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