Tonga Week 13

I don't have much time to talk today sadly. My companion wants to go see his family. Hope you all are well.

Me:
I'm doing great. I took a nap yesterday and I don't think naps agree with my body because I couldn't fall asleep last night till about 2 AM. I enjoyed Christmas. It was super nice to talk to you on Saturday. I have a new puppy named Achilles because my companion tripped and cut his ankle when we got him. I cleaned the house today and did some laundry. If anyone wants to send me a washing machine it'd be great. Just kidding! I found pickles for sale here and they are only like 2 dollars and taste good so I added pickles to my diet with the granola since I can't always get fresh cucumbers.

Companionship:
We went to the Nobles house and we ate tons of food on Christmas. They roasted a sheep and a pig. There was lots of raw fish and also kumala. (Sweet potato) We are getting along okay. We ride our bikes almost everywhere which is nice.

Tonga:
Tonga has been super super hot. It's also humid enough that when I try to take my shirt off it is so stuck to my back it doesn't come off.

I have to go. I'll talk to you when I get back or next week! Love you all!!

Tonga Week 12

This week went well. We have a baptism on Christmas Eve currently. Hopefully it works out. Transfers turned out to be yesterday and me and my companion are still here. We will be here until February and then probably a little longer.

Congrats to Caldon and Kenzie on getting married. I remember hearing them talk in Spanish through all of their first date. It was pretty hilarious. I think Lyssa and I got about 3 words out that whole night.

I finished up being sick last Wednesday. The doctor told me not to eat anything for 4 days other than liquids. You all know how much I love food so that was a real test. Saturday was the hottest day I've ever felt in my life. I never thought I would be able to sweat while standing in front of a fan inside, but Tonga proved me wrong even there!

Elder Vailea, my favorite zone leader so far went home on Friday. He lost 70 pounds on his mission bringing him down to only 360. He was hilarious. He'd do anything to help us, not to mention food clean up on everything around the house.

Language: I understand almost everything people say. Speaking is a different matter. It continues to be quite rough. I can get my point across,  but I have to drop my voice down an octave because Tongan is a mumbled and from the throat language.

Christmas: I'm not sure if I told you, but the member who is our Fafanga (feeding) on the 25th of each month is a Noble. Tongan royalty is huge here. We will be fed very well that day. I miss the snow and the cold. As well as sweaters and such. I don't think I've ever been so tan in my life, especially around Christmas!

Gym: I think I mentioned it but I'm not sure. We have Tongas only gym and track in our area. We go every morning at 5 now and my companion has lost a lot of weight. I love being able to work out like I did back home.

Food: One of our investigators, her name is Sia, told us to come over whenever we can't find food. She makes her food wonderful. Tons of coconuts, vegetables and fruit, as well as sanitary and deliciously cooked meat. I can't even tell you how thankful I am for her. Her food is the only kind I think could be close to yours mom! She even sends us with some home every time. She's around 70 years old and is hilarious. I bought a hand blender last week. It works wonderful!

I slept without my feet covered the other night. No rat bites, but I got 57 mosquito bites on my right foot and just a little less on my left. No joke itches more than anything I've ever felt.

One of our best families told us not to come back this week. I'm getting pretty use to it though. Still makes me sad. Our house is so hot and humid the walls and our books all sweat.

My facial hair has something wrong. It started growing super fast. I have to shave twice a day. Once at 5 am and again at about 4 Pm. We shower about 4 times a day and it's super cold which feels nice now.

Hanz, Izi, Emma, and Leif: love you all tons! I miss wrestling and running around with you all! Hope you're taking care of Mom, Dad and Lyssa for me!!

I know this church is true. Hope you all are reading the Book of Mormon to know for yourselves as well. Nothing will ever come unless you start.
Love you all,
Elder Lundskog

Tonga Week 11

Dear Family,

This week was good and very busy.

Me:

I'm doing great, finally starting to feel better. We got bikes and they expanded our area. Guess what?  You know that one track in Tonga? (There's only one on the whole island) that's now in my area! We plan to go this afternoon. I found Annies mac and cheese last week so me and my comp bought 9 boxes. I also got tired of getting sick so I bought every vegetable currently in season. 6 pineapples at 50 cents a piece and carrots, cucumbers, green beans, apples and pears! I've been feeling a bit better. The bikes are also very fun, they are total beach cruisers and pretty fun to ride. We go out to the outskirts of our area and it now only takes is about 5 minutes.

Companionship:

We played away in a Manger yesterday for a musical fireside. It sounded beautiful. We plan to go caroling a bit this week and next week. It's very different not having snow or at least the cold weather for christmas. We taught a bit less this week because we had a lot of meetings. The bikes have made things a bit interesting. I think he thinks that we pass a lot of potentials riding bikes, but I talk to everyone I see so I don't know how! The cleaning has gone back to about how it was the first week. 

Tonga:

Tonga is good, we had Pizza from the only pizza place here on Thursday. It was delicious. Tastes like homemade pizza. The occasional hard rain storms are quite frustrating because it will be sunny and then you'll be drenched within like 5 minutes. Dogs have been more of a problem with the bikes, I like the lift my legs up approach, but my companion prefers the walk on the side of the bike and hit them if they try to bite. Our sisters in our district tried to take my flip flops, I just wore out my first pair and was wearing the cool vans ones that Luke gave me and she asked to try them on and then forgot to give them back. Eventually after walking barefoot for a couple hours they made their way back. I bought fishing hooks because we have a fishing shop in the area now, and I might not when I get transferred to a new area by the sea.

Tongan Weddings:

There was a wedding on Wednesday. It was a palangi guy from Fairview Utah and one of our best members. They met on their mission when they served in California. (Don't worry Lys, I'm a missionary and won't be finding any sisters out here;) They had a big dance for the wedding and the prince of Tonga came. Since the dance was right next to the house the speakers from the dance shook our little house and stuff fell off the shelves and we couldn't fall asleep till 1 AM.

I better go, Love you all, good luck with Christmas preparations!

Love, Elder Lundskog

PS: I will call on your Christmas next week. I think the least expensive way is using Facebook through your phone so plan to stay in a spot with good wifi.

Tonga Week 10

I think it's week 10?

Tonga:
It's hot, humid and mango season. It rains nearly everyday and the rain here is more like buckets continuously pouring. We eat Lu what seams like every Sunday, and struggle daily with contacting the members to make us food. Luckily, if really hungry we can usually find fruit almost anywhere on the trees. The mangos are delicious. We eat the skin and all and eat them like an apple.

Companionship: Things went a bit better this last week, we are teaching a Wesleyan Minister and a Baptist Missionary. Hardest lessons ever! We also decided to do a lot more service and cut the lawn for our investigators and the senior couples baked them cakes. The companionship is going well and the work is improving.

Personal: I got some nasty food poisoning from some chicken on Wednesday night and threw up for a couple days, but I guess the more sick I get in the beginning the less I will in the end because I'll be immune to everything? Who knows...maybe not. This last week was fun though and I thoroughly enjoyed the service. I also found granola, it's called Muesli or something over here but tastes the same. It's pretty cheap so I started eating that for Breakfast. I caught a massive spider the size of my hand this last week, I'll try to send the picture. Don't worry, the Tongan kids told me they don't think they're poisonous, but they told me on Tongan so who knows!

I love you all and thanks everyone for your letters! Sorry I am sometimes unable to respond to everyone!
Love, Elder Lundskog

PS: We are teaching an Olympic Archer right now and so I go shoot bows with him!

Tonga Week 9

Dear Family and Friends,

How are you all?! Sorry I have not had the time to respond to all the emails last week, the internet here is prone to go down for several hours at a time and it could today as well because it has been particularly stormy. We have gone into the Hurricane season and it is very hot. The season peaks around January and dissipates around April.

Personally I am doing okay. This last week was rough because we lost 4 of our best investigators, and it was probably the hardest in terms of food. Sea Urchin and Kupa Moa. We also had raw fish, which was seriously just a freshly caught fish put on a plate in front of us. We are supposed to dip it in lemon as we eat it. I expected running to be easy here because of the elevation, but it turns out the humidity is a killer.

Companionship is going well. I LOVE to clean everything as I'm sure you all know, as well as cook and do the dishes, but things are going better. It is definitely weird not to be having a regular snowy christmas. The companionship is getting better and so is my Tongan.

Tonga is great. It's hot, the food is rough and the kids love to randomly come in and play jokes on us in the night, but overall, it is great. Sorry I do not have much time to write today.

I love you all, and am thankful to be out here. Thank you all for your support. I know this church is true. I know if you will read the Book of Mormon, you will know of its truthfulness and gain a Testimony.

Love you all,
Elder Lundskog

Tonga Week 7

Dear Family,
     This week has been an adventure. Lots happened, I was sick until Wednesday, but on Tuesday I was so frustrated with being in the house that we left and went out to some of our investigators houses to make new appointments. On Friday while walking by the Noble of Longolongo's house the house caught on fire. It is probably one of the nicest houses here. They couldn't put it out with all the fire trucks in Tonga. It burnt the house next to it down as well. Some little kids lit it on fire!  On Friday night there was a dance on the church property where we live. We couldn't sleep until 12:30. Also, Peanut was hit by a car. Broke his back right leg. Very sad. I taped it and put two spoons so the bone had some support.

     Personal:
I have been feeling a lot better. I got bit by a Spider on my left leg on the vein so it swelled way up. The mosquitos still love me as well. I didn't do so great with exercising this last week because I was sick but will start new tomorrow. Apart from that I did get a little sick of the food this week. We didn't get like anything home made so it was a lot of bread and stuff bought from the store. I was a little disappointed this week with how I was sick so we set our goals high for the rest of the week. We were able to help a lot of people.

     Companionship:
Things have been going well. We are both looking forward to Christmas and plan on cutting down a small coconut tree to put in our MQ. Weird fact, our MQ is built on an incline because the wind only blows in one direction here. Apart from that I will be here for a while so I'm trying to be as nice as I can even when things can be slightly frustrating.

     The Work:
The work has been well. We do a lot of door approaches and one of our investigators is progressing very well, however, there's one drawback in that he makes his living growing and selling Marijuana. Nothing is really illegal here so there's not much fear with drugs. We have been trying to help him find a new job and it is progressing. We found a family that are big runners. I was very excited. They have a daughter who is 14 and is the fastest in Tonga. She will compete in the Pacific Games in 2019 and so I have started to help train her. We teach her, three siblings and their parents. All is going well.

That's all for now, I just want to again let you all know if you read the Book of Mormon daily you will gain a Testimony and know why I'm out here. Love you all.
Elder Lundskog

Tonga Week 6

Dear family,
     This week has been interesting and quite sad in some ways. We had two baptisms fall through, and I'm sick. I ache all over and they're pretty sure it's dengue fever. They told me to just rest and drink lots. A part from that, things are going fine. It was my first transfer yesterday and neither of us got moved. I have a feeling we will be here for at least another 3 months.

     Personally I am doing fine, apart from being sick and pretty sure every bone in my body is broken the week has gone well. It will be interesting to see how this next transfer goes.  This last week I ate Ota for the first time. I don't know how I feel about it, it's basically about a half pound of fish in a bowl with some seasoning. Sounds good right? The only problem? It's raw, and we have to eat it anyway. So I did my best to ignore the slimy texture and did the swallow whole approach without chewing. Anyway, this one's for you Emma, next time you think there is something wrong with mom's cooking, come fly out here.  I promise when you return you will eat everything mom makes;) Hanz, you'd love it here. Everyone drives super long bed trucks with a tiny spot for the driver. When we need a ride we jump in the back of a truck until we get there. Almost everyone drives trucks. Izi would get along fine with all the kids, guy or girl, they all wrestle and play rugby all day long.

     As a companionship things are going well, we are getting along better. We have been better about accomplishing our goals this week apart from me being sick. We scheduled two baptismal dates this week.

     A little more about Tonga-although it's brutally hot outside, our showers are all freezing cold. You get in and you hold your breath it's so cold. It takes me two hours of rinsing to wash just my whites. I will never be ungrateful for a washing machine. That's for sure. Anyway, I love you all, be thankful for what you have.

Love,
     Elder Sikoki