Emily's Tales from Tonga: Sista Piva 'eh!!

Male! (shortened hello)

This morning my companion and I woke up early to email so that we had more time the rest of the day... so i think we will do this most mondays, so plan on hearing from me around 11 or 12am on Sunday mornings for you??

Okay, so to explain the subject line--- The palangi missionaries here usually change their names so that the tongans can pronounce them, and I thought Peva would be good because it sounds closest to Bever, but i told people that was my name for a few days until one day we were at the falekoloa (store) and I told someone my name and a bunch of people busted up laughing! So we went home and looked it up and apparently, Peva is the word for a sea snake/worm thing here. yuck. Now they call me sister piva which means sister skirt, but it's better than a sea snake.

Oh! and the second thing I wanted to clarify from my last email: I think i was really shocked at the difference in living conditions when I first got here, and I think we probably visited some of the worst houses in my first few days because yeah, their houses are not nice, but most people do have 4 walls and roofs and at least 1 door. So yeah. it's not THAT bad.

Things I learned this week:1. PRAY all the time. When i get homesick, i pray. When i hate the food, i pray. When no one is home or they say they are "busy" and I am tired of walking in cheap flip flops, i pray. When i can't understand anything people are saying, i pray. It really helps. Heavenly father knows what is is my head and in my heart and I know that if I do what I am supposed to and try my hardest, he will send me comfort during all of those hard times. 2. I am getting good at french braiding (they call it "fi") and i can usually do a good job the first time without messing up. I'll have to send a picture of that later. 4. I wasn't taking my vinegar at first but I'm doing it now because the namu (mosquitos) love me a lot more than the tongans. I am not miserable, but I have a lot of bog bites. I got one on my earlobe yesterday and that's super annoying. 5. Vilahoas are the best! Vilahoas are our members that come around with us to teach people. They are usually young single adult girls who want to go on missions soon. They help us a lot and they are soo willing and cheerful! 6. They sell canned vegetables at our falekoloa!! so naturally i will probably buy out all of their cans. 7. I love and hate going to sleep. I love it because I can finally rest, but i hate it because i dream every night about being home and being with family and friends!! ugh. it makes me sad when i wake up... and I also hate sleeping because I wake up so many times in the night! the other churches here have a ton of service times where they have to wake up super early in the morning to go sing and they ring their loud bells every time and then there is the constant kakadoodledoo of the rooster and the dogs bark all. night. long. There are dogs and puppies everywhere!!! no wonder they eat them here. their population is out of control here. There are tiny new puppies everywhere, but we don't really pick them up because most of them have tons of flees and other gross stuff. 8. I am sooo thankful for my companion. She doesn't get annoyed when i ask her constantly what a word means and I know it must be hard for her to be training me when she is still pretty new herself.

Scripture for the week: D&C: 84:88. I love this one because it promises that I will have angels around me to "bear me up" and that I am never alone. I am always being watched over. I know Heavenly Father loves me and he loves these people. I am supposed to be here. There is no more important work than this.

Ofa LAHI kiate kimoutolu. ( lots of love to you all)

-Sista Piva

Sister Emily Bever

Tonga Nuku'alofa Mission