Memorial Day Weekend- Sunday

We got up Sunday morning and drove to Iospea (pronounced Yo-sep-uh) with Grandma and Grandpa Hathaway.

Here's the history from my understanding: Iosepa means Joseph and it is named after Joseph F. Smith who had served his mission in the Hawaiian islands. There were Hawaiians who wanted to do temple work so they traveled to UT and settled Iosepa in 1889. The Hawaiians turned the desert of Skull Valley into a beautiful "island oasis." The biggest it ever got was around 230 people. They were made up of Hawaiians, Samoans, Maoris, Portuguese, and English. They lived there until 1915 when Joseph F. Smith (then the prophet of the church) announced that a temple was being built in Laie, Hawaii. Since the SLC temple was 75 miles away from Iosepa the Hawaiians decided to go back to Hawaii where they would be closer to the temple to help build it and to perform more ordinances. By 1917 the town was abandoned. For decades the only evidence of the town was the cemetery. In 1980 a woman who was a direct descendent of a few of the Iosepa families started organizing Memorial Day activities in Iosepa. In 1989 President Hinkley dedicated a monument to the memory of the early Iosepa residents for their "unique part in Utah history." That was also the year that they changed their Memorial Day activities from a one day thing to a three day ordeal. They include a program documenting the history of the colony, church services, games, arts and crafts, a luau with a pig, other Polynesian foods, and entertainment, and a pavilion with a stage. This year they did an entire sacrament meeting and had the Utah Polynesian Choir there to sing in the meeting.

It was very cool! The food was amazing!! Grandma and Grandpa were there every day this weekend but Jake and I just went on Sunday. I think it's so cool!

It was very cold and windy... Here we are with the stage behind us

Here we are with the kitchen behind us

 Jake helped pass the sacrament

 

 Here we are freezing our booties off after the meeting

Here we all are by the podium, it says Iosepa on it

Here's the "welcome" at the front of the pavilion

They had cool things like this all over

Here are some of the cool things that were in the cemetery

 

 

These giant nastay stink beetles were all over. And I was in flip flops. GROSSSS.

It was so cool! Thanks Grandma and Grandpa for taking us!

Sunday night Teilani, Tod, Heidyn, Tanner, Destry, and Ashley came over to grandma and grandpa's for dinner and then Jake and I played phase 10 with gma and gpa! That is one of my new favorite games!