Parties and More Parties

The children who came were put to work helping with the cleanup.

December has been a month for parties for both Branches and the District.  The members really know how to have a good time with eating and programs. We started the month with a Relief Society and Young Women combined activity at the Utwe Branch.  They planned on doing a deep clean of the building and church yard along with a BBQ.  Of course, we had to wait for more than an hour for someone to come with the BBQ equipment.  When the wood was chopped and the fire built then the food could be cooked.  It had been raining so much that it took a while to get everything to burn for the fire.

 When you do not have any tongs to use for cooking the chicken, you use a machete to get a branch from the tree and use it as your turner.

The next  weekend the Priesthood men had an activity where they built a covering to be used for protection from the rain whenever they would do their BBQ's.  The Branch President and his sons along with Elder Wright and four of the young missionaries, Elders Coffey, Conejero, Agalzoff and Andrew came to help with this project.  A little bit of a disappointment that others could not come but they got some things accomplished and had a meeting.  They saved the food that they planned on cooking to use for the next weeks Christmas Party. Instead they did some physical exercises and went ahead with the program they had planned.  It was successful for those that came.

 Lelu Branch had their Christmas Party on December 23rd.  There was a good program planned and lots and lots of food.  It  started about 3 hours later than they told everyone but we are getting used to that now.  We had a good program and then ate outside. It had been raining so much lately and this day was no exception.  Canopies were brought in to put the tables with the food on dry.  About the time we were to start eating we had quite the downpour.
They took the left over food to those members who were unable to come.

You need a good strong fire to use in cooking your rice.

A great Christmas party was held at the Utwe Branch.  They had a tremendous turnout of about 150 people.  This party started arround 10:30 a.m. gathering together and bringing food to be cooked.   Most of the food preparation was done outside at the Church; cleaning fish, grilling chicken, ribs, and hot dogs, making their famous Kosraen soup and cooking the rice (3 large pots full). There was a program later in the afternoon with songs, stories, speakers, and even Santa Claus bring treats to the kids.  We had such a fun time and it was 8:00 p.m. before we left for home.  It was an all day party to remember!!

Here are some of the men grilling the chicken and ribs underneath the newly constructed canopy.

Sister Hadley is preparing the fish for use in the soup and also for making sashimi.  I learned a lot about cleaning and removing the scales from fish.  The soup is made by cooking a whole fish in boiling water and then when it is cooked removing it from the pot and taking all the bones out and returning the fish in small bite size pieces to the soup pot.  Rice is also added along with salt and pepper.

The last ingredient to go into this soup is coconut cream (or milk).  The bowl is full of freshly shredded coconut and she is putting some in a cloth and squeezing it to make the cream.  When it has all been turned into cream then it will be added to the soup.  This is a very YUMMY soup. 

A District Party is planned to celebrate this holiday season on Friday and then a New Year's Eve party will be on Saturday to round out the month.  It has been a month full of fun activities with the members here on Kosrae.