A lot of miles on the Landcruiser this week!

 Talofa!

I decided I should apologize for my LONG emails!  I really don't expect you to have to read them all the way through,  It's just that I'm bad at journaling so I only have my weekly email to act as my journal entry for the week. But I don't expect you to have to read them all.  It's probably a little boring and a lot of the same thing so I'm not going to be offended if you don't read them . 

We put lots of miles on our vehicle this past week.  On Monday, after our weekly office missionary meeting,  Elder Godderidge delivered needs to all of the MQ's in the West zone.  That zone extends northwest to the west end then south to southwest side.  It's the biggest zone on the island in terms of area and missionaries. So it took him most of the day to get them delivered! I stayed at the office to try to get some catch-up work done.  And Sister Reid and I were the only ones there for all the excitement of the fire next door! I had to evacuate the mission office for a little while.  Just went to my apartment which is only about 30 feet further away, haha! 

On Tuesday, it was district meetings so He had to drive to the southeast zone for that.  I couldn't go because I had missionaries coming in to see me for things, so I sent chocolate chip cookies for them and Elder G. said they were a hit!. I used the last half of my milk chocolate chip bag that Britni sent me to make them. Tuesday night we got the dreaded call that two missionaries from the other side of the Island had lost their keys and were locked out of their MQ.  So we had to drive halfway there and meet them with a key and didn't get home until 10:00 pm.  Wednesday, I had the usual rush of missionaries waiting to see me in the morning, and then we took a new mattress and box spring to one of the MQ's, then spent the afternoon at the mission office.  Elder G. hung some pictures in Sister Reid's office and home for her,.and then we went to a temple session(our first with the new shortened endowment version). Made it easier to stay awake and keep us on our toes so we didn't miss anything. Friday I got a call from the missionary who had cut his leg last week and he was back at that little clinic again--this time with an IV in his arm and IV antibiotics going when he finally decided to call me.  They told him the wound was infected and he needed to stay there and get IV antibiotics every 6 hours for three days!  Of course, the Dr. who ordered this was gone when they called so I wasn't able to talk to her on the phone, so back we went to the other side of the Island again to find out what was going on!  The "district Hospital" was about what I expected, maybe a little bit worse than I expected.  When I finally got it worked out with the nurse, they let him go home and he just had to go back every 12 hours for the IV antibiotic which I was pretty sure he didn't really need. The next day, Saturday, he called back again and said a different Dr. was there and debrided the wound, took him off the IV antibiotic and told him it wasn't infected but he would need to change the dressing every day and keep it clean.  The picture he sent this time showed a big hole in his knee where last week it had been stitched closed.  It will probably take forever to heal now, but hopefully he will keep it clean so it doesn't get infected for real this time.  I've pretty much decided that this missionary is a big baby! HAHA!  Saturday afternoon we drove again to the Southeast zone to attend a baptism.  It was a mom of three little boys, one of them a cute little baby, whose husband was a member but had been inactive.  Hopefully he'll start going to church again too.  They served ice cream and cupcakes after the baptism.  I'll send a picture of the serving size they gave us! There was also a big stake women's volleyball tournament going on at the church.  It was packed with participants and spectators!  A big deal! I've decided they take their church sports pretty seriously here in Samoa.  After all the driving last week, we decided to just crash here at our apartment for most of Sunday and attended church at the English speaking ward across the street. It was kind of nice not to have to drive anywhere. 

One night last week, we came home to a "heart attack" on our front door with sticky notes instead of hearts and two nice letters taped to our door.  We figured out they were from the STL's  pretty quickly when we read the letters, because of the "New Zealand/Australian slang  (that's where the STL's are from) . It was a sweet gesture and made us feel appreciated and loved. 

Hope you all know how appreciated and loved you are!  Miss you and love talking to you on Whats App and catching up when we can.  We keep you all in our prayers daily Hope you have a great week and a nice labor day weekend!

“Miracle worker”

 Malo Lava everyone!

This last week went by fast! Elder Godderidge keeps getting new assignments from the mission leaders so it never seems to slow down for him.  This week was crunch time to find housing for 2 new senior couples who arrived.  Usually the FM group has taken care of getting Senior housing in place, but apparently there is no more housing available here at the compound so now the mission has to find other housing.  That's been a challenge because there's not much available to rent currently. He finally found one place and was able to secure that for one of the couples. We helped them move there on Saturday.  The other couple will be going to live in Savaii if a place can be found for them.  I'm glad we got here when we did and before so many other senior missionaries arrived!  We have probably the smallest place and for sure the most outdated (it needs a remodel) , but at least it's right next to the office and mission home and temple and we don't have to share with another Senior missionary couple because it's too small! 

Elder G. finished up repairing and repainting the big bulletin boards in the front entryway of the mission home after he took off the broken glass frame that used to be surrounding it.  I missed taking a picture of him in his typical painting glory--more paint on him than the project he's painting, haha,-- but he did a nice job and it looks great! I did take a picture of the finished product so I'll send that.  As soon as he finished that project on Monday, President had another job for him that he tackled on Friday and Saturday.  They bought these big murals that they wanted to hang out in the courtyard area. They actually are 2 murals put together so there's a picture on both sides.  So they wanted to know if he could frame them in wood to hold the two of them together and make them look nice. 

This was when the President asked me where the "miracle worker" was because he had another job for him.  When he asked that, I told him he was cleaning out a pea trap at someone's MQ at the moment, and he said "see, that's what I mean, he's a miracle worker"!  So that was the project for this weekend.  We worked on the mural framing Friday evening and Saturday morning (yes, I helped by handing him stuff and measuring and holding things in place and keeping track of his tools, and cleaning up the mess afterward).  I did take a few pictures of this project. There are 4 of them. They ended up looking really good and the mission leaders were very happy with the finished product!  

After our language class last Wednesday evening, we went out to eat dinner with Elder Amituanai and Elder Chan Boon and Sister Schofield .  We went to a new place we haven't been to yet called "The Pickled Lamb".  It was pretty good!  We didn't have pickled lamb though, I don't even think that was on the menu, so I don't know where that name came from. They had a bunch of yummy looking home made breads and pastries too so we're going to have to go back sometime and try some of those.

Also on Wednesday,  two Elders got hurt during p-day activities.  One of them cut his leg when he fell on a rock and the other one sprained his ankle really bad.  The one that cut his leg went to one of the small "district hospitals" out in their area on the other side of the island.  They're little satellite triage clinics,  kind of like instacare at home I guess.  Anyway they put three stitches in his leg and gave him antibiotics and Panadol (Samoan tylenol). So Elder G. got out of having to do those this time.

This morning, Sunday, we got up early and drove to our zone for church.  We went to a village called Tiavea.  It is one of my favorite villages on the island.  It's in a beautiful mountain area and they have their village road lined with all of the same plants so it looks very well groomed and uniform throughout the village.  It's beautiful!  And so were the ward members, They welcomed us with open arms, thanked us for coming, gave us floral lays after the meeting that had been made for the bishopric. We attended the YSA class during Sunday School with the missionary Elders that are assigned to the ward.  It was a pretty big class and we took a picture with them after the class.  

The teacher of the class spoke pretty good English so he engaged us and asked us to answer some questions and bear our testimonies.  I couldn't understand everything, but I got the gist of his message and he was talking to the class members about the importance of standing strong in their faith.  He kind of called out one poor girl in the class for choosing to stay with family in Apia where she attended school during the school week instead of attending the early morning seminary class in 

Tiavea and then bussing the long distance to school and back each day. I felt like he was really putting her on the spot and criticizing her for the choice she had made to prioritize her graduation from "college",(which here is your Senior year or 13th year of high school) instead of prioritizing her seminary graduation certificate that she could only get if she attended the seminary class in Tiavea.  She politely defended herself during the class because she said she was honoring her parent's wishes and that was important to her too.  He asked me the question, "What would you do if you had to choose between saving your parents or saving your eternal companion if you were with them in a sinking ship? Little did he realize that he was asking the WRONG person that question, because with my swimming skills I could't even save myself!!! So that was my answer, and then I asked him a question, because I didn't understand why the girl couldn't attend early morning seminary in Apia and still get her graduation certificate. I'm pretty sure that wasn't the answer he wanted and he replied that she could only get her certificate from seminary class there.  But anyway, on the way home, I thought alot about the girl and her situation.  I wish I would have had the opportunity to talk to her after the class because I think I might have told her something like this:  You are the one who needs to find the answer for yourself.  We all have unique situations and there's not one answer for everyone.  Only YOU can seek the guidance of the Holy Ghost and prayerfully consider what's the right choice for YOU.  Sometimes it isn't what your parents think is best, and sometimes it isn't what your Sunday School teacher thinks is best, but it has to be what YOU think is best and right after seeking guidance from the spirit.  That's why God gave us that gift.  Because he wants us to be able to access it when we need help with tough decisions like that.  He wants us to get the answer for ourselves.  And often, he will help us find answers that can solve the problem and make it so that you don't have to choose between two good things, but you can choose them both.  (I'm pretty sure she could get her seminary graduation certificate even if she attended seminary in Apia if she asked the right people about it).

I hope you all remember that gift you have from God.  He wants you to come up with the answers for yourself!  

Please keep sending us pictures and videos!  We're a little sad about having to miss out on events at home  and it sure makes it easier for us to be here when we get to see a little bit of what you're doing there!

LOVE YOU ALL!

Elder and Sister G.

Somoan drought

 Talofa!

This week has been a dry one!  We haven't had any rainstorms in Apia. It's the first time the grass in our front yard has looked brown in many areas.  There's no sprinkling system so when it doesn't rain, it doesn't get watered.  It's been a little less humid too so that's nice. The funny thing about no rain is that it actually makes it cooler because the air is driver.  We've been in the 80's lately.  

We started out our week last Monday by driving to our Zone's district meeting.  It took us over an hour to get there.  The district leader focused on the importance of learning the language so you can be more effective inviting investigators and teaching the lessons in Samoan. A lot of the off-island missionaries are not fluent in their Samoan because it's a hard language to learn. The missionaries were encouraged to take advantage of their daily language study time and work a little harder on improving their language skills.  The missionaries cooked lunch after the district meeting, Spam and egg (sunny side up) on toast.  They made them for us too!  By the time we got back to Apia it was mid-afternoon so that took up most of our day.  We had MLC (mission leadership council) meetings on Thursday and Friday.. The missionaries always stayed overnight in a nearby hotel for MLC when President Purcell was here, but President Reid decided he wanted them to all stay with Senior couples instead.  So we got to host two Elders at our place on Thursday night.  Not sure I'm fond of this idea, but you do what you're asked to do II guess.  It's just hard with only one bathroom.  Elder G. had to run over to the office Friday morning because when he has to go, he HAS to go, and our bathroom was occupied! HAHA. 

MLC was a little different this time because we had a harder time understanding anything.  President Purcell always was really good at saying things in Samoan, then translating them in English, but now they just speak Samoan.  Someone must have said something to the President because on the second day he tried having one of the missionaries translate over a zoom meeting, but it wasn't real succssful. It was still hard to hear what was being said.  On Saturday, Elder G. took on a demolition project at the office entrance.  There was a big metal enclosure over a big display that covers the whole wall in the entryway.  Anyway, the glass has been missing for a long time so President Reid wanted the metal encasement removed.  Elder G. did it on Saturday so the office missionaries wouldn't be around and he could make noise and mess without bothering anyone.  Now it will need to be repainted where the metal used to be and holes filled in.  Later in the day we attended a baptism for a Sister who lives in Tacoma Washington but is married to a member from Samoa so she came here for three weeks and had the missionary discussions and then got baptized before she goes back to Tacoma.  She was very friendly and it was nice visiting with her because she spoke great English! On Sunday we got up early and drove over to our zone to attend church at one of the chapels there.  We went to one of the wards that Elder Fox and Elder AhYou are over. Since we were there , we delivered needs to all the MQ's in the zone so it took us a while longer to get back to Apia.   It was 2:30 when we finally got back.  We fixed the freeze-dried dutch oven potatoes for dinner.  And Sister Schofield brought us rolls.  She said they were for Elder G for Father's day.  It was Father's day in Samoa this Sunday.  

It was fun watching a little bit of soccer last week.  Thanks to Bayli for video chatting us during Jagger and Lainee's game.  Then we ran across a picture of Tucker that was posted on Cache Valley daily of him playing football in the blue/white scrimmage.  It was also fun to watch Conner Mantz run the marathon in the Olympics!  Thanks for sharing that event with us too!  

Elder G. read a church news article this week about Kenneth Rooks, the Olympic steeplechase silver medal winner who is a member of the church.  It said , 

"Before the 3000-meter steeplechase prelims of the 2024 Olympics on Monday, Aug. 5, Kenneth Rooks worried he might not be able to compete with the top runners in his event. The 24-year-old returned missionary found comfort and inspiration in the Book of Mormon, specifically Alma Chapter 26.  In that chapter, Ammon glories in the Lord.  When his brother, Aaron rebukes him for boasting, Ammon replies, 'I Know that I am nothing, as to my strength I am weak, therefore I will not boast of myself, but I will boast of my God, for in his strength I can do all things'(verse 12).

Rooks siad those passages reminded him to be humble and trust in the Lord.

'That didn't necessarily mean that I was going to win,' he said,"But I know I could access His power if I put my trust in Him.  The strength of the Lord is a real thing.'

Rooks not only qualified for the finals, but then surprised the steeplechase world by earning the silver medal on Wednesday, Aug. 7.

'It was incredible,' Rooks said.  'It was a special moment to make that gutsy move, just go for it, to open up that gap and for a little bit of time be like: these guys aren't catching me. I might just win this thing, and then like, OK, I got to finish and fight all the way to the finish line.  It was awesome and surreal.'"

He also said that prior to competing in this event, he took inspiration from spiritual messages shared by his fellow LDS Olympians at a devotional on Sunday, Aug.4. 

He especially appreciated a thought shared by Conner Mantz, who is competing in the men's Marathon.  Mantz said he is often recognized for his athletic accomplishments, but his true identity is "Child of God" and " Disciple of Jesus Christ."

Rooks said, "Yes, I'm an Olympic silver medalist, and that is cool, but that is not the title or identity that is most important to me...I was thinking about being an instrument in the hands of God (Alma 26), and how being here at the Olympics is an opportunity for me to do that."

Good inspiration for us all!  Remember who you are--a Child of God and Disciple of Christ! 

We love you guys and hope your last couple of weeks of summer vacation will be good ones.  Summer went by fast!  

No pics this week.  I've been slacking on the picture taking.  

Outtake/Good-byes-Intake/Welcomes

Malo Lava!

It was a wonderful Sabbath today for us as we started it off at 4:00 AM watching our sweet granddaughter Reyah get baptized! We are so happy that she has chosen to be baptized a member of the church and make that covenant with our Heavenly Father. It will be a great blessing in her life. It was nice to hear other family members who gave talks and prayers and priesthood blessings.  Thanks for letting us

be a part of it from all the way down here in Samoa!  Hope Reyah had a wonderful birthday!

Last week was a sad week and a happy week for the mission.  We sent off 14 missionaries back to their homes. It was also sad to send Bayli and Ethan back home after their week with us.  It was fun to have them with us for the outtake dinner on Tuesday night and the morning outtake devotional on Wednesday morning.  They got to hear the testimonies, musical numbers, and even watch a HAKA send-off! We also started the day off with a sealing session at 6:15 AM with Bayli and Ethan.  We were able to do 30 sealings with the help of some Samoan patrons. Wednesday afternoon we took a couple of hours and went on the hike to the Robert Louis Stevenson gravesite and then went to dinner at a restaurant called Cocobananas. Thursday morning at 2:15 AM we took Bayli and Ethan and two of the sister missionaries that were going home to the airport and sent them on their first leg of their 3-day journey back home. It would have been a big letdown if it hadn't been for the fact that we had no time to miss them because we had to get ready for the new missionaries coming in on Thursday and Friday.  There were a total of 17 new missionaries for our intake. One of the new sister missionaries saw my nametag at the airport when we greeted them and said "Are you related to Britton Godderidge? He told me to look for our guys!" Her name is Sister Jensen and she is friends with him and went to school with him at Layton HS.There were 12 new sisters and 6 new elders. So more girl power this intake!!! One of the new Elders is Elder Bernard, 26 years old, and brother to the Utah Ute football player Micah Bernard.Any of you football junkies know who he is?  They did the intake a little differently than in the past.  They just had them gather for a short welcome meeting instead of the overwhelming training that probably doesn't sink in very well on the first day after you arrive ! Then we all went to dinner at the same place we went on Tuesday night with the outtakes and announced where their first areas would be and who would be their trainer companion. Saturday morning was transfer day and all of the missionaries who were getting transferred came to a church near the mission home and were then taken to their new areas.  This was a big transfer and there was a lot of movement throughout the mission. So we spent our Saturday driving all over the place helping missionaries get settled in their new mission quarters.  Sunday morning started off early with Reyah's baptism, but then we went back to bed for a few hours and went to 10:30 church,  We had potluck "break the fast" dinner with the mission leaders and senior couples.  

During our language class Elder Godderidge introduced himself and shared a scripture with everyone ALL in Samoan!  The scripture he shared was  1 Nephi 3:7  "I will go and do the things which the Lord hath commanded, for I know that the Lord giveth no commandments untot the children of men, save he shall prepare a way for them to accomplish the thing which he commanded them." He's doing so much better with learning the language than I am!

 It was so great to have some family spend a week with us here.  I'm sendng another picture overload so get ready! LOVE you all!

Fun times with Bayli and Ethan

 Talofa Everyone!

It's been a great week spending time with Bayli and Ethan!  The weather has cooperated while they've been here and we've been able to show them around the Islands a bit.  The week started out kinda busy because we were trying to get everything done that we could so we would have more time to get away at the end of the week and weekend.  We also had the opportunity on Tuesday morning to attend FSY for an hour while the mission leaders and some of the missionaries put on a devotional for all of the youth.  The FSY was held at the Pesega school here on the compound.  There were about 1000 youth who attended.  They slept in classrooms on the floor, and had all their activities and devotionals at the school facilities. The senior couple missionaries got to sit on the stage (like we were real important--HAHA).  (Samoans are really respectful to their Elders). But it was fun because we could see out over the entire youth congregation and they sang their FSY songs to us.  They sang "I"m a Disciple of Christ" and they had such beautiful loud voices that it gave me chills.  Two of the missionary zones sang a couple of songs and recited the  "missionary purpose" that's in the "Preach my Gospel". Then President and Sister Reid talked. I thought to myself that most youth from the states probably wouldn't attend FSY if they had to sleep in hot school classrooms on the floor instead of college dorms!  But they all seemed to be having a great time! 

We picked up Bayli and Ethan on Wednesday afternoon. We just stayed at our place Wednesday night and showed them around the mission home area.  I cooked them dinner.  Thursday we worked in the morning.  Bayli came over to the office with me and helped me laminate some papers and put together welcome packets for the new missionaries who are coming in on August 1st. Ethan went with Elder G. to do a few MQ repair jobs.  We introduced them to some of the missionaries who were at the office for PPI interviews as well as some of the other senior missionaries.  Thursday afternoon we took them to a place close by called Papassea Sliding Rocks. I'll send pictures. We were going to go snorkeling at this place down by the wharf after that, but they said the tide was too low so we'd have to come back on another day.  We went to dinner at a place called Phat Burger.  On Friday morning we started out on our "2-day island tour of Upolu" going first to the Northeast side, stopping our the way at Saniatu  (the place David O McKay dedicated where there is a school now) . Then we drove to the southeast side and stopped at the  "Soa Ocean Trench". It's this place that has a big trench that comes from the ocean underneath the island and there's a place on the land that has a couple of big holes where you can get down into the trench. It's kind of like a tunnel or cave into the ocean.  I succumbed to peer pressure and actually went off the platform into the trench--only once--that was enough for me, HaHa! The ladder down into and up out of the tench was kinda scary. After we did that we drove for another hour down the South side of the island and arrived at "Return to Paradise", the resort where we stayed overnight.  When we got there, Ethan, Bayli, and Dad tried out the snorkeling gear at the ocean beach there.  They saw some cool fish! We ate dinner at the resort and then went to bed.  We were tired!  Saturday morning we checked out after breakfast and met up with a missionary to give him some medicine. Then we drove to the Giant Clam Sanctuary and they went snorkeling there for about an hour!  Ethan's back got sunburned while he was looking at clams and searching for turtles.  I watched them from the sea pool ledge along the shore.  I didn't dare try to swim without a floatation device of some kind. I should have learned to swim when I was younger. After that, we drove down around the west side of the island and back to the north side where we started.  We made it home just in time for a baptism at 4:00that was at a nearby church. It was for 3 young men who had been taught by the sister missionaries in that area.  After ice cream and cookies for refreshments we went to a place near the wharf for dinner,  That was where we took the picture of the girl who works there with a tattoo that says "Collins" on her forearm.   

Sunday morning we went to 9:00 church in a Samoan language ward. We had to go early so we could drive to the Ferry wharf to catch the ferry to Savaii.  Bayli and Ethan went up on the top of the ferry for the trip.  Dad stayed in the vehicle with his head as still as possible and his eyes closed so I rode in there with him.  He survived another ferry ride without throwing up so I think he's getting better at it!  When we got to Savaii, we drove around a little bit. We went to the Savaii church school called Viaola.  There are some stairs on the mountain that go up to the VIAOLA letters, so we took all 220 of them! (Ethan and Bayli counted).  We stayed at the same resort that we've stayed at the last couple of time we stayed over in Savaii.  On Monday,(today)we drove to some waterfalls and to the blow holes, took pictures,and drove back to catch the 4::00 PM ferry to Upolu.  It was a short trip, but worth it. Bayli caught soje beautiful sunset pictures when we were driving on the coast back to the mission home.  

Today there were 11 sister missionaries and 2 Elders who came in from their areas to finish up their missions. There will be an Outtake dinner for them tomorrow night and Outtake testimony meeting on Wednesday morning. Bayli and Ethan will get to be here for those celebrations so that will be fun to have them see how they do it in Samoa.  

I'm looking forward to having them here for a couple more days!

This week I read President Nelson's April 2021 conference that was part of Come Follow Me study. It was about how having faith in Jesus Christ will Move Mountains.  

I loved the five things he told us that would increase our Faith: 1-STUDY-Learn the doctrine of Christ by studying his words and teachings.  2. BELIEVE-choose to believe rather than doubt. 3.  ACT-receive more faith by acting in faith, by doing something that requires more faith.  4. PARTAKE of the sacred ordinances of God-to unlock the power of God in your life, and  5. ASK-your Heavenly Father in the name of Jesus Christ for help.  I love the scriptures in Alma 32 that talk about how to grow your Faith.  Alma 32:21,26-27 are a few of my favorites.