Dear kakai,
Thank you for all the people who wrote
me this week! I really love to hear about what you have to say and about your
lives. I literally miss out on everything so you gotta tell me if you want me
to know. I've had a really good week. I need to start writing down everything
that happens, it seems forever in between times that I email. To start off,
today I woke up really early with my companion and ran to the blowholes. It's a
corral type part of the coast and it’s super cool. It was low tide so we walked
around the corral shelves. There are a billion tide pools with lots of cool
stuff. I took some pretty scenic pictures. On the way back we ran into a senior
missionary, he's like 65 and he came here to do dentist work. He was jogging to
the blow holes and back and we decided to run with him. He totally kicked our
butts! I was huffing and puffing and he just kept cruising. What a stud!
Today the washing machine broke.
(Probably because of my pride- I told another elder about how awesome it was to
not do laundry by hand a week before) Sooo, we did laundry by hand. It’s with a
bucket and stick, super fun! I’ll send a picture of me working hard. Other than
that, this week for me has been a lot of lifting stuff. Since I’ve been in the
office, I’ve noticed the storage is really unorganized, so I took this week to
organize it. I've been moving boxes all over the place all day. It's pretty
annoying, but lots of hard work and I squished armies of spiders, which is fun.
I've been working hard enough that when the president's wife saw me moving
stuff, she gave me her two sons, age 12 and 14 (the 14 year old is taller than
me and has like 12 kg on me) and I’ve been working them pretty good. We’re
almost done! I like doing this work a lot more than sitting at the computer,
which is been good!
Our missionary work is slow but it's
starting to pick up. We've been fasting and praying and we've committed a lot
of families to bring a non-member to teach. Hopefully they will remember and if
not, we will teach them. Lesson either way right? Anyways so we received a new
investigator. His name is T. He's 20 and is going to mechanics school here. He’s
pretty interested and I think he's heard the gospel before because he knows
every lesson before we teach it. He wants to be baptized but something is
holding him back, we think it is family. Changing religions with your family is
really difficult in Tonga, and his grandpa is a devote Wesleyan. Hopefully he
will understand and gain the faith to decide for himself what he wants, I pray
for him a lot. I also pray for S, the guardhouse guy. During one of our
lesson's he said he didn't really believe the Book of Mormon because it was new
and stuff. We have taught about the Book of Mormon probably 4 times now, but we
will keep teaching it and other lessons until he will take the time to keep the
commitments we give him and read and pray about it. He is progressing, just
very slowly. My area is about 150x200 square yards I’d say, by the way. 30
homes roughly. All members.
As for culture, this place is awesome.
Everyone is a friend basically; we can go talk to everyone on the street! It is
considered rude if you pass someone without saying something or a car drives by
and you don't wave. It just doesn't happen. When you pass someone usually you
need to ask, "where are you going" and they will say like "I'm
walking this way" or "I’m just going over there" it doesn't
really mean anything, but it's customary. If we say hi to someone instantly you
tell them "hey there, how are you? I’m going to [e.g. members house]."
Then they will talk about how it's their fifth uncle or whatever. Everyone here
is related; I guess that's what happens when you live on an island for forever.
Everyone loves it talk and joke. It's the greatest!! The only bad part is the
mosquitoes and the humidity. The mosquitoes are like black ninja's, they strike
and you don't know you've been hit like 30 times until you start itching
everywhere! With the humidity, it's so hot. It’s not even hot outside
temperature wise, but the humidity makes it like 30 degrees more! You guys are
all freezing but I’m going into the heart of summer. I like the service though
and sweating builds character right? That's all I got today!
OFA ATU!!
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