Te u ALU KI TONGA!!! (I am GOING TO TONGA!!!)

This sista just got her travel plans!!! I leave the MTC at 1pm next Sunday! The bad news: I am the travel leader so I get to be the nagging mom for day and a half for my group of 9. More bad news: We will miss the last session of General Conference. The good news: we get to spend almost a whole day in New Zealand!! (i think it will be mostly the airport... not sure what the rules are on that.) More good news!!!: I will finally get to serve those beautiful people in that beautiful country.

This next section will be a mixture of answers to everyone's questions, and cool highlights from this past week...

First of all, being a sister training leader is great because you get to be the first one's to greet new missionaries when they arrive at the mtc. This week we got a new batch of missionaries going to Fiji. Only 2 sisters, but they are both GREAT :). One is straight from Samoa, and the other is straight from Tonga! Our tongan speaking dormitory room had 2 extra beds, so they are both rooming with us for our last week. I know it will be a huge blessing to have Sister Lokotui (from Nukualofa, Tonga) in our room because she has agreed to help us all with our Tongan and we get occasional cultural tips from her too! Sister Hosea (my comp) is teaching me a lot about how to show love to the sisters in our zone. She is naturally more of an affectionate person than I am, so through her example, I have learned to give more hugs and not flinch when someone kisses me on the cheek! lol... only sisters have done that to me so no worries.

Dad asked about our ward/ branch- It is honestly the best one in the whole MTC. I may be biased but people who aren't in our branch think so too. We sing hymns in the languages of all the islands, our branch president is the closest living thing to Gordon B. Hinckley, and the poly's are all so loving (and kinda loud) but they have such strong testimonies and they sing beautifully. I have not had to give a talk in church yet, but the speakers are always called on the spot, so I prepare something to say each sunday. This Sunday is Fast sunday because of conference so i think i'll get up. I still need a little work on my Tesitmony in Tongan, but it will be fine. The language is going well, my sentences are still pretty broken on the spot, but if I have time to think, I can usually say something that sounds proper. 

Devotional this week- the Speaker was Elder Cardon of the 1st quorum of the seventy. He is one smart man. Almost the entire talk was given without notes and he just taught from the scriptures the whole time. Impressive. A little monotone, but impressive. And i felt the spirit.

Ahh yes. I am sure many of you heard about Elder Scott passing away. Kinda sad. But I am actually really happy for him. His adorable wife passed away at about the time I was born. He loved her dearly and has missed her terribly for 20 years. I know they are together and very happy now. 

Thought for the week--

I am trying to study the atonement more in depth. I am starting to read Jesus the Christ. Oiaue!! (oh my goodness!) good book. very long. BUT this week I was studying the concept of mercy specifically. I don't remember where, but there is a scripture that talks about how the atonement satisfies the demands of Justice and Mercy. Somewhere in Alma. So i looked for info on Mercy. It turn out, the Mercy Seat, on the Arch of the Covenant, in the Old Testament, was Jehovah's meeting place with his people (BD) and so I thought about that. Hmmm... Through the atonement, Christ meets us way more than halfway to cover our weaknesses with mercy. I am so thankful for that mercy. I have hope dispite my imperfections because of the atonement. 

Ofa lahi atu :) <3 

p.s. pics- the trip to the temple this morning, bethany Knighton and I (from BYU XC), Hannah Albrechtsen and I (from BYU XC)

--

Sister Emily Bever

Tonga Nuku'alofa Mission

With Hannah Albrechtsen from BYU XC team.

With Bethany Knighton from BYU XC 

Trip to the temple this morning

Love this picture :)

Week 4-Ngaahi Faingamalie (opportunities)

Malo e lelei!! I have been trying to come up with other ways to say hello in Tongan, but everyone that I've asked says they just use "Malo e lelei" or "hi." Ugh.

But for reals. I love the tongan language. Once you get past the fact that everything sounds like an awful swear word, it's really beautiful! :))

News for this week:

- One of our tongan elders left the MTC on Sunday to head out to the island. There is a picture of him attached. they cut his time in half because it turns out he was almost fluent already when he got here but he didn't tell anyone. Goodbye elder Nonu!!

- On Tuesday, there was a fantastic devotional and i sang in the choir again. The choir had over 1,000 missionaries. Rosemary Wixom, the general primary president spoke with her husband. 

- After the Devo, the branch president met with my comp and I, and we are now the Sister Training Leaders for our zone! Whoa. I am very humbled about that because every sister in our zone has such strong faith and I am pretty sure I will always learn more from them than they will learn from me. I really love them all. They are AMAZING. There is one picture attached of a group of those girls, mostly the fijians who are leaving on monday :'( and there is another picture of me with the two adorable sisters who sis. Hosea and I took to the temple last week. Sis. Vuvute (from Fiji) and Sis. Wamura (from Papa New Guinea). 

- The language is coming along, and my comp is very encouraging even though I still know she is can understand other people speaking more than I can, but that is super helpful when we teach lessons. I am SO grateful for her. I think the most helpful thing so far has been SYL (speak your language). We just try to use as many Tongan words as possible whereever we go. I can speak in full sentences now during lessons, but most of them are very broken. But I am juts happy i don't have to stare at notes the whole time anymore. 

-Our district hosted the new incoming missionaries this last wednesday, and i got to see Kenzie Weir and Hannah Albrechtsen from my BYU team!! I also met a Sister Makasini who came in! She is from Cali going to Kentucky and she said Tevita and Losepei are her great aunt and uncle! 

- Oh! I saw Zane yesterday! apparently he has some fancy job at the MTC that allows him to look up my profile and find out where I have class, etc. So he randomly popped in last night :).

That's pretty much all the news. Time is flying by. I can't believe I get my travel papers in 1 week!

Now for the spiritual thought of the week :)

So in the Book of Mormon, I have been reading about the people of Anti-Nephi-Lehi and holy cow they were incredible. I kinda forgot about them before now. They not only turned their lives completely around to serve God whole heartedly, they vowed never to kill, fight in battles, or use their weapons ever again. Even when their enemies charge at them with a giant blood thirsty army, they remain true to their promise. They kneel down and praise God while the armies attack and kill them. Those people definitely earned their reward in the next life. Not only that, but their enemies were astonished by their faith in God and many of them were touched so deeply that they were converted unto Christ. I may not have to give up my life to help others come to Christ as those people did, but I know I will have to give up other things. That's okay with me. Sacrifices bring the blessings of heaven. 

I also found a beautiful scripture that kinda describes how I feel as a missionary- Alma 29:1 " Oh that I were an angel and could have the wish of mine heart, that i might go forth and speak with the trump of God, with a voice to shake the earth, and cry repentance to every people."

The End.

Ofa Lahi Atu!!!! <3 <3 <3

--

Sister Emily Bever

Tonga Nuku'alofa Mission

Goodbye Elder Nonu!!

With Sis. Vuvute (from Fiji) and Sis. Wamura (from Papa New Guinea) who Emily was their escorts through the Provo Temple

Here is a group of girls in Emily's Zone, mostly the fijians who are leaving on monday :'( 

Learning to Listen

Male! (apparently that is the shortened version of hello)

HAH! a miracle just happened!! I figured out how to get pictures on this email because the nice sister next to me showed me that you need this memory card adapter to plug into the computer and she let me borrow hers. So to explain the pictures- most of them are just from trips to the temple and temple walks. I ran into Emily Kenney-- a friend from freshman ward who is going to japan and I took a pic with her. Other pictures were from my first day with my comp and sister reid and sister medina who are going to Tonga with me. The weird picture of two little piles on the floor is a really cute and funny story!...

There is a girl here at the MTC going to the phillipines and she came straight from Tonga. Her name is sister Saafi. She is SO sweet! And people have not been exaggerating about the generosity of Tongans. About a week ago, she found out that our room had 3 palangi girls who were going to Tonga and she has been giving us stuff ever since. One day she dropped off two tongan dresses for sister Reid and sister Medina because she knew they didn't have any. The next day she dropped of a skirt for sister reid. The next night, it was quiet time and we were about to turn off the lights and go to sleep when i heard a bunch of little knocks on the door. I opened it and sister saafi was standing there and whispering something in broken english and then she shoved a bunch 2 paper towels full of random treats into my hands. the paper towels were full of an odd collection of stale mini cookies, pieces of bubble gum. and a few red vines. It was sooo adorable! I know she didn't have much, but she just really wanted to give us whatever she had.

That's all for stuff about the pictures.

Other events of the week-

Bishop Causse of the presiding bishopric came and spoke with his wife tuesday. They were adorable and I love their french accents and he even played a piano solo as part of his talk. I sang in the choir for that devotional. 

Yesterday I was sick. Yuck, but thanks to a much needed nap, cough drops, and grandma's essentail oils, I am feeling a lot better. But i still sound like a man. 

Good thing I was feeling better today because I got to be an escort at the temple today!!! 2 new sisters who came into our zone this week came from countries without temples. (papa new guinea and fiji.... okay the fiji temple is closed.) They got their endowment today and it was such a good experience for them! I was honored that our zone president asked my comp and I to be their escorts. Those girls have sacrificed sooo much to be on a mission. They don't have much, but they give everything they have to the lord. One is the only member in her family and she was baptized 2 years ago, and the other left a family who relied on her for financial support and now she doesn't know if they have money for food anymore. I am so humbled to be around them. All they talk about is how much they love God and how much they love me and my comp and all the other sisters.

Okay I am out of time... but scripture for the week! Look it up: 1 Nephi 13:37 It's a good one and I don't have time to quote it. 

I love you all and miss you all, but really, there is no place else I'd rather be.

Til next week!!

Ofa atu <3

--

Sister Emily Bever

Tonga Nuku'alofa Mission

Emily with her roommates Sis. Medina, Sis. Reid  and Sis. Hosea

Emily's companion, Sis. Hosea from Salt Lake who is going to San Jose Tongan Speaking Mission

With Roomies

I'm sure Emily is telling someone how to take the picture ;)

Gifts from Sis.Saafi who is from Tonga going to the Phillipines

Trip to the temple

With Sis. Kenney who is a friend from Freshman year at BYU

8 days down and lovin' it!

Malo e lelei from the Provo MTC!

I had some camera difficulties... So i don't have that much time left to write, but hopefully i will figure out how to send my pictures next friday. I'll let you imagine the photos in your head instead- just picture me... the awkward Palangi with a bunch of fun, loud Polynesians and that's pretty much it! I had a lot of cool experiences this week... Elder Oaks came to our devotinal and I was sitting pretty close up! that was cool. I can now pray completely in Tongan! that's fun.... and I love having an hour for personal study each day. So now I'll give you a sample of some experiences-

My companion and I were teaching a lesson to our investigator "Elisapeti" who is really just our teacher pretending to be an investigator and I read a quote to her for the lesson in Tongan and i was just feeling like a failure because reading tongan takes so long for me because the words are wrong and I don't know how to pronounce some of them.. and then i said a prayer out loud to close the lesson. As soon as I said "E' Tamai Hevani" I just got this warm comforting feeling, as if someone was saying "it's okay. I'm still proud of you. You don't have to be perfect." and yep you guessed it. I lost it. the tears came and i'm pretty sure i scared "Elisapeti" because she had no idea why I was crying but I think the Spirit was definitely there so that can't be a bad thing. 

In personal study the other day, I was reading the Book Of Mormon in Mosiah  and it was talking about Alma the Younger and the Sons of Mosiah. Mosiah 28:3 "Not they were desirous that Salvation should be declared to every creature, for they could not bear that any human soul should perish; yea, even even the very thought that any soul should endure endless torment did cause them to quake and tremble." I thought that was pretty cool because if I really believe that missionary work is the work of salvation, AND I DO, then this is literally saving lives in a spiritual sense and that is pretty cool and SO important. There is no way I am going to be that person who meets an old friend in the next life and has to answer for why I didn't tell them about the Gospel of Jesus Christ that could have helped them in life SO much and I had it the whole time. Not gonna happen. I think we should all ponder that possibility every now and then and make a few changes if necessary. 

Other cool thing- when missionaries leave from my zone, the whole zone sings to them in every language! We sing in Tongan, Samoan, Mashallese, Kiribati, and Fijian. It is sooo beautiful. No offense to the other languages, but the tongan songs are seriously the most beautiful by far.

 Out of time. That's all for now. 

Ofa Atu <3

--

Sister Emily Bever

Tonga Nuku'alofa Mission

Busy at the MTC

Ethan's friend, Kara teaches Fijian at the MTC and took these of Emily. 

2 days in the MTC

Malo e lelei!!!

A whole 2 days down in the Provo MTC and I'm still feeling good :). NOTE: FRIDAY IS MY P-DAY.

Wednesday-

I got to the MTC and i think my escort from the curb was a little scared because my eyes were sweating like nobody's business. The next 20 minutes were just standing in lines and letting people hand my things. i got a ginormous yellow bag of books (mostly in tognan) and my name tag. My MTC branch president says that wearing the name tag makes you stand a little taller and he was right. I noticed that at soon as i put it on. i sat in a classroom for a while and waited for the rest of my Tongan district of new missionaries to arrive.

My district has 8 missionaries and only 2 of us are going to Tonga. the rest are going to New Zealand or Australia (tongan speaking). My companion is Sister Hosea! She is AMAZING! She is half Tongan and half Samoan, but she is from Salt Lake City and she is going to San Jose CA (Tongan Speaking). She knows a few phrases in Tongan and TONS more about the culture than me, so I love learning from her. She is 21 and like me, was a student athlete before she came here. She played basketball at a school in WY and she did a year at UofU as well. Like most of the Polynesians in my zone, she has a BIG personality. She talks a lot, but it's good because she helps me get out of my comfort zone and talk to everyone too. We sleep in a room with the 2 sisters that are in the other tongan district (Sister Reid and Sister Medina). We all get along really well. 

I think Dad was wondering about this: yes, missionaries from all over the world come to the Provo MTC even if they are going back to the area of the world they are from. Example: my zone has lots of sisters from tonga and samoa who got visas and came to the US for the MTC, but they will be going back to the pacific to Fiji or Australia for their mission. 

Important stuff from Thursday-

My branch president is SO COOL. He actually looks like Gordon B. Hinkley. he also had a pretty impressive career. At one point, he was the president of General Mills (yes, that General Mills.) He held an awesome training session with the 17 new Tongan speaking missionaries (oh and and just the 4 of us are sisters. the rest are elders.) He really motivated me to be the BEST missionary ever. I mean HOLY COW, i have given up a lot to be here. there is no way i am going to waste a second of these 18 months. He is really great at bringing the spirit into the room as well. Hmm... other than that, I can't think of anything else important about thurs EXCEPT... we were given our first investigator and lesson. We are teaching "Elisepeli" TODAY in tongan. Yeah. I only have a few phrases memorized, but I guess the most important thing is that Sister Hosea and I have the Spirit with us. 

Stuff from today- we went to the temple this morning... that was cool :) I ran into my Bishop's wife from my BYU ward. I love that woman. Other than the temple, we are doing laundry and trying to cram as much lesson prep as possible in! yikes. 

Other stuff that I just thought of: 

Yes, I have seen a lot of old friends here. Mostly people from my freshman ward at BYU and some i saw bethany from my track team at BYU. I even jogged with her and my companion during exercise time. Seriously. Heavenly Father has blessed me sooo much with my companion! She is very sweet and she will even exercise with me. Fact: i think I have prayed more in the past 2 days than I had in the past 2 weeks before i got here. i think it's helping though because I haven't gotten homesick yet and I and I am learning a lot. i think the language will come eventually... I learned like 20 new words yesterday and I am hoping to double that today. I know I am supposed to be here and I know the lord will bless me with everything I need to be successful . i just have to work really hard. I love the tongan people already! we sang in a tongan hymn yesterday and I almost cried! they are soo beautiful! Well i have a lot to do today so i better wrap it up. 

Spiritual thought: love is the most powerful motivator of all. Many missionaries come out of duty, which is fine, but if you love something or someone, you are willing give everything you have and are to that thing or person. I LOVE my mission already and I LOVE Tongan and the Tongan people. Everything I have and everything I am is now devoted to those things and those people. John 8:29 And he that sent me is with me: the Father hath not left me alone; for i do always those things that please him. 

Last words: WRITE ME!! also, MOM- i left my water bottle in the car :( it would be AWESOME to get it in the mail. I love you all very much!! I'll try to answer any questions you have if you email me. and i forgot my camera so i promise i'll send pictures next week.

'Ofa Atu <3 <3 <3 ( i love you)

--

Sister Emily Bever

Tonga Nuku'alofa Mission

Thank You & Good-Bye!

Malo e lelei! ("hello" is the only Tongan word I really know... )

This may be my first and only blog EVER. But... I leave on an 18 month LDS mission to Tonga tomorrow and I know it will be an experience of a lifetime, so it must be well-documented. I know this mission will be the hardest, yet most rewarding period of my life, and I know I am incredibly blessed to have this time to forget about myself, and serve the beautiful people in the Kingdom of Tonga.
You'll here all about it if you follow my emails here! I promise, this is gonna be good.
Final words: I love mail. All of my mailing information can be found along the side bar. Also, DearElder.com http://www.dearelder.com sends me free mail daily while I'm in the MTC until Oct. 6th... so PLEASE use that site :) See you in 18 months <3.

Much Love,

Sister Emily Bever

Thank You!!!

Saying good-bye as I'm off to the MTC 8/26/15

 Thank you Bro. and Sis. Makasini (and cousin) for helping Emily

 with the clothing she needs to wear in Tonga.  We are so grateful to have you in our ward!

Here is Emily trying on her new clothes before she left.