Busy as little Bee's

Last couple of weeks in August.

It seems that we have been on a dead run the last couple of weeks. We have three projects going and they have required a lot of time and effort on our part.
One of our projects was to get things ready for an Area Presidency visit to Tonga to meet the Prime Minister. The church is donating some money to the country to help with the tragedy of the ferry sinking.
Its always amazing to us the assignments we are given. They wanted a letter of condolence from the Area Presidency to the Prime Minister. They also wanted talking points that they could use in their conversation with the Prime minister, and a biography on the Prime Minister so they would know who they were meeting. They always want to make sure there are no political things said or done that could cause people to think the church supports one party over another and that our donation is not a way to garner favors from the Government. All this we are trying to do from Samoa for the Area Presidency in New Zealand for the Prime Minister in Tonga. We contacted our public affairs people and the area authority in Tonga and ask which topics to talk about and which ones to avoid. Then we had to send a sheet for approval to our director who then takes them to the Area Presidency.
It’s a little intimidating writing letters for another person to present to a Prime Minister but we heard that it all went well!!

Just a new waterfall we found
Our next project is the visit of Sister Allred from the General Relief Society Presidency to Samoa, both here and the other island of Savaii. We were asked to set up a luncheon with two of the top female ministers here. We had to pick the women, send bios on them to the Area Presidency and then ask for their approval. We did the whole process and then found out that they weren’t going to be in town so we had to start over again. We have finally arranged a luncheon with two ladies who are the CEO of those same departments. One is over Health and the other is over Women’s Social Services.

It was just going to be a small intimate group of women with a local Authority and his wife. We wanted it to be casual so that the women could feel free to talk about issues with the women of Samoa. It jumped up to 14 people to the intimate luncheon, nine men and the five women. So we asked them if whe could pare it down a bit so we wouldn’t be overwhelming with male leaders who might overshadow Sister Allred and the two government leaders, so they eliminated Paul and I plus one other sister from the single adult leadership. So then it was down to 11 but the ratio of men to women was even worse. We asked our director from Australia for his help and eventually got the final list down to just 7 people, four women three men. We hope that works better for Sister Allred, Whew!!!

Sister Allred and me. I just loved her

Our third project was a request to get information about a group of 50 from Seattle called The Samoan American Pacific Organization they are being hosted in Salt Lake. No one knows anything about them. We have had to make calls to Seattle, Salt Lake, Australia and New Zealand but came up with nothing. Sometimes we wonder why we are given these assignments but we try anyway. It seemed more appropriate for the public Affairs people in Seattle to check this out but it’s in our lap so we did the best we could. After many days of searching the internet, numerous phone calls etc we finally found a small amount of info telling us that they were from American and Western Samoa originally, most are not members of the Church but they are making this trip to Utah to find out more about our church and the humanitarian services it provides. We produced an information sheet that the hosting people can use to tell them all the good things that the Church is doing in Samoa over the past two years so they will go back home duly impressed.

The "Bronze Samoan God" did have some time to get some snokeling in.

We had to speak in Church a couple of Sunday’s ago and as we were on our way to church we saw a bad car accident just one block from our chapel. The car had hit a power pole and there was one fatality. When we arrived at church the power was out. Our Church starts at 7:30 AM and it was a bit dark inside the chapel. We didn’t have any fans, organ or microphone working so it was going to be a challenge to read our notes or to even be heard. I thought about doing the talk in Braille but they couldn’t see me either.
Our chorister gave us a pitch and we started singing. The youth gave their talks and after the rest song, it was my turn to speak. As I started to walk up to the stand the lights came on and I was able to give my talk just as planned. I told them that it was a sign that we were suppose to speak this day, I should have said “let there be light” but the timing was off just a few seconds. Our talks went well and we were given lots of complements. They were probably just being kind.

Paul was so excited to get hash browns from Jodi that he dumped them on the floor.

September 1st
It is the Teuila Celebration this week and events are going on everywhere. Teuila means adorner of the red hibiscus flower. Each evening you can attend cultural performances. The first night was a choral performance of all of the churches here and our church was amazing. There were over 300 members all in white: the men with pink and fuchsia ties and the women with pink and fuchsia scarves hanging on their shoulders. They sang a Samoan gospel song, a lovely melody of songs and a resound rendition of “I believe in Christ”. It was amazing, the tabernacle choir has never sounded better and it was by far the most impressive choir of the evening. It just makes you proud to be a member of this church. Were are trying to get a copy of the video to post on YouTube so everyone can see and hear it.
The second night was singing and dance groups. The third night was the fire dance competition and it was really good. Fire dancing was started in Samoa and some of the guys we work with were famous for it.
The last night was the Miss Samoa pageant. The Miss Samoa from last year is a member of the church and is so amazing and talented.

The picture above is a little blurry but this is Miss Samoa

This is Paul dancing with one of the contestants for Miss Samoa

Every function that we saw her, she was so beautiful and graceful. She was very cordial and you could just see such a light in her eyes. She has been such a great example to all the girls and other contestants. She is a returned missionary and lives in West Jordan. She has been living here for the year so that she could attend all the functions of the reigning Miss Samoa. Two of the contestants this year are members of the church but neither of them won.
Part of the celebration includes a bazaar where they have little booths set up on the grass behind the Government buildings. They are selling jewelry, tapa cloth prints and wood carving pieces.

They also had long boat races that were fun to watch.

They have wood carving competitions going on and they are amazing with what they can make with just rudimentary tools.

They even have a fale were they are doing the traditional tattoos on men. They don’t use the modern electronic tattoo tools; they use a needle made of bone, attached to the end of a little stick and then hit it with another little stick. “Oh My Gosh”, it looked so painful. A lot of people, men and women, have tattoos here. Some of the men have them from the waist to the caves. It is a tradition that is hard to break because it has always been a way of life here. Many local Church leaders are doing their best to overcome this tradition by teaching the principal that heavenly father made our bodies and we should not use it for and art board.
September 7, 2009
Today is the first day of driving on the left side of the road. There has been so much controversy in Samoa about this with many heated exchanges in the paper and protests by Bus operators that are required to cut new doors on the other side of their bus’s and move the steering wheel. They say the cost is over $50,000 Tala.

So far, only 16 out of a hundred or so bus’s have made the required change so most of the island people will be walking until the dispute is resolved as the new law won’t permit bus’s without left hand exit doors on the road. Articles have been in the paper everyday with nasty letters to the Prime Minister and a big lawsuit but even after all that they went ahead with the change.
They made it a National Holiday so that there wouldn’t be so many people on the road during the first two days of the switch. They had police on all of the main intersections and the thing that cracked us up was seeing first aid stations here and there to take care of the possible injured.On some of the corners there was a Red Cross sign with two men, a stretcher and a first aid kit. No car or ambulance just two men standing on the corner. They also held a blood drive last week to make sure there were sufficient supplies of blood at the hospitals just in case. The real problem will come in a few days when people think they have it down and start driving while drunk and forget which side of the road to be on. We’ll stay home at night for a while.
We will have to get used to driving on the left side all over again. It became second nature to Paul after a little while living in New Zealand and he even got the windshield wipers down. Then we come here and go back to driving on the right hand side. It did take a little getting used to but now we are back in the groove just in time to change back. Paul always hopes that whenever he turns and flips the wipers on by mistake, that the cars behind us will know that we are turning. Our only problem is our car is left hand drive and we have to drive on the left hand side. It’s kind of tough to pass a vehicle when you can’t see around the one in front of you without pulling out too far. It will take both of us to drive. My mom always said that it takes four eyes to drive one car.

I thought I would show you how cute my first hair cut in Samoa was.

Our couple of the week is really a family this time. We have had a great privilege of meeting James and Brenda Winegar and their cute daughter Becca. Brenda is Chad Hansen’s cousin in our home ward. They are from Provo Utah and are here on mini six week mission. Jim served here as a young missionary, he and another returned missionary, Rex Maughn have been very instrumental in restoring the home of Robert Lewis Stevenson.

This the view from Robert Lewis Stevenson's bedroom.
Robert Lewis Stevenson lived here the last five years his life and built a beautiful home in the middle of the jungle. He died here and is buried on a mountain top close to the home.
These two returned missionaries have put millions of dollars into this plantation and it is now a beautiful, serene place to visit.
We were invited to a big dinner party held there last week with dignitaries, news media, the Miss Samoan contestants and other special guest. It was a beautiful evening with great food and the entertainment was amazing. I love to see the Samoan’s sing and dance. Their voices are so beautiful and the women are so graceful in their dancing.

Becca Winegar, Jim’s daughter, is an amazing 31 year old girl who happens to have Down syndrome. She is so highly functioning that you almost don’t think of her as being handicapped. When she speaks she sometimes stutters but when she sings, she has no problems at all. She can carry a tune and when she sang for a family home evening a week ago, she had everyone in tears. She sang a song called “Just like you” by Janis Kapp Perry.
The evening of the Celebration she and Nathan Wendt, another Down’s syndrome boy performed the song from South Pacific 101 pounds of fun and the song from Oaklahoma. They had the whole audience laughing and got a standing ovation.
She knows her scriptures better than I do. They are completely marked up and her book is twice as big because she has so many notes in them. We went to the temple last week and the sister who took her through the veil was in tears after Becca went through. She said that she had most of it memorized and needed very little help. It’s so amazing to be around her because you know that she is so close to the Lord and is a perfect human being. We just love her.
She and Paul have a thing going about the Y and the U. She knows everything about the Y football team, names, dates, she is an avid fan. Paul gives her a bad time about it. One day she and he were going at it when Paul said “a Utah fan needs love too”. She stopped, looked at him and you could tell she was very thoughtful about it and then agreed with him.
The Winegars are also very instrumental in helping children with special needs here. They are very instrumental in helping the families know that their children can learn and function in society. Paul and Jim became great friends and we were able to get Jim to write a few articles for the paper about Down syndrome children and the Robert Lewis Stevenson Museum and the Utah missionary connection. They are an amazing family and we have felt it a privilege to know them.
This is my twin sister. Everyone gets us mixed up. Sister Squire and I just answer to anything now. Two palagies(white people) We all look a like to them!!!!!

(The Gout Came Back). Paul had a major attack right in the middle of one of the cultural performances and had to get up and leave. By the next morning his foot was really swollen and none of his pills seemed to work. By Saturday morning it was so big that it looked like the Pillsbury dough boy and his toes were starting to disappear. We took him to the hospital and the doctor said this was normal for Samoa as the heat and humidity seem to aggravate the situation. She gave him a shot and tons of pills to take over the next week. By yesterday, the swelling was down and he could get his flip flop on again, he even tried to go snorkeling but the winds were so high that it would have been too dangerous so we just drove back home.
Elder Jessop arrived from American Samoa and brought him a Ukulele last night so I suspect he will learn to play it just enough to be annoying and go off into the sunset singing and dancing in his Lava Lava to the delight of the local members. Or maybe not time will tell.

This is Paul watching the Utah game. We skyped Brandon who put his camera on his TV. They both had a microphone and earphone and if you look closely at the screen you can see Brandon with his head in front of his camera and Paul doing we're number one. It was really fun for them to be able to talk to each other while watching the game.