Tonga!

Monday - Thursday,

At work we are just doing more of the same. I am starting to worry about Alan. He is working so hard at the pharmacy that he is exhausted. He comes home every night and just drops into the chair. His leg is starting to bother him again and I know it is because he is on it all day long and up and down painting. He won’t let me go help him but on Tuesday 10 missionaries showed up ready to paint. We talked to Elder Hamblin, who works in the mission office, on Monday at FHE. The missionaries need to do service and this is a great place for them to help. They got a lot done but there is still a lot to do.

   On Tuesday, the bishop asked us not to have the missionaries come back. Evidently a couple of them had a paint fight in one room and there is paint all over the floor in there. Now the bishop has to organize a Young Women’s service project to come in and clean the floor. MERCY!! Missionaries should realize that their actions reflect on the church. That left a bad impression with the pharmacy staff, who are all non-members. The bishop has 3 men that come just about every day now. They are working hard and they do a good job. He told Alan to let them work on it. They might be slow but they do it right.

Last Friday, the staff showed Alan a room that we didn’t even know existed. It is off to one side of a long hallway and it goes the whole length of one wing of the building! It is huge!!! Nothing has been done in there. Now we have to get someone with a spray painter to come and do the ceiling. This project will never end!! We have learned our lesson. It is just about impossible to do a service project in Tonga. People don’t see things thru to completion. Basically the church has done the whole building. The other churches who said they would help and the town officer and district officer have never shown up. We have had a few non-members help, but they came with our people. We can’t believe that they would pledge to help and then do nothing! Especially since it is their pharmacy, a building they should really care about. They are just perfectly happy to let “those Mormons” do it all.

While Alan was at the pharmacy all week, I was in the office trying to submit the asbestos removal project and get things set up for the wheelchair training that will be held the first week in December. Elder Schnebly wrote and said that he wanted the training materials translated into Tongan. WHAT??? They are coming in a couple of weeks and he wants pages of training translated! This is Tonga, that could take months. Ana is trying to find someone to help me or she will have to do it. We are also hoping to get the tank up on the stand next Monday in Lavengatonga. Life is busy in Tonga! This was a huge week.