Cathedrals, New Cars, and the Beach…….

We had a good class at Sauniatu this week and before it started we turned around at the end of the road and took this picture of Camp Sauniatu. It is used for a young women’s camp, young men’s camp, father and sons, and even was used by the ward for a chapel when their chapel was being remodeled this year. 

Because we were in a car (more about that later) and the sister that we take home so far away from the school was in Apia having a new baby, we got back a little earlier than usual. So we stopped and visited the Mulivia Cathedral in downtown Apia. It is Samoa’s biggest Catholic Church building and has been hit and damaged so many times by cyclones, they remodeled it so it can endure these terrible storms It is a beautiful building. 

The rotunda in the south side of the building has so many beautiful paintings.  

Here is a rear view back at the organ loft.  

The ceilings are made of native hardwood.

  There are many beautiful windows. 

Here is one of the many reliefs that are along the walls.

On Monday they came and got our van. I posted it on Instagram. President Tolman said he needed more vans for the zone and district leaders. They, in some cases had to drive their car to the mission home to get a van so they could pick up their entire district for meetings. We and the Goodlets have vans and both of us would prefer having a car. They drive much nicer, are more comfortable, and get better gas mileage. So they took ours and Goodlet's vans, gave us cars and our van is now in Savaii. Here it is.

It was so dirty when we got it I had to spend a couple of hours cleaning it. The Elders that had it were apparently not very concerned about cleanliness. We need to be careful too, we went to the beach and I parked under a palm tree again and two Samoan guys that walked by said, ”you may want to move that.” Coconuts fall down!

We went to the beach after laundry and Gramma cleaning the apartment. We had not had a chance for a long time and it was nice. Gramma found more shells and found that if she walks about 12 feet out as the tide is going out she can find “sand dollars”, she is trying to get one for every grandchild.

This picture is of her looking on the beached in a down pour, I am taking this picture under my umbrella to keep from getting the camera soaked. The picture does show how hard the rain was coming down.

 These next two pictures are of some kind of old rusty caterpillar vehicle, you can tell by the tracks. It looks like the bottom of a small Japanese tank they used in WWII, but Samoa was lucky in that no battle or occupation happened to them. The closest major battle was in Fiji. 

Tomorrow we will go to the Sunday sessions of conference we have seen the morning and part of the afternoon session already, but you cannot get enough of conference. On the Island it is “white Sunday”, every one wear white to church. It is really for children, it is children’s day, they get new clothes, and get to eat first at meals. The other times the kids eat last! Because of the white Sunday holiday they have to take Monday off to recover, only in Samoa. So we don’t have school, but still have to deliver water and mail to the missionaries. We will see if I can get 16 water bottles in a car with the seats down. Elder Goodlet is going with me and Gramma will go with Sister Goodlet shopping. I think everything is closed so that could be interesting. We love you and want you to know the Church is true. Be good, Be kind, look out for one another. Do what you should and may God bless you. Tofa Soifa, Grampa and Gramma Hammond.