Return to Paradise….

That is the name of a movie with Gary Cooper made here in the 1953 and we visited the beach where it was filmed at. They had a big celebration last week as they opened the new resort and several of the actors in the movie returned for the opening. Not many of them are still alive, but more about our visit later. First, on our mail route Monday we found that the pigs had gotten into the church compound at Siumu and rooted up all the plants around the Elders Apartment. What a mess. The Elders tell us it has happened several times. The picture is of Elders Erickson and Hayes. The van in the background is our old van we drove last year. 

This horse was nearby. It is a good example of how skinny the horses are here, I understand there is not a lot of nutrition in the grass they eat. They all need some good Idaho hay.

This building is the lunch program for the school at Siumu (you can see it in the background). A couple of ladies bring some coolers with things in them, a pot with hot water for Raman noodles, and crackers. Mrs. Obama would not approve of the nutrition of this lunch program.

 The east side of the island had a lot of rain so waterfalls were visible.

These three Elders are in Vaimoso the first stop on our route. The big Elder is a Tongan and is a new missionary being trained by the other two. They needed a water filter in their apartment so I went back later in the week and installed one. It took 3 trips to the hardware store to get all the needed connections to hook it up. It is a very humble place to live.

Of course a large portion of the week was spent teaching and trying to finish up several of our classes. The teacher presenting is Loimata, one of the middle school teachers. He did a good job.

Saturday was our visit to the “Return to Paradise” visit. It was raining and the resort closed the beach to swimming because of a very rough surf and high tide. We visited, took pictures, and ate lunch at their restaurant.

The building on the right of the picture has displays of pictures and information of the making of the movie. You may want to rent the movie it has an element of truth about life in a Samoan village.

Of course, Gramma cannot be by the beach without looking for sea shells. When she got back to our apartment and started to soak the shells, she found one had a live hermit crap inside. She also loved the flowers and plants.

This coming week the new TVET couple (the Gillette’s) from Gooding, Idaho arrives. They will be in the apartment next to ours. They have been modeling it with new windows and cleaning it getting ready for the couples arrival. It will be nice to have someone in Goodlets old apartment again. We still have not heard who our replacements will be, but hopefully they will find someone. We love all of you, so be good and do what is right. We are very busy still and the time is going very quickly. May the Lord bless you in all you do. Tofa Soifua, Grampa and Gramma Hammond.