Thursday, March 20th

I started working on the Niua project again this morning and faced the same problems as yesterday. No matter what I did I couldn’t get it to save on CHAS. Finally, after trying for 2 hours to find a way, I emailed Elder Reynolds and asked for his help. I really hate to bother him, he is soooooo busy but I didn’t know what else to do. Bless that man!!! He called us right up and asked Alan if I needed a counseling session. I think I might, I could go crazy before this is over! He was very sympathetic and said that he had experienced the same problem. He had to call Salt Lake to get help. The problem is that we have an old browser. I had the CHAS installed on Yahoo and some of the new changes in CHAS aren’t recognized there. MERCY!! Elder Reynolds explained to me how to install CHAS on Google and now everything works fine. By the time we got all that worked out I didn’t have time to enter the project. Oh well, we’re in Tonga, I’ll do it tomorrow.
Elder Reynolds also told me that he had given the church travel the OK to book our tickets home. I’m glad that someone will take responsibility for us. Then he told me that he explained to them that we wanted to extend for 5 more months. (That is when he and Sister Reynols will be going home) We should hear from Salt Lake soon. It will be interesting to see when we are scheduled to leave!

After dinner we went back into town to a Fahoko for Brother Walters. It was just like the other ones we have been to, only they held it at the hospital instead of at their home. They keep the bodies in a cooler at the hospital, because they don’t embalm people here. It will take a week to 10 days for all of his family to get here so the funeral won’t be for awhile. There were 3 fahokos going on at the same time, two were outside on the lawn and ours was inside a small chapel at the hospital. People gather to sing hymns, hear a spiritual thought and pray. In Tonga the people always sing really loud. It is hard to hear the spiritual thought when the 2 other groups are singing on either side of you. It is a lovely custom, but much more effective when it is held at the person’s home.

We went to the Fahoko for Brother Walters at the hospital tonight. They keep the bodies in coolers (on the right, covered by a mat), and then every night until the funeral, the family comes and they have a ceremony called a Fahoko.

Wednesday, March 19th

I was feeling a little better when I got up this morning so I got dressed and went into work. I did alright, I was just really weak.

I spent the morning updating the spreadsheet for Cyclone Ian and then working on the Niua project. I entered the information on CHAS and saved it, but once I checked out and then went back, IT WAS GONE. I didn’t feel well enough to play that game today, so I just left it for tomorrow.

We received an email today that there has been a big shake-up in the leadership in the Area Office. One of the managers there was called as a mission president. The Area Presidency decided to move people around, rather than just replace him. We lost Steve Stebbings, our Area Welfare Manager. We are sick about that. We know him, he knows us and he trusts us. He is crucial in approving our projects. Now we will have to develop that level of trust all over again and we don’t really have time to do that. Thank heaven Elder Reynolds is still in place. Hopefully he can help us get these last projects approved.

We also got another email about our travel arrangements to go home. The mission says it is not their responsibility, we are under the Area Office. The Area Office says that we are missionaries and that the mission should make the travel plans. Once again, no one knows what to do with us. We are starting to feel unappreciated. But not by Elder Reynolds. He stepped right in and emailed SLC to Church Travel. Hopefully someone will want to help us get home.

Morgan sent us an email and we had a little time so we called her on facetime. So fun to see and talk to our grandchildren!! Sure wish Zach and Amberly would turn their own phones on! We can never reach them.

We had a phone conference with New Zealand about Ha’api this afternoon. Things are starting to turn around up there. There has been a lot of rain and the crops that everyone thought were dead, are starting to grow and flourish. In 2-3 months they should have plenty of root crops to keep the people up there fed. That was really good news. The bad news is that it looks like a it will be a long wait for the people to get their houses rebuilt. Tonga is getting lots of donations from other countries and the World Bank has agreed to loan them 10 million dollars, but they won’t open that money up until Tonga comes up with 50%. Tonga is trying to get the Church, Red Cross, the Catholic church and other churches to commit money so they can do that. Everyone is waiting to see how much we are going to commit. We are not going to give money, we will go in and build houses. They were going to build houses for members and non-members and let the government build houses for our members and non-members, but now it looks like we will just build for our members. That decision will be made by the Presiding Bishopric and the First Presidency at conference time. Elder Tuku’afu will be in SLC to visit with them if needed.

John Walters died today. He was our home teacher when we were in the Liahona 1st ward. He was 85 years old and he had had a bad stroke a couple of weeks ago. It was a blessing for him but it will be hard for his sweet wife to get by now that he is gone. He was from Australia and I’m sure he must have had a good pension. She has children in New Zealand and in America. It will be interesting to see what she does now.
Every time we turn on the computer we see more bad news about Ukraine. It breaks my heart to think of the people that we love there and what they must be going through. We feel so bad for them. They are continually in our prayers. It will take a miracle to straighten out that mess. We are praying that it doesn’t end up in a war.

Tuesday, March 18th,

I did fine all night, but as soon as I ate a little breakfast this morning, I was in trouble again. I had to stay home again today. It wasn’t a bid deal, because Alan was going to check on a project and he brought the folder home on the Niua’s so I could work on it here if I wasn’t feeling better. I went back to bed until I felt a little better and then got up and went to work. I got the Niuatoputapu Project all written up and ready to transfer into CHAS as soon as I am where there is internet.
 
Once that project was done, I decided to call Tiffany and Kimi and check in with my daughters. That’s what I really needed to make me feel better. Both of them asked me how I was feeling before I even told them I had been sick. Clint told them, when they wrote to wish him a happy birthday yesterday. He put it on face book! Good Grief!!! I hate that thing.

Alan came home for lunch and he was hyped up! He went to the village of Nukuhetulu this morning to watch the new engine be delivered and installed. When he got there, there was a tent set up, balloons everywhere and chairs for the guests to sit in. The Weslyean Minister was there to bless the new machine. Villagers started arriving and they were going to have a ceremony --- without us!! Ana called Alan and said that the bishop had just called her really upset. He and the Stake Presidency knew nothing about this ceremony and it was the Mormon Church that had donated the new engine! Ana was supposed to be with Alan but she was still in town. Alan was the only one out at the village and no one there spoke English. What a mess!!! When Ofa, our contractor showed up with the engine, they tried to stall as long as they could hoping Ana would get there to translate for Alan. It doesn’t take long to hook up a machine and by the time Ana arrived, the minister was already blessing the machine. The villagers sang hymns and they had a nice little ceremony. The Bishop arrived, dressed in his work clothes, because he had been at work and then the fun began. They found out that this had been arranged by the Town Officer, who isn’t a member of the church. It just turned out to be a misunderstanding. He somehow didn’t know that we had the closing ceremony planned for Friday. Alan had Ana translate for him and he tried to explain to the villagers what had happened and that we couldn’t close on the project until it was handed over to the village by the Stake President. He told them that we would do that on Friday and asked if they would all come back. They said yes, but we will see.
 The Mormons will but I’m not so sure about the rest. We hope they will. WHAT A MESS! Life is an adventure everyday in Tonga. Before Alan left, the villagers filled the car with baskets of food. Coconuts, avocados, bananas and papayas. I picked a really bad week to be sick. We have SO MUCH FOOD in this house!

Then Alan had to run into the office and get some wheelchairs on the boat to Ha’api that leaves tonight. Once I got some food in him and he had talked everything through, he calmed down and was fine. I bet his blood pressure was really up there this morning!

I got dressed and walked over to the Conference Center to call Dave and Alisha. I wanted to see my baby!!! He didn’t stop moving the whole time we were talking to them. Dave said that he did alright last night, he sleeps good, he just wants to eat every two hours. Yep, that’s what babies do. Sure glad you have them when you’re young and grandmas and grandpas just get to love them and spoil them.

When we got back home Ana dropped in. Howard had been in touch with her and he needed Alan to put 4 rolls of barbed wire on the boat to Ha’api by 5:00. REALLY??? How long had he known that? It was 3:45 so Alan had to drop everything and head back into town, buy the barbed wire and then get it to the Warf and on the boat. He had quite a day!!

After dinner we went for a walk. I needed to get out of the house and Alan needed to relax.

Monday, March 17th

Happy St. Patrick’s Day!! Alan and I got engaged 40 years ago today!!! Wow, how the years have flown by!

I got up this morning to a great case of the Tongan Crud. I couldn’t believe it. We had our closing ceremony today for the Lavengatonga Water Project. We have been working on that project for our whole mission and today I had to miss the closing ceremony. I was so frustrated and just plain mad! How did this happen?? I don’t know if I ate something that didn’t agree with me or if I got the bug that the seniors are passing around. Either way, it is just the worst possible day to be sick. It about killed me to stay home when Alan left for the office this morning. I have only missed 3 days of work while we have been on our mission, why did today have to be one of them???

Alan called a couple of times, hoping I would be feeling better, but I didn’t dare leave the house. Lavengatonga is on the far eastern coast of the island and it is a very poor village. There are no bathrooms that I would want to go in over there. I just stayed home and felt sorry for myself.
When Alan got home he brought Ana with him. She had a car full of food that the village had given to us. She wanted to make sure that I got everything I wanted. It was all I could do to even look at it today. I didn’t want any of it, but we took some so that her feelings wouldn’t be hurt. We gave the rest of it to her and to our secretary, Tiamani, who went to the ceremony to help her today. The village also sent gifts to me. Tongan fans and Tongan plaques for Alan. It was a huge sacrifice for that village. They were very generous and very grateful for all we had done to help them get their new stand and water tank. That has been a long and often difficult project. We are truly grateful to have it to this point and be able to close it.

I had some chicken noodle soup and a little bread pudding for dinner tonight. It went right straight through me. I hope this doesn’t mean that I will have to stay here again tomorrow. This house is starting to close in on me!!

These are all of the people that participated in the closing ceremonies. Our Champion, Sione Tonga is standing to Alan's right. We love that man!! His heart is as big as his body and this village would never have the new water system if it hadn't been for him.

Alan was honored to be the man to turn on the water to the village.

The first picture is of the villagers who were coming to the closing ceremony. Some of these men are on the water committee.

This is what the back of the car looked like when Alan got home.  They were so generous!  This represents a huge sacrifice for the people of Lavengatonga.

The first basket had all fruits in it, the second had pigs, chickens and fish and the third one was filled with cakes and bread.