Hello Everyone,
Well after eighteen-ish hours on a plane from Salt Lake City
I arrived in beautiful Tonga! The airport is all outside so we got off the plan
on stairs! Haha We met our mission president and wife; they are super nice! We
went to the mission home which was like a twenty minute bus drive. Everyone
here drives on the left side of the road too! The mission office is right next
to the temple, so that was really cool also! I found out my area and met my new
companion, his name is Elder Teutau. He is from Tonga and he is super nice! He
teaches me a lot of Tongan.
The best way I can describe it here is just like a jungle!
There are a lot of pigs and dogs and chickens that just run all over the place!
Haha My area is right by the ocean, so we go see it every day. It is super
beautiful here! It is so green compared to back home! All the people are super
nice and friendly. I still have a lot of Tongan to learn, but a lot of people
have told me my Tongan is good for being new, so that makes me really excited!
Our house is pretty small. All the missionary houses are
small. It has an inside shower, though, so that is good. Haha There are a lot
of members in the three wards that we cover. We get fed two meals every day and
when I say meals, I mean a buffet! They want you to eat a lot of food here!
Haha They are super nice, though, if one of the members forgets to feed us,
someone always buys us food or brings us food!
We eat a lot of meat and manioke (tapioca), we mainly eat chicken and sometimes lamb and beef. We eat a lot of kapapulu and bread too. They have New Zealand milk here, but other than that, we drink bottled water with Kool Aid! Haha We got to have ice cream with bread today, too, so that was really good! The food here does not have as much flavor as all the food in America does, so I think that is the biggest difference.
The people here are really nice. We have already done service and taught a few lessons. We already have a baptism this week and another one coming soon, so that is really cool. I don’t speak a lot of Tongan yet, so I mainly say the prayers and bear my testimony. My companion has to do all the talking. I feel bad, but I am learning a lot each day! We have a new investigator who we did service for. They had a tree branch fall in front of their house, so we cleaned it for them, hopefully they will want to listen to our lessons now!
We watched conference in Tongan. It was really hard to follow along, so I am glad I got to watch it in English last week! It was super cool seeing myself in the choir! Haha I showed all the people sitting around me! The churches here are really cool. It is like the size of a regular church, but there are no hallways; all the hallways are outside, so the church is like a lot of different buildings.
I have only been here for a couple days but I have learned so much about how much Heavenly Father loves his children. I have never met the people here, but I already love them! It helps to see the people as children of a loving Heavenly Father, not strangers. We had a lesson with a man who is about to be baptized and my companion asked me to bear my testimony. I didn’t know what to say, so I just started talking. It was really cool, in moments like that I just talk and I don’t think about what I am going to say. I definitely know it is divine help! When I was done he said he really liked it, so it made me feel really good.
Being in a new place and experiencing everything for the first time can be hard. I feel like a lot of us feel like that in our lives at one point or another. Sometimes I have felt no one really understands what I am trying to say or I can’t understand them, but I am always comforted to know there is always one person who understands me perfectly. That is my Fakamo'ui (Savior). I have grown to feel closer to him because he is the only one who knows how I feel right now and can help me. I would promise anyone that if they trust in Him and have faith in Him, he will guide them through any trial, obstacle, hard task, or difficult test. I know my Redeemer lives and it is his work that I am doing. I know He called me here for a reason and that gives me a lot hope for the future!
I love you all so much and I hope everyone back home is okay!
Ofa Lahi Atu,
Eleta Hami!
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