October 11, 2015

Oh. My. Gosh, people. I feel like I haven't spoken to anyone in the outside world for the last year. This week was so very long. So. Hmmm. Yeah, I'm still here in Navutoka, which is fine by me, I will continue to search for new people to teach, and continue working with the old ones! Here's the catch though, I'm training! 

I'm training a brand new Palangi sister named Sister Bever, and she is from Oregon. Her Tongan is way good, especially for just getting here. It's been interesting to watch her as we go around, her reactions to everything and such. She reminds me of me when I first got here! The culture is way different here, so I'm trying to help her cope as best I can.

Because the Tongans can't really pronounce either of our names correctly, we have to sort of tongan-ize them so that people can understand them. My name is simply Sister Lisi-- which means 'list'. We were trying to decide on a good name for sister Bever, so we decided that 'sister Peva' was closest. For one day, we walked around telling everyone that her name was sister "Peva" until one time we said it and a bunch of teenagers started cracking up. We looked at each other, and when we got the chance, we looked it up in the dictionary. "Peva" in tongan means a small flat sea worm, kind of like a leech. So, we've changed her name to sister "Piva" which means "Skirt". Now we walk around as Sister Skirt and Sister List. 

I'm beginning to truly realize the extent of my Tongan, now. When we go out I see that I know a lot more than I thought I did, but sometimes it shows me a true representation of what I lack, as well. It's alright though. Things are tough, but we soldier on! 1 Nephi 3:7 is more relevant than ever before. There are so many days where we basically have to throw ourselves of the cliff and into the unknown, and have faith that loving arms will catch us as we do the best we can! It's truly been a humbling experience, thus far. 

Time is short today, so the email is short today. But take that as your spiritual thought for the day. When times get tough, trust. Trust that everything will be alright. If you struggle with something, anything, tell Him. Trust that everything will work out to his grand design, even if you don't see it yet. I promise that as you make it through the refiner's fire, you will come out better and more perfect than ever before. I love you all so very much.

Keep going!

Sister Wunderlich

Sister Bever and I