Sunday, January 29, 2012

Our week in El Salvador. During our Hermana's monthly Brunch on Monday, Jan. 23, Melissa Ruble taught us about the local fruits and vegetables.  She is a "master chef" who has put that profession on hold while she raises her family of three boys, with her fourth son due Feb. 23.  Her husband, Aaron, is the first counselor in our Campestre Ward's bishopric.

Everyone was asked to bring a local fruit or vegetable and Melissa would tell us about it and how to prepare or cook it.

Time out.........Walt just got back from his 6-hour Regional Quarterly Coordinating Council...so I'm going to talk with him. (4:00 p.m. Be back soon to finish this post.)

I'm back...  Some of the veggies are: Yucca, which is what Melissa is holding in the photo...

Oh first I want to mention the new look for being pregnant now.

   When I arrived--Delena Markland picked up Arlene Kitley and me, and Lisa Wegkemp drove Marilyn Gibbons, Nancy Thompson, Diane Wall, and Joanne Hall.

     Hermana Kitley told Melissa as she greeted us at her front door how she loved the new look for being pregnant. "We used to try to hide that we were pregnant," to which Melissa replied: "Now it's embraced and displayed."

Back to the description of the Yucca plant. It has a neutral flavor that is very versatile with other veggies as a side dish. It's also ground into a powder and used for glue.

Melissa showed the fresh Spinach here and that it's leaf is thicker, but it can be used the same as in a fresh salad, or blended into a smoothie, or also cooked.

She showed us a stem with purple flowers that she couldn't remember the name of, but that is used as a sleep remedy or just to help relax us. 

The Taro looked a little like the yucca plant but is a thinner, longer, softer and more bendable.  Melissa does not like the taste of taro.

The veggie Hna. Kitley brought was in the squash family, little and yellow and is called Patty Pan.

On to fruits...

Gyjava (guajava??? or something like that) looks almost like a small green apple and has a flowerly, perfumy flavor. When they are in season here you can buy 20 for $1.00. (Did you all know the currency in El Salvador is the U.S. dollar?)

I'm not sure I got the name correct...it could be like gueeseal. In Brazil where Melissa's mother is from, it's called cheshu (so Jerry might be familiar with it).

I didn't get the Spanish name for the Passion Fruit... it has a sour, strong flavor but when sugar is added it has a wonderful flavor.

The bananas in the photo at the top were different varieties that have distinctly different flavors.

The Mispero, which is small and brown tastes rosy and banany.

There was also zapote, which has an orange meat (I think that was the one.) 

As you can tell my notes were not complete, so I'll end

with the fruit Teresa brought.

Teresa Walker brought a maymé (which when I had in México on our first mission together gave me hives for 24-hours....so I've stayed away from that for ever after).  Melissa said that is not native to here, so must have been imported in.

After Melissa had explained each fruit and veggie....we had a chance to taste them.   As you can see from the photos....other goodies were also brought for the 12 of us.

Left to right: Eileen, Marilyn, Sheralie, Delena, Melissa holding 2-y-o George, Carla, Teresa, Lisa, Nancy, Joanne, Diane, Arlene is taking the photo.

Well, that was Monday morning.

Hope go get some more of the week in later.

We're going to call our kids now....7:00pm Sunday, Jan. 29, 2012.

    Back....we called all seven....and no one was home nor answered

their cell phones.  But as the evening went on, we did get through to Julie, then Steve, then David, then Jen.

Blessings of being in the presence of the Lord's Leaders

We've had a busy but exciting weekend here in San Salvador...
    Saturday afternoon, January 21 we had 5 Sisters come to do a session in the San Salvador El Salvador Temple who were visiting the area with their husbands on assignment:  Sisters Nelson, Clayton, Martino, Amado, and Valladares. 
Their husbands are:
Elder Russell M. Nelson, Quorum of the Twelve;
Elder L. Whitney Clayton, Seven Presidents of the Seventy;
Elder James B. Martino, 1C in the Area Presidency -- The Second Quorum of the Seventy;
Elder Carlos H. Amado, 2C in the Area Presidency -- The First Quorum of the Seventy;
Elder Valladares, The Fourth Quorum of the Seventy--Central America Area who lives in Tegucigalpa, Honduras.
   It was stressful for me to get their temple clothes ready, but everything worked out--even a temple dress appearing out of the blue on the clothes rack by the roperia that I had not seen during the two weeks we've been steaming wrinkles out of the freshly-laundered dresses.  It was exactly what Sister Nelson wanted when she came downstairs with me when none of the dresses we had taken up to the bride's room worked for her.  I told her it was like angels had hung it there for her.
"You know miracles do happen in the temples," she said.
         Walt traveled in the van with Elder Nelson yesterday for the 2:00-6:00pm Priesthood Leadership Training Meeting.  It was held an hour from San Salvador in the city of Santa Ana.
He comes back from these inspiring gatherings full of enthusiasm and we sit for an hour or so as he goes over his notes with me.
   

This morning we rode to Santa Ana with Elder and Sister Martino and spoke at the Modelo Stake. We love to shake hands before and after but had little time because of the tight schedule to get back to San Salvador.
        At 4:00 Sunday, Jan. 22, all of the above Priesthood Leaders and their wives, plus Elder Carlos Rivas, Area Seventy here in El Salvador and his wife, had a private tour of the temple and the temple president's home.
At the Single Adult meeting where he spoke right after that he said he wanted to shout for joy when he was in this beautiful temple, but that can only be done in the Hosana Shout during the temple dedication.
    He and his wife greeted us as they left this meeting at 6:30.  (We were there by Sister Nelson's invitation.)
They fly back to Salt Lake City tomorrow.  They have also visited the countries of Guatemala, Costa Rica, and Panamá.
Elder Nelson is amazing for 87 years old.  Sister Nelson mentioned in her talk tonight that they have been married almost 6 years. (April 6, 2006.) His first wife, Dantzel, passed away Feb. 12, 2005. They had 10 children.
Elder Nelson said in his talk yesterday that they have 57 grandchildren and 55 great-grandchildren.
    Walt mentioned after they drove away tonight that this may be our last time to have this one-on-one experience with an Apostle and his wife.

New Year's Family Home Evening Party at Colina's...

New Year's FHE party Mon, Jan. 16, at the home of Martin & Alicia Colina. They moved to San Salvador 5 1/2 years ago from the U.S.A. and are workers now at the temple.  She kept trying to get a date we could all come before Christmas...but when that didn't work out she said she was just going to leave up her Christmas decorations until we could all come.
    It happened last night.
Here are the gals there at the beginning....several more came later.
  Oh, first here's Hermana Colina showing us her collection of perfume samples...that used to be given away at Department Stores. She said they don't do that any more.

Now, here are the gals:

Here are the guys:

She served lots of delicious food, had great entertainment, fun games, and a "gag" gift exchange. All in all, it was a great 3-hours to be together.
     The finale was a drawing for prize baskets. Here is a photo of the winners. 
The next photo is of those who were "eliminated."  The drawing was...the first 2 names drawn were "eliminated," and the next name drawn was the "winner," on thru the 5 gift baskets.  Each guest had been asked to bring one canned food item...and that's what they made the gift baskets from.

They are trying to look really sad.  I was eliminated with Walt, but I'm taking the photo.
I'll close out with a few glimpses of the buffet tables.

This was a recipe she got from Peru. It has halved, boiled potatoes under the cream with the boiled eggs on top.  The olives add an interesting color combination.

The colored macaroni salad is always a hit. This one had Italian-type dressing.

This was one of her main dishes made from stuffing, chicken, cooked carrots and potatoes cut in tiny pieces.

The dessert table had strawberries and peaches, banana bread, and cream puffs. 
The 7-Up with sliced strawberries made a refreshing drink.

It was a fun time together. There were about 30 total...most all of us temple workers.  Here are the Colinas as they bade us farewell at their front entrance.

Another speaking assignment...

Photo - Left to right: Hermana Diane Wall,
Elder Frank Wall - temple missionaries;
An Elder from Rigby, Idaho;
An Elder from Panamá;
Walt and Eileen Petersen
at the Layco Stake Center.

We were asked to speak at the Layco Stake yesterday. It was not a regular stake conference. Elder Russell M. Nelson and Elder L. Whitney Clayton are visiting Central America this past weekend to next weekend.  They had a Priesthood training-leadership meeting on Saturday with the stake presidencies and the bishops in the 9 stakes for this half of El Salvador.
Next Sunday they do the other 9 stakes.
During the week they having meetings in Guatemala, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, and Panamá.
 We were asked to speak about the temple at the Layco Stake with the Area President, Elder Enrique Falabella.  He taught us about "The Rule of 5's."
1. Study at least 5 minutes a day in the scriptures and apply it in our life that day.
2. Pray at least 5 times a day--morning, over our breakfast, lunch, and supper, then in the evening. This will lead to a constant prayer in our heart throughout the day.
3. Arrive 5 minutes before Sacrament Meeting begins to be able to prepare spiritually to partake of the Sacrament.
4. "Cinco" (that's five in Spanish) -- So the play on words is "Sin comer" which means "without food."
On fast day when we go without food, we need to think about those that go without food because they have no food and how it feels to be hungry.
Christ went 40 days without food.  When we donate the equivalent of those two meals we go without, we will think of those who have none and may wish to donate a little more.
5. Five ordinances that lead to eternal life:
      Baptism -
      Confirmation -
      Priesthood ordination -
      Temple endowment -   
      Temple sealing,

We're on our way to a P-Day outing at the Colina's home, so that's all the time to post right now.

Sunday, January 15, 2012

Here's the last photo I have of us coming from our Thursday morning/afternoon shift at the temple.
Our schedule goes in a cycle of 3 in a rotation with our counselors and wives:
Example for this coming week:
Monday is our Preparation Day - nicknamed P Day.   We clean our apartment, wash clothes, vacuum carpets and do house cleaning, take the four temple missionary couples and us grocery shopping, then at 6:00 the 4 couples rotate hosting family home evening.
      When there's a 5th Sunday, we do that one.

Here's Walt with one of the temple engineers who keep the lights and everything operating in

tip-top condition.



Then Tuesday we get up at 4:00 a.m., Open the temple at 5:30 a.m. for our morning afternoon shift which will end at 2:00 p.m.

Wednesday we will have the afternoon/evening shift which goes from 12:30 Noon to 9:30 or 10:00 p.m..

That means, Thursday will be our day with no shift. However, Walt goes over to the temple every day Tuesday through Saturday.

Friday we will have the morning/afternoon shift; and Saturday will be the afternoon/evening shift which starts at 11:00 a.m. and goes till 8:00 or 8:30 p.m. because on Saturday the temple opens at 4:00 a.m. for a 5:30 a.m. first session, and the last session is at 5:30 p.m. in the evening.

     The sessions are every 1 1/2 hours, Tues-Fri 7:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m., with Saturday 5:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.   There normally is no 1:00 p.m. session, unless there are so many people that we need to add a 1:00 session.

Sunday our Campestre Ward (Barrio) in the Los Heroes Stake meets from 9:00-12:00 Noon.  Some Sundays we are asked to speak at Stake Conferences, so we are at various stake centers throughout the city.  This morning, January 15, we spoke in a special stake meeting of the Layco Stake with our Area President, Elder Enrique Falabella and his wife.

       And now I'm going to go pop our Sunday evening batch of popcorn in the West Bend Stir Crazy popper which Elder y Hermana Fenn left for our apartment when they finished their mission call here of 3 years being the temple building supervisors.

The First Week of 2012...

New Year's Day - Sunday - January 1, 2012

Yes, in our 80-degree summer weather here, we eat on the 2nd floor terrace patio each Sunday.

One Sr. Missonary Temple Couple has the main dish - the other four couples bring pot luck.

We do "kinda plan" one to bring a potato or rice dish, one a veggie, one a salad, and one a dessert - so it's not too lopsided.

Sunday, Jan. 1, the Gibbons did grilled chicken; we made potato salad and brought some fresh pineapple; the Thompsons did a fruit salad; the Kitleys tomatoes and cucumbers; and Walls did this yummiest Peppermint dessert. Plus the Kitleys brought the rest of the deliciouis Black Forest Chocolate Cake she had made for our New Year's Eve Fiesta.

Here's the recipe if you have candy canes left over.

I had Amy send me this recipe.  In the original recipe I had made adjustments to it and she sent those.  I have never put in nuts.  And I did not garnish it with whipping cream.  It is real easy to put together and we like it at Christmas time. I do have more candy canes if you need them to make it.    

Peppermint Refrigerator Dessert

1 cup finely crushed peppermint candy (candy canes)

2 c. mini marshmallows

1 pint heavy cream whipped, with sugar

1 c. graham cracker crumbs

1/2 c. chopped nuts (optional)

Diane doesn't put nuts in it.

Few drops of red food coloring

Crush candy,

Whip cream until stiff, then

 Fold in candy, marshmallows, nuts (if desired), and red food coloring.

Make crumb crust, put on bottom of 9x13 glass pan. 

Spoon mixture into pan, sprinkle with some of the crumb crust.

 Refrigerate 8-12 hrs.

May garnish with whipped cream, if desired.

The Sunday pot luck buffet...

All together it made a plate of this.

Jan. 2 - Monday "P-Day" ... Presidente Petersen and Elder Gibbons waiting for the rest of us to bring our groceries from Wal*Mart down to the basement parking garage.

Family Home Evening at Kitleys...
Hermana Arlene Kitley gave a great lesson from our Prophet's message in the January Ensign "The Abundant Life."

She made yummy cinnamon rolls for the FHE treat.

Doing this post Sunday afternoon 3:30 p.m. and will have to finish it later because our driver's here to take us to the Soyopongo Stake to speak to the endowed members about the temple.  Walt's still at the training of sealers at the temple.  We just can't spread him far enough.  We spoke in our ward's Sacrament Meeting this morning about temples.  Walt stresses out more preparing his talks in Spanish...so we were happy to have our talks over this morning.   But it's always a good feeling to have worked and worked on a talk and it is accepted by the members.

    We got back at 7:30....but we're going to read our Sunday School lesson for next Sunday and go to bed.  Hopefully I'll finish this blog tomorrow on  our P-Day.




...And life goes on in 2012

Feliz Año Nuevo 2012

HAPPY NEW YEAR

2012