Finally in Tonga

We finished up our stay in Austraia by spending the night with a couple of our favorite SLC - TSQ missionaries. Cynthia Rao and Pena Lafiso, they are beautiful girls and great missionaries. It was so fun to see them and catch up on what many of the other sisters are doing now that they are home.

Tonga is green, beautiful, lush, hot, humid, full of bugs and creatures, and wonderful people. The Islanders are humble happy people and we are loving those we have met. It has been raining a ton since we arrived and when it rains, it pours. If we have the door open we can hear it coming and it is suddenly a down pour like we have never seen and in less than 5 minutes we have an inch puddle on the front step, but this does not faze the islanders, they keep right on going with what ever they are doing.

The Tongans live in very humble circumstances, usually with no running water and no electricity. Yet they put the whites laundry out to dry, I would really like to know their secret. We have taken very few pictures of their homes, because we feel it is disrepectful, but they are happy and seem to not want for more. They talk of Tonga as the "Kingdom" and feel that it is God's favorite place on earth - and it could well be. On Sat. everything closes early and nothing is allowed to be open until Mon. morning. So there are no businesses open on Sunday, which is really a wonderful thing. The police patrol to make sure that no one is open, infact, they can not even go to the beach on Sun. or the police will stop them.

We have to go to about 4-5 different stores to find all the food items that we want. Each has their specialty, so there in no one-stop-shopping here, but that is okay. We go to an Open Market and get lots of the fresh island grown stuff. Yesterday I saw a bunch of broccoli in one of the stores but did not get it, because it was $19.95/lb= $10.00 US Tooooooo expensive.

We see great humbleness and dedication in the church here. Yesterday at church we talked with a young married man, about 28-29, who is an RM and he teaches the Missionary Prep class. Each Sun. he starts walking at 3:00 AM to arrive at the church by 4:00, this gives him 2 hours of prep and then the class starts at 6:00. He has 98 in his class right now. They continue to come until they leave on their mission. He has sent out over 1000 since he started teaching.

There is a LDS church about every 2 miles on the island, so that no one has to walk for more than 1 mile to get to church. They are the best kept and cleanest bldgs on the island and really beautiful. When ever there is a hurricane or cyclone warning, everyone goes to the LDS bldgs for physical protection and spiritual comfort, even those that are not LDS, they feel it is the safest bldg on the island. About 52% of the 80,000 people on the island are LDS.

The dental clinic is good, it has tons of "stuff" but often not all of any one product needed. So Dad "improvises" a lot. I have always said and known that Dad was a good dentist, but now I know from a closer knowledge. He is training me to be his "chairside assistant". Put me in an L&D, NICU, or Dialysis and I can function very quickly, but a dental office! This is a whole new world. But I am enjoying it and it is fun to work at his side. Dad is gentle in the mouth, quick to diagnose and knows what needs to be done within a few diagnostic looks. His "Donald Duck" talk is thought to be strange here, because most of these young people do not know who Donald Duck is. Sad.

I promise the next entery will be shorter, sorry. We love you all and miss you, but good things are happening here because of Dad's work. He is a wonderful gift to these people.

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