This week in El Salvador...

Today we learned again that we were foreordained to certain assignments in life. Abraham, Chapter 3, and Doctrine & Covenants 138.
        And in Relief Society and Priesthood we learned from Lesson 1 "Our Father in Heaven" about the characteristics of Elohim. This year's Teachings of the Presidents of the Church: President Joseph Fielding Smith should be another exciting journey of learning.
    Our English Sunday School teacher, John Kerr, took this photo of us as we came out of our church building at noon.

This is the first chance I've had to wear my birthday present from Walt--a Jade necklace.

I took a photo of Elder Utt, John Kerr, and Elder Clark just outside the church building.

And Walt greeting René Hernández...

When Hermano Hernández saw me, he turned to pose with Walt for another photo.

I stood back and took a photo of Walt walking up the sidewalk from our stake center to our apartment complex.  It takes us a whole 3 minutes to walk to church.

I hadn't taken a photo of the temple for a while, so I turned and took this one just as we were entering our apartment complex. It got up to 88º today.  Walt is telling our friends here that I am more "Salvadorian" than "Idahoan" now because I didn't handle the cold
weather and icy sidewalks well during our ten days in Utah and Idaho the end of December.

Then it was time for Sunday dinner together. Hna. Caballero made a delicious soup with meat balls, cabbage, zuchinni, carrots, and rice.

I didn't get Walt nor Elder Haroldsen in the photo before they left to get ready for the two-hour training session with our Temple Coordinators this afternoon.
Left to right: Hna. Sharon Haroldsen, Hna. Kari Kerr, Hno. John Kerr, Hna. Irma Caballero, Elder Roberto Caballero.

  I baked pumpkin pie for dessert today.
      (Back in a while....I'm delivering two pieces of pie to the Clarks who were with President y Hna. Glazier today.)
Back ... and here's the Clarks and the pumpkin pie.
Elder Joseph Clark said: "Yummmm, just like Marilee's."
Hna. Marilee Clark said: "That's a compliment to both of us!"

We also took some pie to Elder Jerry y Hna. Dora Winter. Then when we got back to our apartment, I snapped a photo of Walt opening the candy drawer.  Gotta have treats on Sunday evening--right?

Yesterday, Saturday, Jan. 11, we had the P.M. shift in the temple, which on Saturday actually starts at 10:00 A.M. and ended for us at 6:45 p.m.
    I didn't get photos yesterday, but here are some photos of our temple coordinators and sub-coordinators that I took as they were coming out of the temple this afternoon. Here are Hna. Navas and Hna. Manzanares.  Hna. Manzanares reminds us of our neighbor and good friend in Burley, Ruth Melling.

Here is Hna. Navas again with Hno. Navas who is a physician.  She is an artist.  They drive an hour from Santa Ana each time they come to the temple.

Here are some more of our coordinators...Ever Morán.

This is Hno. Anaya, our Saturday afternoon coordinator.

I don't remember his name right now.

Here is our Thursday afternoon coordinator, Robertha Santos.  She is the sister of Hna. Aida Majano, wife of our first counselor in the temple presidency.

Here are Presidente Rafael y Hna. Aida Majano.  They are the last to leave the temple before Presidente Petersen locks it up.

On Friday, we had the morning shift from 5:15 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. Then Walt went back at 3:30 to do a 4:00 sealing for a couple who requested him.   As we left the temple, we got a photo of them.

I didn't take any photos on Tues, Wed, or Thursday--Jan. 7-8-9.
On Thursday, our day with now shift, Delena Markland came and cut my hair.  Then we did an 11:30 a.m. temple session.  Then Walt had an appointment with his orthopedist, Dr. Rafael Olivares, who is starting him on physical therapy 3x a week.

On Monday, January 6, we had the dinner for the temple presidency and temple recorders and their wives.  This was originally scheduled for Dec. 16, but that was one of the days that Walt was in the hospital receiving plasma (see blog post from December).

The 11 we served were: L-R: Jaime Omar y Gladis López, Gabriel y Karla Méndez, Presidente Rafael y Hna. Aida Majano, Presidente Eduardo y Hna. Cousuelo Alas, Edgardo López (their eldest son who is recuperating from knee surgery and who graduated from the University of Utah in December), and Presidente Walter Petersen. (His shoulder started hurting a little that afternoon so he put his sling back on. Mostly he doesn't wear it now.)

Same group, except I'm in this one. Walt usually gets a photo of me cooking these dinners, but neither of us remembered this time.

Jan. 6 is "El Día de Tres Reyes" -- "The Day of the Three Kings" so when we were setting the table, Walt put the "Three Kings" from our Nativity set on the table.  I thought that was very clever of him!

And we also kept our Christmas tree up for the occasion. (Now I need to figure out why we still have it up.)

Here's the tasty Virginia ham we cooked. This one is from Kreef's.

We also made funeral potatoes. (Have you heard the funny story of someone calling the Church Office in Salt Lake City from Washington D.C. to see if she could get the Mormon funeral potato recipe, or if it was a secret?)

We gave them each a picture of "Christ in America" which is the painting commissioned by the First Presidency for our temple.  It appeared in the Oct. 2012 Ensign and did not have a copy right on it.  The Church has not had prints made of it yet, so our temple presidency and recorders were happy to get these.  (As were our temple missionaries on Dec. 2, when we had the Christmas dinner for them.)

And that's our week.

  I was going to catch up to blog about New Year's Eve and New Year's Day, but I hope to do that tomorrow on our P-day or on Tuesday, our day with no shift.

  We hope you have had a restful and peaceful Sabbath Day.

The true Church of Jesus Christ has been restored through the Prophet Joseph Smith.  

    As taught this morning from the Teachings of President Joseph Fielding Smith "Beginning with Joseph Smith's First Vision, the true knowledge of God has been restored in our day.  

President Joseph Fielding Smith said: "I am very grateful for the first vision, in which the Father and the Son appeared to the youthful prophet and again restored to man the true knowledge of God.

"It should be remembered that the entire Christian world in 1820 had lost the true doctrine concerning God.  The simple truth which was understood so clearly by the apostles and saints of old had been lost in the mysteries of an apostate world.  All the ancient prophets, and the apostles of Jesus Christ had a clear understanding that the Father and the Son were separate personages, as our scriptures so clearly teach.  Through apostasy this knowledge was lost . . . . God had become a mystery, and both Father and Son were considered to be one unknowable effusion of spirit, without body, parts, or passions.  The coming of the Father and the Son placed on the earth a divine witness who was able by knowledge to restore to the world the true nature of God.

The [first] vision of Joseph Smith made it clear that the Father and the Son are separate personages, having bodies as tangible as the body of man.  It was further revealed to him that the Holy Ghost is a personage of Spirit, distinct and separate from the personalities of the Father and the Son [D&C 130:22].  This all-important truth staggered the world; yet, when we consider the clear expressions of holy writ, it is a most astounding and wonderful fact that man could have gone so far astray.  The Savior said, 'My Father is greater than I;" [John 14:28]..."

    Con amor, Walt and Eileen Petersen - San Salvador