Our family has the opportunity to go serve a Dental mission trip to Tonga during the summer of 2016.  We have been planning this trip for the last 6 years.  The idea came from an article that I read about 12 years ago when I was in Dental school in Iowa.  I read about a family that sold everything and went on a Dental Mission trip to Tonga for a whole year.  I really wanted to do that, but Heidi (my sweet wife) is more realistic and knows what is reality and what is a dream.  There may come a time when we do that, but for now, we came to an agreement (Heidi's idea) to go to Tonga and serve for 3 months.  We will be serving on the main island of Tongatapu.  
     Tonga is in the South Pacific.  The Kingdom of Tonga is made up of one hundred seventy-six coral and volcanic islands.  There are only fifty-two islands that are inhabited.  These islands are known as the "Friendly Islands" because the Tongan people are always smiling, laughing, singing, and dancing.
      We are serving this Dental mission through the LDS Academy of Dentists.  They own a clinic on Tongatapu that serves the people there.  The LDS faith is a large part of who we are.  When considering where to serve and who we were going to serve, we wanted to be able to go through our Church.  The Church Dental clinic allows all of us to serve as a family.  Each of our children will be involved in helping assist the Dentists, assist the hygienists, help with sterilization, and help teach the Tongan children how to speak and read English in school.
     We are SO excited to be able to go and serve these people that we have been learning about.  We know that as we serve, we will learn so much from them.
     One thing that I thought about doing is choosing twenty values.  Each value, I would research, write about on this blog before we go to Tonga, and then share experiences of Tonga that coincide with those values.  We have about two months before we leave home and go to Tonga.  Each week, I would like to write about two values.  By the time we leave, all 20 values will be written about and thoughts and feelings will be recorded.