End of Term 3

We had two days of cultural celebrations at the end of Term 3.  There was a lot of singing and dancing.  Everyone was so talented!  The middle school program on Thursday lasted nearly 4 hours and the whole while, the students sat on the floor.  Here is a picture of the girls' side of the gym and the girls in their school uniforms.  If the girls have long hair (most do) they have to braid their hair at school.  Many of the year 9 students performed dances for the National Assessment for Samoan Culture.  They were being filmed for the ministry of Education to evaluate.

A lot of braids!

Siva!

Year 9 Assessment Performance

Year 9 Assessment

More Year 9 Assessment

We started a new class this week and have 10 teachers attending.  It is reading in the content area.  We are helping teachers in all subjects see that specifically helping students read in the context of their subject matter endows them with power to become life-long learners.

Waterfall at Sauniatu

We were pleased to find out that some friends of ours in Kettle Falls (the Oliversons - where Joe is from) served a mission over 20 years ago in Sauniatu.  It really is a beautiful and sacred place where the early saints of Samoa could find protection and sanctuary to practice their religion without persecution.  We are impressed with the stories of the early saints here who were disowned by their families and banished from their villages.  Many were taxed unfairly just because they had joined the church.  Sauniatu became a blessing to the saints here as they found a place to live and worship freely.  There is an article from 1978 that describes how what we see today there came to be. https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/liahona/1978/01/sauniatu-preparing-to-go-forth?lang=eng

We have now been here for one year!  It only seems like yesterday that we were driving down the roads looking with wonder at everything we were seeing.  Now we drive down the road and everything just looks normal.  People smile and wave everywhere we go.  They are kind and respectful to us.  The ocean is warm and beautiful and the palm trees sway gently in the wind.  Janice just remarked that it used to be worrying about our children that kept her awake a night but now, it is worrying about the teachers in our class and how they are progressing.

Our neighbor boy, Jayden showing us his new shirt!

We are grateful for our family and their love and support that make it possible for us to be here serving.  Benjamin and his family, drove all the way from Hillsboro in Western Oregon this weekend to our house to make sure our sprinkler lines were blown out and things were good for the winter.  Sherman Beus (our neighbor) and Tom Norman (our niece's husband) worked really hard earlier this week closing down the pool and winterizing the equipment for it.  Thanks for making our mission possible.

Transitions!

We are marching along and have now been out over a year.  It only seems like yesterday that we arrived.  We have been very busy and keep focused on our work and are always surprised when the weekend is here again so quickly.  We get up in the mornings, quickly get ready, go to the school and prepare for our lessons, do some observations or whatever else needs done, teach our class, make our way home, eat dinner, do the dishes, read our scriptures in Samoan and fall into bed exhausted.  We only have three more courses to teach to complete the 10 courses the teachers need for their certificates!  

Adjusting to mission life has not been much of a stretch for me but Janice has been retired for several years and has had to "step up" her game.  She is such a hard worker and has been an equal partner in preparing and teaching the courses.  In fact, her language skills are really taking off and she is endearing us to the people as she communicates in Samoan. She even gave the opening prayer in Samoan today in Sacrament Meeting when asked spontaneously!

Janice, the Samoan!

Understandably, my Samoan is still in the formative stages (I am not as gifted as Janice is with languages).  However, we can both now distinguish the individual words people are speaking. We just need to work on our vocabulary.  We are reading through the Book of Mormon in Samoan now for the second time together. That has really helped us.

It is like swimming in an aquarium here.

We have learned the value of spending a few hours each week at a beautiful beach, swimming in the warm ocean water and viewing the amazing life below the surface.  It is as if we were sent here to heal our souls with beauty when we visit a beach, see a glorious sunset, or see the beaming smiles of the children here.  It almost makes us forget the deep longing for familiar foods and the love of our grandchildren.

A beautiful Irish Moore Angelfish (about 5 minutes away from our house)

We also have the diversion now of growing pineapples and papayas in our backyard, finding mangos in the market, and rejoicing when we find some yellow cheddar cheese from California in the store.

My new baby pineapple

We had some dear friends, the Tanumapeas, leave for their home in Australia.  It saddens us to know we may never see the again in this life.  We are certain that if we end up in the Celestial city in the end, the Tanumapeas will be living there in the Samoan section.

The Tanumapeas on their last day at church

Fish Market

Albacore and Skipjack Tuna

This Saturday, we dropped by the fish market to take a peek. We have been here almost a year and not made it to the fish market as a couple. Janice bought me a nice lobster for my birthday. We cooked him up and he was delicious!

             Janice Buying Lobster








      Lobster headed to the boiling pot!

Delicious Lobster

               

Beautiful Women of Samoa

This is our friend Senorita. She is a teacher and a teaching coach at Pesega. She is also a member of our ward (Pesega fa [4th] ward).

We are finished with our Special Education Class this coming week and are preparing for our Teaching Literacy in the Content Area. This will make class number 8 for us. We are living the dream!

Area President and Gardening

Our Papaya Tree

It seems like all of our weeks are busy but that is the reality of our assignment here. It really makes time pass quickly.

We are finishing up our Special Education course and will give the final exam next week. It has been interesting to see the light of comprehension in the faces of our students as we talk about different disabilities that some of their students might have. We initially questioned the value of teaching this course to teachers who do not have a special education program in their school but now we see the value in it. We are starting to gear up for (gasp) our Teaching Literacy in the Content Area course. This will be a stretch for us but we will roll up our sleeves and give it our best.

Beach Repose!

We traveled to Fagaloa Bay on the northwestern end of the island. It is isolated by a poor road and is unspoiled. What a beautiful paradise!













Popo lelei! (Good Coconut)

We met with President and Sister Ardern (the Pacific Area President) on Wednesday night and had a delightful visit with them. They gave the "big picture" of the work in the Pacific area from the mature congregations in New Zealand and Australia, the solidly developing Church in the islands of Samoa, Tonga, and Fiji to the emerging pioneers in Papua New Guinea, New Caledonia and Kiribati. They were so kind and gracious. They consider themselves ordinary people on an extraordinary assignment. We really identified with that concept.


          Our first tomato

   Our gardening attempts are paying off. We have attached pictures of our pineapple "plantation," our papaya tree that we transplanted from our flowerbed, and our first tomato!

   We are excited to go home for Christmas to check up on some routine health concerns (and visit our family) so don't be surprised if you happen to see us around - you aren't just seeing things. We will have a tight schedule so we can't visit everyone but would be delighted to be stopped, hugged, and loved if you see us!

Our Pineapple "Plantation"

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.