Week 61: Niutoua- Short Letter

Hey,

 So I have little time today to email. I’m doing alright; I am having trouble with disobedient elders and elders who don't get along, and its hard being a leader because I have to act, but I’m doing my best and will hopefully do what's right. You guys are all preparing for winter while I am preparing for the heat; it's been getting so freaking hot this week. I’m dying and we go walk around everywhere, I’m so worried about getting sunburned because I get super red, but I haven't gotten badly burnt yet, maybe a tender mercy. I am getting a good tan though. I’ve been a zone leader for so long my right arm is way darker than my left arm because I hang it out the window when I drive. I drive on the left side of the road and I sit on the right side of the car. I don't know if you can imagine it, but it's a little different. That’s how Tonga is.

Today we had a baptism of some other elders and it was great. We had the bishop conduct, lead the songs, and do the concluding remarks, the audience was the person being baptized, my comp and I and the 2 other elders. So 6 people all together haha. Great baptism, but I’m really praying the elders will notice how they felt and something will change. I’m going to being working with them closely this week to help them out.

That’s my life. I love you all, you guys are a wonderful help to me. I got the package and I absolutely love it! The voice recorder is perfect and really helpful and fun, the BSU hat I wear all the time, usually when I drive. The candy is going fast, the shirts are very useful because my others are getting pretty yellow, the slippers are being worn right now, same with the gym shorts, the letters were inspiring and motivating and I definitely miss you guys.

Ofa Atu,

Elder Sitaki

Here are some pictures from Vava'u:

Week 60: Niutoua- I have the coolest mission EVER!

Hey Mom and Dad,

So I’ll give you a quick update. My infections are much better; getting tons of great scars that are huge. My area is doing a lot better too. I think the members are starting to like me. The work is a little slowish but I am fixing that. I’m going to bring the hammer down and get some stuff going. I have a lot of hope to get a ton of stuff done in December. Did you by any chance send a Christmas package? Just curious if I should expect anything and we don't have another package question.

But anyway I sure love you guys. Today we are preparing to learn a song and skit to do for our mission Christmas party. I think it's going to be really funny, but I’m not sure. We can only get together and practice as a zone on P-day so hopefully we can get our stuff together. I included some pictures so you don't forget I have the coolest mission EVER!

Love,

 Elder Sitaki

We went to church on some little island and I rode this sketchy boat with the Stake President and like 20 other people. We get to jump out into the water and pull the boat to shore. It’s just the best mission!

I didn't slaughter this pig,  just cooked it. We do it all the time; that day we ate two pigs.

Week 59: Niutoua- Lots of Baptisms

Hey,

So this is my weekly email. I know I haven't been able to write one of these for a while, but I finally got a good P-day without a ton of stuff going on and I can write a decent email. So, I had a lot of stuff happen. First, we had two baptisms in the Kolonga ward. One was an 8-year-old boy whose parents weren’t members; the other was a 16-year-old boy.  I really liked those two. They were funny and it was a really awesome baptism. Sadly, some kid played with my camera and deleted like 150 pictures, so those baptisms are lost and will have to stay only in my memory. 

Last week Monday we had transfers and I was moved to a new area; it is just the next town over and is called Niutoua. When I moved there I had a couple problems with the members and some baptisms they wanted to do, but we sorted it all out and in the end, last Wednesday there was 5 people baptized which was really cool. We then had stake conference this past weekend, I don't know why they planned a baptism on stake conference but we will just confirm the investigators a week and a half late. So yeah, that's life. During stake conference we had a funny thing happen. So our mission president came to it and at the conference there was a Wesleyan choir from the local Wesleyan church and they did the singing. After the musical number, when the mission president spoke, he made all the missionaries come stand in front so they could see the Wesleyans and invited them all to hear our message. Kind of interesting. They are really good singers though.

Well I can't think of anything else.... plus this keyboard sucks and it's laborious to type, haha. But that's a rough over view of the week. I miss my old area, but after some deep cleaning, my new house is decent. The members seems cool too, I guess we will see.

Some other stuff that happened... yeah, no, I can't remember anything else. It’s been a long way since the MTC.

Elder Sitaki

Week 58: Niutoua- Transfers

Hey,

I have a chance to do a quick email to you guys. We are very busy today so it won't be long. We got busy yesterday doing the transfers. Basically I turn into the taxi during transfer time. I put like 250 miles on the car yesterday just driving people across the island. We have to move a ton of people to random places; I went from the east side of Tonga to the west all in one day. It sucked, hours and hours of driving.

In other news, I got transferred with my comp to the next town over. It’s ok. I’m not really excited to work here, but I will do what I’ve been called to do. I’m still the zone leader and I’m still companions with Elder M. The members work really hard and are really missionary work minded. Other than that, I’m pretty happy. Life is good, the girls are still hard to ignore especially when they come down form Vava'u to come visit, but I’m being obedient and focusing on the work. We got a new district and I like the missionaries here, they are really funny and easy to get along with. So yeah. That’s my life. Don’t worry about me, I’m a tough cookie and can stick it out just fine. I hope everything is okay. Say hello to Mary and Henry! Good luck on his arm!

Ofa lahi atu,

Elder Sitaki