Tongan Missionaries

Well, we made it to and from Tonga. I took around 300 pictures and will try and get some posted shortly. Something that stood out on this trip? The missionaries. On our way to Tonga, while in LAX we saw several Elder and Sister missionaries from Tonga headed to Salt Lake. I ran into a friend (Susi) who was returning from Tonga with her family. While talking with her, she mentioned something about helping the missionaries on their way back. I thought that was nice of them to do.

Fast forward to the end of our trip--while checking-in in Tonga, I noticed a couple of Elder missionaries. When we got to Apia,Samoa I went over to talk to them. All except two are serving in SLC, the others are heading over to Oakland, CA after they enter the MTC.


The palangi Elder in the back is from Pleasant Grove, UT. He just finished serving in Samoa. The rest are all tongan. They are from all over -- Uiha, Vava'u & Tongatapu.

When we arrived in LAX at 12:30 in the afternoon, we got through customs and noticed the missionaries re-filling out their paperwork. I told Haloti for us to wait and make sure they get through any problems. We waited and noticed that we were sent back a few times to re-fill out their paperwork. I went over to see what was going on. Apparently when they made a mistake, they just scribbled over what they wrote and immigration wanted everything clearly written. We finally got that straightened out and made it out of there by 2:00 pm.


When we arrived in LAX, a few of the missionaries had family members waiting outside. They picked up food for them. Due to security not allowing liquids, we found a spot for them to eat before we checked-in to go to SLC. If you notice, there are 3 additional Elders on the far left. They are missionaries from Fiji that are on their way to SLC. The tongan Elders shared their food with them. Missing from the pic -- far right -- are the sister missionaries (the one from Tonga and the other from Fiji)


Done eating and ready to check-in. Missing one Elder (from Fiji).

I forgot to mention, very few of the tongan elders spoke english. And for most of them, it was their first time traveling. They didn't know they had to re-check in at Delta. They thought they could use their Air NZ boarding pass. I explained to them that when switching airline carriers, they must re-check in. Once we got them all checked in, we were all set.



While we waited for our flight, additional missionaries showed up. They just completed their mission in Taiwan. It was a great sight to see so many missionaries.


The two palangi sisters are from Utah and also finished their mission in Taiwan.