Matchmaker, gum, and popcorn

On Monday, December 7 the Institute students showed up at 8:00 in the morning for our clean-up/party. We swept the floor, rearranged all the student manuals, and cleaned all the gum off the chairs. By noon we were finished and had about 50 students come and go.
Tupu helped take the ping-pong table out.

Cassie and Owen moved the student manuals to dust and sweep.

Elder DaBell and House (Fale) helped clean the room. He is on his mission now in Las Vegas Nevada, speaking Spanish, his third language.

Tupu is a tease.

Elder DaBell is a tease.

Frankie, Radhika, and Tupu made cleaning so fun.

Mona, Isapela, Vaitupu, and Frances helped clean the entire room. We love you.

Destiny came to get in on the action.

Frankie helped get some music for us.

Now, where are the guys?

Oh, here they are.

Frankie, Tupu, Vince, and Toe

These sweet young ladies arranged all the manuals.

Isapela and Destiny showed us their sign. Funny thing: their signs are all the same.

Thanks to Toe, who cleaned where no man has gone before.

Cassie prepared for the second part of our clean up: get the gum off the chairs.

Sila came to help.

Lei, Destiny, and Mona wiped down the chairs.

Otto brought good times.

Thank you, Lei,

and Destiny.

Frankie and Tupu teased Toe. Toe is such a good sport.

Radhika never stopped.

Otto and Rani worked so hard to get the gum off.

Samoan people know how to work and have fun at the same time.

Rani, back to work.

Mona worked so hard with her hands that also shoot baskets like you can't believe.

Frankie got back to work.

Lopa is our new Institute President. He leads with such love, gentleness, and a talent for playing the piano.

Many times we have though about the movie Fiddler on the Roof as we have taught Eternal Marriage this past semester. The Samoan saints have some of the same challenges: tradition, religion, and government. For our closing Institute party we showed the movie. We cleaned the Institute room, then enjoyed the movie munching on popcorn which Elder DaBell worked so hard to keep popped.

We never realized the movie was so funny. Our young adults asked us to put the movie on closed caption so they didn't miss any of the dialogue. They laughed and laughed. We laughed and laughed. Our wonderful students were so funny. Alofa, tele.