Halloween in Samoa,

We have found that Halloween is a primarily “American” holiday. It is catching on here a little and on the news it is starting to be a bigger deal in New Zealand and Australia, but not like home as we can see from all the family Halloween pictures sent to us. The Pesega Lima ward the English speaking ward had a “trunk or treat “and we had some trick or treater’s here on campus. They all came as a group except for the three that came a little after the main group.

On our delivery route we had one church building with the gates locked again so I had to jump over a fence again. Gramma gets a big kick out of this and took pictures of my ordeal as I returned from the Elders apartment in the back. She will not think it is funny if she has to jump over the fence herself and give me CPR. The real trick of this fence hopping is the two 40 pound water bottles I had to balance and get over the fence with me.

Gramma is working each Saturday morning at 9:00 with the graduating class for a song that they are singing at graduation. Here are a couple of pictures of the last practice the whole group is twice this size.

Gramma cannot control herself when it comes to cleaning. We were waiting for the maintenance people to clean our building outside, but she couldn’t wait and washed all the window sills.

Gramma may have mentioned her friend Nozzy, the Stake choir director and Stake music chairman, and the problems in the village where they lived. It happened four years ago and they finally got a court settlement over it. The people have to pay $7,000 Tala a month till the judgment is paid. Some in the village got mad at them, threw rocks and broke their windows, and drove them out of their house. After they left they broke in stole everything including the toilets and they had their kids set the house, vehicles, and other buildings on fire. The pictures are of the house of the people who did it and what is left of Nozzy’s home, buildings and vehicles.

Several weeks ago I had picture of some boy’s skinny dipping in a pond. Well, the pigs like the place too. Here they are wadding in the water just above that pond. 

Elders Roberts and Vaitu’u moved to the fale near a member while their apartment it being remodeled. It will take several months. The first thing they ask for was mosquito nets to sleep under. They had been up on P-day getting some coconuts. I thought I would try out the Samoan Wheel barrow. 

They are still having Rugby workout on campus. These guys are working hard hoping to get on one of the national teams. The big deal this week end on TV was that the All Blacks from New Zealand (they have a lot of Samoans), beat the American rugby team at Soldiers field in Chicago 60 to 6. It was so bad we were going to tell people we were from Canada.

That is the high lights of this week. We went to the English speaking ward (Pesega Lima)for Sacrament meeting at 9:00 and then went on to the new Motootua Lua ward  at 11:00 for all the meetings. The chapel was full and the Elders in the ward said a lot of less actives were out to meetings because the new Bishop had told them that the ward was going to need them. All four wards affected by the division of two wards were the same, full chapels. Gramma played the piano for the Stake seminary graduation Sunday night. We are going to the Temple tomorrow night and on Wednesday Bro. Mulitaulo, the retired football player with the Baltimore Ravens and his wife are taking us out to dinner. Gramma has been teaching their daughter piano lessons, and they have been trying to take us out for some time. We love you all and want you to know that we have learned that Halloween is an all American activity. We enjoyed the pictures; we love emails, and miss you all. Be good, do what is right and the good consequences will follow. Tofa Soifua, Elder and Sister Hammond.