Family Home Evening at the Tukuafu's

Some of the more interesting people we met in Nauvoo were Brother and Sister Tukuafu.  They live in a yurt which they built themselves on the shore of the Mississippi River.  Brother Tukuafu was born in Tonga and Sister Tukuafu has adopted the Polynesian culture to the extent that about the only thing about her that is not Polynesian is the color of her skin. They are very talented in music and the arts and they love people and enjoy sharing those talents with everyone.  Rather than doing a program for everyone at the same time in the Visitor's Center where they have to transport all their instruments, they prefer inviting people to their home for family home evenings. They are both ordinance workers in the temple and attended the Nauvoo 1st ward.  




The Tukuafu Yurt in Nauvoo

They drove a white van that had brightly colored flowers and words like "Happy" or "Love" painted on it.

The view from their front porch

The loft is supported by two large, beautifully finished tree stumps.  Notice the view out of the windows.  You can see how close the Mississippi River is to them.  It is a happy place to live because they are so close to the rhythms of nature. 


The center of the floor has this beautiful inlaid wooden design that is a compass showing the true directions.  Interestingly she has a picture of Joseph Smith hanging due north so that she can always be reminded of where to set her direction.

Above the main room there is a loft where she has a loom for weaving, an area for sewing quilts and an extra guest bed for when the grandchildren come over for a visit.

  
The kitchen and bathroom are tucked under the loft.  She likes to bake bread in juice cans in the bottom drawer of her oven. The bedroom is on the other end under the loft.


Brother Tukuaka teaching how to fish

Sister Tukuafu is very talented in playing many instruments and singing.  She is also a master at woodworking and made by hand all of the instruments you can see hanging on the wall.  She also made the harp that is in the center.  She sang and played each of them to show us how they sound.  Some people loved them so much they asked her to make one for them. 

Brother Tukuafu played with her by adding harmony.  She said she liked to call that support tree "Harmony" because his job was to sit there with his back against it and sing along.

This one is called a dulcimer.


They buil a little wood workshop out behind their yurt.


Looking in the door you can see that it is not very large but is adequate for making the instruments.  She also made wooden spoons and bowls. Below you see some of her specialty tools that help her do such fine work.


















Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Isaac Morley Home

Image
About one mile north of the center of Kirtland, lies the Morley Farm.  Brother Isaac Morley and his wife had developed a very good productive farm. He was a long-time resident of Kirkland and was converted to the church when the missionaries came through in 1830 along with many of his friends from the Campbellite church.  He was a strong believer and never wavered in his testimony. He had built a 14 x 14 log schoolhouse for his children and others up on a small hill above his farm.  When Joseph Smith came to Kirtland the schoolhouse was used for many of the meetings held for the community and the church.  The fourth conference of the church was held in this schoolhouse. Isaac Morley was a great  support to the growing church. Whatever was asked of him, he obeyed the Lord.  When Joseph asked him to sell his farm and give the proceeds to the church, he did so. He was called to be first counselor to Bishop Edward Partridge.  He was ordained a patria...
Read more

About our mission in the Nauvoo temple

Image
Description of the temple The Nauvoo temple was the first temple to perform all the saving ordinances.    The Kirkland temple was built to have a place to receive the keys necessary for the plan of salvation to be fulfilled.   The design for these two temples are very different because their purpose was so different.   The original Nauvoo temple did perform baptisms for the dead but only performed about 5,000 endowments and sealings during the brief time it was open before the saints were driven West. On the outside, the current temple is almost exactly as the original one.   The biggest difference is the Angel Moroni which was horizontal on a weather vane on the original temple.   He now is vertical like other modern-day temples. On the inside, the baptistery is on the first level.   The font is the same size as the original font and is the largest of any temple.   In the original temple the weight of the font was so great that the...
Read more

The Rest of our Trip Home

Image
We stayed one night in Waterloo, Iowa so that we could go to the John Deere factory to watch how they manufacture large tractors.  We went to the tractor cab assembly plant because we couldn't see the large harvesters as their plant was closed that week.  It was a great tour.  We rode on a tram pulled by a little John Deere tractor as we traveled around the assembly floor of this 48-acre plant to watch the tractors being assembled. It was amazing to watch how well coordinated the whole process was, even though there were many different things going on at the same time.  Many parts of the process are completely automated to be done by "robots" with little human supervision.  For instance, in the section where the green or yellow paint is applied it is done by an automatic sprayer tube that was able to twist and turn to reach all surfaces of the part being painted.  And when it gets done, it knows to go back down and suck up all the excess paint so it won...
Read more