May 2010
Mother’s day May 9
It was a hard Mother’s day for me because I heard that my mother was in a coma and they didn’t think she would make it through the night.
When I was in church I kept reflecting on my mother and how she was such a blessing to me. She always had such a great sense of humor and was so totally dedicated to my father.
Pam told me a funny story about when she was rubbing her back and mom reached around and grabbed Pam’s nose and then tooted. She said that she had wanted to do that for a long time but didn’t want Pam to suffer.
She also responded to the nurse when asked “How did you sleep last night?” she said “With my eyes closed. How do you sleep?”
When she had a brain scan because of a fall she was told that her brain looked really good and she responded “Well, it should I've never used it.”

This is my homemade card and flowers. Paul also made me waffles with our George Forman Grill but they turned out a little flat but tasted great. Monday 10
It was a really special day for me. I called Carole on skype to see how mom was doing. All of my sister’s were there and we were having a great conversation when Pam said “Guess who just pulled up? It’s President Monson. I told them to keep me on skype so that I could be part of the visit.

We set up the recorder and the camera just in case Pres. Monson talked to us. He went in Mom’s room and chatted with my sisters and Vern. He told them stories and also told them that I was where I was supposed to be. He then came in and sat down and said “Talofa Lava”

I always knew that the Lords answers prayers but I never could imagine that the Prophet, himself, would answer my prayers and would take the time to tell me that I was where I was needed. It was a wonderful spiritual experience for me.

Tuesday May 11, my cute Mother passed away. When Carole called to tell the Juanita that Mom had passed away she said “Oh Dear, President Monson was going to see her that day” Carole told her that he had been there the day before and gave her a blessing. Juanita was so surprised that he had already been there. I guess that is just like a prophet to show us when he should and not a day late.

Wednesday 12, Natalie, Jared, Micah, Sophie and Nellie came for a visit. It was so timely for me because I was so excited about having family around at this time for me. When I hugged Natalie I felt such an out pouring of love for her and so grateful for the love of a daughter. I then knew how much my mother had loved me.

I made crepes and then we let them all stretch out and take a nap while we went to work for a while. Then we took off to sliding rock. It was so fun to see them all going down the slides screaming and laughing.
Jared would climb up the side of the mountain and jump off. I was a little nervous but then I usually am when it comes to craziness. The girls were having a great time going underwater for the camera poses. We spent a couple of hours there and then Paul told Micah to do a back flip off the rocks and when she did, she cut back too far and hit her head with a great head wound. Of course head wounds bled like crazy so off we were to go home. Nat and I cleaned up the wound and decided to super glue it. It went together really well. What a brave girl.

Micah to the left

Under water shot of the girls

Nellie and Sophie

Natalie and Jared at the top of the second fall.

Paul Jared and the girls at the top of the first fall.

The whole family at the bottom of the falls.



We went to a Primary school for a program and we were able to see some fun dances and drink fresh coconut milk.

Thursday we took everyone to Palolo Deep at low tide. We walked out to the edge of the reef and then the girls all put on their masks and away they went. Nellie cracked me up. She would talk through her snorkel say “Grandpa, look at this” She was so excited over everything and about drowned Paul. She would get on his back and pull her mask off and trying telling everyone what she had seen.

Friday we went to Return to Paradise beach. It’s a fun place to just relax and sit on the beach. The water is so warm that you can stay in it forever. We walked over to the reef because it was low tide and walked all along it.

We decided to see the waterfalls at the Park on the way home. I went down to take the pictures and Paul gave everyone their instructions on jumping off.

Minutes before the accident

The girls did great and then last but not least Nat did a great big jump with her knees bent , for the camera and landed too far out and hit the rocks that were just under the surface. She broke her knee cap in eight pieces and then all of our concerns where how to get her out of the first waterfall down to the next one.
Our brave Natalie with out a complaint.

Out side the Apia Temple. Nellie Micah and Sophie

We said our goodbyes which were so difficult for me because I wanted to get on that plane go home with them and take care of her. Poor Micah had started to cry on the way to the airport, she is so tender hearted that it killed me to say goodbye to her.
I cried all the way home from the airport worrying about how she was going to switch planes and terminals in LA. How was she going to take care of six children with her leg immobilized? How was she going to move into her new house?
Each of the girls had written us notes, Sophie’s was of course a darling poem and Micah had left us 20 Tala to help pay for our electricity because they had used the AC in their bedroom. We never did find Nellie’s but I knew she wrote one. What darling girls. Natalie and Jared have done a really good job raising such wonderful girls.

May 19
Now we had 9 days to pack up our home and office for our move to New Zealand. It was a hassle with our airline tickets because we couldn’t take all our suitcases back because of the restrictions of baggage. We finally got it sorted out the day before we left.

At FHE at the end they always have the couples say goodbye so we stood up to say our goodbyes and Paul (bless his little heart) told them that he was probably going to get in trouble for this but that they should see me perform the crooked mouth story. I could have killed him. So after some persuasion I had to do it. Needless to say it wasn’t a great spiritual experience for them but I think they were entertained. The next day every time I saw someone they would try to move their mouths like me and talk to me.

Reed and Deb Tolman Pat and Fayebell

At the end of our Sunday school class we took pictures of all of our class and then they sang the good bye song to us. What darling kids we loved them. They did toilet paper our house and wrote all over our sidewalks that they loved us with chalk so I guess they loved us too. We never did get to see it because it rained and the guards cleaned it up.

On Monday we took all the PA committee to lunch at Treasure Gardens and it turned out to be such a great goodbye. Molisha, Oliver, Molika, Viiaga, Sapele, Alema and George.

April 2010
Patty and I went to Tonga a week ago today. I wasn't too excited about the trip because I was still nursing a big Carbuncle on my back that I got three weeks earlier. For those who don't know, a carbuncle is like a boil but it has multiple chambers and can have several openings. Mine all funneled into one big opening that had lots of little openings inside.

I quickly decided that boils are the most painful thing that I have experience especially on the back where they form under almost an inch of flesh and are very hard to get out. Anyway, I was worried about the trip to Tonga because it would require me to sit in a chair for two or more hours with my back pressing against the seat. On Saturday, the other senior couples invited us to go to a little island about a 1/4 mile off shore to snorkel and play on the beach. They didn't have to ask twice. We really had fun and the little cantina on the island had excellent food. We thoroughly enjoyed the day and the chance to get to know the other couples that serve in Tonga When we arrived, the sweet member that had promised to pick us up was faithfully there waiting and gave us some very sad news on the way to the apartment. A nursing instructor from BYU Idaho had fallen off a cliff and into the sea earlier in the day and they had not been able to recover her body. She was there with her husband and 23 nursing students that were doing two weeks of service in Tonga.
Her poor husband scrambled down the cliff as fast as he could to try and get to her and almost lost his life in the process. When we met him, he was really banged up with a broken tailbone and many scrapes and bruises. He said, the waves kept pounding him against the cliff while at the same time pulling her out to sea. Eventually, he couldn't see her anymore and others pulled him out to safety. The police boat arrived three hours later and searched for three days to no avail.
We were able to spend one evening with him at a dinner held at the mission home and then attended a memorial for her the next day. We were amazed at how strong he was when he got up and bore a testimony of their trip and his love for her. The prayers and love of our father in heaven were really evident in this man. The teachers name was Gaye Lee, she was just 59 years old.

Paul and I at 500 year old rock bridge in Tonga.

March
We had an interesting experience the other day; two Catholic priests came to the Service Center wanting to know about the church. The receptionist directed them to us so we invited them into our office. (I guess they think Public Affairs have all the answers….NOT….)
Their question was “Why does the Mormon Church have such a presence in Samoa and what motivates us?” Paul pointed to the picture of Christ in our office and said that is why we do what we do. I then told them that when you have the Gospel of Jesus Christ which makes you so happy, that you want to share it with all of your brothers and sister.
We had a great conversation with them. They felt that the Catholic Church has been around since Christ so it has to be the only true church. We told them that in the scriptures it talks about the falling away and that our church was the restored one. When I asked them where their twelve apostles were they had no answer except to say that they had a lot of bishops. I think we all learned a little more about each other and then we gave them some Mormon Tabernacle choir CD’s and they left. It’s funny what others think our job description is, but we just try to be helpful. I just wished that I would have had our camera so we could have taken a picture with them.

I couldn't take a picture of the Priest so I thought this one would do. Look closely at the face.

We have been very busy getting ready for our Public Affairs Conference in New Zealand. Paul and I are the only PA couple that has been asked to do a presentation. No Fair!!
March 13th
Our ward went out to Saleapaga to help build another Fale for the tsunami victims. This was the third one our ward has done. The men laid cement for the bathroom and the floor of the fale while the women planted a garden. Trying to get the ground prepared was extremely hard with one pix, two rakes, and two hand shovels. What I would have done for a giant tiller! We planted sixty pineapple plants, taro, cucumbers, and some flowers.

We had begun our day by meeting at the Church parking lot at 4:00AM in the morning and by 10:00AM I felt that we had been there for days. When it started to rain the dirt roads became so muddy and it was hard to get the trucks up and down the road with the sand and cement. We finished around 1:00PM and headed straight to the beach where we all just walked into the water clothes and all. We were filthy from head to foot and the cool water was so refreshing. It was so funny to see everyone just swimming in their clothing.

The senior couples that went on the service project

March 16th
We celebrated Paul’s birthday a day ahead because we leave on the 17th for NZ. The Squire’s, Bells, and the Tolman’s showed up at our house for a surprise birthday for Paul. They brought sweet rolls and ice cream to celebrate. He didn’t want to go out to dinner for his birthday in Samoa because he wanted to wait and have Mexican food in NZ.

March 18
We left Samoa on the 17th landed in NZ on the 18th and just a year ago we had arrived there on the 18th also. What a coincidence!! We had to stop at Dunkin donuts by the airport to have some donuts, (Paul’s birthday cake). We haven’t had a donut for almost a year. Boy did they taste good.
Our first day there we went for Mexican food for lunch enjoying chips, salsa, enchilada’s tacos and guacamole. What a treat! When we went into the office after lunch I hugged the other missionary couple and Sandy said “You had Mexican food” I guess we smelt like hot sauce.

Our presentation went well. We were assigned to teach a session on how to run a PA council meeting. We were scheduled in the afternoon, the second presentation after lunch, so we knew that everyone would be tired and falling asleep. So we had to jazz up our presentation. Paul dressed up like a Chef with a tall hat that he borrowed from the kitchen staff at our Hotel and came into the room carrying a big Bar-B-Q fork and spatula all ready to make a soup. He drew a big pot on the board and we proceed to teach them using the preparation of a soup and its recipe to make our point. We both had aprons on and the whole group really got into it. I don’t know if they learned anything but they were all sure paying attention and having a good time.

March 21
We were able to have our own Sacrament meeting in the Area Office and it was wonderful to hear from President Callister and President Nielson from the Area Presidency. They are amazing men and after hearing them speak, you know why they are called to be General Authorities. They are down to earth but have such a beautiful way of teaching the gospel.
We said good-bye to our country PA directors on Sunday and started our PA Missionary meeting on Monday. We received great instruction from a real New Zealand reporter and even had to practice doing interviews on radio and TV. It’s never fun being on TV in front of other people but I think everyone did an amazing job. We were also taught how to write better news releases for the media. One that hopefully won’t go into the garbage.
We had one of the directors of PA from Salt Lake, Clark Hirshi, with us the whole week and we thought he was amazing. He was so impressed by what we are doing here in the Pacific Area. He said that he wished he could pick us all up and move us to all of his different areas around the world and have us train others how to do Public Affairs work.
We spoke with him on one of the breaks and suggested that they should consider letting couples go to some of these areas that need help for 5 or 6 months and then return home after they got the public affairs committee running well. He got really excited about that and is going to take it back to SLC. 6 month missions would be so nice.

March 26
We finished the conference so Paul and I and two of the other couples decided to take Friday afternoon off and go to the beach. It’s a remote beach that has lots of beautiful shells.

This beach doesn’t get much traffic because you must climb down a very steep and brushy hillside using a rope in one location, but was so worth it. You have be there at low tide and can only stay a hour or two before the tide starts coming in again. In just an hour I think we found over 100 shells each. What a find for us.

This was another beach we went to and it was beautiful black sand with what looked like glitter on the sand.

March 27
We spent the last few days of our visit looking for a place to live when we move back in June. The only problem with looking this early is that if we found one now, we would have to start paying rent on it immediately. We found some good places but can’t afford to pay for two places (Samoa and NZ) at the same time. There aren’t a lot of rentals in the area we like to begin with and then most of them are unfurnished. The cost of buying furniture for just 8 or 9 months would be too big of an expense. Hopefully something will come up between now and when we move here the end of May.
March 28
We are involved in a project that has the Church in Samoa really concerned. AT the prompting of the so called big three Churches, the Government of Samoa has organized a commission to see if it would be in the best interests of the country to amend the Freedom of Religion section of the Constitution. The Catholic’s, Congregationalist’s, and Methodist’s want to limit Samoa to only those three religions. They think that there would be fewer disputes if everyone belonged to just those three but in truth, it’s all about money and control of people’s lives. The LDS Church is growing at a very rapid rate while those three are losing members at about 4 % a year. The News media is totally against changing the constitution as are we.

The Mormon Church has around 30- 38% of the population yet they don’t consider us one of the big three. They don’t consider us Christian either so I guess it all goes hand in hand. We were fortunate that they had invited a member of our church to sit on the commission and what a blessing that is for us. We were able to get a wonderful presentation for the commission prepared with the help of the BYU law society who are top notch legal experts on the subject of Freedom of Religion. We were told that this was the best presentation ever made to this commission. Everyone is very concerned about how this will turn out. The Area legal counsel, Craig Christiansen, is flying in here on Monday to see if he can help in any way.

Feb 2
We were asked by the Area to help a Professor of Religion from Victoria College in Wellington New Zealand, Professor Paul Morris. He is doing research for a new book on the dynamics of change in religions in the Pacific area. He himself is Jewish but is very friendly to the church. He came here to interview the top leadership of several churches. When he finished his interviews, he told us that when talking to the other church leaders; they would give him anti-Mormon literature and told him that we were a cult and not real Christians. When we asked why they would do that he responded that they are scared. They are losing lots of their members to the LDS Church. We are the top baptizing mission in the Pacific area.
His topic has been why people change religions. He mentioned that he only interviewed actual members of the Mormon Church and not the other churches. Of the three people he interviewed they all said their reason for changing religions was because they finally felt the spirit when they were being taught by the Mormon Missionaries. He asked them, surely you have felt that in your church at some time and they all said they had not.
The first person to be interviewed is from the island of Savaii. Brother Masoe was studying to become a Methodist minister. He attended a religious college here in Upolu for three years but then went home to help on the family plantation. He comes from a family of 10 generations of Methodist ministers. He was found by the missionaries and taught the lessons. There has been a lot of religions unrest in his village due to the disagreements of the religions. He noticed that the Mormon’s just quietly went about their business and did not get into the disagreements. He and his wife fasted for a whole week before they made the commitment. His family has come to him one at a time and asked him why he has joined the Mormon Church. He says that he knows that it is the true church. He just has a good feeling and the spirit has whispered to him that it is true. He says that he has had a very calm feeling. He will be receiving the Melchizedek Priesthood this week and will be talking in church next week. He is not concerned that he may lose his title as a Matei (Chief) in the village because he knows that he has made the right choice.

The second person interviewed was a young pregnant mom named Stephanie. Her husband has been a member for years. She had never felt right about joining the church. But then just before the tsunami, she started to get feelings that she should join. After the tsunami, she asked for the lessons and was baptized. She said that she could see that she needed to have the church in her life so that her children would be with her forever. Both her and husband are now very active in the church. Since her joining she has been instrumental in helping her mother and grandmother become active in the church again.

The third person interviewed was Brother Sau who was found by the sister missionaries and then they asked the Elders to follow up with him. They live far up in the mountains. He said that in his church he was asked to give $100 tala ($45. US) each month. The church would not accept anything less. If you didn’t pay your dues for the month then the minister in the church would get up and read all the names of those that had and had not paid their donation for the previous month. He said that he could not find any place in the Bible that said you had to pay $100 tala a month. He could only find the law of tithing. Something rang true about our church” it just felt good” he said. His wife’s father passed away the night before the interview and he had been trying to get in touch with his daughter to ask her to have him baptized and to do his temple work for him.
Prof. Morris was a delightful person and we enjoyed spending some time with him on his visit to Samoa. It was a privilege to help by arranging these interviews for him and so wonderful to hear the sweet testimonies of the three new converts that met with him. We get so many blessing in this calling

February 4th
My poor mother fell down and broke her femur in several places. She was in so much pain and had to have surgery. They put a rod and several screws in her leg. Brandon and Jodi both showed up at the airport at the exact same time. All the kids went to visit her at the hospital on Saturday after her surgery. The grandkids asked her if she was Wii bowling when she fell down. She said “no, I was Toilet Bowling”. She fell while she was in the bathroom. It really worries me because she is ninety years old and probably won’t heal very quickly.

This is my mom, my sister Carole and my niece

February 8th
In the earthquake/tsunami in September our angel Moroni on the temple lost his Trumpet. There have been a few things in the newspaper about it but he has been without a horn since September. It was decided that since several of his fingers had broken off, that a new statue would be needed.
Our new angel arrived from SLC and we have had fun watching the whole process of putting up scaffolding for the replacement. Samoa doesn’t have a big enough crane to replace that angel so they had to do it with scaffolding that winds its way up and around the temple spire. We prepared several articles for the newspaper and sent notices to the TV and radio stations in the hope that we could get some good media coverage for the event. The temple is such a landmark here and people give direction according to where they are from the temple. Poor Moroni has looked like he’s angry with just one arm up in the air so we are glad we have a new one. Monday was the scheduled day for the replacement but it was poring rain. Tuesday In the paper an article came out with a big headline “Angel Moroni Statue erection delayed” That cracked us up.
But Tuesday we had a break in the weather and they were able to get the job done. We had some TV news reporters come and we hooked them up with Temple President Fonoimoana. He is a councilor in the Temple presidency who was originally born in Hawaii but then moved to American Samoa. He served his mission in Samoa where his ancestors were from. He spoke with the news and told them the significance of Moroni to the restoration of the gospel to the earth and why we have him on our Temples. He did a marvelous job and it was on both the evening and morning news. Articles that Paul wrote appeared in all of the local news papers.

Here’s just a quick side note about the news story. As a woman was watching the program she recognized President Fonoimoana and remembered that she had been baptized a member of the church many years ago but had forgotten about it until she saw him again. She then found the missionaries and told them that she wanted to find her records and get active again. Isn’t it amazing how even public affairs work can end up helping people in finding the Gospel.



President Fonoimoano and his wife


Feb. 14th Valentines Day
I woke up Sunday morning to beautiful flowers and a special Valentine card made by Paul. The flowers here amazing, they arranged them so artistically. We have been making homemade birthday cards for all the grandkids and so he made me a special valentine’s one, it was filled with cute photos of all the kids when they visited here with a few cute ones of him thrown in for good measure.

I made him a cherry pie with little hearts cut out of the crust. He just loves cherry pie but it’s hard to find the kind of cherries we like. Tricia did bring us some cans of cherries but they are long gone so we use the second best that come from New Zealand.

I made cookies for our Sunday school class and they were gone in a matter of seconds.


Feb. 18th
We took off for American Samoa on Thursday to do some training and planning with our Public Affairs committee. Getting ready for these meetings is really a lot of work. We had to create and print manuals and all kinds of other materials. The church has a new PA training website and so I used this to make the new printed training manuals. We had a great meeting and were happy that they finally have every position filled on the committee.
It’s been a long time in coming but we are excited about the new members on the committee.
This is our Director in American Samoa. Su'a Carl Schuster
It’s always fun to go to American Samoa because we can shop at a store like Costco. We are limited to 44lbs/person on the airline, so as we picked up an item, we looked at the weight and then kept a running total. Just with the cheese orders for ourselves and the other couples we were up to 25 lbs in just a few minutes. You just can’t get good American type cheese in Samoa. So cheese is a must for us. We also found some plain tostada chips and got really excited about that. You can take 10 lbs of carry on so our carry on bags were loaded with chips and cereal. What fun for us!!!