Culture
The culture of Tonga is
vastly different from America in many ways.
Some things are difficult to get used to, but many things are just plain
superior. We have loved the respect the
whole country shows missionaries.
Whether by member or non-member, we are treated with respect and
dignity. Being shown to the front of the
line is common, and the missionaries always eat first at social events and
gatherings. When the full time
missionaries are eating in a member’s home the members will often feed the
missionaries and not eat their dinner until after the missionaries have
gone. At most of the stores, patrons
have to check their bags on the way in, except missionaries. When pulled over for speeding (Who knows what
the speed limit is? ), and they see you are missionaries, they just say warning
and waive you on.
You get things given to you for being who you
are. Shortly after getting to Tonga I
mentioned in our Sunday School class that I missed our garden. The next Sunday Mapu shows up with the most
Beautiful tomatoes you’ve ever seen for us.
A non-member who owns a restaurant in Nuku’alofa feeds the missionaries
for free. You have to be careful how you
compliment someone on what they wear or what they have. If they think you really really like it, it
just might be your’s the next day. No
one in this country goes hungry because they share. If a neighbor or relative needs food, it is
given willingly, no strings attached. No
one in this country has much, but they have enough. Everyone is so friendly. We wave and they wave. We smile and they smile. These are sweet loving people who understand
that family comes first. We love the
people.
Missionary Preparation
The Buzz in the Church
seems to be, “Hastening the Work.” With
President Monson’s announcement of lowering the age for missionary eligibility,
more and more missionaries are preparing for service around the world. We have heard from our Stake at home about
the growth of the missionary force as the, “Call is Being Heeded.” In the last conference Elder Nelson
challenged everyone to, “Catch the Wave.”
Here in Tonga they have always had a lot of missionaries serve. Now, they have caught a tsunami!
In the Liahona Stake
alone, the Stake we reside in, the average attendance at the Saturday morning
Missionary Preparation class is 130.
That’s right, I said 130 young men and women preparing for service. The class is held every Saturday morning at 5
AM. That’s right, 5 AM. The class doesn’t go for 6-8 weeks, it goes
for 6 months as they cover the entire Preach My Gospel program. There are 6 teachers teaching every week with
groups of 20-30 in each class. The
teachers are 21-25 year old recently returned missionaries. Most of them are our students in the programs
we administer for school. Some of our
students teach mission preparation in other stakes with similar programs as
well. Liahona High School has
an annual Missionary Day. On this day
held no long ago, every student comes to school dressed like a missionary. The missionaries here in Tonga have a
standard dress. The Elders wear a
tupenu(skirt or lavalava), ta’ovala(wrap), held up with a kaafa tie. The Sisters wear a pulitaha
with a ta’ovala and kaafa. That is 1300
kids looking like missionaries with a name badge for the day. Pretty cool.
Rugby
Tonga loves music,
dancing, eating and rugby, not necessarily in that order. The national sport is rugby. Each school starting with the early grades up
through middle and high school have teams.
Each August the season concludes with a national tournament at all
levels. The big event is the Senior High
School level. Liahona High School
usually does pretty well, but it had been a long time since they had won the
championship. The season did not start
well for Liahona. They had a new coach
teaching them some new things. They won
a few games and lost some games too.
They looked pretty average and not a threat to any of the good
teams. They got beaten by the better
teams early in the year. Then something
happened. The new coach decided they
needed to do something different. That
“different” turned out to be the team would fast together every Saturday for
unity and brotherhood. They would break
that fast with a team meal across the street from where we live on campus each
Saturday evening. Things changed pretty
dramatically for this team. They started
having success as they played with heart, unity and confidence. They wore down many teams as their stamina
seemed to be superior to their opponents.
Liahona made it to the big tournament and immediately started surprising
teams as they swept through the early rounds.
When they got to the semi-finals they played a team that had thumped
them early in the year. Only this time,
Liahona, down at half time dominated the second half to pull away with a big
win. Sister Bean and I were able to
watch that game and it was a thrill to see those guys come back and win.
The final game was against Atele, the
powerhouse of the country. Not many
people gave Liahona a chance. Sister
Bean and I were committed elsewhere and could not attend the game, but we drove
by the stadium to see if it was still going when we were heading home. We drove to a place where we could see the
scoreboard, and it showed Liahona ahead by 7 points. But, we did not know how much time was left. We could hear the crowd cheering and yelling,
and then a long whistle blew. Fans
started leaving the stadium so we knew it was over and Liahona had won. Yes, they got behind by 13 points early in
the game and fought back to tie the game and have it go to overtime where they
scored and Atele did not. When we got back to
campus, the school was going crazy. When
the team eventually showed up they were carried onto the campus on the
shoulders of the students and the celebration began. What a day! But what would you
expect with a coach whose full name is Daniel Judah Benhur Kivalu, a mountain
of a man. The next day a sign hung on
the fence in front of Liahona High School.
Just two words. Stripling
Warriors
Senior Missionaries
One of the great things
about serving a senior mission is being with the other senior couples. They come with varied backgrounds of work,
education, family, conversion and usually a drawer full of pills. We all come with aches, pains, chronic this
and that along with a list of surgeries, some recent. All of them are dedicated to their assignment
and to the Lord. We have office couples,
a nurse, humanitarian, education, auditors, temple, ITEP (International Teacher
Education Program) and TVET (Technical, Vocational, Educational Training)
missionaries here now. We also have a
dentist and his wife volunteering at the clinic on campus. One of the temple missionaries is on her 8th
mission. We love associating with all of
them. And, one of the best things has
been the lack of University of Utah fans.
We are all Cougars and Aggies.
Sweet.
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