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.