November 22, 2013

November 22, 2013

Its Friday again, and we woke up to a downpour of rain.  It’s funny, that when it gets so hot, we can hardly wait for a nice cooling rain.  All thoughts of having to move in the heat leave, we feel energized with the cooled air and love the sound of the falling rain on our metal roof.  We have graduation today which we are looking forward to after having seen the graduation ball.  They spend as much time decorating for it as they do the graduation ball.  I will have to write more about that after we get back from that event.  We again have had a pretty exciting week.  I thought maybe I had written about some of the events,  but I can’t find anything on the computer, so maybe I just thought them in my head.

I do want to write a little about our meeting with Elder and Sister Hallstrom though.  He came in on Friday, when we had a meeting with all of the missionaries.  The missionaries had prepared 2 beautiful musical numbers that were very impressive which I loved.  Of course, I think I love them, the music and the missionaries, equally.  They sang a Believers Prayer and Arise and Shine Forth,  music written by Sally DeFord.  If you have heard her music, you know how wonderful her music is.  The message from Elder Hallstrom was, we all have the ability to receive answers to our prayers, we just need to prepare and ask for help from Heavenly Father.  We shouldn’t wait for the General Authorities, our Bishop or Stake President to tell us what we need to do, we just need to pray and then listen.  We all have divinity in us because we are sons and daughters of a loving Heavenly Father.  We have felt that more and more while serving our mission.  However, we also know that Satan does not want us to do our work, so he is also working very hard.  I think that one of the reasons I love serving in the temple weekly is that we can at least find sanctuary in the temple, away from the world.

 In addition to the meeting with the missionaries, we were able to have a potluck dinner with Elder and Sister Hallstrom Sunday pm which was super.  Sister Hallstrom talked about a couple who had put off their mission because of an aging mother.  They finally decided to go,  knowing that mom would probably pass away while they were gone.  It happened almost exactly with what happened with dad, so Steve and I spent time crying, thinking about dad, but glad that we had made that decision.  I can truthfully say though that I have felt his presence on many occasions, I just get the feeling that he is near.  Just wish I could talk to him sometimes, but I think maybe we are communicating some.  Elder Hallstrom also gave a very important talk about our work here, and how much the senior missionaries are needed.  The demand is high everywhere.  He also gave us a blessing, both spiritual and temporal, again blessing our families while we are away.  His words gave me a lot of comfort but also make us homesick for everyone.  It would be so nice just to talk to you, sit around the house and just visit, eat food and enjoy the laughter.

Steve was able to put his wood working skills to use this week, he got recruited to assist with the graduation ball.  We had just gone through our agenda for the week, finished and had a knock on the door about 8 am.  There were 3 people wanting to talk about the help they needed for the construction of a castle backdrop for the ball.  They had grand plans, which were pretty ambitious.  Of course he was ready and they needed him to start now.  He went back and changed and got to work.  It wasn’t too hard to get him into the shop, but things are different here in Tonga.  The saw blades had many teeth missing, like 5 out of the first 8 that he counted.  The table was rusty, so it had to be waxed so the wood would move through the surface smoothly.  There were no sanding belts, or power sanders, or air nailers, or nails, or……. The list goes on and on.  He became very inventive and figured out alternative ways of getting the work done.  Luckily, we finally got the shipment in for the band saw, and sanding disks, couplers for the air system which he didn’t use.  The timber (lumber) here is very pitchy so is hard to use because it cuts unevenly and causes splinters.  Steve ended up with a few war wounds.  The blades on the jig saw was so worn that he felt like he had burned his way through the wood  instead of cutting the wood.  Nails also were rusty, but we scrounged up as many as we could find and got the set put together.  Of course as planned, once he got that done, he had several other projects the committee needed help with.  It was impressive when the castle was finished.  All of the decorations were done with what they had, flowers taken from the grounds and possibly from the staff homes that surround Liahona.  The lady who did the flower arrangements, stayed all night creating, her husband was there assisting.  They were super tired when we saw them just before the ball.  Some of the Liahona students assisted Steve with the castle structure, stayed through the night helping the committee complete the decorations.  Some of them were students from the nearby island, Eua, who are living in the dorms at Liahona.  During the day while Steve was working with the set, I stayed home and finished sewing a pulitaha for the graduation on Friday.  I finished it Tuesday then went to help on the decorations, and the additional tasks they had given to Steve.

The graduation ball was something else.  The young people were dressed in their most beautiful finery, ball gowns, suits, Tuxes, which were borrowed from someone, there are not any stores that sell this kind of clothing in Tonga.  Some of the girls had made their gowns in the fashion design classes and they were pretty fancy.  Other had gotten some that needed tops or bolero’s on them to cover up the tops of the dresses so they would be modest.  They had some very imaginative ways to cover up the bare tops of some of the dresses.  The students were introduced at the entry of the castle and then made their way down several sets of stairs in high, high heels.  Luckily for the girls, they had an escort, either another graduate or some other young man to help them.    After the introduction, they promenaded around the ballroom with their partners, so that everyone could see them.  Some were very creative with matching ties, handkerchiefs, leis, whatever to decorate them.  Some of them, girls and boys, strutted like they were models on the runway, the poses were pretty provocative, I don’t mean in the come hither look.  I t was the” look at me, I’m pretty special” look.  You couldn’t help but look, they looked so wonderful.  We stayed for the half time entertainment which started at 10.  Believe me, that is bedtime, but we managed to stay awake.  Half time was a waltz number done by members of the senior class, who were dressed in black (guys) and white  (girls).  Maopa told us that the costumes were not all finished until about 15 minutes before it was time for them to perform.  The home ec students helped with the sewing of the costumes which is pretty amazing.  The dance was choreographed by our bishop’s wife, Ola, who also teaches piano at Liahona.  Ola and her sister Ofa were in charge of the decorations for the ball.  They were standing and even danced with the dancers during the waltz.  They were still standing when we left. They still needed to take the decorations down so new decorations  and the stage could be put up for graduation.  I don’t know they survived, but they did look like they had gotten their second wind today.

Graduation was a big deal today.  We woke up to the sound of rain and knew that it was going to settle in for a while.  So when we got ready for graduation, we put on our water shoes and carried our dress shoes in a bag.  The rain was coming down in buckets, but lucky for us there are some covered walkways between our house and the gym.  I didn’t feel wet too long, the breezes through the windows felt heavenly, so we didn’t die of the heat which could have happened.  Graduation was very nice, the musical numbers beautifully sung by the graduating class.  After the graduation, there was a major party out in the parking lot.  What a party it was, but the rain started coming down again so the crowds separated. 

Elder Tukuafu, the area seventy , spoke at the graduation and presented the diplomas to the graduates.  We didn’t understand his talk because it was in Tongan.  But I’m sure it was very good.  He does speak good English, but the parents of most of the graduates don’t speak English.  We talked to him afterwards, he told us next time we need to have a translator, and he would make sure we had one if we are in any of the meetings he presides at.  Sometimes, we have head phones with a translator and that makes things much more interesting for us.  We know a few words, but the speaking is way too fast for us to catch most of it.  We can feel the spirit however, so that’s not too bad.

Each music lesson that we give each week has a bunch of new attendee’s.  This week there were 5 new members and another adult, I don’t know if it was parent or teacher.  The Funaki’s who are new, came also, they want to start with the young adults that they are working with.  We also have people here on campus who catch us and want to sign up for lessons.  Sister Tupou spent 3 hours Wednesday with the granddaughter of the king who wants to be able to play Christmas music for her grandmother for Christmas.  She is 21 and as Sister Tupou said,” is gifted”.  Apparently her great grandmother was a very gifted musician.  So we are also planning on more royal children taking lessons.  We have 10 musical numbers that need to be recorded on Monday, so we are feeling the crunch.  It will be a challenge to get all of the numbers learned.  However, we have simplified some, we know some and I will probably be playing for most of them at this moment.  Sister Aland just got authorized to teach the teachers how to do music in the classroom, so she has gone into overload mode at this time.  I don’t have any teaching assignments, so my time is a little freer than hers is.  We’ll see how that goes for now.