Wednesday, April 9th

We had a good day today. I was able to write up three reports that have been weighing on my mind and Alan was able to get the Central Pharmacy Project ready to close. When he went back to the Pharmacy today the staff had cleaned all the mold and mildew off of the cooler doors and repainted them. It looked great!! All of the bills have been paid on that one so I will close it out. YEAH!!!

We were also able to talk to 3 of our kids today. While I was talking to Kimi this morning, Grace hit a milestone. Kimi put her on the floor and put the phone in front of her. I called to her to come to me and she crawled for the VERY FIRST TIME!! It was so fun to see her do that. Even this far away, we aren’t missing everything! Another tender mercy. We also talked to Greg for a few minutes before he headed out to the golfing range and then we called Dave and Alisha and got to see Parx and Hendrix. Hendrix is a carben copy of Parx. They are going to look a lot alike. What a precious baby. He is growing so fast. We have got to get home soon!!

These are the ladies that came for wheelchairs today. Both of them need to be walking as much as possible or they will lose the use of their legs.

 

 

This sweet lady really needs a wheelchair but would much rather have an artificial leg.  We are hoping that will be possible for her in the near future.

We only have a few surplus desks left, they are going fast!   We love to go to the schools and see the students using them.  They are so thrilled to have a real desk.  We take so much for granted!

Tuesday, April 8th

We had a devotional this morning and then we hurried to get to the office so we could call Bryson on his birthday. We can’t believe that he is 5 years old already. He was so cute. He loves pre-school and he is really excited about going to kindergarten next year.

We were going to feed the missionaries tonight, but they had appointments in town and we are so far away it is hard to make that work. We found them after work and gave them some money so they could go to a restaurant for dinner. They loved that! These two are both Tongan and they don’t really love American food. This way they can get what ever they want. It works for me!

Three women came in a truck today to pick up wheelchairs. One had had her leg amputated at the knee and really needed a wheelchair. The other two were walking just fine! One had had her toes cut off and could only walk short distances, the other one was quite old and needed help getting to church because it is to far to walk. WHAT!! Those last two don’t really qualify for wheelchairs. They had been assessed and approved, the wheelchairs had been assembled and assigned to them so our hands were tied. We had to give them to them but when Ana gets back, she is in New Zealand this week, we will have her check on this. There is such a need for wheelchairs here, we can’t just give them out to anyone that wants one! That was a little frustrating! But it got even worse when they folded them up, lifted them into the back of the truck and then climbed up in there for the ride home. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing!!

This afternoon we were able to give out more surplus desks for the Government Primary Schools. We have been able to help a lot of schools with these desks and they are all so grateful. Now they are coming back for the ones that were really in bad shape. The seats are fine, it is just the top of the desk that is damaged. They are removing the top part and then fixing it themselves with new wood. It is pulling the parents and the teachers together to fix them and that is a very positive thing. Giving out these desks has worked out very well for us.
I am starting to worry a little bit about Alan. He forgot his wallet this morning when we went into work and we had to come home to get it. Then he left the Ipad at work and we had to go back to get it. As we started back to the office he realized that he had forgotten his wallet again! All in one day. I hope he is just distracted!!

We went for a nice walk tonight. That makes us both feel better.

I almost forgot to post the pictures of the desks we donated to the school in Hofoa.

 

 

There was an amazing transformation in the classrooms.  The parents and teachers had put down new flooring and painted the walls.  The feeling in the rooms had totally changed.  It was a place the students wanted to come to study and learn.

This pictures is a little blurry, but it shows the picture they presented to us as a gift for helping them with the desks.

It is a small school with about 120 students.  This is the entire staff.

We have developed a real love for this school, the teachers and the students.  We will miss seeing them every morning on our drive into work.

Monday, April 7th

Ana is in New Zealand, so we are alone at the office this week. As soon as we walked in the door the Town Officer from Ha’utu called Alan and wanted him to meet him at the bank. The village is opening a special savings account for their water needs in the future and he wanted Alan there to see that they were actually doing it. Alan decided to deposit the extra money that we saved out to buy them diesel fuel into that account. They can buy diesel from now on with the money they collect from the village each month. When he was done there, he drove over to the Central Pharmacy to see how they are doing. We know that they are having trouble keeping mold and mildew off of their cooler doors, so he wanted to take a look. They looked bad, so we will buy some special cleaner that hopefully will help. I sent the camera with him so he could take pictures, but he didn’t. I guess that is what I am good for, but I wasn’t there!

I stayed at the office where I didn’t accomplish much. I wasn’t under a lot of pressure today so I just took my time working on a couple of projects and some things for the senior missionaries. We have a new couple coming this week and we need to make sure their house is ready and then put some food in there to get them started. I also spent a little time reading about General Conference and about what is happening in Ukraine. We have a lot of things to get organized around here in case we take some trips to the outer islands, but I just couldn’t get with it today. It felt good to relax for a change. I have been waiting a long time for a day like this!

When Alan got back we started calling the kids. Conference was over at home so we were able to connect with Tiff and Jake and Bryan and his kids. It was fun to see them all and have a short visit. It was dinner time at home so we didn’t talk to long, just long enough to get the latest info and see those gorgeous faces!!

I was able to get some more on the Blog today, I might actually catch up on that thing. I have been behind since we left America!! I will be glad to get home and not have to worry about it anymore, although I do enjoy going back and reading about some of the things we have done. I’m glad I kept up with it. While I was doing that, Alan went over to the library and got another book. He is reading about two a week now. He reads a lot more when we are on missions. We never go to bed at night without taking a book to read. It is much better than having a TV in the bedroom.

FHE was really interesting tonight. The Vai’nuku’s came and talked about their experience in Ha’api when Cyclone Ian hit. They are the senior missionary couple that were serving there at the time. They are now serving on Tongatapu. Their home in Ha’api was severely damaged by the cyclone. They had put together a slide presentation of what it looked like on the island after the Cyclone. Elder Vai’nuku said that he couldn’t film it as it was happening because it was so dark and foggy you couldn’t see anything farther than a foot to 2 feet away from you. He expressed how grateful he was that it happened in the daytime. If it had come at night, many people would have been killed or injured. It was a miracle that only one life was lost. He said that the first part lasted for 2 hours and 45 minutes. That is a long time for winds of that strength to batter an island. Then there was a period of calm. The winds were gone, the sky was blue and everyone thought it was over. He and his wife went from the church to their house, about ½ block away. They started to access the damage and suddenly it got dark and the winds started again. They ran to the church and he truly thought the wind would just carry him away. They made it safely and this time it was much worse than at first.

Thankfully the second round only lasted for 45 minutes. He said that if it had lasted as long as the first one, there would have been nothing left standing on the island -- maybe the church --- but even it would have been severely damaged. As we watched the slide presentation they had put together, tears streamed down their faces. The expressed their love for the people of Ha’api and how hard it was to leave them in these circumstances. They told us how terrified they had been and how this experience has changed their lives. They will now be better to one another, be better parents and grandparent. They are so grateful for the protection they received and they know the Lord was watching over them. Elder Vai’nuku said how grateful he was for this mission experience. He is doing things he has never done before, washing, cleaning, cooking and scrubbing floors. He used to go to work and come home, never fully appreciating all his wife did for him. The Spirit was really strong during their presentation. What a wonderful humble couple these two are. They are a blessing to this mission!

Sister Vaiu’nuku prepared the treats, only they were not treats. She brought a full Tongan meal!! She loves to cook and she loves to share. It was a great evening! 

Sunday, April 6th,

Wow, this has been quite a day. Another one of those “Only in Tonga” days. All this weekend I just had a feeling that we weren’t going to have anyone ready to teach Relief Society today, so I put something together about General Conference -- just in case. When we got to our presidency meeting today, I found out that I was right and that I would be teaching. Bless Sister Matilae’s heart. She could have called me!!

Our Fast Meeting was really good today. We had a man who was visiting for the blessing of a baby, bear his testimony. He used to be the secretary for the King, King Taufahau Tupou IV. He was the King when Alan was here on his mission. Anyway, one day Elder Groberg and Elder Shumway went into his office and asked him to set up a meeting for them with the King. He did and then he accompanied them to the meeting to be the talking chief for the King. The Elders talked to the King about the church in Tonga and this man said that what they said went straight to his heart and he knew it went to the heart of the King too. The King could not join the church because he is the head of the Church of Tonga, but this man did join. He claims that the King new from that day on which church was true and he felt like it would be easy for him to make the change in the next life. It was pretty interesting. Then he thanked us, calling us by name, Elder and Sister Webb, for sacrificing so much to come to Tonga. He has lived in America for a long time and he said that he knew what we had given up to come here. We were touched, we don’t even know this man.

Our Sunday School class went very well again today. We continued to talk about repentance. We have some class members that are very interested in the steps of repentance and they ask a lot of questions. It was good. If they are working through some problems we hope that our lessons can help them with the right process and the right information. We had a young married couple, Joseph and Josephine, who haven’t been in class for the last couple of weeks. Josephine was at church today but she cried all the way through Sacrament Meeting and then she left. They are having some problems and she is heartbroken. We are so sad about that.

Relief Society turned out great. The lesson went well and lots of the sister participated. All is well. On the other hand, Priesthood went a little crazy. The Elder’s Quorum President has moved to Australia and they haven’t called a new one. The High Priest teacher was sick today so after the opening exercises the councilor in the bishopric said, “Well Elder Webb, you take them.” They combined both groups today and left all of them with Alan. He just had to punt! We had taken some small bottles of oil with us to our Sunday School class so that the men could concecrate them and then take them home. Alan had one left so he showed the men how to concecrate oil and then talked about the duties of the Priesthood. It turned out great. We are both so grateful for the promptings of the Spirit.

We had meatloaf and ufi for dinner. Ufi is the King’s favorite food. It is a lot like a potato, only it has no flavor. I gues if you have grown up eating it, you like it that way, but I have to put butter and seasoning on it. The texture is really quite good it just needs to be dressed up a little.

After dinner we went for a walk. The moon and the stars were out, it was a beautiful night. I love to look at the stars at night. They are so different from the stars we are used to back home. It is fun to try to find some of the constallations that we are not so familiar with. There are not a lot of lights on at night here so you can see them very easily.  

Saturday, April 5th

It rained all night and all morning. We needed to go in to the fair and buy some peanut butter and Tide, but it would be a muddy mess today. We decided to skip it and just make do until next week. We didn’t wash because we knew nothing would get dry, so we cleaned a little and then watched Land Line, an Australian show that Alan loves. They go all over Australia and talk about the farmland and the cattle and crops. It really is pretty good.

I wrote in my journal and we read a lot. We are also starting to decide what we will be taking home and what we will be leaving here. We need to make some arrangements soon to ship some of this stuff home. We want to be sure we find a dependable way to get it home. When Alan shipped things years ago, most of it never arrived in Utah. We really want to make sure this stuff makes it all the way home.

In the afternoon I did some cooking and made a meatloaf for dinner tomorrow. It is Fast Sunday and I want to be sure we have something we can put in the oven when we get home from church.

We had made arrangements to view the Women’s Meeting in the ITEP office tonight. Elder Edwards downloaded it for me. All of the sisters met to watch it at 7:00. OH MY GOSH!!! It was amazing! The Spirit was so strong and it was wonderful to see all of those women, young women and primary girls gathered together for such a special meeting. They had a brand new Beehive say the opening prayer and she did a fantastic job. Such a sweet prayer. No wonder the Spirit was so strong throughout the meeting. All of the talks were wonderful and uplifting. I can’t wait to go to that meeting next year with my daughters and grand daughters! It made me so anxious to see conference. It is really hard to wait that extra week!! I love conference!