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| Island of Aunu'u from the boat... |
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| Seminary Class |
11/16/12 – We had a great experience Friday
and Saturday. We went to Aunu’u, the
island about a mile off the East coast of Tutuila. They have a school on the island, but the
high school students attend school on the main island. Because they have to catch the boat so early
each morning for school, they hold seminary in the evening. So we attended their seminary on Friday
evening,
than went to a ward volleyball activity. The power went out in the middle of the
activity, but no worries, they just moved onto other activities that they could
do in the dark. No one complained… All the power on the island comes from a
generator, and it is not unusual for them to loose power several times a
day. It is just part of life for them,
so no one stresses about it. We stayed
with the Lotoa Family – we met their daughter in the MTC. She is serving her mission in Salt Lake City
at Temple Square. They are an amazing
family – 16 children. They went to the
temple as a family just before she left for her mission. They are such a great strength to the branch
and to the village. We slept in the
girl’s room. There was no furniture –
only a mattress on the floor and a cabinet in one corner. There was a small air conditioning unit in
the window and they brought in the fan from the dining area just before we went
to bed. They did everything that was
possible to make sure we were comfortable.
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| Eating with the family (tradition is that the father of the home eats with the guests and the family eats after) |
We were treated like royalty. Their oldest daughter did most of the cooking, and she was an amazing cook. They have a drink here called Cocoa Samoa and it can be quite bitter, but hers was SO GOOD!!!
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| Singing and relaxing together - until midnight... What a great memory... (the family does this almost every night with neighbors) |
After the ward activity we went back
to their house all sat outside with the family and branch presidency and sang
songs accompanied by a guitar and 2 ukuleles.
It was so relaxing, - we could have sat there all night. On Saturday morning they all got up at 6:00
and went to the church to finish the game they started the night before.
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| Men fishing off shore... |
Later we watched them fish off the shore with
big nets.
Two men held the ends of the
nets and the kids spread out between them, walking towards the net chasing the
fish into the nets. It was really
something to see. In the afternoon we
attended a baptism. It was a great
ending to our little get away…
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| When we arrived, some of the local children greeted us. They swim life fish... |
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| Aunu'u Harbor |
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