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...
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| 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.
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