Beautiful 'Eua

November 19, 2023

We recently made a beautiful visit to 'Eua, the largest island close to Tongatapu.

'Eua with mountains peeking through the clouds

We initially wanted to fly there (it is a 15-minute flight), but the plane was under repair, so we booked a trip on the ferry.  The benefit of this is that we could take our car and not have to rent one.  The downside is that the ferry takes three hours.

The ferry to 'Eua--we were able to take our car onboard

The first part of the ferry ride was fine, but then Mary began to feel queasy and then queasier.  She knew that going outside where the wind could blow on her face and she could see the horizon would help, so she left Kyle in the cabin and went to a bench just in front of the bridge.  And that really helped!  She started to sing hymns and enjoyed gazing at the ocean and singing for over an hour.

The stake president met us at the dock and took us to the accommodation we had reserved, one of a group of three small fales (house) built by a member family.  It was perfect for our needs!  It had a kitchen (but we couldn’t figure out how to run the stove without blowing ourselves up) and a refrigerator.  It was out of the village a little and had vanilla trees on one side.  The stake president told us that vanilla is the main crop of 'Eua and that they sell it abroad—he added that the main crop before had been kava (used to make a drink that is mildly intoxicating), but that he had convinced the people on his island to switch to vanilla.

Our fale on 'Eua

We met one of the stake president’s daughters when he took us to a small store to buy food.  Her name is Vala, and she really wanted to do something for us since her father left on a ferry shortly after we arrived.  She said that her father loves to take the senior missionaries around the island when they come.  After thinking it over, she said that she could take us to a swimming spot which was down a narrow and rutted road.  She navigated it flawlessly, and we were able to see some beautiful pools fed by a stream.

The swimming hole

On the way there she told us about her family.  Her dad is her “best, closest friend.”  He served a mission in Fiji, and the family loves it when he bears his testimony in Fijian.  Her family has an impressive record of missionary service.  Her mother also served a mission, and Vala served in Tonga during Covid.  One brother is currently serving in Papua New Guinea, and her younger sister is in the mission prep class, which Vala teaches.  She explained that this small island currently has 30 missionaries preparing to go out.  Remarkable.  

Cute Vala and the Latimers in front of the store where she works

We love 'Eua!  It feels like a smaller, quieter rural Tongatupu with mountains running down the middle so there is something beautiful to look up at.  There is only one main road that runs down the length of the island on which the villages are situated.  Before our visit, we were surprised to find out that there is a stake in 'Eua with five wards and a branch.  This is evident by the lovely chapels we encountered every few minutes as we drove the length of the island. 

We met with Linda Helu who works for Tonga Health.  Her job is to help Tongans improve their health, especially in the area of diabetes prevention.  Among many things she is doing, she started a Zumba class each weekday morning and evening.  She and some others lead the classes.  She told us that she had lost 13 kilos (around 28 pounds).  The head of Tonga Health has lost even more weight and has been featured in a UK program about weight loss. 

Mary decided she would attend the Zumba class, and she really enjoyed it!  There were about 20 women participating, and it was really a workout!  One of her favorite “dances” was one with a Pacific-island feel to it.  They weigh each Friday evening, and a couple of the ladies told me their result so far—one had lost 5 kilos (11 pounds) and the other had lost 10 (22).  We have proposed a project to benefit Tonga Health, and we really hope it is approved!

The Zumba class

The highlight of our trip to 'Eua was accompanying the rehabilitation crew from Vaiola Hospital as they distributed wheelchairs provided by the Church.  We were a convoy of three vehicles—in the first, a white van, rode the home-health nurse and her assistant.  In the second, a 4-wheel-drive, rode the wheelchairs and the specialists. We followed.   

The specialists unload the correct wheelchair for the patient

We went to homes that ranged from spacious and comfortable to tumble-down.  Two of the women were very large—around 450 pounds.  They received the largest wheelchairs the Church has.  It made us so sad to see them nearing the end of their lives in such distress—one of them lay on the floor, unable to get up, and the other needed a lot of assistance to maneuver from the bed to the chair.  Her legs from the calves down were nearly black, which occurs when blood vessels in the legs are damaged by diabetes, leading to poor circulation and eventually tissue death.  Sometimes this condition leads to amputation. 

Two elderly women who received their wheelchairs were not overweight.  One had had a stroke.  They both looked so pleased with their wheelchairs.

A sweet lady gets her wheelchair

The most fun delivery was to a 15-year-old disabled girl who had been anticipating her wheelchair for some time.  She didn’t seem to be able to speak, but when the workers brought in the wheelchair and began to adjust it, she bounced up and down and made excited noises.  When she was finally placed in the chair, her smile was precious.  

Waiting for her wheelchair

She had a moment of fear when the technicians came to adjust the chair, and her mother told us that she was afraid they were going to take the chair away.  Her smile returned when they withdrew.  How wonderful to be able to participate in such a blessing for this sweet young girl and her mother, whose smile lit up her face. We thought about how difficult it must be to tend to a disabled child daily and most likely for the rest of the mother’s life.  Bless her!

A mom enjoys her daughter's excitement

When we came to the end of our first day in 'Eua, we asked where there was a restaurant and were told that there were no restaurants. Our stock of food included ramen, potato chips, bananas, oranges, rolls, and some peanuts we had purchased earlier that day, most of which had made up our lunch.  Earlier that day we had, in our travels, visited a small resort on a beach.  Someone there told us that they would be having mahi mahi for dinner, if we would like to come back.  We balked a little at the price at first, but envisioning another meal of ramen, we joined the people there for dinner.  It was delicious!  Tender fish on a bed of sweet potatoes, beets, and beans with a tasty sauce over all.  We decided that we would go there the next night as well. 

Paul, the Australian manager, is a fisherman who had caught the fish we had for dinner.  He pointed out some whales breeching in the distance. 'Eua is renowned for its whale-watching since from June to November humpback whales migrate from Antarctica to mate and bear their young in the warm waters off Tonga.  Paul showed us a fascinating drone video he had taken a few days before of a group of whales that included a mother and her calf.  The water was clear right to the seabed. We can see why Paul loves it here.

Paul with our dinner on the fin

Our trip home was very different.  The wind had gotten a little wild in the night, and we were tossed most of the way.  Fortunately, Mary had taken Kyle’s advice and used Dramamine in the morning, or she would have been miserable.  As it was, she enjoyed people-watching in the cabin where we sat.  People try to get on the ferry early because in the cabin there are only a few benches, and the rest is floor space.  They come prepared with mats and pillows to stake out their area.  Our ride home was much more crowded, but it was fun to smile at the many children that surrounded us.  They would shyly smile back, and we became good smile-friends. 

The cabin on our ferry

It was wonderful to reach the harbor and disembark!  And it was wonderful to get home again.  What a great adventure we had in 'Eua!  We hope to return.  

This week we had the opportunity to have a working lunch with Lord Fakafanua, Speaker of Parliament in Tonga.  He met Elder Meurs, our area president, while in Utah for the International Law and Religion Symposium, held each year at BYU.  They had a productive discussion, and Elder Meurs asked us to follow up on several topics with Lord Fakafanua. 

Gloria Po'leo (Lord Fakafanua's clerk), us, Lord Fakafanua, and Area Seventy Elder Tuione

We met for lunch at a Korean restaurant (bibimbap in Tonga!) and had a good discussion.  We didn’t realize at the time WHO Lord Fakafanua is—he is from a noble family, his mother is a princess, and his sister is married to the future king of Tonga.  He was elected Speaker of Parliament at 27, the youngest in the world.  He, along with the king and queen, attended the groundbreaking of the Neiafu Tonga Temple. 

It's been a whirl of activities lately.  We also had an approaching cyclone which petered out before it got here, but we were blessed because it brought a lot of rain.  Many people in Tonga's only access to water is rain water which they catch off the roof in gutters and downspouts that feed into water tanks, so we have been praying for rain.  

Malo 'aupito.  Our love from Tonga.

We Don't Meet If We Don't Eat

Greetings from sun-drenched Tonga where summer is on the way! 

Nuku'alofa Tonga Temple

We attended a beautiful sealing session at the temple a few days ago.  Kyle and I arrived a few minutes early and were shown into a sealing room where we met the sealer, Brother Tafina, a gentle and spiritual man. While we were waiting, he told us the story of his grandson who was diagnosed with bone cancer as a teenager.  He struggled for several years as the cancer progressed and his lower leg, then his upper leg, were amputated.  The cancer then entered his lung, and part of that was removed as well.  When it seemed as though his grandson had little time to live, he and his wife went to Hawaii where the family was living and spent a month with them.

He related a conversation with his grandson in which the grandson asked whether he would be able to get married someday.  His grandfather told him that he wasn’t sure.  The following Sunday the grandson received his patriarchal blessing in which he was promised that he would have a wife and children.  What a comfort to him!  Just two days later he died as his grandmother held his hand.  What a tender experience.

Soon the other missionaries arrived, and we began to do the sealings.  Everyone had brought family members to be sealed to spouses and children.  The sealer did some of the sealings in English and some in Tongan. 

He told us that it was his practice to finish with a marriage sealing, and he set a couple aside for this purpose. It was so powerful!  He spoke all the words clearly and slowly, making it easier to focus on the beauty of the promises.  As he ended the ordinance, he was emotional, as were some of us.  What a precious experience!  I remember thinking that this man distilled all that is wonderful about the Tongan people—their faith, their kindness, their spirituality. 

Sister Ofa, a sister in our ward, shared a remarkable story with us recently.  She is a widow who was living with her mother-in-law, an elderly sister in her 80s, in a cinderblock and wood frame home.  One Sunday her mother-in-law was sleeping, so she went to church on her own.  However, during the meeting, she had a strong feeling that she needed to return home, so she ran home as fast as she could (her house is quite near the church). 

When she got home, she could see that there was smoke coming out of the washing machine.  She went to get her mother-in-law out of bed, but initially she didn’t want to come because she didn’t understand that the house was on fire.  By the time they got out, the house was engulfed in flames.

The neighbors came running, and a few fire trucks arrived, but it was too late, and the house was destroyed. What a blessing that this sister heeded the prompting and returned home immediately!

We recently made our first pre-project site visit that will be a part of every project.  This one was to Fahefa, a small village on the southwestern coast of Tongatapu.  The Church is helping them to get another water pump because the one pump they have only provides water half the time.  Imagine half your day with no toilet flushing, no hand washing.  You can see why this is an important health issue. 

We meet with the Fahefa Village water committee

We met the village water committee there and looked over the site which included a solid structure over the existing pump, an elevated water tank, and some building supplies for a structure to protect the new pump.  We gave them a copy of the agreement to look over in preparation for signing and took a group photo.  They gave us two banana leaf baskets, one holding papaya and the other drinking coconuts.  So generous!

We also attended a meeting of the Food Security and Livelihood Cluster Meeting hosted by the Ministry of Agriculture to discuss plans to deal with the current drought situation in Tonga caused by an El Nino which is projected to bring several cyclones to Tonga this season.  Prices have already begun to rise as the drought continues, and food prices were already very high here.  For example, a small watermelon or pineapple costs around $7. 

We were asked to introduce ourselves, and Kyle said that the Church was offering generous support to projects to help the people of Tonga.  Many of those present asked for a business card so they could contact us. 

Before the meeting I had asked Kyle whether he thought this meeting, held at noon, would include a meal.  He responded, “We don’t meet if we don’t eat.”

And this is true!  We are invited to a feast after every meeting.  When we met with the village water representatives, each meeting was followed by a buffet that included cucumber and egg sandwiches, tossed salad, raw fish, potato salad, sweet and sour chicken, stir-fried noodles, deep-fried seafood, fruit, and those starchy roots that accompany every meal.  

Incredible village water meeting feast

The Red Cross meeting was followed by a lunchbox full of meat and starch—I don’t know the names of most of the things that were in that one.  Our most recent meeting, with the Ministry of Agriculture, included a lunchbox that contained three scoops of rice, two sausages, two breaded meat items, macaroni salad, and some delicious roasted chicken.  Such bounty!

Yesterday we went to Anahulu Cave and the nearby beach with some of the other missionaries.  It was a beautiful day, as almost every day here is—blue sky reflected in the South Pacific blue of the water.  

Anahulu Cave

We toured the cave and then went back into the sunlight and down to the beach. The surf arrived on one side of the beach first and then rolled all the way down.  So mesmerizing and beautiful! 

There were several kids there playing in the water, and we enjoyed watching them. One of the boys who spoke a little more English told us that his name was Harry and that he was also a member of our church from a nearby ward.  I asked him how old he was, and he said that he was twelve.  I commented that he must be a deacon, and he brightly answered that he was.  Such a sweet encounter. 

Missionaries and new friends on the beach--Harry is in front.

We are extremely grateful for the blessing of serving the people here Tonga.  Ofa atu! Love to you!