SUNDAY - GREAT CHURCH MEETINGS, INTERVIEWS, AND EARLY BIRTHDAY

This picture up above is of the Senior missionary housing.  Tonga is one of the only places where most of the Senior missionaries are all together.  They have their different assignments in the mission, but they all live close together, so they do a lot of things together.  Some of their assignments are to serve as the Dentist, Physician Assistant, Educators, Office managers of the mission, Auditors, Equipment repair people, Trainers for the Teachers, Self-Reliance workers.  They all work very hard and are really good at what they do.  We love them all!

Today's church meetings were great!  There are a couple of experiences that were shared that I want to share on this blog.  I feel they are faith promoting and inspiring!  

Sacrament meeting

A good Tongan Brother from the Stake Presidency spoke.  He said he has a question that has haunted him for the last 7 years.  The question is, "Are you acting like a return missionary?"  I constantly has to do a self evaluation to make sure he's doing the things that he needs to be doing.  He has to make sure that he's living up to his full potential.  He then turned that to the young men and young women of the church and asked these questions -   Are you acting like a priesthood man?  Are you acting like a young woman and practicing the young women values?  He said that we have to do a self check from time to time and see where we are at.  What do we need to improve on in order to be our best self?  

The experience that this Brother shared about the heartbeat was the one that I was moved by.  He said that when his young son was born, he wouldn't stop crying.  He went to the Dr. and asked him what could be done?  The Dr. said take your shirt off.  He said WHAT????  The Dr. said it again.  The man took his shirt off.  The Dr. laid his son next to his heart on his chest.  The Dr. said your son is in a new environment and can't see much.  He is used to feeling and hearing his Mother's heartbeat.  Right when the Dr. did this, his son stopped crying.

He said we have to listen to our Mother's heart beat.  We have two Mothers.  One is our earthly mother.

The other is the church.  If you think about this, the gospel of Jesus Christ is much like our Mothers.  It teaches us what we need to do, what pitfalls to avoid, and how to be happy.  He said we need to listen to our Mother's heart beat.  We need to be close enough to the heartbeat to hear it.  What this means to me is that we need to be in tune with the spirit.  If we are, we will be able to see and will not be afraid like the little child was.

This talk was powerful!  Great talk!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAD!  That's what the kids were chanting when I walked into their apartment.  They decorated and surprised me with an early Birthday.  I was going around to the Senior Missionaries with Logan today to video record their "favorite scripture and what they learned here in Tonga" for a few hours today.  While Logan and I were gone, the other kids and Heidi decorated for my 39th Birthday.  How cool is my family!  That's why I love them.  They then invited some of the missionaries that live close to us to come over.  All of us (especially the kids) have grown attached to these wonderful couples that are serving here in Tonga.

The kids made me dance around some presents and open up some gifts.  One of those gifts was the 100 Grand candy-bar.  Hey, I can indulge on my Birthday, I just have to brush extra well.  :)

Ella is helping me dance around my Birthday presents.

The best Birthday presents were the kid's letters that they wrote me.  They each wrote a letter to me thanking me for the experiences they have had in Tonga.  They also wrote their testimonies to me.  I shed a few tears reading the influence that this experience has had on them.  I know they are going to remember the experiences and the people for the rest of their lives.  It has changed us all.

We then played some games with a few of the missionary couples.  We had over Elder and Sister Johns (of course), Elder and Sister Radmacher, and Elder and Sister Bearce.  We played the candy bar game where you have to roll doubles with the dice and then you get dressed up in funky clothes and carve into a candy bar.  We all had a great time!  Below are some pictures of the games.

Braden was going crazy with the game.  Full of Energy!  When there is a candy-bar included, Braden is all in.  He had a lot of fun with everyone.  He is such a social butterfly.

Little Ella dove into the chocolate and stuffed her mouth FULL.  She looks like a chipmunk.  What a cutie!  

The kids love taking "selfies".  Heidi and I will leave our phone laying around somewhere and we'll find tons of "selfie" photos of the kids on our phones.  We keep the great ones and delete the really weird ones.  The kids love having fun with it.  Here's a great one of them!