The Urge.

Wow. I meant to post these forever ago....meaning back at the beginning of December when we took our family trip to Vava'u. But I lost the pictures and I just found them again! I think they are so funny! They're the signs on the bathrooms at the domestic airport. Sorry the quality isn't the best, but I think they're much more descriptive than most pictures. When is the rest of the world going to catch the creativity?

Late But Great!

I actually took this picture on our first day here in Tonga, so that was quite some time ago, but the Temple never gets old. Furthermore, I just think you're a lucky person if you can take a picture like this from your backyard!!!

Ha'afeva Comes to Life!

Well, I guess you probably wanted to see Ha'afeva, and not just hear about it. Unfortunately, I had dead batteries for about 7 or the twelve weeks, and there are also some pictures my companion got, as well as Mom and Dad. I'll work on getting those eventually. Anyway, there aren't a lot of scenic-type pictures, and they're not that great, either. But they mean a lot to me (probably because most of them are of the kids), so hopefully you'll enjoy!

This is Sister 'Aholelei and me sitting on the beach doing some studying.

Sorry, too we're too lazy to stand up. But his beautiful tapa cloth covers one wall of our house. The perfect backdrop, wouldn't you say?

Our District. That was our first conference, just two weeks after I arrived.

We went to Mele and Manu's bush to help out! But we mostly ended up playing marbles.

Wouldn't you just love to have something like this growing in your backyard?

Me, Vili, Kali, Siu and Mote playing marbles. They were good teachers.

This isn't the best angle, but these three girls win the points for being most afraid of me at first but loving me by the end. I didn't actually get to see them the whole second transfer because they went down to Tongatapu.

Maikale was the first person from Ha'afeva I met. Here she is, teaching me how to weave.

This is my first time to officially eat 'Ota ika--off the bones. 'Aho loves 'ota. She could eat eight or nine in a sitting.

Here she is, eating 'ota again. The best way to salt your fish is to just rinse them off in the sea water.

Nai, 'Aho and Mona eating fingota, another delicious raw something from the sea.

'Aholelei, me, Mona, and Nai again.

This is tuku misi. Sorry, the smoke makes it a little hazy, but whatever. That is a big pile of tuku misi. Paane is a little nine year old who is already proficient with a knife and preparing tuku misi. An interesting fact: He is indeed wearing an Olympus Titans football hat.

Sione Lose was lying on the ground one day, and this pig just came up to him and laid down next to him. I guess not all pigs are scared of humans.

Pita and Sione Maile making lolo tonga (natural oil, Tongan style). Sione Maile is squeezing the oil out of grated coconut, then they use the dry coconut for something. I didn't really undertand the whole process.

Sports (or track and field) is huge in Tonga. So to celebrate it, the Primary school had their own Sports Day, full of relays and fun games. It reminded me a lot of good 'ole field days back at Upland.

Tatafu and Kasanita

Me and Nifai. He's the Branch President's little boy who stayed next to our house. He's easily one of the cutest boys I have ever met. ;)

Tatafu and Mele

'Olivia and Filisi. Filisi can be attributed for giving me my first Tongan lesson, which included identifying things and spelling their names. Just more proof that kids are smarter than adults.

Mona and Vili in back, then Vanika, 'Olivia, Filisi, Kali, 'Isisleli and Sofilisi.

This was the trip to Nomuka in the new mission boats to switch elders before transfers. The two other sisters are the ones who replaced me and Tatafu.

Me and Tatafu in front of 'O'ua. We went to pick up one of the elder's luggage, but we stayed on the front of the boat while they went to shore.

On our last morning, these kids came to deliver a beautiful turtle shell to me. Isn't that nice? I gave them balloons.

Our last night in Ha'afeva, we held our last Mutual activity, and we were joined by some younger kids, too. We played get-to-know-you games.
These are our actual Young Women: Nofo, Manatu and Peti. I'll certainly never forget Ha'afeva.

I Came in at the Beginning of Guava Season, and Left at the End of Orange Season.

Every missionary eats really cool things that usually sound pretty gross to the rest of the world. So here goes, again, in no particular order, and I'm not going to mention things that I'd already eaten in Tonga. Oh, and if you get queasy easily, I suggest you not read the details.
1. Moko Hunu. I'll start with the one thing I didn't like. It was ok the first time I ate it, but by the second time I ate it, I had to stop of fear of losing it all. I looked it up in my dictionary. I'll save you the meaning. Unless I get lots of requests to know what it was.
2. 'Ota. Fresh fish. I really liked fresh fish in Tonga, but I had only had it in salads and such...yummy flavors....In Ha'afeva I not only learned to eat, but love eating fish straight out of the water, straight off the bones.
3. Fish heads, raw or cooked, doesn't matter. I'd say that eating it raw it's almost not worth the effort because the head is so hard break open, but cooked it's really good, especially the lungs.
4. Fingota. I think it's.....ok, I'm not really sure what it is, but it's another raw thing, and it's really good. I didn't get to eat it that much though.
5. Tuku Misi. (Dear family members: Dad doesn't even want to try it....I'm one up!) The biggest it gets is about the size of a really small coconut, and it's blue and has white spiky thingies. Then you open it, and pour most of the goopy, yucky looking stuff, and scoop out about 4 small spoonfuls of orange, goopy, yucky looking stuff. But it's actually really good, as long as it's eaten with 'ufi (tuber plant, some sort of boiled tubers are eaten at almost every meal). I'm not sure I could do it without. It's also really salty.
6. Tuna. And you thought it only came in a can! Ok, it's really good, but it's really fatty. Probably 1:1 ratio. I can handle a little of it, but not that much! The meat is really good though. :)
7. 'Anga. Shark. This might be the yummiest thing I have ever eaten! It was so tender, and cooked in cury, and maybe because it was my birthday or something, but it was soooo good!
8. I ate all kinds of fish, but the two others I will mention are Pone, and 'Ume. 'Ume is the best fish, and it really is soooo good. Both are good cooked or 'ota (I believe the only fish that can be 'ota), although I prefer Pone for 'ota.
9. Sadly, I never ate jelly fish or sea turtle. I've heard turtle is really good, and as for jelly fish, I only wanted to eat it for the sake of trying it. (I've also had octapus, which is really good, but strangely, I never had it in Ha'afeva.) And then I ate lobster and crab often enough, not worth reporting more.
Ok, now for land animals!!! (or in some cases, sky...)
10. Lupe. Dove. Yummy. Delicious. Ifo.
11. Peka. BAT!!!
12. Kulii. Dog. Ok, everyone, I'm really sorry, but it's really yummy!
13. Kosi. Goat. It tastes quite similar to lamb, but really good.
14. Keke Faka-Tonga. Tongan pancake/cake. I'ts like flour and water and fried....if you like deliciously greesy foods, it's totally for you.
15. La'ipele. It's the leaves from the manioke/tapiocca (spelling?) plant, and I like it more than Lu, which is the leaves from the Taro plant. (Both plants are tubers) The Tongans just eat it with some kind of meat, and I really like it.
16. Also, as the title says, I ate a lot of guava and a lot of orange. Both are so delicious, and I'd never had guava before. I highly recommend them to those who get the chance to eat them. I almost love them more than papaya, but not quite. (That's my favorite thing here.) And Ha'afeve banana's are even sweeter than Tongatapu bananas! But that's how long I was there for, two fruit seasons!!
17. This one isn't about what I ate, but how I ate. I rarely used a fork or spoon, and today at lunch I think the ravioli we ate would have been much easier to eat with my hands than with a fork. I am very pro at that now.
I think that's about it. Really, I just know that I am a Tongan, and I was just born in America. And now I'm back to a city of cars and lights and roads and American food and it's all very crazy. Happy birthday Danny. (Hopefully we'll do a post later on that...)

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!