June Sights and Outings in Tongatapu

Following are some photos of some of the activities we were involved in and some wonderful sights as well.

We were amazed to see a poinsettia flower this big, it is a bush!

A night out with the other Senior Missionaries and visiting dentist, Dr. Ralph Larson and his grandson, Jake to the Korean Restaurant.  Good Dinner!

Rest of our group at the Korean Restaurant.

This was a Stake dance.  They hold these whenever it is Stake Conference Weekend.

At these Stake Dances, each ward is to have a floor show.  It was amazing to watch.

This is our Ward, Liahona 2nd YSA Ward.  They did a beautiful waltz.  We were amazed to see their costumes.

This Elder Erickson and Elder Stivensi who are the APs for the Mission President.  They do the office work as well.

We went to Tsunami Rock Beach to watch the sunset.  This Elder and Sister Wolfgramm walking in the water.

Elder Murdock and Elder Wolfgramm - beautiful sunset.

Sister Wood could not resist looking for shells in the water while enjoying the sunset.

Here are the young Elders on a big service project.  They are painting the fence all around the Palace.  Since they were inside on palace grounds, they have to wear their Sunday best.  They had paint everywhere!

More pictures of the Elders painting the Palace Fence.  The Palace is in the background.

All over Tongatapu, the Villages are putting up these arches and decorating along the roads for all of the Coronation celebrations that are coming up.  The King and the Queen have been doing drive through inspections of the Villages, so they are really trying to clean up their places.

Some of the decorations of this village.  They like to use used tires as planters.

Here is Elder Wood shredding coconut on his back deck.

Along came to Tongan school children to show him how it is really done!

Here we are getting ready to do our Service Project on the Palace grounds.  It is a little rainy, but we will not be allowed to take our umbrella on the ground and put them up, so we planted and weeded the flower beds in the rain.  It looked very nice when we were done.  Again since we were going to be on the Palace grounds we had to be dressed in Tongan attire.  Strange way to plant flowers!

Elder Murdock felt we needed this picture showing that we are still taking care of our teeth.  We had a visiting Hygienist from Idaho Falls, so all the Senior Missionaries had their teeth cleaned and checked. 

A visit to the Blow Holes.  Waves were pretty wild today.

Another picture of the Blow Holes!

The Blow Holes.

This is the President's Dinner and Father's Day Dinner, as well as a farewell to Elder and Sister Hamblin.

President's Dinner

The Royal Army was out on the field today.

Here we are at an outdoor theater, Sister Murdock and Elder and Sister Wood.  We came here to watch "Hamlet". A group from London came to perform here in Tonga, one of the 250 countries they will be performing for.  It rained all through the play, we all were soaked, but the play was very good.  The actors did a wonderful job.

More of our group at "Hamlet", Elder and Sister Van Den Akker, and Elder and Sister Holbrook.

We were amazed with this project - "Road Marking"!

They hand paint their lines on the road with a stencil!  How would you like that job!

This is the daughter of  Dr. Clark, one of the visiting dentist from Idaho.  She climbed all the way to the top of this coconut tree, just like the Tongans do.  We were amazed!

This was a big International Block Party one night, just one of the many celebrations they are having preparing for the Coronation on July 4th.  There were two of these dragons doing a lot of dancing down the street!

This is the arch in down town Nuku'alofa with the name of the celebration on it.  As you can see there were many people there!

This is Elder and Sister Beckstrand, she had to have a flashing pink crown.  She definitely is a "pink crown girl"!

This is just the start of the celebration!  The crowds got worse the later it got.  Kind of looks like Eastern Idaho State Fair!

This is the King and Queen of Tonga.  He is the one who is going to be crowned on July 4th.

Another arch with a big crown on top.  They are going up all over the island!

"The kingdom of heaven, including the Church, and comprising all nations, will be set up with power and great glory when the triumphant King comes with His heavenly hosts to personally rule and reign on the earth, which He has redeemed at the sacrifice of His own life."   James E. Talmage

June 2015 Projects in Progress

This project was Furniture and Supplies for six Government Primary Schools here in Tonga.  All furniture and supplies, two twenty foot containers, were donated by schools in New Zealand that were updating their furniture and supplies.  The church then paid the shipping cost from New Zealand to Tonga.  It was a fast and furious week for us to get them all unpacked and organized for the day that we would have the Hand Over Ceremony.  Following are some pictures of the event.

This is just one of the truck loads of furniture and supplies delivered to our office complex from the ship.

Still unloading!

This is half of the furniture to be unpacked.......

and this is the other half.  Much work to do to unpack all of these desk and chairs and organize into groups before the Hand Over Ceremony in two days!

Starting the unpacking!

Now what to do with the packing material so that we have room to organize the desk and chairs into groups.

We called a wood carver that does a lot of shipping of his art work thinking he might like a little of the packing material.  He wanted it all!!  But we did take a load to one of the worker's house.  He wanted to use it to line his inside walls as there were many cracks with the wind blowing through.

Here we are all organized into sections.  Very tired, but glad it is ready for the Hand Over Ceremony tomorrow.  We are wearing our LDS Charities shirts that we received at the Fiji Conference.

Here the Stake President is officially handing over the furniture and supplies to the Ministry of Education of Tonga.

Part of the Hand Over Ceremony.

Refreshments following the Hand Over Ceremony.

Elder Murdock serving some refreshments to some of the children that were there to help load the desks, chairs, and supplies.

This is one of the schools with their load of desks and tables.  We were worried that they would not make it back to the school.  The children were on top holding the desks and tables so they would not fall out of the truck.

Another truck load on its way!

Final truck load and the parking garage is empty!

Also this month we made a trip out to our Veitongo Farming Project to see how they are progressing.  We were amazed at how the crops are growing.  We are so very proud of the people in this Village, how they have pulled together to make this project a success!  Following are some pictures, hope you enjoy them.

This is the first phase and the manioke is growing well.

Another parcel of the first phase  and the manioke is flourishing.

We were so excited to see how beautiful all the crops are and how well they are doing.

The farmer of this parcel wanted to plant peanuts in his acre.  This is the second phase of the project.

Another beautiful field of ufi and giant taro growing and doing well.

In this month we have had four new projects approved as well. One is for a new engine and a pump for the Village water, a new school library, new play ground equipment for a kindergarten, and a new farming project where they will grow peanuts and sell them to help provide income for the families of the Village.  As progress on these we will keep you updated with photos.

"We must live as true followers of the Christ, with charity toward all, returning good for evil, teaching by example the ways of the Lord, and accomplishing the vast service He has outlined for us."  Gordon B. Hinckley

Hans T. Sorensen Visits Tongatapu

On May 27th Hans T. Sorensen, South Pacific Area Welfare & Humanitarian Manager, came to visit us to tour some of our projects, church farms, meet with Diabetes Committee, the Dental Group, and the Dialysis Foundation Committee.  It was a very busy week for us as well as being very beneficial.  After he arrived our first visit was to the Veitongo Farming Project.  Here we were able to meet some of the participants in this project.  Following this day he headed to 'Eua to inspect the church farm there.

Hans T. Sorensen's arrival.

When we arrived at the Farm Project, the people gave us some green coconuts for us to drink.  They were very sweet ones!

The man in black is a Catholic man who is involved in the project.  He came up to us, with tears streaming down his cheeks, thanking us for the help we are providing his people.  He said that we were from "God", that we were his answer to his prayers as to what he could do to help his people.  It is amazing how the whole community is pulling together on this project, members and non-members!

These are some more of the people involved in the project.  These ladies decided to make tau pa cloth for sell to raise funds for this project so that it may continue after we are no longer involved.

This is there vegetable gardens in the project.  They have just planted this whole field.  There is cabbage, pok choy, lettuce, and carrots.

This is there little nursery that they have set aside to start the plants from seeds, not like we have to at home start in our windowsills in the house.  When big enough, they then transplant to the bigger fields.

This Hans Sorensen and Bishop Huni, our champion in this project, over looking the little nursery.

From left to right - Tui Vata, another Champion in this project, Elder Murdock, Bishop Huni, "The Champion" in this project, and Ana Ika, our Supervisor.

Here are the two tractors ploughing some more of the third phase of this project.

Hans, Elder Murdock, Bishop Huni, Tui Vata, and Ana over seeing the ploughing of the fields.

On Hans return, we discovered his plane had been cancelled, so he and Howard Nui had to come on the ferry from "Eua.  They arrived around 8 PM  and was ready to go home and rest.  On Sunday we picked up Hans and headed to church at Bishop Huni's ward.  We were the program for this Sacrament meeting.  There were many in attendance that were not members of the church, including our catholic friend.  It was a very nice meeting.  Following the meeting, Bishop Huni's wife had cooked us a beautiful meal for our dinner.  It was one of the best Tongan feast that we have had!

On Monday we started early by picking up Hans to get ready for our Diabetic Lunch Meeting, following that the Dental Meeting with all the Dentist on the island, then to Liahona to meet with Tevita Makehele, Managers of the Liahona Farm and Ladene Itaaehau, Finance Manager.  Following this meeting we headed to the Black Pearl for our dinner meeting with the Tongan Dialysis Foundation.  We were hoping that the Crown Prince would be able to meet with us in this meeting, but he was out of the country, so his wife came and met with us.  She was very easy to be with and to converse with.
Following are some pictures of these events.

This a new Little India Restaurant that was just built.  This is where we held our Diabetes Lunch Meeting.

This is our Committee that we met with for Diabetes.  From left to right is Dr.  Taniela Palu, NCD Consultant; Hans T. Sorensen, Pacific Islands Area Welfare Manager; Seini Filiai,  CEO of Tonga Health, Sarah; Seilini Soakai, Supervising Sister for NCD Nurses. With backs to us, Sister Murdock; 'Elisiva Na'ati, Sr Nutition MOH & Diabetes Association; Ana Ika, our Supervisor.

We were very surprised when we walked into the Dental Clinic at Vaiola Hospital.  It was very nice.  They received this clinic from China Aid.

This is Ana Ika and Dr. Amanaki, Head of Dentistry in Tonga.

This is our meeting with the other dentist here in Tonga.  In front is Elder and Sister Becstrand, Senior Missionaries here for the dental clinic in Liahona.  At this meeting Hans instructed all of us as to what Church Headquarters are wanting to do with the Dentist program here in Tonga.  They want to eventually make it so that Tonga is self -reliant and can eventually operate without us.

This is our meeting with the President of the Tonga Dialysis Foundation, Siosaia Moehau, and owner of the Black Pearl Restaurant.  He was able to explain to Hans exactly as to what they are wanting us to do and how the church can help with this plan.  Following this we all sat down to dinner with the Crown Princess at the Black Pearl Restaurant.

This is a picture of our group that we had dinner with for the Dialysis Purposed Project. Back row - Ana Ika, County Welfare Manager; Poasi Tei, Minister of Public Enterprises; Ahongalu Fasimalohi, Secretary for Dialysis Foundation; Siosaia Moehau, Presdient  of Dialysis Foundation; Taunisia Paea, Assitant Secretary of Dlialysis Foundation. Center Row - Hans T. Sorensen, Area Welfare Manager for the Pacific Islands; Crown Princess Sinaitakala Tuku'aho; Elder Norris Murdock, Tonga Humanitarian Specialist. Front sitting down - Lady Tu'ipelehake, and Sister Linda Murdock, Tonga Humanitarian Specialist.

"Brethren and sisters, all life is a gift of God.  Appreciation of that fact should inspire us with a desire to live daily exemplary lives, that others, seeing our good deeds might be led to glorify our Father in heaven."    David O. McKay