Tonga!

Monday, July 15th

At our Monday morning devotional the new missionary couple, the Dasslers were introduced. We haven’t been able to spend much time with them yet, but they seem like a great couple who will really add to the work that is being done here. We are getting a lot of senior couples now, we have 3 coming in August. It has been a real change for us, since we didn’t have any couples around us in Ukraine. Soon we will have 8 couples serving in Tonga , 10 with the ones serving on the outer islands,

The hard part about serving so closely with other couples is that it is very hard when they go home! We took the Szokas to the airport and saw them off this morning. They were so ready to go by the time we got there. The Tongan people are so giving and they kept getting “one more gift”. The sentiment is wonderful, but you can only take so much stuff with you on the plane. They had to leave some of those gifts behind, which was sad and hard for them to do, but they had no choice. It was a teary good-bye but they have been wonderful missionaries and they did all that they were called here to do. They have served faithfully for 20 months.

After lunch we took the Dasslers into town shopping. I remember so well our first trip into town to get food. It is such a shock to see the prices. They looked like deer in the headlights but they handled it very well. It took us a couple of hours but they were able to get everything they needed to get started. It was nice to be able to spend a little time alone with them and get to know them better.

We were on a time schedule today. We needed to be home by 4:00 so we could call Tiff again. We had a great visit with her today. I had to smile, she is having such a hard time turning 36. Oh to be 36 again! No, I really don’t want to go back and do it all again. It was fun the first time but I’ve been there and done that. I like having every day be a new adventure. And it certainly is that in Tonga!

We had FHE tonight. It was the first one that we have been in charge of as the new District Leaders. It went very well. We are planning a dinner with the President for next Sunday and then we will be weaving Tongan baskets on the last Saturday of the month. We hope to get a whale watching trip put together soon. Alan will talk to a man about chartering his boat tomorrow. The whales are here and they are pretty close to the shore. We are all excited about going out to see them.