Tevita Christopher Manuofetoa

This post is dedicated to our sweet YSA, Tevita Christopher Manuofetoa.  Chris attended FHE in our flat every Monday evening and was so loved by everyone who knew him.  He had a sense of humor that was so funny and he was always teasing someone.  I have never seen anyone so excited to serve his mission as Chris.  He talked about it all the time.  At one of our FHE, I was teaching the lesson on spiritual gifts and I shared a little part of my patriarchal blessing about guiding people around pitfalls and shared the story of when our kids were young and wanted to sleep out on the trampoline again for the third night.  I told them no, for whatever reason, and that was the night a giant wind swirled around our house and blew a huge tree down right on top of our trampoline.  In the morning we were horrified to see the damage to the jumping pad.  There were large holes poked everywhere through the pad.  We went around the room and told of spiritual gifts that we believed we possessed.  Chris pulled his patriarchal blessing out of his scriptures and read one line that said he would be a great leader and trainer of other missionaries.  On a different night Chris told us that his blessing said that he would serve sooner than he thought and that he would go to a place he hadn't thought of.  We all thought, wow, cool!  Where could that place be?  Less than two weeks later we found out where that place was.  The night before Chris's accident, I was his investigator at Mission Prep class and he taught me the plan of salvation.  He did such a beautiful job and I told him so.  He was so prepared to serve his mission.  

The morning of his accident, the missionaries were having their District Meeting at the Institute and the Dictrict leader asked me if four of them could sing a song to us.  I said sure, and they started to sing a Tongan song that was so beautiful.  Elder Blackwell recorded it, but I am not sure if he can figure out how to download it to this blog.  When the elders were leaving, they said that Chris had been in an accident and they were headed to the hospital to see how he was doing.  Just an hour later one of our YSA girls was standing in our doorway sobbing her eyes out.  I brought her in our office and just held her while she cried and cried.  She couldn't even tell me what was wrong.  After a few minutes, another girl came in to tell us that Chris had died in the accident.  There were a lot of kids at the IB that morning, for some reason and we brought them all in our office and all knelt down in a circle and Elder Blackwell offered a prayer.  Everyone was in shock.  Kids kept coming to the IB and everyone was consoling each other.  It was a hard time for everyone.  Instead of holding class that night, we all sat around in the big room and shared stories and experiences we had had with Chris. Cesar, our newly returned missionary from Boston, Mass. showed a beautiful DVD the church has made about the plan of salvation.  Pres. Bourne, from the Stake Presidency was there and led us in several hymns and a beautiful prayer. 

 The next day, we all met at the IB with food and flowers to caravan to Chris's house to see his family, particularly his older brother Will, who was just one year older.  We went to their home and his parents were still at the funeral home so we visited with Will and several of their aunties.  They had taken all the furniture and pictures out of two rooms and covered the floor with mats.  We all sat on the mats and talked.  They were preparing to bring Chris home until the funeral.

Alyse James (one of our seminary teachers) with Chris

On Friday evening, there was a service at the Mortuary.  We picked up our secretary, Amy Bourne, and went to the service.  We weren't quite sure what to expect.  The service was all in Tongan and every once in a while the preacher would pause and the audience would begin to sing.  It was a beautiful and haunting melody.  At the end Chris's mom went up by the casket and wailed so loudly that it made my heart hurt.  Then people were going forward to see Chris and console his mother and father.  Will just stood by Chris stroking his chest.

On Sunday evening, we all met at the IB again to caravan back to the Manuaofetoa's for a service in the home.  All the missionaries, and nearly all his ward showed up.  We all sat on the floor around the casket and Chris's bishop conducted.  Many people stood up and told memories of Chris and wonderful stories of him and his conversion.  We sang songs, and the missionaries sang two Tongan songs.  It was so wonderful to hear everyone's testimonies.  The preacher from the night before and his wife were also there.  I found out that Chris's father is not a member but his mother is, but is inactive.  Both Chris and Will were baptized two years ago at the same time.  Chris and Will were always working on their father to get him interested in the gospel.  At the end of the service, the preacher from the night before spoke and told how impressed he was with the knowledge of these young missionaries and the power of their testimonies.  He even closed his remarks in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.  We were all surprised.

When we went outside the family had a huge canopy set up with long table and food loaded on the tables.  They want us all to sit down and eat.  We knew it would be rude to refuse so we all sat down and they waited on us with huge plates of shrimp, taro, bananas soaked in coconut milk, salads, sandwiches, many kinds of desserts, soda, and hot Milo.  We couldn't begin to eat all they gave us, so we brought it home.  I was astounded at how they took care of us!  They were so gracious.

I guess they had a service each night for the next week, different groups would come and tell stories and sing songs.  One woman was hired to stay right with the body, day and night.  She was there until they lowered his body into the ground.  On the next Sat. was Chris's funeral at the LDS church.  We had just gotten there and sat down, when the district leader came and tapped me on the shoulder and said they needed someone to play prelude, because the pianist was late and they were ready to bring Chris's body in.  I prayed all the way up to the stand and sat down and started to play what I knew.  Another man tapped me and said, play this... so I can sing.  I felt it a priviledge to be able to do one final thing for Chris.  The funeral was very comforting.  Both of Chris's brothers, mother, and father spoke.  His cousin sang a lovely song, wiping her tears through most of it.

Elder Blackwell and I both felt a need to go to the cemetary.  It was something I will never forget.  There must have been 150 people there in a large circle around the grave.  They had another talk from Chris's uncle, who is an ordinance worker in the San Diego Temple.  He was a tall, handsome, very distinguished man who spoke plainly to the men that they needed to take their wives to the temple and seal their families together.  Chris's father had his face in his hands.  They dedicated the site in two languages, wrapped the casket in the grass mat and started to lower it.  Then his father and two brothers had shovels and gently put the soft dirt in upon the casket.  Then others started helping. While this was going on, girls with baskets of white flowers were going around giving everyone a flower.  We each went forward to throw our flower into the hole.  It reminded me of the movie, The Other Side of Heaven, when they bury the preacher.  Then a truck drove in with a heap of dirt and rocks and dumped it into the hole.  It took three more loads.  They layed another mat down and covered the mat with real flowers, and beautiful hearts made out of paper in lots of bright  colors.  The missionaries and a few of the YSA did the haka, one more time for Chris.  It was the most amazing thing I have ever witnessed.  Lots of traditions were played out that week, and we were educated in the Tongan ways.

Love you Chris