Plucking Pineapples Proves Painful -or- Tautalatala *too much talk*

Hello everyone! I hope that you are all well and good and that you are finding your summer satisfactory thus far. Today was a very full day and I am quite tired actually for one of the first times since I have been here, besides the time change adjustment. We started off our day quite early with a McDonald's breakfast sandwich and the decisions by my coconspirators, I mean teammates, that today should be "Surprise Day!" We decided not to let David tell us where we were going at all today so that there would be mystery and intrigue and guessing involved all day long. We started off by picking up and dropping off brochures, very exciting and then drove again toward our house. This was merely a deception though as we missed the turn-off for our driveway and kept going on past the house. A couple of coconut moves down the road (This is where a coconut is obstructing the path and the driving assistant (front seat passenger) gets to get out and chunk the coconut into the nearest neighbor's yard. It is very exciting.) we arrived at a house with a large yard. We got out and just as we turned the corner, and passed the shack on the right, we were in the most amazing vegetable garden I have ever or may ever see. There was cabbage, papaya, sugar cane, cucumbers, green onion, tomato, beans, taro, bananas, and coconut but the surprises were not over. In the front, Fae and Tasi (the caretakers of the house and garden) led us past a beautiful flower garden to the front garden were the most deadliest of all plants lived. You guessed it: Pineapple. There were little green baby ones and big ripe yellow ones. It was incredible. If you don't know how pineapple grow, you should look it up. Marci and Melinda got a picture. It is like this razor sharp circle of serrated green knives offers it up to the sky and the stalk is attached only to the bottom of the fruit part. If you have ever cut a pineapple, you know that you must be careful or you will get poked or stabbed by the top leaves. You have NO idea what the long leaves out the side of the plant can do to your legs. As I wove my way around the plants very delicately, it wasn't probably 30 seconds before I was bleeding. It hurt, but boy was it worth it. You could smell the pineapple from feet away. (If you know me well, you know that pineapple has lately been giving me funny reactions, but this was too good to miss out on.) We are having the pineapple that Tasi gave us for breakfast tomorrow morning. I can hardly wait (granted that my leg wounds, battle scars if you will, heal soon).  Did I mention that the lady in this story, Fae is 8 and a half months pregnant? No? Well, now you know. Her first baby, a little girl, is due this month. Maybe we will get to visit them after she is born. All of there family is in mainland China too.

We then went to Patelo's house for the reading of the Bible and his wife and daughter were there. He and his daughter are great singers and song writers and he had his 9-year-old daughter record the song that he had written for a funeral on a tape recorder while we were there. It was beautiful and those who understood what she was saying (it was all in Samoan) were in tears by the end of the song. The little girl, Emmy, is just precious. Patelo has David come every Wednesday and translate a paragraph or two of Scripture back into English from Samoan. Patelo recently picked Revelation to re-translate. This week we had Bibles and we read the Samoan and English with them. I sat by Emmy and she shared her Samoan Bible as I shared my English one. It was a really cool experience. We are getting better at reading Samoan, although we still don't know what we are saying. It is like the Let's Start Talking program, but reversed. We sang Patelo our Samoan song, Savalivali, and he wants us to record that for him next week. More about Patelo later.

This afternoon, after lunch, we went and did water aerobics at the pool. There was a swim lesson in progress for a bunch of Kiwi (New Zealand) stundents, so although we had to stay at the side of the pool, we got to listen to their AWESOME accents. The little Kiwi kids are so cute. 

Tonight we had only two other people come to church besides the missionaries and Marci and Melinda. We tackled, or attempted to tackle, the question of suffering in the world and why God doesn't do anything to stop it. Rebecca, the only Samoan that came, had some great insight and yet some great questions about it. She deserves to though, she has taken care of her husband, 24 hours a day for the past 3 years. Her husband, Eric, is in the first stages of Alzheimer's disease. He is at the stage where he looks fine and healthy, but he might wonder off or get really impatient. Rebecca is such a sweet lady and she loves to come to church because it is her escape from the stress of taking care of her husband. Did I mention that she is a breast cancer survivor and suffers from Diabetes as well? No? Well, now you know. Please pray for Rebecca as she is in need of a lot of patience to take care of the failing health of the man she loves. If there is someone who knows suffering, it is Rebecca, and she still loves God and loves her church family. 

 

Thanks for reading. I would make it shorter, but every part of today was just too special for me. Less might happen tomorrow...