1/25/13 – MAIL… Our neighbors, the stake
patriarch and his wife, were off island for a few weeks and asked us to pick up
their mail at the post office. Remember,
they don’t deliver mail to homes and businesses on the island – there are no
addresses, so when we picked up Pili’s mail we got a real chuckle out of the
address on their bank statement. Notice
it has the PO box and the next line reads “Next LDS Mission Homes” – so I guess
if they were going to deliver mail, they would know right were to deliver
it…. We got a great laugh out of
this. “Fa’a Samoa” (what we say when
something strange, odd or funny happens)!
Thursday, January 24, 2013
Sunday, January 13, 2013
Chapter 35 - Christmas 2012
CHRISTMAS IN SAMOA
What a busy time of year. Just like at home the Christmas Decorations
start to appear in the stores just after Halloween. People love to decorate for the holidays, and
many put up Christmas lights on their fales – even the ones that have no
walls.
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| One of the Churches on the island decorated for Chirstmas |
I have said before that the houses
here go from HUMBLE open-air fales to very nice homes – by US standards. Hearing Christmas music is strange when the
weather is so hot… But we were busy
enjoying all the festivities…
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| Two of the larger homes on the island decorated for Christmas... |
The season started out on December 5th
with a Christmas devotional and activity with Sister and President Leota and
the AP’s for all the missionaries on the island.
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| Missionary Games |
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| Competition was intense... |
It was so much fun to watch, as they played
some competitive games together. They
played one with ping pong balls, several with soccer balls, several relays, and
the one where you tie a balloon on your ankle and try to pop each other’s
balloons while protecting your own from getting popped. There was a lot of competition going on in
the room. It was a great day. President and Sister Leota are such wonderful
people. I can see why the Lord called
him to lead this mission. We love them
so much…
seemed like every night there was an
activity somewhere in one of the wards.
We attended a party by the pool with one ward. They divided the ward into four groups and
each group was responsible to come up with a skit and four musical
numbers. Each group was responsible for
their own food, and because we were guests, we ended up with four different dinners…
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| We sat on one side of the pool and the entertainment was under the tent on the other side... |
The owner of the pool is a high-ranking chief
of his village, a member of the Church, and well respected on the island. He paid us such a great compliment. It is scary sometimes to realize how much we
are being watched and in the short time we have been here, how many people know
who we are. Another ward had a dance for
their party. It was so fun to see
everyone, no matter their age, dancing and enjoying themselves.
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| Our ward party... Looks like they are running out of food -no worry more is on the way! Sister Tele Hill (she is our medical angel) |
They always start out ward activities with a traditional
Samoan dance performed by the leaders and special guests - and we are expected
to dance! I have caught on to the
footwork, but I just can’t move my hands in the graceful fashion they do – so I
feel really conspicuous! But we are made
to feel so special, so we just laugh and do our best! All of the zones were asked to go Christmas
Caroling to investigators and new members in their wards, and we had the privilege
of going with several of the zones. It
seemed kind of funny – going caroling when it was still light, and HOT.
 |
| Christmas Caroling with the East Zone |
We are used to caroling in the cold - until
our toes grow numb - and then going back
to someone’s house or the church and having hot chocolate and donuts to get
warm. Here we relished getting into the
air-conditioned van and having a cold drink of water… But it was so great singing carols in the Samoan
language, and watching the reaction of the people we sang too. They were so responsive and almost everyone
greeted us with warm hugs and kisses. It
was a great experience… The Pago West
Stake has a 20-year tradition of throwing a Christmas party for all the
missionaries on the island. They fed us
an awesome dinner – with more food than we could eat.
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| Hungry Missionaries... |
We went home with enough food for four more
meals… Then each zone (5 of them) each
put on a skit and presented a song. They
were so funny.
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| Missionaries at the Pago West Stake Christmas party |
We laughed so hard we
were crying. The leaders in the stake
presented a short program and then they presented each missionary with a gift basket
 |
| President Tuitele presenting gift baskets to each of the missionaries |
We were treated well, don’t you think…
We got sheets, pillowcases, a tablecloth, lots if shampoo and hair
products, soap, toothbrushes and toothpaste, mouthwash, and even after shave (when
we first got here we couldn’t find after shave and had to have Jeff send some)! I don’t think we will have to worry about
that item for a while. I already posted
our Family Home Evening with the Halack’s.
That was another highlight of the season. We spent Sunday evening, the 23th with the
East Zone elders. We went caroling with
them and then went back to the church and had Family Home Evening with
them.
They invited a family to join us,
and it was a great evening. I even
shared the McLachlan story. We got permission
from President Leota to have the missionaries from the other four zones at our
house for Christmas Eve. So we had our
traditional Christmas buffet with pretty much all the food we would have at
home – except stuffed celery.
 |
| Christmas Eve with "our" missionaries.. |
We haven’t
been able to find Chez Wiz here, so we used a cheese from New Zealand that was
almost as good. We even had or goodie
table – minus the fudge – because of the humidity it just won’t set up here. Christmas Day some of the missionaries put together a puzzle. It didn't take long with so many working on it...
 |
| Careful - don't break it! Elders Hansen and Stout |
It was strange celebrating Christmas without snow, and we missed being with our
family, but it was a wonderful Christmas that we will remember it always.
Chapter 34 - Photo Shoot at the Temple - PRICELESS
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| Samoa Apia Mission Senior Missionaries President & Sister Leota Temple Presidency and wives |
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| Surrounding the fountain in front of the temple... |
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| Are we really going to do this? |
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| We better not slide down... That may be going too far... |
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| REBELS IN THE FOUNTAIN... |
Chapter 33 - S&I Seminar in Apia, Upolu
S&I SEMINAR IN APIA, UPOLU
The day after Thanksgiving we flew to Apia for a S&I
Seminary. We left on Friday
morning. The flight took about 45
minutes and when we arrived it was Saturday – they are one day and one hour
ahead of us. They are on daylight savings
time and we are not. When they go back to standard time we will just be a day
behind them – no hourly difference. It
is strange, because the island is about 40 miles away. Until about a year ago, American and Western
Samoa were on the same day and time, but because so much of their commerce is
with New Zealand, they elected to move the date line so they were the
same. However, American Samoa (which is further West) chose not to
change. So we deal with the day/time
issue. It keeps us on our toes….
We left on Friday so we could visit the “Market”. It is a fascinating place. There are rows and rows of vendor shops, and
most of them sell the same items, but it is so fun to walk up and down and see
everything they have to sell. The sights
and smells are so intriguing. We bought
a Kava Bowl – to use as a candy dish, and a Fu’e (it looks like a large fly
swatter) that the high chiefs use when they want to talk. After
we visited the market we went to a beautiful beach and went swimming and
snorkeling.
 |
| Getting ready to take the plunge... |
What a great
experience. We saw so many colorful fish
and beautiful coral. It was amazing to
see the variety of fish and the brilliant colors so close to shore. I thought one could only experience such
beauty scuba diving. We are looking
forward to going again. Of course, in the
excitement I didn’t think to use sun screen or put on a shirt, so I experienced
the SAMOAN SUN at it’s finest. I got a
SAMOAN, SAND, SWIMMING, SNORKELING, SUNBURN!!!
Funny thing was, even though it was almost purple in color, it didn’t
hurt – it just itched… And when it
started to peel it itched even more.
Through all of it, I thought of my sister Kathy. She likes to peel sunburned skin! We stayed with Reed and Nada Spencer. They were in the MTC with us. We were also
able to spend some time with the Budgett’s – the other couple who were in the MTC
with us. It was so much fun to be
together for a couple of days. We had a
great time together and laughed a lot… Saturday evening we went to the Family
History Display we have been helping with in the stakes on Tutuila. It was great to rub shoulders with President
and Sister Leota again.
 |
| Sister Budgett and I on the temple grounds We are standing in front of a Peacock Tree |
It is always
such a blessing to be with them. Sunday
after church, we spent some time preparing the 1-hour presentation we were
assigned to give at the seminary the next day.
When we found out about the seminar, we thought we were going over to be
trained, but a couple of days before we went, I got the feeling we ought to
check our S&I email address to see if there was anything we needed to do
beyond the original instructions we received in October. To my shock and surprise I saw that we were
on the program to teach a workshop! I
was sure glad I checked the email. We
were to discuss a talk given by Elder…… at the last S&I broadcast. It was a challenge, because of the subject
matter, and we didn’t want to lecture.
We wanted to be able to present the subject matter with group
involvement. We were scheduled first
thing Monday morning.
 |
| S&I Seminar - Our bosses Ngatai Smith (left) Wayne Maurer (right) |
Our presentation
went well, and after we were done, we were able to relax and enjoy the rest of
the seminar. It lasted two days – Monday
and Tuesday, and we received some great ideas to help with our teaching. Monday evening we celebrated Thanksgiving
with all the senior couples, President and Sister Leota and the temple
presidency. After dinner we went over to
the temple grounds to take pictures. One
of the pictures was taken by the fountain in the front of the temple. It was hot, and I mentioned that the water
sure looked inviting. Pearl, the mission
president’s 17 year- old daughter agreed.
Well, Dennis looked at her and said, “I will if you will.” The next thing I knew they were both standing
ankle deep in the fountain!
 |
| Rebels In The Fountain... |
Sister Leota
just covered her eyes, the temple president seemed amused and President Leota
said Dennis was the only missionary he would allow his daughter to stand in the
temple fountain with. I was sure we were
headed for a transfer….
Tuesday evening we went with some of the other senior couples
in the mission to dinner. We sat right
by the ocean and it was beautiful.
 |
| Susan, Elder & Sister Gertsch, Elder & Sister Budgett Elder and Sister Osborne, Sister & Elder Spencer, Sister Tanuvasa |
The food was good, but the company was even better. The highlight of our four-day trip was we were
able to contact a sister who served her mission in Salt Lake City, Sister Nive
Tanuvasa. When we gave the missionaries
her name, hoping we could find her (we didn’t have any idea which village she
lived in), they knew right away who she was.
They told us she was the best member missionary on the island – that she
gave them contacts weekly and they knew if she gave them a referral they better
follow up on it. She met us at the mission office and we took
her to dinner with us. It was so great
to see her. She was such a great
missionary – she served her entire mission in two stakes, one being ours, as
well as teaching those in the mission who needed to be taught in Samoan. We were blessed to have her and her companion
in our home several times for dinner. It
was so awesome to see her! It was a
great way to end an incredible week-end!
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