Boy Scout camp????

Dad said to me once, "You kind of have to have some boy scout in you to live in Ha'afeva." So I guess it proves to you all that I would have made a fantastic boy scout. Here are some pretty cool things about my mission. (Ok, yes, some are sarcastic, but to be honest, I really enjoyed every experience, even if sometimes it was purely for a new found claim to fame.Oh, and ps, they're not in any order, just as they come to mind)
1. Learning to do laundry by hand, and hoping that P day is sunny so it will all dry in time
2. Eating really awesome food! The Tongans have got this thing down! (I'll go into more details in another blog...)
3. Turning 18!!! (And officially feeling like I had the right to teach the YW I had been teaching)
3. Seeing my family on my birthday (Go Zone Conferences!)
4. Eating SHARK on my BIRTHDAY!!!
5. Wearing a black tupenu and a long sleeve dress every day
6. Braiding my hair everyday
7. Hanging out with the missionaries
8. Of course, learning Tongan. I've really, really improved.
9. Having a camera and now batteries for about 7 or the 12 weeks. (Yeah, if you couldn't tell, that was a major bummer)
10. Living next door to the most adorable two year old, and teaching him songs, some Tongan, and some English.
11. Walking around the entire island one P day
12. Falling in love with the dog that lived at the church--not my dog officially, but he comes to me before anyone else!
13. The Children--That would be my number one without question. Ha'afeva should go down in history for cranking out the most beautiful and sweetest children on earth. (And if you ever have like two hours I'd be happy to go into more detail about all that)
14. Writing my letters to the mission president and my dad on the same sheet of paper (aka, it's cool to have your mission pres. be your dad)
15. Having electricity only after 7:00 ( it changed to 6:30 after it started getting darker earlier) and only until 12 or 2 in the morning
16. Taking cold showers (Believe it or not, this actually was a blessing because it's really, really hot!!)
17. Being able to see the ocean from the church (our house was in back, so the church blocked our view)
18. Teaching the YW, 2 recent converts and 2 less active
19. Seeing billions of stars at night
20. Receiving compliments like, "You're already Tongan", and "Will you marry to Ha'afeva?" (Lets face it, they love me........jk)
21. Having two awesome comps.
22. growing TONS spiritually
23. learning how to teach the missionary lessons, and other missionary tricks that now give me a head start to my next mission
24. Learning what makes a missionary a good missionary
25. Riding the boat for 8ish hours up and back
26. Often walking in te'epuaka(pig dung) and bubble gum--seems to be my lot in life
27. Being able to chat with every citizen (?) in one day and still have time left over
28. Having 3 cars and one tractor, which probably makes it an even 3:1 ratio of goats to cars
29. Getting fed all the time
30. Having one main road. (The rest were small roads weaving in and out between each man's bush and the wharf)
40. Going to the bush and getting oranges, sugar cane and such
41. Learning to play marbles really well (Those kids have major skills...)
42. Drinking rain water
43. Sitting cross legged all the time
44. And of course, I'm running out of ideas and you're probably running out of interest.
45. If you want to know more, please email me at : epe.lhs07 at gmail. That's where the good stuff is.
46. Yep, I think that's it
47. Sisita Makamaile :)
47. 'Ofa lahi atu!

Honey, I'm HOME!!!

Hey everybody, I hope you all figured out that I chose to extend my mission another transfer, so now after spending three months in Ha'afeva Heaven, here I am!!! I'm going to do some fun blogs about it, but I think for now I'll just skip out on the really spiritual stuff.....so that maybe some of you will hopefully feel more inclined to email me!:) (And about that, I am now trying to sift through all my emails, so I'll try and get you all relatively quickly) But I'm home, and it didn't take long for me to already feel homesick for Ha'afeva, but I suppose all you post missionaries out there know what that's like. Anyway, Happy Birthday Danny, and anyone else I missed out on from the past three months! :)

An Annoucement

My dear friends! I am pleased to announce that I have unofficially been called to serve as the FIRST EVER palangi sister in Tonga! I will be leaving in a week, and I will not be able to keep in touch with many of you, if any of you! ("I know, teeth, Keith!") Anyway, I am VERY excited, and I wanted to write you all and tell you this personally, but this will have to do since I am running out of time! I will email you when I get home, and probably do a blog post or something. I'll be gone at least six weeks, but I may do two transfers, so it might be longer. Who knows? Until then, hopefully Michelle and Danny will keep the blog going. I know this church is true, and I am so excited to go out and serve the Tongans, because I love them so much! 'Ofa lahi atu!

The Legend of the Bat

Why do bats sleep in the day? Why do they fly at night? Why do they hang upside down? Scientists claim that bats are nocturnal, but Tongans know the real answer. Bats are a big part of Tonga. They're called flying foxes, and there's a place where they hang out (literally, hang out) that's not too far from our house. So here's the legend of the Bat, as told to us by Elder Oseni (Olsen), Dad's AP:

There was a great white bat, who was the leader of all the bats. For some reason, he would get really sick at night when the Sun went down. Each morning when the Sun came back, he'd get better.
One night, he was especially sick, and he told his servants to go and find the sun. The bats flew to the Sun and begged him to come up so their king would live. The Sun refused, telling the bats that he answered to no one. The bats flew back to their king, to tell him what the Sun said. To their dismay, the king had died. The Sun hadn't come up in time to save him.
The bats were furious at the Sun. Because of him, their beloved king had died. To show their hate towards the Sun, they began to hang upside down during the day, so the Sun would only see their backsides. From then on, they also used their wings to cover their faces, and only fly at night, so they don't ever have to look at the Sun during the day.
So there's the legend of the bats. I thought it was really interesting. Danny also said that whenever a white bat is spotted, the chief of the village where it was first spotted will die when the bat dies. Obviously, since white bats are very rare, that hasn't happened very often, but it happened once.

The Joys of Procrastination

If you're wondering why we always take so long to update the blog, it's because the task of creating such a detailed blog is very daunting...and they get kind of long. On the other hand, if we don't make it detailed then it's boring. It's kind of a lose-lose situation. But now you have a very lengthy blog AND pictures!!! Enjoy! :)

Juicy Temple Details

We're really sorry that we're such losers at keeping this updated, but we just want to post things a month after they happen.....NOT! Anyway, this post is on the details of the temple rededication, with an emphasis on the cultural event the night before. If you want to hear more details in an area we don't go into, just ask, or email...both are good. PS in advance, this is a really long post, so if you don't want to read anything, feel free to skip down to the pictures.

1) Everything started with the open house. For three weeks, the sisters came to our house for breakfast, and then they headed over to the chapel, where they conducted tours and such. It was fun to hear them singing each morning while I got ready for school. We celebrated the commencement of the open house with a big ceremony, and even the king showed up! He gave a speech, which was mainly interesting because of his cool accent and his silver suit. Michelle and April even got to present a huge bouquet to the Mother Queen Mata'aho! Then we got to go on an official tour of the temple, led by none other than the Mission President! We got to take more tours with school groups throughout the three weeks. The temple is gorgeous!!

2) Some of the little details: We all got to go to the Time Capsule ceremony, which was cool. April put in a packet of pictures of the old temple, and Michelle put in some Article of Faith cards with a picture of the Tongan temple on the back. There was a big sign across the street from the temple that said "Families are Forever". It was cool. We wanted to get a picture of it, but we never did. Then there were two really cool signs that went above the road. We really, really wish we had gotten a picture of this, because it goes to show how Tongans decorate. (But there is one picture of it in the November 10 Church News.) The first one was by the school, and it said on one side, "Welcome Home, Elder and Sister Nelson", with a picture of the Angel Moroni. (They had come for Stake Conference and, left to visit Samoa and Fiji, and then came back again for the dedication events.) The other side of it said, "Give our Regards to President Hinckley". The Tongans really wanted him to come, and yet, they were understanding and cheerful--not angry or upset--when he couldn't make it. The second sign was down the street, by our house, and on one side it said, "Let's Rededicate Ourselves". That was particularly special to April, because that was the school theme of 2007, a school year that means a little more to her than other years, if you can imagine why. We're not sure, but we think the last one said, "Welcome to Tonga". But they all had woven palm fronds covering the ugly poles and such, and then covered with balloons and flowers. It was definitely a sight to see.

3) Then there was the cultural event. Think Day of Celebration, only Tongan style. That means that over 2,400 youth on Tongatapu spent the last six months practicing different dances. Each stake did a different polynesian dance. The youth gave so much for that event, and it was so special! The sky was stormy all week long, and we even practiced many mornings in the rain, but on the night of the performance, despite the big storm clouds, the ground was dry. The dances told a story called "A Treasure That Lasts", about a young couple that had lost their only daughter, and in hopes of finding comfort, they traveled around Polynesia. The couple got gifts from each place they visited--something tangible, as well as a lesson to be learned. (that's when each group danced.) When they got back from their trip, they met the missionaries. The missionaries enjoyed seeing all their treasures, and then said they had a treasure to share with the couple as well, only it was something that would last. At that point, the missionaries came and stood all around the stadium. It was SO cool! Then, at the end, the couple's little daughter came out in white, as the narrator talked about the treasure of the temple. It was incredible. Anyway, the pictures below will show you some of the costumes so you can kind of get an idea.

4) The next morning, which was Sunday the 4th of November (which also happened be our four month anniversary in Tonga), we walked over to the temple. We got to be in the celestial room for it. Elder Nelson was so nice to us, he let us go and be part of the corner stone laying, too. There were two choirs that sang, and they sounded so beautiful! The best part by far (and that means the best part of this whole experience), was at the end. Elder Nelson invited everyone to sing The Spirit of God, in their native language. The reason this was so cool is because Tongans love to sing, and they love to sing loud. They also have slightly different tunes and harmonies in some of the hymns. So between the Tongans and the Palangis, we practically had an eight-part harmony. We were all singing just about as loud as we possibly could, and could barely hear ourselves. There really must have been angels singing with us. It was so incredible.

Well, I think I got the main points, so here are some pictures (You can see more pictures at planet-tonga.com, although this is basically the best):

Mom, Dad, Sister and Elder Nelson. All four are remarkable people, as I'm sure you'll agree.

President Condie and the Nelsons meeting Princess Pilolevu, just before the cultural event.

The first dance was Tahiti. Too bad there were no action shots, because Tahitians are the ones who "get really crazy with the hips!"

Next comes the Maori, from the land of the long white cloud, complete with poi balls, those weird sticks, and face paint!

This is Hawaii. They began with a really cool fire dance, performed by our two friends, Tu'itakau and Manase. (We wish we could give a better description, because it really was amazing, but it probably would just confuse you:)

That little girl was adorable! And it's a good shot of the costumes.

This is Samoa. Apparently it was a really cool dance, but sadly we were always in a lousy position for watching this one. The guy in the yellow is our multi-talented friend, Nela.

This is Fiji. The girls move around quite a bit on this one, and my friend explained it's because Fijian women actually do hard work. Who knows?

The Fijian boys were also really cool. Really, all of the dances were amazing, but this one got April's vote as the coolest. The one above is a better shot of their costumes.

Here's the couple meeting the missionaries, just before Tonga comes on the scene!

And here's Nela again, doing some serious jamming on the drums. I just wish this picture could show you how wild he really got.

Here's Michelle, the Vahenga, doing the Ma'ulu'ulu! (The Vahenga is the most important person, usually filled by a noble. Since there were no nobles, the next in line was Michelle.) Below is just a nice shot of the boys uniform, although not much unlike what the girls wore.

Extra points to whoever can guess which of us this is. Seriously, even we had a hard time telling.

Boys again. What's new?

Go Missionaries!

This is just a cool shot at the end of the show, where everyone came in together.

Families are Forever!!

Wow! It actually worked!!!

See below for my fantastic post....complete with PICTURES!!!!