Christmas Day after church with the entire family
The future BYU football team
Christmas morning
The traditional stair photo prior to opening presents
Our Christmas pageant on Christmas Eve.

Our entire family were able to visit the lights at Temple Square
The nativity at Temple Square
Elders Rob Lemme and Trevor Todd joined us for a card game.
Kristen's birthday party at the rock climbing wall
Sisters Imoto and Ishida and Elders Kobayashi and Fukuyasu at the Fukuoka Temple.

Tyson, Brennen and Easton having fun in our bathtub
Entire family with the exception of Megan and Tanner's family. They will be here this week. We are excited to all be together for the first time in over three years.
Jacob Gremmert joined one of our family dinners.
Kristen's birthday is on the 20th and my birthday was on the 13th. We had our joint family dinner today.
McKay Jacobson and his wife Kim came over on my birthday night. McKay gave me a BYU football signed by the members of the football team. It was a great birthday.

My son, Ryan, and I were able to attend a BYU basketball game with Elder Ackerman. It was fun to catch up about the mission and hear what a wonderful job the Evans are doing.
Elder Bryan Anderson got engaged this week. They are getting married in April.
Sister Saito's engagement photos are beautiful. She will be getting married in January. Elder Naganuma and Sister Tsuji will also be getting married in January.
Elder Tashiro and Sister Nozomi on a double date with two of our other missionaries: Sister Ujike and Elder Kaneko
Elder Tashiro's grandmother was baptized. Sister Ishida and Nozomi are also in the photo. Wonderful news for the Tashiro family.

Elder Mauai and his wife Jasminn With Elders Sakahashi and Christian.

Activity #6 The BYU UofH football game with Elders Lawler, Nakama and Taniuchi

Elder Eror with his wife Brittney

Elders Nakama, Lawler and Taniuchi with Elder Christian's girlfriend Christy?
Josh and Sister Uchida Bennison with one of their friends (future date of Elder Nakama). I helped him with his commitment and planning skills.
We have known Casey and Derrick Boss since they were born. Our families have been intertwined ever since. They are both preparing for their missions and studying at BYU H
Activity #5 of the reunion. 8 of our missionaries, three spouses and two girlfriends.
Our last activity of the reunion was a dinner hosted by Jason Mauai. Elders Sakahashi, Christian, Mauai, Taniuchi Sister Uchida Bennison and Elder Nakama sitting. Elder Lawler and Eror standing. We missed Elders Urata, Naganuma and Sister Tsuji at the dinner but we were able to see them at other activities.

Mission Reunion activity #4 Beach and surfing with Elders Taniuchi, Lawler, Nakama, Christian and Elder Christian's girlfriend, Christy.
The ocean in front of the Temple at Laiei
Mission Reunion Activity #2 (#3 was basketball but we forgot to take a picture) Elder Naganuma and Sister Tsuji (who are engaged) Sister Uchida now Bennison with husband Josh and Elders Nakama and Taniuchi. Great hamburgers and coconut/macadamia shrimp at Kahuku Grill.
Activity #1 Temple session with Elder Nakama, Sister Uchida Bennison and Josh
Pearl Harbor with Shannon. USS Missouri in the background

With our wonderful friends, Jerry and Cindy Pratt. While we were serving in Hokkaido, we kept thinking how nice it would be when we could just relax at a nice beach with a good book and wonderful friends. Four months later, we finally realized the dream. We are looking forward to Friday when we get to see all of our missionaries that we served with in Sapporo who are currently in Hawaii.
Shannon with Alexa Pratt
Dinner at the beach with the Pratts and Siedels.

The view off the balcony of the Ko Olina Beach Villa Condos. We are the guests of our friends, the Pratts, and it is wonderful to be back in Hawaii.
One of the typical sunsets in Hawaii
Ko Olina beach with Shannon
First evening after we arrived in Hawaii

Since we have been home, we have been joined by many of our missionaries returning to their homes: the first group was Shaya Muir, Chelsea Blyle, Taylor Taniuchi and Bryce Shurtliff . The next wave included Rie Imoto followed by Ryo Kashima and Naoto Takashima. This month, Parker Ackerman, Raymond Clinton, Reece Butler, Hironori Kobayashi, Yurika Niiyama and Katherine Gingrich returned. You see all of the wonderful missionaries come home and you wonder how the work will continue. It is amazing to see the younger missionaries step up and fill the void. The work moves on and the Lord is always preparing his next group of leaders. We are looking forward to having a reunion with our returned missionaries.

We have a number of mission engagements and we are excited to see so many of our missionaries move on with the most important decisions in their lives. This week, Elder Luke Brown from Australia announced his engagement. We also received an invitation to the wedding of Heidee Beaven - Australia is on a roll. In the USA, Steven Raymond was recently engaged. We also have another mission couple: Shinji Naganuma and Mariko Tsuji are engaged and will be married in Japan and then return to BYU Hawaii. Kaori Saito will be getting married in January and Sayako Kaneko will be married in March. We are excited for all of these engagements and look forward to the weddings.

Elder Daniel Dickson joined us for the last BYU home football game of the season. It started at 8:15 at night and the temperature was 30 degrees at kick 0ff. Despite the cold and lateness, it is always fun to spend time with our missionaries and support our other Elder, McKay Jacobson, in his last home football game. I will be able to see him play in Hawaii for his last regular season game. I was also able to have lunch with Sister Ellie Hansen this week but we forgot to take a photo.
Since we are leaving the day after Thanksgiving for Hawaii and that is usually when we put up our Christmas tree, Sister Daniels got an early start this year.

We received another winter snowstorm this week. We will be going to Hawaii this coming week so that will provide a short reprieve from the cold.
Lauren and Ryan are teaching at the MTC and did not get off work in time to make the family dinner. They did join the party festivities afterwards.
We had a birthday party to celebrate Shannon's 18th birthday. She was accepted to BYU and will enroll in January.
Shannon loves nothing bundt cakes from SLC so she was happy with her birthday cake
Terry presenting the birthday cake to Shannon.

This weekend we drove to Southern California. We listened to "The Hunger Games" on tape and it seemed like a very short drive. We spent Friday and Saturday in Santa Barbara with the Eltons. It was rainy on Friday but Saturday was nice enough to play tennis and ultimate frisbee. We then drove to Laguna Beach on Saturday and met up with our dear friends, The Allens. As you can see from the photo after church, the weather has been beautiful. It is always nice to get away from the cold weather in Utah.

Our little boy Ryan, turned 22 on the 10th. We are into our birthday week in our family: We celebrated Ryan's birthday by having lunch at Tucanos, Megan will be 26 on the 15th. We came to California to celebrate ( Although I am flying back to Utah before the party) and Shannon will turn 18 on the 17th. Hopefully, she and Terry will drive home safely so we can celebrate her birthday. She was recently accepted to BYU and is going to began her university education in January.
Lauren took these photos of our oldest daughter, Jordan, and her family in our back yard (field)
Daughters #3 and 1 (Megan and Jordan) went to the premier of Twilight in Los Angeles this past week.
Kristen and Will went on a temple excursion to the Frankfurt temple this past week
Another mission grand-daughter. Congratulations to Tom and Yasumi Shrack on the birth of their daughter