Tonga!

Wednesday, January 8th

We didn’t work too hard today. When we got into the office, we called Tiff. We haven’t talked to our kids in awhile and we are missing them. We had a great visit with her and then we did Facetime with Kimi and Grace. It is so fun to watch Gracie playing on the blanket. She always reaches for us and we are sure that she wants us to hold her as much as we want to get ahold of her. She is really growing!

After lunch we went to our office at Liahona and called Greg. He was at Bryan’s house gloating because Florida State had won the championship game. After we talked to him we talked to Lisa and she told us that Amberly is still not doing well. Lisa is trying some things on her own and taking dairy products out of her diet seems to be helping a little. We are worried about her and hope that they can get to the bottom of this quickly. She has missed a lot of school and we just want her to be able to feel good and get back to her active life. WE LOVE OUR GRANDKIDS!!!

When we were watching the news tonight we saw a story that explained the Kava Ceremony in Tonga. It is quite the legend. Many years ago, back in the day of King Tupou the 1st, the one who dedicated the kingdom of Tonga to the Lord, the King went to visit a family. They were a poor family but they knew that to fulfill Tongan tradition they had to feed the King a feast. They went to the bush and got the food to cook but they didn’t have a pig or any kind of meat. They had one young daughter, named Kava. Because of the pressure of the tradition, they killed their only daughter and put her body in the umu to cook. While they were doing this, the King, knowing that they were a poor family and not wanting to make it a hardship for them, left without telling them so they wouldn’t have to feed him. By the time they found out he was gone, it was to late. They never uncovered the umu but let it become the final resting place for their precious daughter. As time passed, two green sprouts came up from the umu. One was the sweet plant they named sugarcane and the other was the bitter plant they named Kava. To this day whenever there is a big celebration for a special occasion, they perform the Kava ceremony to honor the King and remember Kava who gave her life for the King.