October 28, 2013

October 28, 2013

Today has been a day, its 1:15 am, I can’t sleep, not sure because I should be really tired just because of all the things that happened tonight.   We had a fireside at a ward in town that was pretty exciting. But before I start on that, I guess I need to go back to the beginning.  About 1 week ago, we were invited by the missionaries to put on another musical fireside for their investigators since the first one was such a success.  Unfortunately though, all of us have been very busy, I have been laid up with a bum knee most of the week, we haven’t been able to pull together a real practice time for all of the musical numbers.  Some of the musical numbers though, were some that we have done in the past, so it’s not like they were new.  However, some of those members who were participating in the musical numbers, didn’t know until tonite that they were singing.  To add to the drama, the new sister missionary, Sister Aland, who has had a ton of experience, had to learn to play a new number on Saturday and I was nominated to sing.  Steve even got wrangled into singing with the men.  Pretty scarey on both our parts.  We weren’t even sure which numbers we were doing for sure, Sister Tupou has been so busy with all her work as the wife of the mission president.  They have one meeting after another, at least that is the way it seemed. Lori was pretty frazzled because she is ultra organized and likes events planned and well thought out. Anyway, tonight before the fireside, we just had to have a prayer and go forth with faith after a one time run through.  President Tupou just said it would be fine.  He is very calm and thoughtful, so we just had to go with his faith.

We headed into town to another Stake/ward and none of us really knew how to get there. In Tonga, you can’t get too lost, you just drive around until you either run into the ocean on one side or the other. After a few wrong turns, we found the right chapel.  You have to understand there is an LDS ward in every village, it was dark and 2 of the party thought maybe they knew where to go.  But, we made it.  They chapel was full, with many missionaries and many investigators.  It was a pretty amazing sight.  Probably the most memorable to us was the singing of the members of the ward. The piano was turned up to high with the tone of an organ with piano sounds.  I have never heard that tone used before in a church meeting.  The young man who was playing was amazing, and he actually kept the  Tongans singing up to speed, well, maybe partly up to speed.  Tongans love to sing and I’m not talking about ordinary singing.  They sing with their whole hearts and all the gusto they can put into the music. I wondered how the neighbors next door or even in the next village could  think about anything but the music that was being sung.  I kept looking to see if the rafters of the church had raised up.  Most of the Tongans do not know how to read music.  They don’t need to, it’s in their heads.  Sister Aland told me her eyes had sprung a leak since she first heard our ward sing, she was afraid it would a perpetual event.  At any rate, the program went well.  We started about 4:30 Sunday afternoon and didn’t get back until about 9:30.  We were pretty tired, but also buzzed when we got home.

Friday night, we were invited to a “uma” , a feast created by a cousin of Pres. Tupou.  I say a creation because it was a creation, a mix of American and Tongan food.  Octopus and raw fish for those who were really brave, of which I did not partake, my mind won’t let my mouth even try.  Again, there was more than enough to feed us all 2x over.  All of the senior missionaries were there, plus 4 sets of young missionaries,  4 sisters and 4 elders plus many neighbor children.  After I had gone to get my food and as I was sitting down, I heard  Elder Hamblin state, “Sister Meyers can do that”. I don’t trust that man, he likes to make sure that I have enough things to do so that I won’t get bored I think .We have a lot of laughs about his encouraging words.  Every time I hear “Sister Meyers can do that”, I am getting a new assignment.  I found out during the conversation, that Pres. Tupou’s cousin, the host of our party, was looking for someone to teach members of his ward how to play the piano.  That’s why he had planned the dinner, so I am now a piano teacher too.  Sounds like fun, huh!  So I shared the assignment with Sister Aland, who has had that experience in Siberia where they  served before coming to Tonga.  I am really glad she was there, since I wasn’t sure where to begin.  We will have to get it planned out now and get lessons started.

We are supposed to go to Vava`u on Tuesday to meet with the teachers at Saineha to do some teaching.  We will come back on Wednesday so we won’t miss our temple assignment on Thursday.  So between now and then, I’ve got to get washing done, help type the lesson plans for Steve, since he types with only 2 fingers and is pretty slow at typing with his 2 fingered hunt and pick method of typing.  We’ve got home evening tonite, Monday, and I told Sister Hamblin I would help her with some cookies.

We had a funny thing happen tonite, maybe that’s why I couldn’t sleep,  We had just climbed into bed  about 11:30 after saying prayers when we heard this big old crack. I don’t mean a little crack, it was a metal sound and the bed shifted. I was afraid the neighbors had heard it, the sound was so loud.  We were  also afraid our bed was falling apart, so we climbed out, pulled the mattresses off the frame and found the problem.  The middle support had fallen apart, the clamps that hold it together had somehow come off the middle support and the base of the support leg had split, letting the supports fall.  That was a really fun thing to fix at midnight. We had to be quiet because the neighbors were asleep. We all sleep with the windows open so we can get some cool air, its too early to use air conditioning yet.  When I finally got the bed remade, my mind wouldn’t turn off and all I could think about was all the things I needed to write about before I forgot.  So, here I am, after 1 am still trying to get sleepy.  I will pay for this in the morning, I am sure.