Reply to Elder Wardrop from G&G Brown

Hello Elder Wardrop:

Wow! You are certainly being bold and "opening your mouth". You will be a terrific missionary. Hopefully you will be able to find people who are not bums and not drunk. I know you will. How exciting that you will soon be in your real mission territory. We pray that the people there are seeking the truth and have open hearts.

We are here in Tonga for 2 more months. The big moment came on Tuesday, September 25th. Our Temple here is finished and we started the Open House for the VIP's. At 8:00 AM the KING arrived, also the Queen Mother and the Princess. No one could believe that the KING was up and dressed in an expensive suit and sober. (He is not LDS) We had a short Devotional and the KING spoke for about 6 minutes. It was a first for him and it was a great talk. Our area President, Spencer Condie also spoke.

We were quite worried that no one would come because it had rained all night and was still blasting down with terrible winds. I think it was a typhoon. We pled with the Lord, but the rain and wind never stopped all day. But big crowds of VIP's came and told us that the Tongans believe that when the Lord sends rain on a special occasion it means the Lord is blessing them with His great love. And since it hadn't rained in several months, the Tongans knew this really was a great event to bring all this rain. The rain kept up all week. We still set attendance records.

During the first 5 full days of Open House, we have had 12,562 visitors and 475 missionary referrals (all want the missionaries and have listed their preferred day and time). Our mission president, President McMurray is "dancing in the streets" he is so happy. These numbers are amazing because there are only 60,000 people on the entire island. We have 3 weeks to get them all here to the Temple. It is a very exciting time. Your Grandpa is responsible for everything about the Temple, except the actual physical building. He has done an amazing job and everyone here from the King on down think he is a miracle worker. AND HE IS!

We love our mission and we know you do too. I pray that there will be 475 people in Brasil who are looking for YOU and ready to listen and feel the spirit. GO FOR IT! YOU ARE THE BEST!!!

All our love,

Elder and Sister Brown