The first of the good-bye’s…….

Samoans love sports. Across the street from or apartment they play volleyball when they can stretching a net in-between the two duplexes and using the buildings as the boundaries. On the other side of the duplex on the right there is usually a game of rugby going on.

We had a senior couple family home evening on Monday and they wanted a group picture. They have one of the security guards come in, stand on a chair, and take multiple pictures. I felt sorry for him because everyone had suggestion on how he should be doing it. The second picture is Gramma visiting with one of the new dentists, Elder Orchard from Idaho Falls (he was a dentist in Bountiful).

While waiting down town for Gramma to do some shopping I found these shirts for sale. One shirt is from Taylorview Jr. High wrestling and the other one for Idaho Falls City volleyball.

Gramma was asked to teach a short yoga class in the Pesega Lima English ward relief society enrichment night. She got pictures of the knitting, but not the yoga.

Gramma saw another beautiful sun rise the other morning and then her first student didn’t make it she went back to take a picture of it. It was not as pretty as it was the first time she saw it.

There are two more of Gramma’s early morning piano students, Keith and Josephine.

Here is Sister Jahnke and her daughter Feta. Sister Jahnke is one of the teachers at the high school and takes piano lessons from Gramma. They came up to our office to visit us. 

After school we took a walk along the Apia harbor flood wall. Here is a picture of the Apia protestant church. The boat is one that just arrived from Tonga. It has sailed to many islands and started its journey in New Zealand. The “Paddles” restaurant is one of the first restaurant’s that we went to eat when we got to Samoa. It is supposed to be one of the better ones. It is the first food we got sick from. We have not been back and Gramma wanted a picture to remember. 

We were invited to got to breakfast with the Hellisoe family. The Elder and Sister Jackson went with us. This is one of the first formal good-bye, there are several more scheduled, I hope I can survive them, I would rather just shake hands and leave, but luckily Gramma is more social.

We still have grades to turn in for a counseling practicum and three Sisters to recommend for their counseling certificate. The files are almost up to date, but we have decided that there will not be much free time between now and when we get on a plane a week from Tuesday. Monday is our last delivery of water and mail to the missionaries, we will miss that. Wednesday and Thursday we teach our last professional development classes. Today, (Sunday) we are speaking in our ward. We indeed have been very busy for the past 18 months, but it has been a great experience to serve the Lord and the people of Samoa. May God bless all of you; we love you and miss you.  Tofa Soifua Grampa and Gramma Hammond