The Bicycle...

Saturday when we answered the knock on our front door...
Alex and Tony were standing there with an exercise bicycle.

From the get-go they told Walt that he could choose a tread mill or an exercise bike, so we knew sometime it was coming.  Since his knees are not good, stemming from being tripped in a basketball game back when he played for Boise Jr. College, he is better off biking than walking, so the choice was a bike.

It is a very nice one.  It takes his pulse and heart rate while biking, and even has a spot that an iPod can plug into.  Hmmmm, now I guess we need to get an iPod. 

Today Romel came to show Walt some of the technicalities of how to use it.

So Walt took a short spin on it...
Then Romel took a turn...
They concluded it's a great piece of exercise equipment for the temple president's apartment...

Saturday we were so excited we went down the hallway to have our neighbors come see it.  The Kitley's were the only temple missionaries home right then.

Walt said I can even use it, too.

Today I mixed bread while they were figuring out how to use the
bike...

While the bread was baking, I deep fried some scones for supper...

One loaf is shiny from putting a touch of Crisco on the top when it came out of the oven (like my Mom always did). We're trying an experiment to see which way we like the crust....with or without the Crisco.
        We had early morning shift today...open temple at 5:30 a.m., then are off at 2:00 p.m. Tomorrow we would normally have the afternoon/evening shift, but the first counselor is sick, so we're doing every other shift this week, so we'll have this morning shift the rest of the week, and the second counselor and wife are covering the afternoon/evening shifts.
     We're more than happy to do this since the two counselors covered a couple of our shifts last week because Walt was down a few days with an internal infection--cultured as E-coli.  He is doing much better now.
      And Saturday, March 3, we're flying to Utah for a quick visit with our four families there...
Gary & Kathy, McKell, Abbey, Jacob, Isaac

Steve & Natalie, Kelsey, Cortney, Kimble, Carter

David & Julie, Joshua, Anna, Sam, William Could you please e-mail us a current family photo that we can have in our computer?)

Julie & John, Jacee, Jackson, Maddie

Then we'll have a quick visit in Rexburg with our family there before we fly back March 12.
Janie & Shawn, Aimee, Daniel, Katie, Heidi, Sam, Ashley, Michael

Aimee & Michael

     We are looking forward to seeing some of our family.

The temple will be closed for its semi-annual cleaning/maintenance. 
     Then when the temple closes in September for the other two-week cleaning and maintenance, we will fly to see our
family in Tennessee and the other family in Minnesota.
Brian & Michelle, Emma, Taylor, Avery, and Elizabeth

Jen & Jerry, Seth, Sarah, Ben, Josh, and Elizabeth

One of our February Preparation Days...

Our P-Day, Monday, February 13, 2012
We drove up the mountain toward the El Boquerón Volcano, with a stop at the look out point. 

We thought this old cart was interesting.

Elder Wall and Walt posed in front of an owl they had on display.

That saddle swing was right on the edge of looking down. You can see some of this city of 2 million behind us. San Salvador is the capital of El Salvador. "San Salvador" means "Holy Savior" in Spanish.  "El Salvador" means "The Savior."



Next, adventuresome Walt climbed up higher to get a better view. His scardycat wife was not about to follow.



Then we drove on up the mountain a ways to "Las Brumas Grill and Café" which used to be a hacienda--a very large and elegant hacienda I might add.
   The husbands announced that this would be the "Valentine Lunch" for their sweethearts, because they all had shifts the next day at the temple.

  

For some of us gringas....well, mostly me, who are not very bilingual, it was nice that the menu was in both Spanish and English.

They had tipica food (local to the country) of refried beans, pupusas, rice, lomo (rib steak), and...



Regular choices like rib eye steak, baked potato, corn, carrots, and egg plant.  

After they took my steak back two times to grill it enough, it was great!  Walt got salmon--so we did our typical he had half my steak and I had half of his salmon.

 

Here's our four Sr. Temple Missionary Couples and Us: 

Elder Dave and Hermana Marilyn Gibbons are in front.

Elder Trent and Hermana Arlene Kitley...

Elder Frank y Hermana Diane Wall...

Elder Lon y Hermana Nancy Thompson...

And us...Pte. Walt Petersen y Hermana Eileen Petersen...

Before we piled in the Odyessy to make the 30-minute drive back to the temple grounds, we stood in front of the big fireplace and a nice waitress took our photo.  That's a photo of the front of the haciends above the fireplace.

It wasn't crowded at all today, but they were gearing up for the next day, and were opening at 8:00 a.m. for breakfast, which is usually only on Saturdays and Sundays. (Sadly they open on Sundays...as do most places now a days.  Many have chosen to ignore that "the Sabbath is the Lord's day...)
       They told us their experience has been that they would be full from morning to evening on Valentine's Day or Día de San Valentin in Spanish.
    They have 28 acres of grounds....many beautiful flowers and trees, playground and playhouse for kids, wild turkeys, swans, even a cow.
               That evening we had a great family home evening hosted by the Kitleys. Elder Kitley gave a lesson on showing how The Plan of Salvation is almost always introduced by starting with The Creation and Adam and Eve.  He chose 4 scriptures to verify this:
2 Nephi 2, Mosiah 3, Alma 22, and Mosiah 16.  We had a great discussion on these references.
     Then he said since it was Valentine's Day Eve, he wanted to close with some thoughts about love and quoted from The Radiant Life by Truman Madsen. 
He also quoted Paul in Galatians 5:22 "...the fruit of the Spirit is love..."
       Sister Kitley served delicious homemade lemon bars, and added a chocolate for everyone.

     It was a peaceful and relaxing day for all of us.

Thursday, February 16...

Just another day in San Salvador...
       ...only 84º at 11:42 a.m. as we're
getting ready to go to our afternoon/evening temple shift.
Walt looking at the building going on in the ravine to the north and east of our temple. He's looking through the fence on the north side of the temple.

Here's what we saw...


They're digging through the hills on the west side of the temple complex to make a road for a new housing subdivision (high end), and dumping the dirt in this ravine to connect the highway to a main artery highway.

We were just back from Walt getting some routine blood tests at the lab, and his taking me out to breakfast at McDonald's -- our first time going to a McD's here during our 7 months since arriving in July.
Here we are as we are ready to take the 3-minute walk back to our apartment.

The fence is behind me that we were looking through. I am facing the temple where Walt is standing in the photo below.



Have a nice February 16th.

Happy Valentine's Day....

Feliz Día de San Valentín

Happy Valentine's Day

14 de febrero 2012

It's really still February 14 at 9:27p.m. as I post this...
Don't know why it puts the date the next day if it's after 9pm.

Today Walt took me to lunch at our comodore. 

 Yesterday on P-Day, the Sr. Couple
Temple Missionaries and we drove up the
mountain toward the volcano
"El Bocquerón"
to view the city and had lunch
at LaBruma's.

Con Amor,

Mom & Dad

Grama 'n Grampa Mission

[Petersen]

Uncle Walt & Aunt Eileen

A brother, A sister,

A cousin,

A friend,

Walt & Eileen

My sweet visiting teachers --
Sheralie Broadbent
and Traci McKay -- came
with a great message and
delicious homemade treats of
gingerbread heart cookies and
homemade chocolates.

Hermana Majano brought a
fun Valentine gift--front right.
Hermana Thompson gave us
a loaf of hot, homemade bread.
We made pink popcorn balls
and delivered in
Valentine gift bags to
the 6 couples in
our apartment complex.

Grampa sent his traditional
gift of heart-shaped boxes
of Valentine chocolates to
our children and
grandchildren.


And best of all....
I get to spend every
Valentine's Day
with my...
"BEST FRIEND FOREVER!"
WALTER RAY PETERSEN


Eileen loves Walt...