August 2015 Events & Goodbyes

On August 7th a group of the Senior Missionaries went to dinner to Liku'alofa Beach Resort.  Elder and Sister Holbrook's daughter and her husband were here visiting.  It was a wonderful show and a pretty good dinner.  Following are some photos of the night.

This is part of our group, from left to right, Sister Wolfgram, Elder and Sister Beckstrand, Elder and Sister Holbrook, and last is their daughter and her husband.  Just waiting for the dinner to start.

Elder and Sister Murdock enjoying the evening out!

There is Elder and Sister Wolfgram starting down the food line.  The food was very nice.

This is part of the show that we had after dinner.

More dancers for the show.

This young girl was very beautiful and did a very beautiful dance.

There was also fire dances in the show.  It was pretty amazing.

This young girl did a solo fire dance.

At the end of the show they encouraged so many people to come up on stage to learn some of their dances.  Sister Holbrook's daughter was chosen to represent us.  She is the one with the blue t-shirt.

On August 16th we had a Fireside with Elder Gifford Nielsen, former quarter back for BYU and is now councillor in the South Pacific Area Presidency.  The Seniors had to sing a number at this Fireside.  Elder Nielsen talked about the Priesthood authority and who holds the keys to do missionary work, temple work, ward work.  He had President Tupou, Mission President, President Wasala, Temple President, and the Stake President come up to the pulpit at the same time and had them tell what keys that they had, what authority that they had.  He then explained that it is all to work together to bring about hasting the work, "to invite others to come unto Christ by helping them receive the restored gospel through faith in Jesus Christ and His Atonement, repentance, baptism, receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost, and enduring to the end."  Following are a few pictures of the evening.

This is a special chair that is always set up when Prince Ata is coming to any church meeting.  He must have a separate place to sit that is away from the rest of the group.  It was very beautiful.

After we were able to get some pictures with Elder Nielsen.  This is Elder and Sister Moon, Church Auditors,  who are about to go home.

This is Elder and Sister Beckstrand, our dentist, who is also about to go home.

And here is Elder and Sister Murdock, who are NOT about to go home!

On the same day of the Fireside we also had our President's Dinner and our farewell speeches from Elder and Sister Beckstrand, and Elder and Sister Moon.  It was kind of a sad day to have to say goodbyes to these two couples who have done so much for the mission here in Tonga.  Following are a few pictures of the evening.

The start of our President's Dinner, there is always very good food here!

Elder and Sister Beckstrand giving their farewell to us all.

Elder and Sister Moon giving their farewell to all.

Elder and Sister Beckstrand and Elder and Sister Moon

Elder and Sister Beckstrand, President and Sister Tupou, Elder and Sister Moon.

This is Elder and Sister Beckstand with our Tongan Missionaries.  From left to right, Elder and Sister Wolfgram, Elder Va'enuku, Elder and Sister Tupola, Elder Tautua'a, Sister Tautua'a, Sister Tupola, and Elder and Sister Beckstrand.

 Our final goodbyes to the Beckstrands.  Elder and Sister Moon are leaving at 3 AM so we will not be able to see them off.  So our last goodbyes will be at their apartment the night before.  Sister Beckstrand was amazing what she was able to pack on and in for her trip home.  Here are some pictures of the day.

Here is Elder and Sister Beckstrand with their luggage and their Tongan broom.  They had five big bags to check, plus some pretty hefty carry ons.

Elder Beckstrand and President Tupou getting in line for check in.

Sister Beckstrand is letting us know how many outfits she has on as her suitcases were too heavy to pack everything in them.  Even when they started the check in process she had to go through one of her carry-ons that was too heavy.  When she opened it there were packages of Schilling Beef Stew Mix, Taco Mix , and Koolaid pouches.  We could not believe she was wanting to take these items home to America. I told her she could buy them there and she replied that she has been in Tonga too long!
At this time she had an extra skirt on, but when she repacked her carry-on she had some capris and another shirt.  It is a good thing they will not be weighing her!.

Here they are after 2 /12 hours of trying to get them checked in they are finally ready to go through the door.  Notice the extra blouse she has on!  The one computer bag was too heavey, but they finally said just go on, but next time not so heavy!

While Beckstrands were getting on the plain, Elder and Sister Moon's daughter was getting off.  She is coming to go home with them, with a stop for a few weeks in Australia.  They were very happy to see each other!

She is a beautiful girl, looks like here Mother, Sister Moon.

Everyone needs good friends.  Your circle of friends will greatly influence your thinking and behavior, just as you will theirs.  When you share common values with your friends, you can strengthen and encourage each other.  Thomas S. Monson

Whale Watching & Sunsets in Tonga

A group of the Senior Missionaries booked a tour with Deep Blue for a whale watching excursion as it is whale season here in Tonga.  Starting out it was a beautiful day but the further out to sea we got the water started to get a little rough.  Two of our group became very sea sick, even one of the Tonga girls of the crew became sea sick as well.  Elder and Sister Murdock did alright.  There were another group with us that had signed up to swim with the whales, so when some were spotted, they would jump in with a guide and swim toward the whales.  Sometimes they got a little closer than they should have.  If was a fun day to watch.  We hope that you enjoy the pictures that we have.

We also have some beautiful pictures of a wonderful sunset at the Blow Holes that we think you will enjoy as well.

On our way out to sea.  From left to right - Elder and Sister Beckstrand and Elder and Sister Holbrook.

This is our guide with Deep Blue, he was very enjoyable!

Elder and Sister Murdock and Elder Holbrook with our guide.

This is the other group that paid to swim with the whales.  A whale has been spotted so they are heading toward it.

This Tongan is on top of the mast of the boat looking for whales and it was really rocking as the water was a little rough.

In the back you can see a whale back and in front of it is the swimmers trying to get a little closer to it.

Here is a whale waving to us with it's dorsal fin.  It was huge!

This was an exciting one to see as the whale came up out of the water, twisted and landed on it's back!

Here he is again coming up into another jump!  It was so amazing to watch!

Here there are two of them rolling on their back and waving at us with their dorsal fins.  So much fun to watch!

Here are the two swimming quite close to the boat, they surprised us!

Following our whale watching we had a farewell dinner for Elder and Sister Moon at the Bill Fish as they are getting ready to head home.

Elder and Sister Murdock went to the Blow Holes to watch the sunset as it was a clear sky for the evening, which does not happen very often.  Blow Holes were amazing as well as the sunset!

Sun is slowing dipping down!

We liked this one with a blow hole spouting into the sunset!

Sister Murdock watching the sun go into the sea!

We liked the waves in this picture with the sun going into the ocean.

Amazing blow holes spouting with an amazing sunset to end an amazing day in Tonga!

"Proper recreation and amusement are good things."   Lorenzo Snow

2015 Agriculture Fair for Tongatapu

This was quite the event here in Tonga.  They have one of these on each island at different times.  The one on Tongatapu was August 21-22, 2015.  We went to it on the 21st as everyone said that is the time to go.  On the 22nd most everyone is packing up and going home.  This fair is like a big County Fair that we have, but there is a lot of fish that has been caught on display to be judged and inspected by the King.  There are also, cows, horses,pigs, chickens, and fresh produce, as well as crafts of all kinds that will be for sale once the King has inspected them.  It was amazing what was there.  Following are some pictures of the day, we hope that you enjoy them as much as we had taking them.

There were some amazing fish at this fair.  We thought Tyson, Jason and Mason would be interested in these pictures!  How would you like to catch something like this?

Or how about one of these?

We thought the Grand daughters would like this little seahorse!

They had this fellow in a make shift pond, but we are sure someone will have turtle soup after the judging!

Like we said there were a lot of fish on display!

Here are some octopus.  Don't they look appetising?

Here we go, some yummy lobster!

How about this one, Mason, would you like to latch on to this?

Here are just a few of the thousands of hand woven mattes and other items.  They were so beautiful!

This is a large tapa cloth that is made out of bark.  It is amazing how much work goes into something like this!

Here are a couple of women making tapa cloth.  They pound the bark into strips and then glue the strips together to make items out of it. 

This is a dress made from tapa.  Everything including the flowers are made from tapa.  It was so beautiful.  There must have been hours and hours went into this!

Here are the chickens that they had on display along with other animals.

Of course the Tongan pig.  We could not have a fair with out a Tongan pig!

This was a group of professional performers that sing and dance.  Elder and Sister Beckstrand fixed quite a few of their teeth so they put a special little show on for them right there!

There were some amazing wood carvings here.  Tonga has such talented wood carvers.  We always love looking at the beautiful items they have created from a piece of wood.

This was an old tree stump, turned into an octopus.  A hotel has purchased it for a great amount of money.  It was amazing!

This is what they laid out for the King to walk on as he made his way around to all the booths to inspect all the items.  This was all tapa cloth! 

Here was the cutest little group of children all dressed in Tongan attire to perform for the King.

"Would the marathon runner feel the triumph of finishing the race had she not felt the pain of the hours of pushing against her limits?  Would the pianist feel the joy of mastering an intricate sonata without the painstaking hours of practice?"  Dieter F. Uchtdorf