Week 76 in Ha'apai

This week was pretty good. Rained a lot.

Tons of good stuff. Brief Summary:

Monday: We were finally able to talk with Melaia again, and it was one
of my favorite lessons ever. Easily one of the best. She speaks
perfect english, so Elder Grant didn't have any problem saying what he
needed to, but the rest of the conversation went smoothly in Tongan.
We taught her about the restoration and she couldnt stop smiling. She
had so many questions about why all these churches here do so many
different things and it was awesome to just see her eyes light up when
the lightbulb went off. At the end of the lesson we shared the first
vision with her, and it was so powerful. I asked her what she felt
during it and she spent a good five minutes telling us about how she
had never felt so much peace and warmth inside her heart before. It
was so cool. I explained to her about how that was the holy ghost
testifying to her of truth, and she had another light bulb go off. It
was way fun. I love teachings like that. She asked us to speak again
the next day.

Tuesday: Witnessed one of the chinese store owners jump over his
counter and chase down a little tongan kid that had stolen a dollar
soda. Was pretty funny actually.

Wednesday: Had some more great teachings with some new investigators,
then at the end of the day we went on a companion exchange with the
zone leaders. Elder Gardiner has these really cool blowdarts, like
legit hunting blowdarts... I didnt even know that was a real thing...
Anyway I played around with that for a good while. Really fun.
Snagging lizards and so on. Gardiner woke up one night with Vele'ika
and Tai pointing two of the dart guns at his bed, there was a rat, and
it got killed with darts. Fun to hunt with them haha. Anyway, that
night Gardiner and I went back to Hihifo to start the exchange and we
had a good time, we actually ended up having a really great talk that
went on for nearly 7 hours!! Didnt even realize it until we looked at
the clock at 4:50 am... Jeesh. Good talk though. I have incredible
blackmail material on him now hahaha. Man I love that guy.

Thursday: A dog tore my nice slippers to shreds...dangit.

Friday: Had an awesome teaching with the doctor at the Ha'apai
hospital. Cool guy. I love teaching people with lots of questions.

Saturday: Locked ourselves out of the MQ and learned how to brake in
with a knife and hanger.

Sunday: Two of our recent converts were given the priesthood last
week, so they got to help us with the sacrament during church. That
was cool. Also transfers. Elder Grant is getting moved to Vava'u.
Lucky dude. I'm staying and being comps with Elder Siale from Arizona.
He's a cool guy so it should be fun. He gets here later today.

Anyway thats the week.

Ofa Atu kiate kimoutolu Fakafo'ituitui!! Mou fai lelei, fakatefito kia
Luke! Oua toe faikovi he fale ako! masi'i., Taylor

Week 75 in Ha'apai

This week was pretty good. Slow. We had a baptism on saturday though and got to confirm her on sunday. At one point during the week a drunk man tried to kiss Elder Grant, pulling him towards him hahaha. 

We also likely met the lady in "the other side of heaven" who if you remember, tried to seduce Kolipoki in Niua. Shes 85 now, but still remembers Kolipoki really dearly. 

Lots of good teachings with people. And very ta'emahino people that is sometimes frustrating. 

Anyway good week. Really really hot. 

Ofa atu kiamoutolu, Tay

Week 74 in Ha'apai

Was a pretty good week. Lots and lots of rain.

Weekly events

One of our members told me on monday "DESPAIN,,, I LOVE YOU". It was Saia Taufa, an older awesome member, and when he's trying to get his point across emphatically he tries to speak in english haha so that was awesome. Great guy. 

Tuesday: came up with "instant pasta" instead of instant noodles while eating my cup of noodles. Would be way cool. Instead of adding spices, add spiced pasta sauce. Also had a really cool experience during a family home evening where I was given what I needed to say on the spot. 

Wednesday: finished teaching a kid named Tamafua and had him interviewed for baptism, then after the zones left, found out that the kid was actually eight years old, and is a ward baptism haha. well, at least that kid really knows what repentance means now, we spent a good while on that. 

Friday: Baptized some of our investigators, and got ice cream with all the crazy kids after. Our bishop is the best. 

Saturday: Taught a minister for the Penticostal church, met a lot of cool people. 

Sunday: Got to confirm our investigators that were baptized on friday. 

Good week. Hope you guys are all well. Ofa Atu, Taylor DeSpain,

sorry pic attachments keep failing...

Week 73 in Ha'apai

This week was pretty same old same old. Lots of walking around and talking to people in the rain. Got splashed from trucks going through puddles a couple of times, that type of stuff. 

There was some really cool stuff that happened though. 

First, to start off: two weeks ago we held a family home evening with a man named Palu Matakaiongo and his two kids. Five days later, we watched him get buried at the nearby cemetery after having died of too much alcohol in his system. (He was found dead under a tree with a beer bottle in his hand) something like that, and we watched the neighborhood bury him at the cemetery. That was crazy to us because we had just met with the guy a couple of days earlier and got to know him. THEN... yesterday, a week and a half later, we were going around shaking everybody's hands before church as usual, and then I shook his hand....... Palu Matakaiongo was sitting ready for church..........................whattttttttttttt. That was insane. I still do not understand. Maybe there are two Palu Matakaiongos here or something, or he has a twin brother. but that was crazy.

Also, an eighty year old woman possessed with a demon from hell scared the freak out of me. We were trying to find one of our investigators and went to the neighbors house, where this woman cursed us out and yelled at us to disappear and never come back or that she would call the cops. She also told us how incredibly much she hated us and what we were doing. "Going around causing problems". I have never seen so much hate in someones eyes my entire life. It was quite possibly, literally out of this world. So much hate and anger. It was crazy. 

my response- "Sorry Maam, all we're doing is trying to bring happiness and peace to others by sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ"...... we walked away from a verbal assault. 

"And that there is a crazy lady"- Nacho.

Good week. Love being out here. 

Ofa Atu, Taylor DeSpain

Here's a pic of one of our baptisms this week.