Dec.23 / 2018

Dec.23/2018

Talofa family and friends,

Elder Cameron and I have been busy with visits to Sisters of our Lady of Nazareth, Little Sisters of the Poor, a couple Diabetes classes and Graduations and a handover. There are Christmas parties and celebrations everywhere and the Spirit of Christmas is all around.

It has been a couple weeks since my last blog, which my wonderful son reminded me of the other day. So there may be some things that Elder Cameron had mentioned in his email the last couple weeks so I hope you don’t mind some repetition.

I hear that it might be a brown Christmas back home, which definitely has some pros and cons but most importantly will be getting together with family and friends and to remember “The Reason for the Season.”

Elder Cameron and I were able to supply some materials for renovations for the living area for some sisters here and had a Handover ceremony a couple weeks ago. The humility and love of these sisters was a great example to me of Christ like Service. It was a wonderful experience. We are so fortunate to meet so many great people. We also visited with another group of sisters that we have come to love, Little Sisters of the Poor, we took out some supplies to them and it is always a treat to visit with Sister Christina. She is amazing!

We have travelled the Island the past week checking on tanks and families and been able to hand out several baby kits and hygiene kits to families in need. They are always so thankful and it's nice to know that we can help in a small way to maybe ease their burdens just a little. 

The Eat Healthy and Be Active program is coming to a close, most classes have graduated with one left until January. We flew over to Pago last week to attend a grad, it was really good and a lot of fun to hear many of the success stories and testimonies of those that went through the program and how it has changed their lives.

While in Pago we were able to make some final arrangements for 6 water tanks to be installed at 3 different schools that are used for emergency stations in cause of a disaster and with the tanks they will be able to handle more people for a longer period of time.

We were blessed to be able to attend a temple wedding on Saturday of a young man Posenai and his bride Lagimalofie. Elder Cameron and I work with Posenai who is the manager of wheelchairs and prosthetics here in Samoa.

I have a few family photos to share, the kids had an ugly sweater party, and it looked like fun! Nate is a star, great form and he is growing like crazy! The Neilson’s are really in the Christmas spirit and as always another adorable picture! Mandy and Andrew will be celebrating their anniversary this week, I’m sure it will be fun whatever they decide to do.

Christmas is a busy time of year and sometimes a little overwhelming. Take time to nurture and feed your spirit this season. I read a quote the other day and thought how true it is.

“When our spirits are elevated, we are actually closer to the Savior, our perspective is broader, our hearts are warmer, our minds are clearer, we are more relaxed and we experience greater joy, hope and peace.”

We feel very fortunate to be here at this time in our lives and to be able to help move this wonderful work forward and to be instrumental in helping and serving others has been a great blessing in our lives. To serve as the Savior did and to set an example of love and compassion that we hope will one day bring others unto Christ has helped to strengthen our testimony and hopefully those we come in contact with. May you all be blessed this Christmas season with Health, happiness and a stronger testimony of the great love our Savior has for each one of us. 

Love you all,

Sister Cameron

Here are a few extra photos that I just had to add!

Christmas Angels

Light the world in Samoa