40th Anniversary

It seems like just yesterday we agreed to take this incredible journey called life together.  There, on the balcony of the Harris Fine Arts Center, we decided that we could join together and start what we think is a pretty good life's work (even if we say so ourselves)! We have 6 tremendous children that bless our lives every day, 10 wonderful grandchildren that make us laugh and smile, and of course we have each other.  We are finding that true love means forgiving one another even when we are with each other every minute of every day.  This is a good start for us in this season (retirement) of our lives because it is a structured environment to practice.  Joe composed the following poem for our 40th Anniversary:

Janice & Joe

Forty years ago today
You took a chance to say,
"I want you forever."
So since then, we've just stayed together.

The years melt away
When we think of that great day -

Bouquet at 40th Anniversary Dinner

Our little kingdom since then grew
Into more than twenty-two.

So let's face forward with our eyes
On heaven's gate on each sunrise.
Our goal now close, is heaven's view
Each day, each step, each smile anew!

We stayed at a beautiful resort on our Anniversary night on the south side of the Island.  Imagine our surprise to find out that our sons had called ahead and paid for our dinner there.  They had a bouquet of tropical flowers and sang the next morning to us as we ate our breakfast.  We will always remember how special everyone made it for us.

Our Very Own Pineapple!

We have started our next BYU Hawaii class - Classroom Management.  It feels good to be making a difference in the classrooms here at Pesega.  It is a lot of work but we love to teach.  Joe is starting up a counseling class this coming week also.  We hope to have our first student teacher start soon also.  We harvested our first pineapple that we grew.  We rescued the plants when they were redoing the landscaping.  One bloomed in October and yesterday, we were able to pick it.

Have a wonderful week!  Manuia vaiaso!

Tofa Mai Faleni!

We had to say goodbye this Friday to our friends the Wights.  We had a whirlwind experience to take them everyplace we could before they left including American Samoa and Savai'i.  It was so good to have someone from home to share our "paradise" with. 

We enjoyed our little trip to Pago Pago even though it was on a little plane. 
The 20 minute trip was pretty however.  We even got to fly over our beloved Sauniatu and see beautiful Namua Island.

Namua Island (center-left)

Everyone in American Samoa was excited about the announcement of a new temple there - members and non-members alike.  It will be a great blessing to the people there.  We stayed at Sadie's by the Sea resort on Pago Pago harbor.  It was beautiful there.  The next morning, Ron Wight and I decided we would try our luck snorkeling just off the beach there.  It was beautiful!  There were fish everywhere.  Unfortunately, as I was admiring the beauty, a 5-foot shark swam by me.  I did not linger but decided it was time to come back to the shore.

Ron & Ann Wight in American Samoa

We ended our time with Ron and Ann Wight by taking the ferry over to Savai'i and staying overnight in a beach fale.  It was beautiful as we ate on a deck over the ocean that night.  We left them at the airport on the west end of our island (Upolu) so they could catch their flight.  We were a little sad so we spent the next day at the beach and that seemed to cheer us up a bit.

This coming week, we are rolling up our sleeves and prepping for our classroom management class.  We also are putting on a information session for the young men in our stake (at the invitation of our stake president) on manners for missionaries.

It was great to see conference and the great talks that we heard.  We are looking forward to studying them a little deeper in the coming weeks.

Hammock Time on the beach!

Hi-di-ho Good Neighbor!

Our good neighbors, Ron & Ann Wight came all the way from Benton City to stay with us for a few days!  We have had so much fun with them.  We picked them up at the airport on Wednesday and have about worn them out.  We have been to the cultural center and let them experience umu cooking, making tapa cloth, and wood carving.  We have been to the market and bought coconuts, cracked them and made coconut milk from the scrapings for wonderful boiled bananas and tuna steaks.  We have snorkeled at Vavau Beach and relaxed in the shade.  We have been to a small Fiafia complete with fire dancers.  They even stayed an entire day in a hot gym and helped us judge events for "English Day" at Pesega College!  They were real troopers.

At Togitogiga National Park

Ron Squeezing Milk from Coconut Shavings

It is so good to have them here.  They have been a connection to home for us that makes us grateful for those who have stayed behind and carried on while we have been concentrating on our work here.  We are grateful for their sacrifice to spend some time with us.  We are looking forward to the next few days with them.

Before the Wights came, Elder Lloyd spent time working on a family bathroom that the humanitarian missionaries are helping with.  It will be supplied with rainwater from water harvested from the roof  If it weren't for the two young Elders who carried the lumber up the hill, it might have done us old duffers in.