Tuesday, Febraury 12, 2013

Hello friends and family.  We haven't done anything too exciting so we will blog about our regular everyday life this time.

We have had rain, rain and more rain.  The local people said they haven't had rains quite this bad for a long time.  On February 1st it rained over 8 inches.  We had flooding again in the same places that were flooded during the cyclone and most of the rivers ran at capacity for a few days.

This was below the church at Magiagi which has still not totally recovered from the cyclone.  It was raining so hard (it makes the picture look "washed out"), Nada got totally soaked on her left side by just rolling down the window to take this picture.

 This is street three or the clock tower street.  As we drove up the street the water was to the bottom of the doors of our van.  We were afraid some of the other smaller cars might get water in their engines.  The Vaisagano river was over flowing again and these streets and businesses were getting the worst of it.

You can see the water is up to the knees of the person walking.  This was all on Friday, February 1, 2013.  Since this day we have not had continual downpours.  Just thunderstorms most days but they only last for a short time.






That evening we had our Young Single Adult class come over to our house for an activity.  We were going to do field games but it was still raining and the ground was far too wet.  We did some get to know you activities and then we played a password game dealing with people from the scriptues that Reed created.  The kids had a blast.  Nada made egg salad sandwiches and baked some peanut butter cookies and rice krispie treats.  They ate them all.  Everyone said they had a great time and even their parents on Sunday told us how muich fun they had.  We really love these young people.  They are so respectful and a lot of fun to be with.

 Elder and Sister Gertsch came over for part of the evening because they teach a lot of these kids at the institute.  We had two girls and eleven boys show up.

 Faamagalo is standing up and Richard is sitting down right in front of him.  They are both leaving on missions on February 14, 2013.  Faamagalo will be serving in the Philippines and Richard will be serving in Samoa.  Oscar is sitting on the right side of the couch in the black tshirt.  He will be leaving on February 27, 2013 to serve his mission in New Zealand.  These young men are so great.

 They wanted to have a group picture.  Oj in the  blue shirt in front and Anne sitting next to him are a couple.  We hope they will get married but he is leaving for New Zealand on the 21st of February for some schooling and won't be back until November.
Mosiah standing on the right of Reed left to go back to school in Fiji on February 3rd.  He is in medical school there.

They all wanted to do a silly picture.  Young people are the same no matter where you go!

 On Friday, February 8, 2013, Pesega Middle School had a field day. The weather was perfect. They played soccer, kickball, volleyball, basketball and touch rugby. They were very well organized and all the kids participated and said they had a great time. The rain didn't come until they were all finished with their games. We walked around and took pictures and talked to some of the teachers and students.

 This group of students is playing soccer.  You can see that most of the kids were out there playing in bare feet.  It amazes us that they don't hurt their toes or feet but they play most of their sports without shoes on. Many of the kids who have tennis shoes take them off, even to play basketball!

They take volleyball serious. You see them playing all around the island at churches, schools, the village "malae" (the village commons area or field) and in yards.

 

 This group is playing some kind of kickball. We didn't recognize the game.

  The students dressed up are the high school students.  No uniforms today.  They call it mufti day, they dress up in dress clothes and then they had a welcome dance.

These students are cooling off and getting drinks. 

On Saturday, February 9, 2013 Reed and I decided we wanted to walk as far as the wall around Apia harbor would go to the west.  We went down about 4:00 p.m and began our little adventure.  There is a seawall that goes from one end of the harbor to the other and you can walk all the way on it.  We drove to the far end of the Mulinuu Peninsula, and started by the weather station and went towards the west.  It ended in this little quiet area that people were parked at just watching the ocean.  It was very secluded. The Mulinuu Peninsula was for hundreds of years the special ground of the highest chiefs of Samoa.

 Nada walking on the wall behind the weather station. 

 There was a slight breeze and shade in a lot of the places.  It was a very comfortable, enjoyable walk.

 You can see that the wall is wide enough for two people to walk on.  You see people walking and sitting on this wall especially in the evenings.

 When the wall came to an end on the west side  there were these two graves there.  They are not marked with any names that we could see.  People build these beautiful graves just on their private properties.  It is very interesting.

 These graves were all fenced in and appear to be taken care of but we couldn't see who they belonged to.  Some of them are so ornate and so tall, almost like a pyramid.

This young man was trying to decide where to cast his fishing net.

 These two ladies were just sitting in the water drinking their drinks from McDonalds.  Yes we have a McDonalds!

 This home-carved canoe was just sitting there in the ocean.  Quite picturesque.

 You can see how long these long boats are.  Nada is standing at the end of them and you can barely see her.  On the right is another grave along the way.

This was an abandoned long boat just sitting there.  We thought you might like to see the inside seats.  These are the boats they use for the fautasi races where there are 48 rowers, a caller and a drummer.  There is a new long boat in that covered shed in the background.

 These two young men are fishing.  They each have an end to a net. They hit the water as they walk towards each other hoping to stir up the fish into their net.  They wanted us to take their picture.  That is the city of Apia behind them.

 The seawall walkway goes right through this restaurant called the Yacht Club.  We have eaten here a few times.  They have good food and you can sit on the deck and just watch the waves and sometimes small boats go past.

This restaraunt is called Sails.  We have not eaten here but now that we know it is here we will give it a try.  We walked for an hour and only got about 1/4 of the way around.  We really enjoyed just strolling along and enjoying the beautiful scenery.

Below three girls swimming waved good-bye to us as we were getting into the van.

We hope you have enjoyed seeing a little of what we do on a regular basis.  We stay involved with the acitivities at the school besides teaching our classes.  Our Young Single Adults keep us busy with their various activites.  We try to enjoy and see as much of the island as we can on our P-Days  when we have time.  Samoa has a lot of beautiful things to see and we really love the people.  We are busy, happy and well. 

Until next time.  Tofa Soifua Reed and Nada

Hello Family and Friends.  Today is Tuesday, January 29, 2013.  We have been in Samoa for six months and to celebrate we went to the Southeast side of the island to play in the water.  That was Saturday, January 26th. 

Our office couple, Elder and Sister Partridge, are going home to Arizona on February 2nd and had never been to two of our favorite places so we planned an outing to take them to To Sua Trenches and Vavau Beach.  Reed has decided that he is the one to help fulfill senior missionaries bucket wish list before they go home.  We also invited Elder and Siter Gertsch our Zone Leaders and Elder and Sister Rotz who arriveed December 12th and have not been in the water yet!

First we stopped at To Sua Trenches.  There is one hole that is dry and one that has water.  You climb down a lot of steps and then down a ladder.  The water is cool but refreshing and you just float around and the tide coming in and out moves you back and forth.  It is a quiet, relaxing place to do a little swimming, very little snorkeling and lots of relaxing.

Reed cannot pass up snorkeling no matter how little there is to see under the water.

 Nada climbed out of the water trench and into the dry trench.  This little hole is all that divides them but the other one stays dry.

They have these nice little fales that you can rest in or have a picnic in.  We ate our picnic looking out over the ocean.  What a view!

This is the view we were looking at the whole time we were visiting and eating.  The water is so clear and the colors are so crisp and beautiful.

We climbed down and played on the rocks while the waves came in and washed over them.  They have put in a lot of stairs that take you right down to the ocean and planted some beautiful flowers and shrubs all along the hill down to the beach.  It was very fun.

 They say there is a blow hole here but we have not seen it either time we've been here.

 

A few of the missionaries climbed into this hole as waves came over the rocks and kept splashing.  They called it their hot tub.  When Reed climbed into it fish jumped out into the other little pools around it.  They really jumped high and far.  It was very interesting to watch.  We then climbed back up the stairs and got in the van and drove about five minutes to Vavau beach.  The tide was out so snorkeling was a little hard in some places but we still had a great time.  The weather was clear, hot and a beautiful day.  We didn't take any pictures this time.  Reed and Nada both snorkeld so we forgot to take pictures.  It has rained so much these past couple of weeks we could not believe how lucky we were to have a clear, beautiful day.  The Partridge's had so much fun and made the comment that they wished they had done these things sooner.  Bucket list wish fulfilled!

 

Monday, January 28, 2013, first day of school for Pesega Middle School, LDS Church College Pesega and Sauniatu Primary School.  Reed and Nada had to attend all three schools that day for introductions and to visit classes.  The middle and high school just did orientation all day after their opening devotionals and Sauniatu actually held classes.  We thought we would share a few first day of school pictures with you.

 

This is early morning as the students are arriving on the Pesega campus.  It had been pouring rain and then cleared up for a few minutes.

Nada standing outside gate 2, the gate we usually use, to the Pesega campus.  To her left is the main office and you can see the temple if you keep looking farther to her left.  These are the views that we get to see every day when we go to our office.

The middle school is meeting here for their opening devotional and orientation today.  The Fale will be their main meeting point.  These students were lucky because they are actually sitting on chairs and under tents which was a good thing because it rained off and on all day.

 Year 7, 8 and 9 students awaiting the principal to begin the devotional.

The high school will still use the gym as their main meeting area for devotionals and school functions.  Year 10, 11, 12 and 13 students.  The teachers get the chairs but as you can see the students sit on the floor.  Not as lucky as the middle school students.

Sister Maugatai and her year one students at Sauniatu.  Reed took every one of the pictures indivually so she could do a picture wall.  They thought this was awesome!

Sister Peresentene and her year two students.  They were writing letters and drawing pictures that started with those letters.

Sister Maiava, a new teacher and a palagi, teaching her year three class.  She is married to a Samoan but she doesn't speak a lot so she will really help these students learn their English this year.

 

Some of Brother Gase's year four class.   The bell rang for lunch so we didn't get to take any pictures of the years 5 through 8 students.   

This is called the tuck shop.  This is where the students go to buy their lunch if they don't bring something from home.  They do not have cafeterias.  These are independent contractors who run these shops.  Usually for 2 Tala (about one US Dollar) they get a piece of chicken and a little rice.  Sometimes they only buy a bag of chips or some fruit drink frozen in a ziplock bag and they eat it like a popsicle.

After lunch they had all the girls go to one room and all the boys go to a different room and they talked to them about the church schools rules and policies.  We left shortly after they began so we don't know what else they talked about.  We couldn't see why they had to be separate unless it is tradition or maybe they did talk about something that would be easier to have them separated for.

We enjoyed visiting the three different schools and seeing how they start their school year.  All the students we talked to seemed excited to be back in school. 

We are well and busy.  Reed did some presenting at the inservices and is busy getting classes ready which will begin on February 4th.  We have had so much rain this month.  It is easy to see why things grow so fast here.  We are really enjoying our mission, the people and the beautiful places we get to see.  We know the gospel is true and that there are great people no matter where you go.  We love all of you.  Until next time.  Elder and Sister Spencer.

 

 

 

 

January 10, 2013.  Happy New Year everyone.  Wow it is hard to believe it is 2013 already.  Here in Samoa we were the first people to welcome in the New Year since we are the first time zone.  That was fun.

Today we will blog a little about the cyclone, Christmas and New Years!

After the cyclone hit we did a lot of cleaning up.  We were without power for 12 days at our house.  Some of the other senior missionaries were never without power because the church has some huge generators that they ran until their power came back on which was one week.  So, they had a couple of empty houses where the generators were running and they let us stay there at night until we finally got power. For the first two nights we slept in our own house and then after that we slept at house 36 and cooked there because they had power and then we would go to our house and shower.  It was a long couple of weeks but an adventure.

Elder Watson who is in the Area Presidency came from New Zealand to assess the needs of the members.  He held a special fireside Saturday evening the 22nd with the Mission President, Sister Leota and all the senior missionaries.  Sister Watson spoke first and then they showed a film of the Nativity Story and then Elder Watson talked.  They were very inspirational and informative as to what the church was doing to help all those displaced members from the cyclone.  This firside helped bring some Christmas Spirit.

Monday, December 24, 2012, Christmas Eve.  The seniors got together and put together some bags of treats to take to the Magiagi Chapel where 300 members are living who lost their homes.  They said there were about 50 children there so we did 68 bags and still did not have enough.  We sang a couple of Christmas carols and then passed out the treats from youngest to oldest.  It was very humbling to be there and see what little these people have left.

 Each senior missionary or couple brought some kind of treat or fruit and we assembled the bags at the conference room at the Mission Office and then we took two vans with senior missionaries to deliver the treats.

 These chairs are marking off areas where families are living.  Each section looks like it is about 10 by 10. There are about 300 people living at this church.

 These are some of the children lined up waiting for us to sing to them and pass out the bags of goodies. We are under a pavilion at the church.  They were very polite and grateful.

 Sister Spencer passing out some treats.

 This is looking down from the church.  This is where the river went through and where most of these people lived.

You can see all the logs and trees that are down and yet most of the coconut trees stayed standing.

That evening we had a fun family night Christmas party.  We sang some carols, had some good food and did a white elephant exchange.  It was a lot of fun for us.  There was not a lot of holiday spirit or decorating here in Samoa.  We think that some of that was due to the cyclone.  People had more important things, like survival, on their minds.  However, some people did go to church at midnight and you could hear the bells ring and hear them singing.  Then they go around caroling to their neighbors.  They told us that is how many Samoans celebrate Christmas.
Reed and I slept in house 36 that night and came home at 6:00 a.m. to open gifts from each other and skype our children to open the gifts they sent us.

 
You can see our Christmas tree on the wall.  Reed created it and we had ornaments and lights on it.  However, we only used the lights a couple of days and then we had no power.  Christy sent us the stockings with the 12 Days of Christmas in them and that was fun to have.

 This is Nada opening her slippers from her sister Kris and talking to Justin, Lana and family while we opened their gifts to us.

We went over to our office at 5:30 a.m. and  skyped with all our children and grandchildren while they opened their gifts from us on Christmas Day in Utah which was December 26th here in Samoa.  

 We had a Christmas brunch at house 36 because it was big enough to do so.  We called it the club house because this is the house they let us five couples use to cook our meals and then eventually three of us slept here for a few nights because they opened up two other units in Temple housing for the other two couples.  Sister Osborne had brought this ham over from American Samoa, when they visited, and saved it for this special occasion.

YUMMY!









That afternoon four of us senior couples went over to the south side of the island to Old Hideaway Beach and snorkeled.  We had not been over there since the cyclone and could not believe the damage there.  Parts of the road were washed away, water had created new pathways that looked like rivers now, houses were blown down, roofs missing, trees down and power lines down everywhere.  They probably won't have power for at least a month.

 Not everyone can say they spent Christmas afternoon playing on the beach and snorkeling.  We can.  We had a great time.  We found a lot of interesting sea shells.  Nada found three whole sea urchins and lots of sand dollars.

 Reed found this star fish? or sea star or whatever while snorkeling.  It was still alive so we put in back in the ocean after we took this picture.

Just relaxing.  Elder and Sister Gertsch and Sister Budgett.

We arrived back home around 5:00 p.m. and to our surprise our power was on.  Merry Christmas to us! It was so nice to sleep in our own bed.




On Saturday, December 29, 2012, Budgett's, Osborne's and us climbed into the van and headed to Fagaloa Bay which is on the north east side of the island.  It is also where most of the wood carving takes place here in Samoa.  There was a lot of wind damage to the trees and their power was still out but it did not look like any homes were flooded or blown down.

 We had to drive to this side of the bay on one road and then we had to drive out and go to the other side of the bay down another road.  If you have a heavy duty four wheel drive you could have driven over the rough track to get to the other side but not in our van.  We parked the van at this LDS Church and hiked up the road for a ways.

 Looking down from where we hiked onto the village of Saletele.  These little villages are quite small and isolated.  They have beautiful ocean and mountains around them.

 This is the inside of the chapel.  They are right above the beach.  We would have a hard time concentrating on the meeting with the beach and ocean only a very few feet away.  Very humble but beautiful church.

 All the brown areas are what the trees look like now after the cyclone.  It looks like something just sucked all the color and life out of them.  Before the cyclone they were all very green.

 The green bird on the branch in the picture above was so beautiful  They are called a Crimson-Crowned Fruit-Dove and this is the first time any of us have seen one.  We were very excited.

 Looking down on Fagaloa Bay.  This is going down the other road now.  This is such a beautiful view of the bay from the top of the ridge.

The picture on the left, Reed just loved the ripples in the water and then the mountains behind.  We are in Lona village here.  The road again turns into a steep track that you can only get to the last two villages if you have a four wheel drive truck.  That is where they do most of the carving so Reed is going to find someone with a truck to take us back there soon.

 You can see the wind damage in the picture on the right.  It just whipped the life right out of these trees.










Monday, December 31, 2012 for New Years Eve we had a special going away family night for the Osborne's.  They are traveling TVET missionaries and will go to Fiji for five months now.  They have been our closest friends and Reed's snorkeling buddy so they will be sorely missed.  We then came to our house and played games until just after midnight.  We are the first country on the time zone to start a new day so we were the first to welcome in 2013!  Yeah!!! We heard some bells ringing and fireworks going off.  The people here get together with their families and just enjoy each others company and eat.  They take the next day off as well.  In Samoa almost every holiday is two days.  The actual holiday and then they take the next day off as well to celebrate.  We think the one is the religious day and the other is the party day?

On New Year's Day 2013 we had a lunch with four other senior couples and then Gertsch, Osborne, Budgett and Spencer's went to Palolo Deep for Elder and Sister Osborne's final snorkeling date.  Reed and Joe made it clear out past the reef and said they saw some new and interesting fish.  It was a great way to bring in the New Year.  We played games later that night because now things are settling down from the Cyclone and getting back to normal and it is time to get  back to serious work.

Well life is settling back to normal for most of the Island.  Some people are still without power but it has rained a lot so the water crisis has been mostly avoided.  The people have really worked hard and rallied around each other and that has been wonderful to watch.  We hope you all had a wonderful holiday and hope that 2013 will be a great year for you.  We are grateful for all our blessings and safety.  We love our family and are so grateful we could skype most all of our extended  family as well during the holidays.  Technology is wonderful.  Until next time.  Love Elder and Sister Spencer.