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.

Hey Everybody, 

It was a good week this past week. We had our Mission Leaders Conference and a good vilo hoa.  Here are the 5 highlights:

1. The Mission Leaders Conference was great. We talked about a lot of the problems facing the mission and how we can push the work forward in the mission by being obedient to the small things. 

We also balled up at the MLC which was super fun, but I can't shoot no more.

2. We have an elder in our district who is from Hofoa and he went on exchange with us so we could find some more families to teach. It actually worked pretty well and we now have some new families to teach, including some of Elder Vaisas extended family.

3. Costlo, a new store in Tonga, obviously based on Costco. It's crazy different then from anything in Tonga, like a part of America in Tonga. I went there and bought some popcorn and bagel bites, life is good.

4. It's beginning to get hot.

5. We have a Christmas Program on the 22nd and our zone has to sing a song. If anybody has any good ideas please tell me, We are trying to get creative.

Love you all, have a great week. 

Ofa atu,  

Elder Wilson

Baptism of Uenita

Malo tau lava,

  

This past week were transfers and I am staying!!! Not gonna lie, it was not great getting that news, but I'm going to have a good attitude about it. I have a sweet zone and the work is progressing a little in our Area. I'm also staying with Elder Vaisa which is a plus

Also this week:

1. We baptized Uenita this past Saturday. The service went well and Elder Vaisa did the baptism. I also gave my very first confirmation on Sunday. I was a little nervous while walking up to do it because I was literally giving a part of God to someone. It was a good reminder to me of the blessings that we get when we have the Holy Ghost.

2. About 2 months ago we taught a 15-year-old kid named Sifa the 1st lesson, gave him a Book of Mormon and exhorted him to read it. Well, after trying to find him for the past 2 months we finally met him on the road and set up a time to talk with him. When we met and talked about the Book of Mormon, he said that he had read it and knew it was true. We are trying to help him reach the waters of Baptism which would be a huge blessing if it worked out.

3. The APs came over to our MQ the other night and invited us to go to Liahona (church school) and ball out. Literally so fun. There were actually a couple good players there. I've still got some of my game, though my shooting is a little iffy jiffy. It was way fun playing basketball after a long drought. 

4. We have our MLC this next week, we're going Temple tomorrow and meeting on Friday.

5. I ate Lobster yesterday. 

Love, 

Elder Wilson

Hey everybody,

It's been a good week here in the true hood of Hofoa. This is probably going to be a very short email. Transfers were delayed one week which is good as we will finally have the blessing of baptizing our investigator Uenita this Saturday, which will be very rewarding. She was a very fun investigator to teach and it will be a privilege to see her get baptized. 

The biggest thing happening on the island is the Tonga Rugby Team (mate Ma'a Tonga). It has been doing super well and they made it to the semis of the world cup and played against England (Elder Ludlow). They had the ball with a score of 18-20 with 10 seconds left and scored, but the ref blew a whistle and England won. So, even though I didn't see it, literally every house I have gone to since the game has been talking about the call. The ref apparently was a Redcoat who had moved to Australia so everybody thought it was rigged.

I have been reading The Book of Mormon, and I have noticed this time around that it has become a page turner. I love reading it and learning the stories and different aspects of the Gospel. I know it's a true book that can help all of us out. We were at the house of Lavenia (our new convert from last transfer) and read the Book of Mormon with her. It's amazing to see how fast she has applied the Book of Mormon into her life and how it's helping her combat the trials and challenges she's going through. In other words, read The Book of Mormon everybody.

I love you all,

 

Elder Wilson

New Suit

Hey fam,

  

This past week our stake and another stake were split into three stakes, so we had a really big conference with all three stakes and met all the new Stake Presidents and their Counselors. Our new Stake Pres. was our old 1st Counselor. Unfortunately there was no feed after.

Cool story:  we were driving along and noticed some people on the side of the road having  a fair (a Tongan yard sell with products from New Zealand or Australia), and saw that they were selling suit coats. When we checked it out for church pants (which we are now allowed to wear), we found pants and a suit coat that was MY SIZE (insanely rare)! I asked how much the suit was and tried to pay for it but the guy gave it to me for free, which is a very common occurrence in Tonga. So, now I got this sick brown suit.

We had a couple discussions in English this past week and are working with a deportis [?] named Martin right now. He's a great guy with a hard past and we are trying to help him get rid of that and begin his new life. We've only taught him once but he's a really humble guy and wants to join the gospel.

For Thanksgiving some things I'm grateful for are:

1. Tight golden investigators.  We have continued going to our investigator Uenita and reading the Book of Mormon with her. After we're done reading she gives profound answers on what she liked. She's good for sure for our baptismal date on the 2nd of December.

2. Being a missionary in Tonga. This past week I was thinking about some of the little things that bug me in Tonga and I realized that literally everything that bugs me is because of how much love Tongans have. When they tell me to eat more or they do small annoying things to me as a Palangi, it's because of how much love they have for me as a representative of the Lord and a missionary in Tonga. 

3. A supportive family, a blessing that too many missionaries take for granted for 18-19 years of their life then realize how big a blessing it is on their missions. How grateful I am to know families are forever through the gospel of Jesus Christ

4. I have a Scottie Pippen and Damian Lillard Jersey.

5. Dang, I'm not trying to sound profound or whatever, but I'm grateful for the challenges I have had. This past week I had an experience that could have made me really mad (which it kinda did), but through the things I went through earlier on my mission it was a easy problem to fix. 

I wish you guys all a happy Thanksgiving. Hopefully we will be able to do something here in Tonga for it. Transfers in 4 days - we shall see what happens. 

Ofa atu,

 

Elder Wilson

Hey everybody,

It was a good week this week. Lots of crazy stuff happening.

-Baptism of Catherine -We finished  teaching Catherine and baptized her. She was a fun investigator to teach and she has a super good fakafeohi family. Her baptism was a wee bit stressful as the National Tongan Rugby team was playing at the time of her baptism, so we had to move it back an hour to accommodate. We were running around trying to make sure everything went to plan, but the baptism went well and I had the opportunity to do it.

-Speaking of the National Tongan Rugby team (mate ma'a Tonga) apparently they are playing insanely good and on the day of the game everyone did the Tongan version of a parade which was everybody getting in, or on top of their cars, going to town, honking their horns and yelling. WE arrived to our fafanga [meeting ?] at the end of the game and saw the last couple of minutes of Tonga beating New Zealand for the first time ever. Tonga beating New Zealand in New Zealand! Right after the game there was another pronto parade and everybody went to town again on top of their cars.

-We had two mission meetings with General Authorities - Elder Cardon and Elder Uceda.

At his Mission Conference Elder Cardon talked about the Holy Ghost and prayer, as well as the Abrahamic covenant. I learned a lot about  teaching prayer better at the end of the first lesson. 

- Then we had a super amazing privilege today to hear from Elder Uceda from the Presidency of the Seventy. He talked purely about prayer and it was, in my generation's language, like"fire." Like Elder Cardon he talked about what things we should teach and what things we shouldn't when we teach prayer. He spoke with a lot of energy and talked about how when we pray we are experiencing a little part of heaven. 

My stake is splitting this Sunday so it's gonna be a big day. Transfers are coming up in two weeks. 

Got to see The Big 4 from the MTC, Nasilai, Manu, Poulsen and me. I hope all of you have a good week.

Love you all,

 Elder Wilson

Hey everybody,

It was another solid, yet kind of slow, week here in Tonga. We had the conference in Puke to change our branch into a ward. Puke has been a branch for 32 years, so it was a pretty historic event, and huge with 500-600 people there, probably most of them for the food afterward.  haha. Funny thing happened, Elder Vaisa and I were preparing the sacrament and there definitely wasn't enough water. We had to rush and get more cups and water super fast and finish the rest of the sacrament. As we were stressing  about the sacrament, the counselor in the Stake Presidency gives me a note saying the Mission President wasn't going to be there and could I step in and talk! haha. I did my normal Tongan talk - made a joke about eating dog then talked about missionary work. The rest of the program was really good. They made the old Branch President the new Bishop so there  really weren't any big changes. After the conference there was the biggest kai pola (feast) I have ever seen. Unfortunately I don't have any pics.

In other things:

 - We were at our fafanga the other day when Tonga and Samoa were playing Rugby. We were there at the very start for the opening prayer and the Sipitau (haka). It was crazy cool and I would invite you all to watch it if you get the opportunity.
- Uenita has given birth, we are planning to baptize her the last day of the transfer.

- I was in Longolongo dropping something off to the missionaries when I saw a super old beat up Damian Lillard jersey on someone.  I walked up and bought it off him for 20 pa'anga. It was a very good 2-way deal.

- I have been really studying the Book of Mormon, and it is so good! I also love Alma. I invite everybody to read it. 

- We have finished up teaching Catherine and will be baptizing her this week.

- Other than that work has been pretty slow.  We've been struggling with what to do as we have already knocked every door. But trying to stay positive and find different ways to find people to teach.

Have a good week, 

Elder Wilson