Hello there across the seas!

Pretty sure you are all not on tonga so therefore hello across the seas! Well it's that time again for an email from me! 6/16 after i emailed you that day we taught misi lesson 4! That went well. He's a really receptive 9 yr old and remembers everything we teach him! It's sweet! 6/17 Well we talked to Halaevalu and invited her to church i shared DC 38 7 with her! Then we were gonna teach misi but he was with his friends so we invited all the friends too! haha we taught 7 kids. 2 who aren't baptized and after one said he really wanted to but we need to talk to his parents! Then we talked to a lady named Faholani. We talked awhile. She was telling us about her life. We invited her to church. She said she would come! Shes a less active. Then we visited Finau again and asked her to come to church. She said she promises too. Her husband left. He was always drunk and stuff. I feel bad for these ladys. Their husbands stink!! Then we visited manase and his wife! They both said they would come to church too! 6/18 we did service! We made a garden for these people to grow manioke and taro. i got 3 blisters in like 10 minutes. Man that was hard work and in america that work would be way easier! haha. But it was really good! blisters were fun to have haha. We were gonna teach misi but he wasn't home so we talked to his grandpa who is wesleyan. Talked awhile! Then we went to a ladys house we heard there was a white girl interested in the church. Well we met her. She's an anthropologist from chicago. She is really interested in mormonism because it's the fastest growing church and she wondered why they get so much crap. We talked to her for a long time about life and answered questions she had. Just trying to talk. She has had the discussions before so we are trying to have a different approach with her. but i asked her to read the BOM and gave her one. She was way down to read it. She's really interested but not interested to be a member. Haha something i never thought of that she thought why we were fastest growing was cause we have nice churches and the way we dress. Somethin i never thought about. I like talking to her. Honestly i think she could be baptized. We'll see were it goes though. 6/19 we went to get semisi so he would come to church. Well he wasn't home he went to a funeral in popua. We went with AP's again to teach at another church. That went good. Taumalolo asked me to teach some parts this time. I felt like i did alright. He said i did good too so that was nice. Just taught lesson 1. Then we went to havelu so maka could do a baptismal interview. The 2 kids were supposedly taught but they didn't know anything in the interview. 1 kid was pretty good so maka passed him for baptism but said the girl wasn't ready. The bishop was way mad. Said they were his kids and been taught. It was a big mess for a bit and i may have wanted to tell that bishop what i was thinking but i didn't, partly cause i don't know how to in tongan haha. but everything turned out alright. so at church that white girl came to church and halaevalu! Halaevalu seemed so happy! It was awesome! I mean she seems happy at home but she seemed to have a glow and almost a freedom. It was awesome. Way good to see her there! And we heard that misi's family, who has been inactive, all went! Sweet! But the others we invited didn't show up but we'll try again next week! 6/20 man june is flyin by! We went to manase's house. They said they weren't able to go to church. But we talked to his wife about faith and alot of other stuff and it turned out really good. I told him some stuff in tongan that i have never said before in tongan, it wasn't perfect tongan but they understood. Manase said they understood and felt my spirit. Guess that's all that matters! 6/21 We had district meeting. i did our report! It went good. Felt confident with it and that it all made sense! Then after we all went to a house and ate! We went to havelu to reinterview that girl but we couldnt' find the elders there so it didn't work out then walked all the way to tofoa and we got to watch the joseph smith movie in english. the zone leaders put it on for people to come see! Everything understands english around town so it was good. Man i just love that movie. I wish they gave us a copy to show to people! it's so powerful! I love watching it. I felt the spirit strongly there! We got home and maka had been feeling sick so i gave him some stuff to help him. 6/22 maka was sick but the AP's called and said one of them was coming to observe our comp study and then going with us to visit our investigators and then we had a meeting with president the other district leader in the zone and the zone leaders. So maka was a man and just fought through it and no one even could tell he was sick. Comp study went really good. All in tongan and i understood and then we went to visit misi but he wasn't home but visited his family for a minute and they said they really enjoyed church and then we visted that anthropologist and talked to her again. Man, she's already in 2 nephi! She said she's really enjoying reading and it's really interesting and can see where we get our teachings from. I told her our first visit you can get all our teachings from the bible and the book of mormon and she's seeing that. She grew up protastant. She came to tonga cause she heard that like 50% are mormon haha. I think it'd be cool if she got baptized and i think she's ready to. We still are going to fast and pray about it though so we know what to do! Then we went to the meeting. It was really good! I understood alot of it and i was able to say some things. I had to say the opening prayer and we all bore testimony at the end but while prez was talking i said some other stuff. After the meeting he said i'm doing really good and my tongan is really good. So that was a major confidence boost. I hope to just be able to keep the confidence for awhile and not fall into a slump again and just keep progressing! It felt really good! I'm trying to talk to people more and maka more in tongan. He's just an awesome guy. I feel so blessed to have had him for 2 transfers. He's a major help to me. thats for sure! It's awesome. Well then we went to havelu and did the interview. the girl seemed more ready so those 2 kids are gettin baptized today (thursday). And then it's still morning here so not anything exciting has happened yet! So that's all! Till next week! I love you all and so grateful for you and your prayers, love and support! Means the world to me! I am so lucky to be out here on a mission to just serve the lord and bring happiness to people. It's truely amazing. This gospel is true. I know it is. I know Jesus is the Christ and came and redeemed our sins. I know this is the only true church on the earth. I know we will meet God again after this life and we must prepare to meet him. The time soon cometh. I konw Joseph Smith was a true prophet and he restored this gospel and saw God the Father and Jesus Christ and he did translate the Book of Mormom which is true. I know that we are Gods children and he blesses us when we do as he says. I know that because of my service out here my family is blessed. Because they are it makes being out here totally worth it even if they are the only ones who recieve the blessings but they definitely aren't. I am sooooo blessed it is crazy and i'm eternally grateful for my loving father in heaven who loves and cares about me and all of us. In the name of Jesus Christ, amen. I love you all! Til next week! 

Gotta make this one quick!

Hey everyone! Not alot of time to email this week so i'm gonna try to keep it quick! Friday was like christmas! I got 3 packages. All from mom. Some tapes and candy and garments and journal! We got to meet up with my MTC teacher brother payne who visited here. It was cool seein him again. I realized Isaac can turn in his papers this month. That's freakin cool if he does. I'd like to hear from him! saturday did a comp exchange. I was with elder tafea. We walked aton trying to find this house and we finally did but no one was home. it sucked haha. But we went to a baptism of the wife and daughter of the guy who was baptized in like march by the mission prez. The Spirit was so strong! Then we had a FHE with a less active family that night. sunday some of the people we invited to church showed up! IT was really good too see. But we didn't get the chance to talk to them cause we had to leave early cause the AP's needed us to help them teach. I went with elder taumalolo and he did probably the most boring lesson i've ever seen. There are like 5 investigators teaching them all at once and he just did it all on the chalk board and did it like a school lesson. Pretty sure no one felt the spirit really. I saw like 2 of them nodding off. Hopefully they felt something during it though that helps them! Monday. Can't believe we are already almost half way done with the transfer! Way fast! We gave a blessing that morning to bishop whose leg was hurting him from diabetes. He ended up in a wheel chair. (today though we saw him standing up walking around. HOpefully that is just a good sign that the blessing helped!) We taught a 9 year old lesson 1. It went really good. then we had an FHE with his family. Tuesday. We had district meeting. Went pretty good! just like normal. We taught misi lesson 2. Another good thing. He's getting baptized next saturday! I saw while i was eating dinner that night that the Mavs won the championship. Good for them. I wanted miami to win but i'm glad mavs did over the lakers. Take that anyday! Then we had a good comp inventory that night. Wednesday. I got a package from Jenna! It was pretty dang sweet! All this packages were sent in may SO they all got here really fast! I wonder where all the other ones are? HOpefully they come soon? We taught Misi lesson 3. I tried to just wing what i was teaching and not have anything just memorized. It went okay. Not real smooth. I was reallyjumbled together. But good thing maka cleared it up for me. Then me and Elder tafea went to set up an appointment while maka and unga went to another house we had planned to go to at the same time. we got the appointment for saturday which is 2 investigators that are basically for sure baptisms which is good! That's really all the highlights for this week! SOrry it was quick! I love you and miss you all and very thankful for all the support and love and mail and prayers and everything from you! I am so thankful to be out here being a missionary it is so awesome! A truely amazing experience! I feel so blessed to do so! Til next week! 
Love,
Elder Rose

Well well well what do we have here?

It's another email from Elder Rose who is doing the most amazing thing ever! He is sharing the gospel with people in Tonga! Yup he's pretty lucky! Hello everyone! Hope all is going wel for you all! First off thanks for all the love and support and emails! I don't think you know what they mean to me as a missionary especially when i know it's hard to take the time to write sometimes! So thank you! Well been a busy week kinda. Hope i can keep this relatively short! I just wanna say that dang, i ate good this week. Members were nice! But I'll go into detail i'm sure as i think i wrote those down as highlights to email haha. Well i'll get started. 6/3 (think i emailed about this day in the last email but oh well) Hahah wow look first thing i have to talk about is food! I got freakin blueberry pancakes for breakfast again! Same lady! Holy moly i miss american breakfast, Even if it's just cereal. All you who don't start your day with food are taking that for granted. I have to wait all day to eat some times. We looked for dean to teach him and his mom but couldn't find him. I think he doesn't really have a desire to be baptized. But we're still going to try talkin to his mom if they are still around and not back in Australia. I started to do wash, yup you guessed it, i broke our bucket. Oops! my bad! We got to go to the 'uta with Peni (pronounced Benny) the 'uta is the bush. Or i guess it's really a farm kinda thing! They had an orange tree and i climbed that and we knocked down oranges and we got some cocoanuts to drink and i think that's about it. I shot a video there. You'll all see someday i hope! That night i think i killed like 22 flies in our house. Crazy things. 6/4 We had pancakes eggs and my favorite, real american ham! K so we visited 9 houses. You say wow 9 houses. Well let me tell ya, that's an all day job and walk here in tonga. It was crazy, and all the houses are way far apart. All the ones we visited and actually got to talk to we just invited to church, all of them are just inactive or less active so we just invited them and tried to let them know it is important! That night i felt bad cause at all the houses i didn't really talk. I never really saw an opportunity and didn't really understand but i still felt bad. That night after planning maka said i know you like going to the houses but it's hard when i am the one just having to keep conversations going and you are tuned out. He just asked if i would just try a little more. He expects more of me. But I totally agreed with him and just told him i'd try harder. It's nice to know he just cares and has the confidence in me and just cares that i try. I agreed and just told him thanks for caring and pushing me and i'll try! 6/5 5months done! Wow! We went to church. No one we invited came, dang. We ate way good! Got spaghetti! I ate so much i almost threw up like 4 times. Almost asked to leave the house so i could throw up but i held it down thank good ness! 6/6 we looked for deans again. Couldn't find it. We visited Tevita Akauolas ( the guy we've been trying to teach with ZL's) we can't teach him right  now cause he's got issues goin on with family but we decided to work on his wife and reactivate her. We just asked her to read some of a pamphlet and scriptures that talk about eternal families. She was real interested. Then we visted more houses. Got into every house we tried that day! It was sweet! and set up appoints for all of them! We visited this one lady who i swear is the oldest looking homo sapien i have ever seen. Ya know EEZMA on emperors new groove? Yup like that but older. haha we talked to her forever! But it was hard she was just talking alot and talking about everyones weaknesses. We read Ether 12 27 with her. and got another appointment set! We ate pizza! Then went to a family home evening! It went good! They actually gave us 2 people to teach too! One is just a 9 yr old but hey anyone is welcome and important in our church! 6/7 We had district meeting which was pretty good. Didn't understand everything like last time but that's okay. Chin up right? Well we visited a less active members house and we talked to her awhile and then i didn't really know what people were talking about but i tried to just think of a spiritual thought i could share. At the end i shared DC 38:7 with her. It went good! Then we went to a couple more houses. Taught Josephine (already baptized) half of lesson 4 and then had to leave to another appt. We rush to the appt but the kid already had left so we didn't get to meet with him. Then went to Finau's house and we set up an appointment with her. We got 30 bucks for fafanga so we bought a big pizza. You take 5 dollar pizza for granted. 30 bucks is like the cheapest here. It was good. Then we did a comp exchange. I went with the ZL Thompson. I love that guy. Me and him are way alike. It was cool being with him! we visited missionaries in the zone to just check on them. Me and him talked til 3 that night. 6/8 needless to say, didn't quite wake up on time haha. This day we just moved the ZL's from Hofoa to Tofoa. and we did a baptismal interview. Got another haircut. Man, if i get a decent haircut the first time around after one person this mission i'll be surprised! It took 2 people and it still is pretty....just great to say the least... (sarcsm intented) Then that night we vilo hoa'd back. Then today, 6/9 My MTC teacher payne came to Tonga. Didn't get to see him today. Hopefuly i get to before he goes to Vava'u! Then we went to Hofoa and Pday'd eat and Volleyball! Then sittin here emailing Vuka Sanft called, The one who dropped off the package for me there. I was first to know about her new baby! haha pretty sweet! Well that is all! I love you and miss you all! Thank you for everything! This Gospel is true for anyone who doubts it is. I know without a doubt it is. 
Love
Elder Rose

Time for another email from Tonga!

Heylo family and friends! I got a little more busy on thursday than i expected so didn't get a chance to write this email so that is what i'm doing now! Well it has been 5 complete months now and workin on 6. Crazy huh? I sure think so! Time is going quick! Man people here always ask me about what i think of everything that happens in america. Haha I don't know what's goin on in america. Like when osama died and i guess some tornados hit michigan? or massachussetts? i dunno. It's funny though cause they think i watch news and have a newspaper or something haha. Well i guess i'll get into the highlights of the week! Hope you enjoy and i don't bore you! Well 5/27, not too many highlights really. I actually bought some bread, jam, and peanut butter and had a pb&j. That was pretty much amazing! familiar tastes i don't get alot are always way nice! And we got a LAN line telephone installed in our unit! All the missionary houses are getting them! Finally, they help so much with appointments and if you need the zone leaders or anything it's just nice to know we can get ahold of them and not have to ask people for their phones and use their credit on their phone. So that was the highlights that day. 5/28 I read the book of mormon in tongan, instead of saying that i'll just abbreviate tohi a molomona which is TAM everything i say that. So read TAM alot and did some laundry. I actually saw Shumway, for those who don't know him he is a white guy that's like the best tongan speaker ever, better than tongans, he has been mission and temple prez here. Saw him in a baseball cap and church clothes haha. Funny get up but cool to see him. Didn't talk just saw him. So that was cool. We hadn't been able to go out and walk alot cause of Maka's ankle but did what we could. We got to eat a big pizza that night about from Little Italy, we ate with the family next door. 5/29 transfers were comin up. I told maka i think we'll both stay and he'll be district leader. He said no because he's never been in an area for 3 transfers and i said there is a first for everything. I really just wanted to stay with him cause we have fun, work hard, and i learn aton from him. I was praying what i said was true. Well we went to church and then had fafanga. Then we practiced taught a kid in english going to houston on his mission next month to kinda help him see how it was done. Then that night we were walking to Finau's house (less active) and on the way some people called out to us. We went and talked to them. It was 6 or 7 WHITE PEOPLE FROM BYU haha. They are here trying to help improve prostetics and stuff. Lot's of people are missing a limb from diabetes. But a few of them has been on missions already and it was really weird and cool to talk to RM's while on my mission, not to mention they were all jealous i was on my mission here haha. But it was cool talking to people in english that were white from my same area. They new some people i knew too! Then we went to Finau's house and shared a spiritual though with her and her kids and her nephew. Her nephew has a sad story, he was baptized when he was thirteen by his uncle but he didn't really understand anything and then his dad found out and told him he can't do the mormon thing and he liked being mormon but today he drinks kava and smokes but we think we are going to just kinda let him know what he did at baptism and the covenants he made with god so he kinda realizes what happens and he can live a better life. We'll see how that all goes! we were supposed to get a call that night from the ZL's to see if we were stayin or transfering. We were up til 1 waiting for that call that never came. 5/30 Transfer day! And we still had no idea what we were doin for transfers. We called the ZL's and they said they were headed to the office to figure out what transfers were to happen. We waited awhile for them to call back. They did and maka answered and when he hung up he said.. TOE NOFO!! meaning we are both staying again! I was way excited! and we got different zone leader who is way cool with the one cool one we already had so i was more excited! Then found out Elder Fale got transfered out of the zone. I was a little relieved to have a break from his negativity towards me. Well it was rainy that day and the new ZL came by with our old one. It's gonna be a good transfer! Haha maka is also district leader. Man i just called it! haha. We cleaned up the house that day and did some study. By the end of that day, i guess transfers still weren't done and people were runnin around doing stuff and moving missionaries all night. It was a mess. Hopefully our president realizes he needs to find a better way to do transfers. 5/31 Man it was a dog and bug day. Lots of dogs chasing us and bugs always surrounding us and eatin us up! Don't know what the deal was! I swear some dogs just came out of thin air to bark at us. We had District meeting. Oh man it was glorious. I understood basically everything that was said! It was so awesome! To feel involved and i was even able to put in my 2 sense in tongan and it was just very uplifting to know i'm progressing some! I felt really blessed! It was a good district meeting too. Then we went around visiting less actives! That's what most the work is in our area! It's really hard, you'd think it'd be easy cause mostly all of them are part member families, one problem, the member is always less active so we can't really work on the non member.. we visited about 6 less active houses and set up appointments and chatted with them all for awhile to get to know them. Some of them lie and say they are strong in church and go every sunday and we are like we don't see you, and it's hard not to see you if you did go because there are only like 40 members in the ward haha. So we set up some times to meet with people. These one people have an albino baby. She is 2. She is way funny. Just speaking tongan. Really clearly and good! But she's funny. We shared a spiritual thought with one of the people we met with who is a member but not active and the husband isn't a member. Just shared alma 37 37 with her. Then we were able to teach Dean that night. We taught him and it was a really intense one. We really were pushing him to make the choice to get baptized. The only things stoping him he said was his mom wouldn't let him unless he knew everything, his mom is a member and so is her boyfriend but they are both inactive and aren't living the best lives. It's sad. But it was really intense and we just bore testimony to him and told him importance and that we'd help anyway we could and we'll even talk to him mom with him and all. He comitted to baptism saturday if it was possible. We teach him in english, he is from austrailia, but been here the last like 3 years and going back soon. Well it was a really good lesson and we decided to fast for him and everything. Set up another appt to meet with him the next day and talk. ended the night with pizza with the ZL's and new office elders. I got a really nice complment from thompson who has been the zone leader the whole time i've been here. Just said my language is really good and i'm understanding alot and just doin good. Better than some people who have been here longer. It was nice to hear that. 6/1 did some service. raked up our neighbors yard of all the rotten breadfruit on their ground. Started our fast for Dean, his situation and some other things. We went to a less active house and they worked on maka's ankle to try to make it better. It's crazy what they do. Just rubbing it and moving it around being way rough with it. I woulda cried. He almost did but didn't! Then we prepared a thought to share with one of the less actives we had an appointment with about the wise man and the foolish man. haha i came up with sentences in tongan out of nowhere to share, maka was surprised! Well we go to meet with this guy but he wasn't home. So we went to his neighbor, another part member but less active family. we set an appointment with him to meet on sunday. Then went to visit 3 other houses but all the people were not able to meet with us. Then we waited that night to teach dean which we were fasting for but... he never showed up. It was really discouraging. 6/2 We got to go to the temple! It was really nice! Love the temple. Understood a little more than last time. and everything i said i had to in tongan, they didnt offer to let me do it in english this time haha it was hard, i just made sounds i thought i heard. The lord knows the intent though and it was true! But the whole time I just thought, how am i supposed to learn a language? and I just realized what an act of faith it is. I don't know how to study a language, i just do what i think might help and leave the rest to the lord to help me. So far it's worked. I just hope i can keep picking it up. I have felt really good about the language progress this past week. I'm just trying to speak more with maka in tongan and everything. It will eventually come! Well we had to go with the zl's to look for some elders who went into town, we aren't supposed to go into town, if they were caught then that's not a good thing. never found them. Then we had some way good pizza from a guy who moved here from italy. We destroyed 2 huge delicious pizzas, the 4 of us. Then that night most of our district went to this house that asked us to come for their sons birthday and do a spiritual thought. It was really fun actually ate alot and then just danced around and laughed with the family. I made a fool of myself dancing like i usually do haha. But it's fun to make them laugh. Tongans like when white people do stupid stuff like that. 6/3 Got to have freakin breakfast made for us! It was so good! The lady made us blueberry pancakes! It was heavenly! I loved it! Then we went to find dean cause we were going to talk to his mom! We found him, he said he talked to her and i think he was lying cause he was like no, well yeah actually she said she wants me baptized in austrailia. I dunno what to do with him. We'll keep just trying to teach him i guess! Then we were doin some wash but our bucket broke. Stunk cause i was washing all my church shirts and so i didn't have a dry one. I just rinsed one and put it by our fan to dry a little. Then we went to the bush and helped Peni get some oranges and stuff. The bush is like peoples farms. it was fun! If i get a flashdrive and memory card soon you'll be able to see some pics cause i can send my one home which is almost full which started off being able to hold like 2000 pics! haha. Well we finished wash that night. borrowed a bucket from Peni. And then we helped D with his phone and came home! and today the 4th we got breakfast again! Same lady! Pancakes with ham and eggs! Oh dang so good! Well that's all for the week! Hope you enjoyed! Love and miss you all!
Love,
Elder Rose

What? another one done already?

Hello everyone! Can't believe another transfer has already gone by. I don't believe i've been with Elder makasini already 6 weeks. I hope i get to do another transfer with him he's been way way awesome! He's taught me alot. Well i'll get started on the week i suppose! Starting last p day. 5/19 Nothing to exciting happened really. Just the normal volley ball and eat. Me and maka sini have grown alot together and i saw him mature alot over this transfer. Well trying to sleep that night was a joke. lightning and thunder was crazy! Pretty sure that the fence in the front of our house was struck. It was so crazy and so crazy loud! Holy moly never heard it so loud and close as i did that day! The next day we had zone conference 5/20 it was from 10-4 well on the way there elder fale (my trainer) said my language hadn't improved. Thanks man. You didn't help me at all you have no reason to talk and i felt alot better about my language. But then i still didn't understand much in the meeting so it just got me more down. Also found out this mission is full of a bunch of gossip girls it's dumb how much is said behind each others backs to other missionaries. But then we got to watch the talk elder holland gave to us my first devotional in the MTC. It was SO good to rehear that talk. It is way good! You can probably find it online. He gave it 1/11/11 it is so good. I took notes on it again and it was just amazing! I love his talks. I also got another letter from chet. yet again it was sent to boroko new guinea first! haha at least i got it right? He wrote it 3/18. I came across a scripture this day that just brough me alot of comfort Alma 37:37. I'll let you read it. It was a comforting mission scripture. We ended our meeting with hearing the finishing missionaries testimony and a recent convert. Told us his whole story. Its way cool. He was way against the church but because his son got interested. He read the Book of Mormon out of curiosity and wanted to be baptized ASAP. Pretty cool. 5/21 This was a really cool day that at first i thought was going to be a waste because of the rain. Well we went out and stopped at bishops cause it was raining. He fed us and we waited for the rain to stop. it finally did. Then we went to a members house and talked to them til the rain stopped again. we headed back home to make another plan and come up with what we were gonna do. I started reading the bible and maka took a little nap while we waited for the rain to stop again. Well I woke up 30 minutes later. I didn't know i fell asleep haha. Workin hard i guess. But it was time for fafanga so we went there. They just gave us money and so as we were walkin back we decided to stop by a house where a guy named Tevita Akauola lives. We've tried teaching him this whole transfer but he's never been home. Well we were gonna stop by to see if we could just set an appointment with the zone leaders cause apparently he didn't understand last time so we needed extra help but he was there and they made it seem like they were ready to hear a lesson. Well we took advantage of the chance. We only taught him the first and second principle. They were surprised when we finished somewhat quick but we needed the zone leaders to help teach so we just did a little something. He seemed really interested though. Little background. He is wesleyan and his wife is a member of our church but she just follows him. They just had a baby and want to baptize that baby wesleyan this saturday we found out. More about that later. well we finished up there and then started to walk to a ladys house we'd been planning to go see that was inactive. on our way there we ran into her nephew who we also wanted to talk to and invite him to church. So we did that when we saw him. Then we stopped by a house we had an appointment with but cancelled cause of our zone conference. They were good. Then we went to this ladys house we were plannin. her name is Finau Moana. Anyway we show up and she said she was just praying for us or someone to come. her baby was sick and she wanted her baby to have a blessing. Talk about the lord guiding us there through the rain that i thought was gonna be a waste! Here, you don't really go out in rain cause you get soaked and dont want to go into peoples houses and get it all wet. But anyway we gave her baby a blessing and answered questions she had about the Book of mormon and the God head. She understood after that. I'm confused why she didn't know though because she was married in the temple her first marriage and her husband now is wesleyan. But if she went through the temple you'd think she'd know all that but oh well she knows now haha. She was way nice though. We asked if we could do a FHE with her on monday and she said yes and we invited her to church. It felt really cool to experience physical proof of being a tool in the lords hands to help the ones in need. 5/22 we went to church today. In sacrament for the first ward we go too, the counselor came and asked me to give the opening prayer. I said yes and was scared. I felt my prayers really improved this transfer but i was still scared. well i said it. Man. What a bad prayer. I'm glad God is merciful cause that prayer was as good as well, i dunno, but no good haha. I think i thanked for 2 things and asked 2 blessings. I got nervous what can i say? Mind went blank. Then in Sacrament meeting Mele, Fina & Vala spoke. They live in the house next to us. They spoke cause they are moving to San Fransisco. Then after church we waited for the ZL's so we could go teach Tevita the rest of lesson 1. It went really good. We all took part. I talked about how to pray to know the truth. I felt everything i said came out smooth and made sense. Tevita seemed to have enjoyed the lesson too which is good. Another appointment with him for wednesday at 6. Then we went back and finished church with our other ward. Then we went to our fafanga. Pretty funny we were eating and a really old episode of music and the spoken word popped up on their TV. Made me laugh. Then we had a bishops conference that night with the bishops from our wards and all the leaders of the groups. They were talking about how to do missionary work and bring the less active back. Some decided to do it in their groups. Some decided by families and what not. Then we went to visit Finau to see if the FHE was able for monday. She said it was but her husband won't come (he hates mormons. But he married one?) 5/23 We woke up and got some breakfast from the house we had our fafanga the day before. This time the Wiggles was on. Made me teary eyed for a sec cause it made me miss ty and brooke. Then played basketball with makasini. After that we came and studied and marked up lots of scriptures. Then we went and visited a member a little ways away on our way to our teaching appointment. She was good. Served a mission here in Tonga in 06. Then we went to our appointment with Josephine. We read Ether 12 with her. My favorite chapter. We just explained each verse as we read them. It was good. Then we went to our FHE with Finau. It was really good. I shared the spiritual thought and we did an activity with her about listening to prophets. She really enjoyed it. We finished and she asked us to stay for dinner. So we did. Chicken in noodles. It was good. We also got to talk to viliami. Turns out he was baptized at 13 by his uncle but his dad said no more and made him wesleyan. he's probably 24 now and still likes mormonism and everything. hopefully one day his dad won't hate him and he can be a mormon again. Then we went and had FHE with the family next door to our house. The Tu'ihalangingie's. They are awesome. I just thanked them for all their help to me. We also answered a question of a girl there. She has a friend that asked why we have the book of moses if its just the same as genisis. I said it's cause it has the Joseph smith translations in it and we found a scripture: 1 nephi 13: 29 says how the bible has lost truths that need to be restored. There ya go! 5/24 played ball again. I beat Makasini both times in 21. He made it to 10 one game and not even double digits the other. Felt really good. Man i miss playin real games. I think this volleyball is helpin my jump though. I can grab rim better here and it's not even on a wood floor that gives you lift. Just cement. Hopefully that continues haha. Dunk when i get back. Then we had District meeting. It was really good. I had to practice teach the intro to the Book of mormom in tongan. Never have before but it went okay. Then we did testimony meeting for elder vaka in the district who finishes this transfer. I didn't think i'd see some of the elders cry that i did. It was a good spirit there. Then we all went to eat at Lomios house after. On the way there. Elder fale again asked how my language was. i said good comin slowly but surely. He was like i think it's worse than last transfer. Man this dude is crazy. He is jealous or somethin to see the progress i made this transfer that i never made with him. But he made me so mad. If i'm so bad why doesn't he try helpin me. I hope he goes to a new area so i can have a break from him bein so negative to his son he trained.. anyway that didn't do anything to make my day great. But i talked to maka and as always he cheered me up. Then we went home and read and studied. Then we went to visit some people who just moved in who are supposedly less active. The lady there seemed way into herself. Then we went to fafanga. It was at Tevitas house who we taught. He wasn't their but some people were. Tevitas wifes sister talked to us. Told us he want's to baptize the baby wesleyan. Moroni 8 here we come. Then after that we went to the house next to us and i took a pic with the whole family before some went to america and before and if i get transfered. 5/25 again beat makasini in 2 out of 2 games in 21. Then we ate next door and helped them build thier garden they are doing. Then we studied. Practiced alot for our lesson with Tevita. I was just plannin on teachin the creation principle which is just one sentance. Well we call the ZLs and they say they cant come so we are teachin with fale and unga. I had to pick up another principle. Hard to memorize something with that short of notice. We went to the church and i was able to memorize all i needed to in about 20 minutes. So thankful for God and his help. I wasn't lookin forward to teachin with fale but said a special prayer that i could loose that feeling and to help us be able to teach and tevita would understand. Well time came to go teach. Tevita wasn't there. He had left. He's done that before too. Kinda stunk. I wanted to teach. I felt good. But it's okay. We went to the church and were able to teach dean who we were supposed to teach last week but he never showed. So we talked to him at the church and just talked about joseph smith and the book of mormon. I think he'll choose to get baptized. But he's goin back to australia next week so he won't with us. Then we went to D's house and talked to him. Then today 5/26 Not too much happened. Just like a normal Pday. Just played volleyball alot and some touch rugby. My comp rolled his ankle pretty bad but he's, in his words, "beasting" through it. Walkin all over. He's a tough guy. I love him hes dang awesome. Oh also got a package from landon today that he sent march 31! pretty cool i get one from him the day he entered the MTC best of luck to him. He'll be awesome! Well I think that's about all for the week. If at anytime you just have the urge of "hey i think i'll send jake a package" then something i thought would be good out here is like poptarts and a bag of fruitloops or something. If any of you happen to get that urge. I know it's expensive and not a need. Also, if you send packages. Pictures of jesus on them help the missionaries not go through it before it gets to me haha. They'd feel guilty for stealing in front of jesus. Or something gospel related. For future consideration. Anyway I'm very thankful for all your love and support! Means alot to me! I'll keep on workin hard and you do the same! I love being a missionary serving here in tonga. I'm so blessed to have this experience. I love the gospel and know its true. Til next week! Which i might be in a new area! I'll keep ya updated!
Love,
Elder Rose