Musings from Tonga ~suit required!

Folks,

We've been in Tonga for 1 month now.  Here are a few reflections on the journey thus far.

When we got our mission call it said to bring 6-7 whites shirts, 5-6 ties, and one suit, amongst other items.  Our mission president said I would probably wear the suit to and from the mission and that would be about it.  That’s not how it has worked out.

When we got to the MTC, the late night check in guy said a white shirt and tie would be fine for the coming week.  Not true.  I found out the next day that seniors are expected to wear a suit.  OK, 7 straight days of wearing the same suit.  We went to Salt Lake City for specific Perpetual Education Training, at the Church Office Building.  That’s right, suits are required wear.  5 more days of the same suit.  We flew to New Zealand the next day after training and you always travel in a suit.  At New Zealand we were trained further at the area office in Auckland.  That's right, a suit is required.  4 more days in a row.  Then we flew to Tonga.  Yep, same suit.  If you do the math, that was 18 straight days in the same suit.  When I took it off here in Tonga I didn't hang it up.  I simply leaned it up in the corner.  Of course we have been to 2 wedding receptions since being here and guess what the attire was.  That's right, a suit.

In case you thought about shipping anything heavy to us I'll tell you about the Smiths. They left our mission a couple of weeks ago.  They were supposed to be able to take their two 50 lb bags with them each.  However, the flight was weight challenged and they could only take one bag each.  The other two bags were shipped home at a cost of $800 pa'anga, or about $500 US.

I bought a bag of sugar pops that had come from the United State in a crate with other stuff they sell randomly here. Unfortunately one of the other items was shampoo.  Have you ever tasted sugar pops with a VO5 aftertaste?  I have!  The taste isn't very good, but my stomach is clean.

We can always tell when the humidity is up.  I brought one of my fishing hats to wear on P-day, just a standard baseball cap.  When it’s humid it just turns color and is wet.  But, it is cool to the head so it works.

We love Tonga and its people.  We teach Gospel Doctrine each Sunday and work with some great young people during the week.  We are learning a lot from these humble spiritual people, well grounded in the gospel.  The Tonga temple is absolutely gorgeous and we can attend an English session each week. 

Alu' a,

Elder Bean

The Blanket

Dear family and friends,

   

Elder and Sister Szoka live next door to us here in Tonga.  Sister Szoka is an excellent writer and asked if she could write about us in her blog.  She blogged about an experience Bob told about at our mission president's house.  It involves the wonderful blanket that Ofa gave us.  We all call it the Ofa blanket.  The Deseret News picked up Bea Szoka's blog.  You can click on her link to read about us here in Tonga.  

Love, Cathy

Adventures in the South Pacific: SOMETIMES YOU CHOOSE: Sometimes you choose, sometimes you’re chosen. Jim and I chose to come to Tonga.   We continue to choose to be here.  We choose to work i...

We've arrived in Tonga

Receiving traditional leis on arrival at the airport

Dear family,

Elder Bean and I have been in Tonga for a week now.  We have a nice apartment and are adjusting just fine.  We have gone in to our Perpetual Education Fund office every day, but we have been having Internet problems, which makes it hard to do our work.  The Internet people were on the roof working on the problem when we left on Friday.  Hopefully it will be fixed on Monday.  I continue to be amazed at how many resources the Church puts into Tonga.  They are really committed to helping people here.  We have had the opportunity to do some very fun things these past few days.  On Thursday we were able to go to the wedding reception of the mission president's son.  It was a traditional Tongan wedding reception with roasted whole pigs on the table, traditional dancing in costume, long speeches in Tongan etc.  It was very enjoyable.  We had to show our invitation to be admitted, and there was a guard there.   

Last night we went to a resort on the beach.  We were able to see the sunset and look at the constellations.  We saw the Southern Cross, which is not seen in the Northern Hemisphere.  There was a large buffet and Tongan dancing and singing.  One unusual thing for me was that when the host welcomed everyone and told us the buffet was ready, he said that in the Tongan tradition, before they started serving, a blessing on the food would be offered.  He called on a Tongan gentleman to give the blessing.  It sounded just like any Mormon blessing.  I asked him later if he was a member of our church, and he was.  We enjoyed the buffet complete with roasted pig on the table.  We also enjoyed the traditional Tongan dancing and singing.  They even did a few fire dances. 

This morning Dad and I took a walk.  The church has a cattle ranch behind the Church High School.  There were lots of bulls grazing.  That is normally not unusual, but these bulls were grazing among coconut and palm trees.  We also went to the market this morning.  (Today is our P-Day, which is Saturday.)  One of our best finds at the market, was being able to buy scotch tape.  It is amazing the things that we get so excited about here.  There is a small American mini-mart here.  The owner is a member of the church.  He is going to the states in a few weeks and is taking orders from people here.  Most of the things he gets are from Costco.  We have a list for him.  We do not have Internet in our apartment.  Some other senior missionaries work at the Liahone High School across from our home.  They let us come to their office today to use the Internet.  We'll try and keep in touch.  Thanks to Janell Bean Carter for setting up a blog for our mission.

Love, Cathy

Elder Bean after church on their first Sunday in Tonga

Greeted by Senior Missionaries at the Airport

Young Men at EFY (Especially for Youth) Dance Festival

Cheers!

The start of their journey

This is the beginning of a grand adventure