Week 35 on the island of Eua

Dear Mom and Dad,

Sounds like you had a good week. Ours was good too. We're emailing early today because we fly into Tonga at 1. Going to be fun. Viloing (splits) with the APs. Last night I listened to a giant rat run all across our ceiling and inside of our walls. Made sure to cover my feet. The weeks seem to fly bye so quickly. President Tupou emailed me this week too. He wrote and thanked me for the inspired work that we are doing for the program we set up. Then he told us he would be coming to Eua for interviews. That was crazy. I've never even heard of him ever emailing someone or responding to their weekly emails. That was awesome.

    We had district meetings this week, I had all the missionaries write down what their weaknesses for teaching are. We talked about obedience issues that would reduce the power of the spirit in our teachings. I taught about grace and the enabling power of the atonement, making our weaknesses strengths. Then I talked about how these weaknesses all come from either lack of love, faith, or understanding. Then I taught about those and asked some inspired questions about what they all are... spiritual gifts. How do we gain spiritual gifts?... Through obedience, prayer, and fasting. Which all tie in perfectly with the new program. Fast for not only investigators but for your love, faith, and understanding to improve, so you can have the spirit more fully in response to increased obedience. I felt like the meeting went awesome. The District is pumped, I want to be the most effective district in the mission.    

    We taught Poasi again this week about the Restoration, he is a smart kid. It's so nice teaching in English. We taught another new investigator this week Samiu's brother named Falemasiva Finau. We taught all of his brothers kids at the same time, it was a perfect environment to make him feel comfortable. Samiu's little daughter is adorable. Afterwards we all had dinner together, it was delicious, Puaka lahi (a big pig), crabs, oyster shell things, chicken, ice water and then big bowls of ice cream for everyone. It was awesome, afterward we set up a new time with Fale for his next lesson. We also taught another new investigator this week named Kaloni. She was great and the lesson went really well. We were also able to help out Fotu Fili's this week. We crawled into his giant truck dump truck and rode all the way to the lumber yard. Dump truck riding is the best. At the lumber yard we started loading up Fotu's truck with wood. Fotu would find pieces he liked and toss them to me and I'd toss them into the truck. Initially the wood passing was at a close distance and slow, then Fotu saw how easily I was catching long pieces of wood and throwing them  and turning around for more, it got a lot more intense. Haha it was really fun. Fotu and I were tag teaming the wood into the truck like pros. At one point I don't even think he was looking, he was just picking and chucking and I was catching and chucking and catching again. He started to throw two at a time super fast. Boards of all shapes and sizes, being caught and tossed at random with either one had or two. I wish I had it on video. It was crazy, my hands were covered in pine tar afterwards. All the other workers stopped working and just watched and talked about us. Haha it was really really cool. Best part of the day. We unloaded the wood at his house and raced to our MQ to change. Raced back to Fotu's so he could give us a ride to Houma before 5 for Loloma's interview with the Prez. All went well and we can set her baptismal date now. We had some great lessons this week and some that fell through. 

    Its going to be a fun week. I'm excited about flying to Tonga. I'm glad you guys are doing well and are having fun. I miss baseball a ton. Yesterday we were in elders quorum out on the lawn in Houma, and it smelt like hotdogs and was sunny and breezy. Made me think about going to baseball games at Citizens bank park, Spring training in Florida, baseball games on our road trip, baseball games at Harleysville. It was nice. Smelt and felt like baseball. I miss it. Those smells shouldn't be allowed on a mission. 

    I'm glad everyones doing well though. Wish that diving catch of Jack's was on video. That would be sweet. Have a good week. 

Ofa atu, Tay