E-mail (Dated: 7/6/2014)

Hey Family,

Wow it’s a crazy feeling knowing that next year at this time I will be pretty much home!!!! I hope that you all had an incredible 4th of July, I had a pretty bad blonde moment this week when I was asking my companion if they celebrate the 4th of July, not remembering that it’s all about the USA gaining its Independence, hahaha!!! But it’s actually the forth king’s birthday here on the 4th of July so they do celebrate, just a little different reason hahaha!

I would like to start off with the announcement of our beautiful investigator Aloisia Lanumata!!!!! She is such a sweet little girl!!!! You should have seen her on the day of her baptism!!!!! She was the happiest little girl I have ever seen!!!! It’s amazing to see a difference we were able to help make in her life. Now she has the opportunity to grow up with the gospel in her life!!!!! Honestly the best gift anyone could ever ask for!!!!

Second I want to tell you of a very special experience that I was able to have!!!! My companion and I woke up one morning and we got a text from someone that told us we needed to give someone a blessing. As I starting getting ready, I realized we didn’t have oil, we had just ran out the last week. I called our zone leaders and they came and gave us oil. As we walked to the house, we went inside, and they told us that no one needed a blessing and everyone was healthy. We suppose that it was just a prank phone call or something.... so as we left. As we walked, we came upon our bishop’s house so we decided to go talk to him. He was down in bed sick and literally couldn’t walk because he was so sick.... He asked us to give him a blessing. Right then I knew we had been prepared by the Lord. I was able to give him a blessing guided by the spirit. I gave the blessing in my own native tongue (English). As I opened my eyes the bishop’s eyes were filled with tears, and he thanked us. My bishop does not know English, but he could understand through the language of the spirit. An hour later we walked by again and he was outside working with the pigs in his back yard. He said that he was healed! The spirit is the teacher and God expects us to listen.

Lastly, I wanted to end with a funny story that happened to me this week as I was walking down the road. I came upon a mom that was about your age mom, and her son that was about my age. They looked very lost, as I soon realized after trying to talk to them that they didn’t understand me in Tongan, so I switched to English and they were like, “Do you know where the beach is?” Haha.... I laughed then directed them. As we started to talk a little, she started expressing how hard of a time she was having here in Tonga. She started to tear up and then looked at her son and she said that it was there first time to Tonga, but that their entire family lived here. She was having a hard time with how poor it is. She had no clue how bad the poverty really is here. She soon asked me how long I have been here. When I told here about a year she screamed and grabbed my arm and she said, “You poor, poor, thing! Are you okay!!!” I laughed at the experience. I realize how time is such a healer of all things, because Tonga has really become my home and everything has become so normal. Just thought it was something you could all get a laugh out of!!!