Picture Us . . .

• crying (Mom, not me) as Mom said goodbye to her car
• carefully weighing our luggage (they were all between 49 and the limit of 50 lbs) at the MTC and dragging 200 total lbs to the SLC Airport only to find that Air New Zealand has a 7 kilo limit and our carry-on luggage weighed 8 kilos
• walking off a de-humidified airplane at 5:30 am into 98% humidity after 10 and a half hours in coach seats happily embarking upon an 18 months adventure
• arriving at our new home in Pesega and finding out it has air conditioning (yea!) but being told it can cost up to $600/month to turn the AC on (boo!)
• removing a very large cockroach from the shower
• scrambing to catch a gecko that ran down the wall and into the medicine chest as Mom was brushing her teeth (I would love to see and hear that happening to Katie)
• going on a drive through the jungle with some new friends and stopping to see a filthy Samoan man with about 20% of his teeth and a bush (literally) of 2 inch hair growing out of his ears who, with his son (who was covered with fresh scratches), had just chased down, caught and killed a wild boar
• visiting the Magiagi Institute (our new day-time home) and learning that at the beginning of the semester the institute director controlled his perceived over-crowding by posting a sign that said "no new non-members allowed"
• finally deciding to turn on the AC despite the cost because it is so blasted hot in our house only to have the electricity go off
• being awakened on our first morning at 3:30 am by a cacophony (pun intended) of cock-a-doodle-dos--we literally are surrounded by about 100 roosters who seriously don't know when the sun comes up
• thinking after our first day that 18 months seems like a very long time
• gradually adjusting as we exercised faith and slowly moved in and made our house seem like a home (a little)
• meeting about 15 of the nicest, most helpful people imaginable as we struggled to get settled and navigate our new surroundings
• getting in a very minor, although still distressful, car accident in Apia after just four days in the country
• sitting at our little table eating and loving boiled bananas, breadfruit, palusami and coco Samoa
• amazed at the devastation of the tsunami as we toured the affected areas
• overwhelmed by a meeting with the Pres. Haleck and Elder Hamula of the Area Presidency during which we are told (now that we are feeling settled) that we will be moving soon to American Samoa and spearheading the effort to build new homes for 40 LDS families rendered homeless by the tsunami
• happy to be serving the Lord in this small and wonderful part of His vinyard, but desperately missing the best kids and grandkids in the world back home.