Tonga!

Thursday:

Happy Thanksgiving!! Being in another country on Thanksgiving really makes you realize how much you have to be thankful for. We take so much for granted! As we have seen how other people live, in other parts of the world, we have begun to realize that we have so much more than we need. People who live a simpler life seem to be happier. Not burdened down with trying to acquire more “things”. They are content with what they have and who they are. Especially the Tongan people. They don’t try to be better than their neighbor or have more than others. They are more concerned with helping others and making sure they have everything they need. We have learned some powerful lessons from the people that we love here. Once again, our mission is a gift from God to us. I just pray that we will have a mighty change of heart and remember the lessons we have learned as we have served our brothers and sisters in Tonga. Still, our greatest blessing is our family and we are so grateful for them. I don’t know how we could do this without their love and support. We feel of their prayers everyday and know that they are being answered as we see tender mercies in our lives and in our work everyday.

Our Thanksgiving Dinner turned out GREAT! Even though we had a few hitches along the way. We went to set up the room for the dinner and it had been double booked. We reserved it a month ago but there was a meeting that lasted all day, going on in there. The principal of the high school let us use the teacher’s lounge and it was even nicer. It is a bigger room that has just been renovated. The air conditioning works really well in there, so we were very comfortable.

The food was amazing. We have such good cooks. It was a traditional Thanksgiving dinner with all the trimmings -- with a Tongan touch. The Tongan yams are purple, so they looked different but they were delicious. We had plenty of turkey and even enough left overs for people to take some home. It was just about perfect, except we really missed our family!!!!! We fed 37 people, had time for a nap in the late afternoon and then ended the day with a trip to the temple. You can’t do that at home but it was a very special way to end the day.