Week 5 on Island of Eua

Hey Guys,

I was really glad to read all of your emails and see all of the

pictures that you sent this week. I miss you guys. This week has been

a lot rougher than usual. I was glad to hear about how

much you guys liked my journal and everything. I had some really cool

stuff happen yesterday. A mute man wouldn’t let go of my hand and

started crying when we had to leave and I asked the woman if it would

be okay if we gave him a blessing, but they said no. So we left and I

felt awful. Fifteen minutes or so later I said we needed to turn

around and go back to give him a blessing. So we got back and I asked

a second time and they said yes and I gave him a blessing of comfort

and when we left he smile and wasn’t crying or groaning or any of the

things he did the first time. It was really cool. You’ll read about it

next week probably because I didnt have a lot of time this week. Im

sorry about that. Oh yeah Im getting a ukulele on friday which is

awesome. I’ve been really sick today. I think someone gave us unfiltered water yesterday and I am really not feeling well at all.

This weeks been good overall though. A lot slower than

the past weeks. The internet here is really slow. Its taken me like

fifteen to twenty minutes to get this much to show up. All of the boys

emails were shorter. Ill make sure to try and send you guys the

journal in a little bit once it loads.

I love you guys,

Love Tay 

 Here are some pics for you

                                                          trapped in the jungle

 A bit he sent us from his journal… 

Ok so the ward activity was awesome. A ton of members brought their non- member friends and we taught the restoration to everyone. Beforehand I prayed for the gift of tongues and the gift of discernment for when it came to my time to speak. Those gifts are real. My companion turned to me to continue the lesson after he finished teaching about the apostasy, all of which I understood somehow, and then I taught and asked questions and replied to responses for a good five to six minutes. I didn’t stutter or take long pauses to think how to form sentences or anything, I just spoke. It was awesome. I went over the restoration through Joseph Smith and the translation and production of the Book of Mormon. And then at the end I testified of everything we taught and the power of sincere prayer. It was great. I walked out of there and felt amazing. Heavenly Father really does answer everyone’s sincere prayers.  I’ve also noticed in the Book of Mormon lately that everything happens according to the faith of the people, or the person seeking whatever it is they are after. God works according to faith. I’ve felt that working here too. Anyway, that lesson went really well and I felt awesome afterwards. My companion said my grammar was great as well. I definitely had some help in there.

The people here just sit in random places to do things, so I decided to give it a try.

Week 4 on Island of Eua

Hey Mom and Dad,

How are you doing? It sounds like Halloween was really fun yesterday with everyone.

Wish I could be there to join in on all of the festivities.The language is coming very well actually.
I do about half of all the teaching now. I can understand most everything except for when they start to talk really quickly in meetings and sacrament and what not. Tongan is way easier than spanish

actually because its so simple. No conjugations nothing like that.

We are getting a ton of work done. We have over 19 investigators that

we are working with right now. Appointments out the wazoo. This week

has gone by really quickly. Unfortunately I only had enough time to

get weeks 1-3 to you guys this week but you’ll get my journal for this

past week and this coming week next Sunday.

I am doing really well right now. We’ve had a couple really cool

experiences lately too. I wrote about one at the end of week three so

you guys will have to read that. I shared my journal with mom through google

drive by the way. Its in a zip file. Hope you guys like pictures, and I loved

the pictures you guys sent me out. Keep'em coming.

And my companion is pretty cool. He’s very strict and obedient which is a

good thing but can be annoying at times when its pitch black out and

everyones lights are off but its not nine o clock yet. He’s cool

though. You’ll read more about him in my journals.

Alright I have to go now. I love you guys and hope you are doing well.

Love you Mom, love you Dad,

Love, Tay

a couple parts of his journal entries he sent us: 

Today we went around with a boy named Sione. He's seven years old and told us he wanted to show us the area. Haha so today we went to pick him up and he was dressed exactly like us, tupenu, kava, taovala, everything, it was funny. He took us to a bunch of members houses and let us introduce ourselves. Then took us to non members it was funny how excited he was. It was cute. We gave him a pineapple Fanta for his work.

We took a truck over to Ohonua for some baptisms, and this time we traveled luxuriously, we had seats. Haha it was actually the best riding accomodation I've had while in Eua.

Oh yeah While working out today all of the little neighborhood kids, ages 4-6,came out to the courts and just mimicked us the whole time and made fun of us. They would do lunges next to me and try and push me during them. It was pretty funny.

More exploring on my P-day. Enjoy the pics.

Some cool pics from the cliffs

Picture of me laying down on edge of cliff taking a pic of the ocean behind, these pics should be attached to each other.

A picture from above of some of the houses on Eua.