Tonga!

Friday, August 9th

We had a special devotional with Terry Oaks this morning. He told us what he does as the Director of Temporal Affairs. He takes care of all the “stuff” so the bretheren can focus on the spiritual aspect of the work. He told me he received 185 emails yesterday from people throughout the Pacific. That is a full time job itself. I can’t begin to imagine how he does it. He told us that he and all of the leaders in the South Pacific have felt a “REAL URGENCY” to move the Lord’s work forward. They feel like there is about an 18 month window when there will be an influx of new missionaries and then it will slow down again. He said that we can’t waste this window of opportunity to push forward. We are thrilled to be apart of the work at this historic time. He also talked about a seminar about Hastening the Work. It was a Mission President’s Seminar that was put online so that all of the members could view it. We had not heard about it, but it is online so he told us to watch it. We all just smiled at him. He got the message, he understands the internet here now that he has experienced it, but he said that somehow we need to be able to see it. Hopefully the Service Center will be able to make a copy of it so we can all watch it. To end, he challenged us to do what he has been asked to do. Go to the topical guide and look up and read all of the scriptures that are listed under the word WAY. He has found it to be very enlightening. We will accept that challenge. The two songs we sang at the devotional were my two favorite Tongan hymns. I have got to record the people singing them before we come home. They are so powerful!!!

We got a letter from Morgan today!!~! She sent it on June 7th! Her mom has got to learn what the words “Air Mail” mean!! Still, it was fun to hear from her. How we love and miss our sweet Morganna!!! We also got an email from Greg. We knew he had an appointment with the eye doctor and we had written to see how that came out. Evidently, not so good. He is near sighted and he needs glasses. That will mean he has to give up a couple of golf games to pay for them so it might be winter before he gets around to it. Other than that, he sounded good.

We saw Pate’, a man from the FM group, on the way home from the office today. Alan stopped to talk to him and asked him if they had any mattresses in storage. Our mattress is so bad and we know that is not helping either one of our backs. We had barely gotten home when he came to tell us to go pick out a new mattress and the FM would buy it for us. These mattresses have been here for years and they need to be replaced. The people in FM love Alan and they would do about anything for him. Alan went into town to get a haircut this afternoon and he picked out a mattress. We might have it today, but for sure by the first of the week we will be sleeping on a much better bed. We wanted a pillow top but there are none on the island and it could be months if ever before they get one. We will take what we can get, it can’t be worse than what we have now. Another tender mercy. Heavenly Father is taking care of us!

While Alan was in town I wrote a couple of emails to New Zealand and then started our Friends and Family letter. I will finish it this weekend. I am glad that it is Friday, I am ready for the weekend. I’m tired!!

We were FINALLY able to make contact with Alli for her birthday. It was almost 10:00 their time by the time we reached her but it was fun to visit with her. She had a good day and she is excited to be 12! Going into Young Women’s is always a great experience, we know she will love her years there. We are so proud of her and the beautiful Young Woman she has become. Our grand daughters are amazing, beautiful on the inside and the outside, every one of them!
We went out to dinner with the Beans, the Johnsons and Sister Mitchell tonight. We were celebrating all of the August birthdays. We went to Little Italy and once again had a really good meal. That is a good place to eat, but tonight it took over an hour for them to serve us. They weren’t that busy. I think they think that drawing it out that long is just part of the “fine dining” experience. But when you don’t get your food until after 8:00 it is hard for Alan to enjoy his meal.

After dinner we took Sister Mitchell with us and went to another Stake Dance. It is our Stake Conference this weekend and this dance was part of the weekend plan. There was a ton of security at the parking lot and all around the Stake Center. They must have had some trouble in the past. We have not seen security like that anywhere we have been in Tonga. The dance was very nice and we had a good time. We were able to make an appearance, dance a couple of dances, say hello to everyone we knew and be home by 10:00. That works. We learned and participated in the Tongan Line Dance tonight. Evidently it is a tradition at special occasions. We have not seen it done before. It was an interesting experience and fun to be apart of.