Hey mom!! I love the pictures you sent!! Man they make me quite homesick but ill be good haha! I will admit that it can be hard to lose yourself in the work. Even though i am as excited as ever to serve the Lord in the mission field, we are actually very limited to what we can do. For example, we cant tract or proselyte so we can only work with the members to find investigators or less actives. I guess that its due to the idea that people dont like if you just come and knock and their door and say "Would you like to hear about Jesus Christ?". But i dont know. On top of that we are serving in one of the smallest villages. We are all the way out in the bush right next to Fatumu haha! So there are only about 15 or so houses to go to and after that we just study for the next hours of the day. And sometimes my mind just wonders and i end up thinking about home...not always fun but i sure do miss everyone...Dont worry though, i know why i am out here and i know that the Lord is helping me every step of the way. Anyways how are you doing mom? How is work? Dad taking you on enough date nights? haha! If not, you should bring up Leatherbys or something haha! I hope you are doing ok and i pray for you all everyday. This week for me was fun but uncomfortable, but hey thats the usual for the mission field right? So I had to give my first talk in church on Sunday and it was really funny. So some background information is that everyone in the village knows me as the palangi kid who cant speak tongan haha. So on Sunday our Bishop came up to us to tell us when we would be talking and then he looked at me and was like, "I assume you are going to be giving your talk in English?". Well he actually said it in Tongan so it more accurately sounded like "boomshakalaka mount one hakaloogie leafakapalangi?" hahaha! He was really shocked when i told him i would be giving my talk in Tongan. So in sacrament i got and it was funny to see some peoples face because I dont think they think I practice my Tongan haha. I just read what i had written down and the gist of my talk was talking about enduring to the end. After my comp and i had both spoken, we took our sits down in the congregation and listened. Bishop got up after one other speaker and paused for a moment. Then he expressed his words of appreciation towards me and my talk. He said that I had reminded him of a palangi companion he had in his mission who was also learning to speak Tongan. He said that he knew how hard his comp had worked so he appreciated my same effort for giving my talk in Tongan even though i was not very skilled. I really appreciated this. It gave me this sense of comfort that even though i am not perfect the language is coming and it just takes time and effort and a lot of prayer and relying on the Lord. There is one other experience I think you would like to hear. So this week i had a great opportunity to taste what the Tongans call Lomu. I guess its a delicacy...If i had to describe what it looked like, it looked somthing like chopped up octopus legs mixed with troll snot and wet witch hair...so it looked delicious if i were golem from Lord of the Rings...haha. At first i said i was ok and i really didnt want to try it because even the scent was making me sick. But then i felt bad because this family had prepared a ton of food for us and they wanted me to try it and my companions were just egging it on...so...i ended up trying it...now let me explain what i really is. Lomu is the chopped up intestines of a sea cucumber that is left in the ocean salt water and then eaten raw....ummmm...blah!!...
Tonga, Nukualofa Mission Dec 17, 2014-Dec 2016
Sunday, June 21, 2015
Boomshakalaka mount wannahakaloogie leafakapalangi!
3/8/15
Hey mom!! I love the pictures you sent!! Man they make me quite homesick but ill be good haha! I will admit that it can be hard to lose yourself in the work. Even though i am as excited as ever to serve the Lord in the mission field, we are actually very limited to what we can do. For example, we cant tract or proselyte so we can only work with the members to find investigators or less actives. I guess that its due to the idea that people dont like if you just come and knock and their door and say "Would you like to hear about Jesus Christ?". But i dont know. On top of that we are serving in one of the smallest villages. We are all the way out in the bush right next to Fatumu haha! So there are only about 15 or so houses to go to and after that we just study for the next hours of the day. And sometimes my mind just wonders and i end up thinking about home...not always fun but i sure do miss everyone...Dont worry though, i know why i am out here and i know that the Lord is helping me every step of the way. Anyways how are you doing mom? How is work? Dad taking you on enough date nights? haha! If not, you should bring up Leatherbys or something haha! I hope you are doing ok and i pray for you all everyday. This week for me was fun but uncomfortable, but hey thats the usual for the mission field right? So I had to give my first talk in church on Sunday and it was really funny. So some background information is that everyone in the village knows me as the palangi kid who cant speak tongan haha. So on Sunday our Bishop came up to us to tell us when we would be talking and then he looked at me and was like, "I assume you are going to be giving your talk in English?". Well he actually said it in Tongan so it more accurately sounded like "boomshakalaka mount one hakaloogie leafakapalangi?" hahaha! He was really shocked when i told him i would be giving my talk in Tongan. So in sacrament i got and it was funny to see some peoples face because I dont think they think I practice my Tongan haha. I just read what i had written down and the gist of my talk was talking about enduring to the end. After my comp and i had both spoken, we took our sits down in the congregation and listened. Bishop got up after one other speaker and paused for a moment. Then he expressed his words of appreciation towards me and my talk. He said that I had reminded him of a palangi companion he had in his mission who was also learning to speak Tongan. He said that he knew how hard his comp had worked so he appreciated my same effort for giving my talk in Tongan even though i was not very skilled. I really appreciated this. It gave me this sense of comfort that even though i am not perfect the language is coming and it just takes time and effort and a lot of prayer and relying on the Lord. There is one other experience I think you would like to hear. So this week i had a great opportunity to taste what the Tongans call Lomu. I guess its a delicacy...If i had to describe what it looked like, it looked somthing like chopped up octopus legs mixed with troll snot and wet witch hair...so it looked delicious if i were golem from Lord of the Rings...haha. At first i said i was ok and i really didnt want to try it because even the scent was making me sick. But then i felt bad because this family had prepared a ton of food for us and they wanted me to try it and my companions were just egging it on...so...i ended up trying it...now let me explain what i really is. Lomu is the chopped up intestines of a sea cucumber that is left in the ocean salt water and then eaten raw....ummmm...blah!!...
Hey mom!! I love the pictures you sent!! Man they make me quite homesick but ill be good haha! I will admit that it can be hard to lose yourself in the work. Even though i am as excited as ever to serve the Lord in the mission field, we are actually very limited to what we can do. For example, we cant tract or proselyte so we can only work with the members to find investigators or less actives. I guess that its due to the idea that people dont like if you just come and knock and their door and say "Would you like to hear about Jesus Christ?". But i dont know. On top of that we are serving in one of the smallest villages. We are all the way out in the bush right next to Fatumu haha! So there are only about 15 or so houses to go to and after that we just study for the next hours of the day. And sometimes my mind just wonders and i end up thinking about home...not always fun but i sure do miss everyone...Dont worry though, i know why i am out here and i know that the Lord is helping me every step of the way. Anyways how are you doing mom? How is work? Dad taking you on enough date nights? haha! If not, you should bring up Leatherbys or something haha! I hope you are doing ok and i pray for you all everyday. This week for me was fun but uncomfortable, but hey thats the usual for the mission field right? So I had to give my first talk in church on Sunday and it was really funny. So some background information is that everyone in the village knows me as the palangi kid who cant speak tongan haha. So on Sunday our Bishop came up to us to tell us when we would be talking and then he looked at me and was like, "I assume you are going to be giving your talk in English?". Well he actually said it in Tongan so it more accurately sounded like "boomshakalaka mount one hakaloogie leafakapalangi?" hahaha! He was really shocked when i told him i would be giving my talk in Tongan. So in sacrament i got and it was funny to see some peoples face because I dont think they think I practice my Tongan haha. I just read what i had written down and the gist of my talk was talking about enduring to the end. After my comp and i had both spoken, we took our sits down in the congregation and listened. Bishop got up after one other speaker and paused for a moment. Then he expressed his words of appreciation towards me and my talk. He said that I had reminded him of a palangi companion he had in his mission who was also learning to speak Tongan. He said that he knew how hard his comp had worked so he appreciated my same effort for giving my talk in Tongan even though i was not very skilled. I really appreciated this. It gave me this sense of comfort that even though i am not perfect the language is coming and it just takes time and effort and a lot of prayer and relying on the Lord. There is one other experience I think you would like to hear. So this week i had a great opportunity to taste what the Tongans call Lomu. I guess its a delicacy...If i had to describe what it looked like, it looked somthing like chopped up octopus legs mixed with troll snot and wet witch hair...so it looked delicious if i were golem from Lord of the Rings...haha. At first i said i was ok and i really didnt want to try it because even the scent was making me sick. But then i felt bad because this family had prepared a ton of food for us and they wanted me to try it and my companions were just egging it on...so...i ended up trying it...now let me explain what i really is. Lomu is the chopped up intestines of a sea cucumber that is left in the ocean salt water and then eaten raw....ummmm...blah!!...
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