High’s and Low’s

 This last week has been a bit of a roller coaster ride! Lots of ups and downs. Life does that at times to all of us. We started out the week on a high note after listening to the Saturday general conference sessions on our Sunday. Then Monday we were able to watch some of the Sunday session early in the morning and listen to President Nelson's closing address while we were at the office working. Today we had time to listen to some of what we missed last Monday over the church website while all of Samoa was watching and listening to conference in Samoan.They broadcast it here one week after the actual conference. So yesterday we didn't have church meetings here in Samoa. On Monday afternoon, all the mission leaders gathered at the mission home for MLC (Mission Leadership Council) which I'm told is held monthly.  We attended that along with all the other office Missionaries, Zone Leaders, STL's, AP's, and of course, the Mission Leaders(President and his wife).  We had training by President Purcell during the afternoon and then we all went down to a park by the ocean and went for a walk and ate pizza for dinner. During the meeting on Monday, President Purcell informed us that 2 Zone leaders wouldn't be there because one of them, Elder Masoe, had just learned that his mother passed away while she was on the ferry that goes to the Island of Savaiii, so 

Elder Masoe and his companion had gone to be with his family for a little while. On Tuesday morning we had another training meeting and during the meeting 

Elder Masoe and his companion walked in. Everyone stood up when he walked in and many missionaries hugged him and offered their condolences.  It was very emotional and I couldn't keep back the tears even though I don't even know this Elder. I felt so sad for him.  But I could also feel so much love for him in tha room. He and his companion attended the rest of the training and carried on with their Zone leader responsibilities  just as his mother would have wanted him to.  At the Tuesday training, two of the Senior couples  and two of the STL companionships took part in the training.  I'm afraid we're going to have to have a turn with that at some point. Not looking forward to that.

We took a couple more afternoons last week going to zones and putting up whiteboards.  We went to the last zone on Thursday and we were 2 whiteboards short, so we'll have to go back sometime this week to finish.  I had lots of Nurse calls 

so I stayed pretty busy all week and Elder Godderidge is always working on fixing something!

On Friday morning, we returned home from our walk to a call from Sister Purcell about a terrible incident that happened in the middle of the night.  Three of the Sisters who were in one of the MQ's sleeping had an intruder who broke in and did some really awful things to them. At some point, they got away from him and were able to barricade themselves in their bedroom and call for help, but it took the police quite awhile to get there and when they did, the guy ran off and they didn't catch him!

Needless to say, the Sisters are pretty shook up.  They've been staying here at the mission home since it happened. They all want to stay and complete their missions, but they're afraid right now about going to another MQ( (they won't go back to that one, they already moved Elders into it), so it's taking some time to sort things out and I'm trying to get some counseling set up for them.  I never thought this would be something I'd have to deal with. The sisters are getting a lot of support and there's a lot of effort going into helping them through it , so I hope they'll be able to move on. AND I hope something like this doesn't happen again. It's been kinda rough.

We spent most of the weekend close to the mission home so we could help out as needed.  But on Saturday we did take time to go on the hiking trail we found last  week again.  We heard of a few more places we need to check ut, so hopefully we can do that.  We've been here for a month now, 11 more to go! We're learning new things everyday, and the Lord is helping us all along the way! WE love and miss you all! We love getting pictures and chats to keep us in the loop at home.  Thanks for all you are doing to help us at home so that we can serve this mission!

Pictures of MLC  group at the park, sunset, STL's and Sister Purcell, Pres. dancing,Elder G.with his drill putting up curtains, AP’s on our walk