This week in San Salvador...

Today Walt had a Regional Correlation Council in Santa Ana and I got to go to our ward.
   Walt was up at 4:45 a.m. and left the apartment at 5:30 for the hour's drive to Santa Ana.  President Majano drove, and Sergio Oliva, the executive secretary to the Area Seventy rode with them.

The temple looks wonderful any time of the day...here they are driving past it just after sunrise.

We did not have a combined dinner today. As I was leaving Church, Elder y Hna. Haroldsen invited us to dinner for when Walt got back.  Luckily he arrived about 1:30.

It was a delicious "Mormon Sunday Dinner," with roast, potatoes and gravy, green beans, jello, and for dessert chocolate cake and ice cream.  Elder y Hna. Haroldsen are from Idaho Falls and arrived here June 13 for their 18-month temple mission.  They have served two previous missions in Chile--I think about 2005 and 2010.

We had the Saturday morning shift, opening the temple at 4:00 a.m.  We walked over in a heavy rain storm.  We got back to our apartment at 12:00 noon, and were asked to speak with a group of primary children from the Mossaret Ward that afternoon.  

What precious children in this generation of El Salvadorians.
   After we spoke with them, they lined up to walk over and touch the temple.

Walt took several photos of them lined up by the temple.

From there we dashed over to the Mall for Walt to get a haircut barely getting back in time to leave with President y Hna. López to a dinner we had been invited to as a welcome to the new mission president, Kai Hintze and his wife Diane. Their daughter Kimberly is also with them for the summer, having just returned from her mission in Hong Kong.

The five stake presidents and wives were there who are in the area of this new El Salvador San Salvador West Mission. (The mission also includes Belize.)
  Pictured below are Presidente y Hna. Alfaro of the La Libertad Stake, and Elder Angel Durate, the Area Seventy and his wife. The dinner was at the new LaPampa Restaurante on the mountainside going to the El Bocquerón Volcano.

Presidente y Hna. Calderón were also there from the El Salvador Santa Ana Mission.  And seated to their left are Hno. y Hna. Oliva, the executive secretary to the Area Seventy.

Across from us were the Presidente y Hna. Henriquez from the Sonsonate Stake and Presidente y Hna. Soto from the Sonsacate Stake.  They are both an hour or more away from the capital.

Presidente y Hna. López, of the Los Heroes Stake, who drove us are on the top right.  He is also our full-time temple recorder.

And the Cuscatlan Stake, represented by Presidente y Hna. Menijivar are here with their backs to us across from Presidente y Hna. Hintze.

Walt and I are sitting by Sergio y Betsabe Oliva.

Most got some kind of steak with seafood, but since we do not like most seafood, we just ordered steak...I had a 6 oz tenderloin, and Walt said his filet mignon was one of the best he's ever had...very tender and cooked all the way through without being burned on the outside.  Reminded him of the ones at Burley's Ponderosa Inn back in the day.  (Sorry I didn't get a photo of his filet mignon). My tenderloin was well done and tender.  Most of the beef here is very tough.

I tried to get a photo of the night view of the city below that would show the temple.  Even tho we could pick out the temple very easily, it doesn't show up on the photo.
   Oh, now I can see it....almost in the very center right to left...and just above the dark of the trees.

Here it is from LaPampa when we went to lunch there the last Monday the Thompsons were here--June 24. I had to make it large size to see it, so I don't know if it will show on the space the blog allows for the photos.

Friday was the Gringa Brunch...L-R: Lisa Wegkamp, the hostess; Kristin Freestone, her last week here, she and her family fly out July 17 via Montana for a family reunion then over to the San Francisco Bay area; Marilee Clark, me--Eileen Petersen, Dora Winter, Sharon Haroldsen, Delena Markland, whose twins were born June 8, and her Mom, Jodi Lewis, here from Ogden for 6 weeks, helping with her new twins grandbabies.

This is Dixie...the youngest twin by 1 minute.

And this is Mateo. They are 1 month and 4 days old in this photo.

Friday afternoon as we went to dash out the door by our elevator to get to the 4:00 session (it was our day with no shift), this little family was sitting right in front of that door.  So as they all got up to let us out, we took a photo of them.

Thursday, July 11, before our afternoon/evening shift at the temple, I saw the National Bird out our south window.  Torogos--it has a long, double tail and is very colorful.

Wednesday, July 10, was a fun baby shower for Delena and her twins, hosted by our Relief Society Presidency...

She received many delightful gifts.

Mateo didn't wake up to get a photo of him by the "blue" table.

Here's Margarita, a ward single sister, holding Mateo by Delena who is holding Dixie Delena, and the happy maternal grandmother, Jodi Lewis, who arrived from Utah the day before the twins were born on June 8.

Many friends took turns holding these precious babies whom the whole ward helped Delena through many days of being in the hospital and being put on bed rest during her pregnancy.

Here are Lisa, Kristin with her daughter Kira behind her, and Shaulee.

This is the only photo I got of Karina, our wonderful Relief Society President who makes all these fun events happen for our Sisters.
Everyone had a great time.

Tuesday, July 9...these two service center men came to clean our terrace patio and our apartment.  We are very thankful for all the help.

Edwin comes to fix anything that needs to be repaired in our apartment.

Monday, July 8, we had lunch at Shaws...after grocery shopping.

It's a wonder I could eat after Walt put this in our shopping cart.

We had family home evening at Elder y Hna. Winter's. They had us share miracles we've had in our lives.

And that's our 103rd week here in San Salvador.  Next Saturday, July 20 will mark two full years that we have been here.

We are thankful for this call to help in this beautiful 

San Salvador El Salvador Temple.

Here it is at sunrise this morning.

Because of the restored Priesthood Temple Ordinances, we have the hope of being sealed as families for time and for all eternity.

We are thankful to the Lord for restoring these truths through the Prophet Joseph Smith.

And we are daily grateful for the Atonement of the Savior which makes it possible for each one of us to look forward to being resurrected.

We look forward to His Glorious Second Coming!

We hope you have had a good Sabbath Day and have a great week coming up.

7-7-13....how did it get to be 6 years after 7-7-07?

Note: As I was finishing this post at 8:50p.m. the longest and strongest earthquake we have had in our 2 years here started shaking the apartment, my computer, and me.
    When it ended, we went out into the common hallway, and everyone from the other four occupied apartments were already buzzing about it.
  I asked the Majanos if this was a big one for them.
  "No," Hna. Majano calmly replied.
  President Majano said he thought it was probably a 4 or 5  magnitude.
  Walt said: "It was getting to the 'scary' stage."
Our sweet Hna. Clark just e-mailed us the magnitude:

"I looked it up--it was a M 5.9  There were probably 50 or so today all over the world--New Guinia had 2 quakes that were in the 7s--but we were the next biggest of all the quakes today.  It was in the ocean.  Wow--that was amazingly powerful!!

May this wonderful earth find peace--how painful for her to suffer through all this evil and moving.  Plus--one quake is enough for me!!

 Love you all---los clarks"

And here's how I originally started this post before the Mother Nature shook up our peaceful Sunday evening:

Another Sunday. 
Some days are long but the weeks are zooming by...
 Here we are this evening after a 3:00-5:30 training of temple workers for LaLibertad Stake for when they will be serving as obreros y obreras when their Stake comes on the holiday of August 6.

Presidente y Hna. Majano - Rafael y Aida. He is the first counselor and she is a great assistant for me.  The Alas' had already left just before we got out the front door. He is the second counselor and she is also a great assistant for me.
   Walt feels it was truly inspiration to choose these two counselors. They are a very unified temple presidency. And I add, they are a very spiritual and strong temple presidency.

Walt and the Majanos greeting the workers in front of the temple...

Our Sunday schedule...
We have decided not to do our combined pot-luck Sunday dinners on Fast Sunday.  Everyone chooses different times to begin their fast on Saturday...so this way each can break their fast when they desire on Sunday.
     However, a couple came to the temple yesterday who are here in Guatemala from Rexburg.  Hno. Shiley is over International Business at BYU-Idaho and is on Sabbatical with a grant from Wal*Mart helping single women in 3rd world countries--opps, the politically correct term now is "developing countries"--start up small businesses.  
    Hna. Clark invited them to Sunday dinner, as we were standing by them after their session.  She also invited us.  
"Now, I'll have to go check what I have in the freezer," she said. There was no time to go to the store after we were all off our shift.
(Well, time but we went once to the store on a Saturday evening....the lines were so long we vowed to never do that again at the end of the week.)

I told her I had wanted to invite Presidente y Hna. Hintze and their daughter to dinner today but I didn't have their phone # nor e-mail to get in contact with them.
     Here are Kevin and Carrie Shiley from Idaho.  They go to Guatemala Tuesday for two weeks, then to Costa Rica for two weeks.  He is working hard and she said she is enjoying their adventures in Central America.

     Sweet Hna. Clark offered to invite the Hintze's when we saw them at our ward today. --Well, Presidente Hintze was in the Regional Correlation Council where Presidente Petersen was (in our building), so Hna. Clark invited Hna. Hintze and her daughter, and also Presidente Hintze for when the RCC finished.
   Presidente y Hna. Hintze have lived in Mexico, Chile, and Argentina many different years working for the Church.  Their daughter, Kimberly, just back from her mission in Hong Kong, is with them for the summer.  Hna. Diane Hintze grew up in Grace, Idaho, and I didn't hear where Presidente Kai Hintze grew up.  However, he did serve his first mission as a young man in Uruguay, so Presidente Petersen and he had that instantly in common.  As well as did Hna. Marilee Barton Clark, whose father served as a mission president in Uruguay.

     It was a delicious dinner--even though Hna. Clark insisted that nothing really went together because of the haste with which it was put together. We gave her some apples and celery for her pasta salad, and that can of pineapple they had given out at FHE as prizes.
I had offered to furnish the frozen strawberries and strawberry ice cream for the dessert of strawberry shortcake.  I was going to bake a yellow cake for it too, but that little pill, Hna. Clark, came rushing down to our apartment when we got off our shift yesterday and said she already had a cake in the oven.  They had just gotten home a touch before we did.
     So I mixed Parker House rolls and baked them last night to go along with her Chicken Alfredo, rice, and pasta-grape-apple-celery-chicken salad.  And she also made Hna. Thompson's delicious green jello-with-pear-and-pineapple salad.  It had become a favorite of mine the first time Nancy served it.

I wish I'd gotten a close up of the beautiful centerpiece of fresh gardenias.
   We took the group photo before dinner this time.

And even earlier this day...Walt was up at 5:45 a.m. to get ready for a 7:00 a.m. to noon RCC. (And for once it didn't go an extra hour or two as it usually does.)
Walt had the assignment to give a 10-minute talk on the Atonement at the beginning of the Reg. Correlation Council this morning.
   He just told me the gist of what he talked about after his several hours of reading and researching again about
                         T H E    A T O N E M E N T
In the pre-existence we had advanced as far as we could go there, so we were sent to earth to get a body and gain the experiences we needed with that body.  Jesus Christ, the first-born Son of Elohim, knew that sin would be part of those experiences and that we would need a Savior.  He offered to come to save those who would be saved.  [Walt knew we understand that all men will be resurrected because of the Atonement no matter what they do, but not all will be exalted unless they do their part.]  
Christ lived a perfect life and was able to fulfill his fore-ordination of paying the price to satisfy justice." [a few photos, then Walt's talk continued] 
The Savior was born into humble circumstances...

He learned from His earthly mother...

And from Joseph, his father figure on earth...
"And Jesus increased in wisdom and stature, and in favour with God and man." --St. Luke 2:52

The Savior is our Shepherd...

Walt's talk continued:
He suffered the pains of every person's sicknesses, sadnesses, and sins in Gethsemane. The scriptures tell us the agony was so great that he bled from every pore.  As a physician I cannot understand this.  God sent an angel to buoy Him up through this agony. [Eileen's note: Somewhere I've been taught that this was Adam, but I don't have scripture to back that up.]

The spikes went through his palms, wrists, and feet.  I cannot fathom the excruciating pain of that.
  If we don't repent, we will have to suffer as He did.

He is our Advocate with the Father.  He paid that price so we wouldn't have to.  It is not just the pain of not repenting of what we've done wrong, all pain: disappointment, defeat, death.
   After all we can do, His Grace through THE ATONEMENT heals all death, defeat, disappointment, all sins, sadnesses, and sicknesses. And we will have none of these anymore.
    This is the end of what Walt told me, and he has fallen asleep in the recliner chair from his exhausting day.
    I see in his notes that he also had written "worlds without end and children without end..."
   [His notes are mostly in Spanish...so I just catch bits and pieces.]
I'll add a few more photos covering the Resurrection and the Second Coming of The Savior.
"He is not here, for He is risen as He said..."

"Behold, my hands and my feet..."

His last words to His Apostles..."Feed my sheep..."

Christ will return - King of Kings, Lord of Lords...
   The Second Coming of the Savior...

We add our testimony to the testimony of many others, that He lives, He loves us, and He is our Savior and Redeemer.  He has Restored His Church to the earth.  

WE ARE THANKFUL FOR 

THE ATONEMENT OF JESUS CHRIST.

    And we are thankful for the restored Priesthood Temple Ordinances that bind families together forever on earth and in heaven.

We hope you have had a joyful and peaceful Sabbath Day.
This painting is called "Christ in the Americas"...It appeared in the October 2012 Ensign and Liahona.  It was painted by Jeff Hein, Salt Lake City.

More of our Fourth of July...

Fourth of July patriotic picnic...

...that almost didn't happen.
It was fun that everyone wore blue or red for the occassion.
Hna. Clark, third from right, took the first photo above so I could be in it.

Even though Walt and I wore our matching red, white, and blue shirts on the July 1, Monday P-Day, and the Clarks gave an outstanding lesson on the history of The Declaration of Independence at FHE that night, it still didn't seem like the Fourth of July until we got up on July 4.

Hna. Clark made a red, white, and blue star for each couple.

And she served blueberry muffins with cute red and white flags.  She had started the morning in her patriotic outfit.

Thursday morning, July 4, since it was our day with no shift, and a USA holiday, Walt--out of the blue--took me to McDonald's for breakfast.  
    As we were getting up I mentioned that it would be fun to have a picnic for our Sr. Couple Temple Missionaries before they had to leave for their afternoon shift at 1:00.  
So while we were getting ready to leave for breakfast (at 8:00a.m.) I hurried and put eggs and potatoes on to cook.  The eggs were done before we left, but we just let the potatoes sit in the hot water till we returned to finish cooking them.

After the fluffy pancakes and delicious sausage (only sausage in El Salvador is at M-D's) we dashed to buy hot dog buns, chips and Fresa Soda (strawberry).
We had hot dogs in the freezer, pork 'n beans in the pantry, and a Betty Crocker Devil's Food cake mix, which we covered in white powdered-sugar frosting and made a red "4" out of M&M's.

I was just dumping the frosting on the cake when they arrived at 11:30....so in about 2 1/2 hours we'd made potato salad (inspired from Jen's post on fb the day before) and thrown everything else together to have an instant picnic ready.
  As Hna. Haroldsen heard us say we'd decided that morning to have this picnic, she queried: "You mean you made all this, this morning?!"
Walt told me I have some of Grama Jane's and Grama Rie's genes in me. I guess I got them by marrying into the family.
 Grama Rie (Maria Smith Prescott 1882-1970) could have unexpected company come--extended family or friends--kill, pluck, and cook a chicken or 2 or 3, and have a full meal on the table within an hour or so. And Grama Jane could do the same. Walt's mother and grandmother were extraordinary women - and, no doubt, still are in heaven!

As the Clarks were about to leave to get ready for their shift--they mentioned some symptoms Elder Clark had been having for several days.  Walt listened to his heart and calmly said: "I need to take you to a cardiologist now."
    President Petersen made a call and they had an appointment for 1:30--which was in one hour.  Elder Clark's problem was taken care of, and they kept him overnight in the hospital for further tests and observation. Hna. Clark stayed overnight with him there.  They got back to their apartment about 1:00 this afternoon, thankful that their temple president is a physician and knew what needed to be done.
We have had many tender mercies of the Lord while serving in this calling in El Salvador.

Today on our way back to the apartment after our 5:30a.m. to 2:30 p.m. shift at the temple, we greeted these four young women who were in front of the temple taking pictures.  We were about 45 seconds into our 3-minute walk from the temple to our apartment, when one of the young women came running up behind us and said they wanted a photo with us.
     Everyone loves this temple president!  

And I do, too!

And that covers our 4th and 5th of July for this week of adventures in Central America.
     Perhaps tomorrow before our 10:30a.m. to 6:30pm shift at the temple I can post why we love America - the Promised Land - the Land of the Restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
      Hope we all have a restful night's sleep.

Fourth of July - 2013 San Salvador

Happy Fourth of July - 2013

As part of our Fourth of July we like to watch a patriotic movie. Tonight we chose "Sergeant York." We are thankful for all the men and women who have and do make our country free. God Bless America. Los Petersen - Walt & Eileen - Burley, Idaho via San Salvador

Sergeant York is a 1941 biographical film about the life of Alvin York, the most-decorated American soldier of World War I. It was directed by Howard Hawks and was the highest-grossing film of the year.^[2]

The film was based on the diary of Sergeant Alvin York, as edited by Tom Skeyhill,^[3] and adapted by Harry Chandlee, Abem Finkel, John Huston, Howard Koch, and Sam Cowan (uncredited). York refused, several times, to authorize a film version of his life story, but finally yielded to persistent efforts in order to finance the creation of an interdenominational Bible school. The story, that York insisted on Gary Cooper for the title role, derives from the fact that producer Jesse L. Lasky recruited Cooper by writing a plea that he accept the role and then signed York's name to the telegram.^[4]

Cooper went on to win the Academy Award for Best Actor for his portrayal. The film also won forBest Film Editing and was nominated in nine other categories, including Best Picture, Director (Hawks), Supporting Actor (Walter Brennan), and Supporting Actress (Margaret Wycherly). TheAmerican Film Institute ranked the film 57th in the its 100 most inspirational American movies. It also rated Alvin York 35th in its list of the top 50 heroes in American cinema.

In 2008, Sergeant York was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registryby the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".