It's a Most Wonderful Time of the Year - Part 1

The Most Wonderful Time of the Year

Part 1

After 7 1/2 months we finally made it to Samoa (that would be Western Samoa as compared to American Samoa) to visit the Foleys and to tour Upolu and Savaii. This was our Christmas present to each other.

The Plane Ride

The plane ride was quite the experience. We walked to the plane on the tarmac as in days of old. The plan shook and shuddered as it took off and landed. We flew low so the view over the ocean was spectacular. Arnie thought it was better than any ride at Disneyland. I thought it was white knuckle time. 

Walking to the plane on the tarmac just like days long ago.

Arnie watches the pilot get ready for take off.

Good-bye Tutuila - American Samoa

Hello Upolu - Samoa

Sauniatu

This is where the Foleys are serving as ITEP teachers. It is at a  church school up in the mountains of Upolu. For those of you not from Vernal, the Foleys are a Senior Missionary Couple from Vernal. They left on their 2 year mission about 9 months before us.

Welcome to Sauniatu

McKay Fale - named for President McKay after his visit to  Sauniantu.

Sister Foley

Elder Foley

Traditional dinner at the end of the day in the Fale
Elder & Sister Rees, Elder & Sister Little, Elder Anthon, Elder & Sister Foley

Getting ready to go to the bottom of the waterfall. You can't tell but it is raining so hard that we weren't able to go swimming in the pool at the bottom of the waterfall as planned.

Beautiful!

Original church house/school in Sauniatu

At the far end of Sauniatu is a camp that the YM/YW use for camping. Instead of cabins they use fales.

Walking the road to the camp

Sleeping fales in the distance taken from the gathering fale

Missionary Conference

Elder Cardon from the Area Presidency spent three day in our mission holding 3 conferences - one on each of the main islands (Upolu, Savaii, & American Samoa). Here are just a few pictures of our wonderful missionaries.

AP, Elder Tua, Elder Packard, Elder Gomez, Elder Matapula 

Elder Ama, Elder Levy, Elder Amituanai

Elder Leota-Hunkin, Elder Huber, Elder Belnap, Elder Skipps, Elder Juarez

Elder & Sister Wilde visit with Sister Hannemann

Food always makes for happy missionaries

November Fun

Long Boat Races

Word went out that there were long boat races in the Pago Pago Harbor. While we were there we decided to go watch. You can watch the beginning or the end but not much in between. 

It's hard to see but there are 3 boats in the top picture that are positioning themselves to start the race.

You can clearly see the 2 leaders. The small boat in the forefront is the officials. 

Young Men & Young Women Fund Raiser

YW perform traditional Samoan dance

The young men and young women had the annual fund raiser for a temple trip in February. It was a spaghetti dinner and dessert auction.

Elvis aka YM President

The young men seated everyone and helped serve. The young women served and performed for the program.

YW doing a solo

There was also karaoke. If you were challenged to sing and refused to do so, you had to pay $5. If you wanted to challenge someone, it cost $5.

Luisa emcees the program.

Highlight of the program was the performed by the Young Men Presidency and when we paid to challenge the Bishopric to sing karaoke. Sure wish I had gotten a picture but I was way too busy laughing. It was delightful.

Luisa is in the YW Presidency. She is the one who spearheaded the reading program back in June/July.

Another solist

We had a great time, spent lots of money, & took home to much junk food.

Happy Anniversary

My sweetheart

We celebrated our 47th anniversary on Nov 20. We went to a nice restaurant that sits on the edge of Pago Pago Harbor. Food was pretty good. The view was beautiful. The company was the best. 

The view from our table

Our sweet waitress is a Pathway student. At the end of the meal she gifted us our dinner. So, sweet! And certainly unexpected.

We had a very lovely evening!










Happy Thanksgiving

Elder Anthon watch

Our ward celebrates Thanksgiving with a Turkey Bowl. 

Anybody who wants to play comes. They are divided into teams and then play a double elimination flag football tournament.

The Game

Well, that's football with a few modifications - No center to hike the ball. The quarterback just says, "Hike!" - Every play is a pass play. No running plays. 

But it works. We enjoyed it for a while but the game just kept going and going. Finally, we left to go home.

Our bishop is on the left in the dark baseball hat. Brother Wade is on the right checking out the brackets. He's the main organizer. He is the Elder's Quorum President and his wife is the RS President.

Thanksgiving Dinner at the mission home with Sister Westenskow (in the dark blouse) and Sister Kirkham (in blue). They are the new Senior Sisters that are here to teach institute.
Sister Westenskow's daughter used to live in Great Falls and knows Neil & Amber. Small world.

 

Feeding the Hungry

Feeding the Hungry

One of the largest employers in America Samoa is Starkist Tuna. The factory has shut down for several weeks for routine maintenance. As a result, a lot of people are out of work - not only the factory workers but also the fishing boats, etc. These are people who work for less than minimum wage and live from paycheck to paycheck. Knowing that there would be a lot of people going hungry, a brother in our stake organized a food drive. He had been to the states and had observed how this type of service works. So he went about doing good, collecting food and getting donations. On a Wednesday, the Sisters in the stake divided the food and put it into plastic sacks. The cultural hall was covered with food sacks. It was scheduled to be moved on Saturday for distribution. But on Friday, the youth of our ward had a fund raiser planned for a temple trip they will take in February and needed the cultural hall. So Friday morning some ward members moved the food from the cultural hall to other places in the church - outside under a tent, into the chapel, onto the stage. Saturday morning the food was taken to where it was given to those who had lost their jobs. I think the Lord would be pleased.

Some of the food that was moved outside. Eventually the tarp was completely covered. Notice the age of some of our volunteers.

The food in the last corner of the cultural hall is being moved. 

Trip after trip after trip - Good job, Elder Anthon

The food getting stacked in the aisles and on the benches in the chapel.

There may be those who disapprove but I couldn't help but think that the Lord would be pleased that His chapel was being used for such a act of charity.

The young people were extraordinary. Here they are passing cases of pop from one spot to another.

They deserve a moment of rest. They were tired but there is a bit of drama going on as well.

A Tour of American Samoa

Cruise Ship in the Pago Pago Harbor

There have been 2 cruise ships docked in Pago Pago in the past couple of weeks. We have become so accustomed to everything that we are wondering what exactly they are going to tour.



But since we have friends coming on a cruise in December that would like to see us, we have decided we need to remember exactly how we felt when we first got here. Everything was so new and thrilling to see. We would like to share some of that excitement with them. These are friends that we met on our European trip last year. Here's some of the things we thought they'd like to see.



Pictures of the Samoan Cultural Center in Pago Pago.




Try Pot - this pot was used by whalers to render the blubber obtained from whales.

An intricately hand carved statue.

Miniature boats used by ancient Samoans. Some were used for fishing, others for exploring & still others for warfare.

A "flower" arrangement.

Another carving. 

View of Pago Pago Harbor from the mountain top. This is looking down on the south side of the island.








Step across the road & you see the north side of the island.

Ocean views

Some of the large church houses on the island.

The village of Leone where we live.

One of the many hidden coves

The view from the Mapausaga Stake Center.