Vilohoa

 

Hey Guys!!!!

So this week has been awesome!!! Seriously,  I know this for a fact! Missionaries around the world yearn for wards like the ones here in Tonga!!! As I said last week, the minister from the Wesleyan church went around and told the people in our area to stop taking our lessons... and unfortunately they all listened except for one so that was nice!! So we told our bishop and next thing we know we have a vilohoa (when members go out and talk to everyone in the area and they do it with no fear! Seriously!!!) and they invited all the people in our area to an open house the next day!! In which 22 people arrived!! A lot of them inactive.... and about 5 to 7 of them were investigators!!! It was incredible!!! Then to top it off about 60% showed up to church that Sunday after we taught them at the open house and invited them to church!!! It was in an incredible feat put together by the ward to get people for us to teach!!!

So, this last week was pretty good, as you have read above...

For the last five weeks I have been on the hunt for an elusive animal that many missionaries haven't seen!! Even missionaries who have spent 3 months on the island of Eua!!! One day, as I was working in the bush, all of a sudden, there it was!! I WITNESSED THE EUA PARROT!! Yes folks, I saw it! And, I got a picture of it! It landed pretty far away but its bright green back was beautiful!! It was awesome and I saw three more that day.  It was an incredible day ha-ha! I don’t think I have ever been so excited to see a bird before,  seriously.... all of the Tongans were laughing at me cause I was so excited!! It was so cool!!

So,  this week in retrospect has been incredible!! I have loved it here on Eua and with the transfer coming up I don’t know what is going to happen.  It will be very interesting!!! Because 21 new missionaries are coming! So, I’m excited to see how this transfer runs through!!!

Other than that I have been having a blast here.  My Tongan has been getting there! Of course through the Lord's help! And it has been an awesome experience here! I’m excited to see where I will be next week!

Until then!!

Love,

Elder Sheppard!!