WOOHOO finally got an email out!

Sorry people, the internet at our chapel in Navutoka has been broken and today we went really quickly to the chapel in a different village so we could email. We are in a place called Nakolo which is the highest point on Tongatapu and it has a beautiful view of the Ocean from above. Updates-- Today I found out that I have lice! It's kind of a right of passage around here and not a huge deal. We are getting the lice shampoo and comb today. 

The Cyclone a week ago was pretty cool and it didn't really hit this island, but it was REALLy rainy and windy. I also felt an earthquake while I was sleeping! cool. 

After the cyclone, sister Emch and I got this aweful rash all over our bodies that itched really bad. 

Anyway, the power is going on and off here so I am just gonna hurry up ans send this. Sorry, not much time to write, but i'll explain everything next week!! Love you all very much!! Oh! And we had a baptism this last week for a 59 year old man named Nicki! It was pretty great and I felt the spirit strongly during the baptism. It looks like everything is going well at home. okay the end. Spiritual thought-- just read John 21 and REALLY ponder it and tell me what the spirit teaches you. OFA LAHI ATU. the REAL end.

-Sista Piva

Tanaki lolo (Add oil)

Hello Everyone! And Happy Valentine's Day <3

To explain the subject line, we went on a vilohoa on Saturday with a sister who just returned from her mission in Hong Kong and she kept saying "add oil" as like a "go get 'em" type of encouragement phrase and I guess it is a missionary thing in a lot of other places in the world so I am picking it up because i just like it and there are like a bajillion analogies you can apply to it, so i'll leave it up to you all to think of one on your own. 

Yes, Tongans do celebrate Valentine's Day. Its not a big deal, but they know about it. Yesterday was V-day for us and our fafanga (meal) was a cute family of a man named Hame-- a widower whose wife died less than a year ago, but he just got remarried last week and his new wife is the cutest thing!! so loving! So I just appreciated the opportunity to see some cute (older) newly weds on Valentine's Day.  This last week was interesting. We were supposed to have a baptism saturday but it didn't work out because our investigator was busy all week trying to sell stuff in town and he didn't even come to church on Sunday! Ugh! I was disappointed, but then we taught him yesterday and he felt really bad for being so busy and we set up his new baptism date and he was probably the most sincere I have even seen him as we learned about the law of tithing. Other than that, many appointments fell through, but we also found many new investigators and lots of good things set up for this coming week! oooh one quick miracle... our most difficult investigator who can't get over something he read on the internet about Joseph Smith and plural marriage finally accepted a Book of Mormon and I know he'll read it because he loves to read, and anyway, I know the spirit was there in the lesson and I could totally see it working on him. Tui ki ai!!!! 

Anyway, spiritual thought for the week-- still trying to finish the BOM in Tongan! I'm in Alma, but last week I read a verse I loved in Mosiah 23. Verse 21- the people of Alma have been showing such great faith, they abandoned their old lives to join the church and just when they are finally prospering in peace, "Nevertheless, the Lord seeth fit to chasten his people; yea, he trieth their patience and their faith." No fair, right? Well, that's kinda what I thought, but it just goes to show that hard things come for our good to make us more patient and more faithful, not just to punish us. I know the Lord does this to me all the time, but I am growing closer to him everyday as he does so. The good times are not as good with out the bad and we never become stronger until we know how it feels to be weak. Well, I'm out of time, but I love you all and keep the prayers coming :) <3

-Sista Piva

the first shrimp i have eaten that still had eyes! yummy all the same :)

the side of our house SOOO flooded. rained all day today.

Sister Emch wading through our yard today.

Holo 'i Navutoka!!

Another week here in Navutoka! It is getting REALLY hot and humid, so we are really trying to notice the little blessings to distract us from the miserable weather... oh and side note, in Tongan, weather is just "ea" which is a tonganized word for air so i was super confused for a while about that. oooh and the weather report is fakamatala ea or air explanation. Okay, sorry. not important. But, my subject line is inspired by all the reasons why people in Navutoka should be holo or losing weight right now-- one of which is the weather. It is the kind of humid where you just sit and sweat and collect lots of water on the peach fuzz on your face that you didn't even know you had. We are blessed to be at the beach where there is always a slight breeze, so EVERYONE goes to the beach all day to lay in the shade and pretty much just sleep. So, reasons why people are holo-

1. sweating buckets

2. food does not sound good when you are soo hot, only cold drinks

3. Fakamalohisino Friday is still going here and this week i taught a bunch of line dances to the ladies which was a huge hit! although there were only like 8 people there...

4. I think the heat or the food got to us again this week and both Sister Emch and I had a mind over body battle to put food in our stomachs and walk around. I was pretty okay, just fatigued. Let's just say Sis. Emch's stomach is easily emptied. 

5. The Elders in our district are all going home soon so they all want to lose weight! hah. They keep asking us what they should do because they saw us jogging one morning. 

Maybe that's all for the list. 

We are supposed to have a baptism this week but our investigator lost his clothes and didn't come to church yesterday :( he has come to church before, so there is a possibility he will still be baptized in the coming week. Another investigator who had a baptism date for the same day told us that he doesn't want to get baptized and he believes in a lot of the things we have taught him but he likes his church just fine. That was sad. Agency is my best friend and worst enemy. I know he used his agency to only half halfheartedly keep commitments to read and pray and the spirit can't bear a powerful witness to a heart that is only half in. We again testified to him and left him with a final commitment to FIND OUT with real intent or else always wonder what would have happened if he had tried. We may have lost a couple investigators this week, but we also gained 7 new investigators! That's quite a lot for us. Favorite moment of the week-- walking by a group of 5 or 6 younger men (20's) and asking them if they knew someone who we should go talk to, and by surprise they let us talk to them! 3 were less actives and the rest were non-members but they all had many sincere questions and real desire to know the truth. Definitely a little miracle... also turned into a hard lesson learned because we went back to meet them the next day and they weren't there right on time so we assumed they ditched right away when in turns out they were waiting nearby and they called to us by we didn't hear. You gotta have faith in people no matter how many times you have been let down before. That's how the Savior deals with all of us when we fall short. My favorite scripture of the week: Jacob 4:7. Verse 8 is also good. Look it up. no time for me to write it all out.  Ofa lahi meiate au kiate kimoutolu!!!! <3 Keep the prayers coming.  

--

Sister Emily Bever

Tonga Nuku'alofa Mission

now if that pic doesn't make boys come runnin after the mish, i don't know what will!! Those are Sister Emch's glasses...

me and one of our best friends-- Tangiloto! She is our ward mission- leader's daughter who goes to lessons with us every Saturday... at least most weeks...She just got off the bus from school at Liahona. She is wearing their uniform. 

telinga veli (itchy ear)

We had lots of ups and downs this week... ran out of time to write about it all, but highlight: we started teaching a new family and they actually LOVE listening to us! This is very new for me... we'll see. I'm all suspicious of them because they are just too willing!! we will figure out what their motivation is this week. :) Here is what i spent my time writing this week- an answer to a question from dad-

In case you didn't already figure it out, in Tonga, church is LIFE for  everyone... in the USA, Mormons are some of the more committed people as far as living your religion goes. Here, every church is like that. Many tongan missionaries spend a lot of time trying to convert people from other faiths using all these different bible verses to prove some doctrine right or wrong... kinda the same as bible bashing?? but they probably do it because thats what they grew up seeing other faifekaus (ministers/ missionaries) and even members doing. Lots of people even get baptized because of that, but their conversion is not true. They really only need the plain and precious truths and it really doesn't matter all that much what someone's interpretation of revelations is if they have that. 

The truths are...

God is our Heavenly Father

Jesus Christ is his only begotten son, our Savior and Redeemer

The Book of Mormon is a true and powerful testimony of him

Joseph Smith was a true prophet who restored the fullness of the gospel to the earth

We have a living prophet today-- Thomas S. Monson
All these things can only be known FOR SURE through a personal witness from the Holy Ghost. When someone receives that witness, nothing else matters and they know this church really is God's Kingdom on earth. 

I personally don't spend much time memorized bible verses to combat people's attacks with. I just do whatever I can to have to spirit with me in abundance to testify of truths. 

Quick experience from a week or two ago-- we came out of a lesson with a less active and these old ladies were sitting outside by the road, so i started talking to them and it turns out they were Jehovah's Witness faifekaus... but too late, I already asked them if they knew anyone in the area who we could go visit... oops. Sooo this lady proceeds to open up her bible and without me saying anything else, goes on and on and how we believe in 3 gods and there is only 1 God and all this other stuff... (the language for explaining the Godhead in Tongan is always confusing to me, but yeah they just understand it as 3 gods). I just stood there for like 10 minutes with my comp smiling at her and she reads all these bible verses, but i did nothing... partly because i was a little shaky on my understanding of her tongan and the conversation was pointless. Every conversion that I have seen has happened without any proof from this verse or that. It has happened through a PERSONAL, POWERFUL WITNESS from this spirit to the heart of the investigator. I don't care who they are or where they come from. The only sure knowledge is the kind that only God can give. 

Challenge- think this week about what your testimony is built on... search for a confirmation from the spirit if you really want to know for sure. D&C 8:2-3. 

Ofa LAHI Atu Ka Moutolu.

--

Sister Emily Bever

Tonga Nuku'alofa Mission

the road from our house to the store (little grey building)... also the same road where Sis. Emch got bit by a dog...

Cute Sister Emch, and me tripping as I took the picture...

the kids at the house we went to today for fafanga :) this is one of the best houses for fafanga! 

Fanga ki'i me'a iiki mo faingofua-- small and simple things

Today I am emailing a little later because we went to kolo (town) today!! We got fabric to make new tupenus and i got a new kafa (thing to tie the ta'ovala) because mine was made of yarn and that is just sad. We also got icecream cones :). BUT it was a huge blessing that we were able to do that today because it is SUPER hot today and we got to ride around in a car with AC and we did all our laundry in the morning when it was still cooler. Oh! and I also got a new kofu (dress) this week because Vika Kaufusi gave us fabric as a Christmas present and the sewing was finished this week! We wore our matching outfits yesterday and got a bazillion compliments. Hmmm... other updates from this week-- we are struggling to get baptisms to reach our goal, but i have faith that if we are doing our best, and I feel like i am REALLY trying, that the Lord will make up for all that we lack and provide a way. We had one baptism last week and we need 5 more for the month and we have 1 week. FAITH :).

 I have been thinking a lot this week about small and simple things. There is a scripture about it in Alma that I love.( btw we finished the 30 day challenge and now we are on a 60 day challenge to read the BOM... I am trying it in Tongan.) Oh yeah, so Alma 37:6-7. Look it up. It talks about how the Lord works through small and simple things to bring about his great and eternal purposes. This week i realized that sometime I feel like a VERY small and simple thing. We were contacted 2 new investigators on 2 different occasions, and sometimes people only speak at me because they are not sure how much Tongan mu comp knows, so we went to contact these 2 people and their families told us that they don't like us and they don't want us talking to anyone in their family. This has happened before, but sometimes it still gets to me because they are rejecting something that is so important to me and when their words are directed only at me it's also a little more personal... but the morale of the story is: I felt like a very small and simple thing in those moments, but God works best through small and simple things. he always has and always will. That is my testimony to you. If you put yourself in the Lord's hands, he can do great things with you know matter who you are or where you come from. I love you all!!!! Have a great week, and help your local missionaries :).

--

Sister Emily Bever

Tonga Nuku'alofa Mission

random china store- "fale koloa"

everyone thinks they should only give us soda because it is nicer than water, but neither of us are huge fans of the stuff, so we have a pretty stocked fridge! We find hard-working sweaty people outside to give it too :) we have lots of friends :)... if only they were all investigators!!!

Sorry I'm late! Still alive :)

Sorry this is coming a day late. We had Zone conference yesterday, so P-day was moved to today. Zone conference was pretty great, and since we are all pushing to accomplish the mission goal of 100 baptisms per stake before June, we needed to re-evaluate our teaching methods to make more of the lessons result in baptisms- for our new teaching method, we are just supposed to ask a lot of questions that lead into discussing each principle in the lesson. Each question is supposed to be "inspired" so it's a little challenging because i don't know when my questions are inspired or not and at the same time, i want to make sure i know how to clearly express myself in this language... still far from fluent, but it's coming along :). So yeah that's enough about zone conference. Lots of food, lots of missionaries, and lots of opportunities to feel the spirit.

Updates from this past week- hmmm well mom sent me a picture of Ellie (our dog) and I realized this week that I am scared I will return to America with a warped perception of dogs! I got bit by a dog this week! Ahhh! but it didn't even break the skin because i kicked it away real quick... luckily that dog was small... but bad news is, it lives at the home of a potential investigator family and we REALLY want to teach them, so i'll have to get over the fear or get myself a good stick. Oh! one of our old investigators came back from Australia this week and we began teaching him again and we have a baptism date set for him for February when his wife comes to Tonga and maybe we'll teach her too! Today we have a baptism of a little boy who is also from Australia. A lot of his family is active in the church, and he is so smart and interested. Sometimes I am scared for little kids who get baptized without support from a family because most of them end up inactive like 1/2 of Tonga, but I know this one will be okay and I am happy for him :). Little miracle this week- we have been teaching a very inactive family for a while and they keep promising they will come to church, but they never do, but this week we finally had a really good lesson with the wife and she opened up, and the dad took the babies on a walk so that she could have some peace and really ponder the message. I know she felt the spirit and it was one of the first times I have taught a 100% tongan lesson without the help of my trainer and felt like I was really able to express myself and help someone open up. 

Hmmm... funny side note, there is a man in our ward who just retired from teaching at Liahona and he wants to start farming in Uta (the bush) now that he has free time. He REALLY wanted some seeds to start with, so I gave him the seeds mom sent me that Sister McGary wanted me to have :). He was SO excited! 

Spiritual thought- I don't know if i already explained this, but the whole mission is reading the BOM in 30 days right now. We are almost done. It has been a great experience. Towards the end, in 4th Nephi, it describes the begining of the downfall of the nephites about 200 years after Christ came to them. I really realized there that the pattern of apostacy is really the same among all people throughout all of history. The adversary is really smart. If the whole world could deny the OBVIOUS HUGE MIRACLES in just 200 years, what can happen to just one person in 2 years? Human beings are such malleable creatures. We change a little every day. If we are not always seeking for more light and more strength through Jesus Christ, the forces of darkness are undoubtedly working on us. I see that with the people we teach here and I have seen it in my own life. If you are not doing it already, buoy yourself up EVERYDAY. Read your scriptures. pray. and do it with sincerity. Love you all :) Out of sight, but not out of mind. Until next week <3.

-Sista Piva 

A road we walk on a lot...

cute little boys who we pass almost every day on the road! I think they one with the afro is part fijian.

Eating hoosi for the first time! aka... Horse meat... honestly, the flavor is not my favorite.

I asked a lady in our ward to sew collars on my dresses with the extra fabric mom sent! I just got them back :) this one is sooo much cooler than the other dresses!

The BEST is yet to come in 2016

Malo etau lava ae ta'uni!

Sounds like everyone's lives are resuming as normal after the holiday. Same here. kids here went back to school today. I was just full of gratitude this last week because there have been a few times when I have gotten a little discouraged and began to think there is NO ONE left in this little village to teach, but somehow, people have continued to come out of the cracks! I almost shed tears of joy yesterday because we worked sooo hard inviting people to church, and one of our wards which filled maybe 2 rows in the chapel last week, was almost full this week!! (although it's hard to tell because everyone tries to sit in the very back... Tongans... :) But, lots of VERY inactive people came and the whole ward was definitely excited. We also found a few promising new investigators this week. I know the Lord is watching out for us and answering prayers of faith. 

Other highlights for the week- sis. Emch got bit by a dog. they are gonna kill it. we might eat it. We had vilohoa with Sis. Reid and Vaa'i who came from Eua! It was sooo fun and one of Sister Vaa'i's relatives dropped off real pizza from the city! It was sooo good. Anyway, I'm out of time. Fav. Scripture of the week- Psalms 27:1. Sorry if i already used that one. I forgot.

Love Always,

Sista Piva

Tan Lines... Her poor feet!!

more tan lines

pizza from kolo!!!