Week 10 & 11: Vaotu’u Boxers

Malo etau lava famili! Sorry I didn't send an email this past week, there wasn't much we were able to do because we had gotten sick so I didn't wanna write a short 3 sentence email saying how I was just sick the whole time. But this week was really good for me. The week started off slow but towards the end of the week it started to get good. We already baptized all of our laumalies that we had, and none of the members had come to us about any other laumalies. That being said, they had a couple of laumalies but they were youth and their parents did not approve of them learning the lessons. So for now, we needed to go looking for people or strengthen the members who were less active. On Thursday it was later in the day around 4. We had been walking around since 10 that morning but not much had been done. Most people were at school or at work. We had a fafanga that told us they will drop our meal  off at our house at 6pm so if we wanted to, we could have just went home early and waited till our fafanga came. To me tho that was boring.  I hate sitting around doing nothing so me and my hoa stayed outside. We get to the main road and we stood there for like maybe 2 minutes trying to figure out where to go. It seemed like we walked our whole village already. My hoa asked, "what you feelin?" And I said, "I don't know. Let's just go this way." We started walking the pathway to the Piulisi's house and that's who I had in my mind. We hadn't seen her in a while so maybe we should pay her a visit. While walking down that way my hoa goes, "Wait— didn't pisope tell us there was an American that lives here somewhere?" I had totally forgot about that. That's why I'm glad we have companions cuz companions will bring up suggestions that you didn't think about before. I said, "oh yeah I remember. He said it was a house that was newly built." We found a house that, to be honest, I thought appeared out of no where because we had walked this street yesterday and I didn't even notice this house. We came up to the house and knocked on the door and a man called out but said something in tongan. He opened the door and my hoa asked, "kataki toko, ke ha'u mei fe?" (Sorry bro, where are you from?) The man asked in English, "what do you mean? I'm from here." My hoa said in english, "oh sorry. But did you live in America at all?" And he says, "yes. Honolulu." He invited us to come inside and we talked for awhile. His name is Viliami Aholelei. He was originally in America but had come back to Tonga. He has 8 kids and over 30 grandchildren. While talking to him, the phone rang and it was our fafanga was calling. My hoa took the phone call and stepped to the side to answer while I kept talking to Viliami. He was wearing a Raiders shirt so I asked, "oh you're a raiders fan?" He goes, "yes. What about you," to which I said, "Oh I'm a cowboys fan," and he says to me, "oh you're one of those" 😂. I had asked him if his family is from Ha'asini which is where he is living right now and he told me he was from Hahake. He asked me where my family was from and I told him that my Grandpa Amoni Tuha is from Vaotu'u and he goes "oh yeah that's my village! The Tuha and the Latu family are my relatives." I was like what the heck I was talking to this guy the whole time not knowing he was my family. He told me that he had gone back to Vaotu'u to help teach a little bit of boxing. He said Vaotu'u is full of boxers which, from the stories my mom told, my grandpa was a boxer so the statement he said made sense to me. After a little more talking he asked us to bless his house and to bless him as well.  It was nice because that was my first time performing a blessing of any sort. We said our good byes and he was so thankful that we had stopped by. He said that previously there had been a little problem between him and the ward and they told past missionaries to stop going to his house. At that time Viliami asked if he could at least feed the missionaries but they said “no”. He said it was no hard feelings as God knows all things. We headed home and we had pasta for our fafanga — honestly which was like hekka surprising I didn't even know they could make that over here in Tonga. 😂 

Later on in the week on Saturday I was also able to be involved in another blessing with my hoa for a younger boy who had been sick for a little. It was a good experience. 

This upcoming week there are transfers and I'm not too sure if I will be moving out of the area or not. It would be cool if I do transfer but If I don't, I'm still happy too. It's funny tho because I want to go to an area where the struggle is super hard. Like Niua or Matamaka or any island where they call it, "a rock in the ocean" because you can't grow anything and there isn't much to do. Those are the areas I would love to serve in because I know it would be a challenge and I’m up for it. I would love a transfer but I would mos def be sad to leave my current hoa. He has trained me very well and I see him as another brother to me. We will see though whatever God puts me is where I will serve. Love and miss you all can't wait to see you all again!