Christmas #2 in Tonga

Dang.... so you know that guy we were going to help get sealed with his family if we found his record? He killed his wife..... poured hot grease all over her and fried her head, face, throat, everything....... so that was a huge shock..... it was so crazy when I heard... he ran away but they found him Saturday in Town..... he was progressing so much too....... I don't know what happened...... but other than that nothing else happened here. It was a slow week with Christmas and everything.  Fun Skyping with the fam though! Sad to hear about Mrs. Wray.  She was my favorite teacher.

I got my Christmas package.

My comp likes his stocking, presents and candy!

Christmas Day

Love my True Crew temple socks!

Playing pool.

Baptism!

A Good Week

This week was a lot better!

Wednesday we had an interview with President and sorted everything out! So my comp and I are doing good now! Thursday, Friday, and Saturday we went around with members to a bunch of different houses and taught a lot more lessons than usual! We got 30+ referrals, 16 new investigators, and taught about 12 lessons, committing 3 people to baptism!

The interview was a lot of just realizing that we need to focus more on the good in everything and stop focusing on the bad, sticking up for each other and just loving each other no matter what the differences. My comp has changed a lot, and I have begun to not even be able to name the things I don't like in my companion anymore! So it’s good!

This week for Christmas we honestly have no plans, it’s the only day we don't have anything planned yet! Tomorrow we have a meeting and 3 teachings, Wednesday will be a busy day, Friday when I Skype is also a day with lots to do, but hey I am excited to see the progression in our area as we both push forward! Family, I am really looking forward to seeing you guys on Christmas! Love you all! Thanks for all the prayers and the love you guys send to this little Pacific Island here! haha Ofa lahi atu kiate kimoutolu taki taha! :)

Elder Mani

Rough Time

Sorry not much happened this week..... we again didn't work much cuz my comp was waiting for the transfer and little did he know we are staying here for another  5 weeks together! It's just been a rough time....

I Miss the Snow

This week was good! Still slow though and mom, still no package haha!

We didn’t catch our investigator til Saturday which sucked cuz it meant we couldn’t baptize him but we are shooting for this Sunday! The main reason we didn’t get to him is cuz my comp freaked one day and said he doesn’t want to work with me anymore. He just wants to wait til transfers, which is stupid so I called President which always turns these guys around before the President gets to them. But even though we are working he still doesn’t respect me when I try to lead or to help him so it’s annoying.... but I still push to get the work done and ignore the problems. That’s something I have learned here is to just ignore the problems and don’t get mad.  Just avoid the temptations and the annoyances and all is well!

We taught the man from Vanuatu again, Willy is his name. But we are still just waiting to get some materials in French! We are having FHE with him this week though! Should be good! And hopefully some others that get invited!  Still haven’t gotten any new investigators! We have a mission tour with S. Gifford Nielson!!! The old QB for BYU!!!  So I am excited for that tomorrow to see all my white friends, people I came in with, and to hear him speak!

I don’t know what else happened really.... I will try and remember my journal next time so I can think of more to write!  I am very forgetful.  Love you all! Stay chill! (especially those of you in Idaho...... lucky lucky lucky......)

Elder Mani

PS..... I miss the snow....

Ko Hoku Kainga‏

Malo etau lava e aho ni! Ko eni kou sai aupito oku sai sai pe e ngaue i he elia ko eni! Kei tuai ka oku ma kamata ke fokotuu e ngaahi polokalama ke fakavavevave'i e ngaue i heni.

There is my little Tongan for you today haha!  I haven’t done that too much! But once again it was another slow week! Only a couple lessons. Still waiting to get stuff in French for our investigator to read so he can understand better our message and the doctrines of Christ. We watched the Restoration movie in French with English subtitles and he liked that but he was focusing so hard on the language cuz it has been like 6 years since he has heard it haha.  So next time he wants to have paper so he can write down notes while we talk! This is a great investigator but the thing is the language... its hard for us to teach him cuz even though he speaks decent English it’s still not the best.

Our other investigator wasn’t home at all this week so we didn’t see him until yesterday.... don’t know about baptizing him this week! But my comp and I set a goal for 5 baptisms this month and to find one family to prepare to go to the temple! So we are striving to work towards those goals and find more people to teach! Things at times are of course still difficult with my comp but I just get through it by not getting mad and being patient haha.  When I get mad I just don’t say anything, just keep to myself cuz if I say anything they just get mad and think I am wrong haha but hey only a little longer right? Hit my 7 month mark this month! Time is FLYING! I just hope that I can do my best and do what the Lord wants of me!

Love you all!  Elder Mani

I Am a (Fisher of Men Not a) Fisherman

Thanksgiving..... man I wish was there for that!  I miss American holidays.... But o well! This week was good! We started teaching this man from Vanuatu but his main language is French so we are trying to get him stuff so he can read in French! He asked us for stuff cuz he wants to come to us with questions which is good!!! And he just recently stopped drinking and smoking so it’s good! Just hope he progresses good! And we have a baptism with another investigator lined up for the 7th of December! So we are getting him ready for that!

Man did I get sunburned today.... We went to the beach today and went fishing! We caught a blowfish, some eels, and mainly I just caught a bunch of starfish!  One even had 6 legs!   I hope I can dry some starfish out and bring them home.... I caught over twenty then went back to find more and found out they were everywhere so I just gave up!

I don’t know what else happened this week... O I forgot my comp was Tongan once and just started going off for like a minute in English haha but ya that’s all..... sorry.... still haven’t gotten the package....  maybe next week! But thanks! Love you tons!

Elder Huntsman

Surprise Picture

This week was still slow but there was good and bad to it!

We had our class to teach the doctrines of the gospel to everyone who wanted to come and there were about 80+ people there with about 8 nonmembers! So it was good! We went around to the members who were the ones that came with the nonmembers and haven’t really gotten an investigator from it but one girl said it was completely different from what she had seen the guy preach on TV so I felt like it was good and a success! The bad thing is that the two wards here argue all the time so they told us that if we do it combined again that they don’t want to do it. So we have to split it and have one for Navutoka 1st Ward and one for Navutoka 2nd Ward..... annoying!!!!  And one bishop told us the topic we picked, the scriptures of the church with most the discussion on the BOM, was a horrible choice and that we need to teach Tithing or the Godhead, which would just cause contention and was not something you would teach someone right away anyways. The Godhead isn’t even a lesson.  It’s just something that you go over quickly to help them understand.... but ya so that ward is being difficult and won’t do class this week.

But other than that it was good week! We got a new investigator yesterday but it’s another kid close to the house of the one we got our first day here.... so I don’t know what will happen when we commit him to baptism. The zone leaders forgot my adapter but we are going to get it today, and hopefully I can get on later! We are just early today because we have to go to town and get my comp some new shirts.  There is a girl from an area in Vava'u that I worked at that is in Texas working right now so I am trying to get her address so that Kayleigh can get a small Christmas package to her! Elder Naeata would love anything you can get him! Anyways, thanks for everything!

Love you all!  Elder Mani

P.S.  OK this computer just deleted all my pictures on my memory card...... annoying and aggravating....... so no pictures. I just plugged it into a slot in this laptop and it showed up as a shortcut and said it had a virus. The virus reader is in Arab or Russian or something so I just clicked something and it deleted it all!  I just gotta take a lot of pics now to remember stuff..... Oh, and the freaking card reader is lost.  The zone leaders just used my adapter and someone stole it........ I hate the freaking way people are here......

A member visiting Tonga posted this picture on Facebook!

It's Not Too Hard

This week stuff started picking up! We taught a couple lessons and should see a lot more progress this week with help from the members! Our class we set up starts this week and we are starting it off with the Book of Mormon and the scriptures of the church. A lot of people say that they are coming and inviting people but I guess we will just see on Thursday.

We taught one lady this week named Via. Oh man was it difficult... But since I am not the best bible basher or good at remembering where to find scriptures, we just let her go off haha. We started off with just asking her if she had any questions during the lesson to never be shy, always just feel free to ask or comment. She said thanks and asked if she could start with some questions so of course we let her! She started off saying temples in our church aren’t necessary because our bodies are temples, then saying that marriage isn’t eternal, sharing with us Matthew 22:30 "For in the resurrection they neither marry, nor are given in marriage, but are as the angels of God in heaven." This is Jesus explaining that without the authority of God marriage isn’t Eternal, but temporal. In Luke 20:34 is the same story, but better explains Jesus' point, "And Jesus answered said unto them, The children of THIS WORLD marry, and are given in marriage." So I explained this to her then shared Matthew 16:19 which is Jesus saying that whatsoever is sealed on earth with His keys, shall be sealed in heaven and whatsoever is loosed on the earth with His keys, shall be loosed in heaven but she said we need to understand that as a spiritual thing, as in our sins.... so we just sat back and let her finish because we knew that there was no way we could get to her. We testified at the end and left her a BOM so that she could read it and find out for herself the truth of the church.

Here in Tonga, there are churches being created week after week, with television programs and everything. There seem to be rumors of a new church called the Free Mormon church being created.... haha. The biggest program right now is a man named Kelepi who all he preaches is how the Mormon Christ is a different Christ from that of all other Christian churches. He reads the BOM, D&C, and Pearl of Great Price, but the only reason he reads it is to bash. The lady Via watches is every week so it was hard getting to her but I know that programs like this are what is going to happen when Christ starts hastening his work! As it says in Matthew 10:22 "And ye shall be hated of all men for my name's sake: but he that endureth to the end shall be saved." The lessons we have like the one with Via just make me so much more confident and strengthen my testimony so much more haha. But my studies have been improved a lot because it gives me things to study and figure out for when others have questions about things like this.

Nothing else really happened but we are starting to get more work! We were supposed to teach a man from Vanuatu in English but got canceled til this week so hopefully we are able to!  All is well here, starting to warm up though and our house has no fan so it’s HOTTTTT!  I couldn’t sleep last night haha sweaty and disgusting and sticky..... But hey only 8 more months left of this. It’s not too hard. I can easily deal with it haha. Hopefully I get my adapter back soon so you guys can get some pics! Love you all!

Elder Mani

Misiona Tonga, Misiona Maka‏

These past two weeks have been good! Temple trip finally, a baptism, going around with the AP's and getting my new companion!

Temple: This temple is cool! Small but I still loved being there! The people here don’t really take advantage of the opportunity they have with a temple so close! There were about 21 people in the session, 16 of them missionaries.... but it was still amazing! I miss going to the temple every week and so that is something that I plan on doing when I get back, at least once a week going to the temple! Especially with Phil, doing a temple trip and hitting the Utah temples, as much as we can in 2 or three days! I think we might be going here again next week so I am excited!

Baptism: We baptized a kid last week, Saiasi. He was a way smart kid for being only 9 years old, answering all of our questions and everything! The thing is though now that he is baptized we have no more investigators haha so that is something that me and my comp have been working on this past week is gaining the members’ trust, especially the bishop’s so that it’s not just 2 missionaries here in our area, but that every single person strives to be as a missionary and invites their friends to listen to our message. I came up with an idea to start a class on Thursday nights called a Simple Doctrines class where everyone, members, inactive, nonmembers of all ages can come and learn the basic beliefs of the church and our members will have something to invite people to each week! So next week after we talk with our other ward tomorrow we plan on starting that and seeing if it’s something that will be successful or not.

AP's: So when Elder Tu'akalau got sent off to Niuatoputapu I got put with the AP's for two days just to wait for my new companion. It was awesome! I loved being so busy, having something to do at all times, every single day! We had meetings, lessons, activities, errands to run, people to take to different places, just a lot of stuff to do and I didn’t even care that I was tired! I just wanted to stay with them the rest of my mission haha!

New Companion: My new companion is Elder Matakaiongo and he is from Tonga. He has a twin and he is 20 years old. He has only been out 6 weeks now so I am his trainer because his first trainer didn’t do anything! So President asked me to do his 12 weeks of training in 6 weeks! First time training and I have less time to do it but I am excited! First time being with someone who actually wants to work and I am the senior companion! We met with our bishops, set up meetings, actually planned to progress the work here and how we will best work together, this comp seems to have just come at the right time! Now I just hope the members see that we have this desire to work and that we are doing all that we can to help the ward meet their goals for the year! It should be good!

So probably the biggest reason I am excited for this new comp is because honestly, none of my comps have had the full desire to go out, work, obey rules, work with the ward leaders, any of the real mission stuff, and I have always been junior companion to them! So now that I am senior companion with someone new, I am just happy that we are starting new with the work here and pushing the work hard, especially trying to have the trust of the members and getting them to be on the same page as us with working together! Maybe that’s why I haven’t had the best mission experience, but now that I am in somewhat of a control right now, I am just going to do all I can to work, work, work!!!

That’s awesome that Jake got baptized! I know that he has planned on it for a while so it’s good that it finally happened! Halloween isn’t much here that they do. Holidays aren’t really holidays.  They are just days where they don’t do anything.... day of rest pretty much just like a Sunday! That’s why Christmas wasn’t much last year haha. It’s just a day where everyone goes swimming and chilling at the beach! But anyways, all is good here! I don’t need much here! Time is flying! Only like 8 more months! So fast!

Love you all!  Elder Mani

P.S. I want to start school the January and try and find a job for the fall and beginning of winter before school starts up! I started the application and it is all filled out. It just needs the college credits I got in high school that mom should have the information for and my transcript! I have been thinking a lot about trying out BYU-Hawaii for a year just for my generals.... I would have a place to stay and everything cuz there is another elder here who has a house down there... so can you apply for both BYUI and BYU Hawaii? My patriarchal blessing tells me to take all advantages of education I can and so I am thinking this could be one of those opportunities... to get better acquainted with the Tongan culture and everything..... I am still thinking about it but I just want to see all of my options. I will talk to President this week or next, but Keegan needs to set up the ecclesiastical endorsement so it gets sent to President Tupou for him to do...

Kamden didn't send any pictures this week
but I showed him this picture of Tongan food
and asked him what it was.  His reply...

So the things in the coconut shells are called manioke tama, or they say Tongan bread haha. The long things are manioke or tapioca in English, the things next to the manioke I think it’s kape, just another starchy food like a potato. The things in the tin foil is probably the lu, the meat wrapped in taro leaves.

Dog, Chicken & Manioke

Sorry no pictures and kind of rushed but this week again was slow! We find out transfers on Wednesday so I don’t know what is happening! But we killed a dog earlier and we have two boxes of chicken and a bunch of manioke and we’re having a huge underground oven for p-day today! Lots of people are here so I am happy. First time in a long time doing p-day like this.  I am glad everything is good back at home! Sorry I can’t write much but nothing happened anyways.... really slow! Gotta go though. Love you!

Elder Mani

10/12/14 Unwelcomed Visitor?

Malo e lelei famili ofeina!

Ko e uike ko eni na'e kei tuai pe I he tafa'aki a e ngaue fklaumalie, ka na ma tokoni'i ki he teuteu mo fkmaau api na'e ai a ema kaungaapi koe'uhi na'e foki mai ha Sisita mei he'ene ngaue fkfaifekau. haha my Tongan is coming along!

So this week we didn’t have much work with investigators but we helped our next door neighbors set stuff up and cook food because their daughter was coming back from her mission. There was so much food there! haha They had a fireside for her last night because she couldn’t speak in church since it was conference week here. Yesterday and Saturday we watched Conference, in Tongan, which sucked cuz I could understand it, but couldn’t write any real notes cuz I had to focus just on what they were saying so if I tried to write something down I would miss stuff... Can you send me the November Liahona in English when it comes out? That way I can read it cuz it is the Conference issue!

Last night was kinda creepy! So our door is a bolt lock, not like a normal door knob. We got back from the fireside and take off the lock then undo the bolt and the door still won’t open!!! We go around to the window and shine the flashlight in and it was bolted and secured from the inside..... There is NO possible way that anyone can get in the house without us seeing where they broke in! Freaking creepy!! We had to call the zone leaders and they came over and we broke the windows off with a crowbar and a kid climbed in and opened it for us. it freaked me out cuz there honestly is NO way that anyone could lock our door from the inside, yet it was.... haha I prayed hard last night I guess you could say… kinda spooked!  The windows here are louvers, I don’t know how to explain but they are easy to take out and put back in, but the screen is locked into the window frame with a board and nails so we had to pry that off and rip the screen off but its fine not a big problem haha..... But ya that’s our week.  Still slow workwise.... but hopefully it will get better!

Ofa lahi atu kiate kimoutolu!!!

Elder Mani

Oh ya and our water was dead 5 out of the 7 days this week.... now shower feels awesome haha.

That’s how this village is! it’s dead right now.

So there was a sister who just came home from her mission and the
family was making these Kahoa Lole, candy necklaces, that
Tongans do for every celebration and it makes me jealous!
She has over 20 of them which is typical haha!

Helping cook food and set stuff up for the sister who just got home.

The kids who helped out with getting the house ready and cooking food.

Octopus! And yes I ate it haha!

CrEePy!!!  Locked out from the inside!

Breaking and entering!

Pictures I forgot to send from our Ward Family Home Evening.

Spam. Ramen Noodles, Bread, Pop and Chips...Yum 10/5/14

This week again flew by SOOOO fast! We got a new investigator who randomly started speaking English to us so we just taught her in English haha. She is a 16 year old girl and she bore her testimony before we even started! She says she is ready for any consequence that comes, even being kicked out of her house! It was a great lesson and we plan to have her baptized in a couple weeks after her tests are over at school.

One night our fafanga just gave us bread so we bought a bunch of other stuff to go with it and ate it with a couple of our neighbors who live right next door to us haha. But again it was another slow week here not much happening! It just sucks cuz this mission seems like there is so much expected out of us but I never seem to be one who gets those big numbers....The Ward Family Home Evening started an hour late and no one prepared their activities so it wasn’t very good..... but ya we get conference this week and I hope I can find a place to watch it English or at least listen! 

Oh in the next package can you send another CTR ring ha! I promise I won’t lose it..... that and pictures is all I can think of.

 Love you tons!

Oh another thing if you could send, some Gillette Fusion Proglide heads! I don’t use the electric anymore haha.  I got a Proglide in Vava’u and it worked really good but dulled out after about 2 months.

Spam Sandwich!

I Stink haha!

Hey so these weeks are honestly just flying by! We had a baptism this week but delayed it to next month for the primary program here... so that was a bummer haha but all is good! Still kind of slow right now but we are doing a huge Family Home Evening as a ward tonight in one of our wards and it’s all about inviting people to listen with us so we have already been promised 3 new investigators! So hopefully that goes how it’s supposed to!

Our water is dead again so I haven’t showered since Saturday morning..... disgusting I know!!! But we don’t have any water in our water tank and neither do our neighbors.... and the zone leaders are busy today so they can’t take us somewhere to shower! I feel disgusting cuz it has been hot the past two days! Hopefully it turns back on tonight!

Last week we had our Mission Tour with President Kevin W. Pearson of the Seventy. We all met up at Liahona and listened to him speak. He spoke mostly about enduring to the end because there are too many missionaries who don’t continue with the church after their work. It was really good and he talked about how a wife isn’t enough, we need to seek after an eternal companion.

I really can say that even though this is the most stressful, disappointing, depressing, hardest time of my life, it’s easy to get through! I learn new things every day! I have started to try and see things in more of an eternal perspective rather than the instant satisfaction and happiness. It makes me want to be more productive, be smarter with my time, with my money, and just find ways to help others understand the same thing. It’s true this not the best two years OF your life, but FOR your life!

Just Pictures

Found another centipede in our shower

Our zone at our zone meeting

Tuakalau teaching kids English

Me, Tuakalau, Elder Lasalosi, Sister Pakalani
and Sister Folau going to our Mission Tour

All the kids that I came in with that are in Tonga right now

Me and some other Elders

Me, Tuakalau, Lao and Lotulelei
We all came in together.

Walking home from the night study class

Hanging out at a members house

Drinking otai at the members house 

Tuakalau taking a power nap haha

Fresh Air & Coconut Leaf Hats

I am kinda rushed today! But all is well here! This week we taught the girl who we had committed to baptism but her parents told us we can’t baptize her anymore.  So we are just gonna have to keep visiting I guess! We taught a family this week and the 72 year old lady's name is Fresh Air haha literally it is English and everything! We just call her Air! They are a very nice family and accepted our teaching and everything so we are going to commit them to baptism this week! Hopefully all goes well with that family!

So our water was dead from Wednesday to Saturday night so we didn't work Friday until we went with our kaingalotu to find a shower at someone's house in another village!  Our village pump was broken.  But ya it was disgusting! We are going to go make hats out of coconut leaves today so that will be fun! I forgot to write in my journal this week and it’s just gone soooooo fast I can't remember anything else...... so ya I don’t have much to write haha sorry! I'll try to find out about my memory card.  Love you!

Elder Huntsman

The view from our road one night.

My district.

My old slippers.

Us Sunday after church.

After church.

Us and our old AP who lives here in our area.

Mid-Transfer Transfer = Work!

Hey there! This week was slow again so not too much to write! BUT… I got transferred across the island haha to a new village here! Navutoka! It’s pretty big, two wards, and we have already started doing work! And my new comp is.................... Elder Tu’akalau again haha! The zones here got in trouble and were sent to work in the areas they came from so me and Tu’akalau got moved here.  Our first night here we taught two lessons and set up 4 more for this week! We have one committed to baptism next week so that will be exciting! We got here Saturday morning and have already started doing more than we had in Vaotuu. This area is big! It’s just hard remembering what ward is which and where people live cuz there are a bunch of little streets everywhere. I keep forgetting what’s what ha but there are a couple of guys here prepping for missions that will help us out and about 4 just got done working in the Misiona Tonga so we have a lot of help here! Hope to keep up with this good work that we have started!

Right now we are just doing laundry and netting family cuz we don’t know what else to do for p-day. We just got here two days ago haha!  Our next door neighbor is the Stake President so we are netting at his house right now. Church was good!  New ward and fast/testimony meeting so we bore our testimonies and introduced ourselves. The members seem excited to see us for some reason. The only people who worked here were the zone leaders so they weren’t ever really here in their own area that much. But I am excited! Except I don’t know how long we will be here cuz the real transfer is in 2 weeks.... But i just hope to do what I can while I can!

It’s nice here it’s just that our house is smallllll haha but we have  a fridge now so we can store food and we have a few weights so I have been working out!  Gotta get yoked haha!  I don’t know why I have been really happy the past couple days, always smiling.  Probably cuz I feel there is so much I can do here! Starting to feel the Spirit a lot more guiding us and helping us! We found 3 teachings just by knocking doors so we should be able to have more success! To answer your questions, we never get to go to the Primary classes and now we just stay for both wards’ Sacrament Meetings so we don’t get to all the classes.... But they have Mission Prep that we have been helping out with. I like it here cuz the teachers are all recent returned missionaries! Our class was just the High Councilman and they didn’t teach anything that was useful or from the lessons we would be teaching! So I like it here!

Glad you guys are having fun with football, the fair and all that fun stuff! All is well here. Mom, still haven’t got the package but maybe next week. We had planned a fireside in Vaotuu but I am gone now so I don’t know if it’s still on ha but ya all is good here! Love you tons!

Elder Mani

New Area

Another Slow Week

This week was slow again but I am just trying to figure out a way to speed things up, to busy our days. We have a few people we have been teaching but they don’t pay attention and don’t progress so I am trying to find the solution now. Doing my best to work with the Spirit!  So the other elder is now working on the other side of the island. Now it’s just me and Kivalu here. 

I don’t really know what to write... It was a slow week! We took a walk to the ocean one day to check that out. It was ok ha but we returned kind of fast. My comp doesn’t like being there. I wanted to stay and study but oh well! Today I don’t know what we will do after this. Probably go take a nap or something til this guy gets home so he can cut Kivalu's hair... ha ya anyways! 

Thanks for the pictures. Ryker is freaking huge.... When you send packages send pictures that I can put in my little album and stuff!  I think I am done eating candy from now on..... crazy huh? haha I don’t want to get fat........ really been trying to work out and stuff, running in the mornings and trying to sweat off all the fat and starch we eat!

Love you guys tons! See you soon! (10 months)

Elder Huntsman/Hanisimani/Mani/Hani/Hanisi/Simani/Hasini haha

Our church building

Mini pizzas our fafanga made us

Elders Fine, Lufoni, and Kivalu eating the pizzas

Dried up crab 

Throwing him back in the ocean haha

HURRAH FOR ISREAL!!!!! haha

BRING ON THE WAVESSSS

Chillin in a tree!

Our fafanga today! So much food....
(Do you always eat on mats on the ground? Most the time, lots of ants :) haha I want to get a mat before
 I leave so I can have it at home.... but maybe too expensive.)