Malo e lelei! 

This week was a really good week :) We had our stake conference yesterday and so all week there were little activities that the stake would do and it was so fun!

 On Tuesday my companion and I had the opportunity to go to a birthday party for our ward mission leaders dad. All i have to say is Tongans know how to celebrate the right way! hahaha. I will send some pictures, but they spent all night and all day preparing food. They roasted like 7 pigs had 5 birthdays cakes and just food everywhere hahah. My ward mission leaders dads name is Semisi and he turned the big 80. He's not a member of our church, but me and companion had the opportunity to meet with him the week before. He talked to us for 45 min and about things that old people just love to talk about haha and then when he finished he told us that he will never be baptized. We were kind of shocked haha he talked to us for 45 min and then basically said "thats it, you can go now!"  but he is so kind and invited us to his big party. Theres a church here in Tonga called the Siasi Tonga and Semisi is a member of that church. He invited a missionary from his church to pray at his party. So the missionary welcomed everyone and then started to pray. I'm sitting there thinking its just a normal prayer....and then he kept going....and going...and yelling haha and then everyone started singing. After the singing he kept praying, and praying! 30 min later he said okay lets pray over the food. I looked at my companion and I was like what were we just praying for, for the last 30 min? hah and then he continued to yell shout and sing. Im not kidding when I say like an hour later the prayer was over and we started eating. But i loved it! I love experiencing new things here, and learning things they do in other churches.  They had a table in the front where Semisi sat, with the Missionary and some government people. There was another table at the front they they had just for me and my companion. We had our own roasted pig and cake!.... it was crazy! 

On Thursday night they had what they call "Hiva" which means singing. All of the wards were given the same song from the Stake President to practice and to perform for the the other wards. They were also supposed to put together a quartet and have someone sing a solo. Man I felt like I was in "Pitch Perfect'  Mormon style!  It was so funny but so cool! Just a two hour program of people singing. The wards would take turns and some people you could tell were getting competitive. :)

On Friday they had " Faiva kau leka" and all of the primary children performed dances. Each ward was assigned a certain island to dance. Our two wards had Fiji, and Hawaii. Other wards had Mauri, Tahitti, Tonga, and Samoa. We also have the palangi ward in our stake and they performed an american dance. I have to admit I was a slightly embarrassed to be a palangi that night. haha! All of the kids were doing cool island dances and then the palangi ward did a square dance, and the electric slide! My companion was laughing so hard cause she thought the palangi dance was so funny! 

Sunday was stake conference and it was such a powerful meeting! We had Elder Leota from the 70 come and speak and he is such a powerful speaker. On Saturday my companion and I went around inviting everyone to come to our conference, and on Sunday it was so cool to see the people we invited come, especially our investigators. :)

We also had the opportunity to go to the temple this week with our ward! The spirit in the temple is so amazing. We feel so close to our Heavenly Father when we are doing the things he has asked us to. I encourage you all to go to the temple as often as you can. The blessings you receive in the temple are so great and its a great way to take time away from the world to sit and feel our Saviors love :) 

I love you all! Thank you for all of your support and kind words. I feel so much love from all of you!!  Have a great week :) 

Ofa lahi atu!

-- 

Sista Silivesita-

 

The Birthday party

Neini one of my favorite ward members.

Hahahah the Elders had a lady in their area make me a bag.....the lady thought i was an elder and that my last name is "Sylpester" hahah but hey the bag is cute so im gonna use it!

We made a pie last p day and then ate it at district meeting.