Week 9: Swagguh

Malo etau lava famili!

Hope everyone's chillin doing their daily thangs and vibin’ wit the cold weather 😎. This past week was cool—we had alot of stuff to do and got alot of stuff done. At the start of the week we were able to teach a laumalie named Sione who's 16. He's a very smart kid who grew up in the church but was never able to be baptized because of some complications at home. But while teaching lessons, whenever we asked him questions he would answer perfectly so it made the work a little bit easier with him. We had our interview done by my big headed brother Elder Foni. Elder Foni had been coming around alot because we had been needing him to either take us somewhere or needed an interview, so we saw him alot this week. He came and did the interview and after, since he wasn't busy, he even brought us food from the Hawaiian place (sorry I would of had a picture but every time we got the food I ate it so fast I forgot 🤦‍♂️ but I had Loco moco 🤑). Foni was able to even attend our baptism which was super dope because it took place in the ocean 🌊. None of us missionaries (Me, my hoa, Foni and his hoa) performed the baptism but it was still an amazing sight to see. It was also at 6 AM so right after the baptism we were able to see the beautiful sun rise. We came back home and chilled out for a little and did some other stuff. We ended up hanging out with Foni again cuz he stopped by to drop off our Stove and a brand new rice cooker 🙌🏾. One of my favorite things about when Foni comes over is he loves to jam out 🎵. Music is already a huge part of my life so when others love music like I do is just helps me gravitate more towards them. That's another reason, too, why me and my current hoa are so close. We jammed out, talked and played cards which, I'm not gonna lie I did so bad. Bruh Foni was getting angry and tbh when I saw he was getting angry I did even worse cuz I thought it was funny seeing him angry 🤣. Me and my hoa eventually knocked out for the night and that was it.

Next morning we were headed to the funeral of my uncle Salesi Tuha who lives in Vaotu'u. I had received a text from my mom early in the morning though saying that it had been pushed back from 10 AM to 2 pm which was okay that just meant me and my hoa had to find something to do. Foni eventually came around 1:30pm to take us and he came with food too 😋. So since my hoa, Elder Vaioleti, is my trainer that means he's my "mission dad" and since his TRUE trainer was Elder Foni, that makes Foni my Grandpa😂. So I appreciate all the food gramps! Foni took us to the funeral on time and I was able to find one of my family’s houses. Inside lived my cousin, Honeti Latu, who is named after my grandpa's brother. He was hekka chill and we hit it off right then. Eventually 2 hours had passed by and we were still waiting for the putu (funeral) to start. While waiting, I may aunt Nia from Texas found me and had brought over a package to deliver from my parents. It was so good to see Nia! I still remember when she was my seminary teacher. After that, all the cars started coming through and we knew the funeral was about to start. I stood outside with Honeti when I heard, "Hey Elder!" from behind me. When I heard it, it was in perfect English so I knew it was someone from America. I turned around and I saw it was my uncle Kitione and uncle Jeff! We took pics real quick before they rushed back to take care of Uncle Salesi.

The whole funeral was honestly a wave of emotions. As soon as I heard the hymns from the Siasi Tonga I immediately felt the spirit. As I went up with my uncle Jeff to fe'iloaki with Uncle Salesi I started to cry really hard. I was angry that I wasn't able to meet him. He could've told me stories about my grandpa Amoni. I was also angry because I wished my grandpa was here. Many waves of emotions but as I saw my uncle Jeff crying I comforted him because I didn't want to just let someone suffer alone. The whole thing was amazing and I was super glad to be able to meet many of my Vaotu’u family. We got picked up by grandpa Foni and his new hoa Elder Kanongata'a, who was my old district leader from MTC. It was a sweet reunion to see him again. We headed back to my place and we jammed out again and me and Kanongata’a talked. Me and gramps Foni argued about random stuff and he also told me some other stories from his past experiences during his current mission—some which are super funny but can only be told by him because of his delivery with the stories😂. We also talked about how we used to be “brothers” on our youth trek😂. That was a core memory for me. Years ago I was shivering in the same tent with Foni. Now years later I'm sweating and getting darker on the same mission. What a coincidence😂. That's all I had for now. I hope the best for everyone and their many path ways and wish you all luck. May God be with you. 💜