Our Trip Through Another Part of El Salvador

Dear Family and Friends, We have seen another part of this beautiful country. This time we went through the dairy country. We saw holstein and brauma cattle. The herds were usually 20 to 30 cattle. We were in the sugar cane area also. There are huge plantations of sugar cane and even John Deer tractors and plows. The plantations were guarded by guards in guard houses. The plantation owners homes were huge and very beautiful with the workers living in small homes with outside fires to cook on. There is a big difference between rich and poor. On our way to the beach, we went through a section that had real damage from the flooding earlier this year. The first picture is the railroad tracks. You can see the two lines of the tracks with nothing at all under them. It is amazing that the tracks stayed there as the rest of the earth was swept away. The coconut are being harvested now, picture two, and the sugar cane. It is a sugar cane field behind the truck. The workers use their machetes to cut the stocks, put them in bundles and load them on big trucks to go to the factory. The coconut harvesters climb up the trees barefoot, tie a rope around the bundle, cut the bundle from the tree and lower them to the ground. The house we went to was very nice, 5 bedrooms and 6 bathrooms. Picture 3 A member of our ward owns the house. We were celebrating the 25th wedding anniversary of Pres and sis Lopez, our stake president and the temple recorder. Picture 4 shows the ocean with Sister Lopez, Trent Kitley, Pres Lopez, Bishop Mendez (not our bishop but another recorder at the Temple) and me. We should be feeling guilty enjoying all this warm weather while so many of you are freezing at home, but that is one thing that we sure are not missing!! especially the cold wind!!! The temple was full to overflowing on Friday and Saturday. The saints from Honduras came in buses. They have about an 8 hour ride, depending on how long they are stuck at the boarder, this group had a 3 hour wait. Their Temple will be finished next year so they won't have to come so far anymore. We will be glad for them but will miss their sweet spirit here. We had 40 come to the temple for the first time Which really kept our little temple hopping. We hope you are all enjoying the Christmas season with all its sounds, smells, and excitement. We can't believe it is almost here, time sure goes fast for us. We send our love to all Lon and Nancy