The Secret About Santa

🎅 We had a very merry Christmas in Samoa!  We kept busy Christmas Eve by baking a "zillion" cookies to make up plates to deliver to all of our neighbors and the other missionary couples.  We also hosted a Christmas Eve party at our house complete with Janice's Swedish Meatballs and some hot wassail.  We watched the George C Scott version of A Christmas Carol and visited!  It kept us busy until we could be sure that Santa was going to come before going to bed late.

Christmas morning found us with an abundance of presents under our tree and full Christmas stockings.  After cleaning up we got ready to meet the other senior couples at one of the beach resorts downtown for breakfast.  It was sunny and warm next to the beautiful blue-green surf and palm trees.  As we were eating, who should appear but Santa!  This is when we discovered his secret.  He is Samoan!  This makes perfect sense because we are the first nation in the world to experience Christmas.  He starts here and works his way around the entire earth in the following 24 hours and ends up in American Samoa just a few miles to the east of us (they are on the opposite side of the

international date line).  So he starts in Samoa and ends in Samoa.  We would not be surprised to find out that the North Pole is actually around here somewhere.  That would make a lot of sense since it is so comfortable and if I had a choice, I would live here instead of north of the frozen arctic circle.  You can see by his picture that he starts out fairly young but I am sure by the time he finishes each year, he gets old and gray.  By staying in Samoa the entire year, he rejuvenates to his young self again just in time for his next Christmas trip.

All kidding aside, we are grateful for the Christmas season that encourages all people everywhere to be a little kinder, to act more generous, and to remember the gift that God has given us in his Son, Jesus Christ.  He is our great hope and the exemplar of how to obtain a happy life.  May God abundantly bless all of you with his love.  We love you and miss you!

Savai'i The Big Island

We took the opportunity this week to go to the other Samoan ITEP campus at Vaiola on the island of Savai'i and check out the house that the new ITEP missionary couple, the Fillmore's will be living in. 

Blow Holes in Savai'i

We were so blessed to have Elder and Sister Little get our apartment ready when we came and we wanted to pay it forward just a bit.  The Samoan word Vai means water and ola means life or living.  So the name of the school literally means living water.  I am sure that the purpose of the school is to provide not only a secular education but connect the young people with our Savior, Jesus Christ and the living water he represents.

Steps to the Vaiola Sign on the Hill on Vaiola Campus

A Brave Woman!

We had a wonderful time and a lot of fun cleaning and organizing the house as well as taking a 360 degree tour of the island.  We drove around the entire island - stopping to see the blow holes powered by the surf and going up the canopy walk (40 meters or 131 feet off the ground).  Crossing on the ferry was an adventure but made possible with Dramamine for me.

Janice scraping coconuts to make milk

We have been busy teaching our class, preparing lessons, building and using a coconut bench with a scraper (you have not lived until you have eaten boiled green bananas with fresh coconut milk with onion sauce). 

We are missing our family a bunch during this Christmas season but trying to say busy and serving where we can.  Our hearts go out to each of you and wish we could be there to give you a warm embrace with our love but you will just have to settle for our love alone!

Sliding rocks waterfalls just above our house

Treacle!

Okay, so in preparation for the Christmas party for the neighbor kids, Janice was making some molasses cookies and ran out of molasses.  I was sent on a mission to find more molasses.  I went to 4 different grocery stores and no one knew what molasses was.  I looked in all

Equivalent of Molasses!

the baking sections and no molasses!  I finally took a wild guess and grabbed a dark can labelled "Treacle."  We got home and researched it on the internet and found out that treacle is the equivalent of american molasses so the day was saved and we had molasses cookies (that were very good by the way)!  We had 10 or so kids come over and Janice helped them make paper snowflakes and I helped them make candy cane reindeer.  We had a blast with them.

We are trying to keep the tradition of "taco Tuesday" alive so last Wednesday (which is Tuesday back home) we went to a place on the dock that serves pretty decent Nachos with Taro chips.  We do sneak a bottle of hot sauce in so we can jazz it up a bit.  We included a picture of the Christmas tree on the dock!

Christmas trees from coconut fronds

We are still have a few preparations to get ready for Christmas but it is coming up.  It is really hard to be sneaky to get presents when Janice and I are together all of the time.  We will just have to get inventive!  Enjoy the season!  We love everyone and hope you are staying warm.  We are enjoying a balmy 86 degrees every day here in the palm trees.

New Class

Fale under construction!

Today we started teaching a new class - BYU Hawaii EDU 340 Multiculturalism and Culturally Responsive Teaching (SIOP).  We only had three teachers show up but we will "shake the tree" and see if we can round up a few more.  If nothing else, those three teachers teach over 100 students a day so our class will impact the learning of at least 300 students here.

Janice's Puletasi

Janice had a puletasi made.  I have a matching tie.  We wore that on Friday night to Pesega 4th ward's Christmas party.  There was live music, dancing, performances and of course a lot of food.  We love our ward!





We passed a traditional fale under construction on our way back from the beach the other day.  That was a bonus trip because we found a breadfruit (my favorite) on the road and took it home.

We have our house decorated for Christmas.  I don't think I can put any words on the roof so I am a little disappointed but we will just have to make due.  There are a few other houses that are putting up lights so we are beginning to feel the Christmas Spirit.  Manuia le Kerisimasi!

Hello December!

This past week found us attending Prize Giving ceremonies for both Pesega Middle School and High School along with graduation exercises for the 90 or so seniors at Pesega.  This is the official end of the academic school year here in Samoa with school now being out until the 28th of January.  This is their "summer" break.  We have found a small band of teachers that want that to take a BYU Hawaii education class from us.  We will be teaching SIOP starting December 10th.

We get to attend the temple every week and see it every day!

We were invited to the Senior Prom on Friday night.  Every young person was dressed up in suits and long formal wear in a hall without air conditioning (88 degrees).  The heat was stifling but the kids had a blast!  They danced until their suits were soaked in perspiration.

Janice taught a lesson for our Ward's young women's program today.  It was really good.  She is a wonderful teacher.

We love our mission!  We are sure that God loves us because he sent us here!  May God bless all of our family and friends this holiday.  We send our love to all of you!

Our little garden here in Samoa - Tomatoes, Squash, & Watermelon

They were going to throw these pineapple plants away.  We have a plantation now out back!