Last Zone Conference of our mission!

 Talofa!

Another week has gone by!  We started off the week with the mission leaders and AP's gone to Savaii for the Zone conference there. Elder Godderidge took advantage of having less commotion at the office and made his own commotion by grinding glue off of the wall in the front entry that was part of the President's next project idea.  Last weekend he demolished the big display board that they had him remove half-way 6 months ago. They decided they didn't want anything there but the painted cinder block wall.  But when he pulled off the display, he discovered that it had been glued onto the wall and the glue didn't come off with it! So it ended up being a lot more work than planned.  He grinded all the glue off on Monday and Tuesday morning, then repainted the whole entryway walls on Tuesday and Wednesday.  On Thursday it was quiet at the office because the Upolu West side zone conference was being held that day. I got a lot of stuff done in the office and Elder Godderidge delivered monthly needs to the west zone. On Friday, it was the Upolu East side zone conference so that was the one we attended because our zone  was there.  The Southeast , Northeast, and Apia zones were in attendance.  It started at 9:00 AMand went until 2:00 PM.  After lunch at noon, we got notified that we would be bearing our testimonies with the other missionaries from these zones that are finishing their missions at the end of the month.  Yikes!! I don't like it when I don't have time to prepare.  But we did it.  After the zone conference, we got to have the missionaries sing the farewell song to us.  "Oh, I Never Will Forget You!"  Elder G. videoed that.    

It's starting to feel real that we will be leaving soon. Saturday I spent some of the day starting to pack up my biggest suitcase with things I won't be needing until we get home. This morning we went to church with Sisters Johnson and Fischer in Vaitele Uta ward.  After the meeting, we gave them a ride home and I gave them a bag of skirts, tops, and dresses that I'm leaving behind.  Sister Fischer is almost as short as I am so they should fit her.  I told them to give away the things they didn't want to someone in their area where they're serving. This afternoon, the Lunt's came by our apartment to visit us and gave us a little going away gift.  Elder Lunt is the mission dentist that runs the clinic. We're going to try to get together with the Purcell's before we leave to have dinner and catch up.  Other than that, it's just tying up loose ends and trying to keep missionaries healthy and happy for one more week! And then they're on their own, haha! JK!

Thought I'd share a few of my notes from things I've heard/learned during the mission:

-The Book of Mormon is an immunization (a protection) from the evils of this world.

- The Savior is mentioned in every 1.7 verses in the Book of Mormon

- D&C 88:118-119 (look it up!).

- INTEGRITY is being righteous in the dark

-There is no growth in comfort.

- Instead of "return with honor", "return to work"!

Have a great week! SEE YOU SOON!

newly painted entryway with bench, and w/o bench

Last trip around the island? MAYBE

 Today we got up early to get to church in our zone.  We headed up the Northeast coast to the east side and across to the southeast side for church.  We thought we'd take the other way home so we headed down the south coast, but then I got a text from a sick missionary in the west zone, so instead of taking the middle cross island road back to home, we kept going all the way to the west side down by the airport to take care of the missoinary, then across the west end to the north west side and back along the north coast road to the mission home.  Now that we're getting close to the end of our mission, I kept thinking maybe this will be our last drive all the way around the island!  I tried to take it all in today,  cause it might be the last time I see some of the beautiful areas of this island.

The week went by pretty fast.  On Monday night, I got a facebook messenger message from the nurse that's coming to replace me.  She wanted me to answer some questions that she had been assigned to ask as part of her missionary training.  I mentioned to her that I would see her on the 22nd, which is the date the missionary roster had her arriving. But she texted me back and said she wasn't getting here until the 28th! Apparently they changed their arrival time but no one here knew that! So I guess we won't be spending any time with them to train them in person or show them around. I spent Tuesday night emailing answers to all her questions and then on Thursday we did a video chat on WhatsApp for almost 2 hours, and Elder G. has had a couple of video chats with her husband, who will be taking over the mission housing job.  I've been trying to get some things cleaned out and organized so she will know what's going on when she gets here. 

On Monday, we had another group of missionaries from one of the Savaii zones come for a temple trip. On Tuesday we went to our district meetings which took most of the day. The Tutuila Elders flew in for a Temple trip Tuesday evening and then flew back on Wednesday.  Thursday was MLC, so we had missionaries around the office all week which keeps me busy because they're always coming in to my office to ask for things like bandaids,  tylenol, ibuprofen, or to ask me about rashes or aches and pains, just anything they can find as an excuse to hang out in my office, haha.  We had our zone leaders stay with us on Thursday night during  MLC.  That's probably the last time we'll be housing missionaries too. We helped Tui fix breakfast for the MLC missionaries on Friday morning.  

Elder Godderidge delivered needs to a couple of zones this week and President Reid gave him a couple more demo and repair jobs to do around the mission office  so he started working on those this weekend.  

About half-way through our mission, I was reminded of the words to the hymn, "Lord, I Would Follow Thee", particularly the  third verse:

"I would be my brother's keeper;

I would learn the healer's art.

To the wounded and the weary

I would show a gentle heart.

I would be my brother's keeper--

Lord, I would follow thee." 

 I felt like I could take the word's in that verse quite literally with my missionary calling as the Mission Nurse.  So I tried to keep that verse of the Hymn in my mind while I'm serving the missionaries and it's helped me stay focused on helping them feel better so they can serve better.  

January 2025 is in the books!

 Talofa Lava Everyone!

It's always been a good feeling when the month of January comes to an end--especially at home because it's usually cold and wintery and a little depressing because of the letdown after the holidays.  It usually seems like the longest month of the year.  I didn't notice much difference this year from any other month since the weather hasn't changed since we got here in Samoa and everything looks the same all year round.  But the most exciting thing about this month ending is that we are now officially in the last month of our mission and can look forward to coming home to our family! So we feel like we can start counting down the days now! It's been a blessing to serve a mission here, and we're happy that we've had this opportunity. But it's great to be coming home.   

Last Monday was spent mostly at the office working there. I've been going through all the missionary's immunization records because we're finding out that many of them are past due on their tetanus boosters and didn't get them before their mission. So the area medical advisor asked me to go through them and try to get them updated. Most of the ones that aren't current are from either Tonga or PNG or Samoa. On Tuesday, our Zone came to the mission home for their district meetings and temple trip so we spent the afternoon with them and did a temple session with them. Wednesday morning we drove to the West side of the island to have breakfast with some of the other  Senior couples to say good-bye to the Barkdull's.  They have been the senior office missionaries in Savaii and they flew home later that day. They are the first of a pretty big group of Seniors who will be going home in the next 3-4 months.  Later that day, Elder G. cut his finger on a saw while he was trying to fix a drawer.  He tried to put sutures in it and had me help tie the knots but the next morning his finger had swollen so much that the sutures didn't hold ( he said I didn't tie the knots very well) so he ended up just taking them out and we've been cleaning and re-bandaging it every day. Hopefully it doesn't get infected!

On Thursday afternoon, Elder G. delivered needs to the northeast zone on his way to the Southeast zone to attend a district event  for youth and non member friends that one of the districts in our zone organized.  They had a little presentation in the chapel and then had games set up for them to play.  Elder G. put up two more of the basketball nets at the church there, so now there's only one more net left.  The youth always get really excited when they see nets on the hoops!  The missionaries had Book of Mormons and pamphlets to pass out.  Elder G. took a box of apples and water to share and he took a few videos so I'll send those.

Our weekend was a little slower than usual.. We decided not to go to our zone area for church today because Elder G. did a LOT of driving during the week and his back needed a break!  We had a "Break the Fast" potluck this evening with the senior couples and went on a Sunday walk with Sister Schofield after that was over.  

In this week's  "Come Follow Me" studies I read a talk that reminded me that it's important to always remember who's side you want to be on and when you have challenges or temptations or fear of men, you can overcome it if you've already decided "Which Way Do You Face?" In his talk titled "Which Way Do You Face?", Elder Lynn G. Robbins gave the example of how this fear of men or peer pressure can be a stumbling block to some young missionaries: "...some young missionaries carry this fear of men into the mission field and fail to report the flagrant disobedience of a companion to their mission president because they don't want to offend their wayward companion.  Decisions of character are made by remembering the right order of the first and second commandments.(Matthew 22:37-39).  When these confused missionaries realize they are accountable to God and not to their companion, it should give them courage to do an about-face." 

 Unfortunately, I've seen this happening in our mission, so I know it really can become a problem for some missionaries.  It takes a lot of courage to stand up to our peers sometimes, but if we "always remember whose disciples we are, and which way we face, we can have the courage we need to do it!

Have a great week and LOVE YOU ALL!