Something to do every day……

Time is really moving quickly. It is Sunday today and we have only 5 more Sundays on this beautiful island and then we will be going home. It was a Regional (all the south pacific islands) Conference today and we had a broadcast from Salt Lake. The message was on the importance of keeping the Sabbath holy, it was very good and inspiring. We picked up the Spencer’s at the airport on Monday. They interviewed all the teachers in the bridging program (that’s a program to help those  that haven’t finished school), visited our Tuesday class, and attended all the bridging classes. Wednesday we had them for dinner and Thursday took them back to the airport. It was good to have them visit again. We will be spending a couple of days with them in Auckland when we go home.

There were two or three things to do each day it is so busy with some of our classes finishing and all the other assignments. On Friday we got to speak at the Institute of Religion at the National University of Samoa. It was good to speak to these students again, Gramma used to lead their choir every Friday afternoon.

One of the hardest things about Friday for Gramma is typing up all her student teaching evaluations and having teacher reflections. It takes at least half of the day. It makes it hard to get out of the office at that day.

On Saturday we were invited to the Hellesoe family for dinner. Gramma teaches the two young boys piano and it was a way they wanted to thank her for doing it. The family is Goske (dad), Lucia (mom) and the tree children. The other young man is a relative, but I don’t remember his name. Here is dad and the boys, Neil and Jerry. The next picture is the boys with sister Myrtle. Myrtle was impressed that my Grandmother’s name was Myrtle and that my sister’s middle name was Myrtle. She knew no other Myrtles. The mom,Lucia is the secretary at the Institute of Religion.

They were a wonderful family. Hellesoe’e grandfather was Danish. He was a sailor that had been all over the world and when he came to Samoa he liked it so well he stayed. Tonight we have two conflicting meetings, Gramma will go to a choir rehearsal and I have to go to a Zone Couples leadership meeting that is at the same time. Unless things change, it looks like will be arriving home on the 25^th of June at 9:15 pm at the Idaho Falls airport. Our flight will be from Apia to New Zealand, stay there two days for an exit report, then to San Francisco, Salt Lake, and then Idaho Falls. It will be a long trip. We miss all of you and will be glad to see you, but we will miss this special place and all of our new friends here. We were told this week that they have not found replacements for us yet. They have had two couples wanting to come, but both couple were not allowed by the missionary department to come for medical reasons. This is not a place to be if you have any medical issues. Love you and miss you. Go to church, we learned again today that it is important to go there and keep the Sabbath day holy. Tofa Soifua, Gramma and Grampa Hammond.