The Hansen's: SaMoA SaMoA

wow! what a trip! i want to write about each day but it would take me a week. so ill write a little here and a little there... here are a few things. i just have to say tho that i felt a few things over there besides happiness 1-it is the most beautiful place i have ever laid eyes on! green lush jungle everywhere 2-the people over there need to show us in america how to act. they care about others first, they have nothing and are still happy, they love to play! (especially volleyball and rugby) 3-i was so happy not just because we were on vacation but my heart was full when i would hear dean talk so fluently in samoan and hear stories about members, baptisms, miracles, families etc. the bishop and his wife that we visited said " Hansen! i thought you never come back" and i had to laugh when they said "Hansen are you sick? you look skinny" obviously dean translated it for us. we all cried when we said goodbye to them. the missionary program in this church is amazing!!! it is truly inspired by the Lord and blesses more than just missionaries but their families and friends and members, nonmembers, everyone! anyway here are some pics...

everyone has pigs and chickens roaming everywhere and there are wild dogs sick nasty ones

this is Toese. i thought i was going to kidnap him! haha kidding but really he is the cutest thing ever!!!! dean said that on his mish he loved playing with him and teasing him. he kept saying to us "i love you" in broken english. he sat by us in church and kept talking to dean in samoan. i miss his sweet face

this family is so fun! the dad is david tavita-1st counselor to the bishop. in their culture the young women serve the guests food and they and the women fan you from the heat and the food from the flies while you eat and they don't eat. they eat after you leave. i felt like roalty and i hated it. it was normal to them but i felt so funny but the food was amazing!!!

we went to papaseea-which means rock slide. it was natural made slides on rock it wasn't hard on our behinds at all like i thought it would.

before we left i showed a pic of a starfish on the internet and it was blue and skinny i told dean that would be fun to see one of these. he said that we probably wouldn't but look i found not just one but five while snorkeling. dean is holding it in this pic even tho i found it and he won't admit that i was right about the starfish:)

this was near our beach fale "house". this was the side of the island that got destroyed by the tsunami last year and they rebuilt the fales. it was so sad and scary to hear the ladies there tell about it. they said it was weird cuz the night before the tide was super low unnaturally low (cuz the wave was sucking the water to create the wave) and in the early morning they could see it on the horizon coming toward them and they hurried up a nearby hill and watched it swallow up their resort. a lot of people fish here in old fashioned canoes and they fish in the morning. many died out at sea. it was so heart breaking to hear it.

my favorite family. the bishop and his wife, elenise. this is the ward dean served most his time in. they (everyone in samoa) live off of nothing and are so happy, we sat on their mats in their home which doesn't have much-no plumbing inside, hardly any electricity, ants everywhere, mosquitos, etc-elenise made me a samoan dress a long top and a long skirt (she made it in one day on the floor with an old sewing machine) they fed us a huge meal and they make their food on an "umu" basically hot rocks and a fire!