Week of Giving Thanks

Talofa Family and Friends,
     This was a week of friends and service.  Monday President and Sister Ho Ching went with us to the Post Office in their bright red sleigh (aka Toyota Truck with shell) to help us with the expected load of packages.  With Christmas almost here we were expecting more than usual.  It was good that we took the truck, because they would not have all fit in our car. The back of the truck was packed to capacity and we had several in the cab with us.   Many packages for our missionaries were marked "Do Not Open Until Christmas" so I guess the season is here.  True to form, the Post Office decided to dig up the road where you pick up cargo, so we had to hand carry all the packages out to the parking lot.  Why they would dig up access to the pick-up area right at the beginning of their very busiest time of year is a mystery to me.  As of Saturday it was still dug up, so I'm afraid this week will be the same.  The mission president gave us permission to use two Elders to help us through this busy season.  After we get home they have to be unloaded, weighed, recorded and either sorted for the missionaries living here or repacked into cargo boxes to send to Apia.  Then these big boxes (16 this week) are loaded back into the car, taken to the airport, and using a hand truck delivered to cargo.  It is quite an ordeal!

The "Elfsworths" helping Santa

Coral Nativity

     Tuesday I decided it was time to get the house decorated for the Holidays.  We found a large plastic bin full of decorations and lights, along with a Christmas tree in the spare bedroom closet.  Elders Larsen and Fa'amausili helped put the tree together and string some greenery.  Several times this week I missed my daughter-in-law, Channa, who is a talented decorator.  I did the best I could with strings of colored tinsel, a few angels, ornaments, greenery and Christmas bulbs.  Much to my dismay there was not a nativity or ornaments of the Savior.  I looked up all the names of Christ in the scriptures and made paper ornaments with those names.  I like the way it turned out.  Today the Patches brought me a nativity they made with a coconut shell and coral they picked up off the shore.  It's beginning to look alot like Christmas!

Mona Leta and Levi

     Wednesday a couple of our Institute students asked if they could come over and fix lunch for the missionaries as a service project.  They made delicious BLT sandwiches for six missionaries and Brent and I.  Three lbs of bacon later I think they were the best BLT's I've ever had!  We appreciated their desire to serve.  The best part was the left my kitchen sparking clean.
     Early Thursday morning (Thanksgiving) I was reading the paper online, having a relaxing morning, when the phone rang.  It was a man who said he was here to clean our roof and he needed us to open the gate.  Sure enough, a whole crew of workers were here with ladders, sponges, scrub brushes, spray bottles and a lot of elbow grease.  Not only did they clean the roof, they washed the entire outside of the house!  While I was cooking Thanksgiving dinner it sounded like we had an entire herd of reindeer on the roof.  I didn't realize how dirty the outside of the

house was but it definitely looks better.  Unfortunately, they didn't do windows but they did string the Christmas lights on the front of the house.
         We invited the Patches and Edwards for Thanksgiving dinner.  The Patches brought several desserts, heavenly rolls, and exotic fruits for a tasting adventure. The Edwards brought their family's traditional stuffing and a sweet potato casserole that was delicious!  We cooked a turkey and provided the mash potatoes, gravy, cranberries, corn  and a jello salad.  We had so much food that we had enough to feed everybody again today after church along with the Ho Chings.  There are still "Must Goes" in the fridge which we will enjoy this week.
      I appreciated the company on a day that can bring bubbling to the surface many memories of past Thanksgivings and the people who are no longer here.  Grandma Kendrick always wanted to chew the neck, Mom always made the best gravy, Dad always carved the Turkey and Aunt Florence always insisted that she loved to peel potatoes.  All people I love and dearly miss!

     After dinner we played our traditional "Ricky Ticky" game.  It's a dumb game that never fails to bring hilarity to the table.  Patches had us play "Vroom - ERRRR" that they play at their house.  The Edwards had run off several hymns for Christmas and Thanksgiving so we all enjoyed a sing-along.  It was a wonderful day with good food and good friends!

Edwards, Patches, Ellsworths and Lady

     Today Sister Edwards shared a poem by Robert Louis Stevenson.  RLS made Samoa his home for many years so that made it even more perfect.  I'll close with his words and wish all of you a week full of Christmas magic as we all look for ways we can serve one another.

“Lord, behold our family here assembled. We thank You for this place in which we dwell, for the love accorded us this day, for the hope with which we expect the morrow; for the health, the work, the food and the bright skies that make our lives delightful; for our friends in all parts of the earth. Give us courage and gaiety and the quiet mind. Spare us to our friends, soften us to our enemies. Bless us, if it may be, in all our innocent endeavors; if it may not, give us strength to endure that which is to come that we may be brave in peril, constant in tribulation, temperate in wrath and in all changes of fortune and down to the gates of death, loyal and loving to one another. We beseech of you this help and mercy for Christ's sake.”  RLS

Alofa atu, Patty (Nana)