Hiki ki Kolovai!!!

Sorry people, i am not the most dependable emailing missionary :(. The internet at chapels in Tonga is a bit shaky. Today we went to another village to use the internet. It's dead in Kolovai right now, but we live in this cute MQ right next to the church and we have a CAR!! So we are sister training leaders again and the car is awesome, but between that and the very huge fafangas (meals) around here in Kolovai, I am a little worried about that mid-mission chub really coming on so be nice if i still decide to send you all pictures ;).

But... saying goodbye to Navutoka was sad. I went a little control freak and labeled everything in our house with sticky notes so the elders who came to replace my comp and I would be able to continue with everything we had planned. By the way, Sister Emch got transferred to Vava'u!! She and sister Faux (her old comp before me) are the first white sisters to go there and they are the new STL's there too. I know she will be great. I will miss her, but my new comp-- Sister Vete-- is great!!! Sister vete has been here in Kolovai for 3 months, and she is Tongan, but she has lived in America for 6 or 7 years and she seems more American to me. She is so funny and we get along great. We are already seeing success together in this area! We began teaching a man named Kulisi last week and he just got BAPTIZED on Saturday! He is such a miracle and a perfect example of true repentance and the change that only comes through the atonement. He is married to Mele who was less active and has now come back. I attached a picture of us with him and his family at his baptism and all of us at the temple last week. We took them there to help them learn about the plan of salvation. One of the members of the temple presidency came to talk to us and it was SO spiritual! Kulisi just loves us! He tries to bring us food everyday and he wants to put the picture of all of us at the temple on their wall in their house. Seeing his life change has changed us too. The gospel is such a blessing. We have many other investigators and potential investigators including.... get ready for this... THE ROYAL FAMILY. THE KING AND QUEEN OF TONGA. The live in our area and Prince Ata is one of our ward missionaries we work with in our ward. Yeah. I have no idea why the Lord chose us to be here in this area at this time, but big things are gonna happen. I can already tell. We have 2 vilohoa's with other sisters this week and we are teaching a new investigator tonight-- a woman who we have never met but came to church yesterday! Anyway, I love you all very much and I don't have much time, but here is my spiritual thought for the week--

1 Nephi 10:19

Look it up-- i only have tongan scriptures right now. But, it talks about searching diligently to know the things of God, so here in Kolovai we are working on being diligently in our searching. Most of the problems I see with investigators is their lack of diligence in their search. The same can be said for the rest of us-- when we need guidance from Heavenly Father, we won't get anything if we just sit and wait. We must go out and diligently search for guidance, comfort, help, etc... Anyway, I love you all more than you know <3.

-Sister Bever 

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Sister Emily Bever

Tonga Nuku'alofa Mission

Ko e ea mo e ngaue-- kamata ke sai :)

Malo e lelei "Kainga Ofeina"-

Hmmm... i have 10 minutes to write one bomb email. Okay. So, this week we completely changed our work. We had pretty terrible numbers as far as how many lessons we taught, but we established family plans with a lot of member families and we are really focusing on quality over quantity in our teaching. We are hoping to get most of our lessons in the future from having family home evenings in members homes with someone they are choosing to fellowship. We didn't do this as much in the past because the missionaries before me did it and nothing ever happened, but we made a few changes, and with a strong emphasis on FOLLOWING UP on commitments, we know it will be successful. We already have seen good things come! Example A: an investigator named Elisi is a friend of a member and we have taught her 2 times in the member's home and even if she is not super close with us, she is comfortable sharing her true thoughts and feeling with her member friend there. She has a true desire to learn. We need the members. Example B: One member, Paea, invited his friend Sione to the open house we had a couple weeks ago. Sione liked the open house, but Paea is kinda shy but we established a fmaily plan with Paea and role-played with him a way he could invite Sione to take a lesson with the missionaries! He invited him, Sione said yes, and he was sooo excited to tell us that he stopped in the middle of the road the next day and called to us to report the good news... we are still waiting for the exact day on that one though... but I believe in Paea!!! Okay so other things to report- we are teaching Nicki tonight with his non-member wife who recently returned to Tonga from Australia! expecting good things! there is a transfer coming up and we'll see how that goes. It finally started to cool off around here and right now it is nice a cloudy and rainy :) ahh missing Oregon. Hope you all like the pic! Sometimes I wear Sister Emch's glasses when I want to feel as smart as her ;). Spiritual thought- 3 Nephi 8: 1. nephi was able to work many miracles in the name of Jesus because he was cleansed from iniquity. I know I always need to do better on daily repentance so the Lord can use me more effectively. How about you?

Love you all. Thank you for the thoughts and prayers.

-Sista Piva  

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Sister Emily Bever

Tonga Nuku'alofa Mission

Sometimes I wear Sister Emch's glasses when I want to feel as smart as her ;)

Do only What matters most!

Hello all,

It's been a while since I wrote a descent email, and I'm afraid this week might be another disappointment. As far as updates go, our convert from last week- Niki- is doing well, and after an exchange last week with the sisters from Veitongo, we are switching up our approach for working with the members and we hope to have TONS of success... we are very behind our mission goal in our companionship. 2/26 baptisms and we should be at 26 before June! Yeah! FAITH!

I was sick this last week-- nothing serious and it's all better now, but i realized something while I was sick. Elder Hales once said- "When you cannot do what you have always done, only do what matters most."... or something like that. Well, when I felt like I could not do much, I realized what matters most. Faith in Jesus Christ. When my faith in Jesus Christ is strong, everything is better because my attitude is better. A little experience-- Saturday, i still felt a little sick, but we were walking around and nothing seemed to be working out. We taught a so-so lesson and my comp asked me to say a gratitude prayer after. i did not want to. i did not feel like praying. i just stood there for a long time and waited. I finally said the prayer, but i know that day felt unsuccessful and i didn't want to pray because my faith was lacking. We strengthen our faith by prayer and thoughtful scripture study and by action. We need those things most in the times when we don't want them. 2Nephi 32:8-9 "And now, my beloved brethren, I perceive that yeponder still in your hearts; and it grieveth me that I mustspeak concerning this thing. For if ye would hearken untothe Spirit which teacheth a man to pray, ye would knowthat ye must pray; for the evil spirit teacheth not a man topray, but teacheth him that he must not pray. But behold, I say unto you that ye must pray always,and not faint; that ye must not perform any thing unto theLord save in the first place ye shall pray unto the Father inthe name of Christ, that he will consecrate thyperformance unto thee, that thy performance may be forthe welfare of thy soul." 

ALWAYS PRAY... it will only ever help. I love you all and I am out of time.

Ofa Atu,

Sista Piva

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Sister Emily Bever

Tonga Nuku'alofa Mission

Niki's baptism! :) its so hard for me to get them to take a picture when they are dressed in white... ugh. Oh well, that is sooo not important.

our rash which is now gone :)

Sister Emch's 4th birthday cake! tongans gotta love their cake!

here we have one of my many lice checks