Christmas in Majuro

All of the senior couples worked for days creating a Christmas feast for the Missionaries and it was a huge success.  Everything turned out just right and the missionaries stacked their plates as high as they could!  It is always a fun and intertaining event when we get all of them together in the Mission Home.  We were blessed to have Air Marshall get it's new engine and start flyin again so all of the Elders on the outer islands got to come in too.
The dinner was on the 23rd of December and we held one Zone Conference on the 24th.  The great thing was that we cooked so much food for the 23rd that we had enough left overs to feed them all again on the 24th.  It was amazing that it came out just about right; we only had a little bit left over.  We felt like we had a miricle feeding the 5 thousand!
On Sunday, Christmas day we went out to Laura for Sacrament meeting.  We went with President and Sister Shaw because they wanted to visit our ward.  The rest of the day, we felt some homesickness for our family and friends; usually, we don't have time to sit and feel lonely, but we felt the pangs of not having our family at Christmas.  However, Monday morning, which was Christmas afternoon at home, we called our kids and talked for a long time.  That was the greatest therapy possible. 

Monday the 26th was a huge celebration in the Marshall Islands.  Everyone comes together for the "BEAT"  The Marshalles people dance all day! And eat.  Some of the wards here save their budget all year for the BEAT.  different groups prepare and perform a dance, while the masses try to press into the cultural hall to watch.  Even outside the people are pressed to the windows four and five people deep.  And, it is loud, hard rock amplified music; these people love to dance! It goes from about 10am to late at night.  It' a unique way to celebrate Christmas.  The missionaries are the ones with Santa Hats as they danced the "Boot Scoot and Boogie."

It may take a while to recover from all of this excitement.