Fall, Family, and Food……

Well this week found us much improved from the flu that we have battled for several weeks. The weather is still very dry on this side of the island and Gramma insisted it was feeling a little like fall was in the air. Well, this is not supposed to be fall it is supposed to be winter approaching spring here. But, there is a feeling of season and I took some pictures at Sauniatu of the “Samoan” fall. These trees were losing their leaves and they are falling to the ground. 

Gramma directed and accompanied the institute choir as they sang at the devotional this week. The young man with the walking stick is blind. He sang a solo with the choir and has a beautiful voice. He is not a member of the LDS church, but he attends institute every day. 

They had three young missionaries speak. The first sister is going to the New Zealand Hamilton Mission and the other sister is going to Australia. The young man just returned from New Zealand and is the son of our middle school principal. 

As we were starting to get our appetite back we decided to go out to lunch. We went to the only place in Samoa that serves sort of Mexican food. I say that because the rice and beans had a Currie taste to them, but the enchilada was okay. They even had live entertainment (at 1:00 in the afternoon, of course they close at 4:00). 

Week end means laundry and this is our special place at the carport between us and Goodlets apartment and the Jacobs and one of our teachers apartment. Our washer is on the left, the other apartments on the right, and we share the dryer. 

Only the missionaries are supposed to use the dryers, so there are a lot of clothes lines. Gramma prefers hanging up many of the things we wash. I however prefer setting the dryer on high heat and getting it over with.   

While I was washing I watched a little rugby out on the school field. There is always multiple activities going on at the church athletic fields, they are very good about sharing them with the community as long as they follow the church rules for using them. 

I had said in the last blog that Gramma got a little home sick on the break that we were so sick. One of the reasons is that the Goodlets son-in-law, daughter, and two little grand kids showed up from Australia to spend a couple of weeks with them. I was hard for her to play with the little redheaded girl and hold the baby, and not think of all you grand kids at home. This is a picture of the Goodlets the night before their family went home.   

The next day the Goodlets invited us out to dinner (at fancy pizza and Italian place), to celebrate how quiet it was at their house now the kids had gone home. The pizza here is as different as the enchilada’s. 

We sometimes forget what a beautiful place we live in here in Samoa. Gramma and I had to stay after church so she could help the young single adults in our ward learn a song to sing tonight at a fireside. Backing out of the church parking lot there is such beautiful flowers and driving down the hill to head home there is the beautiful Pacific Ocean. 

In the last picture the buildings on the left are the hospital and the building on the right is a combination wedding reception-funeral home. Only in Samoa! We are doing much better and it is a good thing because things have not slowed down at all. We can testify that we are involved in the Lord’s work even though it is very different from many other missionary assignments. We made it to the Temple this week. It had been close for two weeks and it was great to be there. We encourage all of you to make it to the Temple. We pray for all of you and say “go to church” and do the other things that you know you should do. We love you, Tofa Soifua, Elder and Sister Hammond.