Nobody's Fo'ui

Here is a little Tongan history for you related to the subject line and the area in which I currently serve- Fo'ui is a village in our area. The word means "fault" and there is a good story behind it. There once was a princess that liked to go swimming at the beaches of fo'ui, and when she came back from the beach a particular day, she climbed into her house -which was in a tree- and as the men of her family were about the leave, she asked them to make sure someone stayed at the bottom of the tree to guard her and keep her safe from crazy men. She was very beautiful. The men left and no one guarded the tree. While she slept, a man climbed up the tree and had his way with her. I know sorry, not missionary appropriate. BUT, when the father came back, she told him what happened and said-"Ko ho fo'ui." or "Your fault." Anyway, so now the village is named after that! Hah! Anway, the point I want to draw from the story is that sometimes bad things happen and we look for someone to blame, but especially in missionary work, it is important to look forward and move on. A lot of unfortunate things happened this week that were nobody's fo'ui, but through them, we were able to see miracles.

1. Sister Vete keeps getting migraines and we had to stay home for 2 days and we tried contacting tons of people to come vilohoa with us so i could go out and work, but they were all busy. Nobody's fo'ui. 

2. We were excited to have a baptism this week, but it fell through because the investigator totally believes, but got to the interview and said she doesn't want to get baptized because of the harassment she will get from other kids her age. We will keep working on her :) 

3. We went to a vilohoa with sisters who didn't seem to like us very much. Maybe a misunderstanding. Nobody's fo'ui. BUT after 24hrs with us, we became really good friends and their desire to work hard came alive again :)

4. Not many teachings went tthrough this week, but many members contacted us with names of friends and family that we will be teaching this week!

I could go on and on. But, the point is, don't be like the princess.  First of all, leave guards at the bottom of your dang treehouse, and second, don't dwell on blaming anyone for bad things that happen. See all the good to come. :) Love you All <3 

p.s. Transfers are this week so i'll let you know what happens, and fo'ui also has a place called umu tangata which means pit to cook men in. yeah gross. these people are totally lamanites from the book of mormon. oh and random pick of our old ward mission leader who just moved to AUST. :(.

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Sister Emily Bever

Tonga Nuku'alofa Mission

random pick of our old ward mission leader who just moved to AUST. :(.

hange ko ha peau

Today. for the first time in my whole mission, i got to sit at the beach and read on p-day. you would think since i have been in Tonga for almost 8 months, i would have done that by now... hah. BUT, my subject line for today was inspired today by that little outing. There were really large, beautiful waves breaking on the coral reefs and I just drew so many parallels to my mission while thinking about the waves.... uu peau in Tongan. For one, my comps health has been like a peau this week and when the poor girl actually felt well enough this morning to get out and exercise with me for the first time in a while, we got 9 minutes into running and she falls and sprains her ankel! Hah. its okay, just a very minor sprain. But, then we got back home and she felt better until she got a migrane. Being with someone else 24/7 on a mission is hard sometimes, but i have been REALLY grateful for it this week because it gives me so many opportunities to serve someone else. Btw, one of my main goals for this week is to be more self-less, so i think the Lord has definitely answered my prayers for opportunities to work on that. Other peau analogies... our investigators. One day we have ZERO lessons with investigators, and the next day we are overbooked! Just like the waves i watched today, the excitement builds out of no where, all at once, and if you aren't always looking ahead, you miss the chance to see something beautiful that might not come around again for a while. Luckily, in this work, we have the help of the spirit to guide us to the right places at the right time. 2 examples of that this week- we met a girl on the side of the road while trying to contact a less-active family, and she may be the only person in our area who has never spoken to missionaries and actually really wants to. We set up a day to visit her, she was actually there, and she accepted the invitation to be baptized!! Today as we walked in the sand, my comp sat down close to where we parked, but I wanted to walk farther down to a more peaceful spot. She said-- "nah. i'm just gonna sit here for a second." why? i didn't know. BUT then she looked over, perked up and said, "HEY!" We then met an old friend of hers we had been meaning to contact to teach. The friend was at that spot on the beach for 3 minutes to take a picture and then she left. If we had kept walking like I wanted, we would have missed her. We were able to talk to her, get her current phone number, and meet her boyfriend who is a member! She wants to be taught by the missionaries. She even asked some elders to teach her before, but they didn't follow up. We will probably teach her this week. 

I could go on and on about more reasons why this week was a wave-- up and down all over the place, but I'm almost out of time. I just want all of you to know that this work is guided by divine power, and if you allow it to, that same power can guide your life in everything you do. That power is not chance, it is not some abstract or scientific energy, it is the power of God- the literal father of our spirits. He loves you more than you can imagine. If you turn to him, and have the faith to change your life to align it with his will, you will find the greatest happiness. I KNOW IT, but don't trust me, get on your knees and try it out. Pray. with your whole heart. 

Until next week,

Ofa lahi atu,

Sister Bever

ooh and yes, cheesy, totally staged picture attached, but hey, at least I got a wave in it.  And Mother's Day phone call.

'I he taimi pe a'Ana. (In His time.)

I need to start out with a story this week. Do you guys remember Niki? He was our convert in Navutoka. When I left Navutoka, he had recently been baptized, but we were having a hard time getting him to be excited about coming to church, and he started up smoking again after he was baptized. His wife came back to live with him and she was not super excited about him being Mormon, so you can see why I was a bit worried about him staying active, and I was still a bit confused about his true motives for joining the church. I prayed earnestly when he was confirmed the Sunday after his baptism that the Lord would help him to gain a stronger testimony, but I didn't know how that would happen because his testimony would be up to him and his agency. However, after that prayer, I felt a reassuring prompting of the spirit. The day i left, i asked the ward mission leader to promise to be a good friend to Niki and help him to continue learning. Yesterday, i got to see how the Lord does keep his promises when we do everything we can. The stake conference for Navutoka was held the weekend. Niki was asked to speak and bare his testimony. The zone leaders in that stake texted us to tell me that Niki gave a powerful testimony and he cried as he thanked the missionaries who helped him change his life. I never thought the quiet, 59 year old ex-catholic, who frequently looked asleep as I bore my testimony to him would bare a powerful testimony in stake conference just 2 months after his baptism. Only the gospel can produce a change like that. There is hope for everyone. For you, me, and every person we meet. It is the mighty change of heart referred to in The Book of Mormon. Don't give up on yourself, or anyone else. It will all work out in HIS time. I love you all and I love this work, and i still feel the strength of your love and prayers. 

'Ofa Lahi Atu!!!

-Sister Bever

p.s. the work is going well in Kolovai, we need some new investigator and some people to soften their hearts so our investigators can go through with their baptisms. Pray for the Kolovai and Fo'ui wards! <3 just gettin fit with the 5 year olds. they are the only ones around here who do push-ups with me.

It's raining miracles! And ufi!

Okay honestly from an outside perspective, it is not raining anything miraculous in our area, but to Sister Vete and I, we are getting DRETCHED out here people! Like holy cow i'm turning that umbrella upside down just trying to catch them all!

Here is why-

Sister Vete is running every morming with me for 30 minutes and she loves it and I don't think she ever ran in her life before now.

We found some very promising new investigators in a ward that everyone told us is just a sea of in-actives. One is Ma'u. She is married to an in-active, and she is really young, but SO smart and asks many good questions. She couldn't even wait til we left to start reading the Book of Mormon. Another is Pumu and she is about 17, but she come from a family that hates the church. However we taught her the plan of salvation and I could almost see the lightbulb illuminate in her mind. She has great faith already and we are working toward May 6th for her baptism. 

Uailupe, a long-time investigator is going to the temple with us on Wednesday for a tour! She previously told us she will NEVER get baptized, but she is changing her mind i think :).

Heavenly father is literally placing people in our path. Like Paula. Paula is this ex-con who used to live in America and he is this hug dude who has 1 eye and we were looking for him the other day and couldn't find him. He was avoiding us.then we went to a different house nearby. at the very moment we left that house, he comes walking out of the bush--- literally out of the bush and he is like- "HOW did you guys find me?" Then he turned around and started to run away, but he was just kidding and he was drunk, so he came back and we arranged a time to meet with him. that story is to be cont'nd. 

We had very sweet experiences with members doing our 40 day fast and members giving us HUGE potatoe things called ufi at their harvest celebrations.

We even have 2 couples who want us to name their babies! One of them is Kulisi (who got baptized last month) and his wife. 

I know these miracles are coming because of a lot of faithful prayers and the members who are fasting for the missionary work in Fo'ui (one of our wards). Here is my Poderizing scripture for this week- I am trying to make my prayers more like Enos' prayers. Enos 1:4. I give you all the same challenge.

The end. LOVE YOU ALL!!!

-Sister Bever 

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Sister Emily Bever

Tonga Nuku'alofa Mission

Sister Vete and I at Zone Conference

run to the beach :)

teaching the religion hour at the elementary school :)

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