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