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.)

Stargazing

So I’m glad to hear that Haleki's homecoming went good! I wish I could have been there haha but o well! This week was ok... Lots of struggles but that’s a mission! Tuesday we had a zone meeting which went pretty good! I taught a small lesson about Hope and the importance of it and why it’s a Christlike attribute. Then I shared an experience about the times that I struggle on the mission and in life and how that if we work with hope and have that hope in Jesus Christ that we don’t need to worry about anything, as long as we are doing what we are supposed to do and doing our best!

This week was still hard getting to find any commonalities between me and my companions but some days are good, some are bad. It’s just the ups and downs of a mission. They tell me I am senior comp but then when I try and do something or come up with an idea they don’t like it. Only when they don’t have a clue what to do they get mad saying I need to lead them better. Sometimes I feel like there is nothing I can do cuz when I try they don’t listen but it will get better, just gotta have that hope in Christ and I can overcome it all. Them not talking to me doesn’t bother me cuz I’m used to being quiet or alone. I actually go out at night and just lay down looking at the stars for like 30 minutes before bed and it calms me down when I have those struggles. We had a program for the primary and after every one had left but our fafanga, which we were just doing at the church, I just sat in the grass and looked up at the stars and no one had a clue why I was doing that.... I just love looking at the stars here! Some nights I see up to 20 shooting stars it’s awesome, some of them covering the length of the sky and some are SUPER bright. It’s just cool sitting there looking at God's creations and realizing how little I am compared to all he has made. There is so much out there! I just wish I knew the constellations here haha. Maybe I will look that up real quick.... but ya that’s my relief when I have my struggles! It works a lot.

I have been talking a lot more too and my language is getting a lot better, mostly just cuz I don’t speak English. So there are benefits and downfalls to every companion, I just gotta push through them and the Lord will bless me! Just like Alma 26:32 I just need to bear with patience my afflictions and the Lord will provide success. That’s my week/story haha. Keep on keeping on right? Like the song by FUN, "When you're lost and alone, and your sinking like a stone, Carry on!"

Ofa Lahi Atu!

Elder Mani

P-day last week

Me and Elder Kivalu

Me, Elder Loketi and John

Me and John

Me and Nanise(Nancy)

Me and another Nanise

Me, Heidi, and Mata

I mixed this peanut butter with Smuckers raspberry jam
and eat it by the spoonful.......
I think I am addicted to peanut butter now!

Good Bye Haleki! Plus Poi Ball Dancing!

So these past couple weeks have been good. With Haleki going home this last week our members were just waiting for him to go pretty much so not that much work happened. Thursday night we did a show for the members before Haleki went home. It was a ward FHE. I did the poi balls and Haleki did a fire knife dance! It was pretty cool! The members enjoyed it a lot. We shot fireworks off too! Funny story with that… so one of them tipped over and started shooting everywhere haha Haleki got hit in the stomach by a piece and one shot to the middle of the members! There is a young couple in our ward that was there and the wife is pregnant. When the firework shot at them the husband ran and the wife just sat there cuz she couldn't go anywhere haha! No one got hurt though. Everyone was just laughing and having an amazing time!

That night was the birthday of the Papuan kid that comes and stays at President’s house sometimes so after the show we went and had cake and ice cream for him. The next day I saw Haleki goodbye and started going around with the Zone leaders. That was the busiest/most missionary like feeling I have had so far with the work cuz they always had a place to go! I loved it haha!

Then Monday I got my new companion, Elder Kivalu from town. His first/last area was in his home Stake haha. So I am his follow-up trainer. It’s different going from a palangi to a kid from here. Not talking, nothing really in common, a lot of silence... But me being the senior comp now he expects me to do it all. So that's been a struggle cuz I do stuff but nobody really listens to my ideas. And then they expect me to keep thinking of things but then don't listen so that's my struggle this transfer to get over: Progress in the language, and to gain respect of the people. I feel like the members all thought Haleki did everything haha. I will get through it though.

So ya I am still in Vaotuu! We committed 6 families to have people for us to teach this week so we will see if they follow through, which I hope that they do! We have two tonight. I am excited. With the sickness going around in Africa, a couple missions got shut down. So we got 6 Tongans sent back to finish their work here. One is staying with us til tomorrow when he will fly to Vava'u. Today we are going to play Volleyball in the next village over.

So the reason I can’t send pics is the file folder switched into a shortcut for some reason..... I don't know why it was doing that! Still trying to fix it.... I didn't get it to Haleki but I will try and send it somehow so you guys can have it. The card reader works though.  I don't need another one! The new memory card works so I will start using that now. Everything is good here.  Don’t forget to go to Haleki's thing next Sunday. He has some stuff to give you.

Is Keegan still dating Kenzie?? I miss Ryker haha! I have a road trip planned with two other elders here from Utah to Texas in September when we get back! Haha so I will see Kayleigh, Randy and Ryker soon. It’s just planned for some time when we get back, and not if I get into the Fall/Spring track. If I don’t then I won’t start until January.

I want to run a marathon when I get home :)  I will do it probably 2016/2017 haha! Gotta train for it. I want to get fit haha. I have some ideas for when I get home!! Be more productive with life and not sit around so much

But I gotta go we are going to go play volleyball love you tons!

DONT FORGET ABOUT GOING TO HALEKI'S NEXT WEEK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

This is the only picture I have. 

When I was going around with the zone leaders 

Elder Latai from San Fran got two bins sent to him from 

America haha so I got some Peanut butter! It was amazing!

I Got My Package!

Surprised I got the package so fast! Only took a month this time! (Almost two) But thanks for it! I got the memo and card reader but forgot the card reader in the zones car so I hope no one takes it... I know I know I forget things too much but hey can’t help it! We are netting today cuz we went to town yesterday to pick up some things and eat at this Chinese restaurant for Haleki's last time! It’s way good Chinese food! I got a basketball so I could play and a pump, but the ball isn't the best. I will just have to make do with it I guess! 

So I have no clue what I will do when Haleki goes to Liahona on Friday, maybe I will go with him and stay there til transfers or maybe I will go live with someone somewhere, it’s not really organized, or at least they just don't let us know what’s going on.... annoying but o well! 

So this week is kinda going to be hard work wise cuz we are just getting ready for Haleki to go, but it seems like the ward is prepping for it more than we are! We ate 3 DOGS last week!!!! It was crazy haha and we’re supposed to eat another tomorrow but we will see. I have kinda been wanting to train this past transfer. I don't know why….maybe so I will actually be tested with the language since I will be taking lead in everything! Only one palangi though is coming in the rest are Tongans from America, about 8 or 9 altogether (they put their names in the August Mission Newsletter). 

Church was good it was Haleki's last time to bear his testimony so he did that. Then yesterday was our last fafanga with Bishop Militoni so his wife started crying during our spiritual thought at the end.  It was a powerful night with the spirit. My English is dying. I can’t explain things very well anymore haha but ya all is going good! I will send my memory card with Haleki to give to you to put on facebook or whatever you want haha. I love you all!

Elder Mani