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!"