Good afternoon ladies and Gentlemen,
I would like to start of this email with a round of
applause for... ahh crap I forgot his name. Oh well. Lets begin!
So kind of a re-cap: No, I did not get trunky from
talking to my family on Mother's Day. Everything fell through that day, but I
can promise with a certainty I gave honest effort to the work! However, on
Friday, Saturday, Sunday, and Monday of the next week I was pretty homesick,
but for different reasons. We did some good work during the week; I forgot to
bring my journal to remind me what actually happened. The days blend together
so it's hard to remember when stuff occurred. I guess I’ll start off with the
big thing. I had a lot of adversity this week. Most of this came from my
language skills and culture differences.
I guess the first thing that I really struggled with
was my companion. We had an instance where he was Facebooking while we were walking around (on some member's phone he got earlier) and we were about to
visit this guy, so I told him to stop Facebooking. I even said it in a joking
manner, but maybe I sounded really harsh. He was kind of cold the rest of the
night but I didn't really notice anything different. The next day we did our
weekly plan and after we did companionship inventory. (Comp inventory is
basically where you hash out any problems and fix them so you can work well together
during the week) During comp inventory my companion got really quiet and
finally expressed that I made him really angry with that comment, that he
didn't want to work with me because of it; he would train himself from now on,
and it drove the spirit away. He also said I should just worry about myself and
let him be. I asked how could I follow the rule to "correct your companion
when necessary" and not make him mad. He didn't give me an answer and just
told me to pray about it. Well, I’ve been doing that because this really
frustrates me. It makes the work really awkward and not enjoyable. I guess in
Tongan culture to tell someone to stop doing something is really tapu, like forbidden.
And they get really mad. But that's what the rules tell me I have to do, plus
my Mission President told me to help him to stop doing these exact things. So
I’m confused... if I correct him all the time, he will be angry and the work will
fail because we have no spirit. If I don't correct him, he will do whatever he
wants and president has said if we use phones inappropriately and listen to music
and watch movies and whatnot the Spirit will go away. So... yeah. Figuring this
one out. I’ll keep praying. As of yet all I’ve received is I need a better way
of correcting so he doesn't get angry. ko ia pe.
The next adversity I’ve been facing is the language
barrier. After our little thing on Friday it was way awkward... we went around
and talked to people, but I didn't have the heart to work. I was a little
trunky remembering the good times back home where I didn't have to worry about what
I said or did. It was just good times with friends and laughing and being
stupid. And without the heart to work, my language sucked. I didn't have the
drive to think in Tongan and pay attention to what people where saying. So I
pretty much sat around in my own thoughts all day. Really bad of me.
Saturday however, I decided to make a change and I
tried really hard to do the language but it was just so difficult. I had a lot
of times where I went into people's houses and they would joke with me and or
make fun of me (I’m not sure which), but I would just smile and say "Uhh,
what did you say?" I felt like I regressed like 6 months and I couldn't
speak at all. It was really disheartening.
Okay time for the good stuff. So, someone told me the
mission is a big test of faith. Whether or not you will work and live like you
believe. So I was like hmm... OKAY. I'm gonna do just that. So I’ve been trying
to have a good attitude and love whatever happens. I know if I keep trying to
learn the language, I will eventually master it. I still do my language study
every day and that's got to be helping. I liked Bailey's advice of reading the
Book of Mormon and maybe around the end of Alma the language will make sense.
I’ve already started on that cause.
Other cool things: I got a new scripture bag thingy. I
had some lady lalanga (weave) it and it's pretty legit. I’ll send a picture. I
also got a new Ta'ovala because my other one was almost shredded. I'll send a
picture of that too.
This is a really negative email I guess, but I’ll
finish it on another bad thing. Yesterday I was super sick; probably food
poisoning. I woke up with a nasty fever and my whole body was sore and aching.
I performed the helicopter maneuver by both puking and expelling diarrhea. That
was less than pleasant. I wasn't really able to leave the house so we just sat
there and I loved life the best I could. (That’s why I didn't email yesterday).
Kind of miserable but I’m relatively happy today and I’m excited for a new
week! Like. Bring. It. On.
Ofa atu,
Elder Sitaki
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