Hello!

Well after a 7 minute plane ride I made it to Eua and it is BEAUTIFUL. So sorry I didn't take any pictures this week to send but I will definitely try to send some in the weeks to come. The obvious differences between Eua and Tonga is that it is smaller here, it is not as humid, and it isn't completely flat. There are mountains and they are beautiful! Apparently there are many sights to see in Eua, including the Eua tree that the tree in Avatar was based off of, and lots of hikes, caves, cliffs, and waterfalls. My new companion, Sister Reid, is a palangi from Orem, Utah. She is wonderful! I know we are going to get along really well for however long we are serving together. There are 8 missionaries in Eua, 4 sisters and 4 elders. The ward we are serving in--Pangai--is made up of 4 different villages--Pangai, 'Esia, Angaha, and Futu. It's huge. At least in comparison to Pea, where I just transferred from. We walk so much more than I did in my last area and there seem to be lots more non-members to work with.

The ward here is awesome I am really looking forward to working with them!  Right now we don't have very many investigaters that we're working with, but we had a ward counsel last night and just in like 2 minutes we set up around 7 or 8 appointments to teach at a member's house and they will invite whoever they are thinking of or currently trying to work with. Apparently just a couple months ago something happened between the sisters here and the members and the members quickly lost trust of the missionaries. I kind of feel like we are working to gain back that trust, and it has been wonderful! Right now, I'm obviously working on getting to know everyone in the ward, but I already feel so much love for them. 

Sorry it's so short today but I will try and make it better next week! We are about to go hiking wiht the district and see some of the sights. 

Love you all. Have a wonderful week.

Sister Petalisi

Hello family and friends,

Well transfers have once again rolled around but this time I am not staying. Tomorrow I'll be transferring to Eua! Which is a smaller island south of Tongatapu. Unfortunately, the past two weeks were the last two weeks for me to work in Pea and after how many months of working in this place and I'll be missing our ward conference by 1 week. Everyday this week there will be a different activity during the week starting with one for the Relief Society, and then the youth, and then a dance and so on...up until Sunday which will be the conference, kai pola (lots and lots of food) and a fireside. Timing not so on point but that's okay it just means great things are waiting in Eua. 

The past couple weeks we haven't had as much success working with our investigators and finding times to teach them and finding new investigators but we have been working lots with less-actives and have found a few more families to start working towards! Overcoming drinking seems to be the reoccurring problem with all of them and we have been doing a lot of visiting and goal-setting to help them stop drinking. One of them is 29 year-old Vine who comes from a part-member family and has been drinking since she was a teenager. After getting jumped pretty bad, she was ready to make a change in her life. We stepped in and started making her a focus for the past couple weeks to help her stop. She made it 2 weeks without drinking! We were also able to go to the Relief Society birthday party with her on Thursday which was super fun. Consisted of beautiful songs from each of the wards that started out very nice and spiritual and then turned into women getting up on their chairs and singing for the crowd. Of course, because there was cake being served, there were TONS of women from our ward that went and sang. I've actually never seen that many women in our ward in attendance at any church gathering. 

Two of the other families that we have started working are both in a similar boat. Young couple with kids. Dad converted to the church in his teens and less-active now and struggles with the word of wisdom. Mom grew up in the church but is also struggling to come to church. Both of these families are so happy that we came to them and really really want the strength and help to come back to church. I am going to miss working with them but I know that they are in the Lord's hands. Excited to see what comes of it as Sister Brown and her new companion continue to work with them!

xoxo

Sister Petalisi

Annoying goat interrupting our lesson.

Last vilo with Piola :-(

Diana Mataele at the Fine'ofa Birthday Party

Hi Family! 

This week felt like a little bump in the road as we are struggling with those we are working with and feel pretty desperate to find more people to teach! We have been teaching Semisi nearly every day for the past month. It has been so much fun working with him because he would read a new chapter in the Book of Mormon every night and would have so many questions for us. He kept all his commitments, but he struggled with coming to church and giving up his drinking. This past week, he let us know that he was really grateful for all we've done but that we don't need to keep sharing because he already understands and it's up to him now to decide. Of course,  we were pretty devastated because it feels as though he has given up and has no hope for himself. But we continued  to keep visiting him and the older lady he stays with every day. On Sunday, he made it to church!! And we were so shocked but very happy. It's very sad sometimes as a missionary when those you work with don't seem to be progressing as fast as you feel they should be or anticipate for them. But one thing I've learned from it is that I can't just make up my own agenda for someone else and then become frustrated when it doesn't happen the way I had hoped. I've realized how grateful I should be in the opportunity I have to see others make steps towards the kingdom of God, even if it's just little baby steps. Whether it's gaining a testimony to the Book of Mormon, or being baptized or entering the temple, they are ALL precious in his sight. 

I love you all and hope you have an amazing week!

Ofa atu ka moutolu,
Sister Petalisi

Hello family!!

Not much news this week, but something exciting from this week was a new family that we started teaching! The noble that lives in Pea  and her husband are amazing member missionaries. Background...In each village there's always a hou'eiki. The heiarchy in Tonga goes something like 3. the normal people on bottom, 2. Hou'eiki or nobles, and then 1. the King and royal family. Ours happens to be a member and from America! They just started coming back to our ward in Pea because they went to a ward in town to help Prince Ata convert to the church, the prince that was baptized last year in Hawai'i. Now they are back in our ward and it has been lovely because they feed us french toast and mashed potatoes and stuff like that which isn't found here in Tonga. Anyways, her name is Diana and she let us know that she set up an appointment for us to teach her friend, which was last Monday night. When she told us who it was we were pretty shocked because not only did we know her already, but she was one of the very few houses in Pea that pretty much slammed the door in our face. After explaining our purpose of being there and earning her trust we were able to discuss the restoration of the gospel and she apologized for the way she had first treated us. She explained that she thought we were just coming to baptize her and her whole family. . .which isn't completely inaccurate. But I hope you can all maybe learn something from this little experience which taught me how members can LITERALLY open the doors for missionaries. She didn't make it to church this week but she did make it to a relief society activity where they made flowers to make a kiekie and she loved it! 

The cyclone wasn't bad here we just had to stay inside for a couple days as a precautionary. The streets in our village were flooded and it took forever to walk places depending on where you're going. But that's all part of the adventure! But nothing bad on the main island here in Tonga. All is well. 

I love you all,

Sister Petalisi

Sister Piinoki, Petalisi and Pilauni.

Hello all!!                                                                                                     February 15, 2016

Sorry I couldn't write home last week net was down. AND transfers did happen last week AND I'm staying! Going on 8 months in Pea and I couldn't be happier! It's been a joke with the members that this will be my only area for almost 18 months, but its starting to feel less and less like a joke each transfer I stay. I am grateful though! 

Well here's a little update on Niutei. In our lesson with him a couple weeks ago we learned that he was able to stop smoking and drinking! We also talked to him about church because that was the only commitment at that point that he wasn't keeping--to come to church with us. He explained that ever since we started teaching him and inviting him to church and baptisms and activities, he's wanted to come, but was too shy because it's been forever since he's worn men's clothing and so he didn't know what to wear. Which was so so awesome because it shows how the spirit really is the teacher. We never had to say anything about how the ways he dresses is not okay, but the spirit taught him without us saying anything. All he has ever worn to his church is dresses , but he knew he couldn't show up to our church in a dress and was too shy to wear men's clothing. HOLY COW the church is so true!! He showed up to church as well as another fakaleiti that we are working with who was baptized awhile ago but less-active. 

One highlight from this past week was the teachings we had with one of our new investigaters, Semisi. There's an older lady in the ward who has been away from the church for a year now and just recently has come back strong to the church. When we visited her she said that there were 2 guys in her house--one nonmember and another less-active--who she wanted us to teach. She then told us that she planned on coming back to church that week because she needed to be a good example to them. We've had some awesome discussions with both of these two. We have taught him every night since last Monday and what impressed me the most was his deep knowledge and understanding of the Bible. He spent some time in Fiji studying the Bible. And like Joseph Smith, has been to many many churches, but found something wrong in all of them. Every night we had a discussion with him, covering deep doctrine from all the lessons and every night he would come with his read chapter in the Book of Mormon and lots and lots of questions..WHICH WAS AWESOME. What I started to notice was that he seems to already have made up his mind on his beliefs based off his understanding of the Bible and he is looking for something that doesn't match from the Book of Mormon or our church's doctrine with the Bible. Teaching him has truly strengthened my testimony of the church. His questions are deep. Sometimes I do not have a good answer to them and I feel like I'm being tested. But something that the spirit was able to teach me during these discussions that President Tupou has often stressed--"THE BOOK OF MORMON IS NOT ON TRIAL. THE READERS ARE." Realizing just what this means has helped me as I've gone to these discussions, and made me really really excited, rather than fearful, to talk to with him and answer his questions. I realized that I don't need to kill myself thinking about how I'm going to prove that the Book is true, because it already is true! There is absolutely NOTHING wrong in the Book of Mormon and as long as he is open to the spirit and we do our part to help him feel it, he will know it is true. 

Well I love you all, and have a wonderful week!

xoxo, Sister Petalisi

Niutei Tenifi

Vilo hoa with Fapiola!

When it rain, it pours!!

Hello family and friends!

Here are some updates on the 2 investigators that I talked about last week--Soni and Niutei. Soni and his 2 younger sisters, Moala and Koela, were baptized on Saturday!! It's been very rewarding to see the change in Soni's life from the time we started teaching him to his baptism and I'm even more excited for him to receive the priesthood next week and get his temple recommend, as well as Moala his little sister, who is apparently 13 but looks like she is 9.  But anyways, when we first started teaching Soni, it was pretty hard to find him to teach because he was always out drinking and smoking with his friends or working. Regardless, we kept teaching and committing him to live the commandments, with the help of his fellow-shipper who helped us find him quite a bit. His mom, Lia, is the less-active woman who hadn't been to church since she was a little girl, but has recently come back to church with 3 of her kids who were baptized on Saturday. During one visit awhile ago, we asked how Soni was and she went off about how he was never home because he was always out drinking with his friends and would come home completely wasted quite a few times a week. But she realized as she explained that she couldn't think of a time that he had come home drunk that week and the week before that it was only a couple times. We were really excited to hear that because it had been the week before that we committed him to live the Word of Wisdom. After we explained to her that we had been teaching him next door and because she hadn't known this until that moment, a look of shock and happiness spread all over her face. To her, it was a miracle and she looked so grateful. It made sense to her that the gospel was helping him live a better life, which is what she wanted for him. Since then, when he isn't working we can almost always find him at home with his younger siblings and cousins, helping her mom take care of their crazy kids. Although he couldn't keep the commitments perfectly at first, when he finally did he said that it was really hard but that he was happy and free.

Niutei unfortunately didn't come to church this week because he was apparently to shy to come to stake conference with that many people and we are pushing back his baptismal date. But we had a couple awesome teachings with him this last week. We learned that the only reason he started listening to us was because he felt bad for us. And look what came from it! We had actually been teaching his younger sisters and their friends for awhile and one day when we visited, he was there and asked us what we were doing and if we could share whatever it was with him too. The first time we sat down with him and invited him to be baptized, he knew that the invitation we extended couldn't be denied--When you know that these things are true, will you follow the example of Jesus Christ by being baptized. But he didn't want to make any big decision, but instead just learn more. After inviting him to read a chapter in the Book of Mormon, he read it and came back with a chapter that was all marked and highlighted, EVEN THOUGH it was an unplanned lesson on a P-day because we happened to run into him in the street and he HAPPENED to have his Book of Mormon with him. He knew the Book of Mormon was true, he knew the church was true, and when we re-invited him to be baptized, he said yes with no pause or hesitation. From that point, his desire to learn has grown and his willingness to keep his commitments (besides attend church last sunday.. ahem) has increased. Which is awesome because he is the youth leader in the Wesleyan church which is huge and he is willing to give it up. After all this, we come to find that the only reason he started listening to us in the first place was because his younger siblings kept lying to us and he felt bad. But when we started teaching him the lessons, he felt something and he knew that there was something bigger to it all and he had a huge desire to learn more. It was so cool I got the chills listening to him. His fellow-shipper was able to explain how faith, repentance, and baptism, and receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost is just the beginning. There is SO much more to learn and there is so much more we all continue to learn after we are baptized. And this statement is very very true.

Love you all!

Sister Petalisi

Papi a Soni, Moala, mo Koela

​

Dear Family--

Work this week was on point and our focus has been mainly towards our investigators with baptismal dates and TRYING to find new investigators on our own efforts and through the members. But the good news is that the 4 investigators that are preparing to be baptized this Saturday all came to church yesterday! It has been very rewarding seeing the change and the progress of those we are preparing for baptism. I think just as much joy comes from seeing the shock of the members. Two of these investigators that have baptismal dates in particular come from backgrounds that have unfortunately caused lots of judgement to come in their direction from members and nonmembers. Nutei, who has struggled with his sexual identity, and Soni, who has struggled with drugs, drinking, and smoking for years. As we first started teaching them, we'd get lots of comments like--Good luck with that sisters--or--don't waste your time. But as we have focused on the Atonement of Jesus Christ in our discussions and asking inspired questions, we've been able to see changes in their lives and they've both received a hope that comes from the gospel of Jesus Christ. The spirit can truly change ANYONE. It was fun to see the shock on the members faces when they learned that they'd be getting baptized within the next 2 weeks and when they showed up to church. 

One thing we have been working on as a mission is asking INSPIRED QUESTIONS. Sometimes as teachers or missionaries, it is easy to get carried away and start talking too much. But when we talk too much we are only getting in the way of the spirit who is the real teacher. As I've worked on getting out of the way by talking less and listening more through inspired questions, I've noticed a huge huge difference in the results of the lessons. This is not only an important lesson for missionaries, but teachers in every aspect--missionaries, teachers, parents, friends. Because the spirit is the only teacher that can truly change someone.  

Love you all tons and have a stellar week. 

xoxo,

Sister Petalisi

The 2 girls hiding behind the book are 2 of the 4 getting baptized on Saturday.  They belong to the half Tongan/half Indian family and they are the cutest!