Wow, where did September go? Today is already October 3, 2013. Time seems to be flying by. During September we had to make all the arrangements for our flights and hotels to go home in December. It seems hard to believe that it is time to be planning on going back to Utah. Sometimes it seems like we were just planning on starting our mission and now we are finishing it up.
On Saturday, September 7th after all the weekly chores were completed we decided to take a drive. We drove as far West on Upolu as we could and then drove along the Main Coastal Road. The sun was bright and the ocean was many different shades of blue. We just enjoyed looking at the different villages and stopped along the way to take pictures.
This is a common sight here in Samoa. People ride in the back of trucks sitting, standing, laying and sitting on top of things. These kids were singing and doing actions. It was very entertaining to follow them.
We followed this truck with the young men for most of the way to the airport.
This is a resort on the west end of the island. We had never driven this far before. It was a beautiful resort.
This is an open chapel. It was in the village of Pata.
This is looking into the chapel from the outside. There was a dog laying there enjoying the shade.
A lot of the chapels here have a small fale (house) built that the missionaries live in. The building farthest right is the missionaries house. They use the church restrooms which have showers in them. This is good for the missionaries and for the church because they are like having security around.
The smaller building is actually a grave. A lot of Samoans bury their families in their yards and some of the graves are in very elaborate enclosures.
We turned off the main road and started driving on this dirt road that became less and less dirt and more and more grass. We drove for quite a ways but couldn't see an end so we finally turned around. Reed would have kept going but Nada was worried we might get stranded along the trail!
We don't see very many interesting birds so when we came upon this one we were excited. They seem to be more in less populated less traveled areas.
In some of the more remote, rural villages they just build the road over the river and sometimes you have to wait for the water to go down to get across.
This gentleman was just walking down the road carrying all this wood on his back. They must be very strong, it looked very heavy!
This is a taro field planted on this hill. We see fields wherever they have land. It seems to grow no matter where they plant it. This is a very large taro field, it covered the whole side of this hill.
We really enjoyed this little road trip and saw some beautiful different places. We took a rough dirt road over the mountain and came back on the south coastal road. We only have one more area that we haven't been to so that will be one of our next adventures.
On Saturday, September 14. 2013, most of the senior missionaries went to the beach and had dinner at Coconuts Resort. It wasn't very good snorkeling but it was great to just play and relax in the water and on the beach. They had a nice restroom that we could cleanup in and dress for dinner. We had a great dinner, a little expensive but good food, and enjoyed their fia fia (show). They danced, sang and had the fire dancers. It was a great day!
Coconut Beach Resort. They just finished these bungalows over the water. They were not there before the cyclone hit in December of 2012. The rest of the resort did get damaged during the cyclone and it took a couple of months to get it fixed and up and running again. They have quite a few bungalows along the ocean closer to the main reception/dining fale. This is a nice resort.
Sisters Spencer, Budgett and Creed relaxing in the ocean.
This worker is taking a rest in this fale.
This is the main dining fale at Coconuts. They had a beautiful lounge, dining room and patio. We really enjoyed just sitting there watching the sun set and watching the waves.
This is the restroom and changing area.
The clouds and sunsets are so beautiful here. They really look like they have a silver lining.
Above is the group that went together.
Back row: E/S Creed (dentist), Sister Kamareth (nurse), E/S Rotz (public relations), E/S Goodlet (TVET), S/E Budgett (ITEP on Savai'i), S/E Gertsch (insitutute, PEF and now working as the office couple).
Front row: E/S Crowley (Temple), S/E Winter (assistant auditors), S/E Spencer (ITEP on Upolu).
Wow, who are those good looking women on the left?
These are the musicians and male performers for the fia fia.
This young man doing the fire dance participated in the competition during the Teuila Festival earlier this month.
September 17, 2013. Today is our 40th Wedding Anniversary. Where has the time gone. So many wonderful things have happened to us. What a great blessing to be serving here in such a beautiful country and with such wonderful people. We are blessed to live on the same grounds as the Temple. We see it every day and are able to go as often as we have time, usually Thursday evenings. We went out to lunch and then to Nada's favorite restaurant, Portofinos, for dinner. It has good food but to just sit overlooking Apia Harbor and watch the boats coming and going and the sun setting is a little bit of Heaven!
Reed just kept setting the time and trying to get a good night picture of the two of us.
September was a big month for our students here at Pesega. They practiced and planned for more than five weeks their big cultural day celebration. On September 20th the big day finally arrived. The middle school had their celebration on the malae (grassy area) in front of the Samoan Fale and the high school had theirs in the gym. Reed and Nada kept running back and forth to watch different events and to take pictures. The students all did a great job and they really all perform. The boys here sing and dance every bit as much as the girls.
These are middle school teachers Sisters AhHoy and I'aulualo with some students from their house. Here, just like Harry Potter, the students are put into houses and that is how they participate in assemblies, games, activities, etc.
The middle school brought and cooked food. They husked, cracked open, grated and made milk out of coconuts. They also made a dish where they peel and cut up and cook papaya (ese) and add coconut milk to that. They also peeled and cooked taro.
These are the students sitting with their houses getting ready for their day to start in the gym. Each house is dressed in different outfits. It is just amazing to us, they make new outfits whenever they do big performances like this. They are not cheap. The teachers were dressed like the students in their houses.
This was house 2. They won almost every category for the day. They really did a great job.
Brother Elisara, one of our teachers is up there playing the drums for his house to dance to.
Some of these young men are also in our ward. They have the girls do certain dances, then the boys do different dances, then they all dance and sing together.
This girl is dressed up like a Taupou, the chiefs daughter who is usually young and a virgin. She does the dance called the Siva. Each house had their own Taupou dance.
The middle school also did the Taupou dance. You can see that they too had matching lava lava's. However, the high school girls had matching pule tasis but the middle school only wore the same color of tshirts and then matching lava lavas.
This was the most different Taupou outfit we have seen. The dress is made out of feathers instead of just tapa cloth and the headdress is made out of coconut husks and sea shells instead of fake feathers. Reed though it was fabulous.
On Monday September 23, 2013 during the school break, we taught a technology class. We had 23 participants. We were shocked because we usually can't get the teachers to take classes during breaks. We taught for five hours on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. We had some of the computer teachers come in and help us with different areas. It was a very successful class and it is required for their ITEP Certificate so it was nice to get it out of the way quickly. Reed organized it all and taught about power points, Nada just walked around and helped those who needed help.
This is our 305 Technology class in the tall lab here next to our office. The front row of teachers are from Sauniatu and Vaiola.
This is the rest of the class.
This is Sister Lesa, She is the school counselor and also the Relief Society President for our ward. They held an enrichment night on Wednesday the 25th and showed off the quilts they have been working on all year.
Then we went to the Pesega Lima Ward enrichment night and they had Christmas in September. They gave prizes for the cutest Christmas earrings and foot wear. It was held on the deck of one of the sisters in that ward. They had wonderful food. People brought dishes that they make for their families at Christmas time. This was a very busy day and evening. Nada took Sisters Budgett, Goodlet and Winter to her Motootua Ward night and Sister Goodlet took us to her Pesega Lima Ward night.
On Saturday, September 28th we had the young men and young women from our ward come at 8:00 a.m. to our home. They had been on a hike to get to the Temple and then came to our house. The topic was Stand In Holy Places. They had to overcome obstacles to get to the Temple and then we were to talk about how our homes can be Holy Places. Reed did a great job. It was nice to have them in our home along with some of their leaders and the Bishopric.
Most of them understand English and they talked about what we said when they got back to the Ward afterwards. Some of the parents talked to us at Church Sunday and told us what their children said. That was nice.
Well middle school is back this week but the other two schools are still on school break so we are not teaching any classes the week of September 30th until October 4th. Reed is busy trying to get ahead and Nada is going through all the files and making sure they are all current and orderly. The area has developed a new ITEP record form and they want us to transfer all the records onto those. It is a lot of work but it will be such much cleaner and understandable when we get them all transferred over.
We are well and busy. It seems like there is always a lot to do but busy hands are happy hands! We love these people and this beautiful island. We feel so blessed to be able to serve here. The gospel is true and missionary work is alive and well here in Samoa. We hope you are all busy doing great things. We send our love and our Testimony that Heavenly Father lives and loves us. He is watching over us and cares about all of his children. Tofa Soifua for now. Alofa, Elder and Sister Spencer!
