Week 55 in Tonga

List of stuff that happened this week:

Monday: We got a call from the APs during emailing to take missionaries to the health clinique in Liahona, and got to witness an animal looking thing come out of one of the missionaries ears. Drove to Kolovai to play volleyball. Started our vilo hoa with the Lakepa elders.

Tuesday: Ended up teaching a new guy at the bus stop with elder Harmon, taught him the plan of salvation. It was good. Harmon unloaded to me at lunch all of the crazy awful things his last comp did to him while they were together. Man, that made me feel really lucky to be comps with Leka. It rained pretty hard and we took a rest at the MQ. The rain made me want to go back to Eua sooooo flipping bad. I miss Eua so much. Its an entirely different mission over there and I really miss it. We talked about Betos and Chipotle to... I would kill for a burrito. After one of our teachings wasn't lava, we got back onto the main road and I got a text from Sister Tui'one that made my day. Lifted my spirits a lot. Sister Tui'one is awesome. She's like a second mom to me out here, way cool. She said a lot of nice things to me and it was just what I needed. She's the best, our President and his family are awesome. Planned the agenda for our zone meeting.

Wednesday: Listened to a talk about Babe Ruth and attitude, great talk. Made me miss baseball. We went and taught the Peace Corp volunteer named Megan. Leka doesn't speak any English really, so I taught the lesson. It was awesome. Over the past three weeks shes gone from Agnostic, to believing that there is a diety through our conversations. Slow progress but progress nonetheless. Since she lacks faith and "needs" evidence of things, I decided to talk about spiritual experiences. Shared a bunch of stuff and she shared personal stories and then I logically turned her experiences into spiritual "evidence". It was pretty cool. I shared about Joseph Smiths "spiritual evidence" and then committed her to try and get her own. It was pretty cool. 

Thursday: Thursday morning the clouds were dropping swimming pools to the earth. We started our zone meeting in Matahau and it went pretty well. Afterwards the Matahau ward came through big time. They provided soooooooooo much food for us it was insane. Good stuff. Later in the day I had to do a baptismal interview, and afterwards, Sulunga, my man from Tofoa called and told me that my referral to him wants to be baptized. So that was really cool. Later that night it started to rain while we were walking home. I loved it. Reminded me a ton of Eua. Made me feel awesome. Found out also that the dad of one of our investigators just gave the green light for her baptism, which is awesome cuz shes been trying to get baptized for like five years. Got back to the MQ, and then I decided to faka'uha and just enjoy the rain. Went out and just laid out and felt the rain. Was awesome. Favorite part of the day. 

Friday: We went to Fo'uis baptism, and the kid that got baptised over there.... dang. He had one heck of a testimony about tithing hahaha. He explained the principle to all of us, and then he proceeded to give maybe fifteen examples. "If you have this much pa'anga then you give..." It was starting to get a little unreal, and I started wondering what the heck was happening. Haha funny stuff. 

Saturday: Listened to a great speech about Brigham Young by Hugh Nibley. We ate donuts for fafanga at Te'ekiu, and meanwhile I looked through the liahona magazines to determine who was "Miss Liahona" found someone in the November 2013 won I think, she was flipping gorgeous. I've already decided I'm going to find her sister when I get back haha. Cant wait for college. Made the best corned beef meal ever. 

Sunday:  Pisopes dad started an impromptu song in the middle of a lesson... Ate octopus for fafanga. Delicious. Nancy and Sa taught us lesson 1. It was awesome. I loved seeing the scriptures that we bought for her all marked up and full of notes. Way cool. She's solid. Shes going to ask pisope to request to shorten her waiting time before she can submit papers for her mission, since she just got baptised. For Fafanga at night, we ate ota ika!!!! Every time I see ota ika prepared for us, its like its my birthday. Ota ika is my favorite Tongan food. Soooo good. Its basically just raw fish with tomatoes and coconut juice, thats it. But its delicious. Its soooo raw, pretty much they literally catch the fish and cut out the meat and just mix it up with tomatoes and coconut juice. I'm surprised that I've never gotten sick eating it, but by now I think my immune system is so strong, that when I get home, if we ever go fishing and I get a good one, I'm not kidding I might just flip out a knife and ota it. Will feel like Gollum but its so good. 

Pretty good week. Love you guys, Ofa Atu, Tay

Week 54 in Tonga

This week was pretty good, stuff that happened:

Monday: Went fishing off some tiny cliffs at the northernmost point of the island with Elder Manu and Elder Veamatahau. Love those guys haha. We caught 8 fish. The wind was crazy and the waves were insane, but we still had a good turn out. 

Wednesday: Had one of my recent converts roleplay a lesson to us instead of us reteaching her, that was way fun. Cool to see their progress. 

Thursday: Met at the temple at 11:45 for a session. That was way good, then afterwards we drove to the New Zealand owned hotel in Fuamotu for our MLC meeting with President and the other zone and sister training leaders. That was way fun, felt like I was back in America for a second. The hotel was really nice. After the meeting we played billiards, relaxed, and ate at the buffet. Then we were all given room cards by the APs to stay the night. So that was cool. Prez must have pulled some nice strings for that, expensive hotel. We had a cool home evening after dinner there with the mission presidency and so on. Then we all relaxed in our rooms, cool day.

That was the biggest things that happened this week. Enjoying the mission. Sometimes things seem to go super slowly though. Doing well. Hope all of you guys are too. 

Love y'all, Tay

Week 53 in Tonga

Hey Mom and Dad,                                                                                                 Oct. 9, 2016

     I'm doing alright. My new comp is really really hard. He doesn't ever want to do anything, its frustrating. I dont think he's used to working. Teaching me to be patient, it is hard. He just wants to sleep all day. Just trying to figure out how to help him want to work. I'm doing alright though. 
     Glad Luke had a good birthday, and Happy Birthday Mom. I'm glad Dad and Luke are hunting hopefully they will have fun. That would be fun if next year all of us could go. I hope Hogan will win the baseball tournament today. 
     Sharks weren't caught last week. We caught some fish though. My camera batteries were dead though. We are going again today so I'll take some pic. 

Have a good week, Love ya, Tay

Week 52 in Tonga

Things that went down this week-

Monite- Shark fishing was'nt lava unfortunately because the members coming with all of the gear were too late. But we have the gear now so we are going to go shark fishing today after netting. Should be fun. Instead of fishing last week we just went to the beach and ate icecream.

Tusite- Office visits, district mtgs, talk w/ sister Tui'one and office elders. Teachings

Pulelulu- Our fafanga brought us bread and kapa mo'a, so we decided to go to the store to buy more food, but saw the family's truck getting ready to leave, so we drove past the store in our village, not wanting them to see us buying food, and drove to Te'ekiu. Parked at the store and Soakai said "Watch them drive by and see us here", not two minutes later they drove past us hahah. Oh well. Great lesson teaching Kava about the Book of mormon. Love that guy. Really cool analogy I used comparing physics to math, teaching him about the bible and the book of mormon. Went and did baptismal interviews in Kanokupolu. 

Tu'apulelulu- HAPPY BIRTHDAY X! Went and lifted in the morning and did deadlifts. Was super dissapointed with how much muscle I've lost on the mission so far. Went to deadlift 90kgs and it was a struggle. I used to powerclean that in workouts with 30+reps no problem, so the fact that that was a struggle was really disheartening. Theres no way I could powerclean that much right now. Really really annoying. Want to be back in the shape that I used to be. Another trip to the office, Prez went on a walk with Soakai and told him our transfer. He wasnt allowed to tell me though. Also thursday, we blew so many kids minds with "miracles" hahaha. We had sooooo much fun. I've gotten really good at sleight of hand magic tricks, and I know a couple of tricks to "read peoples minds", we did a bunch of those on the kids.... man. That is sooo flipping funny. It was way fun. I did the reading minds trick on them and they were blown away " ko e mo'oni ia, na'a ne hiki ia ki he pepa!!!" At the very end, Soakai had the car keys in his pocket, I acted like I was forcing the car trunk open from afar, and he popped the trunk with the keys. Hahaha the kids went crazy. "Oku malohi aupito e fai mana a naua!!!!" - my favorite quote of the day - translated literally:"Their miracle performing is super strong!!!" Funny stuff. That night our investigators fed us fafanga. Crab salad ki ai. 

Falaite- Friday was super fun. Poteki came and hoa tolu'd with us since vito finished. So he stayed with us until this morning(monday). It was fun. Poteki is a crack up. Tons of watch and ta'ovala and kafa and slipper trading that day with all of the missionaries. We had to take the DL to kanokupolu to do interviews there, and so seven missionaries were trading up over there. I think I've gone through nearly over five hundred dollars worth of watches since being on my mission now in trades and so on. That night we went to kanokupolus baptism (all seven of us again haha) and ate the food at the feast. Good stuff. Then we had to drive to fafanga in Houma from there and eat again hahaha. Kai ke mate ki ai. 

Tokonaki- Saturday was pretty good most of the day. Fun vilo with Soakai and Poteki. Lots of laughs. Then I found out Saturday night that I'm really just staying in Fahefa. As you can imagine I was super super sad about that. That was really rough. Saturday night and all day yesterday were pretty hard days for me. Wanted to go to Vava'u really bad. But nope... Still just a zone here in Fahefa. It stinks too that Soakai got transfered, I loved being comps with him and we taught awesome lessons. Now my new comp is Elder Leka, He's a true Tongan from Tonga. No english.  Really anxious and nervous,  but Elder Leka is way cool. My tongan is going to be way better in a month. I'm starting to see more and more of the brightside. I think its going to be really good. Just wish we could have comped up in Vava'u instead of Fahefa. Oh well. Should be fun. 

Some other news,  Elder Pakalani, he's the new AP. He just finished his twelve weeks of training. He's great. So that will be fun.

Love you guys, I'm doing well, hope you're all great,  Tay

Week 51 in Tonga, 10 months to go!

This week went by really quickly. 

Stuff that happened this week:

Monday- I washed some laundry in the shower. Gotta do what you gotta do.  After netting we drove over to Utulau to join in on their pday. There was music and volleyball and, two whole pots of freshly umu cooked dog. It was delicious. We left there with four extra plates full to share with the te'ekiu elders. Haircut. Lessons fell through. Talked with and ate dog with Te'ekiu that night.

Tuesday- Weightlifting in the morning, fafanga fell through so we ate at liku'alofa resort after district meeting. Lots of teachings lots of lessons, distributing needs.

Wednesday- I interviewed three people for baptism in Lakepa. That night we had a ward missionary activity that we set up to watch the first vision with investigators and member friends and so on. Started our vilo hoa with the Vaotu'u elders. Elder Enos is awesome.

Thursday- Vilo'd with elder Enos the whole day. It was really fun. Great discussions. Talk about his desire to be a chef, and the culinary arts. We had to run by te'ekiu that day and we got there and found that the kolo zones were at the mq. They had to bring a mandarin speaking missionary over. So I got to talk to Clay there for a long time about a bunch of stuff. It's been forever since the last MLC so its been a while since I've seen him. Elder Enos reminded me of Nick a lot to on that vilo hoa. We got to play an awesome game of chess that night. First time in forever. Also taught a bunch of good lessons with Enos that day. 

Friday- Bucket Showers. Trip to the mission office. Good talk with Sister Tui'one. Love Prez and his wife so much. Theyre awesome. Talked with Elder Gardner about all the pranks that Prez plays on them in the office. Hahaha i'd share but I dont think itd make sense to you guys. Prez is the best. I love that guy. Prez reminds me a lot of my Dad in some ways. He likes to mess with people. Oh yeah, when I found out that Gardner is going to Niua I called him and made him leave a note for Prez from me that said "I would love to be comps with someone that rhyms with todner in a place that rhyms with siua" (it was supposed to be a secret that gardner was going out there). When prez read my note he busted up laughing. Haha good stuff. I also got to talk with a Wesleyan priest on friday, and I got to talk to my recent converts Lupe and Se in kanokupolu after driving up there to talk to those missionaries. They're doing great. Lupe and Se are even bringing another whole family to the church. Awesomeness. 

Saturday- Got up at around five thirty to get ready for the temple. We took our recent convert from Fahefa who we baptised two weeks ago, to go do baptisms for the dead. The tongan temples baptistry was soooo awesome. Favorite temple baptistry by far. It was soo cool. Reminded me of an amazonian temple or something out of the tv show lost, except for nice and well lit and cool. Idk it was awesome. We did the confirmations in tongan. Oh yeah, I also met the first agnostic person on my mission. Shes a peace corp volunteer. She knew Jen from Eua too so that was cool. Somehow I got her to admit that there is a noticeable and evident spiritual part of the world. Things in her own life that she couldn't explain and so on. Cant wait to see how far her teaching goes. On the way to Kala'au after talking to her, we passed some kids slingshotting rocks at bats hanging from a giant mango tree, the bats have a wing span of 2 feet. 

Visited a home that night and an old lady, that was truly in unparalleled poverty. Some places snap me to reality and its like dang. This is crazy. I've been so blessed in my life.

Sunday- Sunday was a good good day. I love it out here. Love the people. It's fun. 

I'm doing well. 

Ofa atu,  Tay

TODAYYY--- TODAY AFTER NETTING WE ARE GOING TO GO SHARK FISHINGGGGG. ALREADY HAVE THE CHICKENS FOR BAIT READY AND ALL. Going to be awesome. I'll send pics next week. 

only good pic on my camera this week. Sorry not a lot

Week 50 in Tonga

This week was busy. Fun. Tiring. 

On monday we went and did a service project at prince Ata and the crown princes homes. We cleared all of the trees and bushes that seperated his yard from the beach, so now they can look straight to the ocean instead of at the trees. It was a fun service project though. It was just our zone and President and Sister Tui'one and the APs. I got to drive the giant uta truck around too since im the only one allowed to drive in the zone. It was stick shift, so that was nice to finally drive one of those again. 

On thursday we got a phone call from President asking us if we could present an award to the crown prince of Tonga for his birthday. So we got some missionaries together and drove up to his home where we had a little presentation ceremony thing with the crown prince. Prez wasnt even there. It was just us and our stake president. So that was cool. Haha, during the opening hymn the princes two puppies were playing around on the mat, then they started "playing around" on the mat right next to the princes feet. haha pretty funny. I got to shake the crown princes hand too. So someday I'll be able to say that I shook the hand of the king of Tonga. Cool stuff. 

Those are the coolest things done this week. Not much else besides regular missionary work. We've had a ton of awesome lessons. Soakai and I are teaching lots of lessons out here. Its way fun. We set up 6 new baptismal dates this week, and should have another baptism come saturday. The work is fun. Really busy, tiring, but fun. 

 Love you guys, Tay

Week 49 in Tonga

This past week was pretty good. Very busy. and ate cheesecake for the first time in over a year.

Monday: Pday was at the beach in kanokupolu, beach volleyball with the district, nice shade, climbing coconut trees and drinking coconuts. Good times. 

Tuesday: Had zone conference. It was good. First zone conference I'd ever even been too, and we were the ones doing half of the teachings. We led the first forty five minutes of the meeting, and then the APs finished off with roleplays on street contacting. Later tuesday night, we went on a vilo hoa with the APs. Hosea and Soakai stayed in Fahefa and Kilary and I worked in Havelu and in Liahona. I saw Tili matakaiongo at the temple in liahona and that was awesome. Love that guy.

Wednesday: Smashed a raw egg onto my clothes because of a magic trick gone wrong with the local kids. Haha they were so embarrased, started wiping me off with their shirts. 

Thursday: Helped an old man named Laulea do his gardening. 

Friday: Taught all the kids at the tiny elementary school nearby. Hahaha that was flipping fun. Fafanga was bread and butter... We vilo'd with the ward kids, bunch of lessons. Nancys baptismal interview. Did baptismal interviews for the sisters in matahau. 

Saturday: Went to fill up the baptismal font in teekiu for nancys baptism. That was a problem. The water was only like six inches high and we had two hours to go. So we got out the buckets. Too slow, said a prayer, and then right afterwards the pisope of the teekiu ward showed up to help us with the bucketing. Then we took the other firehose (we were already using the one to try and fill up the font) and cut that off from where it was connected, to drag it to the other side of the church to attach it to one of the faucets we were using for our buckets. Tongan ingenuity with knives and rubber and so on... But the baptismal font was ready. It all turned out great. Nancy gave a cool testimony too. I baptized her. Good stuff. 

Sunday: Confirmed Nancy a member of the church. Lessons. Ward council meetings. APs called and told us that our zone is doing a zone service project at Prince Ata's house tomorrow. 

Oh yeah!, Elder Brown and Mahe somehow got captain crunch!!! So we ate good american breakfast for the first time in over a year. Delicious. 

Good week. Busy. Ofa Atu, Elder DeSpain