The countdown has begun

We spent the afternoon making "advent" chains. It is amazing what you can do with a little saran wrap and ribbon.

On a side note: We had a multi-ward luau last night at church. It was AWESOME! Way better than I anticpated. The food was great. They cooked two pigs and showed a video of how it was done. It was buried in the ground under banana leaves, burlap, and canvas. The place was PACKED. I am sure we were breaking some sort of fire code. We were greeted at the door by a Hawaiian girl dressed in her native clothing and we were all given a shell necklace and a kiss on the cheek. The gym was totally decorated. While everyone ate, several of the missionaries who are from Hawaii, entertained us with music as the played the ukelele and sang. After dinner, there was a show. I am guessing it was patterned after the ones done at the Polynecian Cultural Center. I was told that one of the elders in our ward, Elder Tovo, has performed there before. Anyway, they had dancing from all the different islands including Hawaii, Tonga, and Somoa. There are members of our stake from all of these areas, and they all took part in the dancing. The also did some drumming and had few dances that some of the youth and non-islander missionaries participated in. We had to leave early though, because we get an early start on Sundays. And apparently we left right before the fire dance.

When we got there, we almost left because of how crowded it was. But I am SO glad we stayed. It was something we had never experienced before and I am glad we were a part of it. The best part was seeing how hard the people worked to put it together and the pride on their faces, especially the missionaries. You could tell they are proud of their heritage and loved sharing part of their culture with us. It was an awesome night.