2015 Christmas in Tonga

We were so thankful for our wonderful little Christmas tree that our children sent to us.  It is made out of cut out hand prints of all our grandchildren, with pictures of each grand child on Christmas balls to put on the tree.  All the other Seniors thought it was great.  We also had snowballs made by a very special lady so that we could have a snowball fight in Tonga, an Elder Frosty, and many wonderful letters and pictures from home!  Through this time of year a lot of people leave the island for holiday, so our office slows down a bit, but the activities with the Seniors did not.  We had some special times with them that helped us through the Christmas Season as it is hard to be away from family at this time of year.  Hope you enjoy all the photos of all our activities!

Our beautiful Christmas Tree, snowballs and Elder Frosty!

Here it is with the lights on!

Here the Seniors went to dinner together at a new restaurant in Nuku'alofa, Victor's Cafe.  Pretty good food, but we over whelmed them with all of us there at once!

It was  a lovely night out, such wonderful company!

We had to wait quite a while for our food, but enjoyed visiting with everyone!

This little girl was helping us remember to be reverent in church the Sunday before Christmas.

Here the Seniors are busy putting together 12 boxes of food for 12 needy families that Elder and Sister Va'enuku have been helping and trying to bring into the church.  We all pitched in purchasing the food to fill the boxes.

Here we are filling bags of flour for each box.

These Elders are filling bags of sugar for each box.

This is some of the items that we put in each box.

It was wonderful all working together on this project.

This is Elders Radmacher, Deakin, and Va'enuku playing Christmas carols for us while we were filling the boxes.

We ended up with two boxes for each family. On the one box we had a letter to them with a nice bow.

Here the boxes are loaded in the van and we headed out to each family to deliver the boxes.

This is Elder Murdock and Elder Edwards carrying two boxes to this little humble home.  Elder Va'enuku said that half of the time they have no food in their houses!

This is Sister Va'enuku wishing this elderly lady a Merry Christmas, as you can see how humble the house is!

This little house was made from palm leaves and tin roof.  There is a mother with 7 children living here.  Her husband left her and the children so she is trying to provide for them the best she can.  Our hearts were aching for her and the children!

This is inside the house, kitchen and one mattress on the floor for all to sleep.  Clean but very humble!

This is the mother holding her little one and is drawn to tears for the boxes of food we have brought to her and her family. We so wish that we could do more, but the problem is there are hundreds more just like this here in Tonga.  How do you help them all??

Here we are gathering for our Christmas Eve dinner, feeling guilty for having so much to be thankful for!

We even had a roasted pig with our meal, along with turkey and ham.  It was all so American and wonderful!

We all enjoyed the wonderful meal.  Following we had a wonderful Christmas Social prepared by Elder and Sister Murdock, Elder and Sister Clarkson, and Elder and Sister Radmacher.  It was a wonderful evening!

Christmas morning we had a wonderful Christmas devotional put on by our District leaders Elder and Sister Holbrook!

We even had Mr and Mrs Clause visit us, Elder and Sister Edwards - what a great couple!

Christmas day we all headed to the beach for a hot dog roast.  It was a beautiful day for the beach.  Thanks to Elder and Sister Van Den Akker for going early to save us a shady spot, as there were a lot of Tongans with the same idea!

We all enjoyed ourselves.

We had our walking sticks as it was wading in the tide pools.  It helps so much to have good people to spend Christmas with when you are so far from family and home!

"Christmas gifts should be in memory of the divine gift, the life of Jesus Christ.  His gift gave us eternal life; our gifts should enliven with joy those who receive.  His gift was the sacrifice of his earthly life; our gifts should represent personal sacrifices on our part."    John A. Widtsoe

Special Invitation to Fatumu Village Reunion Day

We were invited to this special day because of all the projects that we have done for this Village.  At this celebration they had a grand opening of the kindergarten that 26 Tongans that live in San Francisco raised the funds to build this $100,000 TOP building.  It was also a reunion for the Village as well, a huge celebration.  The invitation said from 10 - 2 PM.  We finally left at 5:30 PM and it was still going strong.  We heard that it did not end until about 8 PM.  These Tongans know how to feast and party!  Following are pictures of the day.

Here is Sister Murdock with Ana Ika waiting for the ceremony to start.  It was on Tongan time!

This is the Noble speaking of Fatumu and how it has improved from days gone by.  How this building for the kindergarten was proof of that.

This is the new kindergarten, it is one of the nicest school buildings we have seen here in Tonga!

This is the inside of the kindergarten, wonderful rugs, tables and chairs, and toys.  A very nice facility!

Here are bins for the kids toys, filled with snacks for us all!

Here are a few of the students in their little uniforms.  They were so cute.

Following the grand opening of the kindergarten it was on to the feast.  There was probably 40-50 tables set up like this one with 1-2 roasted pigs on each table.  It was amazing!

This place was set for the the Noble to sit at where he would be served his food.  It was amazing to watch them put it together in just a few minutes!

To each side of the Noble they had special VIP tables set with china and beautiful flowers.  Because of our work with this Village we ended up sitting at this VIP table being served steak, lobster, and other speciality dishes just for VIPs.  We even had a cold fruit punch drink!

In this celebration there were many from, America, New Zealand, Australia, and other countries.  Each visitor provided a special entertainment for all as well as presenting gifts to the Noble.

This is the group from America.  The president of this group was good friends with Ana.  As they were performing their entertainment, a little girl from Fatumu came up in front of them, all dressed in Tonga attire, doing the dance just as the big girls were doing.  But she stole the show from all of them.  Such a cute little girl!  As you can see if every one has entertainment it made for a very long day.  When America was giving out their gifts, they gifted Elder and Sister Murdock and Ana Ika, some very nice quilts.  Very unexpected!  It was a lovely day, but very long!

"Our lives of service and sacrifice are the most appropriate expressions of our commitment to serve the Master and our fellowmen."    Dallin H. Oaks

Visit to Peanut Farm Harvest

On 11th and 14th of December we went to visit our Peanut Farm Project in Fatumu as they were harvesting their peanuts.  All that we talked with are very happy about the results of this project, how they will have funds to help pay for the school fees for their children and plus enough to pay for the preparation of the land to replant.  They all said that they will be continuing with this project.  We were very happy as this is what our projects are all about, helping the people to become more self-reliant, to take care of themselves.  Following are some photos of our visit to the Peanut Farm.

This field is one of the last ones that was planted and will be harvested in February.  The crop is looking good!

Here is one of the families harvesting their peanuts.  The crops have been very good, the peanuts nice and big.

They pull them and then pile them to dry before they then pull the peanuts from the plants.

Here Elder Murdock and Ana Ika are enjoying the green peanut!

This little family was able to harvest 17 bags of peanuts from their little acre.  Each bag sells for $150 TOP which is a great help to the family's finances!

Here is another family harvesting their acre of peanuts, again the crop is good.

This is the same family with the boys helping.  Here they are piling them to dry.

Here this family is picking the peanuts from the plants.  The elderly Tongan in the black is 80 years old and is still involved in this peanut farm project.  He was amazing to see how hard he worked.

Once the peanuts are picked from the plants, they are then spread out on mats to dry before they are bagged and sold.  Each day they dump the bags on the mats and stir them in the sun as long as the sun is shining.  At night they re bag and then bring them out again in the morning if the sun is shining.  Quite a process!

Here is another family with some of their peanuts that they have harvested.  All have been very happy with the outcome and plan to continue planting peanuts as this is something that the whole family can do, including the children.  We are so happy for all of them at their success!

"The old way of earning by our labor is the best way to become rich."    Anthon H. Lund

Outing to Natural Bridge Beach

This was an outing with the other Senior Couples.  We went wading at low tide at Natural Bridge Beach to look at things that were in the tide pools.  You never know what you will find there.  Could be eels or sea snakes, or sea urchins.  It is always interesting to search!  We all brought our picnic lunch and enjoyed the day.  Hope you enjoy the pictures of the day.

Here is Sister Murdock checking a tide pool.  We always use walking sticks as the bottom of the ocean is not level and sometimes is distorted where to step.  The walking sticks help us oldies keep our balance!

This is Elder Van Den Akker, King of the Hill!  He is enjoying the beautiful view!

Here comes Sister van Den Akker to see what he is looking at!

Here we have Elder Van Den Akker, Elder and Sister Clarkson (London), Sister Deakin, and Sister Radmacher checking out the tide pools.

Here is Sister Murdock and Elder Van Den Akker.

Here we are enjoying our picnic lunch trying to find a little shade in the cliffs above.

Here is Elder Murdock, Sister Holbrook, Elder and Sister Johns, Elder Wolfgram ( in the back), Elder Holbrook and Sister Radmacher, finished lunch and sitting around visiting.

A view of the beach we have been wading in the tide pools.  The tide is coming in now and not many tide pools left.

Elder and Sister Clarkson enjoying the view and Sister Deakin taking pictures.

"Good people influence your life and help in molding your own personality and character and help you to mingle out in society and live the way that you should live.  They help you carry on worthwhile enterprises, and they lift you onto a higher plane."  David B, Haight