Week 18: “Patient in All Their Sufferings”

 Malo etau lava famili! Sorry this email has been late, we have been actually pretty busy with service projects these past couple days but nevertheless it is here. As you all have known before, I was working in Ha'atu'a a pretty small village towards the edge of the island of eua. The village is extremely small and its entirety could be walked around in probably about an hour or 2. Finding things to do were hard but I knew that there were for sure things to do out there because kolipoki or John Groberg an old missionary who used to serve in Niuatoputapu, served on a small island for almost a whole year and said, "there is always work to do." But on one day I got a call from my district leader telling us we would be getting transferred to Pangai Eua. Pangai eua is alot bigger with more members and I also have a couple RM friends who live there which it would be nice to see them every once in awhile. But if I am being honest I did not want to Ha'atu'a. We were just barely starting to get close with a large part of the village. We had a already made alot of friends who were siasi kehe (different church) which we could've possibly tried working with. Also one of the members told us about a 40 yr old man who had been taught lessons 1-3 but didn't finish so we would finally have a person to teach lessons. But we had to do the things that were asked of us, so we packed out bags and we were headed to pangai. Pangai does not have an MQ or mission quarters in the area. MQs are mission owned but pangai has a rental house which is where then church rents a house from someone in that area. When we arrived at the rental is missing lots of things, like a water distiller, ice, iron, bucket and pipe and other things. It had also grown lots of cobwebs because no one lived inside for around 3 or 4 weeks since I came to eua. The way we get water if we get thirsty is there are a bunch of these bottles on the table and we have to ask the neighbor to fill it up. To be honest when I got to Ha'atu'a we were already drinking water from the big water tank so I thought my stomach was used to the water already. Yet no I was wrong haha I got sick. I got sick and I was unable to eat for 2 days because of it. Thankfully one of my RM friends ran some pink drink thing (I was so frustrated with being sick didn't even read it I just drank it) I did barely glimpse at it to make sure it wasn't expired which yes it was still good. It sucked because we also had the blessing to watch conference at our stake center but I was still sick. Even tho I was still sick I really wanted to go so I just took pills and said "welp" and we left😂. Watching the conference in tongan was honestly very hard for me. I was sick and my translating is not that good and all of it was just giving me a headache. But I was able to slightly understand Jeffery R Hollands talk where he talked about losing his wife. Losing the life a loved one is a road of pain I'm sure we've all been down before. His talk was ultimately about prayer which was good but when he talked about pain and grief and sorrow it made me think of my own experiences with the same subject. For example at that current moment being sick, as well as having to go to anew area and start all over with the work I was doing. It felt like when trying to build Legos or blocks and someone comes and just kicks it down. Also not having an ice iron and all those things I mentioned. I also thought of alot past experiences. Such as pala (I just barely got 2 on my arm 😑) home sickness, language etc. Even things way way back in the past before my mission. Like the loss of my uncle John who was like Glue to our family. Or when it seemed everyone was able to buy a brand new house and me and my family were still stuck in a house that was falling apart. I thought alot about why. Why? Why is pain grief sorrow and loss required? We are doing everything that we are asked yet why are we not moving forward, or why are we dealing with all this amount of pain? I want to share my second favorite scripture from Alma 20:29 which says,

"And when Ammon did meet them he was exceedingly sorrowful, for behold they were naked, and their skins were worn exceedingly because of being bound with strong cords. And they also had suffered hunger, thirst, and all kinds of afflictions; nevertheless they were patient in all their sufferings."

When I come to this it always humbles me. Even after suffering "all kinds of afflictions" they remained "Patient in all their sufferings." Pateince patience patience. As said in Hebrews 10:36 but paraphrased by Elder vaioleti and Elder foni, "for my patience I will be rewarded." If you have "Patience" then you may receive the "promise." We all know the story of Job. To be honest even sometimes with this mission I just have to say to myself "for my patience I will be rewarded." 😂 We get our trials and tribulations along with pain and sorrow and grief so that we can endure them and learn from them. You have to know what pain is to know what happiness feels like. The sun always comes up everyday it doesn't stay dark all day. You just have to be patient until it comes. 

Video:  Digging up kava root

Here's my little malanga lol. Until next time famili. Be patient yall, we almost there.