The 'Daily' Life in Samoa

Life in Samoa is never boring; every day seems to be filled with a new adverture, problem, challenge or wonderful experience. We want to share a little of our lives with you. First, is this a nice car or what? It is at least very recognizable; there is not an uglier car on the island.



We live a block from the temple. We can see the Angel Moroni (although he lost his trumpet in the earthquake that produced the tsunami) from our window and we drive by every day.

It's pineapple season; we eat them daily. They are huge, cheap and the best we've ever tasted.

Most Saturday mornings, we go to the fish market to buy fish. One can purchase about any warm water critter imaginable. We stick with the albacore tuna because it is awesome and very cheap; we did not buy the eel in the foreground.

We also are not fans of crab, especially because we have a Tolman policy against buying things that are still alive. I didn't like watching these things trying to turn over and get away.

There is no Costco, Bashas or WalMart. Most shopping is done at small little shops like this one. This morning, when I went to buy food for the week, I went to four stores plus the market; that's really the only way to do it because the stores sell whatever they happen to have for that week. When we see something we like, we buy a lot of it because we may not see it again for a long time. We took a picture of this store because it's called "Lily's Cakes." Maybe it will inspire Lily to make cakes someday like her Mom. It makes us miss Lily every day!

Apparently, horseback riding is a lot cooler for both horse and rider when done in the ocean at low tide.

On our P-days, the senior couples like to go snorkling; this is the favorite spot. We are not very good at it yet and we get a little creeped out when we encounter piles of dead coral, clothes and household items carried out to sea by the tsunami. Hundreds of different types of fish and other sea life, as well as the companionship of other senior couples, make it worth the trip.

At least when we are tired of snorkeling (we tend to stop sooner than the other couples), there is shade, always worth searching for in Samoa.

Samoans have suddenly fallen in love with golf. Some of our local friends beg us to go golfing frequently; a man in our ward goes every day but Sunday. We have gone a couple of times. The scenery is amazing, the greens are horrible, and we love going with the Samoans; I get to practice my Samoan and Gammy finds much of what happens on the golf course in Samoa funny. We both shot par on this hole.

But not this one.

I love trips to the market. Interacting with the farmers selling their produce is a lot of fun and the food is fresh, cheap and plentiful.

You know us, we always find time to exercise. We found a place where there are no dogs, which was a major accomplishment, so we ride our bikes two mornings a week. As you can see from this first picture, we often ride in the rain. We don't ride in the rain in Arizona, but in Samoa it cools us off nicely, and if we weren't willing to ride in the rain, we wouldn't get to ride very often.

We have become friends, well sort of (they wave to us, smile, stare, and say "good morning"), with a crew of Samoans who keep the grass in this public area trimmed using nothing but machetes.

We are helping our friend Vaifoa, a man we work with on the perpetual education fund, start an English reading program in his village; it's a pilot program he's hoping to take soon to other villages with Church humanitarian funds. Gammy's background teaching reading has been a great help to him and the kids. When the kids all showed up late one day, Vaifoa took us across the street to his home where his family was preparing a traditional Samoan meal and making koko Samoa. These women are roasting and grinding the cacao beans (removed from the pod in the lower left of the picture), which then are brewed to make the pure chocolate drink we love so much and drink almost every day.

We then enjoyed some taro and palusami while trying not to share with the dogs and flies; a genuine Samoan eating experience. The food was great, and I was thrilled watching Gammy have one of her first traditional Samoan village eating experiences.

Vaifoa has become a good friend. Working with people like him makes our lives here fulfilling and wonderful amidst all the challenges.

Seeing the Prophet's Vision at Work

When we started our mission, we knew very little about the Perpetual Education Fund (PEF). We had a day of training in Salt Lake while at the MTC. We thought PEF was just a loan program; it is so much more. It is designed to create opportunities to upgrade employment, and therefore standard of living, in countries with very few opportunities. Elder Carmack, of the Seventy, participated in our training; he was charged with the responsibility to implement President Hinckley’s vision and ideas; he talked about how President Hinckley often would tell him, “That’s not how I saw it,” when particulars of the program were presented to him. The “loan” is only available under very strict and limited circumstances. The Church views the funds as sacred, and they are only available to those who seriously want to use the funds to better their circumstances and are dedicated to repaying the loan. The repayment statistics are amazing when compared to traditional student loan programs and considering the absence of any repayment enforcement mechanism. PEF must be used only for education that occurs in the person’s local area; the idea is to provide education and employment to those who will build the Church locally.

There are incredible stories worldwide about PEF; one occurred recently here in Samoa. A woman from Lalomanu, a village on the south side of the island of Upolu, had been trying to repay her loan when the tsunami destroyed her home and killed her two children. The PEF committee here was in the process of recommending to the Area Presidency that repayment of her loan be waived when she came in and paid off her entire loan ($392, a lot of money here, especially for someone in her circumstances). The PEF loan recipients are supposed to view their obligation to repay as sacred, and she obviously did. We are thrilled to be able to help in some small way administering the PEF here; we look forward to seeing wonderful things happen for some of the young people we have gotten to know who are trying hard to lift themselves to greater things.

A Perspective from Papa

I thought I would share something with you about our mission. I'm so dumb for not having a greater understanding of what Heavenly Father has been teaching me for a life-time. I have done a good job so far on our mission of avoiding discouragement and depression; anxiety, well that's a different story. I think Satan knows there are many temptations that just don't work with me anymore. But if I'm not careful, I can get very anxious and a little depressed. He knows that, and I think that is the way he will try to disrupt our mission. What I seem to need to re-learn over and over is that discouragement, depression and, to some extent, anxiety, can be controlled with prayer and service. (I know that sounds easier than it really is, and I don't mean to suggest it as a cure-all that works for everyone in every situation.) We had a couple of very difficult days; everything we did was a disaster. To say the days were unproductive would be way too kind; everything went wrong. Then yesterday afternoon, we were exhausted and decided we needed to just rest. That was the mistake. Eventually, what I did was pray very specifically for something good to happen. Nothing very good can happen sitting around feeling sorry for myself. We then got up and went out to try to accomplish at least something and salvage the day a little. It was amazing how suddenly things happened that made the previous two awful days fade into history. What an amazing thing it is to be 8000 miles from home and know that the God we worship is very real and personal. He knows me and loves me. He doesn't always rescue me in the way I would like or on my time schedule, but that's because He knows best what I need; He knows the lessons I need to learn, the people I need to serve, the influence I need to have, the lives I need to touch. He will do it in His way; but He also knows when I really have had enough pain, discouragement, loneliness, etc., and rescues me at just the right time. I hope in some small way, our mission can help you learn some things along the way. Never forget the power of prayer, very specific prayer, and service. It is amazing how unimportant my worries and cares seem when I am serving others, particularly those who need me and whose lives are so much more simple and difficult than mine. Love, Dad and Papa