Letter from Mission President upon arrival

Dear Parents,
Your son, Elder Virgil Mayberry. arrived in Tonga in good spirits on the 20th of November, 2008. Sister McMurray and I, along with our office elders, greeted him at the airport and took him to our home along with fou other new missionaries. After a healthy breakfast, a great interview and an orientation to all the aspects of the mission, we put him right to wok. We are excited to have him herre to teach these wonderful people. Enclosed is a picture of us taken with him on the first day he arrived. Elder Mayberry's first companion is Elderr 'Alifeleti Vea from Folaha Tongatapu, Tonga. Their missionary home is called Fahefa and is in the Hilamani Zone and has a total of 20 missionaries. We have a total of seven zones with 124 missionaries in our mission at this time. Elder Mayberry is doing well and has caught the spirit of this great work. I am sure his mission will be a great testimony building experience for him. We are very happy to have him serve here in the Tonga Nuku'alofa Mission and will do all we can to help him progress in the work of the Lord. If there is ever anything you would like to discuss with me, please do not hesitate to contact me.
Sincerely, Lynn C. McMurray, President Tonga Nuku'alofa Mission

12/7/08

hey tamai it was good to hear from you im glad that the house is selling but kinda sad i wont ever get to see my basement> again. i was planning on living there for a few years. ;-)>

i have some cool stories for you i ate a> dog this week and an octopus and a pig and some lobsters and> some crabs and some squishy black stuff that tasted like> some sort of fish. they were all pretty delicious. i was> walking by a house and i saw the people beat the dogs head> in with a club so i asked them if i could eat some later> they said yes so we went and taught a lesson then came back> and ate him. the next day there was a wedding so they> spitted a pig and we would just walk up and rip a piece of> meat of and snarf it down. the octopus took some courage to> eat with the tentacles and suction cups and everything just> pop it in your mouth. and chew it i picked a suction cup out> of my mouth a few minutes later. i taught like seven lessons> this week and i have to teach every other topic so its kinda> tough but we are supposed to have a least one this week and> hopefully a few next week.> elder mayberry>

11/13/08

hey pop i leave for tonga on tuesday so ill probably call> you from the airport we have a ten hour lay over. the tongan> is coming well but i really have a lot of improving to do. i> can follow comversations farily well but my responses are> pretty much at the level of a three year old.> well there is really not that much to report from here> everything is going well, we can only speak tongan in our> class room so im getting better all the time. the lord> loves his missionaries.> the church is true> love you> eleta maipeli

9/25/08

hey(malo lelei) dad how are you(fefe hake) this is your loving son virgil its my pday on thursdays and we only get> thirty minutes to do emails so i get to work on my> speed(vave) typing so please excuse any miss spelled words.> how is life(mo'ui) going. the MTC is pretty awesome(tika) a lot of> the people here have a hard time with all the rules and> restrictions but it really doesnt bother me. how is steven doing was> it nice to get to go see him. feel free to write me on> DearElder.com any time i have a lot of time to write(tohi)> letters just not much time to get on my email account. i> must say(lea) though the MTC is incredibly spiritual and a> wonderful place thank you so much for helping me to get here> and encouraging me to do right.

tongan is going really well i> can feel heavenly father helping me to learn the language.> its a very simple language as far as sentence structure and> grammar but they have ridiculously long words like> fakatau'ataina'i'i which means freed. and other> such insane things. i know heavenly father(Temai Hevani) is> helping me because i already know about 70 vocab words and> there is no way i could do that on my own. my companion is a> way awesome guy he looks a lot like nick williams. well i have to go but i love you all and i hope to> hear from you soon.> love('ofa) elder mayberry

Description of Tonga

im in tonga everything is good its completely awesome here > definitely nothing that i expected but super duper. i love my comp he is awesome and he speaks > really good english. my home is pretty small but cool the food is > bland but pretty good. i will now try to describe tonga in as few > sentences as possible it is not super hot. it is as beatiful as any > fotograph of a tropical island you have ever seen. im on the main > island in a village called fahefa but we also cover fo'ui which is a > few miles away semi challenging since we have to walk everywhere. the > people here remind me of the really poor parts of mexico but they are > way nicer and more hospitable.s orry for the bad typing im typing fast > and im to lazy to spell check. i love you all.

im in another town > right now we had a thanksgiving feast at the presidents house today > and then my comp and i came over to another town to get to an email > spot. well i think thats it i love you all please forward this around. > love elder mayberry

12/15/08

Here is our first posting of Virgil's emails.

hey everybody life is good here in tonga the weather is hot and humid(go figure) its really amazing here but it does have its challenges. isaw the first refrigerator today since i have been in tonga. it waskinda funny, i saw a microwave too but it was broken. the mango seasonis already passed unfortunately but the bananas are all getting ripeso i eat them alot with crackers.

hey i got my first baptism on saturday his name is manoa latu and heis from fo'ui and he is 12 years old he took the lessons 2 x before he got baptized but it was pretty awesome.