My Cave My View

The Cave Guy’s final meal... still waiting to see if it’s his final meal in Tonga or just final meal period. Courtesy photo

Waste not, want not!

We have four days before we leave Tonga so we are trying to not buy any more groceries because my mission companion declared that we are just going to eat whatever we have left. Here in Tonga, we don’t waste anything because if I have learned anything on this mission, it is that Americans have way...

Gary and Dee Torres are packing up mementos and memories of their 18 months in Tonga. Courtesy photo

Packing mementos and memories in Tonga

As I am writing this, I am in Tonga starting to pack my bags. Eighteen months have gone by fast. I am leaving most of my clothes and a few assorted tools I purchased; I am packing a few small mementos and a suitcase of gratitude and wisdom. When we got here, we committed to “say yes to...

“Rusted broken down cars are piled in the front yards because people don’t throw anything away as it might be useful someday and everything rusts in Tonga.” Gary Torres photo

Lessons learned by sharing Top Ramen

There is squalor and poverty all about me. I see kids without shoes, and big men with calloused hands working in the bush with hand tools (machete and long-hoe) six days a week to feed their family and hopefully grow a few extra vegetables to sell so they can pay tuition for their kids schooling...

And the blind shall see...

When the Good Book says, “and the blind shall see”, I have always about the individual that was being given their sight. Lately, I have learned that the bystander’s eyes might also be opened to see. I want to tell you about Mia, an 18-year-old girl, and her blind father. They have been helping me...

Boomer update your vocabulary

Getting older hasn’t been that hard; being old is. But recently I aged a decade or two as the result of something my daughter wrote. People’s words can have this affect. It’s like the first time the cashier at the store said, “Can I help you sir?” I looked around to see who he might be talking...

All packed up and ready to go. Gary Torres photo

Getting to The Other Side of Heaven

Mark Twain wrote the book “Innocents Abroad” when he traveled with Quaker pilgrims on a chartered boat to the Holy Land. If Tonga has a Holy Land, it would be the island of Niuas; which is where Elder Groberg went on his mission in the movie, “The Other Side of Heaven”. We recently traveled with...

Keyboard class in Tonga, led by Dee Torres. Courtesy photo

Teaching life lessons... and primary songs

It seems that as I look back there are two things that we remember and have made a difference in our life: teachers and primary songs. Teaching is a calling; not a career. So it is hard for teachers to not teach because they love learning, they love learners, and they love bringing the two...

Members of the Tonga Senior Missionary Dental Team include: (left to right) Karen Darrington, Tupou Vala, Susan Goodman, Pierce Goodman, and Heu Lafitani. Courtesy photo

Smiles and healthy teeth in Tonga

When you don’t have many resources such as money or a government social safety net, you learn to rely on the Lord for basics such as health care. I have learned that Tongans pray with sincerity, frankness, and earnestness and with an unassuming but confident expectation that the Lord hears them and...

Spring, Summer, Fall and Winter

As you get older you get disconnected from familiar yearly milestones. I swear that school and football practice just started. Bam! Just as suddenly grandkids are excited to graduate from junior high or kindergarten. I swear it was last week. If life was like a calendar year, springtime would...

Throwing the starfish back in Tonga

In 1969 Loren Eiseley wrote: A man was walking along the beach when he noticed a boy picking up starfish and gently throwing them into the ocean. Approaching the boy he asked, “Young man, what are you doing?” “Throwing starfish back into the ocean. The tide is going out. If I don’t throw them...