Happy New Year...

Wow, Fireworks and Huli, Huli pig what more could you want for New

Years Eve. Our neighbors down the street started with butchering this pig early this morning. They dressed the pig and put it on the spit. After that they put up this huge metal pit and filled it with wood and stones. They lit it and let it settle down for a bit then put the pig on to roast. It took all day. They had tons of family and friends over to eat and party. Starting at about 3:oo this afternoon fireworks began. They lasted until about 3:00 a. m. The most interesting thing is the big chains of fire crackers they light. The whole process takes about 5 to 10 minutes to finish. We do fireworks for the the 4th of July and here they do it for New Years Eve.

Shane's Baptism.

Shane was baptized today. It was such a wonderful day. We were able to teach some lessons along with Elder's Lawrence and Schmerse. Shane was a referral from Bishop Akita'a daughter Cassidy.
It has been a wonderful training experience for us. We will continue to teach him after baptism lessons.

Happy Anniversary!!

We had a district meeting in Lihue this morning. We have some great elders here. Elder Moala is from LA. He is our District Leader. What a powerful testimony he has. He comes from a large Polynesian family. Elder Moala has loved and been faithful to the gospel all his life. He gives the best training meetings every week. After meetings we go as a district to lunch. Usually it is to Costco because you can get a lot to eat for cheap. The elders love that. Instead of going with them
Wally said lets go celebrate our anniversary. We went to The Waimea Plantation Cottages for lunch. It is a resort in Waimea made up of refurbished sugar plantation cottages. They have a restaurant there and you can eat outside on the porch. It is just beautiful looking out to the ocean while you eat. What a great way to celebrate 42 years, a mission and lunch.

Christmas Eve.

We had to finish all missionary work by 4:00 p. m. today. We decided to take a little trip along the beach and dip our toes in the water. It was an absolutely beautiful day as you can see. This is about 5:00 p.m. We watched the sun go down and then headed over to the Karratti's for a Christmas Eve dinner Hawaiian style with their family. We had lau-lau which is pork tied in banana leaves and steamed all day, shrimp, lobster, poi (yuk), Ahi tuna (raw), lomi salmon (raw and salsa like with onions and tomatoes),long noodles. It was quite yummy and we tried everything. We especially liked the coconut ice cream for dessert. The Karratti's are so kind to us and treat us like family we really enjoy visiting with them. They will be heading to Utah tomorrow with their family for a week. Their son Enoka and his wife Denise will be sealed in the Salt Lake Temple while they are there.

Meet Alicia.

This is Alicia. We met her through Elders Lawerence and Schmerse. We teach her on Thursdays. She is so sweet and would love to be baptized but her circumstances prevent her. She would love her whole family to join with her but that doesn't seem probable at this time. She and Audwin have 4 children. The oldest was born when Alicia was 15. Until 2 years ago Alicia was homeless living in her car in Honolulu. Her daughter asked her to come here and live with her. Next week she will start school to get her G E D. She is so excited.

Bonnie's Baptism.

This is Bonnie Handy. She was baptized today. It was a wonderful end to a very spiritual day. Bonnie was baptized by her dad. He and her mom came over from the mainland to do the honors. Elder Schmerse and Elder Lawrence taught her. They were the witnesses and I gave a talk on The Holy Ghost. It was well attended by ward members. We had a dinner at her home after. It was nice to visit with her parents who are ordinance workers in the Los Angeles Temple. We invited Shane Fernandez to come to see a baptism because he is being baptized on the 30th of December. He had a great experience and is very excited about his own baptism.

Waimea Christmas Light Parade.

Some ward members asked us to the Waimea Christmas Light Parade in the historic city of Waimea (part of our ward). It is held after dark and anything that has wheels and can be strung with lights is in it. Last year they had to limit big diesel trucks because they are too loud and honk too much. Golf carts, tow trucks, scooters, ambulances were all decked out. I'm sure the kids were all confused because EVERY "float" had a santa aboard. We laughed, cheered and had lots of fun. We also collected lots of candy that was thrown all along the way.

By the way there was a potluck dinner afterward at Wendy Russell's. ( Her parents are in SLC at the Family History Center on a mission) Hawaiian stew and lots of other goodies to enjoy.. Yumm. There goes all 40 pounds Wally lost before coming!

Ward Christmas Party.

We had a ward Christmas Party tonight. It was fun. All the tables were decorated by ward families then we had to guess the song the decoration was planned around. Our table with the blue snow flakes was supposed to be "Blue Christmas." The table behind you can see a little of the palm tree and other island things was taken from "Santa Island" a popular song over here.
It was a fun party with lots of food: Hawaiian Stew served with rice and lots of shrimp, seaweed, and other types of salads. The entertainment was a talent show. A few of the less actives we called and invited actually came. The ward was happy.

Uncle Andy.

We woud like to introduce you all to Uncle Andy. We meet with Uncle Andy every Thursday at 14:30 ( he's an old military man). That is 2:30 for all us regular people. Uncle Andy is pure Hawaiian. He is from Niihau. You have to be invited to the island of Niihau. Only "true Hawaiians can live there. We read the Book of Mormon in Hawaiian. He reads to us and we try to figure out where he is and then explain what he read and he tells us if we are right or not. The Book of Mormon was translated by Joseph F. Smith to Hawaiian many years ago. One verse in Hawaiian is about any where from 5 to 15 verses in the standard Book of Mormon. Uncle Andy loves to have us come. He says it makes him HAPPY! He is a fun guy to visit. He explains the islands, the sea and the Hawaiian way of life. Wally has learned some Hawaiian words he loves to use. He uses wiki wiki on me all the time. It means hurry! He also uses makau kau which means he is ready.

Our 1st Zone Conference.

This was our 1st Zone Conference with President and Sister Dalton coming to meet with the missionaries. We were really excited because we knew they were good friends with Mandy's mom and dad Lynn and Suze Kershaw. Kershaw's came to Kauai for a little R&R before Christmas. We asked them if they would come and surprize the Dalton's. They were good sports and showed up just about lunch time so we were able to have a good visit.

Were the Dalton's ever suprized!! We laughed, talked about old times back home and ate yummy food prepared by the Kapaa Ward. President Dalton asked us to drive him to the airport after the meeting. As we were waiting for our interview with him we hoped having Lynn and Suze there would give us brownie points. Just when he finished his last interview with an elder he said "ok, you guys, I will just talk to you on the way to the airport." It worked he loved our surprize and didn't even have to give us a talking to.

Christmas Decoration !!!

In our dear little town of Kekaha almost everyone has lights and blow up Christmas Decor in their yards. Notice the beautiful sky and the palm trees in the background. Somehow with all our rushing around to get here, then trying to find a place to live, having 80 degree weather with the beach down the street we just can't seem to believe Christmas is about 10 days away.

Living Quarters!!!

I guess I should tell you that we are living in a borrowed house. There are 5 bar stools and an extra small regular bed that we sleep on. The former bishop owned the house and moved to main land for his company. They are trying to sell it and we can stay here as long as it is vacant. The Relief Society President, Sister Karratti kindly brought us towels, plates, forks, some utensils, bowls and a frying pan. It is so interesting what you take for granted when you have it at home and then move somewhere without thought of what you might need. We run to Lihue everyday for something else we need. It is a 26 mile trip on a 2 lane road. It takes about 40 minutes. Oh, the reason we are here in this house is I refused to live in the missionary pad. It is scary, I mean scary and filthy. The missionaries think it is a palace.... Help.

District Meeting

. Well, here is our zone. Here only day and already we have a zone meeting. They used the be the "Elite 8" now we have spoiled it making it 10. They don't know what to call us now. They are a nice group of Elders. Most of them have already been here for 18 to 23 months. We should be seeing all new Elders within the next few months and we will be the "oldies". This is our Christmas picture. It is going on the mission Christmas Card to all the missionaries. We are one of only 3 senior mls missionaries in this mission.

The Airport and President and Sister Dalton

Here we are with President and Sister Dalton. They are wonderful. The flight wasn't too bad and it was nice to have someone there at the airport to greet us and tell us all about where we are going and what we are going to be doing. We went straight to the Mission Home and settled in for the weekend. They fed us and treated us like they had known us forever. It helps that they know our Mandy and the Kershaws. We went to church in their ward and then to a Baptism for a family of 5. After the baptism we went to the First Presidency Christmas Fireside.
President and Sister Dalton took us for a quick tour of downtown Honolulu and then we went home to bed and we will head for Kauai first thing in the morning.

Last Day At The MTC

We had a picture of our group taken on our last day. We are going all over the world; Kenya, Argentina, Netherlands, Florida, and Hawaii. What a great week we had and we made some wonderful friendships !!!

At the MTC

Here we are at the famous MTC map. We knew we needed a picture at this map after recieving a picture of each of our boys pointing to where they were headed for 2 years.

DRUM ROLL PLEASE.....

Postman delivering our mission call....but we had to wait ALL day until kids could come to watch us open it!!!



Finally able to open our call.....
Brother and Sister Fairbanks are called to the.....

Hawaii Honolulu Mission!!!!!
And we report to the MTC in 10 days!!!!
And we leave for Hawaii in 17 days!!!

Mission Papers!

After much dileberation and praying we have finally decided to turn in our mission papers! This is the official mission picture sent to the church headquarters! Can't wait to find out where we will be headed.... stay tuned for more information!!!