Tonga!

Saturday, June 29th
When we woke up this morning it was raining hard. It had rained most of the night. We had to go to the fair this morning. I really needed some Clorox. The other stuff you can buy here just doesn’t work and I don’t want our clothes to look awful for the second half of our mission. The Szokas wanted to go with us, so off we went. By the time we got into town it had let up a little so we hurried and got what we needed. Just as we were leaving the fair it started to pour again, so the timing was pretty good.

It was not a good day today though. The Szokas told us that they will be leaving in two weeks. They have been here for 21 months and were planning to stay for 24, but they found a job offer on the internet that they couldn’t pass up. They will be going to teach in a school in Kazastahan. They will each be paid $5,000 a month and they get 2 trips home a year, one at Christmas and one for the summer break. It will really help them with their retirement. They sold their house at a loss to come on this mission and this is a huge blessing in their lives. They plan to stay for 2 years, maybe 3 if they really like it. They have been in the military and lived all over the world so this is not unusual for them. We are happy that they have this opportunity but really sad to see them leave so quickly. They have become very good friends.

Our new Mission President and his family arrived today. We all went out to the airport to meet them. He is Tongan, his wife is not and they brought two sons with them, an 11 year old and a 9 year old. They both look very Tongan and will fit right in here, except that they do not know the language. They are really cute boys and it will be fun to have them around the mission. They were all extremely tired and they have relatives in Tonga so we didn’t spend much time with them. We will get to know them better next week.

We were able to Face Time with Mike and Kimi and our precious baby Grace today --- sort of. We kept getting kicked off but we were determined to be able to see little Grace. SHE IS BEAUTIFUL!!! It was so fun to watch her kick and move while she was laying on the floor. Then Kimi put her little face right up to the screen so she could give Grandma and Grandpa a kiss. How am I ever going to survive not holding her until she is almost a year old? I just can’t think about it.

It was movie night tonight. We watched a good movie. It was called “The Crossing.” I think it was a made for TV movie because it was a little blurry when we blew it up on the wall. It was about George Washington crossing the Delaware. I learned a lot of things I didn’t know about that time in American history. I enjoyed it.