Week 45 in Tonga

This week has gone by as fast as any week that I can remember. Feel like I was here netting yesterday. This week was awesome though. It was the hundred years celebration of the misiona tonga mission, which was huge. The whole nation seemingly joined in. 

Stuff that happened this week:

- Was deathly sick for most of the week. Stomache upset and dead tired pretty much everyday until friday.

- Had to figure out clothing for all of the missionaries in the zone for the misiona tonga presentation to the king on tuesday, since for some reason none of the elders in our zone had black tupenus. 

- I broke my speaker on monday, so no more talks or speeches in the morning. Hoping to get another one soon from some store or another, but pretty much all stores sell here is bread and canned beef.

- We've driven 800+ kilometers in the past 15 days alone we've been so busy with everything for the zone. (800 kilometers on this freaking tiny little island is a ton, good thing the office elders said I was good for this month haha cuz we've been busy)

- We took care of the Eua Elders, who stayed in our northern MQ in kanokupolu for the week for the celebration.

- The Celebration at King Tupou's Palace: That was really cool:

          

          We drove to kolo with the Eua boys, and parked near the palace. Met up with all the missionaries in tongatapu and took pictures with my kau huu, and President Tupou and so on. Then we were directed by President Tui'one into the palace gates, where we unloaded tens of thousands of dollars worth of ufi (a starchy plant) into piles on the lawn. Then we unloaded massive pigs in crates from trucks, a tree plant thing, and woven mats and tapa cloths. After all of that we regrouped and sat crosslegged to the side of the lawn with everyone else that entered the palace gates. Everyone that goes to the palace has to sit cross legged on the lawn. Even the prince. President Tui'one gave the opening prayer. A crazy opera lady sang. The ufi and pig presentation was hilarious. Soooo weird. Tongan traditions are very different. Lots of yelling. "UFFF TAHA" "UFFF NIMAA" hahaha. I wish that cameras were allowed. I saw stake president Ma'u from Eua there. After the Ufi was presented along with the pigs and tree stuff and everything, the elders all got into a line and systematically took everything off of the lawn to the side, while the choir sang. Then after the ceremony we put all the stuff back into the trucks and took them to the kings storage buildings, where we formed an ufi chain and loaded up storage. I was the end of the chain stacking all the ufi. Cool stuff

- Beach resort meals with the Eua Boys. 

- Found out tuesday night that MLC would be on wednesday, and that we would be having an early morning temple session beforehand. Which was awessooommeeeeeeee, because... Eua's temple trip was in town. And so I saw sooooo many of my members in the temple and went through an endowment session with them all. It was soooo great. I saw Sona, and Sione Kauvaka, and President Ma'u, President Havea, Fane, Pele, a less active that Erickson and I reactivated, so many members from both tongamamao and ohonua and houma. It was sooooo awesome. That temple session was my favorite part of the week. Especially getting to talk to all of them from tongamamao who I hadnt seen in ages. 

- MLC was awesome. I love Prez Tui'one so flipping much. I aspire to be like that man so much. 

- Held a coordination meeting with our District leaders right after MLC.

-The nationwide feast for the celebration at liahona highschool: 

         Every ward and stake in the kingdom prepared a massive feast for themselves on thursday. Hundreds of tables were set up for everyone and the king and the prince and queen sat in the middle of everyone. Sooooo much food. Elder Tuha and I had a whole pig for the two of us, along with octopus and raw fish and fruit and so on. It was awesome. It was fun to be with all of the missionaries and to see all of my old Eua members too. Good time. Oh yeah I saw Sinai there. She gave us kit kats and recorded me for home. 

- Found out that the water filter we used in ohonua for four months had such great water pressure because there arent actually any filters under the cover. Awesome...

- I vilo hoa'd with my brother Elder Moala this week it was awesome. It was great to hangout with him again and talk about the old Eua days and Erickson and so on. We had some really great conversations. Talked until two thirty in the morning and didnt even realize it. Good vilo hoa, just really tired. Our fafanga that night treated us to the vakaaloa beach resort buffett. So that was awesome. We ate with President Loseli. 

- Running tons of missionaries in our zone from ha'apai around, andddddddddddd the most exciting part of my week... We had to take them to storage, and I asked Gardner "There doesnt happen to be a Ta'ovala wrapped up in paper towels lying around in storage by any chance is there?" There wasssss. My Ta'ovala wasnt stolen,, I got it back from storage. SO that was awesome. Made my week. The nicest ta'ovala in the mission from my loving members is back in my possession. 

- Got a package from the fam. Awesome. 

- Sister Vimahi called me and told me that she found Maile Si'i and Maile Lahi that Erickson and I set up baptismal dates for in Eua but who moved away without us knowing. Shes teaching them and they told her all about me and erickson. So that was awesome. Theyre going to be baptised in the next week or two. 

- Havent eaten a morning fafanga in over a week. Too busy, eating once a day. 

- Oh yeah, I stopped a house from being burnt down this week. I decided we should check on one of our fellowshippers, got to the house and everyone was asleep, turned the corner and saw that the stove was on fire. So we ran into the house and put it out, then we woke the family up. Haha that was cool. 

- Stake conference was had this week. Prince Ata is in our stake so we saw him on sunday. Also President Tui'one joined all four sessions of our stake conference and called me a lot to talk. He wanted to know what I thought the members needed and so on. Talked to him a bunch. Then saturday night he texted me about what I felt the members needed for sunday. All night long I was thinking about it and then I texted him my thoughts sunday morning. When the seventy spoke, he addressed everything that I texted prez about and told him I thought the members should hear. I looked at Prez on the stand and he gave me one of those knowing smiles cuz he knew what I was thinking. Haha so that was really cool.

Busy week. Today we are having zone pday at the beach in kanokupolu at the otuhaka resort. Should be fun. This sunday is probably going to be insane too. Its the transfer and AP brock goes home, as well as four other zone leaders. The whole mission leadership is going to be super new. Fun stuff. 

Love you all, Tay