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Story behind My Name

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Tracy Lesieli Kilinganoa O Loto Haangana (Ahokava) White Wow I know thats a bit of a mouthful. I haven't always had this name. My first name when I was Tracy Lesley Ahokava. My mum choose this name at first because I think she thought this was the closest to Lesieli. I was suppose to be named after my grandmother my dads mother Lesieli. But being in NZ my mum used the palangi version of Lesieli and thought it was Lesley. The actualy translation of Lesieli to english is Rachel but my mum didn't know that hahah So when I was about 11-12 I can't remember exactly I just know it was after the death of my grandmother she wanted to preserve her memory so she wanted me to have the exact name of my grandmother. We went and got it changed officially to this long name. I have still yet to do more research into my name but I will tell you what I have been told so far. Tracy was because my mum loved a singer on a soap she watched called days of our lives. She loved that she was musi
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Family History Endevours

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Lately (last year or so) I've been prompted to look into my family history more. I have been feeling the need to complie stories of my ancestors and write them down so I can have them for future generations. I am so excited because I know there is a realness and closeness between our those before us (forefathers), those are to come and those here on earth today. I believe in the promise that Elijah made where hearts of the Fathers will be turned to their children and hearts of the children will be turned to their fathers. I believe that as we take time to learn about our ancestors they have the power to help us with our struggles. I know they are already helping us out but wouldn't that be even better if we knew them more on a personal level. When we pass through the veil and meet them on the other side we will already have a close connection with them because we took the time to learn about them here. I know my ancestors have done so many things that I can learn from, they
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Speak your Language!! 5 Ways to Preserve Our Language In this day of age its not that cool to speak the language of your parents. Growing up in a traditional Tongan home I was mainly raised by my grandmother so that somewhat forced me to speak Tongan. But with my parents, who were exposed to more English through work, I got away with speaking to them in English. This then raises a few issues...Teachers in Primary Schools and Secondary schools are then  faced with  having to reteach English and undo some habits that have already been formed by the children. The issue is that children are speaking BROKEN English and BROKEN Tongan (in my case). They don't have either or. Although our parents do have lovely intentions of trying to speak to us in English to get us to practice, or maybe they too are trying to practice for their sake. Personally for me more than anything we need to be sticking to the language we know best and cultivate it so that it becomes rich for our children.
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Book Review

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 Strengthening Our Families: An In-Depth Look at the Proclamation on the Family...David C. Dollahite  If you want more ideas on how you can strengthen your family, build better family connections between husband and wife or parents and children, this book covers and extensive range of issues that we face on a daily basis. I love this book because it also has research done by non LDS people as well as scriptural references. A practical way to improve our family and self. Happy Reading
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Ahokava Family (from right  Jr, Me , sieli Dad, Mum, moni & ofa) My Immediate Family :D So WHY this blog? Its pretty much dealing with family relationships, family dynamics, children, teenagers especially with the cultural dynamic, seeing I am a Tongan born and raised here in the beautiful land of AOTEAROA!! (new zealand) Because I have grown up here I think I am an expert of this multicultural idea which really means I just want to learn as much as I can about this. More than anything i wish to share the joys and challenges I am faced with everyday living in this household and see how others feel who are in the same or similar situations. In my house I have 6year old twin sisters, a teenage cousin who lives with us, Mum who is crazy hard worker always has and never ceases to amaze me!! a Dad who has been studying for as long as I can ever remember, a dog that needs more TLC, brother and sister who are out of the country serving missions for our church.. but will be coming b
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