Sunday, March 17thAlan and I got engaged 39 years ago today. It was a good decision!! The people of Tonga don’t know anything about St. Patrick’s Day so it was fun to teach them a little about the customs. We had a good day at church but I had a headache all day so I was glad to come home and rest after church.
In our Sunday School class we were talking about gaining a testimony of the Book of Mormon. When I asked if anyone would share how they received their own testimony of the Book of Mormon, our sweet young woman from Fiji, Tipika, raised her hand. She said that she was reading the B. of M. and just started to cry. Tears were running down her face and she didn’t understand what was happening. She asked the missionaries and they explained to her that the Holy Ghost was testifying to her that the book was true and that Joseph Smith was a prophet. She said that when she reads the BofM all alone in a quiet place she almost always feel the Spirit telling her that it is true. She is such a wonderful young woman and she has such a pure heart. We truly love her!
We had our dinner and fireside with the Mission President today. We always eat to much because everybody brings such good food. I made a huge cabbage salad this week because I wanted to make something green to celebrate the day. Then the president told the senior couples about the mission goal for March. We already knew about it because of our work with the missionaries but they were all excited to hear about the work here. Our mission president has enlisted each stake in Tonga, 18 of them, to do missionary work along with the elders. Each Stake is trying to baptize 12 people during the year. The mission is trying to get as many baptisms as Alma did, 204, during the month of March. President Tukuafu was worried about making that goal because of all the rain that we have had these last 2 weeks. But in the areas where the flooding was the worst and the missionaries couldn’t get out and work, many people were being put up in the Stake Center, so the missionaries taught them there and they got 9 baptisms out of that one Stake in one week. The Lord always provides a way!!
Since the Jensen’s went home we needed to have a new Zone Leader for the senior couples. President called Elder Szoka to that position. The Szoka’s have been here the longest now and they will be here until October. He will do a great job. They are a fun couple and they will plan lots of interesting things for us to do.
