Mission Conference

How is home? Everything here is good! The weather this week was cloudy and rainy so VERY humid... it was crazy haha! I get so dirty! Especially after playing rugby with the kids.... covered in dirt! There are a few things you get used to here.... 1. Being dirty 2. Being wet haha! I thought I would think of more but I just forgot..... hahaha o well. This week we didn’t do much. I thought we would have baptisms but we are going to try and get them this week. We have one SET and 3 hopefully!  

It is really nice here! We had a full mission conference with a member of the Seventy, Elder David L Holstrom. (I think that’s who it was. It was hard to hear.) haha They broadcasted it to us here!

So for Christmas I might be able to Skype if I stay here because they family whose computer I use has Skype! But that’s only if President says it is ok ha! Weeks here are already starting to feel like it’s the same every day! Days go slow but weeks go fast! Love it! Sorry I will try and bring my journal next time so I remember more haha! Love you all!!

Elder Mani

To answer Mom’s questions: My funnest event of the week was eating dog and watching my companion throw it out the window haha!  My most difficult event of the week was just dealing with the language ha!  My most awesome event was having someone else other than me that is white in my village haha!  I wasn’t the only one who can’t speak the language for a change!

Do they just cook up stray dogs? Ya, the family who was our fafanga told us to come get their dog haha.

One of the Fale Koloa's (stores) in our area.

Sunset!

Fafanga yesterday! It was really good! 

There is a lady here as a part of the Peace Corps from Wisconsin. 

She came and ate with us. She barely knows Tongan haha!

A picture I drew when I got bored...

Another Slow Week

This week was another slow week with only a couple lessons taught but we did do some good stuff! We went to a pineapple (faina) field and picked some pineapples to send with my companion’s cousin to the main island for some other missionaries there. We went and delivered them at night to him before he left back on the boat with his recent wife who is a Palangi from Australia so it was nice talking to someone else who was learning the language haha. When we were done gathering the pineapples, we stopped on a bridge and took some pictures. It was fun.  

Other than that it was just trying to get more people to teach! We have 7 investigators hoping to baptize 3 this week but it all depends on what their parents say since they are all under 18. A lot of the kids we are teaching are friends of the kids who hang around us all the time. We are soon teaching a kid’s dad because he isn't a member but idk when that will start. I am doing good though! I don't know if I have gained or lost weight....I sweat so much I am hoping I am losing it so I can come home with a 6 pack haha! But ya just the typical struggles with the language but it is coming!!! I just need to study Vocab!!!!

My package from you is at the office. They seem to get there but some Zone leaders take packages...... we will see if I get it cuz they brought other packages but not mine this past time.... one of my friends that came to Tonga with me works near the office so he sees it if I get stuff.

I’m in Tuanekivale now at a member’s house. This village is the one next to where Vika grew up! But there are one to two transfers before Vika gets here so I don't know where I will be then. Let me know about when she’s coming. Tell her she can email me like the week before she comes so we can figure it out! Love you!!! Ryker is getting huge! won’t even remember who I am! Neither will my other niece or nephew ;) haha!  Anyways love you all! :)

Elder Mani

More stuff you can send:

 more ties
 another memory card
 another journal
 a 6 inch ruler
 anything :) haha

p.s. One of the scripture cases needs to be longer. The Tongan BOM is long ha sorry.... it is fine if you can’t find one... it’s like 1.5 inches longer since the language is more complicated so instead of fatter they made it longer to fit it all.

(Handsome missionary!!)

The kids who hang around us when we go around.

Volleyball!

I Had Dog...Tastes Like Beef!

Tu'anekivale is an awesome area! We are doing some good work here! :) I still have the same companion, Elder Finau and we have been busy teaching lessons. We have 4 baptisms lined up. It just depends on their parents' opinions ha! 

Last P day I played Rugby for my first actual time and scored a couple times haha! We only play touch though so I shouldn’t get too hurt ;) Our water tank is almost out of water but our shower still works and everything so we will see how that goes haha. We haven’t had a good rain here in a couple weeks and the tank is somewhat new compared to the house. 

On Wednesday we had a baptism, an 8 year old named Folauhola. He is really shy but seems to like me cuz he wanted me to baptize him and only really talks to me haha! After baptisms here they always have dances called Hulohulas. It was pretty cool. We didn’t stay for a lot of it cuz we had another lesson to teach but they have music going ‘til 12 sometimes haha! Thursday we got fed ice cream with half of a loaf of bread as a cone haha! It is good ice cream! :) Friday we ate dog! :) tastes just like beef so it was pretty good.  :) 

It’s getting so hot here though. I wish we had air conditioning... haha and it’s only getting hotter..... already gets up to 90 and the hot months are December and January so we will see how it gets haha! I love it here! We’re doing some good work and time is flying. :)  Love you all and see you sooner than it might seem!  Oh ya, they came back from the main island and still no package.   L The other guys are getting theirs so I don’t know what the deal is!

Folauhola, the kid I baptized on Wednesday.

The dance they had for him after called a Hulohula.

The kids we taught at a school here.

I had dog. :)  It tastes like eef.  (B is still broken on his keyboard.)

Me with Elder Lao from Salt Lake. He came in with me. 

a few uttons dont work on this computer (haha)

(Unedited excerpt- A few uttons dont work on this computer (guess   uttons) haha um the aptism didnt happen ecause the girls family got mad ecause the LDS church had a dance during their two week funeral and they arent supposed to do anything during funerals...funny to read!)

A few buttons don’t work on this computer. We have to use a member’s computer because the chapel doesn’t have one so I will try and write as much as possible. haha The baptism didn’t happen because the girl’s family was upset because the LDS church had a dance during their two week funeral and they aren’t supposed to do anything during funerals. And it was her grandpa that died so hopefully next week. O ya we got transferred. haha We are just in the village before my other ones. It is called Tu'anekivale. There is a lot of work here. We have already taught 7 lessons in 4 days and in my 4 weeks in Koloa we only got one lesson taught so it is a big change. I never knew how much happiness handing out Book of Mormon's brings until we handed out two here. We have two baptisms this week I think, one next week and one in December. Everyone got transferred haha I am with my same trainer though. Everyone stayed together. They just moved. 

So this week we gave a girl who had been SUPER sick and in bed for at least a week a blessing. They didn’t even uncover her face as we gave her a blessing she was so sick. As we gave her the blessing, I started to feel weak and tired, and right after we walked out of the room my companion said the exact same thing.... It was amazing how some of our strength and good health transferred into her body and the next day she was up and walking around in her house... amazing how God works.

To answer Mom’s questions: They don’t play the piano here. Everything is acapela. If they have a piano, the way they sing it doesn’t match how they play so they don’t play. haha Some baptismal fonts are outside and some inside. The font in Koloa and here are inside but the one in Ha'alaufuli is outside and the one in Tokomololo was outside also. The primary songs are the same here. They even sing some in English as well as in Tongan. It is cool. (My exclamation point doesn’t work either.) haha The past two weeks have been Primary Programs here and I forgot how much fun they were. haha The hymns here are a lot of the same but they have Tongan hymns to in their hymn book. It seems like when they sing it is a contest between EVERYONE who can sing the loudest. It doesn’t matter if they are on key haha so sometimes it just sounds like yelling. The Methodists sing for most of their church so they have a lot of practice and sound good here in Tu'anekivale.

There is this little kid here named Funaki who is a hilarious little kid and always runs over when he sees me. I love it when people make chocolate cake here haha and I never liked it at home. They eat a lot of canned spaghetti and I don’t like it cuz it’s always cold. haha The grilled sandwiches they make here are just filled with spaghetti. haha  I have cooked 6 pigs by myself. They take about 2 hours so my arms get tired but it’s a good workout. haha :) I don’t know how much weight I have gained. I don’t think that much cuz I sweat so much. haha It gets hottttt but I deal with it. haha I try and drink as much as I can but I don’t like it when they make this warm drink so I rarely drink any or I would just be drinking my own sweat haha grosssss!! haha I am loving it. Just the struggles with the language are the only things I don’t like now.

Everyone calls me something different, some Mani, so Simani, some Hansi, some Hansimani, some Huntsiman haha just depends. I just tell them it is Huntsman or Mani cuz it is the easiest.  Crazy that I have been out for 3 months Wednesday!! Oh and I ate turtle this week! It was pretty good!  Tastes just like chicken. I could eat a lot. haha Anyways love you all. Thank you for the emails.

"Now is the time." -President Thomas S. Monson

"The blessing (talking about being set apart as a missionary) is conditional upon faithful performance." -President Spencer W. Kimball

Send a Christmas package a.s.a.p. because it might get to the office but I won’t get it for a while after that.  I still haven’t gotten any mail or your packages.

Some things on my list to send with Vika:

backpack

Snickers

hi-chews

sweats (thin)

long sleeve shirts (2 thin)

scripture case for my English scriptures

duct tape haha

I will send the rest another time.

(p.s. Mom fill in that missing letter throughout the letter haha love you tons.)

my study materials every day like 20 different pieces haha

Our new church.

The road my village is on.

Funaki hahaha his favorite pose!

My scripture case I made for my english scriptures. haha 

me and my comp

My first house.

Slow Week in Vava'u

Malo 'e lelei 'eku famili! Oku ou fiefia feingamalie ki tohi aho'ni! My Tongan is coming along! It isn’t fully making sense but I am getting the vocab! The sentence structure will come eventually! They seem to be understanding me somewhat so that is good! This week was slow! We cooked a lot of pigs, helping a family get ready for a welcome home of a missionary! We walk a lot back and forth from Koloa to Holeva to Koloa haha but it is nice! It gets so hot here after it rains! But when it is raining I am always cold! haha I love it here though! 

We have a baptism tomorrow for a girl named 'E____! She came to church with us yesterday, we taught her the commandments lesson, than committed her to baptism on Tuesday! Exciting cuz this time I actually understood everything that was going on haha and I am doing the baptism so hopefully this time they go down hahaha! Saturday we helped Peni collect coconuts in the bush, than move his cows then went and killed the pig and roasted it for fafanga! It was good!!! My companion, Elder Finau is funny! ha he told me this story about how one of his friends from school is a twin, their mom is a twin, dad is a twin, grandpa is a twin, and so that family is just called the twin family haha. I taught him how to play Go Fish and he seemed to really enjoy it haha. We have a lot of down time because we don’t go out in the down pour of rain so we don’t get sick so one night after fafanga it was starting to rain so we went and hurried to our house and played Go Fish for the rest of the night! Other than that it was just walking around talking and trying to get people to teach! There are areas here where either EVERYONE is LDS or only a few families are LDS, where I am at is the few families! ha This village is barely a ward and Holeva is still a branch! but i love it here! I just can’t wait til I can fully communicate with everyone!

Answers to your questions:   I got my new tupenu's…the long ones, one grey which I look good in ;) and one black one! A lot more comfortable!!!  My house is small the chapel is 3 years old so probably the nicest in Tonga! The food is getting better! I just don’t like eating cold food. My comp is very nice and a good trainer! He is 23! He is from my first area Tokomololo and if we can’t go out we study all day!!!!  My home is small but still pretty nice compared to a lot of the other ones! All the church buildings are the nicest buildings on the islands! There are stores in every village, but little tiny ones that only sell food or toiletries. The food isn’t very good in the stores in my villages ha! Someone stole the slippers (flip flops) I bought so I have been wearing Aunt Bettyann’s slippers all week so I am thankful I brought them! But they are already starting to rip a little so I need new ones but the zone leaders will never take me to buy new ones or won’t buy me them when I ask them to so once these rip, it’s barefoot til I can get some new ones!

I haven’t gotten your package or any mail even though President Tupou says it should only take a week or two to get here from the States. Whenever leaders come out or when the zone leaders go to the main island for their meeting they are supposed to come back with mail! We just had the missionary couple and the AP's here for conference and they didn’t bring anything for me so I don’t know what’s up.

I shared my testimony at a baptism the other day.  I am truly grateful for the gospel of Jesus Christ! Without it I do not know where I would be today! I am grateful for the faith I have to know the things I know! I am grateful for the opportunity to repent and be forgiven of my sins and to be able to help others recognize their sins and bring them closer to Christ through repentance and baptism! I know that without baptism we cannot enter into the kingdom of our Heavenly Father! I know that if we endure to the end, continually repenting, that we will be able to live with our Father again! I love this Gospel and the opportunities it gives me!!!

Love you all! Keep the emails coming everyone! I love hearing from you! See you in 20 months!!! 

You have to cross two of these to get to my area.

Out in the 'uta collecting coconuts.

Peni moving his cow.

Catching the pig.

My comp killing the pig for fafanga.

My comp blowing up the pig lungs.

The pig head after eating the pig.

Scripture Journal.  

My companions scripture journal is FULLLLL of scriptures.  I hope I get there some day!!

I Ate Octopus!

This week wasn't much! Weeks here zoom right by! A lot of walking from village to village, trying to get referrals but the church is so small here and even though there are only two villages, there are 6 churches! 4 in one village and 2 in the other! And most people are friendly to us but they won’t listen to us teach so we have done a lot of friendshipping! If that makes sense haha

That is cool that McKay Smith is going to Ireland! That will be a fun mission! Everything here is Beautiful!!! Looking across the ocean to the other islands all green, it really is amazing! The pig isn't that good cuz they like to cook the smaller ones with barely any meat haha but I am glad that you liked that picture! My comp had just woke me up so I was super tired in the picture. 

(I asked about his tupenus/skirts.) I have two tupenu's and I have fabric to make two more so I have long ones and don't get bit by bugs because all of the ones I have are shorter and I get eaten alive haha but one is grey so I am excited to have that one made haha I just look good in grey ;) I have two tauvala's (the woven thing we wear as respect) and one kafa (the rope that holds it on) I have material for a member to hopefully make me another one though because my first one is old and this new one is a bad material and rips easily! But it is a lot more comfortable than you think! I learned the secret to not getting fat here! Wearing my kafa as tight as possible around my stomach (mostly my pooch ha- to hide that) and then you get full fast! haha I only loosen it when there is good food!

I only got to hear the last session of conference in English. That was still a great session! I love how President Monson always says at the end of conference that we are lucky to be so spiritually fed! Just thought I would point that out haha Oh the pineapples hear really are PINE apples the tops of them and the leaves in the bushes they grow on are covered in little barbs haha it hurts.... but I thought they grew on trees not in bushes so I learned something! haha they taste so good here!  Hopefully I can bring one or two home for you guys to taste! I bought an extra pair of flip flops in Tokomololo so that I would be prepared just in case so I am good haha and I have the ones that Aunt Bettyann got me so if these break I will wear those!   It gets cold here at night when it rains.  I am lucky Kaylee sent me a blanket in the mtc cuz it keeps me warm at night or else I would be freezing! I was surprised how cold it got but it also gets soooo hot! I had octopus yesterday! It was alright haha good enough that I would be fine eating it again, just not a full meal of it :)

Ok so this old man who is our Friday night fafanga his name is Kofi. He came to conference with us cuz we all just piled into the back of our ward clerks van but he was looking so hipster haha I was surprised! He had a light blue paisley tie with a matching vest, a dark blue tupenu, a big silver head watch and Turquoise ray bans on hahaha! He was looking good! I wish I had a picture! He is a great guy always has really good food for us! The Stake President fed me, my companion and the zone leaders in between conference and it was soooo good! They had lots of pineapple, lusipi (lamb cooked in taro leaves with the bones still in it) which I actually ate but I usually don't, haha ummm breadfruit which is pretty good I will get pictures sometime! and to top it all offffffff  loooottssss of chocolate cake with a chocolate sauce on top. It was sooooo good! First time I almost threw up from eating so much! I loved the cake.  I wish I had it more often! And I never really even had a thing for chocolate cake until I got here, just cuz it is cake haha I love it here!

Times sometimes get hard because there isn't that much teaching so I feel like I am not fulfilling my purpose but we are trying hard!! People will come! I am getting really good with the scriptures because my companion is a genius with that stuff and we have a lot of study time so we go back and forth with scriptures! I am making a scripture journal so I will show you that when I get home! Love you all! Thanks for everything! Oh ya and mom don't worry the list I am making of stuff to bring is simple stuff, mostly snacks like snickers and granola bars!

Love you!!

Elder Huntsman

Week 2 in Vava'u

Sorry it’s so late for you guys back at home.  We were out in the rain all day cuz the bishop was gone with the key to the church so I couldn't email!

So since General Conference is in a different language here, they don't get it til next week here so that they have time to translate it all! It still is on Saturday and Sunday. I am loving it here!  Tuesday we had a District meeting and on the way to that was our fafanga, our our feed/meal. We stopped at the house and guess what they made for us...............!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! nothing... haha so they gave us a banana cake they had and we ate that as we walked to our district meeting. It was pretty good I was surprised since I don't usually eat banana bread/cake! The district meeting was good, my companion is District Leader so he taught it on Palani 'o e Fakamo'ui (Plan of Salvation) After that we went to this lady named Samoa's house and ate a little and had punch.  It was good! On the way home was fafanga again at the same house that fed us and they remembered this time, but it still wasn't much. So we walked home and we were just chilling there and my companion looks at me and asks "Makona?" which means like are you full? So I said eh si'isi'i pe or just a little haha so we went down the road and saw the ward clerk, Peni, and Elder Finau talked to him and he went and made us some food while we hung out with some members. We then walk to the house and they have fried eggs and crackers with butter and some fried fish! Oh ya mom and some LOBSTER haha It was delicious!  They were surprised I knew how to eat one! Some of them think that they are the only ones that have certain things like lobster and pineapple and watermelon haha, it’s funny! Oh ya the watermelon here is about the same as at home but the pineapple, ooooooooooooooooooo my it is soooo sweet!!!! I eat whole ones by myself they are so good!

So the next day we woke up and went straight to a nonmembers home and had an umu, the underground pit where they cook all this food! It was good ha then once we had put all that in the ground we walked across the village and helped ANOTHER family do the same! It was sad watching them kill the pig.  They just hold it down and slit its throat while it is still alive and you hear it squealing and the blood squirting out its neck, NASTY..... ha but other than that it has been another simple week! Played rugby for my first time. That was fun!  Today we were out in the rain just chilling allll day! and I had my first pair of slippers (flip flops) break! It sucked cuz I had to walk around with only one the rest of the day :( haha Oh and my feet are starting to crack! It hurts.... and playing rugby I slipped and scratched up my leg haha but still loving it here!!! Love you all!

Elder Huntsman

Alma 34:32

Mom, to find out where I am on the map go to this: 

http://www.lds.org/maps/?lang=eng#ll=-18.633489,-173.930325&z=14&m=google.road&q=tonga&x=find&find=stake:513474

 This is my stake, go down the road and you will see Holeva and then Koloa, my two areas!

Tan line already!

No sure about this, ha!

One pair down!