Hey family
and friends,
So my email
this week isn't as exciting as the week before, but I have some news. I work in the town called Kolonga; it’s on
the eastern side of the main island of Tongatapu. It’s fairly large; there are
three different wards in Kolonga alone and they are decent sized, nothing
compared to American wards, but it's pretty good. Kolonga is right next to the
ocean so I see the ocean everyday and it's cool. I always see crabs crossing
the rode and I try to catch them or run them over sometimes. I am still the
zone leader, which is cool I guess. I am in charge of most of the eastern half
of the island. I cover from Fuamotu (the airport) to Kolonga and everywhere in
between basically. It’s pretty awesome.
So my town is
a pretty normal town, it's even got a really small eating-place. I don't
remember what you call it. Restaurant? Yeah. So you can order like 1 of 7
dishes and eat there. They have chicken or sheep curry, horse cooked in coconut
milk, fish cooked in coconut milk, turtle cooked in coconut milk, octopus
cooked in coconut milk, fried chicken, normal cooked fish, and sea anemone
(cooked in coconut milk). They also have raw fish you can eat there which is
really good too. All meals come with a side of boiled tapioca root. It’s really
good, especially if you have a little salt. There are a bunch of little stores
where you can buy your corned beef and bread and laundry soap. Kolonga goes
along one big road that goes through the center of town; on one side is the
ocean on the other side is the rest of the town. There are lots of little dirt roads
that make up a grid and all the houses are located within. We have a decent
amount of vao (wild bush areas) and a lot of uta (cultivated bush area where
crops are grown.) The beaches aren't super good, but it’s okay. I also work in
a place called Afa; it’s about a two-five minute drive from Kolonga going east.
It’s a neat little town and has really strong members and the church building
is really pretty and cool; I am emailing from there right now.
The people in
Kolonga are probably the best part. I really like them; they are generally
really nice and easy going (that's how Tongans are), but it's peaceful here. Well,
I guess I shouldn't say too peaceful, there are a lot of people here around the
age of 16-30 that aren't married and don't do anything but play volleyball and
mess around. There are also a ton of returned missionaries, but the lack of
progress is big. Lots of drunk people. I have been kissed by a drunk man for
the first time, sad part is that he is a returned missionary, but is like 30
years old and not married. All the bishops here are really cool too, I really
like them and the members. We have been making friends with the massive amount
of deported guys from America who were all basically gangsters and are covered
in tattoos and get drunk all the time and have no purpose in life. But they are
really nice and fun to talk to. Hopefully we can make a positive impact in
their lives. The rest of Kolonga is really chill and everyone is happy. Just
living life, putting food on the table. They love volleyball, there is a
volleyball game going on from 6am-9am and from 5pm-sunset. Basically the life
of the average Tongan here is: wake up, volleyball or go to the bush, work in the
bush, come back, eat, volleyball or go back to the bush, come back, hang out
until nighttime, sleep. Repeat. It’s a simple, easy and fun place full of doing
nothing. I love it.
So for the
work, man it's really good here. We’ve got five people we are looking to baptize
this month, and we have the challenge from the mission president that if we
baptize five people in a single month the two missionaries get to go to the
temple and do a session. If the zone gets 30 people then we get to go as a zone
to the temple. My zone went last month because they got 31 and I’m hoping to
make it two times in a row and go myself because our work was good. Really, I’m
starting to understand it doesn't matter as much about me but the members; they
are the key to the work. When members bring you people to teach it is so much
easier than finding people on your own. And it is so much faster too. We have a
little girl named T; she's 9 and really funny and always smiles. I really like
her, her little sister is really cool too, her name is A, she's only 6 but we
teach her the lessons too. I figured since they are young I’ll teach to their
understanding, so our lessons aren't super complicated and we have a lot of
fun. We have another investigator who's name is S, she loves the church. She’s
14 and her parents don't want her to join, but she always goes to the programs
and when the youth go to do baptisms for the dead, she goes too but sits in the
waiting room. We are working really hard to talk to the parents and set it up
so she can be baptized and can join fully. There is another girl named L; she
married a returned missionary. She was sick this last week so we weren’t able
to teach her, but we got permission to go to her area with the bishop and give
her a blessing. She’s really awesome and I think she'll be a good member. The last
investigator is a girl named C; she lives in Kolonga and has been taught a ton
of times. She’s 19, and really funny. She wants to serve a mission, but likes
going to parties and drinking and smoking. So we are working with her and I
hope she will choose to the change those things. She has a really good member
to help her and I have high hopes.
My zone is
really good, I am I charge of 20 missionaries not including my comp and myself.
There are three districts, but only four sisters, which kind of sucks because sisters
are really fun. We have some good district leaders; get this, my old comp Elder
O is one of my district leaders, so is Elder A. So yeah, that’s my week.
Funny story:
so they are working on our house to make it a little bigger and one day we left
a checker board out and the table. We were super surprised to come back and
open the door and the people that are working on our house were all inside. There
were like 7-8 grown men all watching two of them playing checkers. I think this
had been going on for about an hour. Super funny. Then my comp went in and
whooped them all in checkers. Checkers in Tonga is actually kind of a big thing
and I’ll teach all you Americans the way to play Tongan checkers.
Ofa lahi atu
you guys!
Elder Sitaki
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| Me doing some welding |
