Sorry to be Late, but I Have Been Fighting With my Computer Again!

Dear Family and Friends, We went on a Mission Sightseeing trip on Monday and didn't get home till after 7:00. By the time we had supper and got lunches ready for Tuesday the day was gone and it was time to get to bed cause we are on the AM shift this week. Tuesday after our shift, I had another fight with my computer. I was trying to download pictures of our trip so I could send you some, but all I succeeded in doing was changing my screen saver to a picture that I was trying to discard. Oh such fun!!!! Lon wants to share with you some photos he took of our grounds keepers here at the Temple. These men work 6 days a week, 7 hours a day, and make $25.00 a week. They are working on the flower beds. They go outside the Temple grounds and fill up their wheel borrows with dirt haul them up the driveway to the flower beds. After the men with the red buckets sprinkle the fertilizer on the beds they put more dirt around the flowers. If we had the technology that we have at home, this would be no trouble at all, but these men would have no way to feed their families.

We went from too much rain, to sprinkling the grounds. We left our apartments at 9:00 on Monday and drove through the downtown area of San Salvador. I can see why they don't want us to go there to shop. I'm just a country girl and this city just boggles my mind. There are soooo many people here. The downtown was filled with shops and people so thick you couldn't even walk. We didn't get out of the car, just drove through and saw the Presidential Palace. And I have to admit the streets were very dirty. Here in the Temple compound, it is easy to forget that we are living in a third world country, but go a few blocks from home and it is apparent real quick. We went north east of the city to Lago de Ilopango. It was a volcano that erupted and is filled with water then the volcano erupted several more times to create the islands in the lake. The picture just doesn't do it justice. It was beautiful.  

All along the road was forest, I thought. As we were looking at the lake, I heard children. After a closer look, We could see the metal roofs of houses all along the trees. When we read that there was 850 people per square mile here, they were wrong. There is no way to count these people. There are houses everywhere, outside of the city they are all dirt floors with walls of corrugated metal. The smell of open fires is all over also cause that is how they cook. Once you leave the city, these missionaries say that nothing has changed since they were here 50 years ago. We traveled about 45 minutes from the city to the town of Ilobasco. It is famous for its miniature ceramics. We went to the ceramic workshop where they make the ceramics and walked the streets shopping in the little shops that line the main street. Then we went to San Sebastian where the Spanish introduced the treadle loom. We went right to the factory to see how the famous textiles are made. You won't believe this. But you will have to wait for a week. I'll get this computer to cough up my pictures, they are in there someplace. We had 25 young stripling worriers in the Temple today. The mission president is sending 25 young missionaries to the temple each day this week. What an inspiring sight. Lon and I sang with the Stake Choir on Sunday for Stake Conference. It was such fun. They are very good with excellent pianist and director. The music was fast, "Behold the Royal Army" so I really had to work on the words all week. They are starting to work on Christmas music for a fireside and invited us to sing with them again. This time they are practicing in our stake building right here in the Temple compound so we will be able to practice. I don't know if Lon is as excited as I am about it, but he is my companion so he will go with me. Thank you for your continued prayers in our behalf. We are healthy and able to keep up with the demands of our schedules because of you. We are so thrilled to be here and get to know these special children of our Heavenly Father, to be able to help them learn of Him in His Temple. We hope each of you will truly count your many blessings this Thanksgiving. We are a blessed nation and people. We have so much more than these people, we should be the happiest people on the earth. A quick question for all the cooks out there. There are some things that just are not found in the stores here. I would like to make the Chicken Pockets for a Sunday Dinner but there are no refrigerator Crescent rolls here. Can I use any roll recipe, pizza crust recipe, or bread recipe for them? I do not have a crescent roll recipe. Let me know what you think, and if you have a good crescent roll recipe please it. Lon thinks that this is a lot of work and we should just have hot dogs. Yuk. We love you Lon and Nancy