WEEK 73 IN TONGA, FALAHA

Sooooo not a ton of time cause its legit Satualas last Pday! So I'm gonna be fast and just send a few pics...... 

Creeping on Kolipoki and his son

Got shake THE MAN's hand again. His Tongan

is still great! 

 Lunch

 Men to Men

 Our back up choir

 The new truck

 Our Boy Band got permission to practice all tranfer

to get as good as we could for the Kolipoki 2 movie 

WEEK 72 IN TONGA,FALAHA

Nothing better to report on than the baptism of Liongi! It was everything that we were hoping it would be! Basically the whole ward came because everyone loves her and has been waiting for this day since she first started coming to church. Somehow I got the privilege of performing the baptism and the confirmation! As we were walking into the water all the members started to sing up until the actual ordinance, so I felt like I was legit in The Other Side of Heaven. First time doing the confirmation in Tongan, super intimidating but it was an awesome experience. I didn't notice but Satuala told me about how after we did the confirmation, she was crying. As the Sacrament was being past right after, she took a piece of bread, held it in her lap for a second before eating it, with her eyes closed, as if to soak in the experience. She is such a special lady and I am so happy how everything worked out. Definitely the most special baptism of my mission! She is already talking about going back to Vava'u and becoming part of the ward in Taoa (her home village). She leaves this Friday.

But besides that the week was a blur! Zone Conference went great yesterday! Lasted a whole 6 hours, but it was very fun and very uplifting! As far as we can tell we feel like our teaching went well. We talked about diligence and tried to help the missionaries develop a stronger desire to love the people enough to work diligently for them as well as the Lord. Satuala gave his last testimony... hes been my longest comp on the mission and I am very much not looking forward to him going home:/

Nothing else this week seems to be very note worthy but just know it was straight up the best!

LOVE YOU ALL SO SO SO MUCH!

Baptism

 Great day!!

 Random frame

Vahe fa'a kataki 

WEEK 71 IN TONGA, FALAHA

It has been a very fantastic couple of weeks!

Afaa/MLC:

Last Wednesday I didn't email cause we had MLC. We thought it wasn't gonna happen cause the day before, it was raining a TON, then we get the texts from President basically saying get to the churches as soon as you can, theres another storm coming. Not gonna lie we got pretty dang excited as the memories from last Afaa came flooding back. We have had SO many memories at the Ha'ateiho church building. So we got to the church building with our whole district and as the night went on, the less it was raining, we didn't think anything was going to happen. But when we woke up in the morning, that's when Hurricane "Keni" started to hit, but it was nothing compared to Gita. Almost got MLC cancelled but then President told us to start making our way down to Liahona. Good thing it's like a 8 minute drive to the mission house.

MLC was verry short compared to others. President talked a lot about faith, did some role plays with the APs, then like 2 hours of just different missionaries testimonies it seemed. I got to talk about conference and what I learned from it. Way fun!

Sela:

Sellaaa is our 1 investigator so far in our new ward! We had a very terrible lesson with her this last week. She did not seem like she wanted to be there and was very resistant to what we were trying to teach, she was able to come to church on Sunday and we taught her there. Luckily she asked us to re-teach what we had already shared, and this time went much better. It was great seeing her face looking at the whole Plan of Salvation mapped out in front of her and seeing her wonder and excitement at having this new knowledge that couldn't be found anywhere else. We are hoping she will get baptized next week :)

*Liongi*:

A miracle happened this week that absolutely humbled me to the core.. after 5 months of teaching and 2 baptism invites.. Liongi has committed to baptism! I've mentioned this investigator before, shes the one from Vava'u who was having cool experiences with the BoM and has come to church almost every week for the last 5 months. On Monday we had planned to visit her at some point, but through a number of 'coincidences'  we ended up there first thing after morning fafanga. We got there and we were all talking about how she was planning on leaving the NEXT day(Tuesday) to Vava'u. I don't want to say that we had given up on her, but we had pretty much accepted that she will be going back home and this wasnt the time for her to be baptized. The main purpose for our visit was just to share a thought from the BoM with her, and help prepare her to go back home with the hope she would continue talking with the missionaries in Vava'u. As I was opening my BoM to share a scripture, E Satuala leans over and whispers, "Lets invite her again to baptism" I looked at him like he was crazy. He was being much more responsive to the Spirit and less stubborn then I was which I am so grateful for. During the prayer, I had a prompting to change the verse I was going to share, followed it, and we started our conversation with her. As we were talking, Satuala asked her what her actual thoughts were about Joseph Smith. For some reason, she didn't answer the question straight on, but started going off about some other topic, but ended up talking about the Celestial Room in the Temple and how her less active brother had said something about it. We didn't know why she said that, but the opportunity was there, and the prompting was followed, my companion testified about temples and how much we hope for her to be able to go in someday, and then dropped the 3rd invite for baptism.. she started to laugh (that's what she always does) and then we literally watched the Spirit soften her heart and help her with her answer as she started to ramble off about her family and reasons not to. After a moment of silence, she said very quitely, "Oku ou tui te u talitali lelei homou fakaafe.." "I will accept your invitation.." At that moment it didn't fully hit me what had happened. Everyone started to cry and was silent for a whole minute or 2. We committed her to this Saturday. Her boat will be delayed so she can be baptized this week :) So so so so happy!

Ako Hivas:

We may or may not be practicing a missionary song that will be in Kolipokis(Grobergs) new movie..... I'ma be famous!!!

We've got Zone Conference again this next week! So much to plan for! I'm loving it!!!

This is Chevy, I could never eat him

 Just me

 Literally half a pig

 Look who's watching

 No big deal

 P-day pig

WEEK 69 IN TONGA, FALAHA

Transfers have come in! I'going to kill off Elder Satuala! We are both gonna stay as the Zones in Ha'ateiho, but little change in the wards, we lost H6th and now have H2nd. We haven't had too much of an opportunity to go around and visit it, but we hear it's basically 80% members and consists of about 2 half-side-roads and 1 half of the main road. Add that on to the 1st ward which we still cover which may be the smallest ward area-wise that I've covered. Should be fun!

Zone Conference was a total success! President said ours had a special spirit about it. I don't know if that's because ours was the last one and they were about to get a break or.. just kidding. But it was a really good conference. Felt our teaching went great, a little over time, but we felt very good about it. Our district sang and my comp and E Zundel sang a way cool song (Tell me the Stories of Jesus/I'm trying to be like Jesus)(got to play the piano again😏) We were way drained afterwards, but had some great baptismal interviews to do! Also as a Zone we had a Zone Ngaue Ofa (service project) which went really well, helped clean up a ladies house that was totally messed up from the storm. Zone P-day was last week too, hence the reason I couldn't email. So much to do for those days.

Highlight of this last week: One of the days this week I got to do 5 different interviews for baptism, 2 of which were in Samoan!! They took so long, both of them together took about an hour and a half, mostly because it had to be done with an interpreter in the room. Samoan is a way cool language and I'm way jealous of those that can speak it. These 2 Samoans are staying in Tonga for a bit because of family issues in Samoa and they have family here in Tonga, but they speak zero Tongan. Cool experience.

Another lady I interviewed was telling me about how its been hard since she decided to get baptized. Mostly because of her very close neighbors saying nasty things about her and her decision. But she shared a cool testimony about how whenever that happens and she is feeling down, she will go and read the Book of Mormon and feels re-strengthened with the strength she needs to continue forward. I did my best to strengthen her and comfort her about the future and how it may not be easy but will for sure be worth it for her and her family. Twas a cool baptismal service as well. 

THANK YOUS so much to all yall that wished me Happy Birthday! It was a great day! Feels so weird to be​​...21! 

                         

There are some rumors about another cyclone commin towards Tonga! The past two days have rained so much! Here is an example of what its like trying to visit people when it is raining:

*Walks up to door

"Hello, it's the missionaries!"

"Oh! Missionaries, what are you doing here?? You should go home it's raining dummies..."

Both members and non-members. Rain in Tonga = everyone sleeping at home and being very bugged if anyone interrupts. 

Very stoked for the new transfer and to hear conference on Saturday and Sunday! Everyone's been saying how great it was and I can hardly contain my excitement. I may or may not have downloaded a couple of talks from conference to listen to before we watch it. 

 Hurrah for Israel

 Random Pic

We found Elder Kalani (BYU) Dad's guitar

 Zone Amoni

WEEK 68 IN TONGA, FALAHA

I'd like to start off this email with a lovely picture of a real 'Hot Dog' (If you know what I mean😏)

So this week we did a vilo hoa (exchanges) to one of the most legit areas in our zone. I love exchanges always so much learned from these Elders in our Zone. I think I always learn the most from those who most recently came into the mission. They have a special fire and spirit about them that makes me so excited to get back to my own area. Also got to join in on that wards Relief Society aniversary celebration (is that even a thing anywhere else?? Cause it's pretty dang big here). We thought we were going to be teaching investigators at it, but that fell through so they made us stay to eat and watch the 2 Elders, Samoan investigators fire dance which was pretty dang cool to be honest. And also a Tongan lady sing a Whitney Houston song (don't ask why) which might have been even better.

Funny story for the week: Most of Saturday was spent doing baptism interviews for one of the DLs in our zone. I did 3, and that was supposed to be it for the baptism. Tonga has this bad habit of planning the interviews ON the day of the baptism, so it's always an awkward moment if the interview doesn't go to well. After those interviews we came home and started our weekly planning and then at 4:30 (baptism was scheduled for 5) we get a call from those Elders saying that they have another interview for us to do... Their area is about 10 min away from ours so we make for the door and speed down there. As my companion was doing the interview (by now it's 4:59 (baptism is still scheduled for 5...)) I'm standing there talking to the Elders, when all of a sudden he points behind me to a little girl in a white dress and says, "oh, she needs to get interviewed too" ...😐. I love Tonga!!

Another random highlight: Member walks up to us at church with a little boy and says, "Hey this kids parents who are members forgot to baptize him when he was 8 (he's 9) so you guys can teach him and baptize him." So we go to his parents, they tell us the same thing, but when his dad told us his birthday we did the math and realized that he was still 8. And then at a later visit when they pulled out the kids birth certificate we realized that he was still 7 lololol. Toonngggaa!!!

Another epic Sunday of speaking/playing the 5 hymns in sacrament meeting (without practicing before hand)/teaching the less-active class. I always feel so good after those Sundays were we get to participate so much.

Update on our old lady investigator: Her family often tells us things that she wont tell us straight up, and so they told us about how she always wakes up before everyone else to read the Book of Mormon and how she tells them that she feels her life is changing through reading that fantastic book. Such a miracle to hear of investigators having those kind of experiences, it makes me so happy and warm inside :)

As I said before, we live at the Area authority 70 of Tongas house, one night his son was fafanga (dinner) which also happened to be the same night when the 70's sister was throwing a party for having just recently found/met her 50 year old son that she adopted away at birth and hadn't met since. Pretty dang crazy to have witnessed that moment. So this man and his daughter got to meet all of there cousins and eat Tongan food, and we were awkwardly sitting in the corner. Coolest part for me was seeing this man who isn't a member get emotional talking about how much he admires this families commitment to family. He might not have known that that is because of the Gospel and the truth is it taught, but he sure felt it's power. Another very happy and warm moment:)

Yesterday had the lovely opportunity as Zone Leaders to figure out why random people were calling us, threatening to call the police on our missionaries... that basically took all day.... yeah I won't go any deeper into that....

Well... Zone Conference is on Friday! Super pumped always so much to learn at those things and even more to learn when you get to do the teaching!

Love you all! Keep me updated with the deets of your life so we aren't strangers when I get home!

2 Nephi 5:27 <----- a.k.a The Gospel! 😁

-Elder Nite

WEEK 67 IN TONGA, FALAHA

POST CYCLONE

Mann, so believe it or not, but life is boring right after cyclones hit.

Things are very much back to normal, maybe even slower than before, I don't know if I've said this but this area consists of about 5 streets that are each 200-300 yards long, gotta love it.

But we are working with some cool investigators that I don't think I've mentioned yet :)

We are teaching a 50ish year old lady from Vava'u who has come to church every single week for the past 4 months. Mostly because she lives at a members house right now, but she is basically a member except she has yet to be baptized which is what we are trying really hard to work towards right now. She reads the BoM everyday and really likes it, which is really cool to see, but conversion has not taken place yet, we are working for it though!

Another cool investigator is this girl named Teresa. She was a referral from some members. We've taught her a good amount of times which has been way cool, but her dad stops her from coming to church every Sunday which makes us way sad. We went over before church last Sunday so we could walk with her, but she said she couldn't make it this week again :( We are hoping to see a big softening of heart at some point with her dad.

I have become the 6th Wards official Pianist. The chorister calls me every Sunday morning, yells my name and tells me the songs I'll play.

Not too much more to add this week, just got some CRAYZAY action shots that I don't think went through last week:

 Things were flying everywhere

 Things were blowing everywhere

 Things were falling everywhere 

 We were serviing everywhere

 Everything changed

We got to wack at a lot of trees

Sorry for the boring email :/

WEEK 66 IN TONGA, FALAHA

Well hello there :) It's been a good while since I've been able to shoot out a group message! Don't have tons of time cause we were at the temple earlier but I'll give some quick updates of the last 3 weeks, sorry if it's kinda all over the place I gotta type fast and I'm sick right now! I'm sure most of you heard about the Hurricane that hit Tonga about 3 weeks ago. Let me just say that that has got to be one of the craziest things I've ever seen! There were rumors that it was a Level 5 but when it hit Tonga it was only a Level 4, thank goodness! If it was a level 5 than things would have been a whole lot worse. So, I don't want to bore you all, but here's a brief version of the story:

So on the day of the Hurricane, we didn't even know anything was going on, we just drove around our area a bit and saw everyone moving around outside their houses picking up trash, so that was our first alarm cause people only do that on Saturdays. Eventually we heard from the radio about the warning for the storm, about an hour later the APs texted and told us to get our bags ready for us all to head to our church buildings(basically the only for sure safe buildings in Tonga).

We got there by 1ish in the afternoon. The rest of the day was the funnest thing ever, we just went and played games with all the kids, played a little Rugby, jammed out on a members guitar and it was way fakalata (enjoyable) for everyone. I've learned such lessons from these people. I'm sure most of them knew their house, and more importantly their uta (bush which is were they grow and get there food) was going to be destroyed, and I have never seen a more happy/go lucky kinda people in that situation. Everyone was just joking about how bad the storm was going to be.

At around 7 the APs texted again with the 'for sure' the storm will hit us, told us all to stay in the churches, and all will be good!

Around 9 or 10ish is when it started to pick up and get kinda scary. Luckily our church buildings is THE nicest in Tonga. One of the newest, so we weren't worried at all. Us and our district were camping out in the Stake Presidents office.

Around 10:30 I fell asleep.

But at like 1ish in the morning is when it got the worst. We could hear all the trees by the church getting blown down, and these are BIG trees. I've never heard or seen such loud wind! It was so big that it broke a glass display board inside the church!

Next morning we got the clearance to head out and start helping people and that's what we did for the next week after the storm. We lived at the church and went out all day everyday cutting down trees and cleaning up peoples house. There was SO much destruction like I've never seen. It was such a humbling experience to watch people walk around the destroyed house and stare at all their lost possessions throughout our zone. But for these people all it means is a new beginning. It's so cool to see their attitude. 

Almost broke our new car the day after the storm cuz we drove in 2 foot deep water. Smh terrible decision. 

Our water/electricity just barely came on like a weeks ago.

OKK, I have no time, so quick story about how we baptized some one on Sunday! :) 

I think this is one of my favorite baptisms of my mission. Her name is Salome and she just got back to Tonga from Vava'u about a week ago. She was taught by the Sisters before but then went to her home in Vava'u, and just got back. We taught her everyday last week and and realized her truly repentant heart and desire to be baptized. Basically the coolest thing ever to see, and then to listen to her last night, explain the feelings she had when she was baptized and confirmed a member of the church. She just left this morning to New Zealand, so I probably won't be able to see her again which is sad, but it was big privilege to have played a part in her life during this last week.

I'm sorry I gotta run! I try and update more next week!

KOU MATE HE OFA KIATE KIMOUTOLU❤❤

 It's Bat Boy

 Do I even like Cats?

 Sometime you just have to look closer

 Who said I couldn't handle a knife

Oh yah, I get to go!