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!

Temple Trips

 Talofa everyone!

Last week and the coming week we have missionaries coming in for temple trips.  When they come for those, they come as zones and do an endowment session, then eat either breakfast or lunch (depending on whether they have morning or afternoon session) and do their district meeting in the conference room while the mission leaders interview all of them. We had 2 zones come on Tuesday and two zones on Thursday and will have that again for the next two weeks. I usually see quite a few of the missionaries because they're at the office so they come and ask me for medical supplies and advice.  On Monday, one of the new intake sisters was sick with swollen tonsils and couldn't eat or speak because she said it hurt too bad, and she insisted on going to the district hospital to see a doctor.  So that's what we did for half of that day.  After waiting for two hours to see the doctor, she got a steroid shot in her bum and an antibiotic prescription.  It helped, she was able to speak and eat the next day.  Elder Godderidge went to our district meetings in the southeast zone on Tuesday,  but I couldn't go with him because I had to take another missionary to the doctor. He took them tuna sandwiches, chips and drinks to eat at the district meeting and I baked oatmeal chocolate chip cookies that I sent for dessert.  Next week they will come here for their temple trip so we won't have to drive there for a district meeting which will be nice!   

The rest of the week was pretty quiet.  No medical emergencies,no major housing issues.   We sort of took a p-day on Saturday, didn't go over to the office to work and spent most of the day doing laundry, cleaning, and waiting on hold for three hours for the Social Security Administration to finally answer their phone so we could ask them about appealing our medicare increase!  That was fun--listening to the same music and recordings over and over for 3 hours. We went to a new place to eat on Saturday night called Roko's.  It was pretty good.  I had chicken and chips and the fried chicken tasted pretty close to Juniper Take-out fried chicken so Elder G. says we're going to have to go there again! Too bad they don't have Turkey Steaks too, haha.  

On Sunday we put in a lot of miles-- got up early to make it to our zone on the Southeast side of the island for a 9:00sacrament meeting. Then we delivered needs to all the MQ's in our zone before heading back home. After we ate Sunday dinner at around 5:00, we had to make a medicine run all the way over to the southwest side of the Island and back home-- another two hours of driving!  

Elder Godderidge had a bit of an uncomfortable week.  He experienced his first Boil! He nursed it along all week and after a week of antibiotics it's finally starting to get a little better and will hopefuly will go away completely very soon!  He's going to be mad at me for mentioning it, but that's what he gets for making me write the emails each week!  He didn't let the discomfort slow him down much.  He just kept going like normal.  When the missionaries get them, they act like they're going to die of pain!

Elder Godderidge shared a quote from President Hinckley for me to share with you all:

"All of us have problems.  We face them every day.  How grateful I am that we have difficult things to wrestle with.  They keep us young, they keep us alive, they keep us going, they keep us humble.  Be grateful for your problems, and know that somehow there will come a solution.  Just do the best you can but be sure it is the very best." --Gordon B. Hinckley

We got a nice card in the mail from one of our missionaries' parents this week. They wrote:  "Godderidges, We wanted to express our gratitude to you for your service in the Samoa Mission and specifically to our missionary, Elder Robertson.  He has spoken very highly of you many times and is so appreciative of everything you do, big and small.  Your wisdom, experience, understanding, listening, sympathizing, encouraging make all the difference in these missonaries' experience.  God bless you and your family!  Love, Bruce and Tiffany Robertson. 

That was thoughtful of them!  Made us feel like it's all worth it!  Love you all SO MUCH, and can't wait to see you in 5 weeks!

Last time for intakes and transfers

 

Talofa!

This last week was a busy one!  Out-take, Intake, and Transfers--THE LAST transfer of our mission!  We would have celebrated last night after we spent all day Saturday moving missionaries around, but we were too tired! HAHA!  It's time to start counting down the last 6 weeks of our mission I guess.  We will be part of the out-take at the end of February.  It's a big one, there will be 18 missionaries going home. The Out-take last Tuesday evening had 12 young missionaries and 2 Senior missionaries   Elder and Sister Barkdull have been the office couple for the Island of Savaii.  We had dinner and out-take devotional on Tuesday evening. We were late for it because we had to make a run to the outpatient clinic with a Sister who was pretty sick with a stomach bug and ended up getting IV fluids because she was dehydrated.  But we made it for the devotional part and got to hear all the missionary's testimonies.  Most of them flew out on Wednesday and the three that were from Samoa had family come and pick them up.  On Thursday, we welcomed 26 new missionaries!

We did our little intake workshops and met them all during that time. Right when we were finishing up the workshops, I got a call from some zone leaders to tell me that Elder Bernard had taken an elbow to the forehead during a p-day basketball game and his head was bleeding all over.  So we met them at the ER and spent the evening getting stitches and head x-rayed. 

 Elder Godderidge spent a couple of days last week delivering needs to zones and he put a sink in a member's home who is housing missionaries. It's amazing how much he gets done in a day!  The mission is really going to miss him! 

It gets so chaotic on these 6-week turnover weeks!  It has been quite hectic with crazy medical things lately too so I'm really hoping it calms down for a few weeks.  I want to get the office/clinic all organized, stocked and in good shape for the next nurse and Elder Godderidge will be doing the same with making sure things are stocked up and organized for the new housing guy.  We've been happy serving here and there are lots of people we need to make sure we connect with before we go home to thank them and say our good-byes.  I have a feeling these last six weeks are going to be bittersweet. 

We sure appreciate all of you and wish we could be there to support Jill in her health challenges but we know everyone's been very supportive and I know she's very thankful for all of you.  Our prayers have been with all of you and especially with Jill this last week and I know God is hearing all of our prayers. There are a couple of scriptures I ran across this week that I know all of you take to heart:

 "And this commandment have we from him, that he who loveth God love his brother . " --1 John 4:21

"My little children, let us not love in word, neither in tongue; but in deed and in truth." --1 John 3:18

 We'll keep in touch and we love to hear from you all so don't hesitate to call and chat!

Rain rain rain and more rain!

 Malo Lava everyone!

OK, so this was by far the wettest week in Samoa since we've been here.  It rained Every Single Day! Elder Godderidge sent a WhatsApp video to the family on Monday where several downtown streets were completely flooded!  That happened more than once this week. Flooding all over the island.  Luckily, the church property has some pretty good drainage systems in place so we don't have it too bad here in the complex.  But driving around this week has been a nightmare!  When people drive through flooded streets, they move even slower!  Elder Godderidge gets a little impatient sometimes.  Today, Sunday, was the first day that it hasn't rained this week. We got rained on every morning  when we went out for our exercise. The only plus side, it was a little cooler with the clouds and rainstorms.  

It was a crazy week on the medical side of things,  I had lots of calls, lots of sick missionaries ( I think some of them just didn't want to go out in the rain), and a few too many visits to our lovely hospital this week.   

On Monday night we had our Zone leaders stay overnight at our place because it was MLC again.  Of course Elder G. had to make a late-night run to McDonalds for them again--this time through the flooded downtown!  I don't know how these Elders can eat so much!  Elder Ale and Elder Reupena are pretty entertaining to talk to and mainly listen to, but there's a point where we just have to say "we're going to bed cause us old people need our sleep." HAHA

On Wednesday, I had two missionaries going to the hospital for doctor visits so while I was there in the morning, I got word that one of our senior missionaries was having some heart problems and was coming to the hospital for an EKG and to be seen at the cardiology clinic.  Turns out she was in level 2 AV block, meaning her heart wasn't beating properly and her pulse was running around 30-40 beats per minute.  She needed a pacemaker, and there is no one here that does those, not even temporary external pacemakers.  So the wheels started turning to get her out of here.  And I spent most of the afternoon and evening on emails and phone calls getting instructions for what information I needed to gather to get the process going. Then on top of that, I get a call from our ZL's that they are bringing one of our Elders to the emergency room because he hurt his back playing volleyball and couldn't move! They loaded him onto the van and put a folding banquet table on top of the seats and he laid on that while they drove him in.  I should have taken a picture of it!  So Elder Godderidge and I were going back and forth between the ER and the unit where Sister Hainer was.  The Elder got an X-ray and nothing was broken, so they gave him a pain shot and a prescription for anti-inflammatory and he was suddenly able to walk out of there after that.  As for Sister Hainer, they were hoping that her heart would convert on its own back to a normal sinus rhythm so they could fly her commercially, but it didn't so she was med-evacuated out on Saturday morning . The church missionary medical team works with the church's insurance company to arrange all that--racking up a  $100,000.00 tab for the church.

On Saturday afternoon we drove to our Zone for a baptism that got rescheduled for Sunday morning and nobody told us.  That was fun--so we drove all the way back and got home around  8:30--fixed bacon and egg sandwiches and went to bed!

I'm sure glad Elder Godderidge is my companion on this mission!  When crazy things happen, he is right by my side helping me figure things out and do whatever I need him to do to support me.  I'm not nearly as helpful to him, but I try.  At least he usually gets one home-cooked meal a day out of me.  

Here's a picture of a rat trap that Elder Godderidge asked Sister Johnson and Sister Jensen to put peanut butter on for him so he could set it under their MQ.  Notice where they put the peanut butter!

I wanted to share an email that Elder Hainer sent after they arrived in Honolulu, Hawaii:

"We arrived in Hawaii at about 6:00 pm.  Got to the hospital at about 6:30.  A good flight, the med-evac team was outstanding.

After the turnover, the Queens hospital staff got her situated and hooked up to the monitors.  There was at least one staff member with her at all times.  About a half hour after arriving I was talking to her and she said, 'What's happening?'  I looked at her bpm and it was 0.  It stayed there for about 30 seconds.  The staff jumped in and started doing their thing and got her stabilized.  They did not have to shock her.  Afterwards I heard one nurse say 'I thought she was going to code'. 

Instead of waiting for Monday, they called in the duty cardiologist and they put a temporary pacemaker on.  She is stable and alert.  The plan is to put in the permanent pacemaker on Monday.  Looking back you can see the tender mercy of the Lord.  You all saved her.  If she had been in Samoa, I think she would have died.  If we had been delayed an hour I believe she would have died. We were in a top trauma center only one half hour before everything came undone.  I am grateful to all of you for listening to the Spirit!!!!

They said that once she has the pacemaker they will keep her overnight for observation and then discharge her.  How do flight arrangements get made for the final leg to Seattle?"

Elder Hainer

There were alot of prayers being said for Sister Hainer, and I believe God heard them!  

Love you all, have a great week!

Holidays are a little bit boring in Samoa

 Talofa!

It was a bit boring this New Year's holiday week here in Samoa.  No fireworks, stores closed, no parties to attend.  The mission leaders and office missionaries were all in Tutuilla for most of the week so it was pretty quiet around the office too.  We came back from our  Survivor Resort one-night stay on Monday afternoon and it was nice to get away for a little break.  But then when we got back we found that all government offices were closed all week and most of the downtown shops and stores were going to be closed on Wednesday, and Thursday.. On Tuesday, we spent all day going to our zone's district meetings. Now that our zone has 18 missionaries, they split into two districts so it takes up most of the day for us with the driving distance.and attending 2 district meetings. There's also been quite a few missionaries with colds (sore throats, runny noses, coughs) so I ran out of cold medicine this week and couldn't buy more until Friday because the pharmacy wasn't open either. We've started preparing for the new intakes that will be coming in  Mid-January. I've been reviewing their health histories and physicals and starting to put together intake packets and  Elder Godderidge has been getting a few new housing quarters ready to open up to accomodate more missionaries.  We have 12 going home and 26 coming in so our numbers are increasing!  On Saturday, we attended a baptism in our zone.  They were 3 children from one family that were past 8 years old and hadn't been baptized yet and one 8 year old from another family.  The father is inactive so the missionaries did the baptizing. We challenged them to work a little harder on trying to get their father reactivated.  Sadly, many of the wards we attend have very few Priesthood holders in attendance.  We sometimes wonder if they have to follow the same rules we do at home when they organize new wards and stakes with the Priesthood holders being at a certain number before they can make a new ward boundary.  

Sunday, we slept in and went to the YSA ward at 10:30. Then, after our fast, we were invited to dinner by one of the Senior couples, the Strobel's, so all I had to cook was dessert! 

I listened to a talk given by Elder Uchtdorf this week that was suggested in Come Follow me studies.  He reminds us that the restoration of the Church of Jesus Christ is more than past events (the translation of the Book of Mormon, the receiving of Priesthood keys, the organization of the church). "In reality, Restoration is an ongoing process; we are living in it right now.  It includes all that God has revealed, now reveals, and many great and important things that he will yet reveal---the exciting developments of today are part of that long-foretold period of preparation that will culminate in the glorious Second Coming of our Savior, Jesus Christ."

He told us no to sleep through it, not to be a passive observer, but to roll up our sleeves and labor with all our heart, might, mind, and strength to help build up the kingdom of God.

He talked about three obstacles that might hold us back; Selfishness, Addictions, and Competing Priorities. He encouraged us to not let these things "lull you into indifference or detachment from blessed discipleship and ennobling service."  We should not give only a half-hearted effort to this sacred work.  "Being a disciple of Jesus Christ--is an effort of once and for all." 

It was a good "pep talk" for me.  And a reminder about the important things to be focusing on that will bring eternal blessings.

Love you all!