White Sunday - The next generation

Last week was White Sunday in Samoa, a day special to children.  Since we viewed General Conference last Sunday we had our White Sunday program in church today.  It was the primary program.  How appropriate.  The children did a wonderful job giving their speaking parts and singing their songs, some in Samoan and some in English. They like to sing a verse in English and then the next verse in Samoan.

Last Monday was a holiday since it was White Sunday.  Everything was closed as it was on the day after Mother's day and the day after Father's day.  I needed some things for the mission so I took a ride downtown to see if anything was open. Nothing was open.  There was a large cruise ship in port and hundreds of tourists wandering around town looking for something to do.  I was wondering is there was a correlation problem between the cruise line and the chamber of commerce but evidently the passengers knew that nothing would be open.  They did pull up anchor and set sail about 5:00 pm which is much earlier than usual for cruise ships.  They usually leave around 10:00 pm.

It was a very quiet week since President Leota and his Assistants when to Savaii on Wednesday to conduct training and do interviews.  Sister Leota and Pearl left on Friday to join them for a stake conference this weekend.

On Thursday we decided to visit the Apia West zone meeting.  It was a good experience as always. The missionaries are working on their communication skills and so lesson was on the "parroting" technique where you repeat what the investigator says to make sure you understand what they are saying.  I remember learning this in a class I took at BYU many years ago from Steve Covey.  We were practicing in class and after one student paraphrased back to him what he had said to see  if they understood he said, "Yeah...What's wrong with the way I have been saying it."

The Apia West Zone - Elder's Amituana'i, Lui, Sisters Faumui, Tapumanaia, Elders Huber & Mu

Saturday we hiked up Mt. Vaea to see Robert Louis Stevenson's grave.  We try to go every other week.  I'm not sure if we will do it during the rainy season.  With the help of my GPS unit I made this map on Google Earth to show how we go.  The direct route takes us about 20-25 minutes and is fairly steep in some places.  The longer route is the path the Samoans built during the night so they could carry Robert Louis Stevenson's casket up to it's final resting place. We came down that way once just for fun and so I could map it on Google Earth.

 

 

After our hike Sister Partridge went over to a Relief Society crafts day at the Stake Center. They were demonstrating things you can make from a coconut.

 

 

Then Saturday night we went over to the south side of the island for dinner with some friends, Elder & Sister Harker, who will be going home next month.  They put on a show of traditional Samoan singing and dancing after dinner.  The highlight is the fire dance. The girl on top looks like she couldn't be more than 11 years old.