Week 46 in Tonga

Man, this week was awesome. So much happened and so much went down. Great week. 

Super brief summary of the things that happened this week. 

Tuesday night we had a family home evening with the recent converts that we just baptized at the beach with the va'enuku couple. That was really cool. We ate a bunch of good food and Elder Va'enuku jammed on the ukulele. That man knows how to put on a show. It was really cool. I regret not videoing it. 

Tuesday night we had a family home evening with the recent converts that we just baptized at the beach with the va'enuku couple. That was really cool. We ate a bunch of good food and Elder Va'enuku jammed on the ukulele. That man knows how to put on a show. It was really cool. I regret not videoing it. 

Wednesday morning we went to check up on and study with the Te'ekiu elders before Tui finished his mission. They had a guitar and so Tui played and Vailea sang a tongan song. It sounded super good.  The song was nice and hawaiian sounding I guess, and then mid song, we heard a massive "BANGG" outside. We instantly all turned our heads and Tui goes "What the fuss was that!?!" hahaha we all went outside and saw the dead pig that had been hit and run. Funny. That night we visited a blind lady. That was really cool.

Oh yeah, that night, we ran into a man named Michael Funaki, he told me he was from Parramatta Australia. I recognized that place and quickly put together that X served in his ward. Found out that he was actually Xs ward mission leader. So that was really cool. 

Thursday night we were starving. Fafanga gave us a loaf of bread. So we decided we were going to find a way to get pizza. In the end, a district leader, his comp, two ha'apai elders, the zone leaders in hofoa, and the two of us, and The Prince of Tonga, combined efforts in order to make it possible. I told you guys before the princes number is in our phone right? First name basis. haha. That was cool. The pizza was way good too. 

Bucket Showers

Filled up a baptismal font with a firehose. 

Went to the blowholes.

Oh yeah, on saturday, Lupe and Mino Mani, our recent converts, they fafanga'd us. Man, they must have sacrificed so much for that meal. It was awesome. This family is so poor that their roof isnt intact, the transition between outside the house and inside the house is a piece of wood, dirt floor, walls falling apart, whole house the size of my old bed room and six people live there. The fafanga they made for us was so awesome. Superrr good. Ota ika too. Theyre awesome. Blessings coming their way. The church is going to be building them a whole new home starting this week. Way cool. 

Yesterday was transfers. We waited in Vaotu'u at the stake presidents home while Elder Enos and Otukolo made us german pancakes. Delicious. The transfer never came though. We headed back to the mq and then finally got a call at 10:10 from the APs telling us that Tuha was leaving to zone in folaha and that my new comp is Elder Soakai. They didnt even tell us the rest of the zone. Found out that no zone leaders knew the transfer and that the APs were calling everyone individually. So that was super weird and frustrating. Lots of changes. My new comp Elder Soakai is really cool. He's 24 from new zealand and converted in 2013. He was in the mission presidents stake and ward before he left.  Getting along well, reminds me of Elder Tua'one. 

All in all, I'm loving it out here. Lots of cool things. Lots of changes, lots of work too. We have three baptismal dates set up for september so thats cool. Teaching a lot, its good. Oh and Soakai's first language is tongan. So that'll be good. 

I'm doing great. Loving everything right now and can't wait for the future. 

Ofa atu ka moutolu, Elder DeSpain