Talofa!
This week was a busy one for the mission! Elder Muers, who is the Pacific Area President and his wife were here all week for their annual "mission tour". Each year, one of the members of the Area Presidency comes to tour the mission and meet with all of the missionaries. On Monday, he met with the MLC, then Tuesday they went to Savaii and did a zone conference there for those three zones, Thursday was back in Upolu for a conference with 3 East Island zones, Friday with 3 West Island. zones, and Saturday in American Samoa with the missionaries there. We attended the conference on Thursday with the East Zones because that's the one our Zone that we're assigned to attended. The conferences had morning sessions, lunch, then afternoon sessions. The missionaries were taught about the importance of involving members of the ward in missionary work so that the new investigators can have a connection with friends in the wards to help them stay active after they're baptized. lThey also taught about inviting and then following up after inviting and the importance of setting goals and better utilizing the Preach My Gospel App in keeping track of those they are teaching. Many of our missionaries aren't very good at using that and they're trying to encourage it so they'll have more accurate records.
Other events of the week : Tuesday was quiet because the leaders were gone to Savaii for zone conference and some of the other office people were home sick. I was the only one there for part of the day and it was kinda nice!
Wednesday was p-day for missionaries so I had a few missionaries come in for things in the morning, then went around on errands with Elder G. in the afternoon. We had language class at 5:00 and then fed Elder Amitunanai and Elder Lemalu dinner Wednesday night.
Thursday was the conference we attended so we were there most of the day, but left the conference early to go pick up two Elders from the ferry because they were coming over from Savaii for Doctor appointments on Friday morning. Elder G. was a little late for his basketball coaching gig! We fed the two Savaii Elders and the AP's dinner Thursday night and the Savaii Elders stayed at our place overnight. Elder Ika brought his Ukelele and sang to us.
Friday morning on our run, we saw floats lining up along the street by the harbor for the Miss Samoa parade. There were some pretty fancy floats made of aff sorts of flowers and greenery! I guess the Miss Samoa contest is a pretty big deal here! We were busy all morning with the Doctor appointments and then taking the Elders back to catch the ferry. Elder G. stopped on the way back to do some wiring to put up more outdoor lights on one of the Sister MQ's.
Saturday morning we had to get up at 4:00 AM and take Elder and Sister Meurs to catch a flight to Tutuilla for the zone conference there because something was wrong with their paperwork when they were supposed to go on Friday and they had to reschedule for Saturday morning. The Mission leaders and AP's flew there on Friday so we got to take them to the airport. We had a nice visit with them on the early morning drive. They are very down to earth and friendly and were not intimidating at all. They are from Australia and have pretty thick accents so it's fun listening to them talk. They have a busy travel schedule for the next few weeks. They were going to Tonga to do another mission tour next week and then to SLC for the week of conference and all of their General Authority meetings. Saturday morning when we got back Elder G. started on another project for the mission leaders. This one was putting together a weight machine that President Reid had ordered before he came to the mission and it took this long for it to get here. He also put up some balloons and posters that we made for Toa's birthday and hung them on the fence by their home. He was in Tutuilla so we just had to send him a picture of it and text him a happy birthday. Didn't work out as planned since he wasn't here on his birthday--oh well.
Saturday afternoon we went over to the SE zone for a baptism, and when we got back home Elder G. went to work to finish putting together the weight machine--it was more complicated than he thought it would be, but he got it done.
Highlight of the week? The replacement mission credit card for the one that got lost with the wallet 12 weeks ago finally came after many many calls and emails to people who didn't seem to know where it was. When Elder G. got frustrated with all the excuses and threatened to move up the chain and contact the first presidency about it, someone finally decided they better track it down! And low and behold, it showed up in the mail a few days later! HAHA! Love and miss you all!
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