Santa Ana

We got a car this week and moved into our casita! Yeah progress!! Poco a poco. It is quite an experience to drive in San Salvador. Really confusing if you miss an exit. It's a small compact city with millions of people and absolutely no grid. A mass of tangled roads.
There are driving laws, but no one obeys them!! You certainly don't wait for any pedestrians! And the buses rule. Don't get in their way. They'll run right into you and keep on going! It's survival of the most daring!

On the 4th we attended meetings for the signing of the contract with the architects, contractors and the manager of the Central de Servicio for the church.
On the weekend we attended conferences in Santa Ana. It's about 45 miles away. It's a beautiful area with a colonial look. This stake is the strongest in Central America. (According to the Area Prez, Elder Clark) We had two conferences back to back in which we spoke in both.....scary. The hardest is trying to stay awake when I understand so little of what's being said!
But everyone is so warm and friendly. They love us because we are here to help build their temple!

We noticed today driving by the site that an excavator had been moved in. We were there early this morning visiting with the "guards" and the landscape expert. They have preserved many of the trees and bushes to preplant later when the buildings are completed. They have many baby trees growing to plant later too. People were trying to steal the baby trees! Coffee trees grow wild and are plentiful. We picked some coffee beans this morning. Jim was given a hunk of wood from a Balsamo tree; a very dense hard wood, so he can have James turn a bowl.