Samoan Independence Day…….

This week was the independence celebration for Samoa. Our Stake choir was asked to sing at a special Sunday evening service at the large Catholic Church down on the wharf. Our choir and one from the Methodist church both sang at the program. The song Gramma had practiced and accompanied with the choir for weeks and four days straight during the week was not performed; I think she has shared that story with you. Here are some pictures of the service, before singing, during singing, and after. The last photo shows Gramma’s surprise (not really) in not singing the other song!

The next pictures are of Nozzy, Gramma, Daisy, and the high councelor over the music, Daisy and Gramma, and Daisy, Gramma, and Brianna. Brianna is Daisy’s daughter, she is waiting for a mission call.

The next picture is of the Gillette’s, the new couple from Gooding, Idaho. We had them over for dinner on Monday night. The next night was Elder Gillette’s birthday so a group of the senior couple went out to eat to celebrate. I got a great picture of the moon (well, great for my camera), before we went into the restaurant.

We finished two more classes this week and on Friday were took Elder and Sister Wilkins on a short tour of the island. We took them to see a couple of areas they needed to see because they are doing some legal work for the Church involving those areas. There serve in the Pacific Area Office and are both retired judges. The first chapel we stopped to show them had a surprise inside. The first chapel we have seen in Samoa with a real piano. Gramma played it and it was very apparent why there is no real pianos in Samoa. It was terribly out of tune (the heat and humidity makes it hard to keep them in tune).   

They also needed to go to see the ranch at Sauniatu, so up the bumpy road we went for the second day in a row. Of course we had to show them the water falls there. We drove farther up the road than we have ever been before and saw this tree that Gramma wanted a picture of. 

The Wilkins had never been to Samoa so they had us stop quite often and take some pictures. This boy on a horse was so interesting I took a picture, even the horse posed for the picture.

We stopped at beautiful Lalomanu beach on the far east end of the island and had lunch.

We got back to Apia in time for Gramma to take Sister Wilkin’s to two of her favorite shopping places, Pacific Jewel and the Plantation House. Sister Wilkins bought several things and seemed to enjoy shopping. Elder Wilkins and I watched. Later that night they wanted to take us out to dinner again, so we went to one of the nicer places in Apia. It was a nice day; they were very easy to visit with and had very interesting backgrounds. Thus, another week has passed, time really is moving quickly. We have to speak in church next Sunday, it is our last day attending the Motootua Ward, because the next Sunday is stake conference. We love and miss you and are looking forward to being home in a little more than a couple of weeks. Be good, be kind to others, and have a good safe start to summer. May God bless you, Tofa Souifua, Grampa and Gramma Hammond.