Liahona Alumni Reunion

This Reunion was 8-10 days long.  Thousands of people came from all over - Australia, New Zealand, America.  It was amazing to see all of the people on this little island.  It was wall to wall people.  Everywhere we went people were constantly coming up to us, trying to give us money, paying for our lunches and other things.  We decided we must look pretty needy! Actully they said that they wanted to help the missionaries for the blessings that they would receive.  School was out as everyone was celebrating - if not for the Alumni Reunion then for the Coronation.  This was a hopping place for about 2 1/2 weeks!

Following are some pictures of the Alumni Parade and other Alumni events.  Each group would have their own float.  The parade lasted for about 2 hours.  It was very intense, with spirits very high.   We hope that you enjoy the pictures we have.

This is the start of the parade.  This group is from Hawaii.

These are Liahona High School students marching as guards for the Honoured Guest.

This is Prince Ata.  He was baptised in Hawaii and is in a sense the Grand Marshall of the Liahona Alumni Parade.

Welcome to Hollywood!!  They are from California.

This is the Liahona marching band.  They are very good.

This is Class of 1952.  They put on a little show for us doing a New Zealand native dance.  Very entertaining!

Here comes our favourite.  See if you can guess why!

It was so good to see the American Flag!  All the Senior Missionaries were very happy when this float went by.

This is the Church school from Vavau, their students.

Another group - they love to decorate with balloons here in Tonga!

Another group that was from New Zealand.  Like all the others, they have big speakers with the music blaring!

This group was from classes 76-83.  Energy still very high!

We thought this was quite interesting how they did L H S  92 for class of 1992.  As you can see it started to rain on us.

This is the arch way built in front of Liahona High School.  We felt that they should have put a picture of the Savior instead of President Monson where they put the statement "God Bless our King!"  Our Savior is our King, President Monson is our Prophet.  They built this for when the King and Queen come to Liahona for the Alumni Luncheon.

This is the field where they set up many tents for the Alumni Luncheon.

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This was a special tent set up just for the Royal Family to be seated at as well as Elder Haleck, Councilor in the Area Presidency for the South Pacific.

This is the arrival of the King and Queen.  Elder Haleck is greeting them.

These are some of the tables for the Luncheon.  Appetising - right!

As you can see there were many tables set up!

More food, do you think we will go hungry?

This is Sister Holbrook and Sister Murdock preparing for the feast.

This is one of the items at our table.  Would you care for a bite of octopus?

Following our meal we were entertained by many students and alumni doing traditional and non traditional dances.

This group did a waltz that was very beautiful.

This is Miss Leiola for Tonga.  She was very beautiful!  She is like our Miss America.

Following is a picture of Prince Ata and his famous fan.  We were trying to get a good picture of the fan that we could take to a fan maker to have one made like it, but we could never get a good one.  While at the Liahona Luncheon, Prince Ata was there with his fan.  Following the Luncheon he walked past Sister Murdock.  She decided to ask if she could get a good picture of his fan.  He turned and said that she can just have the fan.  Sister Murdock was shocked that she was now the owner of Prince Ata's fan!  When he left some other Tongans came and wanted to take a picture of Sister Murdock with the famous fan.  They could not believe he gave her his fan!

Prince Ata with his fan.

The famous fan now hangs in our apartment, House #30!

"In reality, we are all brothers and sisters and come from the same Heavenly Father.  We need to be on the same team."   Travis Hansen