Sunday, December 30, 2012

The morning of December 24th...

Last Monday, December 24...
      ...we received a phone call at 9:00 a.m. that a reporter for Channel 21 TV News was downstairs to interview someone with the question:  "How do Mormons celebrate Christmas?"
This came out of the blue with no previous notice.
Walt pulled off his sweats and jumped into his suit and dashed downstairs.
The interview is on the first floor of our 2-story apartment building in the waiting area in front of the cafeteria.

President Petersen told him that "we not only celebrate the birth of the Savior, but we also focus on His Atonement and Resurrection.
There are no special meetings on Christmas Eve or Christmas day.
The Sunday before Christmas we honor the birth of the Savior with special talks about Him and religious Christmas carols." 
Note from Eileen: I am putting my favorite scripture about Christ's birth here:  John 18:37
"...to this end was I born, and for this cause came I into the world..." (This was not in the interview, but since Walt talked about the Atonement and Resurrection, I am adding these photos.) 
Christ looking at Jerusalem...


   Atonement - at Gethsemane...
...and on the cross at Calvary...
After the recorded interview, the camera gal went out to shoot some photos of the temple.


Informally, the reporter asked some more questions about the Mormons and here is what President Petersen answered: 
"Many people don't believe that Mormons are Christians.  We believe the Savior is the Son of God and we partake of the Sacrament each Sunday in our Sacrament meeting.  The broken bread is in remembrance of the broken body of the Savior.  The water symbolizes the Savior's blood shed for the atonement of our sins."

Here is the painting of The Last Supper by Leonardo da Vinci, believed to be painted about 1495-1498.  It is now in a museum in Milan, Italy.
  Right after President Petersen was interviewed by Angel Iraheta, President Eduardo Alas and Consuelo, Walt's second counselor and and wife, drove up to the front of our temple complex building.
His son and family had just taken President Alas to breakfast for his December 24th birthday.    

Walt told the TV reporter that President Alas would be able to add some good insight about "How Mormons celebrate Christmas."
President Alas said that they have a special family home evening about the birth of the Savior, and they sing Christmas carols as they gather together on Christmas Eve to exchange gifts.  Then the reporter saw his young grandchildren in the car and asked the whole family to come out.
He asked the family to sing a Christmas carol and they sang "The First Noel."
   As the reporter and the camera girl were ready to load up their things, I asked if I could take a photo of them. (Imagine me asking to take a photo!?)
As they got into their pick-up, I noticed "19" on the door, and his microphone had "Canel 21" on it.  I asked him about this. He replied: "Oh, we are a Multi-Vista group for Channels 15, 19, and 21."  (You know, of course, that this is all translated from Spanish into English.)
Here is the microphone while the reporter was informally talking with Walt.
Here's the camera gal during the shooting.  I kept way out of the view of her camera while I was taking my little camera still photos.
And they were off to edit their interview for the 1:00 afternoon news.
  We watched Channel 21 during the 1:00-2:00 news program, but they didn't air the interview, so we thought they weren't going to use it.
    However, several told us that they saw it on the news that evening, so we missed it.  They showed President y Hna. Alas and their family.  So Walt thinks they either didn't understand his Spanish (which I know didn't happen), or they liked more what President Alas said about how Mormons celebrate Christmas than what he said.  
(But I think maybe they will use President Petersen's interview another time.)
The Temple
  The reporter had asked President Petersen if he could go into the temple. President Petersen explained why he could not and some things about the temple.    That will be another blog...

H A P P Y   N E W   Y E A R  ~  2 0 1 3

Tuesday, December 25, 2012

December 25, 2012 - Our 2012 Christmas Letter

Merry Christmas 2012
 ~ Our first year in El Salvador ~
 Dear Family & Friends… 
 We treasure our time here serving as the temple president and matron of the San Salvador El Salvador Temple – July 2011 until November 2014. We could not do it without the great help of excellent counselors, assistants to the matron, our four Sr. couple full-time temple missionaries, temple workers, patrons, and, of course, the Lord. 

 The young and the old still come in buses, in the back of pick-up trucks, in cars and on foot. They humbly are baptized, confirmed, endowed, and sealed. They are grateful for this sacred temple in their own land, dedicated in August 2011. Some days are long but the weeks fly by. 

 This year we have had one new grandson born and another baptized into The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. We bear testimony to these two and to all our grandchildren, children, their spouses, plus each of you that this is the true Church restored to earth in 1830 through the Prophet Joseph Smith by Heavenly Father and His Son, Jesus Christ. 

 We are thankful for the guidance of the Holy Ghost. Thomas S. Monson is the living Prophet for the whole world today. Missionaries teach these truths throughout the world. The Book of Mormon is another testament of Jesus Christ, and, as the Bible, testifies of His Divinity. We are grateful for prophetic counsel to live frugally and have a supply of food and other necessities in preparation for possible coming hard times. 

 We are away from home, family and friends for two more years because we were called of God. My Mom, Verna Albertson, will be 93 in January. We are so thankful for Julie & John being such wonderful caregivers for Grama A while she is living with them. We also thank them for caring for us during Walt’s recovery from back surgery in May. 

 We’ve had more health issues during this year than all of our 51 married years put together. But with priesthood blessings, great medical help here, in Utah and Tennessee, we’ve been able to continue our calling. Our wheeled walkers have been good companions of late. By exercising, Walt walks now with a cane. 
 In April Walt developed back problems with weakness in his right leg, which caused several falls. In May he had surgery in Salt Lake City. After several weeks of recovery and physical therapy, we returned to San Salvador. So far, so good! 

 During the semi-annual temple maintenance closures (2 weeks in March and September), we were able to visit most of our family in Utah, Idaho and Tennessee. We had a wonderful time with Brian and Michelle and their four darling daughters in McMinnville, Tennessee, where they moved a year ago to join an orthopedic surgery practice. We are looking forward to being with Jen and Jerry and family in Minnesota to see their new baby, Adam, next March. 

 Our family gathered in June for the annual Walt & Eileen Petersen Family Reunion. Thanks to Brian and Michelle for organizing this year’s WEPR. Our posterity of 7 children, their spouses and 33 grandchildren continue to strengthen their bonds, even while we are 3,000 miles away. 
                               OUR FAMILY in 2012 
             CONTINUE TO CREATE ROOTS AND WINGS 
FOR THEIR CHILDREN THROUGHOUT THE UNITED STATES Janie & Shawn Fisher, Daniel 22, Katie 18, Heidi 16, Sam 13, Ashley 12, Michael 9 – Rexburg, ID Aimee & Michael Mecham – finishing up degrees at BYU Idaho- Rexburg, Idaho 

Gary & Kathy Petersen, McKell 15, Abbey 12, Jacob 10, Isaac 7 - Saratoga Springs, Utah. 

Steve & Natalie Petersen, Kelsey 21, Cortney 19, Kimble 13, Carter 11 - Saratoga Springs, Utah. 

David & Julie Petersen, Joshua 15, Anna 12, Samuel 6, William 4 - Draper, Utah.

Julie & John Peterson, Jacee 10, Jackson 8, Maddie 5 - Saratoga Springs, Utah, and Mikayla 16 in Gig Harbor, Washington.

Brian & Michelle Petersen, Emma 12, Taylor 9, Avery 7, Elizabeth 3, McMinnville, Tennessee. 

Jen & Jerry Brewer, Seth 10, Sarah 10, Ben 7, Joshua 5, Elizabeth 3, and Adam Walter born Nov. 9 - Rochester, Minnesota. 

 We love and cherish our children, their spouses, and our grandchildren! Families are Forever! 
                        …to this end was I born” John 18:37 

                         May the spirit of Christ, His Birth, 
                     and His Atonement be with us always. 

 Love, Walt & Eileen

 Happy New Year – 2013 

 Please send us your e-mail address. 

 Pouch Mail: San Salvador El Salvador Temple, 50 East North Temple Street, Salt Lake City, UT 84150 
 • wrpetersen7@gmail.com 
 • wyepetersen@gmail.com 
 • waltandeileen.blogspot.com •

Sunday, December 23, 2012

Sunday, Dec. 23, 2012

Merry Sunday before Christmas...
Sunday evening after our wonderful Los Heroes Stake Choir Christmas concert...
Merry Christmas...

Wednesday, December 12, 2012

Down Memory Lane...

I was looking for something in my computer Christmas file and saw this....couldn't resist sharing.
Can't believe our first born is coming upon her 50th year.  Where has the time gone???
Down Memory Lane…
Mary Jane “Janie’s”
First Christmas –
Minneapolis, Minnesota

Janie was born on the day
her Dad began his internship –
June 24, 1963

December 1963
Janie 6 months old
Walt’s intern year
June 24, 1963
to July 1, 1964

If she didn’t look at this stranger
in the red suit, she wouldn’t cry.

    We enjoy the fun part of Christmas, even though we know:
We love Christ, our Savior and Redeemer, and are so thankful for His birth, His perfect life, His Atonement so that we can have hope of Eternal Life with Him and with our families.
The Book of Mormon is another Testament of Jesus Christ.

     Hope you are having a wonderful December and will have a Merry Christmas.

Monday, December 10, 2012

Remembering my Dad... on the commemoration of his 100th birthday - December 8, 2012

I'd like to share some of the life sketch I wrote about my Dad on the remembrance of his 100th birthday - December 8, 2012.

Arnold George Albertson
Remembering him on the 100th anniversary of his birth
December 8, 1912 to December 8, 2012
He died on February 6, 1982 at age 69, almost 31 years ago.

  Daddy, we love you
and we still miss you.

ARNOLD G. ALBERTSON – LIFE SKETCH
From memory of his daughter, Eileen Albertson Petersen
Written February 6, 2009
We were in Argentina on our third mission together
and I guess I was thinking about my Dad
on the day that made 27 years since he had passed away.



ARNOLD GEORGE ALBERTSON was born December 8, 1912 in Jackson, Cassia County, Idaho to Clarence Albertson from Albion and Blanche Ilene Hartwell, originally from Salt Lake City, then Burley, Idaho. He was the oldest of their 8 children. 

When Arnold was about 10 they moved to Montana, and homesteaded a large ranch until his Dad had a severe head injury in a combine accident at harvest time, and was unconscious for 45 days. Clarence's sister, Salome, was a nurse and took Clarence to Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn.  After they did all they could, she had her brother and family move to Idaho in the Hagerman valley where she and her husband, Earl Justice, lived, so she could help take care of him.

Arnold, who was 13 at the time of the accident, had hidden all the money earned from the crops in an empty tomato can in their basement. When the authorities foreclosed on their home and ranch in Montana, Arnold was able to pay for the train tickets for his mother and siblings to get to Hagerman.
Arnold said his Dad was tough on them before, but after the accident became even meaner and beat their mother. When Arnold was about 16, he stood up to his Dad and said they weren't going to let their mother be treated that way anymore. He helped his mother get a divorce, and Clarence moved back to Albion where he lived near other Albertson relatives until his death there in Sept 1955. He had had no further contact with his wife and children; never knowing any of his grandchildren.

When I went to his funeral in Albion when I was 16, I couldn't believe I'd had a grandfather living that close to Wendell, where we lived, and I had never known him.

Arnold worked very hard to help his mother...even building a little house for her and the kids, after their little shack burned down. All the family photos and possessions burned in the fire, but the 8 children were okay. 

 Arnold graduated from Hagerman High School when he was older than 18 because he'd not had a chance to go to school regularly from working on the farm so much. During the Depression he worked in the CCC's up in the McCall forest area where they were building roads. He was the cook and one day ate a whole huge #10 can of the canned pineapple, which he'd never had before, but after that he never liked pineapple again.  He sent most of his paycheck home every week to his mother to buy food for the family.

He fell in love with Verna Huffaker from Wendell when he was 23 and she was 15.  He kept trying to get her to drop out of school and marry him but she insisted she wanted to finish school.


Finally, at the start of her senior year, when she was 17, he "dared" her to elope and she "double dared" him back, and they with their best friends, Marie and Ralph, had a double wedding the next day in Hailey.
He worked as a cook and card dealer in Wendell, Hagerman, Ketchum, then as the goal tender at the Guggenheim Gold Mine in Jarbridge, Nevada. When the gold ran out and the mine closed, he had friends in Long Beach, California who convinced him to come to ship fitter school there and then got him a job in the ship yards in October 1941. It took him 3 months to find housing and earn enough money for us to join him.

I was born a year and three months after they married, so got to be in Wendell, Hagerman, Ketchum, Jarbridge, then to California with them.

 That's my first memory, at age 3 riding on the bus with my Mom to California a month after the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor.  My Mom said I would wink at all the sailors and soldiers on the bus and they winked back.  The day that World War II was over--2 September 1945* (footnote 1)-- we were in downtown Long Beach taking my Grama Huffaker to the Greyhound bus station for her return to Idaho after visiting us.  Confetti and ticker tape were everywhere in the air, horns honking, people crowding in the streets and everyone so happy.
That same month we moved back to Wendell, Idaho, where Daddy began to work as a carpenter and did that for the rest of his life. 

Because of the complications my mother had after my birth, she was told she would never be able to have more children.  However, when I was 10 1/2 my baby sister, Janice was born. Mom told me that Arnold could not wait to get home after work to play with her.  We were all overjoyed to become a family of four.

Mom had gotten her high school diploma while in California through a correspondence course, and when I was a junior and senior she went to night classes at the Twin Falls Business College after working at the Wendell Cleaners all day. She was able to get a great job as secretary to the boss of the Southern Idaho Production Credit Association in Gooding. Daddy didn't want her driving on the roads in the winter, and since he had to drive all over Magic Valley anyway for his carpentry jobs, he said Gooding would be their new hometown.

Right after the war we lived in the old McBurney teacherage school house out in the country near my grandparents.  When it was put up for auction, Daddy bought it, had it moved to town, and built on to it making it into a beautiful home.  [Photo at left; home on Utah St., Gooding, Idaho below 1957-61,]
Then when they moved to Gooding in 1957, right after I had graduated from Wendell High School and gone to business college in Salt Lake City, they rented a tiny house while he built Mom her "dream home."  [Sorry we don’t have a photo. Janice do you have a photo of it?]

However, he sold it before she got to live in it because he was afraid he couldn't make the payments of $120 a month.  Mom made $200 a month at the PCA and I don’t know if he made much more than that in carpentry.  He bought a little 20x28 house on Wyoming Street and kept building on to it until it became a beautiful home for her, which she doesn't want to leave.
My Dad ended his carpenter years as the maintenance man for the new Tupperware plant in Jerome, commuting from Gooding.  He had just retired and was planning to open "Arnold's Antiques" in the big honey shed behind their home that had come with the original purchase. Mom and Dad had collected lots of wonderful antiques from many Saturday auctions all over the Magic Valley. Mom had one more year until her retirement in 1983 after 26 years at her great job with the Southern Idaho PCA.  So Arnold had been looking at trailers for them to do some traveling in.

 He loved to fish, and when I was little I would go with him to the Malad River in Hagerman...until I saw a snake there, and that ended my fishing trips with my Dad.

But his retirement plans never materialized when he was diagnosed with colon cancer in August 1981, and after 4 surgeries, the doctors told him the tumor was growing faster than they could cut it out.

My Daddy was converted and baptized in July 1954. Arnold and Verna were sealed in the Salt Lake Temple the day Walt and I were married there, June 14, 1961. Janice and I were sealed to our parents.

He would call his grandkids "little scaliwags," and it was a joy to me that our boys got to go fishing with him and Grampa Huffaker one time.

He liked to tease and loved baseball. When I was a junior, during the World Series of 1955, he "rented" a TV set. He was so excited to actually see the games that he never took the TV back, arranging to make payments until he owned it. That's why I'm a die-hard Yankee fan to this day...my Daddy loved the Yankees. 

He was quiet, like his mother and never liked to stand out in a crowd, and was a staunch Democrat, which I am not. Mom said they just canceled out each other's vote at election time. He was a union man, believing the unions helped the working man, but the Union didn't come through for him at his death, not giving his widow the right benefits.  However, she has had a good retirement pension from her years with PCA.

His mother, Blanche Ilene Hartwell Albertson, passed away on July 27, 1966, at the age of 72.  She is buried at the Hagerman, Idaho Cemetery





 
He smoked and drank coffee for many years, and he said Mom learned how to make really good coffee for him, even though she never drank it.  I heard him occasionally cuss a little when he hit his finger with the hammer.  But I never heard him take the Lord's name in vain.  Two weeks before he died I heard him say: 'Damn cancer!" 

I look forward to seeing him again in the Spirit World. I pray each day that he is happy and successful in his missionary work in heaven.   I wish he could come get Mom soon.

      End of this life sketch I wrote in 2009 from memory because I had none of our family histories with me in Argentina.  I have just added the photos for this 2012 update.

Posterity
Arnold & Verna have 2 children, 11 grandchildren, and 45 great-grandchildren with 1 more due in March 2014.   I hope to post some photos of his posterity, also.

Update: Sunday, May 15, 2022

Posterity of Arnold & Verna Huffaker Albertson

Posterity of Walter & Eileen Albertson Petersen

Posterity of Janice Lynn Albertson Robertson

As of May11 2022

 


Posterity of Arnold & Verna Huffaker Albertson

   Children – 2

       Spouses of Children – 2

              G-Children – 11

              Spouses of G-Children – 10

                     G-G-Children – 54

                     Spouses of G-G-Children – 11

                               GG-G Children – 8, 2 more due in 2022

 

Posterity of Walter & Eileen Albertson Petersen

Children – 7

       Spouses of Children - 6

G-Children – 39

       Spouses of G-Children – 6

G=G-Children - 2

 

Posterity of Janice Lynn Albertson Robertson

Children – 4

       Spouses of Children – 4

        G-Children – 15

       Spouses of G-Children – 5

G-G-Children – 4

 As of May 2022