September 23, 2012
Last night I was invited by one of the local guys to go to Mormon church. I thought it might be fun to experience church like so many other volunteers have so I took him up on his offer. He said he would pick me up at 10 am and so of course I am waiting at my house at 10 am and there is no sign of my new friend. The church is right next to my house and we heard the singing start so I decided to walk over and slip in and then find one of the my fellow volunteers to sit with (all three of them are leaving with Mormon families and have to endure weekly services/classes). Luckily I was able to slip in and I quickly found a spot next to my friend Steph. Throughout the entire service I was amused at just how Tonganized everything was, from the singing to the dress, it was like church with an island spin. Probably the most different from American services was the fact that no one really ever stopped talking, voices would get lower but there was always some sort of whispering going on at all times. The other major difference, and the one that kept me laughing inappropriately throughout the service was that the kids would always get smacked during the most passionate (or what I can assume where the most passionate since I didn’t really understand anything) parts of the presenter’s speech. A kid would be fidgeting or fighting with the kid next to them and the older person next to them would raise their head from their bowed position and slap the kid and then reassume the prayer pose. Of course this only worked to calm the kid for a matter of minutes before the process would repeat itself. There was also several kids walking from pew to pew, since everyone knows everyone in Tonga the kid would just get picked up and given attention no matter where in the church they ended up. As if this was not enough to try and deal with, I received a text message from my friend Wren who is in another village. Apparently, during her church service the pastor yelled half the sermon and then spent the other half hacking up a lung, the image of a giant Tongan preacher yelling his sermon fire and brimstone status then having a coughing fit was too much for me and I started bursting into laughter. I could not have picked a worse time because as I started to laugh, the women at the podium began to cry… I tried to contain myself, which only made my eyes start to water. I decided to use this to my advantage and act like I too was struck with the Holy Spirit! I hope it worked /:
After the service we went to a youth group glass and the topic was repentance. They asked us palangi to introduce ourselves, and since that is the one thing we can all do in Tongan with no problem, we all got up and gave an introduction. About halfway through the class, I noticed that the girl leading the group had a very suspicious belly, I am pretty sure she needs to repent a sin herself….
This is the Mormon church in my village. It just so happens to be right next tome my house, which means I can hear singing at least twice a day, everyday...
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