Savaii Trip a little late

The bay by our hotel

We promised that we would take pictures of our Savaii trip for our faithful missionary moms and dads. So this email will be mostly pictures. The Savaii trip was a lot of fun. The missionaries were in good spirits and loved getting together for our Christmas Zone Conference. We started with a devotional and then watched a movie that the A.P.'s put together of all the zones singing Christmas songs. We then watched skits, had a wonderful luncheon, and the missionaries played games under the guidance of President Leota. The favorite game was dodge ball.

Sister Hanson, Sister Mariner, Sister Tuivaiti, Sister Partridge

Since the cyclone hit, we wanted to let you know that all of the missionaries are safe.  They are currently serving the people.  Many homes are filled with mud and trees have been destroyed.  They are doing their part to piece together the community.  You can  be proud of your son or daughter for the service that they are giving in Samoa.

Savaii Missionaries and staff

Elder Fisher and Elder Swenson



Skits



Elder Stevens with his lunch



More skits

The Cyclone is over and we are well

All missionaries are safe and accounted for.  They were contacted Thursday morning an instructed to either stay inside or go to a place where they would be safe, in most cases the local chapel. Their zone leaders check on them periodically and report back to President Leota.

The Church is working on addressing the needs of the members and the missionaries.

As I was running on Thursday morning, the day the cyclone hit Upolu, I experienced a pretty good headwind as I was running around the track.  At first I thought of it as resistance that added to my workout.  Then the thought occurred to me that if I am experiencing a headwind on one side of the track I must be experiencing a tailwind on the other side.  As I ran around the track I payed more attention and sure enough there was a tailwind on the other side.  We have been on our mission for 10 months now and hadn't payed much attention to the tailwind that blew us along.  Thursday we experienced a headwind.  The headwind is now over and the tailwinds have begun again.

Sorry no pictures.  You may visit Pacific Mormon Newsroom:

Fagaloa

Fagaloa Bay

 This week my husband and I decided to go to a zone meeting in Fagaloa. It is quite a drive there including a steep dirt rode down the hillside into the bay. We weren't quite sure where the chapel was, but turned to the right. It was a beautiful area with only a few homes all around the ocean bay.  We were expecting to run into the church along the main road, but it was actually a dirt road that finally led to the gate of the church yard.






  

Missionary quarters

We usually see the zone leaders van when we get to the church for zone meetings, but there was no van there and we were a few minutes late. So, my husband decided to knock at the door of the missionary apartment. At first he couldn't get anyone to answer the door and  finally an Elder came to the door in just his underwear. We found that the zone meeting had been cancelled, but it still made us wonder why the missionaries weren't up studying or getting ready to teach.  They have a perfect setting right next to the church with the ocean not far from their view. They also have a basketball stand and volleyball net for exercise. Even though the ride was unfruitful for having a zone meeting, we had a beautiful drive.  We found out later that the zone leaders were at the temple and that was why the zone meeting was cancelled. 

fale

There were some children playing next to the ocean and in the fale's there. 


 

I thought that it was very amusing that the cows were laying on the beach next to the water.

We are preparing for Christmas in Samoa.  Last Sunday my husband and I got out our Christmas decorations.  We have a small tree that fits on a table.  It is a beautiful little pre-decorated tree.  The lights come on in patterns going from red, to yellow, to green to blue and then all the colors.  We have enjoyed watching this cute little tree.  We watched the First Presidency Devotional last Sunday on BYU TV.  Tonight they are going to be showing in in the Pesega Stake in Samoan and English.  We had stake conference today.  In Samoa you don't see all the commercialization of Christmas.  There are a few shops that have Christmas decorations, but not nearly the hustle and bustle you see in the states.   They have several groups singing Christmas songs and our stake had a Christmas program last Saturday.  I think I'm going to enjoy spending this Christmas in Samoa.  We will miss our family, but it will be nice to have a simple Christmas. 

O Le Pupu-Pu'e National Park Coastal Walk

We started the week with a Thanksgiving dinner for all the seniors in the mission.  This included the counsellors in the temple presidency, those that are serving in the temple, as well as the CES missionaries.  After dinner we walked over to the temple for a group photograph.  We were able to get everyone since Elder & Sister Jordan, who serve in Tutuila were here for CES meetings.

We received 2 new missionaries this week. They will be with us temporarily while they wait for their visas.  They will eventually serve in Australia when their visas arrive.

We have been intrigued with trying this walk along the south side of the island.  The gate is locked due to problems with illegal logging in the National Park.  We finally decided to try it yesterday.  Judging by the height of the grass between the wheel tracks I don't think very many people have driven into the area. In face I'm not sure very many people have been there.  The sign by the road said it was 4 km to the trail.  It seemed more like 4 miles probably because it was very hot and humid.  We did make it though.

The hike along the coast is about 1 km.  The coast on this part of the island is entirely lava.  Some how trees grow out of lava, I'm not sure how. 

The top of the cliff we walked along was about 25 feet above the ocean but the waves crashing against cliff gave us an occasional spray of salt water.

Over the years the waves have created several natural brides and islands in the lava.

We eventually came to a large lava field. It was interesting to see the folds in the lava almost like cake batter.  We tried a few self portraits. Someone had sunk a pillar into the lava which was perfect for setting the camera on.

It was a little tricky setting the camera up, keeping it from blowing over and then scrambling across the lava so I could be a part of the picture.

It was a long walk but we thoroughly enjoyed it.  It was a wonderful day.

Giving Thanks

I was thinking about our blessings today as we attended church in a building that didn’t have air-conditioning.  How many times have I complained because I was too cold in our nice air- conditioned building in the states.  As I think about our lovely home in Mesa Arizona and then drive by the Fale’s that the people live in here with no air conditioning, I again contemplate why I am not more grateful.  Then as we drive in our nice air-conditioned car, I see people walking in flip flops wherever they go and riding in crowded buses with no air conditioning and see their happy spirits.  I wonder what is it that make these people so happy.  Even though they have humble circumstances, most all of them will greet you with a smile and be more than happy to be acknowledged by us as missionaries.  They faithfully attend their churches on Sunday closing up the shops for most of the day.  They love the Lord and are a kind and gentle people. It is a wonderful opportunity to be able to rub shoulders with the people in Samoa.

High Priority

We have had a good week in the Samoa Apia Mission.  We have been very busy this week creating missionary files, arranging travel and shipping boxes for the missionaries.  My husband had so many boxes in front of his desk to mail that I had to take a picture.  We are starting to get Christmas packages in for the missionaries.  My husband went to the airport several time to pick up the packages and they weren’t there even though the couple serving in Pago said that the packages were sent.  We finally figured out that it was because so many people were traveling to Pago because of graduation from High School.  They weigh all the people first, then luggage, freight is sent last.  Many Samoan’s are very heavy so this accounts for the wait.

We worked in the temple on Tuesday night and we had a  large group of members come from Pago.  A couple received their endowments and were later sealed to their little family.  I went in the area where the children were waiting and had a very enjoyable time talking with the children.  The older two children were nine and ten.  The girl who was nine said, "Your eyes must be really fun to color, my Dad has light brown eyes and my mother has dark brown eyes."  This made me smile.  I talked with them about writing down what it was like being in the temple and told them about my baptism and that I had to be baptized twice because my toe stuck up.  The little girl asked what a toe was.  They were so cute.  Finally the little boy asked me how old I was.  When I told him, he said "You aren't THAT old!"  It was  pretty funny.  I then got to help them go to the seaing room where they met up with their parents and all the ward members.  I told them to look at the pictures of Jesus.  It was a very special evening.

Elder Fitisemanu, Elder Kokkola, Elder Vaeagi, Elder Ieremia, Elder
Leamanaia, Elder Kinnison, Elder Mackey, Elder Too-
faalogo, Elder Ormsby, Front: Elder Tafitit, Sister Losi, Sister Tapusoa, Elder Solo

We went to a zone meeting in the Apia Zone this week.  This is a large zone with 13 missionaries.  We always have an enjoyable time seeing the missionaries.  Elder Ormsby and Elder Tafiti are the zone leaders and are doing an excellent job serving the missionaries in their zone.  Afterwards they had song practice.  We are going to be having Christmas Zone Meetings in December so the missionaries are practicing songs and skits for that.  We will have the opportunity of participating in the Savaii Zone Meeting as well as Upolu. 

We don’t celebrate Thanksgiving in Samoa, but the senior couples are going to have a dinner on Monday.  We look forward to a nice evening with them. We went over to the Hanson’s home for birthday cake last night.  There were several couples that came and we had a nice visit. 

Mr. Burger doesn't serve Hamburgers

One of the food items I have not had since being in Samoa is a hamburger.  Of course I didn't eat a lot of hamburgers when I was home.  I usually only ate my own barbecued hamburgers which start out with Costco sirloin patties or an occasional hamburger at Fuddruckers.  I have contemplated eating a hamburger in Samoa and thought maybe I might try one at Mr. Burger's, a new restaurant I watched take shape during my trips up and down Vaitele road.  I happened to mention that Mr. Burger's was now open to the Assistants on our way to the airport this week.  They informed me that they went there and found out they don't serve hamburgers.  Saved me a trip.

This week was fairly busy as we trained the 11 new missionaries that arrived on Friday night and finally got the last 5 sent to their areas in Savaii on Wednesday afternoon.  We also held Zone Leader Council on Wednesday morning.  There were a lot of new faces sitting around the table.  One of the joys of working in the mission office is observing young missionaries step up into zone leader and trainer positions.  In my mind zone leaders and trainers are equally important positions with trainers being slightly more important since they have the opportunity of influences a string of missionaries for good.  A good trainer will prepare the missionary they are training to also be a good trainer.  The influence carrys from generation to generation of trainers and new missionaries.

Wednesday we bid farewell to Elder and Sister Harker.  They completed their mission and are heading back to Canada after a short visit to New Zealand.  Monday night we had a farewell dinner to honor them and took this group picture of the Senior Missionaries. 

We also got to do some real missionary  work on Wednesday night.  We have started attending the English speaking ward in addition to the Samoan ward we have been attending.  The ward mission leader asked for people to work with investigators so we volunteered. We met with a woman named Tara on Wednesday night and showed her around the temple grounds and answered some her questions about the temple.  We enjoyed it and she seemed to enjoy also. We saw her at church today and things are going well for her.

Saturday we went for a walk with some of the other senior missionaries to high ground so we would know where to go is a Tsunami ever hits Samoa.  The villages all extend up to the mountains so the local people head to the higher ground in their village. We are members of a village so we had to find high ground on public property.  Elder Hanson, our emergency preparedness expert, located a spot on a sports complex which is near enough we can walk to it.  We are following up with a family home evening in December to learn more about it.

We also took a ride to O le Pupu-Pue National Park on the south side of the island.  There is a Canopy Tree walk we have been interested in taking for sometime. But the gate is always locked and it's 4 km to the walk and since we had already walked about 10 km during the morning we decided to postpone.  Besides it had been raining a lot and we forgot our walking shoes.  We did take a short hike to Togitogiga falls, which is a beautiful water fall located in the park.

We haven't been able to attend a zone meeting for awhile do to office commitments. We are hoping to attend one this week.

Rainbows and Missionaries

Rainbow on Vaitele Street

 We are always amazed at the beautiful sky in Samoa.  We are in the rainy season now which means it usually rains at least once a day. Sometimes it rains all day.  This means that we have lots of humidity.  The plus side is I don't ever have to use lotion.  The down side is that my hair is always curly or frizzy.  I started to wear my hair in a french braid or with a large clip once in awhile and have received tons of compliments.  Samoan women mostly wear their hair in a pony tail braid or a clip and many of them have very long hair. 




New Missionaries

On Friday evening we went to the aiport to meet the new intake of missionaries.  Their flight came in at 1:00 a.m.  President and Sister Leota had been to New Zealand for a mission president's seminar and they all came in on the same flight.  We enjoyed driving President Leota's car to the airport and meeting the new missionaries.  They came from the Provo M.T.C. and even though they were very tired, they were enthusiastic about being missionaries in Samoa.  This will be the last day that they wear their suit coats until when they go home in two years.  It was very warm at 1:00 in the morning and they were very happy to take their coats off.





Elder and Sister Fife, Elder and Sister Partride, Elder and
Sister Harker, Elder Gertsch (his wife took the picture)
Elder and Sister Roth, Elder and
Sister Osborne

We have a missionary couple (Harkers) that will be going home next week to Canada.  We had a couples party on Saturday to wish them well and enjoy the movie Charly.  Some of them had never seen the movie and didn't realize it was a sad movie.  Sister Harker had movies, spices, games and card making supplies to give away to the other senior missionaries.  We all enjoyed the movie and good company.

Next week will be very busy because we have new missionaries, training for the trainers, and Z.L.C.