Tonga!

Thursday, March 6th

I was able to get a ton done at work today. I have been working on a journal of what we have done while we have been here so that I can give it to the Dasslers. They are putting together a mission history and they want information from us. I gathered all of the information during the first part of the week and then sat down to compile it today. I didn’t get it finished, but I got a really good start. When I get it all written up I will go back and attach pictures to it. As I started working on it, I was humbled to see all that the Lord has let us be a part of in the last 15 months. We have learned so much and now it is time to go home. I guess that is just the way it is on a mission. As soon as you figure out what you are doing, your mission is over. Partly because you need to take that added knowledge home with you and put it to work in other areas of the church and partly because when you start thinking you know what you are doing you become less dependent on the Lord and start believing you can do things on your own. We haven’t reached that point yet. We know we are still totally dependent on the Lord to get this work done. Oh how we will miss having these spiritual experiences and seeing miracles unfold right before us. How I wish we could keep that Spirit with us always. People always leave a mission with that desire but somehow it just gradually slips away when you get back into the real world. I hate that and we will try not to let it happen.

We did mostly office stuff today. Ana will be gone all next week and we needed to take care of all the details before she leaves. We will be really busy loading the boat for Ha’api tomorrow.
Tiamani didn’t go in to work today so we took some time on the way home to go shopping. The American store will be closed for another week or so and there are no fresh vegetables around, so we went looking for apples and oranges from New Zealand. They are pricy but we have to eat something! It looks like we are going to be eating frozen vegetables for awhile.

It rained HARD most of the afternoon. That is quickly becoming the norm. The weather forecast says it will continue for the rest of this week and on into next week. We had to cancel our closing ceremony for Lavengatonga because of a funeral in that village. I was really sad about that but if it is going to rain like this everyday it was probably for the best.

I fixed some tacos for dinner and then we headed to the temple. It is always so cool, quiet and peaceful in there. That is one benefit of the rain every afternoon, it does cool it off --- a little.