21st WEEK IN TONGA, HIHIFO

John Tonga From Samoa

Hey everyone!  That name up there in the subject is the name of the
kid we baptized this week!  Sione Tonga Meiha'amoa.  This kid is the
man!  My comp first taught him while we were on splits one night, he
set up the baptismal date right then because he was prepared!  He was
telling us before he got baptized about how his friends keep coming
over and trying to get him to smoke again, but he has been strong, and
sees the joy this gospel can bring.  What a stud!

Unfortunately this other mother and son that we had set up to get
baptized with Sione, weren't able to, because her husband said he
didn't want them to.  That was a really big disappointment because we have
been teaching them since we first got here to Hihifo.  We went over one
day to try and talk with her and they weren't home, so we went to her
neighbors, who happened to be her husbands moms house and we got
yelled at pretty good by her.  She told us she hates us and all we do
because they are bad things, and that she is going to call the cops and quote,
"I never want to see you two on this land again!"... That was a little uncalled 

for especially because the ward had spend all morning cutting and cleaning 

their huge yard/field that their house sits on.  But you know what they say, 

kill them with kindness!  From now on we are going to be so dang nice to her 

she cant do anythings about it.

In other news.... there was a pretty crazy storm on Tuesday, knocked
some trees over (Ill include some pics)

We got some free bread this week!!  It only took listening to an old
man for about an hour trying to tell us a whole ton of stories in some
pretty bad English.  Totally worth it.

So last week we heard about how this man that we had had a family home
evening with, had died and was buried, and we were totally shocked and
it was crazy.  BUT THEN.. he showed up to church this Sunday!  We were
like, "what the heck paulu, you died?!"  We still dont know the whole
story, but just so all you at home know,  PAULU LIVES haha

So as of right now we are friends with and have been talking to 5
ministers from other religions.  We were talking with one of them, he
told us how he respects us a ton and asked us if we could meet some
time and if we could share with him ways he could help the youth of
his church make better choices with the Word of Wisdom.  So we met with
him and talked for about a half an hour.  At the end he asked us if we
will speak to all the youth of his church some Sunday. That's gonna be
sicckkk!!

We found out this last week that the Stake President of Ha'apai, who
lives in our ward, told everyone in a Stake meeting that he is going
to call President Tui'one at the end of this transfer and ask him if
we can stay at least another transfer in the area because of the work
he's seen us do in the area so far.  That was so dang cool to hear!

One day while we were out doin our thing, the Stake Pres's wife
invited us in to eat some left over food, so we went on in and were
just talking for a little bit.  After a while she told me about how me
Tongan has gotten a lot better and when we spoke in Sacrament, even
though it wasn't perfect, she could understand the meaning of
everything I was trying to say.  That was really helpful and a huge
Tender Mercy because Ive been a little down on myself the past bit because
of the language and that was a huge reminder to me of who's work this
is, and how I am just a tool in the Lords hands.

Have an awesome week everyonee :)

Ofaas!

-Elder Kalanite