Friday, July 12th

We were right about not being able to eat that late at night. Alan had some acid reflux last night but he was awake enough to catch it in time. He was hoping that he was over that problem but evidently not.

He has been a little nerved up again the last couple of days. Our new Mission President called him and asked him to be the new District Leader for the senior couples. It is a huge job with new senior couples coming in and all of the activities to plan. We have an activity a week of one sort or another and the Szokas were great at planning that kind of thing. We already have more than we can do and this call kind of pushed Alan over the top. It wasn’t an official call, he just wanted to talk to him about it, so we don’t know for sure if that is what will happen. Before now it has gone to the senior couple who has been here the longest and that is what we were planning on. That would be the Beans and I think they are kind of expecting it. That makes it really awkward. This Mission President is on the outer islands and won’t be back until tomorrow. I guess we will just have to wait and see what happens.

I was working in the office when Alan came to the door and told me to hurry outside. I ran out and he had Kimi on Face Time. He found a spot outside of our office where he can get a wireless connection. We weren’t able to stay connected for long, but we did get to see little Grace wake up from a nap. It’s fun to watch her kick and move around. She is very active! No wonder she came early.

Thursday, July, 11th

Things have finally slowed down a little. We didn’t have good internet today but we actually had time to sit down and work on a few of the projects that are coming up. Howard Niu stopped in to visit our office today. He is the Service Center Manager, and the big boss in Tonga. We went over our pending projects with him. He will be going up to Vava’u with us in a couple of weeks to look at the hospital.

We had a good discussion with Howard about the internet. He thinks that the fiber optics will be to Liahona by the end of the month. Then they will have to hook it up and test it, so no telling how long before we actually get to use it. At least we know that it’s coming --- there’s hope!!

We received an email from Amberly today!!! Yeah for the grandkids!! WE LOVE hearing from them and learning what is happening in their lives. Amberly’s letter made our day!! She is doing so many fun things this summer. We really miss being there to watch her do back flips across the back yard but can’t wait to see all the new things she has learned by the time we get home.

We tried to Face Time Kimi and Dave today but we just got quick glances the internet was so bad. That is soooooooooooooooooooooooooooo frustrating!!!

We had a going away dinner for the Szokas at the Luna Rosa tonight. We had 17 people go. All of the senior missionaries and the service couples as well. It is a fun place to eat but it doesn’t open until 7:00 and it is always 8:00 or later by the time you get your food. That is just to late to eat dinner. We didn’t get home until almost 10:00. Still, we had a great time and the food was really good. Alan had pork chops in a mushroom sauce and I had cheese and spinach pasta.

We had a fun farewell dinner for the Szokas. We gave them silly gifts and laughed alot. I will really miss these two, they are great friends!!

Wednesday, July 10th

I felt really good about our conference call with New Zealand this morning. We had Ana sit in on it with us so she would know what we were discussing with them. We are working on 2 water projects, a hospital project, the pharmacy project, the wheelchair project and a dental project. We also reported on our involvement with the Pacific Partnership and what we have been doing since they left. When they left we were able to keep 6, 100lb. Bales of bedding and clothes that they were going to put back on the ship and 120 school kits that weren’t given out. We have taken the bedding and clothes out to 38 families in 14 different villages. Ana made all of that possible, she knows people everywhere and we were able to help a lot of people who are not members of the church.

We had the afternoon free today so we went into town grocery shopping. While we were there we got a call saying that we needed to move a mattress from one MQ to another so there would be a bed for a missionary who is flying in tonight. We were able to do that with our new car, we just put the back seats down. It worked out great. One thing we have learned on this mission is how to be flexible! We never know from one moment to the next what we will be doing.

After dinner tonight we went for another great walk. I am really loving this weather! When we got home I baked some chocolate chip cookies. We have really cut back on sweets, which is good, but we will be having the Szokas and the Mailes over for dinner in the next few days and we need to have some dessert for those meals. Besides, I was craving them!!

Tuesday, July9th

When we got to the office this morning there was another sweet picture of Grace. It’s killing me to not be able to hold her. She is so precious and it is fun to see how she has her mother and dad wrapped right around that tiny finger already. We are so happy!! What joy she has brought into our family.

Alan didn’t spend much time at the office today. He went out with the Sioeli from the FM to check the MQ’s on the west side of the island. He came back sooooooo angry!! There was one MQ that was just trashed. The elders were living in filth, even their tooth brushes were on the floor! Alan took pictures and left them a note. We will show the pictures to the Mission President when he gets back from his mission tour. We can’t have elders living like that!

I worked on getting things ready for our phone conference with New Zealand tomorrow. I tried to post some things on the blog today, but the internet was just to slow. It kept kicking me off.

We went for a walk tonight. The weather is so much nicer now. In the evening it is very pleasant and we are able to go for nice long walks.

Monday, July 8th

I went to our devotional this morning looking for the people that were supposed to clean the house for the new couple. Of course none of them showed up, but I gave the keys to the house to their supervisor and I am sure that he will take care of it.

GREAT SURPRISE TODAY!!! We got a letter from Cade!! The first, and only, letter we have received on this mission. It was so fun to get mail. What a great young man our grandson is. We are so proud of him and we loved hearing all about what is happening in his life. It made our day!

I worked in the office today while Alan went into town to - hopefully- finish up on the plumbing problem at the MQ. Sister Mitchell came to pick me up and we went over to put some food in the house that the new couple will be staying in. The FM people were there cleaning it as fast as they could! Evidently no one told them it needed to be done. They got it cleaned, we put the food in it, everything will be ready when they arrive.

When we went to FHE tonight we met the new couple. They are Elder and Sister Maile. They are here to do Leadership Support. He is Tongan and she is Samoan. They live in Utah and he has not been back to Tonga since he served his mission here in the 70’s. You guessed it, he and Alan were companions many years ago. They had a sweet reunion that all of the senior couples were able to witness. This makes companion #6 that we have met since we got here. Amazing tender mercies!

Alan had a sweet reunion with Elder Maile at FHE. They were companions 42 years ago. This is companion #6 that we have found since we got here. Another "Tender Mercy."