Tonga!

Sunday, July 14th

It rained all night last night and most of the day today. We haven’t had a good rain like that in awhile so we enjoyed it. It really cooled things off.

All of the celebrations are over now so we had a good crowd at church. In fact they had to set up chairs in the back. Lina came with her children. She is the lady that we are trying to fellowship and baptize her husband and children. There was a birthday party in their family today so her husband took his parents, who are keeping them away from the church, to visit the relatives. Lina said that she just couldn’t get ready that fast and then she and the kids snuck out and came to Sacrament Meeting. We were so happy to see her and they were all really happy to be there. We will not give up on that family. We love them and we know the Lord loves them and wants them all in the church.

Our Sunday School class was great today, but small. We have a couple and two single people that are working toward going to the temple. The ward started a Temple Prep. Class today and they all had to go to that. It will be that way for the next 6 weeks. We talked to them after class and they are really torn. They want to come to our class but they can’t go to the Temple without the temple prep class. We are excited about them getting ready to go to the temple. We will be here when that class is over so it will all be good.

In Relief Society we talked about the importance of fulfilling our callings. I had to smile. Ana Fanua in our ward spoke in Sacrament Meeting today. She is in the Stake Young Woman’s. Two weeks ago she spoke in Sacrament Meeting, taught Gospel Doctrine and then taught Relief Society. I don’t know how much more she could do to support her callings. These people are amazing. 80% of our ward members hold Stake callings, plus ward callings. I can’t imagine that happening in America.

We had the Szoka’s over for dinner tonight. It was fun to spend some time with them but sad to think that they are leaving tomorrow. They have become such a special part of our lives, we will really miss them.

We called Tiffany for her birthday but didn’t get to talk to her for long. She was still celebrating with her family. We will call again tomorrow.

When we went for our walk tonight we ran into the Maile’s. We walked with them for about an hour. It was fun to visit with them and learn a little more about them. They will be a great addition to our mission. The President has asked Sister Maile to do the travel plans for the missionaries and Elder Maile will help with the transporting of missionaries around the island and to and from the airport. They came planning to do Leadership Support but said that they will do whatever the President asks them to do.