Hello’s and Goodbye’s

Pics: Dad and his popcorn (some habits never die), cleaning another nasty sink drain, missionaries going home, President and missionaries singing for us at the outtake dinner, my new Ukelele ,

 Talofa everyone!

Thought I'd start my email with a narrative of one of our typical morning walk/jogs:

We try to get out the door by 6:00-6:15 A.M. before daylight.

Greet and wave to the security guards on our way out the compound.

Keep eyes on the pavement , to avoid dog poop, and tripping on uneven sidewalks.

100 yards in, it starts to rain, so we get soaked.

Get barked at and chased by dogs.

Help herd 4 loose horses that are walking down the middle of the road by the racetrack.

Say "Good Morning" to EVERY person we pass by. Lots of kids walking to schools, they laugh at us.

Wave and greet Security guards when we return to the compound, soaking wet from sweat and rain water!

I'm happy to report that my foot is feeling a little better each month and I am able to jog at longer intervals than I could when we first arrived, so that's progress! 

So this week we welcomed 14 new missionaries.  6 Sisters and 8 Elders.  This was the first time we had do the whole intake video without help from the young missionaries.  I didn't like that!  But we managed it. I'm not sure how well they understood what we talked to them about though! Ha Ha 

Then on Tuesday night we got to go to an Outtake dinner for the 10 missionaries who were going home.  They had it at a restaurant this time instead of at the mission home.  The food was great and it was fun.  There was singing and dancing and laughing and hugging and speeches!   This time we were pretty well-acquainted with most of the missionaries going home so it was kind of hard to see them leave.  We've grown to love them and will miss serving closely with many of them.  

On Wednesday was the outtake meeting at the chapel across the street from the mission home.  There were 6 missionaries from Samoa so they all had family there. The 4 sisters going home were from off island.  All of the missionaries from the island on Upolu also attended the outtake meeting so the chapel was full all the way back into the gym.  Each missionary going home bears their testimony and the mission leaders speak and recognize each of them.  After the meeting everyone goes outside to watch the missionaries greet their families and to sing and do the Haka for them.  

We spent the rest of the week catching up and helping the Purcells with things as they were preparing to move out of the mission home.  They had to be out by Sunday so the FM group can clean and get ready for the new mission leaders coming next weekend.  

Friday was my birthday. The Purcell's took Elder G. and I to lunch for my birthday so that was nice.  We went to a place down by the wharf that had fish and chips and sandwiches. Elder G. gave me a Ukelele for my birthday!  Now I can play along with the missionaries (after I practice up a little).  We also inherited the mission guitar to store in our office (one of the many things we were given to "keep track of" until the new mission leaders get here and tell us what they want to do with them. We have a keyboard, a big box of crocs that Sister Purcell gave to missionaries who are having feet problems and can't afford to buy their own, a party box bluetooth speaker thing with microphones, and the box of missionary's personal cell phones that have been collected for safekeeping until the missionaries are released. They don't dare leave anything behind in the home because the cleaners will probably steal them.  Kind of sad, but true. Elder G. lost his wallet last weekend and I'm pretty sure we'll never see it again. 

Saturday we spent most of the day traveling to MQ's and delivering supplies, repairing nasty clogged sinks, checking on sick missionaries and all that fun stuff.  We attended a baptism in one of the areas we were going to and got home after dark.  Another week gone!  Busy, but rewarding.

As we were driving around Friday, we were watching game changer on the phone, visiting with some of you on WhatsApp and catching up on what's going on at home..

It sounded like it was a busy Saturday at home with kids and grandkids going every which way!  We decided there's one good thing about us being here--we don't have to try to decide which game we're going to go to and which ones we're going to feel bad about missing!  We do love it when you send us pictures and keep us posted on what you're doing so we don't feel quite so bad about missing out. We hope everyone's having a great summer and we hope you'll celebrate together on the 4th of July even though we won't be there. 

This week we've been reading in the Church News about the messages from General Authorities to the new mission leaders at the MTC during their 4 day training before heading to their assigned missions. It's pretty amazing that they heard messages from each member of the First Presidency and the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. If you have a minute this week, I invite you to look at the recap of  President Nelson's message to the mission leaders in the Church news.  He reminds them of the power of the Book of Mormon as a teaching tool and as a personal tool for the missionary's own conversion. He said that the greatest tool to true conversion to the Gospel of Jesus Christ is through The Book of Mormon.  Having a deep personal conversion to the Gospel of Jesus Christ is what will give us the strength to remain faithful to our covenants throughout our lives. He said, "Think of it... A book that will help us get closer to God than we could through any other book.  Very simply, The Book of Mormon is filled with godly power because it is the word of God." 

A great reminder not just for the new mission leaders and their missionaries, but for us all. Hope you're making time to read from it daily. 

LOVE YOU ALL! 

Gearing up for big changes in the mission!

 Talofa!

Things are getting a little crazy around here lately!  I think it's going to be this way for a while as we make the transition to new mssion Leaders.  This last week we had the last MLC (mission leadership council) with The Purcell's  on Tuesday afternoon and Wednesday morning.  This is for the AP's,Office Elders and Office Seniors, ZL's, and STL's,  There were meetings, then we went for a walk downtown on the pathway along the ocean and ate takeout dinners at the park.  We heard testimonies from the Elders and Sisters who will be finishing their missions next week.  On Wednesday, they all went to the temple early, but we got assigned breakfast pickup (cocoa rice and bread, not my idea of breakfast, but that's what they like to eat) so we didn't get to go to the temple.  Then there were more meetings after that.  It ended at 11:30because the missionaries were anxious to get done for p-day activities.  On Wednesday evening, we went to dinner with all the Senior couples and the Purcell's.  We went to a place called "Kokobananas".  It was good, Elder G. got a tostada! Hasn't had one of them in a while.

Thursday was the Upolu Island conference. It lasted for 2 1/2 hours and then they served all the missionaries lunch and took a group photo. I think they usually have these Island conferences twice a year on each of the 3 Islands. Thursday afternoon I got all the intake packets ready for the coming week's intake. There are 14 new missionaries coming in.  There were a lot of missionaries coming and going in the office because they were calling a new AP and two nes STL's and 3 new ZL's to replace the missionaries who will be going home.  

On Friday I had a missionary come over from Savaii for an eye appointment so we spent most of the morning and early afternoon picking him up at the wharf, taking him to the Doctor, and back to the wharf to catch the ferry.  Elder G. bought the Elder and his companion lunch at McDonalds so it made their day!

Saturday we got up early and went for a run/walk. When we got back home, the packages were at the office from the wharf and we got our package from home!  It was a great day!!!  

There has been a lot of sickness going around.  Mostly sore throats and coughs and stuffy noses.  I caught it from someone, so I've had my first cold this weekend since coming to Samoa.  I guess that's pretty good. We've been here for 3 months now and I'm always around sick people so I'm bound to catch something once in a while. 

The only thing Elder G. catches around here is RATS!!! The STL's saw one in the kitchen at the mission home so he put out his trap and caught 2 of them in 2 days!

Disgusting! 

My message for the week; someone posted this on Facebook, so maybe you've already seen it:

 "When a flashlight grows dim or quits working, you don't throw it away, you change the batteries.

When a person messes up and finds themselves in a dark place, do you cast them aside?  Of course not, you help them change their batteries!

Some need AA..Attention and Affection; some need AAA...Attention, Affection, and Acceptance; some need D..Direction.

And if they still don't seem to shine..simply sit with them and quietly share your light."

Find someone to share your light with this week!  Love you all!

Pictures; Sisters with matching dresses at Upolo Island Conference, Sisters and Elders at conference,MLC pic at the walk, rats!  

Crashing waves and wedding crashing

 Talofa lava!

This past week was a busy one!  We attended our first "Island Conference" and took our first Ferry ride to Savaii. We also crashed our first wedding!   Haha.  

The beginning of the week I got in a de-cluttering mood and cleaned out some of the stuff in our office that I didn't have any use for.  There were old electronics, old phones,and boxes of outdated stuff that isn't being used anymore.  I cleaned and reorganized and even though it's not completely de-junked it looks a.lot better than it did.  Elder G and I also cleaned and reorganized  a big closet in the conference room near the kitchen that has food pantry items, chairs, banquet tables, tablecloths,, paper products, and other miscellaneous items. We'll see how long that stays organized! We went and purchased a new very large chest deep freezer to replace one that wasn't working properly so the new President's family would have plenty of freezer storage space.  President Purcell has quite a bit of money left over in his budget so he's trying to spend it on things the mission could use before he gets released.  They are starting to box up all of their personal belongings and get ready to move out on the 22nd of June.  Then there will be a week of remodeling done on their living quarters before the new President arrives on June 28th.  The Purcell's will work from a motel for their last week.  

On Thursday morning, we got up at 5:30and left to catch the 8:00 AM ferry to Savaii.  Elder G. took some motion sickness medicine to prepare for that!  You drive onto the ferry and they pack in the vehicles so there's only a tiny bit of room between cars. I think it fits about 30 vehicles. You can pay 30.00 tala extra to go up top and ride in a VIP air-conditioned room or you can just stay in your vehicle for 10.00 tala per person.  The trip is a little over an hour to Savaii.  It gets kinda stuffy and warm because you can't leave your car running while you're sitting in it on the ferry.  But we made it without getting too sick and Elder G. didn't throw up! The ride back home the next day was a little stormier, so rougher,  but he survived that too! I got out of the vehicle on the way over and climbed up some stairs to a walkway on the side of the ferry and took a couple of pictures . I can tell why it's a rough ride when you see how it moves through the ocean and waves crash against the boat! I'm glad we don't have to ride back and forth every day like some people do!

The Island of Savaii is beautiful.. It's more rural and the homes are a little more spread out. Just like Upolu, there is one main road that goes around the outside edge of the island.  We only went a little way on it, so we didn't get to see that much of the island.  We drove past the temple site and to the church school there called Viola.  We spent most of the time at the Island Conference. It started at 11:00 AM and ended at 2:00 PMand then we ate lunch at the church with all of the missionaries, sang songs, and the missionaries said their farewells to the Purcell's. And of course, they did a Haka dance for them. We stayed over at a nice resort hotel called Amoa. 

We ate dinner there with the mission leaders, the AP's, Office Elders, and STL's.

There was a guy singing at the restaurant for entertainment during dinner and then he opened it up for Karaoke and three of our missionaries entertained us with their Karaoke skills!  We had to get up early to leave for the ferry at 4:30AM so that wasn't fun! It was a long day Friday! We had a bunch of catch-up work to do when we got back. I had 8 sick calls while I was gone so I had to follow up with all of them.

We went to bed early on Friday night and woke up an hour later than usual on Saturday morning!  I guess we were tired.

The baptism we decided to attend ended up being a wedding first and then a baptism!  I thought it was kind of strange that there were so many people at the baptism when we got there because there usually isn't that many. Of course, we don't understand what they're saying so we thought they were just giving the usual talk before the baptism but turns out it was for the marriage.  When the speaker finished, the bishop stood up and the couple went to the front and he married them!  Then they had another hymn and talk, this time for the baptism, and the new bride was baptized in her wedding dress!  So after the baptism, people kept inviting us to stay for the "refreshment."  We didn't want to offend them , so we stayed.  They brought us a HUGE piece of chocolate cake and a huge bowl of half-melted ice cream

(ice cream doesn't stay frozen for long in Samoa)!  Then next thing we know they bring us these meals in take-away containers!  That's when I thought to myself "I know what it's like to be a wedding crasher now!" HaHa!  We were stuffed after the cake and ice cream so we politely declined the meals and asked them to give them to someone from their ward who might need them.  We did take time to congratulate Elizabeth (the bride who got baptized)  before we left!

I asked Elder G. what he wanted to share in the email that he had learned or studied

this week.  He showed me a quote from Elder Holland's last conference talk  "I bear witness that when Christ comes, He needs to recognize us--not just as nominal members listed on a faded baptismal record but as thoroughly committed, faithfully believing, covenant-keeping disciples.  This is an urgent matter for all of us, lest we ever hear with devastating regret: 'I never knew you,' or, as Joseph Smith translated that phrase, '(You) never knew me.'"  Our challenge to you? Try to get to know Jesus Christ a little better this week. We love you all and miss you!

Pictures of the Ferry ride to Savaii (loading cars, view from the walkway on side of boat) pictures of Savaii, Island Conference photos and videos, Karaoke videos, pictures of cake and ice cream at wedding celebration, 

Things I wonder about????

 Talofa!

This last week was a little slower pace than normal.  I had more time to get caught up on computer documentation (which is my least favorite thing to do) and didn't have as many 'housecalls" to make. Elder Godderidge was around the office a little more than usual too so he helped me out with taking a couple of missionaries to Doctor's appointments when he wasn't busy doing repairs. The Savaiii misssionaries came over on the ferry on Wednesday morning and spent their p-day in Upolu, stayed overnight at hotels and went to the temple on Thursday morningbefore taking the ferry back to Savaii Thursday afternoon. It was good to be able to follow-up with a few of those missionaries who've had health issues to see how they were doing in person.  

On Friday afternoon, we went to the Southwest side of the island to fix a broken sink faucet and got caught in a big rainstorm on our way back home. We decided to take a different route home instead of going back the way we came.  We saw a couple of Elders waiting out the storm under a little shelter so we gave them a ride back to their MQ which they were grateful for because it was pouring rain.Then we ran into 3 men and a truck with a flat tire on the side of the road so we stopped and tried to help them with a jack and some tools and Elder G. got soaked!  They spoke no English and had custom tire rims that had a strange size of lug nut so none of our lug nut wrenches would fit even though they tried to get them to work for a good while in the pouring rain!  Someone else stopped to help so we went on our way.   We decided we were inspired to go home a different way so we could have opportunities to do some good deeds on our way. home. 

It rained all day Saturday.  We got drenched on our morning run and drove through some big puddles on our way to a baptism Saturday afternoon. I'm kinda glad we're in the Landcruiser during these big rain storms because it feels safer to drive around in.

Saturday (June 1st)  was Independence Day in Samoa, a holiday they have celebrated since gaining their indepedence from New Zealand in 1962. There were celebrations going on in town (in the rain) and Monday is the holiday from work and they have a parade and all the businesses are closed. 

So here's some things I wonder about:

 -Why do the Samoan people love being out playing in the rain? Especially the children and youth?

-Why do the Samoan police only seem to direct traffic at busy intersections and set up license check roadblocks, but they don't have a problem if you drive with 10 people in the back of a pickup truck and four inside the cab with no seatbelts! 

-How do Samoans keep track of their pigs and chickens when they wander all over the place with no fencing to keep them in? I don't really see any ear tags or brands or anything to identify them. But I know they wander all over the place. 

-Why are Samoan people so faithful to their God, Faith, and Family? 

-Why are Samoans so friendly and helpful? Especially to outsiders? 

-Why does everyone polynesian I've met or listened to have such a beautiful singing voice?

The next few weeks are going to be busy ones for the mission.  We get to go to Savaii on Thursday and Friday for the Island conference. MLC and Upolu Island conference will be the following week, and Out Take after that. The Purcell's will be wrapping up their Mission Leader Service towards the end of the month.  Then we'll be welcoming the New Mission Leaders, President and Sister Reid and their 4 children.  

I heard another good quote from Thomas S. Monson this last week.  "When you give of your money, you're giving much; when you give of your time, you're giving more; when you give of your self, you're giving all! " 

Pictures this week:10 people in back of truck, flat tire in the rain, people playing in the rain, President and Office Elders singing National Anthem on Independence Day walk, Baptism on Saturday (two boys on either side of me)