Well we survived another week. We went over to American Samoa in a Twin Otta plane, to give a presentation on Cyclones and guess what? On the second day up comes this cyclone. Lots of heavy, heavy, rain and winds of at least 90mph. We were driving up this hill with about four inches of water coming down the road it was like driving up a waterfall. We couldn't see the road ,just water rushing down at us and that was just the tail end of the storm. It seems the cyclone was coming strait for the island but veered off at the last minute and turned south. So we didn't get the full force of it. By the way a cyclone is a hurricane but in the southern hemisphere The Florida version ( northern hemisphere) turns one way and a cyclone turns the other. We are told the same thing happens to the water draining out of the bathtub.
While in A/Samoa we stayed with the Mission President and his wife at their permanent residence, a beautiful home, from their kitchen window you could see the ocean. A/Samoa or Tutuila is quite different from Independent Samoa the us dollar is used rather than the Talla and they have all the fast food restaurants etc. and foods in the grocery stores that we can't get over here so we brought back all sorts of meat and stuff to stock up our pantry. The missionaries are going great guns over there starting at 7am and teaching all day even on P-day they only have time to take 3 hours to get everything done then back to work. We have spent a great weekend a 'spiritual feast' with Elder Cook,of the quorum of the twelve and Bishop Burton the Presiding Bishop and Elder Callister of the Seventy and President of the South Pacific Area.and their wives. We started off with a Cultural Event by the Samoan Saints a lot of traditional dancing and singing. It was very entertaining. Because of all the missionaries being in town we were very busy in the office. all the ailments you could think of from diarrhea and vomiting, sprained ankles, and treatment for polarises ( elephant's) caused by mosquito's and de-woming. We saw about 50 patients over the weekend we finished up at 12-30 Saturday night and were woken up at 7am on Sunday morning by someone else with the runs ( Montezuma revenge) Memories of being up in Deer Lake. We also had our first dinner guests, a senior couple we were at the MTC with and two other couples from Savaii, the other island of the group all this between attending two firesides and a missionary meeting with Elder Cook and helping to serve the Missionary meals. Early Saturday morning we went down to the fish Market in Apia where we saw fish we had never seen before and the Vegetable Market so we are trying out a few local dishes.
It was our Stake Temple Day on Thursday so we were doing Sealings at 5-30 am for a couple of hours then back again for a session at 6-pm The Temple is very beautiful here with lots of tropical flowers and trees and water features in the grounds.
Mom loves it, she can pop outside and pick these magnificent blooms and arrange them on the dining table.
Adrienne would you take a photo of the 1st Ward Primary Children and email it to us so Mom can start a communication between the two ward primary groups.
We are loving it here, the local people are so happy, friendly and welcoming. Their slogan is " We are a happy people" and they live up to it. Even though we love and miss you all. We know this is were we are supposed to be right now. We know that God lives and that Jesus is the Christ, the anointed one and that what we are doing is important. You are all in our prayers every day. Give all the Grand-kids a big hug for us and tell them we love and miss them.
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