Sunday, November 25, 2012

Sunday, November 25, 2012

I am thankful that Walt can walk with his cane now and does not need to use the walker.  He does exercises each day which are strengthening his back and his right leg.  It was his right leg that became so weak when his back problems started in April that caused several falls when it gave out.
    This is why we went to Utah for him to have back surgery, which was done May 1.
Walt left at 6:20 this morning for a Regional Correlation Council with the Area 70, Elder Duarte. It was for the second half of the 18 stake presidents in El Salvador. The first one was on Sunday, Nov. 2 in Sonsacote.
These are held quarterly.  

President Petersen told the stake presidents that the temple is doing well.  He told them that the ultimate goal of all that they do, first for themselves and then for their people, including temple ordinances, is to be a God and to have eternal increase.

One of the quotes he used is Doctrine and Covenants 131:1-4
"In the celestial glory there are three heavens or degrees;
"And in order to obtain the highest, a man must enter into this order of the priesthood--meaning the new and everlasting covenant of marriage--;
"And if he does not, he cannot obtain it.
"He may enter into the other, but that is the end of his kingdom; he cannot have an increase."

President Rafael Majano, his first counselor (on the right in the photo above), did some teaching about recommend activation, the recommend for personal ordinances and the need for more temple workers.

President Eduardo Alas, his second counselor (on the left in the photo above), and his wife, Hna. Consuelo Alas, spoke at the Juayua (kinda pronounced "who-a-you-a" Stake Conference for us, since Walt needed to be at the Regional Correlation Council.

Below is a photo with my two great assistants to the matron: Hna. Maria Aida Majano, on the right, and Hna. Consuelo del Carmen de Alas is on the left.  They are hard workers and are great helpers.  I could not fulfill this calling without them.
We hope you have all had a great Thanksgiving time with your families and friends.
Since Monday is when we can all be together on our Preparation Day (P-Day) when the temple is closed, we have our Thanksgiving dinner then.  We had 21.  Here we all are.  We started to set up on the balcony terrace, but the generator for all the buildings on our temple square block was going all day.  The electricity was off for the day (which is very rare), and the generator was too loud for anyone to have been able to talk to each other and hear anything.

So the Kitley's offered to have the tables set up in their apartment.  Here we are:
The empty seats on the end are where our temple recorder, Jaime López, his wife Gladis, and her sister Eydi sat when they arrived a little late.  Here they are in the photo below:
Hermana Arlene Kitley made headbands in honor of the pilgrims and Indians who held the first Thanksgiving.
She put extra feathers in Walt's headband because she said he is our "chief."
Here are Elder Frank and Hermana Diane Wall.  She got up at 5:00 a.m. and made the pies: pumpkin, apple, and banana cream.  They were delicious -- as was everything else!

And a fun surprise was Hermana Joanne Hall made and brought these fun "Oreo" turkeys, even though she and Elder Richards Hall were not able to come to our actual dinner. What a sweetheart!
And our pilgrim, Indian, and cornucopia decorations reminded us also of the blessings of each Autumn's plentiful harvest and those who helped settle our great homeland.
And I like this plaque I brought back from the Cracker Barrel in Tennessee that says:
"The best things made in the kitchen are memories."

Each day in November on face book I have posted a "Today I am thankful for..."
I'll copy these to our blog the end of November to keep a record of them.
We are thankful for so many things, and we know that you all are, too.


No comments: