Tonga!

Sunday, May 19^th

We were supposed to talk in church today but the ward clerk called last night and changed it to next Sunday. The Stake had people coming to our ward today and they were going to speak. When we got to church there was only one of the three from the Stake that showed up. We never heard what happened, but it was a typical High Council Sunday, he had to speak for 35 minutes. The only problem was, he didn’t speak a word of English and we had 8 visiting palangi’s at church today. Thank heaven we have many members who speak English fluently and they spread out all over the chapel and translated. We learned that that is why people from the Stake don’t like to come to our ward, they don’t speak English. It all turned out well and he gave a good talk.

A young man from our ward is leaving on a mission tomorrow. He is going to Atlanta, Georgia. I was thrilled at how well prepared he is to go. He gave a wonderful talk. His testimony is powerful and he loves the Lord. He will be a great missionary. We saw Ana Ika, the lady we work with, sitting next to his mother. Come to find out, the missionary is her nephew and his mother is Ana’s sister. Small world! It seems that everyone in Tonga is related.
 Our Sunday school class was a joy again today. The people in our class are amazing and they are willing to share their feelings on every gospel principle. Today we talked about missionary work and each one of them told us their conversion story. WOW! I am so grateful that I was born into a member family. Alan and I both wonder if we would have found the church otherwise. We had a great discussion, testimonies were shared and strengthened and tears were shed. It was a bonding experience for all of us. At the end two of them expressed how grateful they are for the senior missionaries that would leave their families and come to Tonga. They told us we are angels. I was touched, another tender mercy of being a senior missionary. We didn’t even get half way through the lesson so we will finish it up next week. Teaching this class makes me really look forward to Sundays. We have two class members who are working toward going to the temple. Since we have a year left, we hope to be able to see both of them fulfill that goal.

While we were in Relief Society and Priesthood meetings we were able to find out a little more about the visitors to our ward today. 6 of them are here to visit the temple and evaluate what needs to be done there. The two ladies are interior designers for the church and they came to see what needs to be up dated. Two are engineers and they came to check the electrical stuff and plumbing, and the last two are men that do an over all evaluation of the condition of the temple and make recommendations if something needs to be done. They will be here until Thursday. The other two visitors are students from the UofU who are here doing internships in social work. They are living with a couple in our ward and they will be here until August so we will get to know them a little better. It was fun to have so many people to visit with today.

Today is Father’s Day in Tonga. It’s kind of neat, they do it all in one month. Children’s Day or White Sunday on the first Sunday of May, Mother’s Day the next Sunday and then Father’s Day the next. They just celebrate all month and they are celebrating the family. Maybe that is why the Tongan people come into the church so easily, it is all about the family in their culture.

When we got home from church we met a missionary that is leaving for America tomorrow. He is going to COLORADO SPRINGS!! He is from one of the outer islands so we don’t know him but his name is Malachi Finau. We are hoping that Kimi and Mike will get to meet him while he is there and we will look for him when we get home and go to visit our new grand daughter!! He seems like a nice young man and he speaks English quite well already. He is going to the MTC in Provo and then out to Colorado.