Primary Party

This is brother Bell from Christchurch. He is in charge of all CES activities on the South Island. He came to visit our little seminary class. Following the class we had a very nice visit with him. He brought up BYU Hawaii as a posibility for our oldest student, Ana. We made a visit to her mother yesterday to get the ball rolling. We have no idea how her grades are in school but she is a very smart young woman. That is one of our short term priorities to see if she is elligible to go. Bro. Bell said he could be of great assistance in getting her in. That would be so incredible if she could get into BYUH. There is nothing in this part of the Island to further her education.
We had a fun pizza party with the primary children 8 years and older. These young girls came late but it worked out because the table was full with the others. These girls are non members. The girl in blue is a foster child of one of our members and the others are just friends. They were so cute and fit in well with the other children. They started the games they played outside.
Here is the first shift at the table. From left to right, Taufa 8, Nuku 10, Maui 10, Meli 10, Hola 9, and Lesili 10. Taufa, Meli and Hola are Sister Hoagland's piano students. Lesili is having trouble in school because he does not know English. We have set up a time with his parents to help him read.
Lesili was so full he could not get up or even want an ice cream cone. We printed this picture and gave it to his dad, and you should have seen the smile came on his face. He does not speak very much English but we knew he loved that picture. Lesili is the oldest of five beautiful children.
Here are the other children enjoying their ice cream while Lesili suffers in the other chair. Hola in purple is Lesili's younger sister and she lives with Mele during the week so she can go to a better school and has just thrived living in an English speaking home. Mele's parents, the Toli's are very generous and have been very helpful to the Tongan members. They are both returned missionaries, he being Tongan and Sister Toli from New Zealand. Sister Toli is a nurse and Bro. Toli works for a private tech school as an "on line" instructor. He has a college degree. All these boys play rugby, which has interfered with their attendance at primary. They all make it to sacrament meeting.
This is the joy of being a child. Nuku came from the bath room with his fly open. The girls were laughing their heads off. Poor Nuku. The Tongans love to tease each other, which is not always helpful. The couple who were here some time back were skilled in teaching language but because the men would tease each other about how they spoke English some were discouraged from learning. We had a wonderful time with these great kids. It is so good to get to know them as they greet and smile at us at church.

We followed up on a visit we had last week with Sister Royal. Her brother was involved in a serious accident. She was not home so we went next door where we inquired of the neighbor, learning that her brother had passed away. I had reported the situation during our council meeting, but I think the branch missed an opportunity for compassionate service as I think we were her only contact during this time of sorrow.