Events in November 2014

Our November started out a little slow, but our Supervisor Ana Ika returned from Auckland, New Zealand and the ball started to roll.  It felt so good to finally be doing what we were sent here to do.

On the 1st of November Elder and Sister Woods, Elder and Sister Van Den Akker took us on an outing. We first went to Ha'atafu Resort to the beach to do some snorkling, it was lovely.  On the way home they took us to see some of the sights.  These are some of the pictures we took that day.

These are called Flying Foxes.  They hang in the trees and about sundown they start to fly looking for fruit to eat.  They are a fruit eating bat.

As you can see they look like little foxes that fly. The Seniors took us to the Flying Fox Sanctuary.

This is an historical coconut tree on the island, the only split/double headed coconut tree

We drove out to this beach looking for something else and found these little boys playing in the ocean.  Unfortunately two of them were swimming in the nude.  They did a quick scramble to get their shorts back on! But a beautiful picture of the ocean.

These are the Blow Holes and they were amazing.  The ocean has such power!

If you look closely you can see that these blow holes go all the way up the coast.  It is so amazing to see.

This is Tsunami Rock.  The legend is that at some time in history there was a Tsunami that brought this rock and left it inland away from the ocean.

Welcome to our Apartment

This is our kitchen

This is our living room

Our little bedroom, very small closet!

And our bathroom, just one sink!

This is our humble apartment.  When the other Senior couples brought us here they were saying how they thought I must be President Monson's daughter the way the people prepared it for us.  It is very humble but small, but it will do for us while we are here. The Senior Couples went together and provided a little food for us since we have arrived so late, bread, butter, eggs and such.  It was very nice of them to do that for us.  They are such good people.

This is the front of our apartment and our car.  The temple is in the back ground. If you look hard the Angel Moroni is above the car.

This the Tongan Temple that is right next door to us.  We enjoy going to the English speaking session every Thursday night.

This is the entrance to the Liahona Campus, the church high school.  This is the campus that we live on, it is very beautiful and kept up very well.

Wheelchairs and crutches

November 4-7th we were able to take out two wheel chairs, one to an 86 year old that was not able to walk anymore and the second to a lady that had a stroke, she was only 65.  We also took a pair of crutches to a man that tore his Achilles tendon and had it repaired surgically.  The hospital told him that he was not to walk on it for about 8 weeks, but they did not have any crutches.  So his wife came to us, speaking very little English, asking for help.  She said that her husband was a lot bigger than her and it was hard for her to help him to the bathroom.  We checked the Red Cross and they did not have any crutches as well.  We were the only ones in Tonga with crutches.  When Ana returned we were able to take them to him.

As we were making these deliveries, we soon found that there are no addresses here in Tonga,only where the cow is tied, or where the pigs cross, or you ask someone where they live.  Thank goodness for Ana as she knows, we believe, everyone in this country of Tonga.  Plus if we went out on our own we probably could not communicate well with them, as hardly any of them speak English.
Following is the pictures of our recipients.

"Being compassionate is a great work of our Heavenly Father and a fundamental characteristic of who we are as a people.  We are commanded to 'succor the weak, lift up the hands which hang down, and strengthen the feeble knees'  (D&C 81:5)."            Dieter F. Uchtdorf