Mothers' Day Celebration

We started with a ward Relief Society dinner on Friday night.  They had a fun little program and very nice feast for us to eat.  It was a very nice evening.  On Saturday we had a Mothers' Day Hot Dog Roast at the beach.  We went to a resort called Otauhaka.  It started out a little rainy, but the resort had a covered pavilion for us to set up tables in.  It was a lovely afternoon.  Some played volleyball, while others played some frisbee game, and others just sat and had a good visit.  Elder Murdock and Sister Murdock had to leave early as we had a dinner meeting at a very nice restaurant called the Black Pearl.  The owner is the President of the Dialysis Foundation here in Tonga.  This place is his and he told us that it had the best steak on the island.  He was right, rib eye steak from the U.S. and lobster fresh from the sea.  It was the best meal that we have had since we came to Tonga.  I think he is wining and dining us to encourage us to help with his dialysis project.  Following are some pictures of our activities.

This was the Relief Society Mothers Day Dinner for the Liahona 2nd Ward.

This Elder Beckstrand and Elder Dassler playing the frisbie game.

Here is a group playing volleyball.  They still move pretty good for old people!

This is our Mother's Day Hot Dog Feast.  There was some yummy food!

We had a wonderful day together, eating and visiting, and playing games!

This was the rib eye steak and lobster that Elder Murdock and Sister Murdock had at their dinner meeting,  It was so good, we thought we were back in the states for a minute!

This was our dessert, fresh chopped fruit and ice cream - very refreshing!

Sister Moon made these for all the Mothers and brought them around to us on Sunday.  She is always doing things like this for us.  She is the best district leader!

"Motherhood is near to divinity.  It is the highest, holiest service to be assumed by mankind.   It places her who honors its holy calling and service next to the angels."    Heber J. Grant

Special Meetings

So far this month we have had some important meetings concerning  a big Dialysis Project and a Diabetes event.  There is a group of volunteers, including doctors, that will be coming the end of July to help with the prevention of diabetes as well as a doctor that is a specialist in prosthetics, which is needed here in Tonga.  We are also working on refilling the 40 foot Emergency Container that was depleted after the Ha'apai cyclone.  Following are some pictures of the people that we have met with.

This is a meeting with  from left to right - Ana Ika, Elder and Sister Murdock; Honorable Ministery of Health, Dr. Saia Piukala; Director of Health, Dr. Siale 'Aka'ola; Medical Superintendent of Vaiola Hospital, Dr. Lisiate 'Ulufonua; and  Diabetic Specialist and Royal Doctor, Dr. Sione Latu  With over 7400 cases in 2014 and 110 deaths due to diabetes last year, something needs to be done.

These are the leaders we met with, from left to right - Senior Health Promotion Officer, 'Eva Mafi; Ministry of Health and Diabetes Association, Elisiva Naati; CEO of Tonga Health, Seini Filiai; Senior Education Officer for Primary School, Isikeli Oko; and Principal of Liahona High School, Fatafehi Fifita  to skype with Andrea Ferguson in Salt Lake City concerning their trip to come here in July.

Skyping Ferguson in Salt Lake City.

This is our Champion engineer in all our water projects.  He is checking out the used generators here in our Emergency Storage Container.  Hopefully he can fix them so that we do not have to purchase new ones.

Our Emergency Container, pretty much empty.  We are working on refilling it.

"There is a form of communication that transcends the power of words."   Joseph B. Wirthlin

Other Events in April 2015

April has been a very busy month for us with all our travels and meetings and proposed projects.  Following are some pictures of some of these other events that has kept us so busy.

The Stakes were asked to provide manioke,peeled and cleaned, so much from each ward, then to bring to us and put in this refrigerated container and be frozen ready to ship to Vanuatu as they are in need of food since the cyclone hit there.

These are some of the ward members stacking the bags of manioke so that we can get as many in as we can.

Even the little ones were able to help.  He was so cute!

The container is now full.  Standing in front from left to right is Elder Murdock, Stake President, President Kupu, Elder Haleck (1st counsellor in the Area Presidency), another Stake President and our security guard Malu. There was 925  20lb bags in the container.

Here the truck is taking the container to the ship to be shipped on to Vanuatu.  Hopefully it will bless the lives of the people there.  We are expecting to do 4 more of these over the next 5 months.

This was a big meeting with some important dignitaries from the Crown Prince who were bringing the Crown Princes' request to us for a new Dialysis Centre here in Tonga.  It will take many more meetings, but hopefully we will be able to get it off the ground and running before we leave.

Elder Berger is getting ready to leave us to go home!

This is Elder Berger and his daughter and husband, Elder and Sister Hamblin, the office couple.

Elder Berger and Elder Pearson, the Area President for the South Pacific.  He was flying out on the same plane as Elder Berger, so hopefully he will take care of him.  Elder Berger is very dear to us all here in Tonga!

Elder Berger and Elder Murdock.  Elder Berger's Grandfather and Elder Murdock's Grandmother were brother and sister.  We did not find this out until we met him here in Tonga!

Elder Berger's final goodbye

This is a piece of farm ground that is in our big farming project.  We are so proud of the people that are involved with this project.  They are working very hard.  Here they have planted manioke.  The field looked so beautiful.

At the end of our long afternoon of visiting over 17 different sights and taking over 60 pictures, our Champion in this project, Bishop Huni is digging us some ufi (yams) for us to take home.

This was one of the roads that we went down to get to one of the farm lots.  It was quite beautiful.  The road was lined with banana trees.

"He who gives money gives some, he who gives time gives more, and he who gives of himself gives all."   Thomas S. Monson

365th Island of Tonga

We had the opportunity of going with a group of other Senior Missionaries to see the newest island of Tonga.  It is the one that was formed from the volcano that was erupting in January.  At that time it kept our Area Representatives stranded here on Tongatapu for more that a week.  It was a beautiful day at sea and we was able to take some good pictures.  Although we ended not being able to get on the island at this time.  There was a group of officials that went to the island and did some exploring and taking samples, but we did not get to go with them.  We had to wait for 3 hours for them to finish there work - a little frustrating!  Following are some pictures of the day.

This is the boat that we went out on on our outing to the newest island.

This is Elder Murdock and Elder and Sister Wolfgram.  We are staking out our table for the trip.

This is Elder and Sister Van Den Akker and Elder Wood and Elder Berger helping to stake out our table.  We soon discovered we did not want this table as it was in front of the band that was setting up.  In Tonga they only know loud or louder!  They played the whole time of our trip, which was 3 hours to the island, a 3 hour wait for officials and another 4 hours to get back to dock.  Very long day!

Leaving Tongatapu.

Heading out to sea Elder Murdock, Elder Berger and Elder Wood.

This is one of the first sightings of the island.  The newest one is in the middle.  When it erupted it connected the other two islands with its lava flow.

Here are the officials heading to the new island.  You can see the crater that was made.  It originally was not open to the sea, but it has been eroded away with the waves.

As they, the officials, could not find a spot to get onto the island we headed around the back side of it.  We on the big boat followed to watch them.

This is the back side of the 365th island of Tonga.

This island was to the left of the back side.  If you look closely you can see where the lava connected it.

This is the other island to the left of the backside.  This one most of the vegetation was burnt due to the volcano.

If you look closely at the top you can see the officials that have climbed to the top of the island.  This tells you just how big it is.

The islands there were covered with hundreds of these birds.  They were pretty amazing to watch as we did not have much else to do other than listen to the Tongan band.

Elder and Sister Wood and Elder Berger found a good place to sit and watch everything play out.  They even rode most of the four hours back to Tongatapu until they became a little chilly, yes it does get chilly here in Tonga.

"It is my prayer that patience will be a defining characteristic of we who hold the priesthood of Almighty God; that we will courageously trust the Lord's promises and His timing; that we will act toward others with patience and compassion we seek for ourselves; and that we will continue in patience until we are perfected."   Dieter F. Uchtdorf

Catholic Holiday

We were able to attend this event because of our supervisor Ana.  She was able to get tickets for us.  We are sure that we were the only LDS Missionaries in attendance.  This celebration was for the end of "Lent" a Catholic Holiday.  It was also to celebrate the first Tongan being made a Cardinal. In attendance were thousands of people as well as the Cardinal and the King of Tonga.  It was amazing, much singing and dancing.  Following are some pictures of the event.

This is one of the tents that was set up for us to have our "Tongan Feast".

If you look closely at the red tent you will be able to see the Cardinal and the King of Tonga.

There were many dancers and singers, it went on for hours.

Sister Murdock tried to get a little closer to the Cardinal and the King, but there were guards that was not allowing that.  Their table was set with fine china and they had servants bring their food to them in courses.  There was a make shift kitchen set up in the back of the tent.  It was something to see.

This was another tent set up like ours for guest to eat their Tongan Feast.  There were many, many people there!

11th Article of Faith - "We claim the privilege of worshiping the Almighty God, according to the dictates of our own conscience, and allow all men the same privilege, let them worship how, where, or what they may."  Joseph Smith

"The Other Side of Heaven"

Here are some pictures of our stay in Niuataputopu.  We had some interesting meals and some amazing sights.  The water here is so beautiful.  We were very thankful for it as it was so very hot and that was the only way to cool down.  President Lino was so very good to us in providing us with meals and transportation in which we  was able to travel Tongan style.

While there we did a "Hand Over Ceremony" for our water project here.  The people in one of the villages has had to pack water for at least a year and possibly since 2009.  They had a water tank, but did not have the pump or the engine to pump it up to their tank.  They were so very thankful to have running clean water in their village.

We also met with the doctor at the Health Clinic that was needing some help as well.  They have had a nice new generator since 2009, but had lost the key so they could not start it.  They then proceeded to remove the ignition to have it re keyed and that was misplaced as well.  Since they do not have use of this generator they have been using a smaller one, but it is not powerful enough to run their computer and printer or their sterilizing unit for the instruments.  They need some help with this so we started working on this project as well.

This is where we started our day with breakfast.  It usually consisted of fresh fruit, crackers and peanut butter.  This is Ana Ika and the owner of the Guest House, Sione.

This is one of our meals that President Lino cooked for us.  Doesn't it look appetising.  We thought Jordyn would love this!

Here is Ana with the pig head digging the goodies out, like the brain.  Sister Dassler is looking on with a questionable look on her face!  In the other pan is manioke and boiled bananas.

Here we are riding Tongan style headed to our water project.  We also travelled like this to church as well.

Here we are at the gas station.  They would pump by hand out of a barrel into this container then go and dump it into the truck.

This is one of the villages we were in.  In the back ground you can see a mare and her colt.  They roam free along with the pigs, chickens and goats.

More of the Village

Sun is setting on this village while we were there.  We thought this picture turned out unique.

Another beautiful sunset from the chapel.

We loved this picture of the sunset and some Tongans out digging for clams and gathering their reeds for weaving that they had soaking in the sea.

One of the many beaches that we walked on for our walks.  In the center is Kolipoke Island.

Here is Elder and Sister Dassler going on an exploring hike around an island with us.

Another view of our hike around an island. The water and beaches were so beautiful here!

This is the road that we walked back and forth, from our guest house to the chapel.  It was about a 1/4 of a mile walk.

This was a house along the road that we walked every day.  It made us thankful for what we did have to stay in.

With the house above this was the outhouse and their shower.  We were definitely thankful that we did not have to shower here!  Look closely and you can see their towel hanging out the window!

This is the little shed that housed our water project.

Our supervisor, Ana Ika, instructed the Tongans that they needed to make the roof higher on the shed to make it a better place for the new pump and motor to run.  She felt that the air would circulate better by doing this.  So they went to the bush and cut some big post, then just cut the old ones off (if you look closely you can see where they cut the old ones) and lifted the roof  and set  it down on the new posts.  It was amazing to watch.  We were worried that it would fall on someone and hurt them.

Here they are lifting one of the corners.  Notice there are people inside lifting as well.  We were sure they would be crushed if it fell.

Here they are installing the new pump and motor.  The man on the left is George our engineer from Palu Development, who is teaching the Water Committee how to do this and to maintain it.

Here is the first water through the new pump.  Every one cheered, what a wonderful sight!

We were at the water project site for most of the day and the mosquitoes were terrible, so Ana started to build us a fire, and then the other men came and helped her.  This is what the Tongans do to keep the mosquitoes away.  It did help some, but by the end of the day you smell like smoke!

This was our lunch that the Village women brought to us and the men that were working all day.    It is the leaf on the right it was filled with like creamed coconut spinach with chunks of chicken (with a lot of chicken knuckles!).  It was not too bad, but we did not eat it all.

This man went up on this tin roof to put a cap back on to keep the rain off the new motor.  We were surprised as it was a very hot day and there he was, barefoot on a tin roof.  These Tongans are something else!

This is the same water project shed.  They have decorated it beautiful with palm leaves and flowers for the closing ceremony.  They also laid down beautiful mats all around.  What a change from our first view of this place.

Here we are at the Closing Hand Over Ceremony.  We were presented with leis.  

This is George our engineer handing over some of his tools that he brought with him.  They did not have any tools on the island to do the maintenance with, so he gave them his.  He is such a good man!

Following the ceremony they took us to the Town Hall where they had prepared a feast for us.  Our place was at the head of the hall.  They treated us like royalty!

Here they are bringing a woven mat to us for  all that we had done for them.  When the Government Official spoke, he had them all stand and bow to us, like we were royalty!

While being stranded here, we learnt that the hospital was in need of some help.  This is the generator that needs to be repaired.

This is the little shed that they have to build their fire in to do their sterilizations.

This is the Doctor with the pot that they use to sterilize their instruments.

This is the little branch that we went to church with.  It is actually two branches that were meeting together.

Here is their Air Terminal.  We are here waiting for the plane to come praying all the while that it will come.

Here we are inside the terminal waiting.

Oh what a beautiful sight!  The plane is here!

Leaving Niuataputopu this was the sight out of the plane.  Another beautiful little island just before Vava'u.

"The Lord didn't make Lehi a mere spectator, watching and learning and taking notes from afar.  Instead, the Lord taught his prophet by taking him out of the bleachers and placing him right in the middle of the action."  John Bytheway