Helicopter & Fish

Another busy week!  We had the Australian Coast Guard land a helicopter on the rugby field at Pesega as they did a recruiting visit here.  It was very exciting!

We also took the opportunity to go for an hour on Wednesday to Pololo Deep (about 10 minutes away) and snorkel.  It was a rare calm day there and the fish were beautiful.

We said goodbye to our interns from BYU Hawaii as we dropped off two of them at the airport Friday after our Professional Development  in Sauniatu.  The other four are spending a few more days here before they fly back to Oahu.  We will miss their laughter and smiles.

The Whirlwind of August!

Wow, we have been busy!  We have been teaching our classes with the addition of interacting with the interns from Sauniatu as well as shuttling around our BYU Hawaii director, Dr. Shute and his Videographer, Jonathan.  They are making a video on the ITEP program and Samoa was their last stop.  They interviewed us and videotaped our class as well as some of our students.  It has been fun but has kept us "hopping."  We also got a chance to meet our new Coordinators, Elder & Sister Poll out of the New Zealand Area Office.  They took an afternoon off of the principal's conference to watch our class and go out to dinner with us.  We look forward to getting to know them better the next time they come.

Lovely backyard chickens that eat millipedes!

Gecko outside of our bathroom window!

We have been blessed to have at least a dozen people helping James move into a new apartment in  Provo now that he has "aged-out" of his current college apartment.  He is doing well and turned 30 today!  We are so proud of him doing that while we are away.

Western portion of Upolu (where we had never been before).

Red Ginger Flower of Samoa!

Heliconia that sprung up in our backyard!

Joe and Janice at Return to Paradise Beach Resort.

Beautiful rocks, water, and plants at Togitogia (place of engraving)

We are hoping that this will be a fairly normal week and we can keep our feet on the ground.  We have a firm testimony that what we are doing is the right thing for us at this time in our life.  We know we are making a difference as we watch our teachers improve their teaching methods for hundreds of students here in Samoa.  We are grateful that a prophet of God called us to do this!  Janice often says that, "We have to make a difference here because anything less would not justify us from being away from our dear grandchildren and family!"

Interns and Pioneer Day

On Tuesday, we finished up teaching our class and came out of our office about 6:00 PM and ran into the primary Pioneer Day Parade!  We were delighted to fall in step with them and follow the covered wagon with about 40 primary children singing.  The police were at the street and stopped traffic for them as they crossed in front of the mission home on the way to the church building across the street.  They had a delightful program with real Samoan Pioneers who had to go to Sauniatu to escape persecution.  The best was the nursery class dancing to Cotton-eyed Joe!

This Friday, we made our way up the mountain to Sauniatu and taught our English lesson and SIOP lesson.  We bundled up the 6 interns from BYU-H and met at our house.  We got a couple more senior missionary couples in on the deal and shuttled them to eat out with us that night at a restaurant at the warf and then cheesecake afterwards.  Three of them stayed in our apartment and the other three stayed with Elder & Sister Williams across the street.  While they were at the temple the next morning, Janice cooked about 30 Norwegian waffles for them after they returned.

We spent the rest of the day at Vavau beach and had a delightful time with them.  They really cheered us up and put a sparkle in our life.  They are so young and energetic.  We feel lucky to get to show them around a bit.

Time is flying by and we are working very hard teaching and observing.  We feel good that we are making a difference here but are coming to realize that it is hard work!  This is not an assignment for wimps!  We are dead tired every night and work hard just to keep up.  The pay is good however and we have been blessed with health miracles, with financial blessings, and the love and support of our wonderful family.