Happy Thanksgiving!

     We want to wish each of you a very Happy Thanksgiving and hope you have a great day with  family and friends and great food. Take time to reflect on all of your blessings and give thanks for all that you have been blessed with. We had a great Thanksgiving on Monday, the 19th. We had 21 for dinner and as you can see in the pictures, we had plenty to eat. Sister Kitley made either Pilgrim hats or Indian head dresses for all to wear. The plate of food was Elder Thompson's. He made sure that he got the most important foods first before he was too full for them. Elder Kitley read the Gettesburg Address to us, in English and Spanish. Wow, it really set a great spirit for our dinner as we reflected on our heritage and our great country.

     School has been out for the El Salvadorians here for a week. They are on their "summer break" and go back to school in January. We have been disappointed at the small numbers at the temple these two weeks and thought that many would be here with school out. Well, we found out that when school ends, it is time for the parents to get the children registered for school for the next year. A single mom with 4 children who works as a maid for one of our embassy girls, Melissa, told us how it works. She lives in one of the shanties build of corregated steel and has no water or electricity and a dirt floor. She has to get in line to register her child for the second grade with all the other parents of all the second graders. She has stood in line all day, only to get to the next in line for the registration when 5:00 comes and the doors are closed for the day. She then has to return the next day and stand in line again. When she is finally able to register that child, she has three more to register and three more lines to wait in. It has taken her up to two weeks to get the 4 kids registered for school, missing work for the days that she is in line. This is for the public school system. Hopefully you are able to get your kids registered in two weeks because that is when the graduations start.

     The Salvadorians love to party and I think they invent things to celebrate. Graduations happen after pre-school, after grade school, after secondary school and after college. This poor mother happened to have a child graduating from grade school and was expected to buy a $40.00 dress for the daughter as all the kids in the class are required to dress alike for the graduation. When Melissa heard this she took over. She took her maid shopping and found the exact fabric and made the dress for her and only ended up spending $20.00. $40.00 is a weeks wages for this woman. We figure we have at least one more week of the parties before the youth start filling the temple with baptisms again.

     We send our love to all. Thank you for your love and prayers in our behalf. We do look forward to celebrating Thanksgiving with you next year but for now, we are content and happy to be here serving our Heavenly Father in this beautiful temple with our new friends. Have a great day. All our love, Lon and Nancy, Grandpa and Grandma, Dad and Mom