we need to use up. We can’t even give them away fast enough. I also made chicken nuggets, and got homesick for my grandkids!!!!!
