March 5, 2012

Milo Sabine Harker – March 2, 2012, 10:53 am, 9 lb and 9 days early.  What is interesting is that her dad, Ian, was 9 lb and 9 days early too.  I was able to see her on Skype for a few minutes when she was a few hours old – what a treat.  She has lots of dark hair like her brother and sister.  Sharleen is exhausted but doing ok.  I actually had a nice chat again today on skype with the whole family, including Grandma Playfair.

Milo

For FHE last Monday we had a dinner as the Merrells and Rachel will be leaving before the next one.  It was nice to hear their testimonies and feel of their love for Samoa and her people.  The Seniors seem to be drawing together a bit more and I think they are inviting each other to do things.  Of course, the Johnsons and Ereksons knew each other in Africa and have a close bond.  Rachel actually left this morning and is enroute to Provo now. 

The work with PEF started for me last week.  We had a meeting with all those involved and then Sister Gertsch and I spend a few hours in my office space going through the files and actually calling a few people.  The hand of the Lord is in all His work as was evidenced that day.  She had called a lady who I recognized as being in our ward and made some really positive connection.  The next name we came across was from a village that Roy happened to be visiting that afternoon.  A phone call, a discussion with the bishop and we found out the story on that young man who left for Pago last week and has no contact # - but we at least know where he is. One other name on our list to find was a girl in our ward who was married last Nov. and is expecting a baby.  She had never had a dispersement of money but was on the list.  A series of phone calls (one to her sister who I new, yielded a phone number and that led to her husband and then a home number).  There was no answer but a few minutes later she called me back on my phone. Another young woman lives in the village that the co-ordinator of our temple shift lives in.  One phone call to her (and I just happened to stumble upon her number from a long time ago) yielded the girl’s information and her phone number. So, within a few minutes we tracked down a few people.  We will continue this week on our collaborated efforts to find these students.

We held a “Wishing you well…” party for Rachel Leota for the Senior Sisters here at our home on Wednesday evening.  I made a well that people just dropped cash or cards into and we had cards to write advice on to take with her on her mission.  Of course we had food – just appetizers this time and it was really nice to not have too much!  The object of the well was to give her some direct money to be used to purchase winter clothes when she is in Utah.  We actually went around the circle and gave our advice verbally, as well and it was nice to share this time with the other sisters.  Rachel will be a fabulous missionary – watch out Utah!

Wishing Well

The phone bill is in for February’s charges so my time is occupied again.

Yours truly

The Gouldings

Elder Goulding and the pool

Friday, we decided to climb Mt. Vaea to Robert Louis Stevenson’s grave.  Rachel and her uncle, etc. were going to come but didn’t as it had rained in the night and they were cautiously avoiding any slippage!  Elder & Sister Goulding, Sister Ericksen and Roy and I headed out at 7:30 am and made the climb.  We took it slowly and it was wonderful.  The climb down was a little slippery but we all made it back – hot and happy.  The happiest part was going into the RLS Pool, at the bottom of the trail.  We just headed in, clothes and all and had a wonderful refreshing swim.  We have plastic seat covers in the car (a bane on hot days) so we all went home wet and cool.

some of the seniors

Bro. Sua and family members

Saturday was our outing to Tafatafa with the Senior missionaries.  We had 7 couples, Afalua and her daughters, the Fonoimoanas from the temple and Sister Moaga from the temple.  The Sua’s who have been temple workers prepared a small umu (most of the seniors don’t care for umu) and we did tin foil dinners in a fire on the beach.  The Sua’s are from the village of Tafatafa and arranged it all for us.  Some of the seniors swam, some didn’t and it was a delightful time.  We drove home through the area that had been hardest hit with the tsunami as two of the couples had never been there before. I took a few pictures but this week my camera has been acting up and I didn’t end up with many from the week’s events.

the bonfire

Roy’s latest frustration with the work is the power outages that have shut the work down.  Some of it is random from a storm and some, he will get there and the power company has decided to work that day in that area.   He has had some real success with a couple of the units he worked with before this Stake who have called and had him come back to help them further.  He worked with the clerk in our own ward last week too and that was enlightening to the clerk.

I took a lady from our ward up to the hospital to get some antibiotics so she can have some much needed dental work done.  She spoke a lot about her life and the problems she faces.  I just know it is reflective of a lot of the people here and I feel so helpless.  Giving them money doesn’t solve their problems – they still face their demons and need to realize that when you follow the Lord’s program you reap the Lord’s blessings.  Family prayer and family scripture time are so important.  General respect for your spouse generates it back to you.   I just finished a book by Kitty de Ruyter who was in a concentration camp in Indonesia during the second world war.  Her mother was a devout woman and kept her family faithful.  That faith prepared them for many things in life, including accepting the principles of the Restored gospel of Jesus Christ. 

Well, our reading and marking of the Book of Mormon will be complete this month and it has been wonderful.  I recommend it to anyone with an interest to see how many reference to Christ there are in that dear book.

Sunset coming home from our outing on Saturday

We are grateful to be a small part of the work of the Lord.  We know we are the backup for God's army (the junior missionaries) and it is a pleasure to be part of their lives.  Today (Monday) is the day the zone leaders come into town for any business and it was so nice to chat with a few of them.  We have quite a few new zone leaders as we had about 15 missionaries leave 2 weeks ago.  The missionaries have really done a good job of letter-writing instead of emailing their families.  It has kept them in their areas rather than having them roam town for a few hours of idle time.  They have set some nice goals for baptisms (3000 for the year) and they are doing a good job of bringing their converts to the temple.  

Well, we love you and leave you for another week.