fetongi palesiteni, fetongi hoa

We met with the new mission president and his wife (Pres. and Sis. Tui'one) on Wednesday and Friday. They are adorable. I am excited to work with them. Yesterday, we were shocked with a call from the zone leaders saying that sister Mo'unga will be tranferring to 'Eua and I will be staying in Kolovai. Sister Mo'unga just got here, so we expected her to stay for sure. I am sad to see her go. She is an AMAZING missionary, and can't begin to list all i have learned from her. My new companion will be Sister Betteridge! A palangi sister from Washington! :) I took a class with her at BYU before the mission, so we are already friends! She came in to the mission with Sister Mo'unga, and I have heard great things about her in her missionary service. I am excited to work with her.

I definitely witnessed a miracle this week. I don't have time to explain the whole thing, but lets just say we somehow got permission to drive into town to look for an old investigator. We had no phone number, no contact for 2 months, and a vague idea of where she lived. We found her after 5 minutes of looking and praying in perfect 20 minute window of free time that she had all week. The Lord guides this work., and he guides each of us when we make sacrifices to be closer to him. I know it. 

Invite him more into your life this week. He is always a prayer away :) 

-Sister Bever

1st- my favorite coconut tree field that we drive by on the way to liahona

2nd- viloahoa again with sis. emch and sis. faux as they visited the island from vava'u for our meeting.

3rd- my cute companion opening a coconut with our kitchen knife so i could drink it! 

4th- the new mission president, his wife, and all the sister training leaders and zone leaders.

Goodbye President Tupou :'(

Hello Everyone,

Yes, this week my mission president finishes his 3 year service. He and his wife have been such a tremendous blessing to this entire country, as well as hundreds of missionaries from around the world who they have been able to influence since 2013-- me included. Our new mission president will be President Tui'one. He is from New Zealand, but of course he is Tongan, and I have heard lots of great things about him. I know only greater things are instore for this amazing little dot on the map of a country. God loves these people SO much. I spent too much time writing individual emails again, so I am out of time. just one update though, we have two new promising investigators in Fo'ui! yes fo'ui! The land of no investigators! and we have 2 new ones! We will teach them both tonight :) prayers are appreciated thanks :)

Ofa LAHI atu.

-Sister Bever

This is the table in our cute little temporary home in Liahona! Our Kolovai home was supposed to be worked on this week, butt hey haven't even started yet, so we will probably be in liahona for another week-- i have no complaints. It has been a dream come true to finally have a good place to study!

One of these is a creepy house that we walked by in our area. i dont think anyone lives in it, but it looks like the scene for a horror movie. 

the other is a picture of me! yes! driving! I drive now because my companion does not have a license. 

The last meeting we had with President and Sister Tupou

Us and Moala---aka the best ward missionary EVER!

Our planning session last week at the beach-- looks a lot more glamorous than it is. Lots of bugs, spider webs, its hot, and sand gets everywhere. BUT look at the view! Inspiring.

This is from a time we went to another area on exchanges and they happen to live at the house of one of the area 70's and this is his dock in the back yard. This is the sunrise right after we exercised

me eating a delicious pineapple turnover that was brought to us because one of the couples that works in Liahona was so impressed with us that we actually washed our car! 

The other is of my comp and I outside the mission office in Liahona. YES we are still staying in the nice little apartment next to the office because the construction on our house is not done yet, but I'll take the washing machine even if we have to drive farther. 

Sister Bever, LELE

This week has been a lot of lele (running), but not really the exercise kind. although i still try to do a little bit of that ever morning, my companion and I did a lot of running around all over the island in the car. Our little home in Kolovai is not finished with renovations yet, so we are still driving back and forth from Liahona every morning and night. We now have an adopted aunt and uncle in Liahona! One of the senior couples that stays one door over from us-- Elder and Sister Maumau (yes they are Tongan). It is great having them around because they always make sure we have food, but they don't care if we say no, and they are related to a lot of people in our area of Kolovai, so we have been able to get help from them with investigators! Other update- we had a musical fireside last night in Fo'ui, and yes, you guessed it. I sang. I sang "Be Still My Soul" and although it was in English (there is no tongan translation) i think everyone felt the spirit. I decided i will not sing publicly even in my life unless it the eternal salvation of other people could depend on it. so no, i will not be holding concerts when i get home. 

I don't have much time again this week, but i want to share about one experience we had this week. THere is a new family in Kolovai who moved into the ward from New Zealand. The dad is Tongan, and the Mom is Nauru (look it up.) The mom has been baptized, but the dad asked us to come talk to her briefly about the Book of Mormon. We decide one random day to just show up and see if she is home. not only was she home and free to talk, but the hour we pulled in to her house was the only time should happened to be home all week, and a last minute change in her plans allowed her to be available at that time. We talked to her for about an hour and found out that she was baptized, but never taught. and she doesn't like going to church because she doesn't understand very much tongan. She is part of some jewish/hebrew fellowship church, but she doesn't really understand that faith either. She and her two teenage girls are all in the same boat, so we have been able to visit her a few times and teach her the gospel, and i see lightbulbs going off in her head all over the place. Even if she Sina (that's her name) doesn't turn into a baptism because she is already baptized, i know the lord led us to her to help true conversion take place. that's pretty cool. the end. Love you all, have a fantastic week.

-Sister Bever

--

Sister Emily Bever

Tonga Nuku'alofa Mission

the last one is the table in our cute little temporary home in Liahona! Our Kolovai home was supposed to be worked on this week, butt hey haven't even started yet, so we will probably be in liahona for another week-- i have no complaints. It has been a dream come true to finally have a good place to study!

One of these is a creepy house that we walked by in our area. i dont think anyone lives in it, but it looks like the scene for a horror movie. 

the other is a picture of me! yes! driving! I drive now because my companion does not have a license. 

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. :(.

--

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 

--

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 :)