Highlights

We’ve had an eventful month!  Here are the highlights:

In September Mary’s sister Jolene and her husband Bill came for a visit.  So much fun!  We visited them when they were on a mission to Jordan some years ago, and it was wonderful to show them Tonga.  We were on the cliffs on a perfect day—cool and pleasant with a good wind, which makes the waves more impressive.

Where's Waldo?  Find Jolene and Bill on the top of the land bridge.

We finally saw the fishing pigs!  We have heard of them, but they made their appearance for Jolene and Bill.  They are pigs that eat little creatures in the sand.  Don’t ask what because we don’t know.

  

Fishing pig

We loved attending the temple with Jolene and Bill, and we went on a whale-watching tour with the senior missionaries. 

Nuku'alofa Tonga Temple

Kyle, Mary, and sister Jolene on the boat

Some fishermen had returned with this beautiful bevy of fish.

A whale!

Our dear senior missionary group

Their visit to the blowholes was the best one yet!  Giant waves crashed on the coral reef.  

Spectacular!

We let them go on to New Zealand after Kyle pulled Mary out of their suitcase. 

We serve in the YM/YW in our ward.  It is really fun to plan things together and go to all the same meetings.  Here are photos of Mary’s beautiful young women class and Kyle’s handsome young men class.

Andrea Vaka’uta, one of Mary’s former young women, went to the MTC on her way to her mission in … wait for it … Taiwan!  She didn’t know anyone in Salt Lake, so Mary’s sister Rachel and her husband Jerry picked her up at the airport and showed her some sights.  The next day they took her shopping, and delivered her to the MTC in Provo.  As they approached the MTC, Rachel told her that they would drop her off, and she said anxiously, “You won’t be going in with me?”  They assured her that she would be in good hands, and they left her with a smile on her face.

With Andrea in front of our meetinghouse

Welcome to Utah!

We were helping a young elder from our ward prepare for his departure to the Ghana MTC, and in the process we discovered that his mission president is Mary’s 3^rd cousin!  He assured us that they would take good care of Elder Sapoi. 

Elder Sapoi, on his way to Ghana

We attended a truly impressive YSA cultural performance during which the different stakes each performed a dance from one of the Pacific Island nations plus South Africa.  For each country, they played videos from Tongan missionaries serving in those countries.  So much energy and enthusiasm!  We loved it.

There truly are 928 missionaries serving from Tonga--about 1% of the total population.

A highlight of our time in Tonga occurred when we welcomed a group of YSAs from Papua New Guinea who were either serving missionaries, missionaries with calls, or missionaries waiting for calls.  We took them to the temple four days and did six endowments (the first one was their own), two baptismal sessions, two initiatory sessions, and one sealing session.  It was glorious to spend that much time in the temple, and it was especially touching to help these courageous youth learn about the temple.  They shared powerful testimonies with us before they returned home. 

Our group

The whole group in front of the temple.

We love these spiritually mature YSAs

Some of the young women at the distribution center

Kyle gets to know the newly arrived group

And he probably ate the whole thing!

For more details, look at this article from the Pacific Area office:  https://www.facebook.com/photo?fbid=954629590040585&set=pcb.1651757872052930

Last week we attended the 10 year celebration of the Tonga National Visual Impairment Association (TNVIA).  We (the Church) had purchased a new 16 passenger van and computers for them, but the delivery had been repeatedly delayed.  However, things worked out perfectly, and we were able to see them receive their brand new van which they will use for shuttling vision impaired children to attend classes with their sighted peers.

The Church provided this new van to the vision impairment association.

That's what we have been up to, and so much more.  Thanks for reading all the way to the end!