Some Random Photos of the Tonga Trip

Sister Thorne helping a really big Fijian Warrior carry a goat, or is she really just "pulling his leg"

International Airport in Tonga

We were told to get in this line to go through customs, Sister Thorne wasn't very excited to be asked to get in the Elderly line.  I had no problem because we got through really fast, especially when compared with the rest of our party

The Conference had an Olympic theme,.  The name plate holder was a polished coconut shell with a slit in it to hold our name tags.  We got several leis at the conference.  This one is made of wood, so we were able to bring it back to Tarawa

The conference tables were decorated with beautiful floral arrangements.  It is easy to tell three lady principals were in charge of planning the conference.  If it were mail principals, we would have been fortunate to even have a table cloth.

Wearing our new leis. 

Close up of the coconut name tag holders

On the way home we stayed in Fiji and attended Church there.  It was ward conference, we were surprised when some young women came behind our bench and placed leis around our neck.

Clse up of the Fijian leis.  Some of the lei had leaves and flowers, so they did not keep long.
But we certainly enjoyed wearing them for a while.

The motel grounds in Fiji were beautiful and well groomed

View from our motel room in Fiji

On the way to Tonga, we had a three day layover in Fiji, trying to make flight connections.  We went shopping in downtown Nadi.  It was an interesting experience, some of the tourist shops reminded us of  some of the border towns in Mexico.  Everyone had a great deal for us, if we didn't buy, some of the shop keepers would follow us for a block or two, and keep dropping the price.  One salesman was going to give us 70 percent of a $5000 gold pearl necklace, because the mission presidents wife brought him lots of business.  We could get it for $880, but we passed on this great deal.  They really have their sales pitch down to a science

I finally did buy a nice Fiji shirt, some local trinkets and a lovely lava lava for Sister Thorne. The only problem was when, we got off the bus by our motel, I left the packages on the bus seat.   So I guess the bus driver has a new shirt and lava lava and a wooden statue with our name on it.