Talofa friends and family.  Today is Friday, August 9, 2013.  Wow time is flying by.  It seems like the summer has just flown by.

We have had a lot of interesting things going on here in Samoa that we would like to share with you.

On July 19th we had a special farewell dinner and program for one of the teachers, Brother Gase, at Sauniatu.  He has some serious health issues that need to be taken care of so he is leaving school so he can do that. We really hope he will recover well and return.  He is a great man and a very good teacher.

 Brother Gase is the only male teacher at Sauniatu.  All the other teachers, staff and principal sang a special song for him and gave him a nice going away gift.

The

 The men in the picture are left to right,
President Fa'alogo who is over all the finances for S&I which all the church schools now fall under.  Next is Brother Lolo, Pesega Middle School Principal, then Brother Fuimaono who is the HR Director and then Brother Leauanae who is the LDS Church College Pesega Principal.

Brother Gase is the big man sitting down with the blue shirt and lei.  The others are friends and teachers.  The man in the tan shirt is the principal, Steve Mauigoa, of Sauniatu Primary School.

Sister and Brother Gase.  He will be missed.

On the next morning, Saturday, July 20th we took some of our young single adults up to Sauniatu. They wanted to go swim in the waterfall and see the new camp site and the new McKay Fale.  Reed's underwater camera would not work so we did not get any pictures.  We had a great time.  A couple of them had never been up to Sauniatu so we gave them the grand tour.

They served this pig.  They sit it on the table all there.  Then one of the men cut pieces of it to serve.  It is not appetizing to us but the Samoans love it!









On Saturday, July 27, 2013 we attended a funeral for Brother Lepule's Mother. Brother Lepule is a teacher here at Pesega and we live by him on campus.  He and has family have become our Samoan family and he asked Reed to come and take pictures during the family services.  We arrived at the Faleula Uta Chapel just after 7:00 a.m.  The family funeral began at 7:50 a.m. in the activity room. Brother Lepule conducted and all of his siblings that were in attendance spoke and his one sister sang a song to their mother.  One brother and one sister of the deceased mother spoke.  They had a few of the grandchildren sing and speak. Then they open it up to anyone who would like to share their feelings but they say testimony.  They carry long pieces of lace and wrap it around the casket.  They had about six different groups bring in different pieces of lace and wrap around the basket.  This meeting only lasted two hours.  That is the shortest family service we have attended so far.

 Grandchildren putting the first piece of lace on the casket.

These are Brother Lepule's children except for the young man in the very middle.  We don't know who he belongs. to.

They then served some refreshments and then moved into the chapel for the Religious Funeral. 

 

The flowers off to the right of the casket in the picture to the right was what the LDS Church College Pesega teachers gave to Brother Lepule.  It is a gorgeous bouquet. Tthey are all fake flowers and they leave them on the grave forever.

The Bishop conducted the religious funeral and Brother Lepule, his son, his nephew and the Bishop spoke and they had the ward choir sing a couple of hymns.  They kept it to one hour. 
We were surprised.  Then we all went over to the family fale, (home).  The grave is right in the front yard.  They removed his mother from the casket and placed her in the grave that was all nicely tiled and wrapped her in black lace. 

 This is the grave for Sister Lepule!  You can see the nice tile.  Her husband died a few years ago and is buried on the other side.

 There are cases of mackerel, sardines and corn beef here and you can see the fine mats.  They give these as gifts to family members, friends, leaders, etc. who bring things to them and help and attend the funeral.  Interesting custom.  It is very expensive for these families to do a  traditional  Samoan funeral.

The ward choir sang a hymn and Brother Lepule dedicated the grave.  Then they fed everyone lunch and presented gifts to the high chiefs, and church leaders.  The talking chief of the family and high chief of the village exchanged the ritual greetings and acknowledgements and then we went home.  It was a very interesting cultural experience and we were grateful they included us.  We have really grown to love this family.  Those who are active in this family are very close to each other and the Lord.
  Below is a picture of the tray of food they gave to us to eat.  They gave each of us a tray.  Brother Lepule said he started the food cooking at 4:30 a.m. to have it all ready for the guests.  They are very generous with food here.

 











On Tuesday, July 30th and Wednesday, July 31, 2013 Sister Sherri Dew and Laurel Christensen, both representing Deseret Book and Time Out For Women were here at LDS Church College Pesega.  They did a fireside for all the young single adults at the gym on Tuesday evening.  The gym was full and even overflowed out to covered seating outside.  Elder Fata, the Area Seventy, was also with them and spoke.

 Sister Christensen was a very engaging speaker.  She talked about how important it is to find out what Heavenly Father wants us to do, not just what we want to do.  She also talked about how important the Temple is.

When she talked on Wednesday to the high school and middle school students she talked about family and personal prayer.  She challenged all the students to pray out loud.

Sister Dew talked Tuesday night on how no one can take your place.  You are needed and Heavenly Father knows who you are and needs you to fulfill what he has in store for you.  On Wednesday she talked to the students about what they needed to be doing right now so they could be worthy when the time comes to be married in the Temple.  Then she added to Sister Christensen's challenge that when they prayed out loud tonight to ask Heavenly Father if he really knows who you are and if he likes who your are.

Elder Fata talked both Tuesday and Wednesday.
Tuesday he told the YSA they had two problems.  Too many are not serving missions and the returned missionaries are not marrying in the temple! 
He talked to the high school and middle school students about no BUTS.  Don't make excuses.  Are you being involved in the good, better, or best things.  Both days were great and the young people really turned out and listened.

A few of us senior missionary sisters that were at the Tuesday night meeting had our pictures taken with Sister Christensen and Sister Dew!  They were very nice to talk to.

 

 

On Friday August 2, Reed and Nada were asked to be the judges for the middle school's technology challenge.  The students in year seven built different houses for the Eskimo and Inuit people.  They were very creative. 

 

 The year eight students used balloons to mark the climate regions they have been studying about and posters listing different kinds of commerce.

The year nine students had to draw a map of  Samoa from memory.  This one was the best.

The students also did impromptu poems about the things they have been studying and songs.  Some of them were very creative.  It was a fun day to be involved in. 

When we presented who the winners were Brother Lolo had the students all stand up and sing Happy Birthday to Nada in English and Samoan.  He also knows how much she loves to hear their cheers so he had one of the boys lead the students in three cheers.  It was a wonderful birthday gift!

On Saturday, August 3, Nada's birthday we went to Fagaloa Bay to the farthest village you can go to.  The village is Uafato and you cannot go any farther.  We had to borrow a truck from the motor pool to get there.  The road is very rough and we were glad it had not rained for a few days.  Brother Manoa, he is one of the maintenance men here on campus, went with us.  This is the village he grew up in.  It is also the village where a lot of the wood carvers live.  It is beautiful down in there. 

This is a view of part of the road we had to drive on.

View looking down from the road driving over the mountain to get to Uafato.

 This is the LDS Church in Uafato.  They have about 100 members that attend.  Brother Manoa said this is where his fale (house) was when he was growing up.  His father donated the land to the Church.

This is the inside of the Branch. 

There is a river that runs right by it and then you can see the ocean through the trees.  Beautiful setting.

We drove to the end of the road and a man was sitting next to the ocean in a fale carving.  He let Reed use his tools and work on the piece for a while.  Of course, Reed bought it from the man.  He said he would deliver it on Friday when he finished it.  Reed was in heaven.

 The picture above is the carver and the picture to the right is Reed working on the carving with Brother Manoa looking on.

 

 

Picture of Nada on her birthday!  The carving fale is in the back ground.

We drove over this little river and the pigs were having a bath.  That is the most big and little piglets all together that we have seen.

 

 

 Reed wanted to snorkel.  He loves the water.

This man just came back from fishing.  He had a lot of different fish on his back.  We asked if we could take a picture and he posed for us.

 This was a nice waterfall down in the village.

 Brother Manoa's family had us come to lunch.  They just kept bringing out the food.  This food is all one persons.  Two different kinds of chicken in soup base, a niu to drink, 4 cooked bananas with coconut cream over them and a whole fish.  It was very flavorful.   It is kind of hard because the children and women watch the guests and men eat.  After we were all finished they took the food in the kitchen are and then the other family members ate.

 This is the fale Brother Manoa's Uncle and family live in.  You can see Nada with the yellow shirt and blue lava lava sitting on the floor.  Brother Manoa said he wanted us to eat Samoan style.

Reed and George, one of Brother Manoa's young men in his ward, rode in the back of the truck all around Fagaloa Bay while Brother Manoa drove since he knew his way around.  Then George and Brother Manoa rode in the back all the way from Apia to Fagaloa Bay and back.

It was a fabulous day.  We enjoyed ourselves so much and were so grateful to Brother Manoa for taking time out of his busy schedule to take us to this very remote village.

We hope you have enjoyed sharing some of the experiences we have had over the last few weeks.  We are busy at school and having fun with our Samoan friends.  These people are so generous and willing to share their food and time.  We are grateful to be serving here in Samoan.

Know that we are well and love being able to serve our mission here in Samoa.  Stay safe.  Until next time.  Alofa,  Reed and Nada  or as we are known here Elder and Sister Spencer.