Day 11 Church, Sam's Tour, and games

Day 11

            What a beautiful, relaxing Sunday we had here in Samoa. We started off our day going to church at the Church College. Everyone was nicely dressed in his or her new lava lavas. We had sacrament meeting in the same place that we played our volleyball game on Thursday, which was a bit interesting but we were still able to feel the spirit. YSA Sunday School was held in the building with air conditioning, which we were all very thankful for. After church we walked around the school campus and Sam told us about his younger days when he attended that same school. Sam’s family donated the school’s land to the church to build that school, and spent many of his childhood days living in the housing around the campus. Sam even showed us the exact room he learned to type, and his teacher would smack his hands with a ruler if he wasn’t typing fast enough. We then headed home to a nicely cooked dinner brought to us by the bishop’s family. Boy was there a TON of food! Every type of food imaginable was on our table after church. Even in Samoa we had our usual Sunday naps after church, where most of us slept for over 3 hours. I think we were just a little tired. Finally we woke up and started tying T-shirts right away so we could throw some more out. We then made our way to Sam’s fathers grave to experience something none of us were expecting. Sam’s grandparents, aunts, uncles and father are all buried in the front yard of his cousin’s house. It was a beautiful gravesite. Sam had a few words to say and then told us about the amazing life of his father and how much he helped the Samoan people and community. Now we all see how Sam got to be so amazing, because his father was quite the man! Sam then shared a humbled prayer with us, and the spirit was strong. It was a neat experience to have Sam share apart of his personal life with the team. We all saw a side of Sam we haven’t seen before, and our respect for our coach, father, and friend grew immensely. Sam and his father have both done so much for the people here and for their family. They have given back everything they possibly can, and the people here are very indeed grateful for the Atoa family. Back to the vans we went to throw out more T-shirts. Seeing the smile on the people’s faces as we throw them a free shirt is something special we never expected to feel. As they smell their shirt and throw it in the air, we all have huge smiles on our faces knowing that we were the cause of so much happiness. Little do they know that they bring us so much happiness seeing them happy for something so little that we take for granted everyday. It was then dark so we headed home. Once we were home we had some great pani popo (which is rolls soaked in coconut milk which is our favorite), ice cream and cake. It was delicious!  It was then GAME TIME. Us girls all gathered around the living room to play games. This was a moment where we all could just relax and have a nice Sunday evening together. We became closer as not only a team, but also sisters. We were laughing the whole time playing signs (which Kalani is a boss at) and “werewolf” (which is the exact same thing as Mafia, but we tried making it a different version to make it interesting.) Tonight we made so many inside jokes and memories to last us a lifetime. Can’t wait to see what tomorrow brings.

**Lexi Thompson**