Sister
Bean and I spend our mornings at the Welfare office at Ma’ufanga/Toliki. This office is on the waterfront just across
the street from the ocean. The road is
lined on the water side of the street with tall coconut palm trees. One morning we were looking out from our
office that faces the ocean when we saw a mini dump truck pull up on the other
side of the road with 4 young men in the back.
Shortly thereafter one of these young men was climbing up one of the
trees. I went out to watch as this particular
tree was probably 40 plus feet tall. I
thought he would stop below the crown of the tree and knock the coconuts off to
the waiting crew below, who throw them in the back of the truck. To my amazement he knocked aside fronds in
the way and climbed up on top of the tree and proceeded to knock the coconuts
down by kicking them with his feet. He
then climbed down and the whole crew moved 50 feet down the road to another
tall coconut tree, where the process was repeated.
Another
day Sister Ben and I looked out our office window and saw some quite large guys
saunter by with athletic shoes in their hands.
Most were wearing the same kind of jersey. Then it dawned on me that it was the Fiji
National rugby team in Tonga
for a tournament. They were staying in a
hotel just down the beach and they were going down the way to work out. On their way back Sister Bean and I ran out
and met some of them. We took a picture
with a couple players and wished them good luck. They did indeed win the tournament beating
Samoa and Tonga
in the process. The Bishop of our ward,
Bishop Fifita, was a member of the Fijian National rugby team and then Tonga’s
National team for 11 years. He is a
stout fellow and looks the part. He is
also an outstanding Bishop.
There
are no real serious holidays in Tonga
in the fall. They don’t celebrate
Halloween or Thanksgiving. So, starting
in September they start to play Christmas music on the radio and TV. We think we start early in the states, but Tonga leads the
league. Sister
Bean and I were sitting at our office one morning last month when we started
doing the shimmy. The blinds started
swaying back and forth and it wasn’t because of the wind. Yep.
We had just been in an earthquake.
We had known of another earthquake the month before that we did not
feel, so I decided to check. Tonga averages
an earthquake a day. There had been over
300 so far in the year. Thankfully
nothing too big that would create a tsunami.
Because the high point on the whole island is only 290 feet, a tsunami
would be devastating. As I sat there
looking out at the ocean after the earthquake, I had thoughts of wondering
where the earthquake had originated and was there a big wave headed our
way. Thankfully it was not big enough to
create one.
Sister
Bean stopped by the post office on the way to our office not long ago at about
8:40 am. The post office opens at 8:30 AM.
She mailed a post card and a letter for a fellow senior missionary. She then asked if she could buy some stamps. The guy at the window said just a minute and
left the window and went into the back room.
After about 5 minutes the fellow had not returned so Sister Bean read
the sign on the counter that says to ring bell for service. Only there was no bell. She yelled,” You who,” and the guy eventually
came back. He told her the woman who
sells the stamps was late and would not be in for 10-15 minutes. Cath asked if someone else could sell her the
stamps. He repeated that the only woman
to sell stamps was not in yet. This is
the only post office on this island.
Evidently there is only one person who sells stamps at the post
office. A day later I went to buy the
stamps. There were several people at the
window. When I asked about stamps they
yelled in the back and a nice lady came and sold me 10 stamps.
Sister
Bean and I teach the Gospel Doctrine class in Sunday School. During one of our lessons about the house of Israel and the remnant in the Americas I
asked the class about their heritage.
They fully believe they come from the House of Israel that was in the Americas. They believe they come from those people that
left in Hagoth’s ships and were not heard from again. Their Patriarchal blessings have their
lineage through Manasseh.
Sister
Bean signed up to feed the missionaries who are in our ward for a Monday. Fully expecting them to come to dinner Monday
night Cath planned a nice meal of mama’s chicken, one of our boy’s
favorites. She even had rice and corn
and another veggie, fruit, plus bread.
However, we found out Sunday if you sign up for feeding the missionaries
you feed them during the day as well. So
we took them food in the morning on the way into work too.
Elder
Groom is a big guy from the states.
Elder Halaliku is a Tongan from West
Valley, Utah and not
very big at all. We figured Elder Groom
would really put away the groceries.
Were we wrong. Elder Groom put a
nice portion on his plate, while Elder Halaliku piled it on like there was no
tomorrow. I looked at the pan of mama’s
chicken and thought we’d still have some nice leftovers for later in the
week. Wrong. Elder Halaliku finished off his plate of food
that was literally 3 inches high, and proceeded to fill his plate again only a
little higher, cleaning out the chicken, rice, and corn. He had earlier cleaned up the bread and most
of the fruit. A few minutes later Elder
Halaliku was cleaning the last of his plate.
Sister Bean was started to put away a couple slices of apple that was
left and Elder Halaliku asked if he could have those as well. We served them ice cream for dessert, and
yes, Elder Halaliku piled it on. My jaw
was on the table. Unbelievable! Cath and I have laughed over and over about
Elder Halaliku. In speaking to the
mission office couple Elder Halaliku has spent the first year of his mission on
little islands in the north country, and had not had the opportunity to eat
good American type food. The night at
the Beans is now legendary throughout the mission.
The
mission has had a terrific year in convert baptisms. The mission baptized about 1,000 in
2011. They are on pace to baptize 1,100
in 2012. When you consider that there
are only 100,000 or so people in the whole country, and ½ of them are already
members, they are baptizing 2% of the available non members in the kingdom each
year. Unbelievable! The missionaries live in MQ’s(missionary
quarters). They are very small
independent little huts usually in the yards of members. No hot water or air conditioning. They wash their clothes in a bucket. They are all on foot except the zone
leaders. There are only about 10 cars in
the whole mission. The members feed the
missionaries each day 2 meals. Because
the nation is poor and not many have cars, the Church has built lots of
meetinghouses all over the islands.
There is a building in about every little area/village. They are the nicest buildings in Tonga, and the
temple is the nicest building by far.
These missionaries are pretty special.
In a
more serious note, Sister Bean and I visited a beautiful part of the island
known as the Pigeon Hole or Land Bridge.
It is a very pretty spot on the coast where there is a hole that the
ocean has created going inland at the base of the cliffs. There is another canyon like hole on the
other side of the land bridge that meets the ocean as it roars through the
cliff. The canyon like hole
is very steep and is probably 100-150 feet deep where the ocean comes in.
The
nursing students from BYU Idaho used to come to Tonga during the summer to provide
service at the hospital. Several years
ago, a nursing professor and her husband took about 20 of these nursing
students to the land bridge. It is said
the professor thought one of the students was getting too close to the edge and
stepped forward to pull her back. The
earth gave way and she fell into the hole.
She hit the rocks below and then the ocean. Her body was never recovered. The tide was going out at the time and
recovery was unsuccessful. BYU Idaho has
not been back since. This was a very sad
event that everyone in Tonga knows about.
We had a wonderful
Thanksgiving. We took the morning off
and got together with the other senior missionary couples and a few other
people and had a full turkey dinner.
There were 24 of us. We cooked
one of the three turkeys and made gravy.
I also made a Dixie Salad with Craisins instead of
pomegranates. All of the couples brought
their favorite Thanksgiving dishes. We
had mashed potatoes, stuffing, apple and pecan pies etc. It was very nice to meet together and give
thanks for all of our blessings. Our
family is really being blessed while we serve here in Tonga. We miss them all, but love serving. I’m attaching some photos that go with this.
