The Pros and Cons of having a Tongan companion

What's it like having a companion from Tonga, you ask? Well, let me inform you.

Pros:
1. It's okay if you eat a lot (not only because I work it all off via biking), but also that your Tongan companion does as well
2. You get away with a lot of things just because she's Tongan (we got permission from our mission president to watch The Other Side of Heaven so I can learn more about Tonga and their culture. It was actually really amazing to see such a difference in our way of life and even more amazing to see that my companion's adjusted well to the American culture. You should all watch that movie, btw.)
3. You learn Tongan phrases such as, "I'm gonna punch you" or "Shut up" or "You're wasting time"

Cons:
1. You eat a lot
2. You get punched a lot
3. When your companion performs a hula dance for a ward's lu'au, people expect you to join along with them

So last week, Sister Moala had to teach me the hula to the song in Lilo and Stitch (at the very beginning). The missionaries in the 4th Ward were putting on a lu'au for their youth's activity and this happens to be the only transfer where there's an elder from Samoa, an elder from Tonga, a sister from Tonga (my comp.), AND a Samoan sister (from California) within the same stake boundaries. So within one week, we planned out the whole lu'au.

It was a GREAT turnout, though! All the youth invited their friends to come and almost half of the people who attended were not members of the Church. At the very end, we taught them the whole hula dance. It was great! New finding idea!

As for the work in our area, all of our appointments with potential investigators of the Church fell through. It really is the hardest when you build up all this hope for these potential investigators and then they fall through at the last minute. It's still difficult adjusting to having to walk to all of our appointments (but still great that we can eat as much as elders because we walk it all off anyway). There's just so much work to do here but there's not enough time to do it all!

There are, however, many recent converts and less-active members here. If it's one thing about missionary work, it's that strengthening the members are a huge part of missionary work as well.

Sister Wen