20TH WEEK IN TONGA, HIHIFO

Oatmeal is Ifo

Well there's not a whole ton new this week to be had!  The work is really picking up, but people can only meet at night, so the nights are awesome, but during the day is still so slow because of how small the area is. 

This last week we taught a lesson to a ex-conman from NZ this week.  He has like perfect English and is very deep in religion, the convos get very interesting. 

We met the owner for the bakery in Ha'apai and his English is pretty good too, but he's pretty old and loves to go on and on.  We listened about his days working for the airline, being the Rowing team coach and him going to Utah for like and hour and a half. We tried to leave like 3 times but he doesn't stop.

One day this week while it was raining, we were chilling under a tree,  I saw a coconut and asked my comp if he wanted to drink it.  I guess he didn't because he threw it right at the tree I was sitting right next to. Coconut EVERYWHERE.  It's a miracle my shirt is still white because coconut wrecks clothes.

Yesterday, we ended up speaking in sacrament meeting again. The funny thing was, I could determine how good my Tongan was, all off of the face of one our members.  When he would start looking uncomfortable and confused, I knew it was getting real bad.  But then he would look really interested, and I'd get all confident.. and it'd go down hill again. Oh yeah between, our Stake President is a G and wore a red, green, and blue belt to church yesterday. 

Our members are really happy with the work that is getting done and people they are seeing coming to church, in our meeting yesterday, they were telling us how grateful they were for that, and it was awesome.  Love the people in this area!  We have 3 baptisms set up for this coming Saturday, 3 for the Saturday after that, and we should be getting a couple more after that, before the end of the transfer.  Hopefully they will all go through! 

We were able to set up 2 different appointments this up coming week with ministers for other religions! We'll see how that goes.

If you translate some of the peoples names here, they have some really funky meanings, for example:

Tonga'onevai: Tongan Sand Water

Vaivela: Hot water

Fakalua: To make throw up (lol, this was a little girls name)

and our bishops name translated is, Willy Fishermen

All righty, love all you guys, have an awesome week!

-Eleta Kalanite

NINETEENTH WEEK IN TONGA, HIHIFO

'Oku 'i ai Fakalakalaka

You guys like that word in the subject??  Fakalakalaka.  One of my favs.  It means progress, and we are seeing a lot of that in our area this week!  We went from not having any investigators or anything to go off of in the area to a pretty good sized group of investigators and this week we got 6 baptismal dates set up!  4 just yesterday on Sunday!  Good stuff!!!

This week has felt pretty slow but thinking back we got a lot done.  For one, we figured out that crackers and ranch taste like croutons.  SO GOOD.  Shout out to my big bro for the ranch.  Last Monday I found out that they sell Peanut Butter and Jam at the store in our area and I just about freaked out.  Made some nice PB and J sandwiches.  DELISH.  I hope you all take advantage of whatever food you have access too.  For real, gratitude is key!

This week we finally watched that broadcast about the changes to the missions.  Almost had to watch it all in Tongan, but we worked our way around that.

The wind has been crazy here!  So much wind and rain the past couple of days.  Our ward mission leader was telling us about the hurricane 2 years ago.  He said that it pretty much leveled everything in Ha'apai in like 10 min.  It took the roof off of one of the Siasi Tonga buildings.  Flippin crazy.

Speaking of our ward mission leader, he is pretty much a legend and whenever he speaks in Sacrament Meeting, he gets up and starts yelling at everyone. He's a little enthusiastic about the work. Awesome guy!

Absolutely no change this week on the number of drunk people we run into.  They always love talking to the missionaries and for some reason, once they are drunk, they all of a sudden have like perfect English.  Its incredible. 

Had my first experience this week with one of our investigators deciding to feed her young child right in front of us in the middle of a lesson... yikes.

There's this church not too far from our house, I'm not sure which religion, but I swear, there's always people there singing.  I remember hearing them there at like 10:30 PM and also at 4:00 AM. That's some commitment right there.

Alright to finish this email off, I'm going to share some language mess ups from my comp and one of my zone leaders during lessons:

- "Na'e fai mana a Sisu" - Jesus did magic 

- "Te ke viku taimi katoa pe" - You would pee all the time!

- "Malo ho fakatomala, Palesiteni" - Thank you for your repentance, President. 

Have a great week everybody! Love you all!

-Elder Kalanite

EIGHTEENTH WEEK IN TONGA, HIHIFO

Na'a Mau Kai Pisa

So transfers are in and I'm staying in an area longer than one transfer for the first time in my mission!!  That was good news, I like where I'm at, Hihifo is awesome and investigators keep showing up because these members are awesome and let me tell you, in Tonga, the members are the way you get anything done.  Gotta be in good with the members!  I'm really happy to see how many people we've been able to teach this last transfer and how we have been able to help the work grow here!  We think we will have a good amount of apostle come to Tonga!!  Not just that, a member of the Presidency of the 70, and also the Presiding Bishop of the Church, and the 70 over the South Pacific Area, Elder Hallek AND the area 70 over Tonga, Elder Tukuafu.  SOO, needless to say this meeting is going to be legendary!

Our mission is also making changes to the schedule like everyone else.  Except we didn't watch the broadcast out here in Tonga, we just found out about it from our Zones like 3 days ago.

So, not a whole ton happened this week because my comp has been sick, a ton of rain down here though.  There was supposed to be a Class 2 cyclone I think, a couple of days ago, but nothing happened.  Kinda crazy stuff,  2 years ago the cyclone that hit Ha'apai totally wrecked it and leveled all the houses and trees.  There are still some abandon houses throughout the island that haven't been repaired or anything. 

We were teaching someone this week, he was really awesome and believed in just about everything we shared him.  At the end Despain asked him, if he believes all these things (which contradict the things his current church believes in) and why he is a member of that church. He just said it's because his parents were apart of it, even though his parents have since passed away.  That kind of a Tongan thing that is kind of unfortunate.  A lot of people are apart of their religion only because that's what there parents are or where even if they don't really believe in it.  Our next lesson we are going to introduce him to the Book of Mormon and let that do its job!  Man I love that book, cant get over it.

Got some pizza with the zones this week. Blessings.

Quick shout out to our awesome bishop out here in Hihifo.  This dude is the MAN!  Despain says he's probably the best bishop he's worked with on his mission.  He is always calling us and telling us that he has set up another Fakafamili (Family Home Evening) with someone for us to teach. And then he will feed that family and us and always gives us Otai (Tongan drink) and he told us about how he fasts every week for the missionary work.  Such a stud!

Ran into some more drunk people this week. Ya know, the usual. 

Here's a little Tongan culture for you guys:  Every time you pass someone or say goodbye to someone, you say "Yo" so we say that like a billion times a day. 

Also, every goodbye feels like a competition of who can say the last thing to the other person, it just keeps going on, and then you eventually say "ok!" and that ends the conversation for sure.  I feel like I'm going to be a weirdo in the states, saying "Ok!" to say goodbye to everyone.  Ah well.

All yalls have a good week wherever you are at!  Keep on keepin on!

Ofa atu!

-Yah boi Elder Kalanite