Wednesday,
Were up at 5:45 this morning. We have so much to do that neither one of us could sleep. We were in our office by 7:15. When I got on the computer I found an email from Tiff. I had written to ask for a recipe and told her of my stress. She wrote back, just what I needed to hear today. “Breath” mom and “Be Still --- and know that I am God”. My mother used to tell me that when I was overwhelmed and I have told Tiffany the same thing many times. Today, my mother and my daughter came together to help me through a stressful experience. I did as I was told and then watched the miracle unfold.
We went to the pharmacy to check on the progress, then Alan dropped me off at the office so I could work and he went to buy chemicals so the floor at the pharmacy could be cleaned today. I wrote an email to the Director of Temporal Affairs. We are getting new computers for all of the church schools and offices on the islands. They are boxing up all of the old ones and sending them to Australia to be auctioned off. We have a whole file of schools that are begging for computers. I told them that it is tragic to see this happen when the need is so great here. (The rebel missionaries in Tonga may get sent home early!) I also finished putting 20 hygiene training kits together to take to Sister Uai.
I was notified that the shipment of wheelchairs has arrived in Tonga. It will take a few days to get them off the dock and through customs. We will have to set a day aside next week to unload the crate and stack them in the storage room. We will need some help. 270 wheelchairs is a huge shipment.
Alan came back to get me and we drove to the far western side of the island to have lunch with the Beans and Sister Mitchell. The Beans wanted to do this before they leave in two weeks and today was the only day we could all go. We knew we didn’t have time to do it, but we went anyway. We went to the Liku’alofa Resort, a quiet, serene, beautiful beach resort where we completely relaxed. I almost fell asleep watching the ocean come in and go out after lunch. It was just what we needed and really a tender mercy from the Lord that we ended up out there today.
From there, we drove to the far eastern side of the island to Lavengatonga. It is about an hour drive. While we were driving Alan told me about driving down the road we were on with one of the men from the FM when he was working on the MQ’s. As they were driving along, a huge palm tree just fell across the road! There were quite a few cars on the road at the time, but no one was hurt. It could have been a terrible accident if the tree had landed on a car. As they were trying to move it off of the road, the people in the cars gathered around and said that the reason no one was killed was “because of the missionary” (Alan). He had never told me that story before and I didn‘t want it to go unrecorded.
We got to Lavengatonga 5 minutes before the crane arrived. We watched the new stand go up and then the tank set on top of it. What a thrill so finally see it come together!! They will try to finish the clean up and hook up by the end of the week. That means we might have another closing ceremony next week.
We took the hygiene training kits to Sister Uai. She is having a Stake Relief Society meeting this weekend and she plans to talk about the hygiene program that night. She is doing all she can to push it along. We are grateful for her help!!
We stopped at the pharmacy on the way home. They had done a few things but there is still a lot to do. The closing ceremony is TOMORROW!! They are not concerned. They told us it will be done. The bishop has the YW and YM coming to clean up the grounds and they will work on the floors tonight. We panic, but we are learning. The Tongans don’t work in the morning. They hate to get up early. They come in about 10:00 or 11:00 and work a couple of hours. Then they stop and play checkers. They work a couple more hours, stop for lunch and a nap and then they are good to go into the night. It is just how they work, so we have learned to let them do their thing and we are praying that when we show up tomorrow everything will be ready.
Ana bought some Sandalwood trees today to plant at the pharmacy. They will be fully mature in 15 to 20 years. It is our way of making the pharmacy self sustaining. Sandalwood is the wood that the master carvers in Tonga use to make their crafts. They will pay up to 20,000 pa’anga for a large tree. When the pharmacy needs to be painted again they can cut down one of the trees, sell it and buy the paint.
When we got home, I made a cake to take to a funeral tomorrow, fixed dinner and then we went to the Sr. Prom at Liahona High School. It really was an amazing thing to see. They have next to no budget for these events so they have to be creative. They built a castle from scrap lumber and covered it with paper, using flour and water to make a paper-Mache. Then they painted it. They also hung huge paper leafs throughout the gym. It really was beautiful. Every senior student comes to the prom. Some come as dates, but if you don’t have a date you can come with a brother, sister or a relative. The important thing is that everyone is included. Every girl had a formal that was modest and beautiful. It was amazing to see so many gowns that had been modified to make them comply with church standards. They were gorgeous and making them modest only made them more beautiful. (My camera battery ran out so I didn’t get pictures of the dresses.)
We only stayed until all of the graduates had been introduced and then we headed home. It was a huge day and we were exhausted. This day was a testimony to me that when we pray for help and then “breathe and be still” to let the Lord work his miracles, we will see them unfold right before our eyes. We were able to do everything that needed to be done today, be everywhere we needed to be and we even had time for a relaxing lunch. WOW!!! We could never have done all that on our own. Once again we have had angels round about us.
