40th Wedding Anniversar​y!

      Wow! Another week has come and gone. We were on the AM Shift so we had to be to the temple by 6:00 every morning except Saturday, the killer. We had to be there by 4:30 AM Saturday. We keep thinking that people won't get up that early so soon they will stop having the 5:30 AM session on Saturday, but no such luck. We were filled and the baptistry was non-stop from 6:00 AM to 7:00 PM. It was a good week and we enjoy serving with the AM shift, getting to know more people, but are so glad that the next two weeks we can get up without an alarm and don't have to be to the temple till 1:00 PM.

      The rains come usually every afternoon and the flowers are starting to bloom everywhere again. I have missed the Arbol del Fuego trees and they are starting to bloom now. It is flu season also. I think it has something to do with the rains washing the trash into the water systems. The temperature hasn't changed but people are getting sick. Sister Kitley and Brother Gibbons have been struggling this week with thier health. Today is the first day that Sister Kitley said she felt like she might live. The locals carry around a kitchen towel, any color in the book even in the temple, flung over their shoulder and that is what they cough into, sneeze into, and blow their nose into. We do have kleenex's in the temple and that would be so much more sanitary, but old habits die hard.

 

      The 22nd was our 40th wedding anniversary. Boy does that sound like we are getting old or what! We invited the Figueroa Family to celebrate it with us. I cooked an all-American meal here at our apartment and had them come to dinner. They showed up with presents and we felt like it was Christmas. Picture #1 is the Figueroa Family and #2 is Lon and Carlos. They gave him a shirt that has 49 different Salvadorian words on it that are only used here and are not even in any dictionary. Lon is constantly asking what a word means so they gave him a bunch more to learn. The only problem is that the shirt fits me, not Lon. On Saturday of this week, I have to teach the girls how to make chicken pillows and coconut cream pie. They thought they were real tasty.

 

     Well, We want to let you know that we are well and happy, very content living here and serving in this beautiful temple with these wonderful, loving people. We send our love to all and please know that you are in our thoughts and prayers always. We love you and pray that you are well and happy also. Love Dad and Mom, Lon and Nancy, Grandpa and Grandma

       

Happy Father's Day!

      We want to wish all of you "fathers" a Happy Father's Day. To our sons, thank you for your love and care of our daughters. Thank you for teaching our grandchildren to be honest, kind, loving, and dependable by your examples. To our brothers, thank you for your wisdom, love, and support throughout our lives. Thank you for the way you take care of our sisters. To our fathers and grandfathers, we are so thankful for the heritage they have given to us. And especially thank you to our Heavenly Father for his love, patience, and miracles that have blessed our lives.

      Here, Father's Day is always on the 17th, no matter what day of the week it falls on. It is not as big as Mother's Day, sorry fathers, but our ward is having a Father's Day party in a week. Only one week late. They did cancel Stake Choir Practice for it though. Did I tell you that they have started practicing for Stake Conference a month earlier than they had announced. Elder Thompson was not too thrillled, but he went anyway. He informs me that I will pay for it when we get home. It is wonderful to have a companion who supports the things that bring so much joy into my life.

      We had a busy week at the temple with more Saints from Honduras, and lots of buses from San Miguel. San Miguel is one of the farthest places from the temple. It is just like in the states, whoever lives the farthest from the temple, usually support it the best because they can't say, I'll go tomorrow. They have to plan the trip. It is amazing, now we don't get excited when we have 4 or 6 buses here. We just take it in stride because there is only so much room in the temple and we can't squeeze more in. We did have an extra session on Wednesday night to try to meet the needs of the patrons. It has been a good week.

 

      The Walker family leave on Tuesday and a new family arrived today. We will miss the Walkers and look forward to getting to know the new family.

 

      We hope you all have a great week, We are on the AM Shift so it will be survival week here. We just hope to be on our feet when Saturday comes and we have to be at the temple by 4:30 AM. But thanks to your prayers in our behalf, we have been able to keep up with the schedules that we have. We love you Lon and Nancy, Dad and Mom, Grandma and Grandpa.

Where Did That Week Go?

    We have no idea where last week went. It was here and gone so fast! The Petersens arrived home on Thursday evening and were back to the temple for their regular shifts on Friday and Saturday. It is so good to have them back. It was like having Mom and Dad return from vacation with treats. They brought each of us "real" coconut, brown sugar (I can't even describe what they call brown sugar here. It is brown, very course, and doesn't dissolve), and we got packages of Hidden Valley Ranch Dressing. Christmas came early!! Time for coconut cream pie!

     The temple was busy all week, just busy, not overflowing and that was OK because we didn't have a lot of workers this week. There seems to be a lot of sickness going around. With the Petersens
return, the Gibbons are back to our regular rotation so we have two weeks on the PM Shift and one on the AM Shift.

      We went out for Family Home Evening to celebrate the Gibbons 47th Wedding Anniversary, picture #1. The couple you don't recognize is Elder and Sister Hall. They are the PEF missionaries here in El Salvador. (PEF is a program of the church to help youth with funding for College) Elder Hall is the brother of Brett's councilor in the Bishopric in Jerome. They are from California. We have adopted them into our family. They really are alone here with their work so they now come to Sunday Dinner and anything else that we do.

      While we were out and about on Monday, we saw two amazing trees. Thought you would like to see them. The roots of the trees just fight for space, picture #2 and the trees don't grow straight and tall like at home. picture #3 and #4, I am sure that has a lot to do with the building of buildings next to us. There is no wood in the houses at all.    

     Well, that is about all for now. We just wanted you to know that we are alive and busy with the work the Lord has called us to do. We love serving in His House and love serving with the other missionaries here. We really are a family. We send our love to each of you and hope that you have a great week. You are all in our thoughts and prayers daily. Thank you for yours in our behalf. We feel the love and strength from you daily. All our love, Lon and Nancy, Dad and Mom, Grandpa and Grandma.

The Teatro National and the Orquesta Sinfonica

  We can't believe that June is here. Where does the time go? Because we were on the AM shift last week, we were able to go to the National Theater to listen to the Symphony again. The other
performances were at the Presidential Theater, just a huge auditorium, but very nice. The National Theater is very unique and old. It was built in 1911 and has recently been renovated. Photo #1 is of Lon and I taken from the parking garage. As you can tell, it was raining. It rains almost every day now that "winter is here" It was probably only in the low 80's.

     Rene Hernandez is the violin player and piano player in our ward who has accompanied me several times. Photo #2 is Rene and I in the lobby of the National Theater. He and our Bishop play in the symphony. It is their jobs. They are paid by the government to be in the orchestra and perform twice every two weeks with practices the other two weeks. He took us on Wednesday the 30th. The performance started at 6:00 PM and only lasted for an hour and 15 minutes. Just short enough for Lon not to get bored.

     I wish my camera could do the building justice. The theater was in a half circle. It had about 12 rows of seating right in front of the stage and then private booths all the way around the outside. You
got into each booth by a private door and there are three stories of the booths. Picture #3 is Lon sitting in our booth and #4 is our door, number 1. We felt like royalty getting into #1. It was center stage, or as Lon put it, right on the 50 yard line. The concert was honoring the Italian Embassy here so maybe they thought we were with the embassy. The seats were amazing. The guest soloist was a pianist from Italy. Wow could he ever play and we could see his hands so good. We did splurge a little on the tickets though, $1.00 a piece. You read it right, one dollar. At that price, we hope to be able to go again soon. The music was amazing and it was just a feel good night after a feel good day in the temple.

    Sunday, our Bishopric decided that they wanted to get to know the North Americans in the ward better so they planned a pot luck "Break the Fast" dinner at 5:00. We had over 70 in attendance. There are a lot of Embassy people here. Picture #5 is Elder Thompson enjoying the dessert first, before he was too full to enjoy it. And #6 is just of the gym at the church. It was nice to not have to worry about listening or talking in Spanish for an evening.

     President and Sister Petersen have been given the green light to return to us this week. We are so excited that they are coming home! President still uses the walker to get around but his leg is getting
stronger each day and hopefully the nerve that was pinched will heal completely over time. Sister Petersen is also using a walker because her knee is giving her problems. But walkers won't slow down these two. They have a mission to finish and they are determined to do just that.

      With the rains starting, we haven't had big days at the temple except Saturday. We hope that the rains just come once a day and that we don't have the flooding that happened last year. We felt the earth move the last two Sunday afternoons. Don't think we will ever get used to that. It is a real weird feeling. But it happens so often here that the natives don't even notice unless it is real hard. We send our love to all and hope that you are well and enjoying life. We are very happy and content, loving the work and the people. May God bless you with the righteous desires of your hearts is our

prayer, Los Thompsons, Lon and Nancy, Dad and Mom, Grandma and Grandpa.