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| On the way to District meeting |
Saturday, January 4, 2014
The Tongan people throw the best activities!
This week.... It was pretty interesting because since it was the lead up week to Christmas (which is huge here by the way). All the people here are preparing for Christmas and doing there Christmas activities! So it started up Tuesday. We walked to Hasini which is a 2 mile walk... then Wednesday we walked to Nakolo which is 4 miles away. Then finally we walked to Fuamotu, which is a solid 5 to 6 mile walk woooooo!!!! Here's to working out. I went through and entire pair of slippers that week. no joke! I had just recently bought a new pair the week before and i walked holes into them.... fun right!!!
It was an awesome week! The Tongan people honestly throw the best mutual and activities! They go all out and the kids all make their own dancing skits and perform them. They have games and everyone participates in them. It's like one huge gigantic family! The only difference between the Tongan activities and American activities is a little kid comes crying after the activity and that's about as rough as it gets! Now, lets compare 2 of the Tongan activities..... Example #1 So, everyone remembers the game where you put your head to a bat and spin in circles then run for a certain area right?? Well, there were three teams, green, red and white. So, the white team sent out a mom, 
right and she spins and spins and then TAKES OFF!! She's running straight up and down and going at a full sprint then she starts to tip and tip and tip then she falls to the ground and knocks herself out!!! They picked her up and set her in a chair and kept playing! Second Example, so they played a game where there is a piece of paper in the middle of the arena and three people from each team are given a number and when its called they run for the piece of paper... Well, one time the white team got it and a red team member chased her into the white area and I kid you not, the white team all got up and jumped the red team member and I'm not talking like funny shoving, they literally jumped the red team member and threw punches. It was crazy!!!! The red team member walked out with a black eye laughing! Good thing I'm use to seeing this now!! hahah
Well, for the spiritual side of the week: my area has about 300 people in it and they all have been contacted. In fact, 200 of them have been baptized. So this area is all about reactivation. We had a pretty surreal moment this week. We play touch rugby often with the people because that's the only way we can get the in-actives to talk to us. But, this week they walked to our house and told us to come and when we got there they all waited until we shared a spiritual thought and prayed then we all played rugby and we had 8 new people at church this week all in-actives!!! So, we are on our way!!!!
Ofa lahi atu Famili!!!
Elder Sepeti!!
Sunday, December 15, 2013
Normal day in the island life!
Famili!!!!This week has been awesome and I hope all of you enjoyed my sudden barrage of pictures!!!
I have been moved to a new area called Fatumu! It's absolutely incredible because the beaches right next to us are absolutely gorgeous! I can't even describe to you how beautiful they are. You will just have to look at the pictures!
So, work in the new area is definitely slow because this area that I have moved to is all about reactivation. We went to one of our 2 wards yesterday (because both wards start the same time and its about a mile to my other village. Soooooo, it's quite the walk. Needless to say, especially during the summer time here and the humidity is just not fun. Well, we have 200 people in one of our wards and only 20 showed up to church and in my other ward there are 75 people in that ward and only 22 showed up to church. So, that is our goal is to become friendly and invite back to church and remind them that the church needs them!!
I also received the opportunity to train a new missionary!!! its been awesome! I'm training Elder T from Oregon! It's been awesome serving with him. He's fun to work with. All we do all day is laugh, talk to members and hang out. It doesn't even feel like missionary work. We just have fun!! The people are very open and friendly and very loving. Our neighbors are incredible and they always make sure we are comfortable!! I love it!
Funny story really quick: So yesterday we were sitting there and as we were sitting there, we hear this wicked loud creaking noise, so we spin around really quickly to see the town water supply barrel break the hinges of the stand it was on and breakdown..... and as it goes down I hear my comp next to me shake his head look down at the ground and say quietly "bucket showers....." hahaha So, that's going to be fun for us. Until it gets fixed we get bucket showers for a couple weeks!!!! But to be completely honest, that's not that big of a change anyway. There was no water pressure. We were taking bucket showers anyway. Now, though we have to walk to a water tank and fill up the bucket and then walk it back. haha Normal day in the Island life!!!
Ofa lahi atu!!!
Elder Sepeti!!
Sunday, November 24, 2013
Hey everyone, Happy Thanksgiving!!!
This week went really well. In fact, I have a funny story for all of you and it's an example that we need to follow as missionaries and members of this church! This last week we were sitting in the house of a man named Taumola'a. He is the first counselor in the bishopric and he is AWESOME. This week had been really slow for teachings and my companion and I were feeling pretty downtrodden to be honest! So, we asked him, because whenever we need help he is always there! So, we asked him if he could think of anyone we could share a discussion with and he told us, "No" ... then he promptly stood up walked to the street (we were sitting on the porch) He waited there about 3 minutes. The first person to walk by, he grabs them talks to them for about 3 minutes and next thing we know we are sitting in his house sharing the first lesson with this young lady. It was incredible! He did that 3 more times that night so, we taught the first lesson 4 times that night with people he just invited in off the side of the road! LOVE HIM!
At the moment, we now have about 2 progressing investigators and a couple people who are interested. We do have a very promising 16 year old girl who is very excited and I'm pretty sure she is just waiting for us to invite her to be baptized! This last week we taught about 6 lessons and we had 12 pomalangas (spiritual thoughts to members. We try to at least do 2 a day at dinner time and at a member's house we want to visit!) They are always very excited to have the missionaries over and they take it as receiving blessings by just giving missionaries a glass of water! It's awesome! Here we never teach without a member present. In fact, we put on our other lessons taught as a zero everyday because we choose to only go with members. The best part is that members always come to the lessons and are always more than welcoming with doing the fellowshipping. It's amazing and the fact that they always feed us right after is best the part of the teaching! This last week I think the best experience I had was when Taumola'a went out and grabbed those people. It really is amazing to me how he can go out and just share the gospel with who ever is standing next to him. I plan on doing the exact same thing when I get home. It's a testimony builder to me that he is so willing and loving to just share it with everyone!
Church this week was your typical crazy Tongan event! Lots of loud kids and I gave a talk on faith! That's always funny seeing the members all going quiet at once waiting to see what the palangi says! haha And, as usual, I butchered a few parts of my talk because this language is not an easy language!
So, let's see, in my down time this week my companion and I decided to sit on the porch and I played Folofola mai a Sisu on the ukulele and anyone who stopped by or sat to talk, we would give them a pamphlet to the Fakafokimai o'e ongoongolelei o Sisu Kalaisi! The restoration pamphlet! We gave away about 6 or 7 and then just continued on singing:)
OK, Mom, pertaining to your talk, I actually have something I can add for you. Recently my mission president gave the challenge to restart the Book of Mormon or just start it again and read all the way through it before December 31st! Well, I prayed really hard before I started and I decided to read it in English because I can't keep up with the quota in Tongan. It's 16 pages a day in Tongan and 12 in English and my reading in Tongan isn't fast enough to do 16. I can do about 8 to 10 pages fully comprehending everything. Tongan is a very vague language and hard to read since so many words have 8 different meaning in English! As I was saying, so, after I prayed I came to the conclusion that I wanted to underline every time the The Book of Mormon mentioned our Heavenly Father or His Son. And as I was doing that I stumbled across a word that I seemed to always look over but I've realized is the key to this Gospel and that is Diligence. See, if you look in your talk, it mentions that word! The problem is that we all look at that word as a descriptive word! You know? Diligently pray, diligently work, and diligently read. The problem is that we only see the second word in that pray, work, and read. We don't pay attention to the word before which is more important DILIGENCE! I've realized that this word is the key to everything if we continue in diligence, not anything specific but just diligence to keep the commandments and to follow the Christ like attributes that have been set out for us then we will be fine in fact in Mosiah 3:19 19: For the natural man is an enemy to God, and has been from the fall of Adam, and will be, forever and ever, unless he yields to the enticings of the Holy Spirit. and putteth off the natural man and becometh a saint through the atonement of Christ the Lord, and becometh as a child, submissive, meek, humble, patient, full of love, willing to submit to all things which the Lord seeth fit to inflict upon him, even as a child doth submit to his father. This verse talks about everything we need to follow and do right? But, if you continue reading into chapter 4, King Benjamin is still continuing his address and he is about to finish!! and look what he saysin Chapter 27: And see that all these things are done in wisdom and order; for it is not requisite that a man should run faster than he has strength. And again, it is expedient that he should be diligent, that thereby he might win the prize; therefore, all things must be done in order. He says it right there! Just be diligent! And so, I'm never overlooking that word again. It will no longer be a descriptive word to me. It will be the more important word! Because if we are just diligent then we will always be blessed!
I love you all have a great Thanksgiving!!
Elder Sepeti
This week went really well. In fact, I have a funny story for all of you and it's an example that we need to follow as missionaries and members of this church! This last week we were sitting in the house of a man named Taumola'a. He is the first counselor in the bishopric and he is AWESOME. This week had been really slow for teachings and my companion and I were feeling pretty downtrodden to be honest! So, we asked him, because whenever we need help he is always there! So, we asked him if he could think of anyone we could share a discussion with and he told us, "No" ... then he promptly stood up walked to the street (we were sitting on the porch) He waited there about 3 minutes. The first person to walk by, he grabs them talks to them for about 3 minutes and next thing we know we are sitting in his house sharing the first lesson with this young lady. It was incredible! He did that 3 more times that night so, we taught the first lesson 4 times that night with people he just invited in off the side of the road! LOVE HIM!
At the moment, we now have about 2 progressing investigators and a couple people who are interested. We do have a very promising 16 year old girl who is very excited and I'm pretty sure she is just waiting for us to invite her to be baptized! This last week we taught about 6 lessons and we had 12 pomalangas (spiritual thoughts to members. We try to at least do 2 a day at dinner time and at a member's house we want to visit!) They are always very excited to have the missionaries over and they take it as receiving blessings by just giving missionaries a glass of water! It's awesome! Here we never teach without a member present. In fact, we put on our other lessons taught as a zero everyday because we choose to only go with members. The best part is that members always come to the lessons and are always more than welcoming with doing the fellowshipping. It's amazing and the fact that they always feed us right after is best the part of the teaching! This last week I think the best experience I had was when Taumola'a went out and grabbed those people. It really is amazing to me how he can go out and just share the gospel with who ever is standing next to him. I plan on doing the exact same thing when I get home. It's a testimony builder to me that he is so willing and loving to just share it with everyone!
Church this week was your typical crazy Tongan event! Lots of loud kids and I gave a talk on faith! That's always funny seeing the members all going quiet at once waiting to see what the palangi says! haha And, as usual, I butchered a few parts of my talk because this language is not an easy language!
So, let's see, in my down time this week my companion and I decided to sit on the porch and I played Folofola mai a Sisu on the ukulele and anyone who stopped by or sat to talk, we would give them a pamphlet to the Fakafokimai o'e ongoongolelei o Sisu Kalaisi! The restoration pamphlet! We gave away about 6 or 7 and then just continued on singing:)
OK, Mom, pertaining to your talk, I actually have something I can add for you. Recently my mission president gave the challenge to restart the Book of Mormon or just start it again and read all the way through it before December 31st! Well, I prayed really hard before I started and I decided to read it in English because I can't keep up with the quota in Tongan. It's 16 pages a day in Tongan and 12 in English and my reading in Tongan isn't fast enough to do 16. I can do about 8 to 10 pages fully comprehending everything. Tongan is a very vague language and hard to read since so many words have 8 different meaning in English! As I was saying, so, after I prayed I came to the conclusion that I wanted to underline every time the The Book of Mormon mentioned our Heavenly Father or His Son. And as I was doing that I stumbled across a word that I seemed to always look over but I've realized is the key to this Gospel and that is Diligence. See, if you look in your talk, it mentions that word! The problem is that we all look at that word as a descriptive word! You know? Diligently pray, diligently work, and diligently read. The problem is that we only see the second word in that pray, work, and read. We don't pay attention to the word before which is more important DILIGENCE! I've realized that this word is the key to everything if we continue in diligence, not anything specific but just diligence to keep the commandments and to follow the Christ like attributes that have been set out for us then we will be fine in fact in Mosiah 3:19 19: For the natural man is an enemy to God, and has been from the fall of Adam, and will be, forever and ever, unless he yields to the enticings of the Holy Spirit. and putteth off the natural man and becometh a saint through the atonement of Christ the Lord, and becometh as a child, submissive, meek, humble, patient, full of love, willing to submit to all things which the Lord seeth fit to inflict upon him, even as a child doth submit to his father. This verse talks about everything we need to follow and do right? But, if you continue reading into chapter 4, King Benjamin is still continuing his address and he is about to finish!! and look what he saysin Chapter 27: And see that all these things are done in wisdom and order; for it is not requisite that a man should run faster than he has strength. And again, it is expedient that he should be diligent, that thereby he might win the prize; therefore, all things must be done in order. He says it right there! Just be diligent! And so, I'm never overlooking that word again. It will no longer be a descriptive word to me. It will be the more important word! Because if we are just diligent then we will always be blessed!
I love you all have a great Thanksgiving!!
Elder Sepeti
Tuesday, November 19, 2013
Not the same scenery as Vava'u
Hey Everyone!!
I have been moved back to the main Island and I'm serving right next to town!! So, it's not much of a change when it comes to scenery (haha) other than the fact that there are no more hills and Tonga is not nearly as beautiful as Vava'u! but that's alright!
This week was awesome! I have a new companion and his name is Elder Kapeli and he's massive! But he is a huge teddy bear. He actually finishes in one month on December 3rd! So I will be what the mission calls as Na'e tamate'i ia which means killing him! It's been way fun to work with him and even with only a month left hes a wicked hard worker which has been awesome! He is from Lematu'a in Vava'u and that is only about 10 minutes from where I used to work in Vava'u!
My new area was reopened with us and we opened with 2 baptisms! There were two 17 year old friends who have been waiting for the missionaries to return and we taught them every lesson in about 3 days and baptized them that Saturday because they had been going to church so that was awesome! I would send you guys pictures of it but unfortunately due to some bad happenstance my camera was stolen! That's alright though! I have sent a ton of pictures home! Enough to not be to frustrated! But, the new area is awesome. It's really funny to walk outside because on the left side of us is Wesleyan church and on the right side is The Church of Tonga. Our little house is right in between them! It's super funny to see them every morning when we begin our work!
Other than that we have a ton of work going on here Bishop Niu is awesome and is always involved in whoever we are teaching at that moment! All the members around want to have us over every night to teach and to drink otai with them. Otai is a chunky drink made of whatever fruit they feel like making it with that day. So far the best one I have had is Pineapple! Oooooohhhhh, it's amazing!!
Got to go back to work!
OFA LAHIT ATU!
Elder Sepeti!
I have been moved back to the main Island and I'm serving right next to town!! So, it's not much of a change when it comes to scenery (haha) other than the fact that there are no more hills and Tonga is not nearly as beautiful as Vava'u! but that's alright!
This week was awesome! I have a new companion and his name is Elder Kapeli and he's massive! But he is a huge teddy bear. He actually finishes in one month on December 3rd! So I will be what the mission calls as Na'e tamate'i ia which means killing him! It's been way fun to work with him and even with only a month left hes a wicked hard worker which has been awesome! He is from Lematu'a in Vava'u and that is only about 10 minutes from where I used to work in Vava'u!
My new area was reopened with us and we opened with 2 baptisms! There were two 17 year old friends who have been waiting for the missionaries to return and we taught them every lesson in about 3 days and baptized them that Saturday because they had been going to church so that was awesome! I would send you guys pictures of it but unfortunately due to some bad happenstance my camera was stolen! That's alright though! I have sent a ton of pictures home! Enough to not be to frustrated! But, the new area is awesome. It's really funny to walk outside because on the left side of us is Wesleyan church and on the right side is The Church of Tonga. Our little house is right in between them! It's super funny to see them every morning when we begin our work!
Other than that we have a ton of work going on here Bishop Niu is awesome and is always involved in whoever we are teaching at that moment! All the members around want to have us over every night to teach and to drink otai with them. Otai is a chunky drink made of whatever fruit they feel like making it with that day. So far the best one I have had is Pineapple! Oooooohhhhh, it's amazing!!
Got to go back to work!
OFA LAHIT ATU!
Elder Sepeti!
28 hours in the boat "That is the Devil's design!"
Hey Everyone!!
Let's see... so from last week not much happened because the day after pday I was put on another boat and shipped 28 hours back to Tonga! So, as always that was a very eventful ride because it started off as just me and my comp on the way back from Vava'u and then we stopped and picked up every single elder that was currently serving on Ha'apai! So, the boat was absolutely stuffed with missionaries!
There was pretty much no room below! it was crazy not to mention that we picked up all the missionaries at about 11:00 at night so they were all wide awake from taking naps to stay up all night and talk! Which they did! It was crazy but, see it wouldn't have mattered if they slept at all that night they would have been up with sea sickness anyway! That boat is definitely the devil's design! There is no doubt! No doubt at all! after We finally arrived at about 3:00 the next day. We were all split up and I have been staying in town ever since with a bunch of palangi missionaries haha so its been super fun! We have been just hanging out and going on a ton of comp exchanges to fill up time! That's basically my week. I'll find out this Wednesday where I'm heading next. There' s a rumor about that I'm either staying in Fasi which is town in Tonga or moving off island. It's all in the Lord's hands!!
OFA LAHI ATU!!
Elder Sepeti
Let's see... so from last week not much happened because the day after pday I was put on another boat and shipped 28 hours back to Tonga! So, as always that was a very eventful ride because it started off as just me and my comp on the way back from Vava'u and then we stopped and picked up every single elder that was currently serving on Ha'apai! So, the boat was absolutely stuffed with missionaries!
There was pretty much no room below! it was crazy not to mention that we picked up all the missionaries at about 11:00 at night so they were all wide awake from taking naps to stay up all night and talk! Which they did! It was crazy but, see it wouldn't have mattered if they slept at all that night they would have been up with sea sickness anyway! That boat is definitely the devil's design! There is no doubt! No doubt at all! after We finally arrived at about 3:00 the next day. We were all split up and I have been staying in town ever since with a bunch of palangi missionaries haha so its been super fun! We have been just hanging out and going on a ton of comp exchanges to fill up time! That's basically my week. I'll find out this Wednesday where I'm heading next. There' s a rumor about that I'm either staying in Fasi which is town in Tonga or moving off island. It's all in the Lord's hands!!
OFA LAHI ATU!!
Elder Sepeti
Thursday, October 17, 2013
Lessons are picking up!
Hey Everyone!!
This week was really good!
So to start off: Yes, the baptism was lava! And it was awesome! We actually ended up baptizing 2 people instead of one! How sweet is that! There were 2 kids. One of them was 12 and one of them was 10! It was amazing! You know one thing I have learned from Tonga is the ability to have the worlds fastest baptisms! No joke, we finished the baptisms in 30 mins on the dot. That's how long the baptisms always are even for little kids who just turned 8 because the other half of the baptism is eating.... Nice right! I LOVE IT!
This week went really well we had about 10 lessons and about 3 quarters of them were with members and the other quarter were without!! So the lessons are picking up, especially this week! Because this last Saturday we contacted 5 investigators and they all said ok and we will be teaching them all this week! My new companion is pretty cool. He's serving only 15 mins from where he grew up and so his family and friends come to visit him all the time. He is definitely falling into the flow of missionary work and catching the wave! So, hopefully I will have him in full gear by the time he leaves. Other than that BIG NEWS!!! I was able to see Priesthood session live! and it was incredible!!
And that was my week!!
OFA LAHI ATU!
Elder Sepeti!
This week was really good!
So to start off: Yes, the baptism was lava! And it was awesome! We actually ended up baptizing 2 people instead of one! How sweet is that! There were 2 kids. One of them was 12 and one of them was 10! It was amazing! You know one thing I have learned from Tonga is the ability to have the worlds fastest baptisms! No joke, we finished the baptisms in 30 mins on the dot. That's how long the baptisms always are even for little kids who just turned 8 because the other half of the baptism is eating.... Nice right! I LOVE IT!
This week went really well we had about 10 lessons and about 3 quarters of them were with members and the other quarter were without!! So the lessons are picking up, especially this week! Because this last Saturday we contacted 5 investigators and they all said ok and we will be teaching them all this week! My new companion is pretty cool. He's serving only 15 mins from where he grew up and so his family and friends come to visit him all the time. He is definitely falling into the flow of missionary work and catching the wave! So, hopefully I will have him in full gear by the time he leaves. Other than that BIG NEWS!!! I was able to see Priesthood session live! and it was incredible!!
And that was my week!!
OFA LAHI ATU!
Elder Sepeti!
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