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.