Friday the 13th!!! Yea!!

     We will never again think of Friday the 13th as a bad day. It was the day that we finally got HOT WATER!!!. Yes, one month to the day we now have hot water. It is so nice to turn on the faucet and have hot water to wash hands, faces, and dishes. And I have to admit, our showers are a little longer than needed. We are enjoying the luxury of hot water again.

 

     This week. on Monday the 9th, the five missionary couples, the Lopez's, the Mendez's and the Pena's took a trip to La Palma. We also took "Flat Stanley's cousin Bronco Plano". Our Grandson, Chandler and his class sent Flat Stanley all over the world with the instructions that we were to take pictures with him and send them back so the class could learn about different parts of the world. Well, Flat Stanley has never arrived so his cousin had to be found so we could get the pictures taken and returned. He is in the mail now so we hope he will returned without any delay. We were told that it was in the mountains so bring a sweater because the air is very fresh there. La Palma is about 2 hours away from San Salvador, on the Honduras border. It is amazing that this small country can have so many different looks to it. Picture #1 shows a little of this landscape. There were a lot of evergreens here. It is a lot higher than San Salvador, but no, we did not need even a long sleeved shirt again.
 

     La Palma is known for its paintings. The walls of the city were painted.  Picture #2 shows one of them. The streets were cobblestone and very narrow. The factory was interesting. They had one room where all sorts of items were cut out of wood. They did have electric jig saws for the cutting. Then in the paint room, women, picture #3 painted free hand on the items. There were no stensils. They just painted all day. They had hammocks strung across the room where their children could take naps during the day as they bring their little ones to work with them. They export all over the world. Picture #4 is the sales floor where you can buy the items made here. Picture #5 is of a truck full of beans heading to market. Instead of picking the beans they pulled the whole plant up and took it to the market.

 

     This town had no real poor houses in it, the ones made of cardboard and corregated metal. They were all made of concrete and block. It is a very quiet, simple town away from the hustle and bustle of the big city. We really enjoyed our day here, then headed home. We got into San Salvador right at rush hour and they have closed one of the main roads of the city for construction. It was bumper to bumper for an hour. Our bus driver decided that we should get gas so he cuts across two lanes of traffic to the station. The station doesn't have his bus registered so he is going to have to pay $1.30 in taxes to fill up, so he won't do it. We continue on, getting about a mile from the Temple and run out of gas. Luckily we had pulled off the main street onto a small one that was not busy. The men walked to the Temple and brought back cars to get all of us home. Another adventure.

 

     This week San Miguel came to the Temple. This is a poorer section of El Salvador. One little lady comes every time San Miguel comes. She can't be more than 4 feet tall, has greasy hair and dirt under her nails and smells of smoke from cooking on an open fire. I know she has no running water in her home (and I complain about no hot water) She walks with crutches because she has only one leg. But when you meet her, all you really see is the twinkle in her eye and the smile on her face. She is always so happy. She is such a good example of being at peace with your self and not always wishing for more. Having the right attitude about life will help us all be more at peace and happy. I hope I can become more like her, always finding the bright side of life and not complaining about the little things, like no hot water. We have so much to learn from these special people and we are so thankful to be here serving with them. We just got word that we have a new Bishop at home. Mom and Connie, our new bishop is Norm Kump. He got sustained today. His counselors are a Brother Brown and Brother Van Tassel. We don't know them but we are thrilled for the ward to have Norm and Bev. They will be great. We send our love to all, Have a great week. Lon and Nancy, Mom and Dad, Grandpa and Grandma

   

Happy Easter!!

     We had no idea what to expect for Easter week as it was our first since the Temple opened. WOW What a week it ended up being. School is out the entire week for "Semana Santa" (Holy Week) and a lot of businesses close also. Friday almost everyone is off and most of the town is shut down and the people all go to the beach. Well, on Tuesday and Wednesday we ended up with 2 buses from Honduras and 1 bus from Nicaragua so the temple was pretty full those two days. Thursday we had another bus from Honduras and one from El Salvador. Not quite as busy so we were getting worried that Friday would be real quiet. Well, we ended up with 12 buses on Friday. People were everywhere. The Temple was overfull. The baptistry was in use every minute of the day. But all the buses left by 5:00 to get home and we ended up canceling the 7:00 Session cause no one was left. Saturday we only had 6 buses, all from San Miguel, El Salvador. It was so great to have so many people remember the Savior and come to the temple instead of going to the beach for Easter.

     Today I sang in Sacrament Meeting. Sharon, I have never sang O Divine Redeemer before. That was your song and I played it for you. Remember singing in the Prespyterian Church? They had a great pipe organ and the sound was awesome. Well, Rene, the violin player wanted me to sing this and ordered in the music. It was the lower arrangement, and went clear up to an F#. There is no way I can hit an F#, Sharon can but not me. Luckily we don't have a piano in our chapel, only a keyboard. We were able to lower the music three half steps so I could hit the high notes. It really went great and I think it added to the meeting. We had a great Easter lunch with the other missionaries.
 

     In the temple this week, Lon ran into Elder Rodriguez, who served in Jerome in 2010. He remembered Lon right away. Lon recognized his face but didn't connect him with Idaho till he introduced himself. It is so amazing how small this world really is now. Picture #1 shows us with Elder Rodriguez and his wife. He now lives in Ogden and they are expecting their first baby. He remembers the people in the Branch well and still has a twinkle in his eye when he talks about them. Maria and Ysidro and Cierra, he said to say hello to you. He was there for Cierra's baptism. It was fun to see one of our missionaries from Jerome and know that he is still grounded in the gospel.

Picture #2 is of Elder Johnathan Alas. He is headed to the Boise Idaho Mission. His grandparents are the second counsellors in the Temple Presidency. He flies to Provo and will be in the MTC on Tuesday. Be looking for him. He will be a great missionary. He has a sweet testimony. One comes home and another leaves. Elder Rodriguez's English has improved greatly and Johnathan speaks very little English. By the time we get home, we are sure Elder Alas will be speaking English very well.

We are still using our electric showers as we still have no hot water. They think they have found the problem and have ordered a part from the states. If it takes as long to get here as our last package, we will not have hot water for another month!
 

     We went down to a section of town called Antiguo Cuscatlan. It is the cleanest section of town we have been in. Picture #3 shows you the town cemetery. Yes, those are houses inside the cemetery walls. The kids play soccer around the headstones. This country just has more people living here than there is room for. There are over 6 million people here, Idaho only has around 1 and a half million. They say there are about 800 people per square mile.
 

     We had a rain storm on Friday. The first since November. The dry season is coming to an end. The humidity is higher now than ever. Our temperatures average about 90 but with the humidity it really feels hotter. The winds have stopped also. As we watched Conference last weekend, we really started to miss the spring flowers and smells, then saw the morning temperatures in Jerome and decided we didn't miss it all that much. The sunshine is nice.Well, dear friends and family, we miss you all but are happy and very content to be here, serving in this temple. The El Salvadorians are so friendly and watch out for us. We are protected and loved. We pray that you are happy and healthy and enjoying life. Recognize your blessings and remember to thank your Heavenly Father for them. We have been so blessed to live in the United States. We send our love, Elder and Sister Thompson, Lon and Nancy, Dad and Mom, Grandpa and Grandma, Papa and Mama Smurf!

   

It Only Took Three Months!

Just had to let you know that we are finally legal!! We have our new visa's, only they are really residency cards. So we don't have to pay to get into the national parks and museums now. But since we have already seen them----. It does feel good though. The only draw back is that they are only good til February 7th, 2013 so we will have to do this again for the last 6 months of our mission.  Picture #1  We have not had hot water for a week today. It has been real fun heating water to do dishes and the showers are really hard to do. The water just gets colder and colder the longer you run it. I was afraid we were being wimps about the hot water, but Sister Alas complained one day to me. She and her husband are natives and the second counsellors in the temple presidency. She said that President Alas usually spends 40 minutes in the showers, but is ready in ten minutes now. I told her that I thought most of the El Salvadorians didn't have hot water in their homes. She said that was right. But their water comes out of the tap luke warm and doesn't get colder the longer it runs. So we are not the wimps that I thought we were. But if they don't get it fixed soon, you can just call us Papa and Mama Smurf!!! A nice shade of cold blue!!  I had a lesson on how to make Pupusas. I need a lot more practice as the cheese and beans in mine seem to escape instead of staying in the Pupusa. I will keep practicing so you can all try one when we get home.  Picture #2.   It really feels good to have the Temple open again. It is great to be with the people from all over El Salvador, not just our ward family. We are looking forward to General Conference Weekend and being taught by our Prophet. We send our love to all and hope you are enjoying your hot showers. With Love, Papa and Mama Smurf.

 

Museums and Ruins

     Today is the 4 year anniversary of Lon's heart attack! When I think that we almost lost him, Wow have we been blessed!!! His heart is doing great as we had to have cold showers today and he handled it fine. We have not had hot water since yesterday and will not have any until at least Monday. Washing your hair with ice cold water is horrible. We are having to live like 95% of the El Salvadorians who do this every day. They make better pioneers than us. It was a very fast shower.

Lon is at Stake Priesthood Meeting so I thought I would write while he is gone. Our preparation day (P-Day) is on Monday and all the museums and National Parks are closed on Mondays. So we decided to try and get in as many as we could this week before the Temple opens again and we don't have a chance until September when we close again.
 

     We spent Tuesday getting the laundry done and groceries bought since the President was home and we could take the car. The missionaries and President and Sis Petersen came home exausted but thrilled with their week.

     On Wednesday, the Carlos Ortiz family invited us to go with them to "Amapulapa" in San Vicente. We had never been there so we were excited to see more of this beautiful land. We stopped in San Vicente at the home/photo shop of a temple worker, Brother Valdez Cruz for a pottie break. He sent his grand daughter out for cold drinks for us. We found out that he was the first member in San Vicente, moving here from Honduras. The first church meetings were held in the very house we were in. When Bro. Ortiz was to be baptized, his father died three months earlier and Bro Valdez Cruz baptized him in the very springs that we were headed to, Amapulapa. You can look on the internet for all the places that we visited this week if you want to see more photo's of them. Amapulapa is a big water park but we only got into the first pond that is fed directly from the springs and sat under the waterfall and swam with the little fish that liked to bite at your feet if you didn't keep them moving. Bro Ortiz, his wife, and two daughters, 8 and 10 were excellent guides and we learned a lot about this part of El Salvador. Bro Ortiz was raised here and Sis Ortiz served her mission here.  Pictures # 1 and 2. 

     On Thursday we walked to the Anthropology Museum, photo #3, that is about 15 minutes from here. It is a very nice museum. In the religion section, showing all the religions from the Mayan to present, they have a big picture of the Temple and the church pamphlets that the missionaries use. Of course the Mayan was the first religion for centuries, then the Spanish conquered this land and forced them all to be baptized into the Catholic religion. In the mid 1900's the government let other religions into the country. We learned a lot here.

     We had to hustle home so the Figueroa's could pick Lon and I up and take us downtown to their favorite restaurant for "dulces" in Santa Anita. It was one of those street cafe's that we have been warned NOT to eat at. But we had to try the dulce's The first Torreja,, was made with bread, soaked in egg yolks, and fried. Sounds like french toast huh? But then it is soaked in the sweetest syrup I have ever tasted and when they serve it to you, they pour even more of the syrup over the top. It is in every home during Holy Week (Easter). You only need about 2 bites and you have a sugar high! The next was made from Yuca,Nuegados. I can't believe what all they use yuca for. They deep fat fry pieces of yuca then soak them in a different tasting syrup. They weren't quite as sweet but still you only need a little bit to get all the sugar you can handle. Lon and I shared a piece of each while the others each had a plate for themselves. They then ordered what I think of as their version of nachos. Fried yuca on the bottom, radishes and cucumbers next with cubed pork in a gravy poured over the top. We didn't try that. We used the excuse that we had a dinner engagement at 6:00, which we did have. It really didn't look good and we were afraid of the flies and germs from the kitchen. Picture #4.

Afterward, we were driven through the downtown of San Salvador. It was just like trying to herd cattle. Between the people and the shops in the street, there is not much room for a car. But the wheel barrels full of fruits and vegetables were amazing. There are so many that I can't name. I've never seen them before. We got home about 5:30 and headed for dinner with all the missionaries at 6:00 to the home of the Wegkamps. He works here with the Embassy. It was a full day and we didn't get home til after 10:00.

      Friday the 16th we headed to the 3 museums and 3 ruins that are open to the public. El Salvador has a lot of Mayan ruins but no money to excavate them. We went back to the Ruins of Tazumal where we had gone last week but it was fun cause this time we had a guide that was a Mayan.  Picture #5.  The Petersen's didn't go with us. Sister Petersen twisted her knee while in Utah and is using a walker to get around.Then we went to the Ruins of San Andreas. We met a Mayan who was making jewelry Picture #6 and had a great visit with him. He allowed us to take his picture but would not look at the camera because he didn't want his spirit to leave him and go into the camera. Both of these Mayan men were familiar with the Book of Mormon and it was fun to learn about their religion and compare it to ours. Notice his ear ring, two sticks going through his ear lobe.  Our last ruin and museum were our favorite because they are so different than the others. After visiting Tikal and the other ruins on our tour in June, we have seen how the rich and rulers lived. The Ruins of Joya de Ceren is a small Mayan village that was buried in Volcanic Ash around 640 BC. The people seem to have gotten out but the ash fell so fast that everything else was found just as it was left. The layers of ash and lava rock are 4 to 8 yards deep. The museums at each of the ruins were amazing and really told the story well. The things found at Joya were so preserved it was fun to see how these people lived their everyday lives.

     It has been a great week of exploring and learning more about the land and people of El Salvador. We are excited to get back to the temple though. Monday we get to go to the temple and help make sure all is ready for Tuesday morning. We are on the AM shift for the first week and then will be on the PM for two weeks. We are trying a new schedule, trying to fill in the gaps where there are less workers. Won't break my heart to only have to do one AM shift at a time. I probably won't write for two weeks as we don't do anything exciting that we can talk much about outside the temple now. We will settle into our routine and look forward to Saturday when the buses will again fill our parking lot. We send our love to you all. Thank you for your prayers in our behalf and you are in our prayers daily. Love Dad and Mom, Grandpa and Grandma, Lon and Nancy

Home Alone and Having Lots of Fun

As the other missionaries drove off Monday morning, the 5th, we felt at peace with not going with them. We had tried all we could to get our Visa's and for some reason we were not to go. So we made our own vacation. These two weeks the temple is closed for deep cleaning. Each temple is closed for two weeks twice a year. What we didn't know was that our apartments had to be cleaned also. We were asked when we would be gone for a day so they could come in and clean. We set up a trip for Thursday with a taxi driver that the church office here uses a lot and they recommended him. We left at 8:00 AM and returned around 5:30 PM. He took us to Santa Ana to the town square where we visited the 100 year old Catholic Cathedral, picture #1. It was huge with pigeons all over and around it. We were able to go inside and see the work they are doing to restore it. Beautiful. We visited one the the Mayan Pyramids here, the Ruins of Tazumal. These were in Chalchuapa and our driver had lived there as a boy. He was a great guide. He didn't drive too fast either so you could really enjoy the country side. I'm not sure the car would go too fast. It was an "Uncle Buck" car with the black smoke, wabbly tires, no air conditioning ( it is only 94 here now). We visited the Lago de Coatepeque, picture #2. The water was crystal clear but no boats. The lake is in a volcanic crater and has houses all around the edges but no boats. He drove us down town through the center with the open market. What a mess of people and stores. It is not safe for us to go there alone and he would only drive us through it with the instructions that we would not stop. I would hate to have to shop with all those people pushing and shoving. It was a jungle. We ended up at the Puerto del Diablo, the Devils Gate. It is in the mountains with rock climbing and a zip line and of course pupusas. Picture #3 shows the pupusas being cooked over an open fire. The restaurant was made of rock picture #4, and all the tables and chairs were rock. We were invited to a family's home for supper on Friday. We had a typical San Salvadorian meal, Tamales (only corn meal) platanos (fried bananas) carne asada (fried beef) refried beans (red beans here) and tortilla's. Saturday night another family took us out for pupusas. That was an experience. The town, Planes de Renderos, during the day is very quiet with hardly any one there but at night it was a different story. People everywhere with shops set up all up and down the street selling souvenirs. The view of the town was amazing from here. I just can't get over how big this town is. The Figueroa's wanted us to try different pupusas so they ordered a bunch of kinds. We had Jalopeno and cheese, garlic and cheese, carrot and cheese, mushroom and cheese, bean and cheese, bean and sausage and cheese. picture #5. It is a very inexpensive meal, usually one pupusa will cost less than $1.00 and two will fill you up. The locals eat them with a pickled cabbage salad on top or tomato sause, and with their hands, forks are not provided. It has been a week full of new and different experiences. It is fun to see how the people live. They are all so protective of us. It is fun to be with them. We do miss the temple though. It has been good to get some needed rest but we will be ready to get back to the temple on the 20th. The other missoinaries arrived home about 6:00 tonight, the 12th. They are tired but had a great time on the trip. Elder Wall had served his mission in Quetzaltenango (Shayla) 50 years ago but he was able to visit with quite a few of the families that he baptized 50 years ago. It was a once in a lifetime opportunity for him. President Petersen and Sister Petersen should be here around 10:00 tonight so we will all be home safe and sound. Our little mission family is very dear to our hearts. It is good to be together again. We have one more week before the temple opens and the members have plans for us so we will let you know about the rest of our break next week. We pray that you are all healthy and happy. Please know that you are in our thoughts and prayers. We do miss you but are so thankful for the new friends and family that we have here. May God Bless you with all that you need. Love to all, Elder and Sister Thompson, Dad and Mom, Grandpa and Grandma, Lon and Nancy. We love you.

Home Alone IV

     We have waited to send this email with the hopes that it would read "we are headed for Guatemala". But after spending Thursday morning at the immigration office again, we are staying home while the other missionaries go on the trip. We tried to get a 8 day visa on Thursday. This trip just wasn't meant to be for us. The others felt so bad that part of them were going to stay home so we wouldn't be here alone. But we convinced them all to go. We will be here next March and could go then and they will all be gone by then. So, we are going to get some much needed rest and we have at least 4 dinner invites so far. As people hear that we are not going, we keep getting invited. We will not be alone very often.

     Today I sang a duet with Miriam Roque, Picture #1 (she is wearing 3 inch heals) She came up to me one day after church when I was playing and asked for help with the timing on a hymn, she sang along as I played it and I asked her to sing with me. she had never sung in public before. She has an amazing soprano voice. She picked "Where Love Is" for us to sing. She can only come to church every other week because of work so we practiced the song twice two weeks ago and sang it today. She never wavered from her part as I sang the alto. It really sounded great. The ward was so suprised. They had no idea she could sing. The Relief Society has already asked her to sing at the Birthday Dinner so now she will be able to increase her talent and share it with us.

 

     Last Monday, the 27th of Feb. while we women were at the Gringa Brunch, the men went walking through the new subdivision that is being built just behind us. Picture #2 shows the work and above the trees you can see the Angel Moroni on the Temple. They are building 150 two story houses. Every day there is a line of people hoping that someone quits or doesn't show up so they can get a job. We are told that about 800 people a day try to leave San Salvador because there are no jobs. The laborers make $150.00 every two weeks and the block layers get paid by the hour. The block are all cement, very heavy. Picture #3 shows the rebar and the block layer is lifting the block up and over the rebar and Picture #4 he brings it down and puts it into place. Picture #5 is of the lunch woman. She carries the food on the tray on her head and comes to sell to the workers each day. It is a huge project and will be fun to see just how fast it gets done. I am not sure it will be done when we leave. The rainy season is just a couple of months away and it will slow things up a lot.

 

     We are having elections this week here, on Sunday, and we have been warned not to go out the day before or and day after so we will stay close to home those days. Lon hopes to go golfing once this week. Just waiting for Eric to set the time and day. Our last day for the temple to be open was Saturday. Boy did we get slammed. We had a record number of buses, 5 buses and 4 mini buses Saturday morning and mostly youth for the Baptistry. The poor laundry had to bring clothes and towels to our apartment to use our washers and dryers to try and keep up with the number of youth. It was a great day to close on.

 

     Today we got a new Bishop. Bishop Funes has been our bishop for over 8 years. About two months ago, the Stake Choir director, Edward Figueroa moved into the ward and Lon told him that he had moved in at a bad time and that he would be the next bishop. Well, sure enough, he is the new bishop so the stake choir is in trouble. He is the viola player that helped at the funeral. A very talented young man. He will be a great Bishop. Well, I guess that is about all the news from here. We are enjoying the sun and even have a nice breeze that reminds us of home, except it is a warm one and doesn't bite. With all the construction around we are getting the dirt blowing so we really do feel like we are in Idaho at times. We hope you are all well and happy and taking care of each other. We send our love. You are in our thoughts and prayers always Love Elder and Sister Thompson, Mom and Dad, Grandpa and Grandma, Lon and Nancy and any other titles you want to give us. Have a great week!! 

Time for a Haircut

     Another week has come and gone. We hope you are well and happy. We had a real quiet week at the temple until Saturday when 5 buses showed up. We wish they could spread it out a little. But just like in the states, Saturday is a day off from work for most so that is the only day they can come. We had people everywhere. We ended up with 4 new people in the temple for the first time (not scheduled) and 3 sealings that were not scheduled either. But it was fun and the time sure went fast. We woke up on Friday morning and had no water. We were to be to the temple by 6:00AM so we used what water we had stored to wash hair, take a spit bath and headed to the temple. We have decided that we need to store a couple more gallons as we used all that we had that morning. If we had been home longer and still no water we would have needed more. Do each of you have enough water stored for emergencies?
 

     Monday morning was hair cutting day. We thought we would share with you a picture of our hair dresser, picture #1. Elder. Kitley cuts Lon's, mine, Elder Gibbons, Sister Kitley, and his own hair. Years ago I saw a commercial for a vacuum cleaner hair cutting device and I thought "O Yea, what a joke" Picture #2 is our vacuum hooked up to the device. It works so slick. You have no hair all over and the cut is even. The price is right too. Picture #3 shows Sister Kitley with the candy bars that you have to pay for a cut. The funny thing is, Elder Kitley does all the work and Sister Kitley gets the candy bars. We have decided she is a chocoholic. Don't know what we will do when they leave 6 months before we do. We might just have to bite the bullet and pay for a cut in a shop!
 

     We are trying an experiment this month. The morning shift at the temple has a lot of workers from 6-11. The after noon shift has only a few show up from 1-5 so one missionary couple is doing a swing shift each week to cover the slim times. This week we work the mid shift, from 9-5 and from 8-4 on Saturday. We are so excited that we don't have to get up so early, especially on Saturday. ( 4:00 AM is real ugly for me!!) We will evaluate after we get back from the temple closure in March to decide if we want to continue this or not. That means we have one week AM, the next Mid, and then one PM and start over again. This will be our first Mid so we will see if we like it or not. The Walls loved it, and the Gibbons did not. The Kitleys of course are still only on the PM because Elder Kitley is the recorder in the office in the evenings.
 

     Most of our pictures are taken on our P-days, like Elder Gibbons says, we have three days in our week, Sunday, Monday and Temple. The weeks just go by so fast. Last Monday we took a drive up the mountain and stopped at a view point to see the city. It still amazes me that this city is so big. We could see the waves on the ocean, the temple and our neighborhood, Lake Ilopongo, and the volcanos. Picture #4 is from that viewpoint. They also had a zip line but no one was brave enough to try it. Picture #5 The platform looked sturdy enough, we just weren't so sure about the dead tree it was attached to.

     Well, enough for today. It is 8:30 PM and we have lunches to make and need to read before bed. We have started the Book of Mormon again in Spanish. This will be our 4th time. Each time I understand more and more and Lon says my pronunciation is getting better too. We have been asked to speak in church this Sunday so we are busy getting ready for that. I brought the talks that I gave in the branch so I just have to practice reading it and Lon is busy getting a talk written. We send our love to all and know that you are in our thoughts and prayers. We are healthy, happy, and busy doing the work we have been called to do. Life is good. Love you all, Elder and Sister Thompson, Lon and Nancy, Dad and Mom, Grandpa and Grandma, sister and brother, son and daughter. Fun to have so many titles and each one of them spell love.