LUAU!

We have a Tongan missionary in our church that wanted to roast a pig for the congregation. I was asked to be in charge of the event. So, here's a picture from early Saturday morning (6:30 a.m.). Bro. Spence beat us to the church to get the fire started in the pit. It's rained for two weeks straight, so we had a hard time keeping the wood at the church dry. He had to scoop out about 20 buckets of water before he could light the fire. The Boy Scouts dug the pit for me on Wednesday.

This is the pit crew: Elder Mataele, Tanner, Bro. Spence, Hunter and Elder Hunter. They used good, old fashioned boy scout techniques to burn wet wood: kerosene.

This is the pig arriving from the slaughterhouse. It's been freshly processed, scalded, and wrapped. The pig was so pink it reminded us of Wilbur being bathed in buttermilk for the county fair.

This is the fire pit with the rest of the wood. After the wood burned down the rocks from the river were added. When they got hot enough the pig was put into the pit to cook.

The pig was a lot longer than expected, so it was cut up to fit into the pit. It was wrapped in tin foil (verses banana leaves), and laid on the chicken wire to make pulling it out of the pit a lot easier.

Aloha! I think we're almost ready to start! Wearing Nana's muumuu made the day extra special. There were six open-air tents that were set up, to shelter from rain or sun, and tables that sat four underneath them. They were all right next to each other so it was like one big tent. Fresh flowers were the centerpieces.

Six hours later the pig is ready to be unearthed. There was carpet on top of the pit, to keep the steam inside.

This is the biggest piece of pig out of the pit.

This is the empty pit, with only ashes and rocks left.

This shows two of the three front tents, and the end of the line for food.

Here is Hunter making grape icees for everyone. He hand cranked out 30 pounds of ice cup by cup.

Miller enjoying his slushee!

Tanner helping to unwrap, carve, and transport the pig.

Sawyer enjoying his sneak bite of pig.

Cooper doing the hula hoop style.

Sawyer setting up tiki bowling, using an unhusked and husked coconut for balls.

Tanner drinking coconut milk after the husked coconut cracked.

The Mazons! Our angels that took care of Jarrod for 8 months!

One of the towns in our church boundaries is called Big Ugly. So there are a lot of inside jokes about being married to a women from Big Ugly. The missionaries were presented an honorary certificate allowing them to be Big Ugly men, for their efforts in the luau.

Jarrod thought it was necessary to document the portion of the pig left unconsumed. And no, there was no apple.