May

Scripture of the Month: Matthew 6:24

24 No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.

5/7/17

Hi Son,  How’s it going? The weather here is getting warm now finally. I got the swamp cooler all ready to go. Had to buy a new pump for it. We fed the missionaries Friday. We also went to see Guardians of the Galaxy 2 Friday morning as a family. It was a funny movie. There was one part where someone dies and Erana was crying heaps for ages. We also went to Montana, your cousin’s wedding reception Saturday evening. He married the sister of Blackie’s wife. Blackie is Montana’s older brother. 2 brothers married 2 sisters. We had a good time. Hey we also see that you are using your personal bank account to go eat out a lot. I think you should be only using that for an emergency not eating out. Use your mission money to eat out. Are you getting your own groceries? Be frugal with your grocery spending so you have extra to eat out each month and save your personal money for after your mission. You’ll have nothing left by the time you are done. We forgot to send your music so we’ll send it this week. We enjoy the photos. Keep working hard and Lord will bless you after the trial of your faith. Love Dad and Mum  

Hi Son, let me know if you are going to call me on Mother’s Day? Is it going to be a google Hangouts so we see you (sign in with your acct?) or just a phone call? Let me know when your going to call so we don’t miss you. Besides your music what else do you need me to send you, you said food last time? And that didn’t make sense since your mission is in america and there’s food all over the place, not like your in tonga? lol If you need food just go buy it, but only if you really need to, be frugal and not reckless with your money (like Dad said) I enjoy hearing from you every week and seeing your photos, keep up the Good Work Son, love you so much Mum xxx  

Hello Big Bro, so I have a job at Cupbop now. It is a korean bbq fast food restaurant that opened next to PhoCali, across the street from Culvers. I’m trying to save up as much money as possible. I work with strange people again, like peiwei... I wish i took your place at Chickfila haha. School ends soon and i am slacking on my school work. But don’t worry, my grades are still passing. Can’t wait to hear you on Mother’s day! 

Love Mina  

Hi Tyrell, I almost won my last game. The score was 20 something to 18. I made some shots. I went to a wedding after that, it was fun. On Friday, the whole family went to see Guardians of the Galaxy 2. It was a very good movie. After that, I played at Kage’s house. I think the rest of the week was pretty boring so i’m going to end it here. I love you Tyrell! I hope you have a great week!            Love, Leila XOXO

Hi TyrelI, I went to a wedding. I went to the movie theatres. I went to church. Love Erana xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxox 

Hi Tyrell, on Friday we went to see Guardians of the Galaxy vol.2 in the morning. Mina missed school to see it with us. It was really funny. On Saturday we went to Montana and Titania’s wedding. It was fun there and there was a lot of yummy food. Hope you have a great week and remember it’s Mother’s Day next Sunday. Love, Jaxon XOXO

Haka

5/14/17

We made Candi breakfast in bed and a card for Mothers Day. The highlight was talking to Tyrell. We used my work ipad because he was at a members home on a mac so he had to use Facetime. We talked about an hour. He still doesn't say a whole lot. He is doing well. The kids went to Maya's swim party for her birthday at an indoor pool yesterday 13th. Candi and I ate out at Golden China for our date Friday.

5/21/17

Hi Son, 

It’s Sunday afternoon, we just ate Sunday dinner oven pot roast, Dad's favorite. Yesterday Dad had an activity at the apartments for missionary work, they had a bbq. We had to leave early though went downtown for ‘Living Traditions’, Leila and Erana performed with their Tausala group, they were awesome. We ate there afterwards too, some poly food, Otai, and chicken curry, and fry bread with honey butter.  Went to play cards with friends at Ollie Wolferstans house (Dad’s friend from CCNZ). The weather turned cold the past week and it even snowed again, but it was sunny and nice yesterday. I’ve just been doing my job and busy this week making and finishing the girls costumes. Praying for you and Love you Son, Mum and Dad xxx

Hi Tyrell, the performance downtown was great! I had a great time at the Wolferstans. We had yummy food at the festival. Mom and Erana and me went and got some food from Arctic Circle after dance practice on Thursday. When dad saw us with the food, he got mad because we were going to eat at the festival XD. I don’t know what I did the rest of the week so, love you! I hope you have a great week! Love, Leila XOXO

Hi Tyrell, I had my first rugby game was on Saturday. But I didn’t play because i’m just like you!!! On practice I got tackled and landed on my right shoulder. I getting my shoulder x-rayed on Monday. But I think I just did something to my muscle. Gosh dangit I wanted to play my first game. Oh well, I still went to watch my team. The first team got intimidated, I don’t know why but they were scared of us so they forfeit. And the second game we won. We scored a try on them in under 15 seconds. Our third game was close but we won. I bought Injustice 2 and it’s really fun. The weather gets weird here. It snowed here on Wednesday, and it’s May. I hope you have a great week! Love, Jaxon XOXO 

Hi Tyrell, I went to Sofia Wolferstans house . Love Erana ooxxoo

Hello Big Bro, not much has happened. I just work. My grades are not the best... because of missing school a lot. We made State for Concert Choir and we had straight 1’s , which is suppose to be really really stellar scores. We sang an African song that translates to “They took our Lord. The Lord who walked among us” and stuff. It’s about Christ and you can really feel the spirit when you sing it. We are singing during graduation this week. Then it’s summer! Hope you stay safe, read your patriarchal blessing often! Love you - Mina 

 

5/28/17

Hi Son, 

It’s Memorial weekend we’ve been having a lot of fun, and making a lot of good memories. Friday went to the movies to see ‘Pirates of the Caribbean - Dead men tell no tales’, it was a good ending with happy ending. Then we went to ‘Lehi Seven Peaks Fun Park’, went on a kiddie roller coaster, and Leila went on the race cars, and Erana got a wet bum when her and Leila went on the bumper boats. They also had miniature golf, arcade, carousel and other fun things. Jaxon couldn’t or didn’t want to do some of the things because he has a broken collar bone from rugby, I’ll let him tell you about it. Yesterday went to watch Jaxons rugby team play, it was a beautiful day. Then went to Provo for the ‘Pasifika Festival’ where the girls performed again. Oh we’ve been doing these things without Mina because she’s too busy with graduation ceremony and work. 

Today is Sunday and we wore our ‘Poppies’ because of memorial weekend, we also had to sing in sacrament, Aunty Heather played the Piano and Dad, Grandma, Mina, Jaxon, Uncle Scott, Kage and I sang - ‘Koutou Katoa Ra or Hark all ye Nations’, in Maori and English. Now we're waiting for our peach, strawberry, cherry cobbler to cook and were watching old family movies. Tomorrow we're going to get kfc and eat at the park next to Grandpa & Grandma Wihongi’s grave, and then go hike ‘Ensign Peak’ again. Hope you're having a fun, safe Memorial Weekend too, Love you and know you're being watched over! Love Mum and Dad xxx

Hi Tyrell, guess what!!! Turns out my hurt shoulder wasn’t a hurt muscle, it was actually a broken collar bone. The bottom bone is still attached but the top of the bone snapped upwards. So it’s not completely broken. But I broke the same way as you. I got tackled and broke my right collar bone. But I didn’t cry cause I thought it was just bruised. And now I can’t play rugby cause I’m out of the season. And I was really bummed about it cause I really wanted to play cause I had a good team. We saw ‘Pirates of the Caribbean - Dead men tell no tales’, it was funny and good. School finally ended so we might be going to free lunch and the pool soon. That’s all I have to say today so Happy Memorial Day. 

Love, Jaxon XOXO

Hello Big Bro, School is over!!! No more stress! Well…. I still have to work which can be stressful. Oh well. The siblings and I are starting to watch Young Justice together. It makes me wish you were here to join us! But I know you are where you are supposed to be :) I don’t have any plans to this summer but to save up. What a boring summer of my last teenage life. Well, that’s all I have to say. Be safe, love you! - Mina

Hi Tyrell, I went on the rollercoaster. Love Erana xoxo

Hello Tyrell, I hope you had a great week! I had a great week, I went to Seven Peaks Lehi, it was very fun. The next day, Erana and I had a tausala show. I forgot to tell you that the whole family, except Mina, went to the movie theatre’s on the same day we went to Seven Peaks Lehi. We went to watch The Pirates of The Carribean Dead Man Tell No Tells. That’s it, bye love you! Hope you have a great week! Love, Leila XOXO

April

Scripture if the Month: Matthew 5:14-16

14 Ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on an hill cannot be hid.

15 Neither do men light a candle, and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick; and it giveth light unto all that are in the house.

16 Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.

4/1 to 4/9: 

Hi Son,
We are doing well, weather all week has been cold and rainy and last night it had snowed! Remember the week you left it was nice sunny warm weather and I had packed away all the kids winter clothes away, well looks like I was too eager beager for spring! Work is going the same and we missed Mina this week while she was on tour. It really looks beautiful in Raleigh, and it sounds like you are keeping busy. We thought it ironic that your schedule is precise, seeing you were always running late. Mina says you need to know the difference between the word ‘than’ and ‘then’ because you’re saying ‘than’ a lot in your letters and it should be ‘then’ instead of ‘than’ lol hahaha Oh well I enjoy hearing from you even if your spelling is wrong :) Love you Mum xxx

Hi Son,
Hope all is well and you are happy. Haven’t done much else this last week since I wrote last. Mina was gone for the week. It seemed strange to have just 3 kids in the house. It felt half empty. Is anyone else writing you other than us? If you have more personal things to write back to any of us then do another separate email from the main one you send to everyone. I’ll just put the main one in the blog. Keep working hard and working smart.
Love Dad

Hi Tyrell,
I went to rugby practice and it is tiring. Talia slept over and brought her kitten too and her kitten is very small. The kitten's name is Kea. It’s so cute and so soft, but it does massive diarrhea. It smells so bad it’s so disgusting it filled up the basement. The weather here used to be all sunny and cloudy and windy but then it snowed today. How’s the weather in North Carolina? And do you even read these?
Love, Jaxon

Hi Tyrell!
I played at my friend’s house with Erana on Tuesday. Erana and I went to the Care Center with grandma and I had my recital on Wednesday. Kage and Dray played over at our house then Erana and I went to play at Kages house and got to see Talia’s new kitten, and Erana and I had Tausala on Thursday. Erana and I played at Kages again, but I slept over at Kages on Friday. I had my basketball game the next day and the score was 20 for the other team and 15 for my team, I made 5 points out of 15. After my basketball game, I played with Kage, Dray, Talia, and Talia’s kitten at my house then at Kage’s house on Saturday. We had church today and watched the movie Willow and had brownies. Bye! Love you!
Love, Leila

Hi tyrell I went to church love erana xoxo (Erana typed this herself)

Mina didn't write an email, she had gotten back from her San Diego Choir Tour. She had fun!

4/10 to 4/16: 

Bonjour Big Bro! I had a really fun time at tour. The first all-night bus ride was really hard to sleep because it was so uncomfortable. We went straight to the San Diego Zoo. Then we went to our hotel and got dressed up for a Broadway show, Finding Neverland. It was very interesting and I love the music in it! What i did overall was go to an Old Town that was hispanic/western looking, partied on a Dinner Cruise during a beautiful sunset, went on the Military USS Midway ship that we went to on a family vacation, had fun at Seaworld and won lots of Awards (we took home the GOLD), and partied at a place in SeaWorld with other schools. I also ran for senior SBO Activities (the main SBOs) , I made primary voting, and Final voting is this week. I’ll find out on Friday if I made it or not. I miss you occasionally, I really enjoy your emails! Love you! -Mina

Hi son, I’m so stuffed with yummy Easter food!!! Pork crackle roast, Curry, Salmon,, Ribs, chopsuey, sides and dessert!!! We had a lovely beautiful Easter Sunday, Mina had to read ‘the Living Christ’ in Sacrament and bear her testimony, she cried and I was teary eyed too. We had yummy food and Easter Egg hunt at Uncle Scott’s house, went overboard with the eggs! Grandma gave out her money eggs. We hope you had a nice Easter day too! Love you Mum & Dad xxx

Hi Tyrell, we had a wonderful Easter Sunday. We had some of our family there and the food was delicious. We played a game of basketball and I sucked, my team wouldn’t even pass to me. Ella Rae looks so cute. I didn’t do much this week so I don’t have anything to talk about except Easter. The weather is nice here, it’s getting sunnier. My rugby practices are tiring. Erana wants to keep these socks she hasn’t taken off since probably February that have massive holes beneath them. We’re always telling Erana to throw those away but she wants to keep them because they’re her favorite socks. Mina did a good talk today at church. And brother Boley gave a good talk and made us crack up because of his jokes. Hope you’re safe and doing what you’re supposed to be doing.
Love, Jaxon XOXO

Hello Tyrell! I had a very fun Easter Sunday! Mina had a wonderful Easter talk, too. We had Easter at uncle Scott’s house, and played a game of basketball with Spencer, Wesley, Savanah, Savanah’s boyfriend, Maddie, Kage, Dray, Talia, Jamie, Connor, Mina, and Jaxon. It was a very fun and funny game. Love you!
Love, Leila XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXO

Hi Tyrell I EASTER egg hunt.love erana xoxoxoxo

From Tyrell
I love you all! Thank you for the letters, I enjoy them so much! Sorry I don't have much time to something to each one of you, but I hope you are all doing okay. Love you!

Elder Wihongi

4/17 to 4/23: 

Hi Son, We skipped our ward today and went to Uncle Don & Aunty Charmaine Peterson’s Homecoming. You saw them when you were in NZ. We ate afterwards at that park we usually eat at when we have Peterson gatherings. Many people asked how you were doing, or they would comment on your letters they read from your blog. We are watching a documentary on tv now called ‘Weird Wonders of the World’ and it was talking about ‘tubefex’ (not sure about spelling) They live in Raleigh, NC. That’s what reminded us to email ya! lol Hope all is well, Love you Mum & Dad xxx

Hi Tyrell, I had a fun time at Uncle Don and Aunty Charmaine Peterson’s homecoming today. I lost my basketball game, but I made a basket. Mom and dad were really mad at the ref’s because they didn’t call all the fouls the other team did, but it was a fun game. The rest of my week was pretty boring, so I’m going to stop the letter right here. I love you Tyrell, and I wish you a great week!
Love, Leila XOXO

Hi Tyrell, we had fun at Uncle Don and Aunty Charmaine Peterson’s homecoming today. We watched a weird show, I think Mom mentioned it in her letter but these ‘tubefex’ look disgusting. They live in the sewers and they’re these weird worm things. I just did the usual on weekdays, homeschool, playing games, and then going to rugby practice on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays. Hope you had a great week!
Love, Jaxon XOXO

Hi Tyrell, i had  for dinr was one tinea mufin and a bag of chips and onle meet in a brgr.love erana xoxoxooxoxoxoxoxoxoxooxooxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxooxxooxoxox.

Hello Big Bro, Guess who made the main SBO Activities? I did! Haha, but I kinda feel like it is going to be so stressful because I have to plan assemblies and food trucks for football games and spirit week stuff. What have I gotten myself into… Anyways, I went to prom yesterday. For the day activity, we went to a park and played different sports like basketball and frisbee. Then we went to a chinese restaurant and partied at the Capital. Afterwards, i went to my friends house and had cheesecake. I feel like life is going too fast right now. I just want to relax. Oh yea, this kid in my French class was playing The Bird and the Worm by The Used and I thought about how you used to play that on the piano haha. Hope North Carolina is treating you well.
Love Mina oxo

From Tyrell
Thank you for the letters and love family. I love you Leila, and Erana, and Jaxon, and Mina. I hope you are all doing okay, and listening to mom and dad and helping out at home. I miss you all.

Dad, I need another SD card with all the music on it because I left mine at the MTC... could you send me another? And here are the songs I want you to add:

Once and for All- Lauren Daigle

I Feel Heaven Here- EFY

Go the Distance- Hercules

When you come back down-Nickle Creek

Oh Jesus- Jon Mclaughlin

In Christ Alone- Christina Grimmie

Come Thou Fount of every blessing/ If you could hie to Kolob ( with the three young women singing)

Lord of the Rings Soundtrack (in dreams, concerning hobbits, the main track)

Paul Cardall album

Spirit of God-Mormon Guitar

Come thou fount- Mormon guitar

May it be- Celtic Women

My Kindness shall not Depart from thee- Rob Gardner

Lighthouse- Nickle Creek

Destination-Nickle Creek

21st of May-Nickle Creek

Savior Redeemer of my soul (with the three young women singing) ( and the original)

My little prayer- David Archuleta

Arohainamai

And That one group I forgot the name but we went there concert as a family.

All these should be okay on my mission, if you could find these and put them on that would be awesome! Ask Mina to help out she should know a lot of these. I'll run them through my President to but all these songs will be okay I think according to him. Thank you! I love you and mom!

I love you Family! xoxo

Elder Wihongi 

4/24 to 4/30: 

Hello Big Bro, nothing exciting happened this week. I went to PizzaStudio with my friends. It’s next to Zaxby’s. Then we went to play Apples to Apples at Stockton’s House. It was fun. I play tennis every day after school with the boys team. Let me know if there are any cute missionaries who wouldn’t mind having a cute girl write to them ;) (the cute girl is me btw). Taylorsville High School is either filled with not-so-attractive or immature boys. It’s quite sad for me lol.  I’m learning songs on the guitar. Ed Sheeran songs of course. I don’t know how you taught yourself, it’s quite difficult! Hope North Carolina continues to treat you well.
Love you- Mina

Hi Tyrell, nothing exciting really happened this week so this will be short. I went to Aunty Heather’s house on Saturday. I went to Bennion to meet my counselor to choose my classes for next school year. That’s all I did this week. Hope you’re having fun in North Carolina. Guess what!!! I saved 8 baby ducklings in the sewer. Erana and I went to the building next door to us and ride our bikes and my longboard. When we went there we saw a mother duck quacking a lot by the sewer. So then I went over to the sewer and heard baby ducklings chirping. And so I went back home and grabbed a dustpan and went back to the building next door. I lifted up the sewer lid, and went down and saw the baby ducklings. They weren’t even scared they just hopped right onto the dustpan. I climbed back up with 8 ducklings on the dustpan and went over to the mother and the mother was soooo happy to see them. There was still one more that I heard in the sewer. I left the dustpan down there to see if it would get on it. Eventually, it did but I got down there and it ran away. It was too scared. I didn’t know how to save it, so I left it down there. There were already two that were dead down there. So then I got out of the sewers and put the lid back and started to ride my longboard. I went over to where the mother lost her babies in the sewer, and I figured out how the ducklings fell into the sewers. The mother did a big diarrhea and the ducklings slipped on her diarrhea and fell into the sewers. I found that out because there’s a diarrhea stain right next to the sewer and there’s little footprints leading to the sewers. So that’s my story about saving the 8 ducklings. Dad said I was a Saturday warrior. This happened last week, I just forgot to tell you. Hope you have an awesome week!

Love, Jaxon XOXO

Hello Tyrell! I hope you had a great week! My game went very well! I scored 8 points out of 10! We still lost, but I made a lot of points! It was the best game I’ve ever done! I hope we win the next game because we didn’t win any game and it’s the last game next week. I played at Kages house on the same day and had yummy cheese bread balls. On Wednesday, I went downtown with my friend, Jenna Fullmer, you’ve probably seen her, but you don’t remember her. I went downtown with her and her grandparents to watch a show called the Shen Yun. I went with them last year too, it was a beautiful and funny show. The hotel this year was better than the one we were in last year. The dinner was very good, but I didn’t eat it all because it was too much for me. The food I chose on the menu was called “The Santa Fe”. It was a fried beef steak with beans,  carrots, and french fries. I know french fries seems boring, but the french fries there were the best fries ever! The place we ate in was called “The Coffee Shop”, and it had a lot of pictures in that place. The show was beautiful again and I had 2 favorites. Jenna and I had an awesome room. We both had our own comfy beds and their was a couch, too. The bathroom seemed better than the whole room, literally. We had some snacks when we came back to the hotel and we played some games. The next day we went to “The Coffee Shop” again for breakfast. I had a breakfast burrito, it wasn’t very yummy. On Friday, I went to the store with mom, dad, and Erana. After that, I had activity days and saw some cool braids that we learned to do.  I hope you have a great week! I love you!
Love, Leila XOXO

Hi Tyrell, I have your music requests ready on a sd card. Try not to lose this one. What do you use to listen to music? That was a funny story with the crazy little nacho giving you crotch shots. I had a companion one time that spoke spanish and spoke spanish to some people. We’re having  some similar experiences except for the crotch shots lol. I enjoy reading your testimony and seeing it grow each time you write. Work has been pretty stressful lately, I’ve been trying to handle it with faith and trust in the Lord. Leila had an awesome game yesterday. She already wrote about it. I try to show her some moves to do during her games. She’s getting better. Erana is really good at riding her bike now. Mina looked very gorgeous in her prom dress last week. She is looking for a summer job already and may start working at Cupbop a korean food place across the road from Culvers. I taught Leila, Kage and Jamison how to do backflips on the tramp when it was Easter. They are good now. We’ll send your music in a package. Tell us what else you want in the package.
Love you son. Dad and Mum xxx

Hi Tyrell, I can ride my bike.
Love Erana oxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo.

From Tyrell

Thank you for the letters! :) I enjoy reading them so much, It's the best way to start my week, I look forward to these every week! Love you fam. And send me some food, haha. I don't know, you can send me whatever. We listen to the music in the car when we're driving place to place. But Thank you so much! I love you.

 Elder Wihongi