MERRY CHRISTMAS

A truly Tongan version of a Christmas tree--made entirely of coconuts

Summertime

My favorite fish while snorkeling----the humuhumunukunukuapua'a fish, otherwise known as the Picasso Trigger Fish.
He likes to pretend like he is attacking and charges you, turning quickly to the right every time, then circling around to charge again.  I thought that he was doing a mating dance for my blue underwater camera, but others without a camera had the same experience.

This is the Tongan version of a raised bed garden, all done with coconut shells.

We attended the graduation ceremony for the local high school.  The fabulous students' singing was the major difference in the Tonga version compared to the US version.

Outside, after the ceremony was the outrageous part.  Everyone got leis from friends and family,  some more than they could put on,  some made of candy, some flowers and some money.

Even Grandma got in on the celebration

This is the Matahau Stake workshop graduation class for self-reliance.  The first priority for self reliance is returned missionaries, the second is leaders without education and/or work.  Can you pick out the stake president and his second counselor who never finished high school and are now going back to school to finish their high school studies?  They both need financial help via the Perpetual Education Loan Program because they don't have the money to pay for their tuition, books and materials.

Our in country self reliance manager training people who will be facilitators for their workshops in the Nuku'alofa North Stake.

Hangin' out after the Thanksgiving dinner.  We had most all the dishes with some variations due to the lack of a few ingredients.

Just us.

Boo ! Balls, Benz, Buddies, Beach

HALLOWEEN is not really a Tongan holiday, but we did some trunk or treating for the local community

................our elaborate costumes

Here we are at Tsunami Rock.  We keep wondering why it is called Tsunami Rock.  It is sitting all by itself about 1/4 mile away from the beach where the other coral rock is.

We spent some time Saturday exploring dirt tracks to the shoreline in a couple of areas not far from where we live, and included some photos of the beach, the tide pools and the rugged coral higher on the shoreline (looks like lava). 

This is the local Mercedes Dealership and this is their whole inventory

  The “walking” trees are Pandanus trees that people here use the roots for broom sticks and the leaves for weaving mats after soaking them in the ocean for several days and then drying them. The longer they are soaked, the more bleached they become and the more prized they are.
The flying foxes like to hang in them as well.

Every day required uniform at Liahona High School, girls in short skirts, boys in long skirts

Once in a lifetime attire at your Liahona High School graduation ball.

Who wore the most outrageous outfit at your graduation dance?S

PAUPERS, PARTIES AND THE PRINCESS

The face of poverty in Tonga

Elder and Sister Va'enuku are serving as MLS (membership, leader support) missionaries.  She is in the blue dress in the first picture.  They are Tongan but live in Hawaii and are here for 18  months.  They get people in the states to put together care packages, send the goods to Tonga and then the Va'enukus distribute as needed.  She also cooks lots of food for the needy.  We spent an afternoon delivering with them...a pretty humbling experience.

We were at a graduation ceremony for a Self Employment workshop and someone got wind that it was my birthday.  Some of the goods that they brought to showcase their business ideas and talents ended up as birthday gifts.
Those are real flowers and that is hand painted work on tapa cloth.

Of course it's a Mrs. Paxton's.

When royalty dies (a princess) it's a big deal.  This one was the only member of the royal family who has ever been LDS.  She lived died in San  Francisco because she had diabetes and there is no dialysis available in Tonga.  They brought her here to be buried.  So this is a first ever LDS funeral and graveside service in Tonga where the royal family was in attendance.  The first picture shows one of our stake choirs visiting the royalty at the wake.  There was an hour program where they sang and gave some brief remarks to the family.  The royal family responded at the conclusion by thanking everyone and what was really interesting was that the "talking chief" said to us that we may have lost one LDS royalty but that we just might be gaining another soon.  This was a reference to the 27 year old prince who is seriously investigating the church right now.  It blew us away that the royal family would actually say that in public.  I'm sure the King's clergy were not happy to hear it.  So the next day is the funeral in an LDS chapel with the LDS priesthood presiding and conducting.  That was huge and another first, EVER.  There were accommodations made for royalty and custom by building a platform for the King and Queen to sit on (to the left side in the picture below).  All but the last 4 rows of pews were removed from the chapel to accommodate the royal platform that was carpeted with tapa cloth and mats.  The platform where the casket rested was in the center of the chapel.  The entire chapel floor was covered with hand woven mats.   Oh, and the king and queen had to be sitting higher that the rest of us.  The Priesthood sat on the stand behind the podium.  A member of the area 70 presided, a stake president conducted.  The king's pastor opened with prayer, then there were talks by the mission president, the temple president and the area 70.  There was plenty of singing as well.  The Sr. missionaries were also invited to sing one hymn.  That gave us front row seats.  Mom had to sneak this picture as they did not want us taking pictures.  The cool thing is that all the royalty got a good idea of what the plan of salvation is all about from an LDS perspective.  Then, the area president (2nd counselor) gave the king a priesthood blessing in his remarks!  We are still waiting to hear what all the royal reactions were.  We hear that the princess that we had lunch with a few months back is also interested in the gospel.  Our self reliance manager has been best friends with her since the 5th grade.    

This is what we wore to the funeral.  We don't have to wear all black with the grass skirts and mats that all the Tongans wore.  The purple and black adorned all the LDS chapel fences along the route from the funeral chapel to the burial site. 

Note the person on the left with the mat going way up high.  The closer a person is to the deceased the more mats and the higher.  And the longer you wear them.  It used to be that if royalty died the whole kingdom had to wear black & the grass skirts for a year.  Now it's 10 days.  Commoners wear the same attire when one of their own passes.

The casket was carried the last few blocks by 30 men with the family and friends following behind.  Not too hard to pick out the Sr. Missionaries, is it?

All were require to sit during the graveside service.  The band played "taps", the flag was  retrieved from the casket, a short LDS service was held, the casket was lowered into the grave by men handing the casket down to men in the grave and then the grave was capped and  covered with coral sand.  All this before the attendees disbursed.  Of course no one stood up or left before the king left.  (Same at the funeral service)

So there you have it.... From Paupers to Princesses

SPRINGTIME IN TONGA

Elder Pearson, our Area 70 President came to "The Kingdom" to conduct business and train full time missionaries.  We were treated to a very inspiring session where he gave good counsel to both young and old.

A new Moroni arrived to replace the 1983 version for the Tongan temple.  

Where else should we be on September 6 besides on the golf course celebrating Dad's 94th birthday?  It's our way of joining the group gathered at Wasatch State Park for the birthday celebration.  We teed off at 11 am on a Saturday and had the entire course to ourselves until the 9th hole where the kids were playing a game of cricket.  We can now say that we have played every golf course in the entire Kingdom of Tonga ( all 9 holes).

 

It's whale watching season in Tonga.  

Thar she blows!  .......The humpbacks provide great entertainment.

A LITTLE BIT OF EVERYTHING

This is the fine yacht club on one of the nearby islands "Pangaimotu".
The type of yacht in the center is pretty common around here.
There is a large reef here that has snared it's share of boats.

We're not very good yet at snorkeling selfies

People here are very good a recycling because it is so expensive to ship items here.
This is a school bell made from what appears to be an oxygen  tank.

We have "Planning for Success"  Workshops \at least twice a week.
4 of these classes are required for those who apply for Perpetual Education Fund loans.
We will start 3 new series of workshops in September or October,
2 of which will include a series of
12 classes.

The Police have a huge presence in this village a few miles down the road from us.

So does this company do construction and sell clothing out of the same office?

They say anything will grow here.  Put a stick in the ground and it will grow.
 Not long after they put up this new fence,  The posts were sprouting.

A WEEKEND IN TONGA

Had a cool experience yesterday.  We were invited last week from another ward to join in their ward welfare and missionary project.  They have a piece of ground on the edge of the bush where their chapel will be built some day.  In the mean time, they decided to farm it by having one active family team up with one less active or part member family or non members and work about 5 rows of crops together as a team. There about 20 pairings on about 2+ acres of ground.  It isn't too far out of our way to town so we will be watching it for the next year to see how their crops come along. They promised to give us a call when they harvest so we can be there for that too.   Mom has some pictures to give you an idea of what  I'm trying to describe. The harvest should be in March so, if Ty’s family times it right, they just might get to dig up some yams, taro, pele and ufi.  

 

Treats and balloons for the kids who were helping

We had our first real, all out, for sure Tongan dinner today after church.  They had about 7 dishes for the 4 of us.  It was all very good, actually, and mom even liked the raw fish (red snapper).  No roasted pig, however.  We did have one dinner w/pig last weekend at a live show we went to that is a very mini Polynesian Cultural Center production.  Anyway, the bishop was in to the center this past week helping his wife on the computer and they invited us to come to their ward and then dinner after.  We did have to "sing for our supper", however, in that we had to bear our testimony after the sacrament in sacrament meeting.  Cool family, he's a meter reader for the power co.in the village and she is applying for a loan to go back to school.  He's been a bishop for almost a year and their ward was really quite big for the small village they live in.  They don't live too far from Liahona.  About a 10 minute drive through the bush.  It just seems that every ward we go to there is some opportunity for us to make contact in some way that is related to our mission.  There just happened to be two missionaries who returned home to the ward yesterday from foreign missions.  Those are the ones we don't really know about and don't get the opportunity to approach about their future plans.  It was a sister returning from the Philippines and a brother returning from Oakland, CA. (Tongan speaking), yes, in Oakland.  Oh, and get  this, we had a recently returned missionary come in last week who served in the middle of Australia among the aboriginies!  They lived in a truck with a camper shell that was their home and transportation. I keep getting off the subject, we had a chance to talk with both of the RMs and commit them to coming in this week to talk with us about furthering their education to get a better job in the future.  Hope they do.

We also had the chance to talk about the self-reliance initiative and what it is all about before the Sunday school class lesson got started. This is all new to them.  They keep wanting to associate it with welfare, which is not all wrong, but not how we want to approach it. 

Traditional Tongan Dancing and Feast