Last Post

Hey Everybody,

My time is running short so I will be quick. Uiha has been sweet! It's kind of the same as Ha'afeva in regards that there ain't nobody here, but my companion, Elder Leakehe, and I have been trying hard to find people to teach.  There are 2 towns on Uiha, about a 30 min walk away from each other, Uiha and Felemea.  We may have a family to teach in Felemea. Uiha also has insane sunsets.

Right now I'm actually in Vava'u. We have our mission tour tomorrow so we took a boat to the main island and then took the super nice new boat to Vava'u which was about 4 hours away. It's way cool to be up here and get to visit Vava'u one last time before I'm done.

Time has absolutely flown by these last 2 years. I can honestly say it has been the hardest time of my life. But it's also been the most I've ever learned in my life. I really am going to miss Tonga and the people and the lifestyle. 

I would like to end with my testimony that I know that the Gospel is the key to true happiness. God loves us, and though we will all face trials and tribulations we will see God's plan for us, in his time and not ours. I know that God has inspired a prophet today and that the keys of the Priesthood are on the earth today. The Heavens are opened and miracles are still among us.  I testify of the truthfulness of the Church and the happiness we receive as we join the Lord's true church. 

I've been amazingly blessed to serve here in Tonga and have the blessing of sharing the gospel. I love you all and am grateful for the support and help that you have given me these past two years. The name is on the pin but it's also on the heart!

Ofa atu,

Elder Wilson

The True Hood

Hey family and friends, 

It's been the life out here on the outer islands of Ha'apai. I just got my transfer call yesterday to leave Ha'afeva and I'm going to another island, Uiha. We caught the mission boat to the main island, which is why I can email. It's really sad to be leaving Ha'afeva. There were a lot of people I learned to love there and a lot of good work was accomplished on that island. 

I'm excited to go to Uiha and work on that island. I have heard that there is a lot of work to be done out there. I will still be living the outer island life for sure.

I want to share my love for all of you and also my testimony. I know that God lives and loves us. It was a great experience to be out in Ha'afeva and I saw  a lot of miracles. I know that the heavens are open and it's only through faith in Christ that good happens and we are happy.  This is  my last transfer I'm going to try and finish really strong this last 6 weeks. 

Random things:

- I ate a shark.

- We had 3 people at church 2 weeks ago and a SOLID 2 people last week. My comp and I ran sacrament, then we both gave testimonies. Ghandi motu life.

- I've been playing a lot of tennis and my forehand is on fire.

- I've eaten fish like crazy

- Dang, one transfer left. 

- The sea was absolutely terrible when we came in from Ha'afeva. I'm grateful God blessed me with not being seasick.

- Umm, 6 weeks left.

We have mission tour in 2 weeks so I think I'll be emailing one last time before I'm done.

Ofa atu,

Elder Wilson

Ha'afeva Life

Hey Everyone, 

Things are going really well, time is going fast and I am doing great out here. Ha'afeva is the place, I really love it. We have set up a lot of programs and have been trying to work with less actives. Our District President, Pres. Lavaka, is the guy. He has one of the 3 trucks on the island, a boat and the only motorcycle thing. I've been eating a ton of fish, and my new favorite food is fried fish. It's also been raining a ton over here, but it's been fun to work in the rain. 

We've just finished visiting the Lulunga district, so we've been out to all the seven islands in our area, including Nomuka which is the farthest one. On Tungua, one of our islands about an hour away, we completely run church, which means we preside, conduct, give 20 min talks each and then teach 2nd hour. We have 3 investigators there on Tungua, but the work has been hard because there is nobody to fellowship to them. There are 7 members and only 2 take the sacrament. One of our investigators is Lini. She's 14 years old and we have taught her all the lessons. The only problem is with her parents, but we are fasting and praying, so it eventually will work out. We have been to Tungua 3 times, which is the island I've been to the most. We rarely go to church in Ha'afeva. We just go around with Pres. Lavaka or go where he tells us to go.

Random things:

- I have spoken in Church all 6 weeks of last transfer and if you count Uncle Larry's talk in General Conference, Elder Wilson has spoken at meetings the last 7 weeks. 

- I've eaten shark, turtle, and basically every thing else. Turtle is super good but shark tastes way gross.

- Played tennis a couple of times, but it's been funny. They are pretty good but don't ever move their feet when they hit. 

- The water hasn't been working so there's been a lot of showering out of a bucket.

- Dang it's hot

- We taught an entire lesson to an investigator in Nomuka, challenged her to baptism and then she says has already been baptized.
- On the way to O'ua we caught a fish, went straight to a member's house, cooked and then ate the fish within 20 minutes of it being caught.

- Walking in Ha'afeva we see a guy on a beach just swinging a huge turtle around.

I want to testify about General Conference, it really gave me some good guidance in my life. I loved Larry's talk and the others about prophets. 

I love you all.  It's crazy to think next trasfer is my last. I'm actually kind of sad and excited at the same time, life goes fast and Tonga has been a big part of my life, and it's gonna be hard to leave. 

Live the gospel,

Elder Wilson

From the offfice: Elder Wilson and Elder Mahe getting ready to go to one of the islands to take care of watching General Conference. He is doing fine and will email next week when he comes to Zone Conference.

Note:  Lucky Aaron was online when Levi emailed last week, so they had a quick chat and Levi said  he thought he would only be able to email once a transfer. However, some members connected with Emma on Facebook and sent her the following pictures and message. One way or another...

"Elder Wilson say hi to all of yous and he sent his love. He just ate turtle today so he love it. He says plz sent the photos to family and friends. He still here in an island called haafeva which is in haapai group."

  

Hey family and friends, 

Sorry, no long email today. I'm working in Ha'apai, in the outer islands, and we just came in for Zone Conference and then we are about to catch the boat back, so I have lots of things to talk about in a very short amount of time.

1. Gita: We went to the church and camped out for the hurricane. My town was on the west side of Tongatapu, so it wasn't as affected as the rest of the island. But basically just about every tree in Tonga fell down and a lot of houses had a lot of damage. Afterward we had a week of straight service.

2. The next week I was transfered to Ha'afeva Ha'apai.  Ha'afeva is an outer island about a 2 hour boat ride from the main island of Ha'apai (depending on the boat). We cover Vahe, Lulunga which is basically 7 small islands (Tungua, O'ua, Ha'afeva, Nomuka, Fotuha'a, Matuku and Kotu),and all the islands have an average of  about 80 people on them. Each island is about an hour apart from each other. I've been to 4 of the islands and it's been sweet. This is a very beautiful area and we have a boat called Moroni that we can use sometimes. I'm companions with Elder Mahe, who I came to Tonga with. We are doing a lot of work and it's good to be with somebody who's exactly obedient and works hard. 

3. The outer island life is really slow and really chill. I eat a lot fish. People here in this area are super nice. A lot of them are already baptized and the others are very strong in their church, so work has historically been very slow, but we are trying our hardest to change that. Right now we have a plan with the Kaingalotu to read the Book of Mormon.

Random things:

- Ate 3 pigs last week

- People play tennis here too! 

- I have seen sharks, dolphins, and flying fish.

- I'm insanely tan and so happy that I'm not super white anymore.

- There's a b-ball hoop and I just got a net sent in from Tonga, I'm set - 3 months to dunking.

I love you all.  I testify the Church is true. Sorry this is so short, but the boat is waiting on us. I have had a lot of spiritual experiences out here and they all come from reading the Book of Mormon, so read it!

-- Elder Wilson

Note: It appears that Elder & Sister Kapp are single-handedly trying to keep the missionaries in contact with their families through Facebook. We'd heard that Levi had written a short email, but couldn't remember our email addresses, so we contacted Elder Kapp directly and an email came this morning.  Levi mentioned prior to the storm that he thought he might be going out to the island of Ha'afeva at the next transfer, so he may be out there where internet is already dicey. It should be an interesting last 4 months of his mission!

https://www.google.com/maps/place/Ha'afeva/@-19.9476937,-174.7202755,15z/data=!3m1!4b1!4m5!3m4!1s0x718d396a3d4cbe5f:0xf9b6e72873e80bfd!8m2!3d-19.9455156!4d-174.7080437

From Elder Kapp:

I am so sorry this took so long to get to you.  Thank you for contacting us with your email address. Elder Wilson is doing well.  He is such a good missionary and a great friend.  You should be very proud of him.

Elder Kapp

Hey Mom, 

Life is good over here and the hurricane wasn’t too bad over where I was. We have been able to do a ton of service and it’s been good to get closer to the people. I’m at one of the couples' houses right now and typing a quick email. I don’t know when I’ll be able to email again because all the other power is still out.

Love you and thanks for your prayers. Ofa atu,

Elder Wilson

No word from Levi yet, but we've been following the blog of Senior Missionary Couple who, because of a generator, had/have electricity and internet. After the storm, the Kapps went around the island taking pictures of missionaries and posting them on their facebook page for parents to see. Below is the picture of Levi and his companion during clean-up. We also learned from their blog that transfers, which were to take place the Monday of the storm, happened a week later instead. We are looking forward to seeing where Levi is when he has a chance to write.

There will be miracles in Tonga.

A friend of ours has a daughter scheduled to go to Tonga this summer with an HEFY group. This is the letter and pictures the participants received from the director yesterday.

Hello Tongan Builders,

For the past few years, we have sent 4 HEFY groups to Tonga each summer. This summer, we felt we needed to do more. In October, registration filled up quickly for the 10 trips we will be taking to Tonga. Even though we didn't know how it was going to work having 10 groups go to one small island, we felt strongly that it was the right thing to do.

As some of you may be aware, a category 4 tropical cyclone catastrophically hit the main island of Tonga earlier this week. Forty percent of homes lost their roofs, there is massive flooding, and the majority of homes don't have electricity or clean water. To put this storm into perspective, it was stronger than hurricane Harvey when it hit Texas last fall. The country is in a dire state and will be rebuilding for the foreseeable future. 

I have been thinking about the HEFY theme for the year: There will be miracles. When we heard the news of this natural disaster, we were reminded of the inspiration we received so many months ago to increase the amount of groups going to Tonga. The Lord has perfect foresight. You are going to be miracles for the people in Tonga. You are needed there more now than ever. I am currently coordinating with our local partners to plan your projects for this summer to help rebuild their country.  

Thank you for your willingness to serve. We love you! 

--Catherine

PS. Here are some pictures so you can see what Tonga looks like right now:

Cyclone Gita

Parent note: Levi's mission changed, at least in the short term, when Tonga was hit by a Category 4 storm, Cyclone Gita, during the night of February 12th. We haven't heard from him yet and don't expect to soon, but we did receive this from the Mission President yesterday:


Dear Parent/ Guardian,

We do apologize for the delay in communications, which were a result of a power outage and subsequent internet failure.

Cyclone Gita has been an experience to remember and something that we will be talking about for a very long time. For some of us it was the longest night of our lives. The Cyclone has left our Island Kingdom of Tonga, and although much foliage, many trees and various houses were destroyed, I’m please to let you know that all the missionaries in the Nuku’alofa Tonga Mission are accounted for. Each of them are safe, healthy and pleased to be serving the people of Tonga in this time of need.

It will be a very busy week and month for us as we will take part in the cleaning up and giving of service to others in need. This will also be an opportunity to build our love for the Lord and others. Due to the major destruction caused by Cyclone Gita, the power on the entire Island has been shut down so please expect some delay in communications for the time being.

We will do our best to keep you updated as long as we are connected to these services.

Kind Regards,
President and Sister Tui’one


PN#2: Judging from the fabulous time he had in Tonga with HEFY, we're sure Levi is happy to be helping the Tongan people rebuild. Below is from HEFY 2015.

 

Hey everybody, 

The theme of this past week is same old same old. Not a whole lot is happening over here on this side of the hood in Ha'akame.  All of our investigators live in other places on Tongatapu, so don't live in our area and our "fellow-shippers" have been having a hard time getting through to them. But life still goes on in Ha'akame. 

It's been really good to be with my companion. It's pretty cool that I've learned to understand Tongan behavior and language so much better, so now it honestly feels quite normal to be with a native Tongan. Elder Mohulamu also gets the award for most funny English, not that it's bad but he will randomly speak in English at the most random times and says the funniest things.  

We had a program with the YSA and Elder Cox in my district and I were able to teach another palangi Peace Corps worker. It was a good teaching teaching experience, but it's weird to think how many white people believe so much in science. Teaching white people is strange because every Tongan has such a good grasp on the concept of God. It's always amazing talking to Tongans about other teachings because they are always confused when we talk to them about their concerns. 

I had a good birthday, My comp surprised me after our district meeting yesterday. He had his family get a tunupuaka (roasted pig) and this awesome cake. Dang my life is 1/4 over. 

I balled out this morning, I'm trying to ball out every Wednesday and Saturday.  Weight check 178.4.

Love you all and have a great week.

--

Elder Wilson

Hey Everyone,

Sorry about last week. We had a Mission Leader's Conference and I had to skip the big email again.
Life and work have been going  relatively well this past couple of weeks. Ha'akame is a very, very small place but it has a lot of members so most of our work is trying to go through the members.  There were a lot of investigators before I came to Ha'akame, but it seems as if the fakafeohi (fellowshippers) haven't been able to find times to meet with them, so it's a little slow.

In 2016 (2 years ago), I taught a Peace Core worker in Nukunuku and guess who I ran into at church this week - the same Peace Core worker named Darbie. It was really fun to talk to her and we were able to teach her twice this past week. She has a lot of questions about a lot of things and it's been fun to try to answer her questions. Especially since we don't usually get a lot of questions in Tonga.

Love you all and have a good week,

Elder Wilson

A couple of older pictures:

Hey fam and friends,

This past week was transfers again and I got the boot from Hofoa and transferred to serve in Ha'akame. Ha'akame is a relatively small town in the southwest part of Tonga with a lot of members. There are two wards in our small area and I believe there's a lot of work to be done. We already have a couple of investigators to teach. My new companion is Elder Mohulamu from Tonga. He's a really good missionary and came in at the same time I did. I'm super excited to be a companion with him and speak Tongan all the time, which was something I really wanted going into the transfer. We are still the zone leaders and I'm now driving the newest car in the mission, a 2015 Toyota Corolla, which I'm pretty pumped about.

  

I going to go back to the random things:

- We visited the ward members yesterday and when we went around, I kid you not, there were at least 5 houses that were eating dog. I've also heard that Ha'akame is the place to eat horse. 

- I balled out in slippers this morning. Liahona is in the zone so the basketball may be starting up again. 

- We also taught a kid named Hautau. While we were teaching him and I was literally inspired by the answers this kid gave. He's 13-years-old and giving inspired answers! Unfortunately we don't know if his parents know about him being taught so we will see if we can continue to teach him.

- I finished the 3-month Book of Mormon challenge and have started reading the epistles of Paul. I really like Kolinito (Corinthians) 2:4-5 where Paul is speaking on teaching, how when people are converted to the gospel it's not because of his way of speaking, but it's through the power of the Holy Ghost. I think that's something really important that every missionary needs to learn. It doesn't matter how deep your knowledge of the scriptures is or how good your language is, but how people feel the holy ghost. 

Love you all and have a great week,

Elder Wilson

Forgive me, I'm going to have to ditch the big email today. We are really busy with our zone p-day and other things.  We found a new investigator this week who turns out to be the brother of our other investigator and we are trying to get them going in the Gospel.  Here are some pictures from the Christmas Party. Have a great week!

The Big 4 from the MTC

The Hafokas, my favorite senior couple

Pres. & Sis. Tiu'one

 Elder Rosales from Provo.