birthday and anniversary

The past month Elder Hoagland has been one of the walking wounded, fighting a cold. Sunday he thought it was finally over and after church it hit even harder than before. He still taught seminary and institute, but hardly left the flat. Wednesday he began his second round of anti-biotics. While he is finally seeing some improvement, it looks like Sister Hoagland is succumbing to the same affliction. Round and round we go.
We have not been able to work at the school this week and miss the children. We were told a story by the teacher last week about 6 year old Osiki (Os-Ka) Langi. He and his siblings came to the school in March or April when they joined their father and his new bride. On his first day at school the teachers were trying to find out his surname. After some time he said his name was Osiki Hoagland. He had been to primary and learned Sister Hoagland's name. They had to go to the office to get his name. The teachers thought it very funny as they knew the Hoagland's.
On Friday the 14th we went for a rare dinner out to celebrate our 45th wedding aniversary.
At institute we offered our students ice cream after class. We are still learning some of the Tongan ways. They both asked if we had some white bread to go with their ice cream. We did not, but they took what we did have. The two of them consumed a liter of ice cream, plus bread and bananas.

Friday night we invited our seminary students to another birthday party for those who have birthdays in August. On the left is Sam, who turned 15. The Elders came as well and brought an investigator. Martin is in the middle and is 23. He is making some big changes in his life and hopes to be baptized next week. His family has become interested because they have seen the changes he as made. He has been at church for the past two weeks and like Murray has been participating in priesthood meeting. These men will make a great contribution to the branch.
Here is Tupou, her brother Sam, and Sione having fun.
Moni is using an ice cream container for her share. She added chocolate sauce orange pop and later bananas.
This is Nuku who turned eleven this month. We have been helping him with his reading. While the teenagers were listening to music from the Internet, Nuku had discovered the magnifying glass. He was everywhere with it.
After everyone had their fill, Tupou and Moni helped Sister Hoagland clean up. Moni is a very good island dancer and the hospital called the high school today and said they wanted her to come and dance for a group there. They paid her $100.00. She donated $50.00 to a Maori organization and spent the rest on food for her and her friends. Easy come easy go.