Social Media Work in TONGA!

During the month of July, most of the Area Presidency are gone. So, we are available to pursue some other assignments. Since we arrived (about 13 months ago), we have also worked on training people about the positive uses of "social media". This includes:
 - Showing members how to share the Gospel using social media
 - How we can increase LDS visibility on the internet
 - That social media can allow us to “Go where no missionary has gone before”
 - Plus, we teach about the importance of balance in our lives (don't spend too much time on social media) and how there are many things to avoid on the internet

Our training this week was done at the Liahona High School on island of Tongatapu in Tonga.

We shared numerous positive websites with the students besides just lds.org and the mormon channel. Ones like:
  - lds.org/youth
  - pacific.lds.org (the site for the Pacific Area)
  - create.lds.org (for creating content)
  - items on Facebook (like the "myfamily15in15" group)
  - and several other websites

We also had the kids make a meme of the temple (which they post) and we encouraged them to use a picture of the Tongan temple. Here are a couple:

The kids in our classes were great! We taught 7 different classes (some of them where done more than once). Here are some of our group photos:

Working on projects was very fun too:

They have a great campus:

We also did some videos:

We had plenty of time for fun too!!!  Going to the market in town, attending the temple, and we went to the island of Pangaimotu (where they have a shipwreck from many years ago)!

I got my haircut and after he learned we were missionaries we ended up with this kava bowl with our names on it!

Right off the island there was this shipwreck.

I got some great pictures with my underwater camera.

We had a great trip!!!

July 4th Activities!

We had a fun time with the senior missionaries at our July 4th activity:

We had a great meal and played some games:

We also went to Whatipu over the weekend. It was a very cool place.

Elder B's Surgery

Before going into surgery

Not to be out done by Patsy having gallbladder surgery, I went into the hospital last Monday. I figured this would be a good time, since most everyone is out of the office for the month of July. 

About 6 months ago, I started feeling a pain in my side. Given Patsy’s surgery, I checked out my situation with her surgeon. And, I have a right side inguinal hernia. From WebMD it says, “this occurs when tissue pushes through a weak spot in your groin muscle”.  That sounds bad, but it really has been just a very minor irritation. 

Here’s some more info from WebMD: “If you have a hernia, it will not heal on its own. Surgery is the only way to treat a hernia. Most people with hernias have surgery to repair them, even if they do not have symptoms. This is because many doctors believe surgery is less dangerous than strangulation, a serious problem that occurs when part of your intestine gets trapped inside the hernia.”  

After surgery!

So, given this and the fact that it has been an irritation for the last few months the doctor feels I should get this taken care of.  So, I went in on Monday and got home on Tuesday. Given the medicine I'm taking, I'm feeling pretty good, but still kind of sore. I went into work on Thursday and Friday, but not for the whole day. On Thursday, I stayed too long and was kind of limping home. Friday we left at 3pm and that was much better. I'm hoping by next week, I'll be close to 100%.