Oct 31 2009

Halloween in Samoa was a little different for us. We don’t have any of our scary thi to put out plus there are no real orange pumpkins to carve, just some squash that kind of look like pumpkins. We did find some squash to carve but Paul said that it was really different and that it was hard to get the look he wanted.

He carved one for the office and all day long people would come by and asked if they could have it. Each day we took another one and they were amazed that you could carve a squash that way. Delaney, our next door neighbor was so amazed that she brought seven Squash over the next day and wanted Paul to carve them for her which he did over the next 3 nights.
Our ward did a special trick or treats and asked us if we would be one of the homes that the kids could come to. We live in what is called the upper village of the churches housing and there are six homes in our village so four of them were designated as Halloween homes.

Paul made a ghost out of our light post and a pumpkin head man out of our propane tank, it all looked really neat.

Delaney did a great job of organizing the 7 squash with old bottles with candles in them and it looked very spooky on her front porch. The Mitchell’s, across the street did a little spook alley on their front porch with black plastic and a dummy with a recorded voice.
Shades of the early Streiff years. I guess some of the children were quite scared. We can only imagine what a real Streiff haunted house would do to these innocent children that have never seen a horror movie.

November 7^th

President Uchtdorf arrived in Samoa on John Huntsman’s Private jet. We were at the airport to make sure the media showed up and to see that things went smoothly. When he arrived there were two rows of darling primary children dressed in red, yellow and blue lining the walkway into the VIP terminal at the airport.

They gave him, his wife and his daughter lei’s and flowers and then started to sing primary songs both in English and then in Samoan. You could tell that he was so touched by the beautiful voices of those gorgeous children. Some were barefoot but you could tell that they were all clean and in their very best.

While here, he met with several high ranking government people including the Head of State who attended the member meeting and asked if he could say a few words.
He expressed appreciation to the church for its rapid response to the relief effort after the Tsunami and said how important it was to Samoa to have a leader of a worldwide church come to Samoa.
Then President Uchtdorf spoke. He told the saints to reach out to others. He told them that they were strong, resilient and were so faithful. He also said that when comparing his flight to Samoa that was a little rough and how they had to go around the storms but did manage to make it safely. He said that “God promises a safe landing but not a calm passage.” It really made me think how true that was. That life is tough but that we have the promise of eternal life if we are faithful.

I was so impressed with him and it was fun to be able to hear him speak two times, once with just the missionaries and then at the member meeting.

When he was about to leave, Paul and I were standing close to the back door of the VIP room where they were taking pictures and all the high ranking church officials were talking to President Uchtdorf. (We always try to stay in the back ground and just lay low and take pictures.)He looked at us and crossed the room to come and shake our hands. When he saw our name tags he said “Streiff”, that’s a name I know and can say.” He shook our hands and then his wife hugged us. What a blessing and a privilege it was for us. We had worked so hard for his arrival and this was the greatest reward we could have. Then he was whisked off to the plane.

November 18^th What a fun day for us.

Jodi Tricia and Lee arrived. Their plane was supposed to be in at 5:30 in the morning but they had a late start in LA so they didn’t arrive until 8:30. It was so fun to see them start shedding their clothes as soon as they got off the plane. It was a typical warm humid day in Samoa.

We went home and had a great breakfast and then Paul and I had to go to work for a few hours. We needed to send all our pictures and the news reports to the Area Office and to SLC from Uchtdorf’s visit. He also wanted all the addresses of all the dignitaries he met.
Then Tricia, Jodi, Sister Bell and I went to a Tea Party. The boys went snorkeling at Palolo Deep. Our Tea party was at the plantation house and sister Wendt was the hostess.

Each of us had a different tea cup and we were served herbal mango strawberry or lemon grass tea. The table was set so beautifully and we even had glass knife holders. The first course was scones all wrapped in a napkin with a ribbon tied around it and decorated with fresh flowers. Each course was delicious and the presentation of everything was so amazing. I wish that I had a fancy hat on and then I would have felt like a real English lady. Each tea cup had a history to it and Sister Wendt told us all the stories on how she had started this tradition. It was such a fun thing to do with my cute daughters. The next day we spent around Apia. This is Lee looking for his breakfast. He tried bread fruit, coco Samoa, and some kind of roll. He said that it all had a hint of ash taste to it.

We went to the Robert Lewis Stevenson home and then did the hike up to his grave.

I’m glad I finally did it, but it was a hard hike and we were dying with the heat. It’s a beautiful setting on top of the mountain and I’m glad we did it but don’t think I will need to do it again.

That afternoon we all went to the beach at Palolo deep for snorkeling. We had fun taking underwater pictures and Paul was so proud of his sea urchin garden. Paul in his garden

Tricia and LeeJodi

We barely made it to the temple that night wet hair and all. It was quite crowded so we asked if we could do sealing’s. What a blessing it was to be able to be in the temple with your children and see them kneeling at the alter.

On Friday we got up early and took the ferry boat over to Savaii. (The big Island of Samoa) We pick up another missionary couple and they took us to the Alofaaga blow holes and then to the Mu Pagoa waterfall.

Everyone had fun jumping in and it was an amazing place. Water was coming in all around the main fall. It was really a gorgeous setting. We then went up north to see where we were staying for the night. I must admit that when I saw our fale’s I was a bit nervous but I thought to myself “I can do anything for one night.” I think the girls saw my reaction to the place and kept saying “Isn’t this going to be fun?”

We asked the owners where we could go snorkeling and they said to just go up around the next corner so we did. It turned out to be a great place, Paul and Lee found several cowry shells and each were so excited.
That night we spent at the Tanu Fale’s and they were basically just an open hut with Palm leaf roof with a foam mattress placed over a woven mates. They did have a mosquito net over each mattress which made it nice. You could raise or lower you walls made out of woven palm leaves. It was a beautiful setting to be on the beach, just 10 feet from the ocean. You could hear and watch the waves all night long. I wasn’t sure I liked having to walk to the bathroom in the middle of the night so I stopped drinking after dinner.
It turned out to be a wonderful experience and I really appreciated how so many of the Samoans sleep every night of their life. Saturday morning, we ate breakfast and took the ferry boat back to Upolu. Tricia and Lee at Paradise Beach

We met our friends the Squire’s and then stopped at a couple of beaches and another waterfall as we drove home. Everyone had a blast, jumping off the water falls and Paul even got Lee to do a back flip off the last fall. So crazy.

Paul Jodi Tricia(aka Big Foot) Lee

Paul Jodi and Tricia
On Sunday we all got ready for church in one bathroom and we made it to our 7:30 Sacrament meeting on time.

After church we stopped to take pictures at the temple and then took off to show the kids the southern part of the island that had so much devastation from the tsunami. Over there they met a brother with his sister, who are members of the church, who had lost both of their parents. The brother had also lost two of his children. It really drives the point home how terrible the tsunami really was.
I can’t believe how much work they have done in a little over a month. They have cleared most of the debris and have built some new fale’s with others in various stages of completion. The kids couldn’t believe the amount of devastation through. In many places, whole villages were wiped out. As we rounded the end of the island and headed home, we stopped at several waterfalls along the way and the kids couldn’t believe that people had these beautiful falls in their back yards.
This is our own rendition of Bali Hai

Their last day here was spent mostly shopping for souvenirs and Jodi even found a new boyfriend.

Ben, who is a handsome young man that works in the open market. He thought that Jodi was the most amazing person he has ever met. He said that she was so nice and that he had never met anyone who treated shop workers with such respect and was so kind. Later that night we took them to the airport for their 12 o’clock flight. It was sad to see them go but it had been so much fun, sharing our mission and Samoa with them.

On the last day Lee decided that wearing a skirt (lava lava) wasn't that bad.

Wednesday, just two days after they left President Haleck called to see if I would accompany Sister Tofu home from her mission. She is a senior sister Missionary that had been ill for a while and just wasn’t getting better. They needed a nurse to travel home with her. I was to drop her off in Las Vegas and then go to Utah to stay a week until the next flight to Samoa. It was a hard flight taking care of her every minute, but when I was able to see my new little grandchild, my mother, my children, family and friends it was so worth it.

I hadn’t told Natalie that I was coming because I just wanted to show up at her door and say Hi. Jodi helped me by knocking on her door and when Micah opened it and yelled “Jodi,” all the other kids came running. Jodi then said “Where’s your mom? So Natalie came around the corner and said “What are you doing here.” I couldn’t see her face but she really had a concerned look on it. Jodi told her that she was at the airport last night and met a friend that wanted to meet her. I then jumped out and we all screamed and then we all started to cry. We hugged and poor Micah wouldn’t leave my side. She just kept asking Natalie if she could please stay home from school. It was so good to surprise Natalie because she is always getting me with her tricks.

The timing of this trip was so that I got to see McKenna and Emi in a dance recital, go to lunch with my girls, and lunch with great friends.

I was even able to go to our ward Christmas social and my cousin’s Christmas parties. I got some shopping done for some of the other senior couples and even had time to pick up some big chocolate Dunford donuts to take home to Paul.

It was a whirl wind trip but I loved spending time with my family.When I got off the airplane back in Samoa, there was Paul standing there with a Santa hat on, Christmas tie, red croc’s sandals, wearing his lava lava and a sign saying “Welcome home Patty” What a funny man I’ve married.

When I got home there were the same signs all over the house. Except in the bathroom it said “Welcome home Potty”
He also had a beautiful flower arrangement on the dining room table and had decorated the house with all kinds of Christmas things including a big Santa hat that he made for our water cooler and sea shell ornaments and star on the Christmas tree. Everything looked so great.

I had such a great time that I’m thinking that I might like to do that again. Some of the senior missionaries better watch what they eat over the holidays and especially should avoid Patty’s special brownies. Heh, heh heh..

October for the Streiff's

Oct.7 2009

Well, the Big relief plane from SLC that was due at 9 PM didn't arrive until 12:30 AM. We sat in our car and tried to sleep while waiting for it but too many things were going on like mosquito’s biting us and people knocking on the window to talk to us. But when it did land it really looked huge compared to the other airplanes at the airport. It was hard to imagine that we would have to unload that whole thing tonight.


These are the cute missionaries unloading the plane


There were five crew members and our two media guys on the DC10. What a way to travel for those guys. They could walk around lay out flat on their sleeping bags and one even got to sit in the cock pit while taking off and landing.
The airport didn’t have a high enough lift to reach the cargo door on the plane so they had to unload each pallet by hand onto the lift, lower it and then reload the pallets to load them on the trucks. There were about 30 young missionaries there pulse 4 senior couples and several employees from the Church Service center. Those poor young missionaries had been working up in the hills all day, digging latrines and would now be up all night unloading and then loading trucks.
Our missionaries digging toilets.


It was a very long process unloading the plane. The media guys were there to take pictures of the whole thing for a documentary. Garret Batty and Lucas McGraw were both from SLC area. After a little conversation we found out that Garret had been Jennifer’s home teacher in Draper and still lives in her ward. Small world isn’t it. They also had to do interviews with several of the missionaries and didn’t finish until after 4:30 AM . We were a bit tired by the time we arrived at our home just after 5AM. It's 3:30 in the morning and Paul is supervising in his lava lava.

We had planned to take them with a group from the stake that was going out to do a Helping Hands clean up project but we were all much too tired to continue without any sleep. We decided to meet at the service center by 8:30 so we had to sleep fast. I had told the two boys (I guess they weren’t really boys, they were both married, but I called them my boys) that we would have them for breakfast at 8 AM. I had to get up early and make apple pancakes for them. So I got 2 hours of sleep that night.

We took them to the service center and got the agenda for the day and then met with the Ministry of Health and the head of the Red Cross. We did interviews with them and took pictures of all the food that had been brought to the warehouse during the night. The last two flatbed trucks had just arrived from the airport at 10am and the TV media was there taking lots of pictures and interviewing our Public Affairs director and our humanitarian director. Each of them was so impressed with how fast the church responded to this disaster. We found out later that Paul and I were on TV that night but we never saw it. We thought we were just in the background helping our media guys.
The Head of the Red Cross


After the ministers had left and all the pictures were done Paul said to me, what’s that big grease spot on your shirt? I looked down and sure enough a big dark spot of grease. I then looked at him and he had two grease spots on this tie. We couldn’t image what we had rubbed up against but we were both stained. A great way to appear on Samoa television.

The minister of Health of Samoa

We drove the film crew around for the first day and then the next couple of days they traveled with the Area President Elder Callister to the affected areas. They got some great stories and shots so hopefully they have some good footage for the story they are doing.
Paul has been busy writing stories of a few of the tsunami victims. Two or three of these have appeared on the country web site for the Church. He has quite a gift for writing and since we still don’t have a media specialist; it’s up to him to get that part of our job done.

Friday 17th
Paul was invited to go with the priest quorum on an overnighter. He and our neighbor, Hatu took ten boys plus all their gear in one Toyota pickup truck up into the mountains. It actually took them two trips but it seemed weird that they would only have one vehicle for a Priest outing. They went up to the top of the mountains which are south of where we live and spent the night in the jungle.
I guess they found an old three sided shack that they cleaned out and used for sleeping, cooking and just hanging out. Paul borrowed a Dutch oven from the Dentist that lives across the street and made the boys some of his famous soda pop biscuits. They must have been a hit because he used the whole bag of flour and said they ate them all. Paul was very impressed with how nice these young me are. Hatu made food and other assignments prior to leaving and the boys took care of everything. Cooking, clean-up, camp fire scripture discussion, the works. It was all very impressive. Once the camp fire session was over, the boys settled down to a good game of checkers. No one brought phones or electronic games, just two home made checker board with soda pop bottle caps for pieces.

They played this till about midnight when Paul and Hatu went to bed. The boys stayed up and sang around another fire they had built out side the shack and kept this up until 6:30 in the morning when Hatu got up to heat water for breakfast. That was one long night.
After a small breakfast of buffalo eye eggs that Paul prepared, they went on a two hour hike to a lake off in the jungle some where. The trail went up and down over mountain ridges and valleys, through very red mud and thick jungle. The lake, which is an old volcano crater was really pretty and offered a cool dip for the sweaty boys. They only stay a short time and then made the two hour hike back to the truck. They arrived home just after 12 o’clock very tired and very dirty, I couldn’t believe how dirty all of his cloths and socks and everything else were but he had a blast. I guess he really misses being with the scouts back home.

Oct 20th Tuesday

Elder Hamula the 1st counselor of the Area Presidency is here for a mission tour. The Haleck’s asked us if we would skip the conference and entertain his three children Julie (17) Jared and Joseph. (13) So we took them for the day. We went first to Palolo Deep for a snorkeling outing and they loved it. It was a little breezy but not too bad, we saw lots of fish. We stayed there for a couple of hours and then we headed for Sauniatu.


At Sauniatu there is a big pool at the base of good sized waterfall. You can jump off the side wall and try to swim to the base of the falls where you can climb up the cliff and actually sit under the falls. It’s a difficult swim because you are swimming upstream and the current can be strong. If you get tired, you just stop swimming and you float back to the shallow area. They really had a fun time there.

Paul in his lava lava but having some trouble with buttoning his shirt.


One of the twins, Joseph climbed up the side of the falls a couple of times and I was a little nervous that he would fall and get hurt (on our watch) but thankfully he was careful.
Salu, Hatu’s secretary, brought Sister Hamula and lunch and met us at Sauniatu I’m not sure what the beef was but the chicken leg was our best choice. I think Paul took one bite and then suddenly he wasn’t hungry anymore.

The famous McKay Fale at Sauniatu and the Hamula's children

Sister Hamula really wanted to go to a beach so we drove over to Tafa Tafa for a little beach action. By the time we got over there, the day had become overcast so Sister Hamula and I just sat on the beautiful beach. The kids were playing on the beach and drawing “I love Samoa” in the sand. We took photos of them doing pyramids and just playing around.
Paul noticed a lady from the local village, filling up a wheelbarrow with sand and pushing it across the sand to her fale so he decided to help her. In just a few minutes he was wheeling children back from the village and trying to dump them into the ocean. They were too fast for him and would jump off just before he could dump them in the ocean. They would fill up the wheelbarrow and he would wheel it across the sand and return with a wheelbarrow full of kids. They were having a great time.
We really enjoyed the day with Sister Hamula and her children. They are such wonderful people, so down to earth and fun. We got home around 6:30 and were really hungry and since there is no fast food places here except for McDonalds, I thought I would have to fix them some dinner. I looked in my fridge and came up with quesadilla’s. I thawed some chicken fast and cooked it up in my little George Forman grill. I put some taco seasoning on it and cut it up for quesadilla’s.
Just as everything was ready Elder Hamula was at our door trying to find his family. So we invited him in for dinner. It certainly wasn’t one of the fanciest dinners I have ever made but the kids said that it was the best they have had since they left the States.
I thought of what a privilege it was to entertain and laugh with a wonderful General Authority. I was so impressed with him because he is so approachable and warm. I loved his wife the minute I met her. They were going to Pago Pago for a zone conference on Thursday and she asked if there was anything I needed from there. I told her that I didn’t need anything and she just kept asking me so finally I said “OK just get me some Honey Nut Cheerios”. I tried to think of something that didn’t weigh too much because all you can take on the plane is 40 lbs.

Wednesday 21st
At 9PM the mission president called and asked if we would to Pago Pago, American Samoa the next morning and that they would try to get us out on the earliest plane. I had heard rumors for the last 3 weeks that they might need nurses there and that I was going to go, but no one had asked me to go until that night. I hurried and did the wash and packed.


Sister Derrick and me boarding the tiny plane.

We arrived at Pago Pago and were greeted by the Elder and Sister DaBell. They are such a great couple who do so much for the mission.
We stayed at their home along with Sister Derrick, the mission nurse who had accompanied us.

We arrived just in time for the luncheon at the Zone conference that was being held that day and were able to hear President Hamula’s closing remarks about missionary work. I was impressed with his remarks about the earthquakes and total devastation that the Nephite’s experienced after Christ’s crucifixion. Christ came and showed them his wounds and let them all touch him. But then the first instructions were for Nephi to come forward and he asked him to baptize the people. He didn’t say, get all the damage cleaned up or get the people fed or into new homes. He said “Baptize the People”.
Elder Hamula then compared it to Samoa after the tsunami. He said that missionary opportunities and efforts should increase. He also spoke about all the signs that are given now and that it’s not a time of fear but a time of faith. It was powerful sermon that was very close to home after all the devastation that has been done on the three islands affected by the tsunami.

Later that night, Sister Pili who works as a volunteer for the Red Cross came over to the home and talked to us about what we were going to be doing in American Samoa. She said that a lot of the people just needed to talk. We had a feeling that this whole need of nurses was about 3 weeks too late but we were asked to come, so we did.
She picked us up at 8:30 in the morning and after we got into her car she asked if we could say a prayer so that we would know where to go and what to do that day. Sister Derrick and I were a little surprised that nothing was set up for us to do. When I said that I felt they needed social workers instead of nurses her reply was “They just need health care workers.”

The church got water tanks and tents to the members.

So we drove over to the village of Leona where a lot of destruction had occurred. She saw someone at a home and pulled in. It was a two story home and the whole first floor was gutted. She told him that we were nurses from the church and was there anything or anyone who needed help. He said that he was from Guam and hadn’t been here for the Tsunami but he came to help his parents whose house this was. He told us about his sister who was in the house when the wave hit and was in the bathroom and couldn’t get out so she jumped on top of the toilet and found a pocket of air so that she could breath. The second wave hit and it knock down the walls and she was flushed out the back of the house. She managed to grab onto a tree and held on until the water receded.
Another cute little lady who was 82 told us that when the wave hit she was running to get to higher ground with her grandson and daughter. She told them to run on and leave her because if it was her turn to go that she was fine with that. They wouldn’t listen to her so the daughter picked her up by the shoulders and her grandson grabbed her feet and off they ran. She kept pleading with them the whole time. “If it’s my turn to die I should, please leave me and go to safety.” All three of them made it.
Another mother was telling us that when earthquake ended, that the primary school told the children to go home. (Big Mistake)This would put them right in the path of a tsunami if one came. She was running to the school to get her six year daughter and just as she grabbed her hand the wave hit them. It took them inland and smashed them into a truck. Her hand was cut open and it caused her to let go of her daughter. The two were pulled apart and she said that as she saw her float away, that she knew that she would never see her alive again.
She also told us that the night before, her daughter had come in the home leaving the door opened and her mother asked her to close it, so she said “Why is there a tsunami coming?” She couldn’t remember ever mentioning the word Tsunami before. The mother told us that she felt that her little girl was prepared to go and that God had needed her for his garden. The mother had been baptized in the church but had gone back to her other religion because it made things easier in her village but was now ready to get active in the LDS church again and wanted to be sealed to her children. She wanted that assurance that they could be an eternal family.
Several people we talked to were ready to join the church because they saw how our church had come right in and taken care of the people in the villages, not just the members but non members as well.
In fact one village that would never let the church build a chapel had a meeting and the Matai or (Chief) who has blocked the church was the one who said that it was time to let the Mormon’s into the village. They took a vote and every chief voted to let the church build a church if they still desired. They felt it was important for their village to have a Mormon chapel. The Church has since set up a tent so that members can meet in the village and we suspect it won’t be long until we build a chapel there.
I just love our church because it’s so organized, it also is so fast to respond, it helps all the people, not just members and helps the members to help themselves.
Paul has written three stories that have appeared on the church website for the Pacific Area.

One of the stories he wrote was about the two missionaries that saved the three children. This is one of the them Elder Lelea from Tonga next to Paul.

He also wrote to the newspaper about an erroneous article that appeared in the newspaper that said
“A friend of the paper reckons not many people know there is something missing from Joseph’s Smith Golden figure above the LDS Temple at Pesaga. Not quite sure when it happened but his horn, trumpet or whatever you call it is no longer there. Word has it the entire statue is real gold; Now imagine the person who has the trumpet? He/she would be fairly rich by now, wouldn’t he/she.” Paul wrote in to the paper and the next day they wrote a new article saying
“MORONI, NOT JOSEPH SMITH. The statue standing on the LDS temple at Pesega is not that of Joseph Smith, Paul Streiff of the Public Affairs Department corrected yesterday. He wrote”The figure on the Temple is actually that of the Angel Moroni. His horn or trumpet fell to the ground during the earthquake. The figure is not made of gold but does have a very thin layer of gold leaf covering it.” “So There you have it folks”!

We thought that was kind of funny.


We are busy, busy, busy this week getting ready for President Uchtdorf’s visit to the pacific area starting on Saturday. We have to make sure that that opinion leaders and media are invited and that articles get written for the news papers in Samoa, Am Samoa and Tonga. Richard Hunter our director is coming to make sure that all goes well so we decided to hold a training session for the new public affairs council in Samoa while he’s here. We will be glad when the week is over and we can concentrate on the visit of Jodi, Trish, and Lee. Yeah! “Can’t wait”.

This is my lastest hobbie. I started it in New Zealand where it was cold but it's a little too hot here to have a blanket on your lap.

September 29th

What a day!! It all started off with me jogging. At 6:50 AM I was rounding a corner of the Pesega School complex and I hear this loud noise like a jet plane was going to land on my head. I looked up and could see nothing and then the ground started to move. The signs were swaying back and forth and I had to stop running because I thought I would fall down. It lasted about 3 minutes. After it stopped I ran home to find Paul at the computer checking to see how bad it was.
Paul said that when the earthquake hit, he was walking down the hall and hanging on to both sides trying to save the pictures. So gratefully we only lost a few pictures, a clock and some water storage bottles fell off the shelve. There was very little damage around Apia except Angel Moroni did drop his horn and his thumb and the stake center behind us, had a crooked steeple, which has now been removed.

I got into the tub and was washing my hair when Paul came running in and said we had to go because there was a tsunami warning. The sirens were going off so I jumped out of the tub and put my tennie runners on, just in case I had to run. We grabbed some water and granola bars and then picked up the couple from across the street, who didn’t have a car and took off for the hills. When we were about 5 minutes out, Paul said “Shoot I forgot to get some Coke Zero.”
It was an amazing thing to see so many people heading for the hills. Whole families were walking with back packs clogging the streets.
We decided to go to our friend Sua’s home up the hill. He lives in American Samoa but is building a home here. He had been trying since the earthquake to get a hold of his family but unable to.
We stayed there for an hour and then decided to go back to our home. We called the Squires and I felt bad that we hadn’t checked on them before we left. They don’t have a car so they had started to walk up the hill when some other members saw them and put them in the back of their truck and dropped them off at the golf course.
We stopped at the golf course on our way home to pick them up. Our phone finally started working and we saw a rather worried email from Jodi. We quickly answered it and then loaded the 6 of us in a car built for 4 and headed for home. We went back to our house and made bacon, eggs and hash browns while watching the international news.
We could get CNN which had some coverage and the local news was in Samoan, so after a while we decided to go to the other side of the island to see the damage for ourselves. We had heard that a tsunami had hit and that some people been washed away but we weren’t sure where or how bad it was.
We took the first cross island road to the other side of the island and when we came down the mountain and turned on the beach road we could immediately see where the wave had hit the town of Poutasi. It was very interesting what was gone and what was still standing. All the cute Samoan Fale’s were gone and some of the homes were damaged and you could see standing water. This was now about six hours after the wave had hit.

As we continued eastward you could see a little more damage here and there. We wanted to see if Tafatafa was seriously damaged. It is a beautiful long beach with little fale’s all along the beach front. What we could see of it was that the fale’s were gone but the homes weren’t too bad. Some members live right behind the beach fale’s and their home was still intact so we asked them how they were doing and they gave us thumbs up sign.

We continued on our trek east and the next place we wanted to see was Vavau. Unfortunately it was chained off so we couldn’t go down that road. That was one of favorite places; the people there have always been so nice to us and hoped it’s not totally destroyed. Just down the road we came to what had been our favorite restaurant, called the Sea Breeze. As we drove down the steep road we could see that it was totally gone. It had been in a beautiful cove with little islands in the bay. The restaurant had great food and we had hoped to take anyone who came here to visit to this little paradise.

The top picture is the before and the bottom picture is the after. Notice that the whole resturant is totally gone on the right.

The rest of the trip was difficult because the road was now so cluttered that the traffic was down to one lane, bumper to bumper with devastation on both sides of the road. The road was washed out or undercut in several places causing us to drive through the actual villages to continue on. At this point we kind of wished that we had not come because we felt like we were intruding on their grief and could do nothing for them. It was hard to see these poor people sitting on what was left of the foundations of their homes or sitting in the trees staring into space.

There was so much debris in the water that it looked like someone had dynamited a city and threw it in the ocean. The water was all brown close to the shore because of all the dirt and debris and the land that had bordered the road was simply gone. There were huge boulders and coral head scattered from the beach inland to the base of the mountain with many on top of people’s homes. There were cars in the trees, in the ocean and smashed on top of the people’s homes.

We had been to this side of the island so many times but now we couldn’t tell where we had been. We thought we were at one of our favorite places but when we got there we weren’t sure if it was the right place. We knew we were close because of the little island in front but since all the homes were gone we just couldn’t tell where we had been. There was no trace of a little pink house that we used to park in front of. We kept wondering if the family from this home made it out with their five little children.
As we turned up the east end of the island going north at Lalomanu you could see that it was the worst of the worst. There was nothing left. There were boats in trees, cars smashed everywhere and the road was mostly gone.

We found the brand new stake center and at first we thought that it had survived. But as we got closer we could see that all the windows were gone and part of the roof was collapsed or missing. It was obvious the building is a total loss.

Our drive had taken us three hours to get to this point, a distance that should have taken us 45 minute. And what was amazing was as soon as we rounded the next corner there was no damage at all.

We headed home and as we got closer to Apia we saw people that looked like they were in a panic. They had back packs on and were all in a hurry. Cars were passing us and honking at us and we couldn’t figure out what was going on. We were about out of gas and hadn’t eaten since breakfast so we were trying to find a place to eat. When we tried to go toward the beach in Apia the police stopped us and said that there was another tsunami warning and told us to head for higher ground.
These poor people didn’t need this at all. As it turned out it was a false alarm and we were able to go home after an hour or so.
When we got home we made some dinner and watched the news. They didn’t seem to do a very good job with the national news but we were able to get a local channel and see what was going on.
It was a very long day for us and an even longer night. Things kept going through my mind all night. “What if it had happened on this side of the island?” What if it happened in the night?” What if we had been out snorkeling? It was a very long night.
There are several stories that we heard that night from another senior couple. Their mission is to take care of all the missionaries’ fale’s. So the president asked them to take a van out to the Elders. They had grabbed tons of water and took off for the other side.
They were down by the stake center that had been destroyed and were asked to go up to the encampment up the hill and hand out water. They returned just a few minutes later and the area that had once been crowded with tons of people was completely empty. They looked around and saw some people running down the road. They drove to them and were told that another tsunami was on its way. The fifteen people jumped in the van and they took off. Poor Sister Eves kept a steady eye on the ocean for the wave to hit them. But thanks goodness it was a false alarm and nothing came.

I just can’t imagine after seeing all the devastation that had just happened to these poor people, to see them running and to be worried that it was going to come again and that you might be swept out to sea with them. Poor Sister Eves was still shaking hours after they got home.
There is a story about the two missionaries who barely got out of their fale and saw the wave coming right at them. They took off running and up to high ground came upon three little children so they picked them up under their arms and just kept running. When they saw the wave was about to hit them and knew that they would not make it they decided to climb a tree. They got the children in the tree and climbed as fast as they could. The first wave hit and they were praying that the tree would hold and that they were high enough. The second one hit and it came further up the tree and they continued to pray. When the third wave hit it came up to their feet and then subsided. They had made it, the tree had held and their prayers were answered.
Another story was that an Elder got a call to get out of his fale and jumped into his van just as the wave hit him. It took his van inland totally destroying it and he walked away.
Two other Elders were in their fale (home) and it was hit by the wave and taken inland totally destroying it and they walked out of it ok.
The mission president has asked all the Missionaries to write about their experiences and submit them to him. He asked them to do it soon so that they wouldn’t forget how things happened to them. It will be interesting to read the accounts of all of them.
By the evening of the earthquake and tsunami, the Church had already loaded three big trucks with food, water and tents and had them on the way to a rescue site. The call went out at 9pm for our stake to bring clothing to the stake center. By 8am the next morning, there was enough clothing, sheets and blankets to fill about 300 large garbage bags and it took three large trucks to haul it all across the island. Later that day another stake had a similar amount and that plus two more trucks of food went out. Most of the islanders were still in shock and the church had already responded with tons of food and clothing. It was an amazing thing to behold and be part of. The rest of the week was meeting after meeting trying to coordinate with Salt Lake on the needs of the people. There is a lot of work and coordinating that has to be done to able to receive outside help.
We have also been trying to get Media releases done, stories written and we have been inundated with 1000 emails. One guy from the U.S. wanted me to find his family and see if they were ok. They lived in Apia so I just told him that Apia wasn’t damaged and so I thought his family would be fine.

Oct 2 2009
Today we went with a small group of members to the other side of the island to help feed the workers and those that were still there trying to find their loves ones. Some of the sisters from our ward made chicken soup and they put them all together into two big coolers. We also had hot dogs, bread, cookies and water. We would drive along until we saw workmen or other people and wave them to the cars. They would come and we would give them a hand full of food. They have been given some food like rice and other subsistence food but it’s hard for them to prepare things living in the hills. So they would come running to the trucks and they were so thankful.

Paul could see some ladies sitting in a fale off in the distance and wondered if they couldn’t make it to the truck so he delivered food to them. One cute lady said “I love you” and she wanted to give him a kiss to thank him. So he puckered up for a big Samoan kiss. I just wished that I could have caught it with the camera.
We couldn’t believe how much work they have done since Tuesday just three days ago. Most of the roads were passable now. They were working on the power lines and the telephone company was there trying to restore communication. People were still there with sticks looking for the missing and picking up belongings. I am so amazed at some of the people picking up wood and stacking it in piles to use to rebuild their homes.

October 6, 2009
Last night a whole group of our ward members assembled hygiene kits. It was a great assembly line of men women and children, packing shampoo, combs, elastics, deodorant, pads and hand wipes. I was just looking around at how the saints just rally around and jump in with both feet and do service. What a great opportunity it is for us to be here so that we serve. We were able to make about 500 kits from the material we had.
We delivered the kits to the Red Cross today and they were so grateful and appreciative. The director came over to us; hugged and kissed u

s expressed her appreciation for the “gifts for the women”. She said these were sorely needed.

Tonight the big airplane from Salt Lake arrives with something like 60 tons of everything imaginable for the aid of those in need. Paul spotted 100 cases of pork and beans on the list and is already wondering what he can trade for some of them. I can’t wait to have some beans in our little home. What a treat. There will be two media people on the plane from Salt Lake that hope to film stories for the Church. We’ve been asked to escort them around the island for a few days and help them in any way we can. That should be fun and interesting.