You Don't Have to Push a Handcart

I know it's late, but I love Pioneer day, so I wanted to tell you all kind of what it means here.

Every Monday we have an assembly at school. Who would have guessed you'd start assemblies with a song and a prayer!? This week, Mom and Dad were the featured guests. It was fun to hear all the old stories of Ben the Wagon Boy, Mary Benson, and others. Dad also taught the whole school "Pioneer Children Sang as They Walked." They loved that song. But Dad mentioned something that was really cool. He taught us what makes a pioneer. A Pioneer is someone who

1) Loves God
2) Makes Sacrifices for the things they believe in
3) They can sing even when it's hard

I'm really glad Dad didn't just say, "We're all pioneers." Dad, in his wonderful, wise way, taught us specific things that make us pioneers. When we have those things, we combine them with the talents we have, and we become Pioneers. It's very special to know that. I didn't expect to celebrate Pioneer day when we got here, because we're not in Utah, but was amazed to find out that the Tongans love the "Paionia" people, too. We had such a great celebration on Friday, and it was incredible to see their efforts in making the Pioneers more real to us. In our sacrament meeting, the speakers, who don't have much personal connection to the actual pioneers, spoke of themselves, and told how they too are pioneers. Tha's incredible to me.

So since you're not pushing handcarts over the mountains, you can come and be a pioneer with us in Tonga! (I promise Trek will be much easier. Michelle and I did the whole thing in flip flops!)