March 2016 Sights and Events in Tonga

Following are some interesting sights that we saw and wonderful activities we had with the Senior Couples.  Hope you will enjoy them as much as we have.

Beautiful road scene.

Just how fast do you want to go?  Only in Tonga!

This is Ela and one of her teachers cutting different shapes from cardboard boxes, then coloring them to use to teach the children their shapes.  They do not have the funds to purchase such items.

This is another little project that we are working on that will finish after we have gone.  They will be doing gardens like this one in 182 families' yards.  They will grow their own vegetables for their families to eat and to sell the surplus at the market.  In doing this they will have sufficient funds to keep their little gardens going.  The Ministry of Agriculture will be teaching them how to retrieve seeds from the plants to start their own seedlings.

This is what the garden spots will look like.  We will provide the soil, manure, and seedlings to start.

More of the little gardens.

This is a classroom at Atele Tonga Boys school, their boys who are in, what we would call shop, do the renovations on their existing classrooms.  More schools should follow this example!

In this picture is Elder and Sister Murdock, and Sister Wunderlich, and Sister Faux, they were kind enough to translate for us at Nakolo Tonga Ward.  They are great Sisters and are doing a wonderful job!

Here all the Seniors went to "Ahopanilolo, a cooking school.  They teach their students about being a chef, hosting, waiters, and entertainment.  It was a wonderful night and a great meal!

Another shot of our wonderful night out!

Here we are at the same place.  We are a little red as there was a red light over us!

These are some of the students from our Viani School Project.  We were checking to see how the new floors were doing and they look great!  So do the kids!

Goodbye to Elder and Sister Tupola, Temple Missionaries.  They will be greatly missed!  They provided all of us with fresh vegetables from their garden that they created while here.

This is Elder and Sister Tupola with President and Sister Wasala, Tonga Temple President.

This a the group that was able to come and tell them good bye!

Final wave goodbye to Tupolas!

It has been raining for two weeks.  The car was very dirty, so in a down pour Elder Murdock took a sponge and washed the car in the rain in his swim suit.  He was soaked!

Only in Tonga would you see some one leading a horse from a van down the side walk in downtown Nukualofa!

We like the shade on this tractor, very unique, very Tongan!

These are the kind of ploughs that they use here in Tonga.  A lot different than what John McNabb uses!

It has been raining so much this popped up in our lawn in just a couple of days it was this big!

This is another school that is requesting help to build more classrooms as they are over crowded.  This is one of the students working a lathe.

This is the welding students.  We thought Nick would enjoy seeing this!

Here is one of the classrooms.  There was not room for all the students, so the rest sat on benches outside and listened through the windows.  They are in great need, hope we can help them!

This was at a special gathering for honouring the Elderly in Houma Village.  We were invited by the Noble as we have been able to get a water project approved for this village.  They wanted us there to thank us for our help.

This beautiful girl entertained us with a wonderful dance.  She was very beautiful!

This is a group shot of all in attendance at this program.

This is just one of the many houses here in Tonga.  You can see the wiring going through the wall and we are sure that it is not working!  This is a typical Tongan house.

Another home of Tonga.

This is our last President's Dinner, therefore we had to say our farewell to all.  It was a lovely dinner and we were thankful Ana was able to be there as well.

Here we are giving our farewell!

This is a shot of the group that was at this dinner.

We are all went to dinner at the Scenic hotel and had a great time together.

This is a shot of our table.

Another shot of our table.

A group shot of all that was able to go.  There is one couple missing.

This is a fountain downtown Nuku'alofa.  They had to put a fence around as the children, even the big ones, would get on it and break it.  Pretty sad, but that is how Tonga is, they have a hard time taking care of their things.

This is a little history of the Royal Palace located downtown Nuku'alofa.

HAPPY 47th ANNIVERSARY!  We took some time out and went to dinner on March 28 at our favourite pizza place, Marcos.  He is an Italian and makes very good pizza!

Following our dinner we headed to FHE for game night with the Seniors.  It is always a fun night!

Picture of the King and Queen of Tonga.

Final hair cut with David.  We will miss his wonderful hair washing massages!

Elder Murdock's last hair cut from David.

Elder Murdock is having his last hair washing massage.  They are so wonderful.  Sometimes for at least 5 minutes!

We spent many hours with this man, Fine from PTH.  This is his little office.  We could not have been able to do as much as we have done without his help in getting us the best price possible!

This is the little homestead we took a picture of at the first of our Mission.  It has grown to 4 other buildings!  I believe they are sleeping accommodations for this family that has grown!  They even have a car now, and running water across the road from a faucet that was installed.  So they have to haul their water from there every day!

We are having our final farewell to Siaosi Palu.  Another man that we could not have done as many water projects without his help.  He was always there when we needed him doing all that he could to make our projects a success!

"Christ's ideal of friendship requires that we be friends on a high moral and spiritual level.  Under his divine guidance and discipline ... our affection and friendship can mature into charity, the pure love of Christ, and we can be Zion, a people with one heart."    Sandra Rogers