In two churches, just miles apart, two Tongan women raise their voices in two very different hymns.
Mele Vakalahi wears a long, colorful dress called a puleteha as she sings a traditional hymn of her Pacific homeland. Elenoa Moala wears a Western suit to her church and sings Mormon hymns.Like their hymns, their faiths have translated differently in America.
But, beyond the church doors, both Tongan communities are grappling with the same issues: a high dropout rate, growing youth gangs, domestic violence and poverty.
"Tongans have been in Utah for the last 30 years," said William Afeaki, director of Polynesian Affairs in the state Department of Community and Economic Development. "But there's no orientation of any kind for them. It's up to individual families to fare for their own and I think that's part of the immigration problem."
According to the 1990 U.S. census, there were 18,000 Tongans in the United States, 3,611 residing in Utah. The census showed Utah had the fourth highest Polynesian population after Hawaii, California and Washington state.
A preliminary 2000 Census shows Utah's Asian-Pacific Islander population has grown 54 percent over the 1990 figures to 51,000. More than 10,000 are Tongan, Afeaki said.
Echoing census figures, churches, the backbone of the Tongan heritage, are a testament to the growth of the culture in Utah.
First Tongan United Methodist gets so many worshipers on Sundays, some have to stand outside the crowded church to listen to services. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has a Tongan stake with 10 wards.
The churches also illustrate the differences in Utah's two Tongan communities.
"Mormon Tongans are more Westernized," said Vakalahi, following a service at the Free Wesleyan Church of Tonga of Utah. "We are more traditional."
Tradition means wearing long dresses decorated with woven belts that are symbols of respect. It means speaking Tongan at home and singing Tongan hymns in church. It means going to church three to five times a week.
"I was born in Salt Lake City, so (church) is like Tonga for me," said Vakalahi, a 19-year-old University of Utah student.
For Teresa Katoa, tradition means having chaperoned dates.
"The guy has to ask for my parent's permission to take me out. If they say yes, my little sister has to come with us," said Katoa, also 19. "It's a way to keep the Tongan tradition strong because most of the youth are losing it."
Many Mormon Tongans do not adhere to all of the stricter rituals, said Moala, a third generation Mormon who returned to Tonga as a missionary.
"Back in Tonga they say LDS are 'fie palangi'," Moala said. "It means we're trying to be white."
About half of Utah's Tongans are Mormon, and in Tonga 30 percent of the population is Mormon, according to the Office of Polynesian Affairs.
Mormon Tongans say they haven't lost their culture; they have simply taken the best of both worlds.
"It's not that we want to be white or that we want to be Tongan," said Elenoa's husband, Haloti Moala. "The scripture in the church -- that has become our culture now."
Adhering to Mormon scripture has meant making some cultural compromises.
Tongans drink kava, an intoxicating beverage made from the roots of the Polynesian pepper tree. It is a staple at weddings and funerals. It is also part of the dating ritual. A suitor takes the kava root to the one he is courting. As she serves the kava, he serenades her.
"Kava is tradition," said Haloti Moala.
Because of it's intoxicating potential, the Mormon doctrine bans kava.
"That was a big cultural contradiction for us," Moala said. "The two cultures kind of clashed heads and it was left for us to decide between the two."
A Polynesian proverb says, "The man who drinks kava is still a man, but the man who drinks liquor becomes a beast." So, many Tongans do not consider it to be a drug or alcohol, said Elenoa Moala, who works as a court translator.
"I interpreted for a man who registered a 2.4 blood kava level while driving," Moala said. "The judge said, 'That's drunk.' The man said, 'No, that's kava."'
The story sounds funny, but it represents a serious gap in cultural understanding that extends into the legal system. Many Tongans do not understand why they have been arrested, said Haloti Moala, also a court translator.
"They say to me, 'If I just say yes, I did it, will it be over?"' said Moala.
Domestic violence is another area where the cultural gap leads to arrests, Moala said.
"They just think they're disciplining their kids, they don't understand that here it's considered abuse, until they get arrested" Moala said.
If Tongans are arrested, many are too ashamed to work with a translator.
"Pride is a big issue with Tongans," Elenoa Moala said. "They don't want anyone outside of the family to know they've been arrested, not even the translator."
The Moalas run a youth services agency that has set up Families At Risk, a project aimed at Polynesian youth and gangs.
There are 700 Asian or Pacific Islander gang members in Utah, according to the 1998 Crime in Utah report issued by the Department of Public Safety. About 200 of them are Tongan, according to the Moalas.
"Polynesian gang members have said they felt like outsiders, so they banded together with friends," said Susan Burke, antiviolence coordinator for the Utah Commission on Criminal and Juvenile Justice.
Another issue feeding the gang problems is a high dropout rate. Last year, 21.1 percent of Pacific Islanders dropped out of school before graduating. More than half of Utah's Pacific Islanders are Tongan, said Afeaki.
One reason is that many Tongan immigrants are low-paid laborers who work two to three jobs, said Afeaki, who is Tongan.
"When both parents work to make ends meet, education becomes secondary," he said. "It's hard for our community to come together on issues like this. The concentration right now is really on survival."
That makes the church and retaining Tongan culture even more important, said Afeaki.
"We need to teach (our youth) who they are and the values they should embrace."