Week 93 in Vava'u and Tonga's main Island- Last letter!

Hey everybody,

Hope everyones doing well, I'll be able to actually talk to all you guys next week so I'll keep this one short.

It's been an interesting week. 

On monday Poulsen and I made garlic bread and real spaghetti at the church. It was delicious. had some great talks. I convinced a fourteen year old member kid that I speak mandarin. 

On wednesday we had our zone conference meeting. My last one, President and Sister Tui'one are the best. I love them so much. Such a great meeting. They had all the kau osi (departing missionaries) bear our testimonies too. Also had to say goodbye to a ton of good friends that I'm not going to see again for a long long time. Elder Christensen and Bingham drove over that night to do our baptismal interview, and afterwards I showed them my engineering with the family history center room door. Bingham said I deserve the nobel prize haha. That was hecka fun. I love those guys. I've made such great friends out here on the mission and it sucks to think that I'm not going to be able to hangout with em all for a long time. I also chased what looked like a mini dinosaur out of our house that night. 

Thursday was a roller coaster. It was awful actually. Started out just like any other day, great conversations with Poulsen, good teachings with a couple of people... and then around five the zone leaders called and told me to pack my bags. The last plane going to Tonga in the next week had left, so the mission ordered a charter plane for that night. So I packed, we got picked up an hour later.  Got ripped out of my area and didn't get to say good bye to anyone or see our baptisms or have the party that my members planned for me. So that was sad. It was hard leaving Poulsen too with the other missionaries. I'm gonna miss that guy. Hope that he gets a good comp next transfer. So we landed in Tonga at 10:30 and all of us chilled at the mission home that night until two. Fun stuff. The next morning we got sent out to be in trios across the island until we go back to the office this wednesday. So I've been with Elder Stark and his Comp in my old area the past couple of days. Fahefa. So thats been nice. Lots of good talks with them and going back to my old investigators and members. Teaching them again. 

Stark and I have been having fun making future plans also. Came up with some good ideas and talked until 5:30 one night. 

Today we went and saw a giant rock that a tsunami took out of the ocean and tossed into a coconut field. We climbed it and took pictures. On the way down my flop bent on some coral and Im pretty positive I broke one of my toes. All swollen right now. But thats okay. I can walk and I'll be in america soon.

I'll see you guys, or be able to talk again come saturday! Live life and have fun. 

ofa atu kiamoutolu, Taylor

                            Zone Conference in Vava'u. Largest zone in the mission.

Week 92 in Vava'u

Hey Everybody! 

This weeks been good. 

On p-day I played basketball for the first time in forever. So that was awesome. 

Forgot to celebrate the fourth of july on the 4th so we did it on the 6th. Played basketball every morning that it didnt rain at the church from 6 to 7. that was fun. Poulsen has got a good shot. Hes better than I am. 

The work is going really good. I don't know if I've even mentioned this before, but we've been teaching this 11 year old girl named Meleseini (meley-sane-ee) recently and last week we set up her baptismal date for this next week on Saturday! So that's really exciting. She is really amazing and it's been super fun to teach her and to see her understanding just expand so much!

We also were able to visit with Emelita again! It went really good and she even agreed to read some of the Book of Mormon! One thing that I know for sure about the Book of Mormon is that if people will just read it and give it a chance they can gain a testimony of the truthfulness of it. All it takes is an open heart with a willingness to pray about it, and to do something about it, if they receive an answer.  The most important thing in this world is to at least test it, to see if it could be true. I love the Book of Mormon and I know that it is true.

Some kids helped us get proper form with the slingshot. They're snipers. One of them hit a knife from at least forty feet away. 

Also, I saw lots of my old members this week. Nuti and Moale from Ha'apai, Pulu from Houma in Eua, and Lani from Tofoa. That was awesome. It was so nice to get to talk to all of them. Man I miss Eua. 

Oh yeah! We saw some kids playing cricket one of the days while we were walking around in the rain... and I just had to teach them how to play baseball, so we played five innings of baseball in light rain with a tennis ball and a bunch of tree branches for bats. It was so much fun. I can't wait to play wiffle ball with the bros when I get home. 

On saturday we saw a truck drive down the road on its way to town, and it had four dogs standing on top of it.... not in the bed, on top of the roof!!! He was going about 30mph. We were both stunned, only in Tonga. 

Oh yeah, I found out that the ward is going to throw me a party because I'm finishing. They call it a mavai. There's going to be tons of food and lots of leis, but its going to be fun. 

Anyway, hope you all have a great week, and I'll see you soon!!! 

Ofa atu, Taylor

Week 91 in Vava'u

Hey everybody, hope you all had a great week. 

Brief rundown from the past week:

We set up a baptismal date with a new investigator for next week just before I leave, so that will be great. 

Found a ranch dressing bottle at one of the little tongan stores which was awesome. Made some delicious cracker-ranch sandwiches for lunch one day. 

We ate octopus at one of our investigators homes. Pretty delicious. Also, had a great lesson with him after we ate. I love teaching. 

On Saturday I literally walked out of my slippers. It was a very weird sensation, the strap broke once I hit the ground so the next step my foot came right out as if I wasnt even wearing anything. It was pretty funny. Then one of our members saw and made me wear her slippers, which were hawaiian sandals and three sizes too small for my feet... So then I went and bought a new pair of slippers, and took the other ones back to her, but then she demanded that I wear her "nice ones" because they're "durable", and then she took the ones I was wearing... Still trying to think of a way to give the slippers back without hurting her feelings. 

Yesterday we ran into another one of our investigators named Peni, who didnt come to church like he said he would, so when I asked him about it "na'e i fe koe?" he simply responded "Pisa!!" Pizza... Which was funny, because at least he remembered our deal and it seems likely he'll follow up with the pizza he now owes us. 

I cut Poulsens hair yesterday too. It looks pretty good. 

Also Mele Seini is the first investigator I've ever had who is literally doing everything backwards. She accepted a baptismal invitation before anything, she came to church this past week, and we teach her for the first time tomorrow. So thats cool. 

Been a good week. Crazy how fast the time is flying bye. Only two and a half more weeks and I'll be flying home. I still cant believe it. Hasn't hit me yet. 

Anyway, ofa atu kiamoutolu, ofa pe ke mou ma'u ha uike lelei aupito. Te tau toki fesiofaki osi ha taimi nounou aupito! Tay