Orlando South Stake Luau

This month is flying by! This is the first month of our 6 month extension. Our new release date is Jan 13th if they don’t need us to extend for another 6 months. But we love it here and at this point would like to make it to 18 months. We’ll see what the Lord wants. This month has been full of a variety of things:

The first that is noteworthy was the invitation to us missionaries to attend a real luau held at Sun Grove by Orlando South Stake who was doing Trek.

We’ve had several Trek groups here at Sun Grove (the spot with the handcarts on the Ranch) It is a beautiful land covered with much wildlife and huge overhanging Laurel Oaks that shade much of the campground.

It is a challenging spot for the handcarts which must be pulled through “sugar sand” (very fine, deep, white sand) at spots along with other terrain challenges that make it fun for the kids.

Anyway, this particular stake has a ward of Tongans who asked the Ranch to supply a couple of hogs, which they killed, dressed and prepared for a pit barbeque with the kids all helping. It was amazing to watch. They lined and covered the pit with many huge banana leaves. And on top of the meat they place tons of corn on the cob and potatoes--russet and sweet-- to eat with the pork. Then piled on more banana leaves and then buried it with the sand. It cooked all day and by evening, when done, they uncovered all and took the many cooked banana leaves and piled them up on the serving tables for the serving base for the food.

They added pineapple and it smelled scrumptious and tasted delicious! Then we had the Tongans entertain us with a fabulous traditional luau right there on the beach of the lake. What a night! These are experienced entertainers that work at Disney World and other professional places. We had such a good time.