It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...

My favorite Christmas scripture is John 18:37 "...To this end was I born..."
Here's a scripture about Christ's Atonement from Alma 42:24
"...mercy cometh because of the atonement..."
Elder Gibbons taught about the Atonement in his FHE lesson on Monday. 

As we left our morning/afternoon shift at the temple, we walked out onto the front lawn to see the Nativity set that was put up the day before.  They were putting the palm leaf roof over it.

Walt surprised me by having the tree mostly decorated when I came out from catching up on e-mails, blogs, and fb.

During refreshment time, we ended the FHE with Elder Gibbons' tradition of watching the 30-min original "How the Grinch Stole Christmas" that he always starts his Christmas season with by watching with his grandchildren.

Elder Gibbons taught us some insights about the Gospel from the Old Testament, Leviticus, Chapter 1 explaining how the sacrifice of the animals head, inwards, front leg, hind leg, and fat correlate with today's Doctrine & Covenants 4:2 in serving with our mind, heart, strength, might, and the blessings that come.
Head = Mind
Inwards = Heart
Front leg = Strength
Hind leg = Might
Fat = Blessings


We gathered at 6pm for our weekly FHE--this Monday at the Gibbons apartment. Hermana Gibbons gave a fun Thanksgiving poem that her Mom always told their family, plus a fun action story about Thanksgiving on the frontier.
THE LOST TURKEY
Turkey lay there on the table
Turkey big and round and fat
But when it came time to cook him....
We didn’t know where He was at.
We looked all through the kitchen
And searched the pantry well.
We asked Jim and John about him...
and even Annabelle.
And even little Mary
and she said "Tourse I do.
Poor turkey didn't feel well
Because he lost his head,
So I put my nightie on him
And tucked him in my bed!

Hermana Kitley took the photo below since Elder Kitley had chosen to stay at the apartment to get some things done.

A little later, after driving to the Ace Hardware, the rest of us gathered at "La Gran Via" mall to have lunch at Shaw's before grocery shopping at the Wal*Mart complex.

The Walls decided to walk over to the Malls to do some shopping. They didn't plan their "look alike" shirts for the day.

We thank the Thompsons and Hermana Kitley. It was Hermana Thompson who volunteered to put the lights on and Hermana Kitley jumped right in to help.  What great neighbors we have!


Our missionary friends came on P-day morning and put the lights on the tree. This really helped Walt get in the Christmas spirit by not having to do his most dreaded job of the season.

Still seems strange eating out on the terrace patio surrounded by beautiful green trees, some with bright red flowers, when it's the end of November. We gather each Sunday for our potluck dinner.

Our "Thanksgiving Dinner"

Our "Thanksgiving Dinner" on Nov. 21.

Hermana Kitley had 5 feathers in the Presidente's headband for the "big chief."

They voted to have the surgeon carve the turkey.

(I had one rotated, but neither worked.)

The turkey was so cooked it was falling apart.

Here we are in the commons room, where Walt had each one share something we are grateful for about El Salvador.

L-R: Los Gibbons, Kitleys, Alas, Us, Majanos, Walls, and Thompsons.

Juan José and Rebeca took the photos of the group.

If you look closely, the tree they are standing by is a "Thanksgiving tree." 

It became a Christmas tree the next day.

Two of the Majano's grandchildren had come to be with them on their P-day.  She said she would just have them stay in their apartment while we ate dinner.

"Oh no," said Walt, "Thanksgiving is a family day...they will come and eat with us. So we grabbed two more chairs and place settings.  Here is Juan José who is 10. His sister, Rebeca, 8, also ate with us.

President Eduardo y Hermana Counselo Alas. Hna. Kitley is on the right...who made the headgear. She put three feathers in the counselors.

The table's set. Hermana Kitley made "Indian head bands" for the guys, white pilgrim hats for the gals.

It was fun eating out on the balcony terrace...seeing the beautiful green trees surrounding us.

We did have a great "Thanksgiving Dinner" on everyone's P-Day on Monday, Nov. 21. Walt and I cooked the turkey and made the gravy...and the 4 other couples filled in with all the fixin's. Oh...we also brought fresh pineapple and cantalope, plus made "nut cups" of peanuts and Poppy-Cock carmel corn and pecans from PriceSmart.

We are thankful for each of you...

HAPPY THANKSGIVING...
We are thankful for being able to function each day on this beautiful earth Heavenly Father has created for us.  And I just had this thought as another proof of a Heavenly Mother: all the pretty touches on earth she surely helped to add.
Love to all, Los Petersen - Walt & Eileen - aka
Mom & Dad
Mom & Dad Petersen
Grama 'n Grampa Mission
Uncle Walt & Aunt Eileen
Brother, Sister
Cousins
Friend
Neighbor

Layco Stake Conference - Sunday, November 20, 2011

Layco Stake Conference.

Our 7th one to speak at since September 4.

Everyone wants to shake hands with the temple president.

Bishop Mendez took two buses from his home to get to the temple complex to direct us to the Layco Stake Center. 

He is an Assistant Recorder at the Temple.

Great group of Priesthood brethren.

Walt loves to greet these elderly Sisters.

This sister ran up when she saw me taking photos and wanted one with the temple president.

It takes a while to get to the temple van with so many people to greet along the way.

Babies are precious all over the world.

These young men like it when Walt says: "Future missionaries?"

Bishop Mendez took a photo of us as we were leaving the cultural hall.

Saturday, November 19, we had 9 bus loads come to the temple. What a great day!

This and that in San Salvador...

Below: We gals got to know each other during the Saturday priesthood section of the Apopa Stake Conference - Oct. 29

Walt does this a lot each week now -- preparing for another stake conference talk. There are 18 stakes in El Salvador and they all seem to want the new temple president and his wife to come and speak at their stake conferences.

Sunday, Nov. 20 we will be speaking at the Layco Stake Conference. Last Sunday, Nov. 13, it was the Ilopango Stake Conference. (My camera card had a virus and wasn't functioning.)

Sat. and Sun, Nov 5-6 it was our stake--the Los Heroes Stake where we spoke.

More later....I hope.

P-Day at cities ILOBASCO and SAN SEBASTIAN

We're off at 9:00 a.m. for another adventure in El Salvador.

 Our monthly--first Monday of the month-- P-Day outing started at

 the El Salvador el Mundo Monument, November 7, 2011.

Left to right: Elder y Hna. Wall--Frank & Diane; Elder y Hna. Gibbons--Dave & Marilyn;

Pte. y Hna. Petersen--Walt & Eileen; Elder y Hna. Thompson--Lon & Nancy;

Elder y Hna. Kitley--Trent & Arlene.

El Salvador el Mundo = The Savior of the World

A serendipity happened when this exuberent class of 16-17 year olds from the San Marcos School came to the Monument and had their photos taken.  A group of the boys told Hermana Thompson they knew English. She asked them how old they were and where they were from.  They decided they didn't know English as well as they thought they did.

Elder Gibbons got this great photo of a 3rd-class bus going by us-- the back of a pickup loaded with passengers. In fact, we thank Elder Gibbons for sharing all these photos since our camera card is frozen and we were not able to take any photos.

We drove through the city center--where we'd been told it was too dangerous to go to.  Notice we "drove through" meaning we did not stop and get out.  It looked like it would be fun to puruse the many sidewalk booths set up as little shops....but we'd been warned not to get out, so we didn't.

On our 2-hour drive to Ilobasco and San Sebastian we stopped to view the Ilopango Lake--which is the crater of an old volcano.

Walt said: "What I enjoy most on these outings is getting out of the city into the beautiful country side."

It was noon when we got to Ilobasco, so of course the first stop was for lunch at Pollo Campestre (the Latin American version of Kentucky Fried Chicken).

Counter clock wise: Walt, Eileen, Lon, Frank, Diane, Nancy, Arlene, Trent, Dave, Marilyn,

aka Pte. y Hna. Petersen, Elder y Hna. Thompson, Elder y Hna. Wall,

Elder y Hna. Kitley, Elder y Hna. Gibbons.  Our mini-bus driver took the photo.

We stopped at a pottery factory ... but it looked like it had long ago passed it's "heyday." We bought some miniature nativity sets for $3.00 each....so no big spending was done here.

"Textiles Barahona" in San Sebastian

This was all in a backyard with chickens and dogs roaming around.

The weaver turned this by hand very quickly and placed the colors down a row each time - fascinating!

These weavers work on these very old home-made looms, 6am to 6pm and get paid $4 a day.

We gathered at this last stop of the day in San Sebastian where we all bought some beautiful textiles that we saw the weaving processes for.  Good thing we hadn't spent much at the pottery city.

Walt and I got 3 beautiful, big tableclothes for $8 each,

and an "El Salvador" bag.

 This family photo popped  up that was taken on June 17, 2011, when we were all gathered for our

50th Wedding Anniversary Celebration.

It's alway great to remember our family.