8 Aug 2016

          Malo e lakoifie!

The King of Tonga came to 'Eua this week! we didn't meet him or shake his hand or anything, but we saw him up close and got a picture! Once a year, as I understand it, the king comes and visits 'Eua and all its villages. Everyone in our area was gone, so we went and checked it out. It was like a big fair where everyone had their fish, yams, produce, livestock etc. to sell and display it was a lot of fun and we saw some very cool performances.

The 100th anniversary of the Tonga mission is this week, and President Tui'one is bringing all the missionaries from 'Eua and Ha'apai in on the boat, so we're leaving later today! we'll be there for a week(ish). We'll also be attending MLC and going through the temple, so we're really excited!

We have an investigator, a 45ish year old man, who has agreed to be baptized! we're very excited and very confident about him. We only recently found out about the celebration and don't know how long we'll be on Tongatapu, so we have no definite baptismal date anymore, but I'm confident it will be in a week or two.

I've been listening to a lot of talks by Elder Bruce R. McConkie. I've been pondering and fasting and praying to try to understand who God is, and trying to get my head wrapped around what it means to be omnipotent, omniscient, all powerful and perfect. I know he lives and would encourage all of you to think about the gospel, the commandments, the scriptures and the words of the prophets in a more real sense. The more I understand, the stupider sin seems and the lower my jaw drops. I don't understand it all, but I know that God lives.

I love this gospel, and it is my privilege, responsibility and blessing to deal on a daily basis with the stuff that changes lives and saves souls. The more I learn about our Father, the more real this all seems.

The clerk changed the password, so we got started pretty late; I'll write more next week. I'd like to express my love to you all and I'm very grateful for all the replies! I don't have the time to write you back individually, but I want you to know that I never read one without feeling loved. Thank you!

This is true!

'Ofa lahi atu,

Elder Brown