Father's Day the Kiribati Way

Saturday evening the Moroni Ward held a Fathers' Day program was hosted by the Relief Society.  Lita, the school principal, is also the R.S. president, whatever she does is first class.  Because Moroni Ward primarily is made up of students, there are not a lot of fathers in the ward.  There were two other events that were in conflict, so only about half the ward's fathers were able to attend, nearly half of which were the senior Elders.


The evening began with traditional dancing, a home made video honoring fathers, a potluck supper, and ended with awarding small gold medals to fathers for a special talent as determined by our wives.

Sister Ogborn holding a future I-Kiribati father

He doesn't mind performing on the table as part of the preliminary entertainment

Sister Bonnemort teaches him some new dance moves

The fathers first all sat on a row of chairs as the honored guests for the evening

A few of us didn't get the dress code memo

To start the program some young ladies from Moroni performed traditional Kiribati dances

They entered the Cultural Hall dancing in the
traditional lava lavas

Pres. Tune encourages the LDS youth to carry on many of the good traditions
of Kiribati such as the traditional dances

They performed two traditional Kiribati dances using hand, arm, hip, and feet movements to tell some of the traditional stories of the island

Next they placed their own fresh floral garlands on the heads of the fathers.  This is one of the Kiribati customs to honor special guests

Each garland is unique and colorful using different types of flowers and leafs

It fits where it touches

Sister Thorne with some older dude

Elder Val and Sister Judy Bush arrived recently from Idaho and work with member support.  Elder Bush has been a superintendent in Utah and Idaho until he recently retired.  Sister Bush also was a teacher

Elder Steve and Sister Shelly Bonnemort from South Ogden are the mission nurses and work with the missionaries.  Elder Bush retired from the IRS and Sister Bush was a maternity nurse at McKay Dee Hospital in Ogden

Garlands are even for the hair impaired. 

Elder Corwin and Sister Peggy Ogborn, from Orem, Utah are humanitarian missionaries and serving their third mission.  Elder Ogborn taught art at Orem and Mt. View High School for over 40 years

Brother and Sister Banimone, he is a dorm father and she works as a secretary for S&I.  He is 2nd Counselor in the Bishopric and she is the Stake Relief Society President

Bishop Arobati Brecthfeld and a Sister Taotao Tokannata, is a cook at MHS.  The Bishop Arobati recently resigned his position at MHS to work in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs for Kiribati.  He served a mission in Utah and one of the areas in which he served was in Monroe area.

Each father was given a gold medal for having a special talent, which was elaborated by each one's wife.  They are holding their gold medals.  The man in the back row on the far left (to my right) is Lita's husband.  He is the weight lifting coach for Kiribati and hopes to have some of his students in the Olympic in England

It was another enjoyable evening, we had a potluck supper after viewing an excellent slide presentation honoring fathers, which was put together by some students from the Moroni Ward. 


Life is good under the coconut and palm trees!