Our "Thanksgiving Dinner"

Our "Thanksgiving Dinner" on Nov. 21.

Hermana Kitley had 5 feathers in the Presidente's headband for the "big chief."

They voted to have the surgeon carve the turkey.

(I had one rotated, but neither worked.)

The turkey was so cooked it was falling apart.

Here we are in the commons room, where Walt had each one share something we are grateful for about El Salvador.

L-R: Los Gibbons, Kitleys, Alas, Us, Majanos, Walls, and Thompsons.

Juan José and Rebeca took the photos of the group.

If you look closely, the tree they are standing by is a "Thanksgiving tree." 

It became a Christmas tree the next day.

Two of the Majano's grandchildren had come to be with them on their P-day.  She said she would just have them stay in their apartment while we ate dinner.

"Oh no," said Walt, "Thanksgiving is a family day...they will come and eat with us. So we grabbed two more chairs and place settings.  Here is Juan José who is 10. His sister, Rebeca, 8, also ate with us.

President Eduardo y Hermana Counselo Alas. Hna. Kitley is on the right...who made the headgear. She put three feathers in the counselors.

The table's set. Hermana Kitley made "Indian head bands" for the guys, white pilgrim hats for the gals.

It was fun eating out on the balcony terrace...seeing the beautiful green trees surrounding us.

We did have a great "Thanksgiving Dinner" on everyone's P-Day on Monday, Nov. 21. Walt and I cooked the turkey and made the gravy...and the 4 other couples filled in with all the fixin's. Oh...we also brought fresh pineapple and cantalope, plus made "nut cups" of peanuts and Poppy-Cock carmel corn and pecans from PriceSmart.

We are thankful for each of you...

HAPPY THANKSGIVING...
We are thankful for being able to function each day on this beautiful earth Heavenly Father has created for us.  And I just had this thought as another proof of a Heavenly Mother: all the pretty touches on earth she surely helped to add.
Love to all, Los Petersen - Walt & Eileen - aka
Mom & Dad
Mom & Dad Petersen
Grama 'n Grampa Mission
Uncle Walt & Aunt Eileen
Brother, Sister
Cousins
Friend
Neighbor

Layco Stake Conference - Sunday, November 20, 2011

Layco Stake Conference.

Our 7th one to speak at since September 4.

Everyone wants to shake hands with the temple president.

Bishop Mendez took two buses from his home to get to the temple complex to direct us to the Layco Stake Center. 

He is an Assistant Recorder at the Temple.

Great group of Priesthood brethren.

Walt loves to greet these elderly Sisters.

This sister ran up when she saw me taking photos and wanted one with the temple president.

It takes a while to get to the temple van with so many people to greet along the way.

Babies are precious all over the world.

These young men like it when Walt says: "Future missionaries?"

Bishop Mendez took a photo of us as we were leaving the cultural hall.

Saturday, November 19, we had 9 bus loads come to the temple. What a great day!

This and that in San Salvador...

Below: We gals got to know each other during the Saturday priesthood section of the Apopa Stake Conference - Oct. 29

Walt does this a lot each week now -- preparing for another stake conference talk. There are 18 stakes in El Salvador and they all seem to want the new temple president and his wife to come and speak at their stake conferences.

Sunday, Nov. 20 we will be speaking at the Layco Stake Conference. Last Sunday, Nov. 13, it was the Ilopango Stake Conference. (My camera card had a virus and wasn't functioning.)

Sat. and Sun, Nov 5-6 it was our stake--the Los Heroes Stake where we spoke.

More later....I hope.

P-Day at cities ILOBASCO and SAN SEBASTIAN

We're off at 9:00 a.m. for another adventure in El Salvador.

 Our monthly--first Monday of the month-- P-Day outing started at

 the El Salvador el Mundo Monument, November 7, 2011.

Left to right: Elder y Hna. Wall--Frank & Diane; Elder y Hna. Gibbons--Dave & Marilyn;

Pte. y Hna. Petersen--Walt & Eileen; Elder y Hna. Thompson--Lon & Nancy;

Elder y Hna. Kitley--Trent & Arlene.

El Salvador el Mundo = The Savior of the World

A serendipity happened when this exuberent class of 16-17 year olds from the San Marcos School came to the Monument and had their photos taken.  A group of the boys told Hermana Thompson they knew English. She asked them how old they were and where they were from.  They decided they didn't know English as well as they thought they did.

Elder Gibbons got this great photo of a 3rd-class bus going by us-- the back of a pickup loaded with passengers. In fact, we thank Elder Gibbons for sharing all these photos since our camera card is frozen and we were not able to take any photos.

We drove through the city center--where we'd been told it was too dangerous to go to.  Notice we "drove through" meaning we did not stop and get out.  It looked like it would be fun to puruse the many sidewalk booths set up as little shops....but we'd been warned not to get out, so we didn't.

On our 2-hour drive to Ilobasco and San Sebastian we stopped to view the Ilopango Lake--which is the crater of an old volcano.

Walt said: "What I enjoy most on these outings is getting out of the city into the beautiful country side."

It was noon when we got to Ilobasco, so of course the first stop was for lunch at Pollo Campestre (the Latin American version of Kentucky Fried Chicken).

Counter clock wise: Walt, Eileen, Lon, Frank, Diane, Nancy, Arlene, Trent, Dave, Marilyn,

aka Pte. y Hna. Petersen, Elder y Hna. Thompson, Elder y Hna. Wall,

Elder y Hna. Kitley, Elder y Hna. Gibbons.  Our mini-bus driver took the photo.

We stopped at a pottery factory ... but it looked like it had long ago passed it's "heyday." We bought some miniature nativity sets for $3.00 each....so no big spending was done here.

"Textiles Barahona" in San Sebastian

This was all in a backyard with chickens and dogs roaming around.

The weaver turned this by hand very quickly and placed the colors down a row each time - fascinating!

These weavers work on these very old home-made looms, 6am to 6pm and get paid $4 a day.

We gathered at this last stop of the day in San Sebastian where we all bought some beautiful textiles that we saw the weaving processes for.  Good thing we hadn't spent much at the pottery city.

Walt and I got 3 beautiful, big tableclothes for $8 each,

and an "El Salvador" bag.

 This family photo popped  up that was taken on June 17, 2011, when we were all gathered for our

50th Wedding Anniversary Celebration.

It's alway great to remember our family.

We are invited to speak at many stake conferences...

Before entering the Apopa Stake Center, many wanted to shake hands with the temple president.

Just back from stake conference in the Apopa Stake.

Below is the darling family who drove us to the stake center sessions on Saturday, Oct. 29, and Sunday, Oct. 30. Sergio & Penelope Oliva, Nefi, age 8; Moroni, age 4; Lydia, age 2; and Abinidi, age 10 months.  It was about a 40-minute drive each way.

Sat., Nov. 5, and Sun., Nov. 6 we are speaking at our own stake conference, so we just walk 1 minute from our apartment to the Los Heroes Stake Center, which is inside the temple complex where we live. My second camera card has died, so I can't download any photos from it.

Temple Presidency on P-Day for President Majano's Birthday...

For President Majano's birthday Monday, October 24, Hermana Gibbons had baked a birthday cake for the FHE refreshments, so we had the Majano's and Alas's come over to sing "Happy Birthday" to him.

Left to right: President Alas, Hermana Alas, Hermana Petersen, President Petersen, President Majano, and Hermana Majano.

We are thankful for these two great counselors and their wives, who are the assistants to the matron.

Normally we are always in "Sunday/temple clothes" so this is rare to have us all in preparation day clothing.

Elder Gibbons took this photo and they e-mailed it to us.

We are thankful for all whom we work with in the temple.

It was Hermana Thompson's birthday on October 28, so the birthday cake was also in her honor.

The Temple is...

...a place of learning.

We do not talk about the sacred ordinances of the temple.

However, it is okay to quote what the Prophets, Apostles, and General Authorities have had printed in books about the temple and temple work.  I will share some of these quotes in our blog from time to time.

Here we are on October 12, 2011, the evening of our first day at the Seminar for New Temple Presidents in Salt Lake City.

The Temple is the Lord's University...
"The temple endowment relates the story of man's eternal journey;
sets the conditions upon which progress in the eternal worlds depends; requires covenants or agreements of those participating to accept and use the laws of progress; gives tests by which our willingness and fitness for righteousness may be known, and finally points out the ultimate destiny of those who love truth and live by it." -- Elder John A. Widstoe

Gringa Brunch

In our Barrio (Ward) there are 6 or 7 families who are with the

U.S. A. Embassy, some with husbands in other professions.
 Their tradition is to have a "Gringa Brunch" every month or so...where they can speak English with each other for a couple of hours. One gal told me they try to do some service project each time they gather.  
On Monday, Oct. 24, we gathered to make humanitarian hygiene kits.

Front: Teresa, Sherilee, Lucy, George.

Back: Delena, Marilyn, Traci, Arlene, Nancy, Lisa, Melissa, Diane. I am taking the photo. Diane took a "timed photo" of all eleven of us, which is below.

We made 25 humanitarian hygiene kits. Thank you to the gals for the generous donation of combs, soap, bandaids, wash cloths, and other items that were put into each kit.

 We gathered at Sherilee Broadbent's home, where she had it festively decorated with Autumn decor. She said: "Last year when we were in the states for a while, we gathered some Fall things.  So we can have Fall inside, even if we won't ever have it outside here in San Salvador."

The gals brought banana-cranberry-pecan bundt cake, zuchinni bars, blueberry bars, cinammon rolls, several different muffins, quiche with locoro(?sp), egg bake with corn, chips 'n bean-cheese dip, tomato-cucumber salad,  fresh pineapple with mandarin and apple slices, juices, plus lemon water,

Below is the first gathering that our Sr. temple missionaries and I were here for on August 29. We did not gather in September.

We had ham, funeral potatoes, muffins, fruit, pupusas, and juice.

We had ham, funeral potatoes, muffins, fruit, pupusas, and juice.
On August 29 we gathered in our temple president's apartment to have a "Getting to Know You" Brunch. Front: Lisa W., Diane W., Walter and George. Back: Eileen P., Diane K., Marilyn G., Nancy T., Teresa W., Melissa R., Traci M.

A lot to blog about, no time to do it....

Above: This afternoon, at Bishop Orellana's invitation, we spoke at the Bruss-i-a Ward, Soyopongo Stake. He asked the temple president to encourage endowed members to return to the temple.
There were over 75 attending, and the spirit was very strong. President Petersen is doing much good in San Salvador.
Their ward building was built on a high hill 5 years ago within the city.

 Below:This morning we spoke at the LaLibertad Stake Conference. I talked about my first time going to the temple when I received my endowment and was married, when my Mom and Dad went for the first time also, and were sealed.  Walt talked about families being sealed together for time and eternity. The focus of the stake conference was on families. Elder Falabella, our area president, was here from Guatemala City and gave a great discourse on families.  He told the husbands they should bring flowers to their wives--out of the blue, not because it's her birthday or their anniversary.  He also told the wives to look at themselves in the mirror, before their husband gets home from work, to see what he will see when he arrives.

I'll just upload some photos from the last 7 days since our great week in Utah....which included precious time with our family, then 2 1/2 days in the Seminar for New Temple Presidents.  We were treated like royalty at all of the above.

"...these few precious days we'll spend with you..."

Five of our seven families gathered

Sunday, October 9,

for our one full day together. 

We had Janie & Shawn--and most of their family: Aimee & Michael, Katie, Heidi, Sam, Ashley, Michael.

Gary & Kathy, McKell, Abbey, Jacob, Isaac.

Steve & Natalie, Kelsey, Cortney, Kimble, Carter.

David & Julie, Joshua, Anna, Sam, William.

Julie & John, Jacee, Jackson, Maddie.

We missed Daniel, Mikayla, Brian & Michelle, Emma, Taylor, Avery, Elizabeth, Jen & Jerry, Seth, Sarah, Ben, Josh, and Elizabeth.

Leaving for the airport Saturday morning for Utah for the New Temple Presidents' Seminar in Salt Lake City, Oct. 12-14.

We thank President López for driving us.