Christmas is Tarawa

We can safely say, this was the most unusual Christmas we have ever had.  We have spent Christmas in Hawaii and the US Virgin Islands, so we know what a warm Christmas can be, but a Kiribati Christmas is like no other.  The first glimpse of Christmas Decor was found in the Moel Grocery store in the form of an Island Santa.  

I think this was just an old manikin that was made into a "very young" Santa 

Every week usually starts out with a trip the the Immigration office.  This is Ruta.  We have become good friends.  She has been so helpful in getting the Missionary work permits.  Is is a very labor intensive process, that if I had a few extra bucks and time, I'm sure I could streamline the process in a heartbeat.  

Package delivery day.  

We have been waiting for the "plane" to come since November 10 with packages from the Marshall Islands.  Our packages make a stop in the Mission office in the Marshall Islands which is about 300 miles of open ocean away.  It is another country, but there is a Airline called Air Marshall (which is dubbed Air "Maybe") that is suppose to fly every other Thursday, but has had engine trouble and hasn't been able to fly.  We were told it would fly on December 15, but it didn't.  I came on December 22 and we were expecting a Christmas Miracle.  There are over 140 packages in the Mission office waiting to come, but only 14 made it.  There were 5 lucky missionaries who got Christmas.  The rest...we hope for Valentines Day.  

On P-day this Monday, the Sisters were invited over to make Christmas cookies.  

This is Sisters Rebeta, (hard at work), Barlow, Gardner, and Valo.  Sister Bonnemort brought her cake decorating stuff and has put it to good use.  You can see the Elders in the background.  Although they weren't invited to the "all girl" party, they crashed in anyway.  

Sister Barlow, with Sisters, Ogborn and Thorne making tiny little black eyes out of old tired licorice.  

Sister Barlow with the finished product.  Note how beautiful they are....but they didn't look this nice after a few minutes in the heat and humidity  

We attended another baptism this week.  It was cool because Elder Everett (third from left) taught the man next to him on the right when he was here before he went to an outer island Makin.  Elder Everett was here for Christmas, and it just so happened that he was ready to be baptized.  So Elder Everett was able to perform the baptism.  With Elder Everett are Sisters Gardner and Rebeta.  I can't remember the names of all those baptized, so just know that they had really hard names to pronounce. 

 Elder Enrie carving the Turkey

On Friday, we cooked the Turkeys (3) for Christmas Dinner on Christmas Eve.  Elder Enrie got more meat off this turkey than I have ever seen.  We also were going to have Ham, but we had a problem with the Thorne's oven, seems it has an auto shutoff and sat for hours without cooking.  That was ok cause we used the ham for sandwiches the next day.  Speaking of problems, Friday started out with a bang, our internet service went out, and we had all the missionaries coming the next day to call and skype with their families.  Took us a few minutes after calling for backup to figure out that the switch for the server had been turned off by the guards by accident.  The next problem we had was our oven ran out of propane, but again we improvised and stole (borrowed) a propane tank from the flat down the road a bit.  Finally, we ran out of hot water, (solar powered) but can be run by electricity.  Seeing as it was a holiday weekend, maintenance just plugged it in.  Problem was that there was no thermostat, so late in the afternoon we had a steam engine on the roof with boiling hot water like a Old Faithful.  But the Lord will provide, and we got Christmas Dinner prepared in time for Christmas Eve.  

This is Elder Nye (from the outer island of Tabiteuea North) and Elder Foust (from the outer island of Butaritairi).  

Finally, we have a meal where there red tablecloths are appropriate.  

Our Sisters.  They seem to always want their picture taken.  Sisters Valo, Gardner, Barlow and Rebeta

Elders Norman Bradshaw, Green, Anderson and a side few of Elder Anderl 

After Christmas Eve dinner, all the missionaries went to the Moroni High School music room (it has A/C!!) to watch the movie Facing the Giants. It was fun to see the missionaries just chill and watch a movie.  They really loved it.

Sister Thorne playing Santa Claus.  We made stuffed stockings for the missionaries using stockings sent by President and Sister Shaw.  That was good, because I didn't see one stocking on the Island.  They even had an Orange and a can of Sprite.  

A time for discussion, after passing 36 stockings around and filing them once, then twice, then three times, we had to regroup and make sure each one had the same stuff.  We certainly could have used a process improvement here.  

A well deserved cup of hot coco.  A toast by Sister Thorne,
Elder Ogborn, Sisters Bonnemort and Ogborn, and Elder Thorne

Elder Anderl chatting with his family

Calling Home day.  On Christmas Day we started with the Missionaries calling home.  We had phone/skype calls going in all our flats and the Service Center.  It was quite a logistics challenge, but all the missionaries were able to call home to their families.  

We have missionaries from Utah, Idaho, Alaska, California, Nevada, Indiana, Virginia, Wyoming, Tonga, Papa New Guinea, Australia, Kiribati, Arizona, Iowa, Washington

Elders Norman and Tiaontin 

Waiting for their turn to call, Elder Norton, Elder Foust, Elder Banks and the back of Elder Sauaki.  Elder Anderson on the couch

Elders Banks, Anderson, Utimawa, and Bradshaw

Sister Bonnemort and I delivered the Christmas message in Sacrament Meeting on Christmas.  She and Sister Ogborn sang Hush little Baby to go along with Sister Bonnemort's talk.  This was their one and only practice, but they harmonized beautifully.  

The Missionaries with their socks.  After lunch on Sunday, they watched another movie, The Best Two Years, which was a complete hit.  We gave them their stocking after and it was really hard to get them all to pose, until someone said "this is for President and Sister Shaw".  All of a sudden, a perfect pose....

The sisters....again...they are photogenic aren't they.  

We want all our family and friends to know that we missed everyone terribly, but want you to know that we have many friends here that made this Christmas special.  The spirit does travel to the far Island of Tarawa.  May you all have the blessings of Christmas this whole year.  We know that this mission is where we are to be at this stage in our lives and feel fortunate to serve the Missionaries.  They are all so good to us and so gracious.  We love them.