Tonga at Last!

Hey Mom, Dad, Family!!!

So, where to begin?  This has been one heck of an opening to my mission!!
We arrived in Tonga at about 12:00 pm on Wednesday! We got off the plane walked across the runway.  Seriously, right when you walk out of the plane you're already soaked! No joke!! The humidity is crazy!  Which makes me so happy that I get to wear a tupenu, because if not, missionaries would get sent home all the time just from heat stroke!!  After we went through customs and all that,  we walked out and already standing there is our mission President! He gave us a huge hug and welcomed us to Tonga! It was super exciting.  Then we drove back to the mission home! It was directly across the street from the Temple, which was also super exciting 'cause for a day and a half we could see the Temple! The funny part was the grass was greener around the Temple! Every where else it wasn't nearly as green!

We spent the night at the mission home and the next day we received our trainers! My trainer and Companion is Elder Groom or Elder Kulumu Tonganized! My new name tag now is Elder Sepeti! That was cool to get a whole new name tag! My trainer is awesome.  He is really teaching me a lot about the language and about how the Tongans do things! It has been super fun! We already have a baptism lined up for Saturday! The Tongan's name is Lau.  He is 20 and married and his wife is married! He has decided to be baptized and so we will be baptizing him this Saturday!
(Parental Comment: We think this is so funny and so Connor!)

Now, onto food!  The food here is incredible! It tastes awesome! But, here is the weird part,  OK, so, for all the Elders we have something called Fofonga and that is pretty much when we walk to a members house and they make the food for us.  So, we never cook and the members get angry at us if we do cook? Ha-Ha We have not had to cook and won't need to my whole mission. See?  Now, here is the really awkward part though, when we go to eat.... we eat first and they sit and watch us! Literally watch us! And their family eats after we leave.  So, you can see all the little kids staring at us while we eat and its super sad.

Sunday
  OK, Sundays are hilarious here! First we sing a hymn and the meeting starts when the Bishop feels like starting it.  So it can be 10 minutes early or 30 minutes late! The hymns though are the best part! The whole congregation seriously YELLS the hymns at the top of their lungs so loud! Seriously, it took all my will power not to laugh cause it was so loud.  It was awesome!  They don't watch the conductor, so they go at their own speed. So, basically,  you hear people holding notes too long or too short but, they just keep singing! And the best part is that they let their little kids just run up and down the aisles. They don't even chase them.  It's so great!  They run and yell so, the person speaking just yells louder into the pulpit! and it just gets louder and louder and louder. 

Onto my house.  We'll there's only one room.... It has 2 beds, a sink and a shower and bathroom. That's it. It's tiny.  We walk down a dirt road covered in potholes and other road blocks like rundown cars and such! Oh,
and I have not had a hot shower since I arrived here in Tonga.  They have all been ICE cold, like super, super cold!  So,  shower time is not as enjoyable anymore! It's a very quick in and out shower!!

So that's been my first week here in Tonga! It's been very exciting!!
LOVE YOU ALL!
Elder Sepeti