Thursday October 18, 2012

Hello all our family and friends.  Today we are going to blog about the Poly Fest that they had in our stake on October 6, 2012.  Nada helped our Young Single Adults with some basic Cha Cha steps and then they put together a great dance from there..  It was really fun to be with them and be part of the practices.  We will write little descriptions by each of the pictures. 

The festival was suppose to start at 1:00 p.m. but it was closer to 1:30 before the first performers came out.  It was at our ward building.  There is no air coniditioning and it was a very HOT day.  But they just seem to take it in stride.  We were only watching and sweating like crazy.

 The women wear beautiful floral arrangements in their hair.

The little girl on the right is our Relief Society President Sister Lesa's daughter.  We just thought she was so cute sitting there watching everything.  Her name is Janettssar which is a combination of letters from her parents and 5 siblings names.

On the left are some members of our Motootua Ward.  The woman in yellow is Sister Jessop and she is our Bishop's Mother.

The dancers on the right are doing a traditional island dance.  They announced everything in Samoan so we are not sure which ward or what dance they are doing.

This ward group is doing a dance from the Island of Fiji.  The young man who is leading it really was great.

In between performances they had the different Bishopric's get up and do a fashion show.  Some of them were quite funny.  The Samoan people do not seem to be bashful about getting up in front of people.  Some of the couples posed and acted like they were on a fashion runway.  The women are wearing the traditional pula tasi and the men mostly had matching shirts called alo'a shirts.

This ward group did a hip hop dance.  You can see that there are a lot of youth and they don't have problems getting the boys to dance and sing.

This shirt is on Brother Iosefa from our ward.  We belong to the Apia Stake which is the first stake in Samoa.

Another ward doing a traditional Samoan dance.

 Another Bishopric.  They were so funny to watch.

 On the right is the Motootua Ward members.  Our ward.  They are doing a traditional Samoan dance called the Lapalapa and they are using sticks that are part of the dance.  Some of our Young Single Adults are dancing with them.

On the left is Anni and OJ two of our YSA's.  They are both returned missionaries.  She served in Sydney Australia and he in Washington State in the US.  They seem to be a couple right now and are great kids.

The picture on the right is Lincoln one of our YSA's and he is leaving on a mission in December to the Phillipines.  The lady right in front of him is Sister Jessop our Bishop's wife.  She put this dance together.  The two kids on the bottom of the picture are Emmalene and Alisi from our YSA group.

 

This is Brother and Sister Maru from our Ward.  He is the 2nd Counselor in our Bishopric.  He and his wife are both medical doctors.

This is our Bisop and his wife.  Bishop Jessop and Katerina Qwendolyn.

Another ward doing a traditional Samoan dance.  During the Teuila Festival we saw a lot of dancers and the men all had these leaf things on their legs.  They are called laufa'i and they usually make them from banana leaves that they shred and then the whole thing together is called tau vae (bracelet).

                                                                      

 Below is a close up of the shirts of the ward group doing the hip hop dance.  We were sitting by the door where everyone kept coming in and out so Reed took different kinds of pictures.  The man is our Bishop.

This woman is modeling a dress she made all out of leaves.  They are real.  I talked to her after and she said it was a lot of work but worth it.

This is Helen Kaleopa and Tapaau Lesa.  They are modeling some traditional Samoan outfits.  He is the son of our Relief Society President who is also one of our school counselors at Pesega

Another ward group doing a tradtional dance.  Their  hair pieces are very elaborate.  These wards go all out with matching outfits as well.

 These pictures are dancers doing a Mauri Dance.  You can see their tongues sticking out and they paint up their faces.

This ward is doing a fight dance and those are regular sized real axes that they are throwing back and forth.

Notice the tau vae on their legs.  They wear these bands around their knees, ankles or wrists when they dance. 

The following pictures are of our YSA's doing their Cha Cha dance.  All the girls had heels on which I have not seen since we've been here.  They usually dance in their flip flops or barefooted.  We had 9 couples and 1 YM who just danced in and out because he didn't have a partner.  They did a great job.

 They started the dance with the boys doing some latin moves and then the girls joined in with them.  They danced to the song La Isla Bonita by Madonna.  They had so much fun.

The girls getting a little groove on here.  The girl in the pink is Emmalynn, on her left is Uriana.

The girl with the blue and white skirt is Ingrid.  She has been really helpful to Nada in translating during Relief Society and sometimes Sacrament.  She is dancing with Adrian.

After they finished dancing we met them downstairs and gave them all an ice pop (like an otter pop).  We told them we would bring a treat for whoever danced and they were glad to get something cold.

These women did a dance from India and they are from the Vaimoso Ward.  They did a great job.  Definitely some dancers in this ward.

One ward had their children get up and sing.  They did a fabulous job.  They sang some primary songs in English and Samoan.

This is Ingrid and Pulemau Silao from our Ward.  They did a little evening wear fashion show at the end of all the musical things.                

Well after 3 1/2 hours of singing, dancing and modeling the Poly Fest was over.  It was a very interesting afternoon.  We enjoyed watching and learning some more about the culture and people of Samoa.  We hope you enjoy it, too.  It is great to mingle with the Saints in all kinds of settings.

Until next time.  Love Elder and Sister Spencer 

 

Thursday October 11, 2012

We are posting a little late this week because we have had our Area Coordinators, Elder and Sister Jacobsen here.  It has been great getting to know them better and showing them around Pesega and Sauniatu.  They arrived in Auckland in August so this is their first visit to Samoa and to meet with us.

 Monday we took them up to visit the principal, teachers and students at Sauniatu.

Today, Thursday October 11, 2012, they are standing outside the taxi stand at the ferry before they go over and visit the Budgetts in Savai'i.

This week we are going to blog about Mission stuff.  We have received some comments about what a great "vacation" we are having, so we thought we would add to our travelogue-type info and give a little information about what we do.  So...here is a typical week for us.  We usually get to our office between 8 and 8:30 a.m. and don't leave until after 5 p.m. most days.  Some days a little later and some a little earlier.  Nada does fluency training with students on Mondays and Wednesdays for 2 hours.  Reed teaches Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursdays for 21/2  - 3 hours.  We have leadership meetings every Tuesday from 10 a.m. until at least noon.  We have devotional/faculty meeting at 7:30 a.m. every Monday unless it is a holiday and then it is on Tuesday.  We visit with teachers and students and do other various things during the day.  Sometimes it feels like work!  On the last Friday of every month we go to the Institute at Magiagi and give university students the SLEP Test which takes us 21/2 hours.  This is the English language assessment required by BYU Hawaii for admission. We prepare and teach our Sunday School lesson to a group of Young Single Adults, and attend as many of their activities during the week as we can.

 Now for fun things.  On Thursday, October 4, 2012 Brother Gase invited us to come early to Sauniatu for the year 5 & 6 devotional.  It began at 9:00 a.m.  They performed for 1 hour.  They sang hymns with different children leading.  They gave talks and scriptures.  They acted out different stories from the scriptures that were very well done.  It was a wonderful devotional and the theme was "Faith Precedes the Miracle."  On the left below is Brother Gase their teacher.

All the year 5 and 6 students got to wear their Sunday best to perform and then they changed back into their uniforms.  All the little girls were dressed in white.  This Sunday, the 14th, is called White Sunday and is the children's holiday like Mother or Father's Day.  They will get to have Monday off school to celebrate this holiday.  

 They hold their devotionals in the chapel.  The other children listened pretty well for most of the time.

When they came over to the devotional it was barely starting to rain.

At the end of the devotional it was raining so hard we could not let the children return to their classes.  Finally, Elder Spencer drove the van under the churches overhang in the back and shuttled chidren over to the school building and used umbrellas to get them from the van into the school.  It was quite the scene.  We had up to 16 kids in the van at a time.



Friday, October 5, 2012.  This week has been National Teacher Week and today they held a parade for all the teachers.  The teachers all met by the police station downtown and marched past the clock tower to the government building where they gave awards and speeches. Some schools sang and the Prime Minister gave a talk.  It was so HOT!  Elder Spencer & Sister Spencer marched with the teachers from Pesega and Sauniatu.  Actually, Elder Spencer mostly walked around and took pictures.  Thank goodness or we would not have the great pictures we do for our blogs!

 These are some of the teachers from Pesega and Sauniatu waiting for the parade to start.  There was no shade and it was very hot.  We had to be there before 2:30 p.m. and the parade started at 3:00 p.m.

This is the police marching band.  They played really well and they actually marched.  The teachers mostly walked.

This is a teacher.  Not from our schools.  He has a tatoo from his knees to the middle of his back.  They call this the Mati Tattoo.  He led the parade after the band and is carrying the Samoan Flag.  This tattoo is raised and it looks like it had to be painful when it was done.

On the left are the teachers from Pesega.  It is not all of them but quite a few.  The yellow pula tasi is their teacher uniform for this year.  Elder & Sister Osborne marched, also. 

Elder Spencer and Sister Spencer do not have the yellow shirts but we have the LDS Church College of Pesega T-shirt which Sister Spencer is wearing.  She is marching with the Sauniatu teachers.  Their uniform is green and navy blue.

 

Steve the principal at Sauniatu is in the back on the left in blue.  Leo the principal of Pesega is in the back on the right in yellow with the seed lei on.

On the right is the clock tower and down street three.  We use this as a direction landmark so we know where we are.  The clock tower is a roundabout which we will go around and then back to the government building.

These are the guests of honor.  The Prime Minister is the gentleman with both the seed lei and yellow lei on and has a greenish lava lava on.  They are all sitting in the shade and all the teachers are in the hot sun.

It took about 1/2 an hour for all the teachers to march and arrive here.  Once they all arrived they had them sit down on the grass in the hot, hot sun.  All the speeches were in Samoan so we slowly worked our way to the back and left.  This lasted until 4:30 p.m.

Reed really liked this picture.  This teacher has his Mati Tatoo that represents the old with his new cell phone tucked into his lava lava!     We were really glad to be part of this day with the teachers.  That evening they had a dinner and dance for the teachers and their spouses. A little different celebrating than what we are use to at home.  They did little things all week for the teachers to make them feel special.

 

Well hopefully you've enjoyed learning a little bit about what we do. We hope you enjoy seeing some of the teachers and students here at Pesega and Sauniatu.  We really love these people and are enjoying learning more about them and their culture.  We are grateful we can serve here in Samoa.  We want to do our best and do what the Lord has sent us here to do.
                                                      Until next time.  Love Elder and Sister Spencer