Marching Bands and more Beach…..

This past week was a little strange. They called off school Monday because the classrooms were still in disarray from the youth conference and Friday and today (Monday) was part of a long Easter Celebration here in Samoa. Even though there were not students, we worked to get ready to teach at Sauniatu. They called and said that they were planning on the class even though they were out of school. When we got there only one teacher was able to get there so we gave our midterm test and told her she would get an A. We stayed about an hour; I watched the construction crew work on the addition and remodel of the school and church there. They do things quite differently here. We had time to go see the church cemetery there. Here is a picture of some missionary graves. There are quite a few missionary graves on the Islands of Samoa. 

 On Wednesday we went with two other missionary couples to watch the traditional Wednesday morning raising of the Samoan flag by the police department band. Here the Winters, Goodlets and Gramma were waiting. Believe it or not they were running late, after all this is Samoa. 

 

 

Here they come! 

Around the corner.

Yes, that is Gramma, it reminds her of her marching band days.

Around the corner again. 

Halt!

Up goes the flag.

No, that is not Gramma, that is a tourist from Australia.   

There were many of them that came in the night on this cruise ship.

All done so off they go and we go back to work.   

Here is Gramma with a couple of her many Thursday piano students.

On Friday we were invited by the Goodlets and a Samoan family that own part of a beachfront to go see and swim at their beach. Jon Barrus the medical student from Emmett went with us. He lived with the Sisters family when he served here on a mission in 2003. The problem is there is no road to their property. So you take another road and then walk over a mile along the beach to get there. This is quite a journey, but boy it is pretty. 

We finally made it.  

The little girls had fun. 

Here is an interesting tree root Gramma wanted a picture of.   

And here is the familys own little island that is part of their property. 

Jon showed us how to climb coconut trees. 

I was a very fast learner.   

We had to get back for two choir practices, but Gramma took pictures on the part of the trail we had walked to get to their property. A fale and an outdoor shower.

Here is the washroom. That is Gramma in the mirror.

Outrigger canoes.   

And another fale, you rent these and if you spend the night they give you a net to sleep under so mosquito don’t get you.   

Well, that was this past week. We are going to try and send more people pictures. The people here are as interesting as the sites.We did have the big Easter choir concert with the entire stake. 2 hours and 40 Minutes. I took a few pictures for the next blog. We thought choir practice would slow down, but they are practicing again this week (three times) because they may have our ward and the other ward Gramma helped, perform on the local television station. We will keep you posted. I attended a baptism in our ward. Four members of a family were baptized. I had to give the opening prayer and was one of the witness, so we do get a lot of spiritual experiences. They are special and don’t always fit the “blog”. Gramma tries to cover those in our family email. Love you all, Tofa Soifua, Elder and Sister Hammond