Island Hopping

The past two weeks have been full of new adventures!  First, we had a really fun and exhausting week helping Elder and Sister Torres distribute Solar Buddies to children who live on islands without steady electricity.  You may remember that we helped put these small solar lights together so that children on islands with little to no electricity would be able to read or study or play with their siblings after the sun goes down.

The first place we went to was a learning experience.  These people are so very poor!  However, they want their children to get a good education, so they bring them to the main island at the beginning of each week to attend school and then go home each weekend.  They live in very basic housing.  We met the good branch president who looks out for them.  Selfless service on every side.  

We passed out the lights and then lined up for a photo.  After several photos were taken, I noticed that one little soul hadn’t received one.  However, she had lined up with everyone else for the photo.  We quickly gave her a light, and she was a lot happier!

Where's my Solar Buddy?

There it is!

The Church owns three boats in Tonga—Nifai, Alama, and Molonai.  Yes, Nephi, Alma, and Moroni.  We were going to the small islands on Nifai. 

Elder Latimer on the good ship Nifai

Most of the children live on islands with no wharf, so the skipper would back the boat up as close as he could get to the beach, and we would step out into the water and wade to shore.  Some of these arrivals were pretty difficult when the waves were coming in strongly.  The men helping us had to wait until we could step out in between waves and then move quickly out of range of the propellors.  Rather exciting!

Watch out for the propellers!

The children were so darling, and they were really excited to receive their Solar Buddies.  At first they looked questioningly when we showed them the lights, and when we made them shine, their faces lit up with delight.  They really loved it when they received their own lights and turned them on. 

Elder Latimer greets the crowd

Elder and Sister Torres explained that the light was like the light of Jesus Christ that was inside each one of them.

On one island we saw the remains of a meetinghouse that was destroyed in the tsunami that followed the volcanic eruption in 2022.  Amazingly, the spire is still standing.

Elder Tuione, our Area Seventy, came along to visit the islands, and it was touching to see members greeting him, some of them in tears, and the caring way he spoke with them. 

Elder Tuione greets a member of the Church

It was a wonderful but long day!  We finally headed back to the main island, Ha’apai, and it was a bumpy ride.  The wind had increased until we were surrounded by white caps, and we often slammed down hard as we went over waves.  But we made it back to shore!  That night there was a tremendous storm with rain and wind that lashed our fales.  They are built to face the beach with a large, screened window (no glass) to allow maximum viewing.  This makes for an exciting night with the wind roaring through the window.  We were a little afraid that our flight would get canceled the next morning, but (hurray!) the plane was just delayed, and we made it home. 

We spent most of the next week in Vava’u, an island group north of Tongatapu and Ha’apai, meeting with people and discussing possible projects.  Vava’u is such a beautiful place!  Tongatapu where we live is relatively flat, but Vava’u is mountainous with stunning views of blue water below. 

A village in the are needed some help with their water supply, so we met the village official and went with him to see the diesel pump that he said was as old as he was.  Looking at it, he may be right.  To get to the pump, we had to walk down a very muddy road into the bush and back.  It made us feel like real missionaries.  Or pioneers.  

Missionaries?  Pioneers?

We visited a school that had some needs, and while we were talking to the principal, we heard the energetic voices of children singing.  We asked the principal if we could go and listen, and she gladly agreed.  We went to a classroom of students who were preparing to use Zoom to share songs with a class in Japan!  They sang with great gusto--and one of their songs was "Hokey Pokey."  Maybe that is really what it's all about!

One of our tasks was to visit people who had received wheelchairs from the Church to see how they are doing.  This is a difficult task because there are no addresses—not even a village name, to help us find them.  We did have a phone number for them, so Sitani Lavemai, a local Church employee who manages the facilities, did some sleuthing and found quite a few of them by asking local Church leaders for help. 

One family had a physically handicapped son of about 16.  His brother carried him out of the house and placed him on a chair next to Mary.  The parents said that they had never received a wheelchair but that they really need one.  Their son was delightful.  Mary was sitting near to him, and he kept reaching out, so she took his hand.  His parents told us (through Sitani) that he was also blind.  He listened to our conversation and repeated words that he heard with a big smile on his face.  Holding his hand and listening to his happy chatter was a high point for Mary.  We so often do our work in the office contacting people on computers.  It was delightful to spend this short time with him and his family.

Sitani also gave us an introduction to Vava’u by driving us to some scenic spots.  As he drove through one neighborhood, he spoke of that area with much fondness.  He told us how he and his wife met and of his conversion.

Though not a member of the Church, he attended a Church activity and met a lovely girl.  Shortly after, she told him that anyone who wanted to marry her had to join the Church and be an elder so he could take her to the temple. 

He wasn’t opposed to learning more about the Church, so he began by reading the Book of Mormon.  When he was finished, he said that he wanted to meet with the missionaries.  He also began paying his tithing and reading other Church books. He attended church, felt the spirit there, and realized that the Church was different than what other denominations had said about it.  He watched the October 2004 General Conference when Elder Uchtdorf and Elder Bednar were sustained as apostles and was very impressed.

After a year, he decided to get baptized.  Then he and his future wife waited for another year so that they could get married in the temple.  Shortly after they were married, he was offered employment by the Church, and he has worked for the Church ever since.  It has been a great blessing to him and his family.

We were able to take a photo of the temple that is being built, the second for Tonga.  It will be such a strength to the members to have a temple in their community!

Neiafu Tonga Temple under construction

We had a very effective week visiting with the people we had come to see who had need of humanitarian assistance.  On our departure day, we went to the airport right on time at 7:30 a.m.—and we sat in the the airport for the next 7 hours as the flight was delayed again and again because of stormy weather.  A kind fellow-passenger went into town and got us sandwiches and drinks—so very appreciated when our cookies from the airport snack shop ran out.  And we did make it home!