Talofa Lava,

Patty and Brent in front of RLS Home
(Before we got our leis)

If you are bored with your life I strongly recommend a mission to cure the doldrums.  I love being busy as the weeks just fly by.  Every day there is something new to learn.  Yesterday I made a cake for some elders.  The recipe called for brown sugar.  I now know that there is a difference between brown sugar and sugar that is brown – that is raw cane sugar.  Oh well, it still tasted great, even if the texture was a little off, and the elders did not seem to mind.

Food Tents with Las Vegas style Buffet

The highlight of our week was a “Garden Party” at the Robert Louis Stevenson home.  Rex Maughan, Jim Winegar and Brother Goodrich, all return missionaries from Samoa, and now philanthropists, hosted the elegant affair.  Invited guests included government dignitaries, ambassadors,  business leaders, prominent citizens, and senior missionaries.  All the guests received a warm welcome with a fresh flower lei, and were treated to wonderful evening of entertainment including a small orchestra, singing, traditional Samoan music and dancing, and a feast fit for royalty, including traditional Samoan dishes, lobster tail, salads, chicken, fish, beef.....A dance floor was set up for after dinner dancing, which I even talked Brent into.  The cool night made the memorable night just perfect!  Tomorrow the senior missionaries have been invited back for a private tour of the home and grounds so will post more pictures next week.

L-R Drs. Larsen and Orchard, Sister & Elder Jacobs,
Elder & Sister Whittle

President and Sister Saunders found out Friday that they were going to Australia today (Sunday) for a week of training.  That leaves Brent and I in the office alone.  Luckily we have some amazing APs, Elder Bate and Elder Tupula so I am not too worried.  We also serve with other amazing seniors who are not in the office but available if we need help.    The Jacobs and Aveis work as auditors, the Gillettes work at the school in the vocational dept., the Whittles work in Self-Reliance, Drs. Larsen and Orchard are the Dentists and Sister Cassita is the nurse.  The Schafermeyers left this week to fill in for the Saunders in American Samoa, and they work with setting up internets in the chapels and teaching members how to use technology.  There are so many ways seniors can be used throughout the world, and what is amazing is that each one of us feel like our assignment is where we are the best suited.

Starting Sept. 5th Samoa is hosting the Pacific Commonwealth Games (a mini-Olympics for youth ages 14-18)  Our campus will be housing hundreds of students.  School is out for the next 3 weeks and classrooms have been turned into dorms with wood partitions and bunk beds.  Everything is getting a new coat of paint, landscape is pruned, people will decorate their houses. it is a BIG deal here.  It is something to look forward to.  

The Lord has blessed us in so many ways. We love serving in the mission field and see the Lord's hand daily in His work. We send our love to all of you - have a good week.  Sister Ellsworth 

So many beaches - so few weekends...

Talofa! Every Friday night, 6 pm, Brent and I have a date at the Samoan Temple.  I have been attending the temple for 45+ years and have always enjoyed it, but now I finally feel like I am figuring it out.  It is a pleasure to escape from the world for just a few hours and focus on the things the things of eternity.  The temple has truly been a blessing in our lives and the lives of our family. We had a FHE lesson by one of the temple missionaries a couple of weeks ago on symbols in the temple.  She referred to an article “Why This Symbol Appears10,000 Times in the San Diego Temple” that is available on Google. (What did we do before Google???)  I thought it was really interesting and recommend it. 

LDS Samoan Temple

President & Sister Tolman's Farewell Dinner
(Tolmans are 3rd & 4th from Left - front row)
(President and Sister Saunders 2nd row 1st & 2nd from Left)

Last Sunday night we learned that President and Sister Tolman were being released for medical reasons.  We did not realize that President Tolman had been ill for 9 months.  I knew he didn’t feel good but I did not realize how serious it was.  We had a farewell potluck dinner Thursday night with lots of yummy Samoan dishes prepared especially for the Tolmans.  Elder Avei brought his Ukulele and closed the evening with the traditional Samoan farewell song.  Tuesday Tom and Wendy Saunders, a couple serving in American Samoa, arrived and will be serving as interim Mission President.  They are such wonderful people I would be happy if they served until we finished our mission. 

Yesterday (Sat) Brent and I had decided that we should stay home and get some things caught up here.  That was until Sister Jacobs put out an invite to the Black Sands Beach.  Dang it!  So many beaches and so few weekends…The temptation was too great!  We packed a lunch and met the Jacobs, Schafermeyers, Gillettes, Drs. Larsen and Orchard, and Sister Fahrmer and we were off on another great adventure.  Never did I imagine that a mission could be so much fun!  We had this exquisite beach to ourselves.  We snorkeled (Yes, I even snorkeled!) swam, visited, ate, swam some more – it was a most delightful day!  All I can say is that I must have been pretty good in the pre-existence to land here J  To top off a perfect day we all met at my favorite restaurant and had a farewell dinner for the Stonehockers who will be leaving this next week.

Black Sands  Beach

Today (Sunday) we attended our Samoan ward’s sacrament meeting.  I love to go just to hear their singing!  They definitely know how to praise the Lord through song. I then went to primary and played the piano – the kids are amazing singers too.  I love to hear the 10 year old boys sing – they are the best singers of all!  We then attended the English Ward’s sacrament meeting where the singing is not nearly as good.  We can all learn a lesson from praising the Lord from our Samoan brothers and sisters.

Talofa! Another week gone!  How is that possible?  My favorite part of the day is early morning.  I get up around 5 am, go for a 40 min walk under the stars, and return home just as the sun is starting to rise.  After a shower I settle down with the scriptures and read for about an hour.  I have been reading the Book of Mormon again and everyday feel inspired by what I read.  This book is the reason we left our home and came half way around the world.  It testifies of Jesus Christ as the Savior of the world.  It tells us what we need to do to return home to our Heavenly Father.  It was written for people in our time, and has deep insights on how to face the challenges in the world today.  Even though it was written a long time ago, the themes of the past keep repeating.  Times change, people don’t. If you have ever wondered where you came from, why you are here, and what happens after you die, read the book. I promise you won't be disappointed! 
 Yesterday we went with a few other senior missionaries on an all-day adventure.  We drove to the South side of the island to the  O le Pupu Pu'e National Park and hiked up a trail through lush rain forest to the MA tree.  This is a massive tree with a fin-like root system.   There are several smaller Ma trees but this one was definitely worth the effort to get there.  The guide book says an easy 15 minute walk through a lush forest on a well maintained trail .  Well, the lush forest part was correct, but it took us a lot longer than 15 minutes and you had to climb over roots, rocks, through mud and moss, all the while battling hordes of mosquitoes.  I understand that horses sweat, men perspire and women glow.  In that case, we must have lit up the southern hemisphere! 

Brent, Sister Schafermeyer, Sister Farhmer, Sister Gillette, Me.
The rest of the men are trying to figure out how to work the camera.

Fungus and moss in the rain forest

 Next we drove down the road about a mile and took another trail to the Togitogiga Waterfall and swimming hole.  Never has cool water felt so refreshing!  Of course Brent and the other men had to swim under the falls, while the women were happy just floating in the pool.

After cooling off we drove a little further around the south end of the island to a beautiful sandy beach.  The men snorkeled and the women again were content to just swim and enjoy the incredibly beautiful clear aqua blue water.  The tide was pretty strong so I will wait until there are a little calmer waters before I attempt to use my new snorkeling gear.

Driving home we stopped to visit a small LDS Chapel on the far east end of the island.  The small building is the chapel.  Some of the meetings are held in the open air fales.  The bishop and clerks office, in the back, were about the size of a shed.

                          We enjoyed visiting with some of the members who were there.

LDS chapel right next to the ocean - what it lacks in size it makes up in the setting.

The next couple of weeks should prove interesting.  We were saddened to hear today that President Tolman and his wife are being released for medical reasons and that a new interim mission president will be here Tuesday.  Since I am the president’s secretary, and am just barely figuring out how things work in the office, it is going to be a bit of a challenge.  We wish the Tolmans the best and look forward to meeting and working with the new president and his wife.

Data Diet Woes

Talofa Lava,
This week we are on a diet, a data diet that is, because we have used up almost all of our internet data for the month.  Thus no pictures. :(  Our internet comes to this island via a fiber optic cable that is laid under the Pacific Ocean.  There are ships that carry up to 2,000 km of cable and some kind of a submarine that digs trenches and buries the cable as the ship unwinds the cable.  It is really pretty amazing.  If you want to know more there is information on Google.  The bottom line for us is that even though we pay about the same we did at home, we have access to very little internet time.

This is a three-day holiday weekend here celebrating Fathers.  Brent was excited that he got two Father Days this year.  I baked him his favorite cake and we went to a ward party last night where we were served a traditional Samoan dinner.  Unfortunately, much of the food like taro and breadfruit are an acquired taste that neither one of us have quite acquired.  However, there was a fish dish made with coconut milk that was very good, as well as the chicken.

There are chickens everywhere around here but often when you go to the store they are out of eggs.  I asked a sister here how is that they run out of eggs.  "Oh, we don't use chickens to make eggs, we use chickens to make more chickens.  We really like chicken!"  So I asked her how did they keep track of whose chicken is whose, as they wander all over the place.  "Oh, you just call them at night.  They recognize your voice if you feed them.  They all just come running home when called."  I also learned that chickens are used for insect control.  So, there you know more about chickens than when you started to read this blog.

Will post a few pictures next week if we have enough data left.  Hope you are all well.  We are having such a good time, but do miss family and friends.  Have a great week.

Tofa and God Bless!
Patty

We're NOT in Kansas anymore!

This past week has been incredibly busy.  Every six weeks the mission has transfers.  That means some missionaries get moved around, some get new leadership positions, new missionaries arrive from all over and the missionaries that have completed their time go home.  All of those things require record keeping in the office and involve pretty complex logistics to get everyone where they need to be at the time they need to be there.  Friday we said goodbye to the Jacksons, the office couple we are replacing.  Even though we have only known them for a few weeks we grew to love them.  They are amazing people and great examples of faith and service.

Saturday afternoon we had some time so decided to drive around the island.  We didn't get all the way around, so we'll save the other half for another day.

Spectacular Ocean Views

This photo does not do justice to the brilliant turquoise water.  Today's drive was like driving though one picture postcard after another.

Another Tender Mercy

When you eat at a restaurant a very popular drink is the "Niu" which is a very young coconut with a hole cut in the top and served with a straw or just drank from the hole.  Locals drink these all the time as it is good for your health.  This drink has the same electrolyte composition as human blood, therefore it is nature's most perfect way to re-hydrate.  I think it is amazing that in a climate where people constantly need to re-hydrate the perfect drink is plentiful.  No matter where I have traveled in the world I have seen numerous examples of how the Lord cares for his children in every clime.  Somehow, this just doesn't fit into the "Big Bang" theory. 

Inner Samoa

By far the majority of the population live near to the coasts.  The interior of the island is made up of rain forest.  We spent an hour driving through this very lush landscape, part of the time because we got lost.

Cute Kids!!!

We stopped for a minute to look at the ocean and these kids came running across the street and wanted their picture taken.  We saw kids swimming and fishing in the ocean, playing ball, playing outside.....What we didn't see was kids hooked up to electronics.  

South Side of the Island

It has rained everyday for the last few weeks on the south side of the island (we live on the north).  As you can see things are pretty soggy. The missionaries living on this side are dealing with a lot of mud and muck.  

Beautiful!

Village Home

Flowers Everywhere!

Oh my Heck!!!

Now this isn't something you see everyday!  We got off the beaten path and ran into these young men who had a successful day hunting wild boar. You can see the piglet being held by the man in yellow, and also the very muddy, rusty gun laying across the boar.  This is so indicative of how different life is here.  People still live off the land and life is much simpler.

Tuesday we took advantage of a slow office day and spent the morning downtown at the cultural center of Samoa.  The young people here are dressed in traditional ceremonial clothing that would have been worn by the chief, a Matai, or his family.  

The building in the background is a Fale.  Driving around the island you see these all over, some that are smaller still serving as the main house for a family, and the larger ones for village events.  I'm not sure about this, but in our meeting this afternoon with the President he told us there is no word for privacy in the Samoan language.

We watched a tattooing session for a few minutes.  This ceremony is considered sacred so no pictures or talking was allowed.  It was done in a Fale by a man from his village trained in this art.  The traditional tattoo, shown by this young man, take 12 days and covers his body from the navel to his knees.  The navel is done last as they apparently is the most painful.  None of it looked fun to me!

 The Umu, or outdoor kitchen is used for cooking food, wrapped in leaves and put on hot rocks.  Here they are weaving Pandanfs leaves to make "paper plates" that they served our lunch on.  Our lunch was a piece of fish, a baked banana, taro and something green that I'm not sure what it was.  All of the food was cooked in this Umu.

 Bananas are an amazing fruit!  In the lower picture you can see the fruit just starting to form.  Banana trees only produce one bunch of bananas.  Their roots send out runners and a new tree will start to grow.  That's why you never see just one banana tree.  It will take 9 mos. for the new tree to produce its one bunch of edible fruit.  Banana leaves are used for wrapping food in to cook and are sometimes 10-12 feet long!

Togitogiga Waterfalls

 It was Gay and Jim Jackson's last weekend in Samoa.  Next Friday they fly home to Provo, Utah.  Their family will be glad to have them home but they are going to be missed here.  They lived here forty years ago when Jim worked at the Church school, Pesega.  They have been training us for the last two weeks on our duties as the mission office couple.  Most of what I do involves putting baptism reports into the computer, answering emails, preparing for arriving and departing missionaries, and helping with whatever else needs to be done.  Because I am so busy the days and weeks fly by.  We have already been out one month!

Brent is the financial secretary.  Samoa is a cash culture - very few places take credit cards.  That means all of the missionaries need to receive their living allowance in cash.  So basically Brent just mostly plays with money and works very hard not to lose any.  He also helps with travel Visas and making sure the missionaries have power, that has to be paid upfront in cash.  The missionaries text his cell phone and tell him they are out of power.  He pays the power company and then texts them a coded number so they can get power.  It is a crazy system!

We spent Sat. morning with the Jacksons exploring the South side of the island of Upolu.  (The island we live on.)  We visited two beautiful waterfalls, one of which I had to photograph under a canopy because it was raining.  We hiked through a rain forest to get to the first one.  The scenery is spectacular!  

Sapo'aga Falls Viewpoint

Week 1 in Samoa

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Papapapaita Falls

We arrived in Apia, Samoa on Tuesday night and spent Wednesday getting our driver's licenses, opening a bank account, unpacking, grocery shopping and collapsing.  We were issued a cute blue Hyundai SUV with the steering wheel on the right side of the car.  Samoa recently changed the side of the road you drive on (you now drive on the left) and it is a little hard to get used to, especially when the arrows on the road are saying you are going the wrong way.  I guess they haven't had a chance to paint over the old paint.  We both have trouble when it comes time  to signal as invariably the window washers go on instead of the turn signal.  Grocery shopping has turned into an adventure as many of the things we usually buy are not available.  People go to 3-4 stores to shop to try and get the things they need. There is nothing that even closely resembles the supermarkets we are used to.  Their money, the Tala, is a little less than half of the US dollar so when you go shopping and the can of vegetables says $5.90 it's really only about $2.75.  Food is very expensive.  The local population have plantations so do not buy that much at the grocery.  Brent and I could lose weight if other senior couples didn't keep inviting us to go to dinner with them.  We've had some amazing fish and chips and tuna steak! 

Their are several other couples serving here in the mission, but they still need more.(hint-hint)  We have already made many new friends and were excited that at least one couple loved to play 5 Crowns.  We will be getting together for FHE and other special occassions.  We were invited to go snorkling today but had to take a rain check as we had to clean out the closets and get the apt. organized.  However, this afternoon we went with the couple who we are replacing and they drove us around town and showed us good places to eat, where to buy household goods, and then inland to see Papapapaita falls.  The countryside is beautiful and lush, a different kind of beauty than we are used to in Las Vegas.

I am going to try to load some photos of our apt. It has a living room/kitchen, a bath and one bedroom.  It is plenty big and had more than enough storage.  We will be very comfortable during our stay here.  We are steps away from the temple and the mission office.  The complex is large and includes the mission offices, mission housing, the temple and housing for the temple workers, the Pesenga School and housing for the teachers, and many open spaces for rugby and soccer.  My favorite part of the day is my early morning walks where I enjoy the sounds of roosters and birds and watching the sun come up.  It is cool and peaceful.  I had worried about the humidity but it really has not been uncomfortable.  Our apt is air-conditioned as is the office and the cars.  The mornings and evenings are cool and delightful to be out in.

Thursday and Friday we spent the days learning our many responsibilities - right now it is a little overwhelming but I feel confident that with the Jackson's great training that we will be alright.  They will be returning to their home in Provo, Utah on the 31st of July.  It has been a lot of fun to start meeting the missionaries as they come into the office.  Many of the elders here are from Samoa or at least from the Pacific Islands.  We are looking forward to welcoming the Elders and Sisters we met at the MTC.  Tomorrow we will be attending a Samoan Ward as they don't have anyone to play the music for Primary.  I am more than happy to help.

My new word for the day is Pili, aka Gecko lizards.  They are pretty cute as long as they are not sharing my bed.  Well, Brent is ready to go to dinner so will close for now.  Tofa.  Sent with love, Sister Patty Ellsworth