We are sorry that we haven't been good about posting on our blog, but we just today received our modem so we can have internet. WE REPENT !! Actually we just returned from visiting some 17 Family History Centers on the Islands of Samoa. What a great experience. The people there are sooo wonderful and faithful under very dire circumstances. We would meet with Stake Presidents, Counselors, High Counselors, and Family History Directors and Consultants (not each Stake had all of these in attendence but usually several from this group attended our training). We would also inventory computers and see how they were using them and what we could try to do to improve the work there. It is a beautiful place as you can see from the photos (We hope !!).
All the Stakes we visited were very thankful for our visit and several served us a treat and even a few meals along the way. What great people. They have strong testimonies and it is interesting to see that the Church functions similar to our own Stake in many ways, despite how meager their livings are.
Hopefully, we can get the pictures we took to show up and we'll try to explain them on this blog by the photo. If not, we'll appreciate help from Haley, Adam or others to help us figure out how best the post photos with the words close by. So here goes:
Here is the 1st hotel room we stayed in. It was very nice and even had a TUB !! So Sister Kite was happy. It was right by the ocean so I went out early the next morning to take a few shots of the Sunrise and see if I could see some fish. I wish Adam could have been there so he could tell me the names of the little colorful fish....
Sister Kite really liked this hotel with the Pool right by the Beach. Wish we would have had time to enjoy it, but we only stayed overnight from the airport and were picked up by Brother and Sister Ah Hoy (pictures of them coming up) the next morning at 9:00.
Here is the main area of the hotel where we had breakfast before starting the day.
Here is Siste Kite getting ready for our breakfast buffet.
This is a little hard to see but is a typical view of the homes and most had a little bowery-type Fale' (home-shelter) where they would hold family/villiage counsels.
This is a typical store. They would be varied and all along the way as the main road goes around the perimeter of the Island. This Island the first day was Upolu, where the capital (Apia) is.
Here is a shot of the Samoa Temple. It was beautiful, though Samoa is really having a drought right now as it should be the rainy season but haven't had rain for a couple of months.
This is Brother Ah Hoy and President Michael Higgins shopping for a snack along our way on the first day. President Higgins is the Pacific Area Family History Manager and just happens to be our Stake President in Auckland Harbour Stake.
This was a waterfall we stopped to photo along the way. And this ends Day 1 photos.
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