La Iglesia de Santa Lucia
This is a journal of our experiences as missionaries in El Salvador assisting with the construction of their Temple.
The view of San Salvador and our project.
Taken from our local architect's home. The Temple is 1 inch to the right of the tall apartment building in the center of the photo. Look for the orange tower structure.
Tuesday, January 20, 2009
Lots of dirt!
The last month we have seen major changes on the project site. Lots of excavation; which means lots of dirt and dust. Polvoso. Dusty. We have had only one rain since our arrival. This is the dry season until May.
Our temporary offices are being constructed. They should be finished in a couple weeks, complete with air conditioning and a bathroom! We will have all the modern conveniences in a tin "shack" office!
Our New Year's was a blast-literally. We watched fireworks from a highrise apartment and it was amazing. The entire city was popping with lights and colors from dark until after midnight. Fireworks in San Salvador are a major part of celebrations. Big, loud ones.
We had an opportunity to visit La Casa de Reina de Sophia, an orphanage, last week. It is really a home for children who have the AIDS virus whose parents can not afford medication or are not being given proper care. It is funded by the Queen of Spain. It was very well run and maintained. The 16 children were very happy. We brought cookies and juice.
We also visited Suchitoto, a colonial town near a large lake. There are some great artisans in El Salvador. We are enjoying this free time which will come to an end once the offices are completed. As the project advances we will have more responsibility on the site.
The worst so far? Mosquitos and me not being able to communicate!!
The best so far? 80 degree weather every day, the Internet and Skype and oovoo and being able to keep in touch and see our family! It's a great time to be alive!
Our temporary offices are being constructed. They should be finished in a couple weeks, complete with air conditioning and a bathroom! We will have all the modern conveniences in a tin "shack" office!
Our New Year's was a blast-literally. We watched fireworks from a highrise apartment and it was amazing. The entire city was popping with lights and colors from dark until after midnight. Fireworks in San Salvador are a major part of celebrations. Big, loud ones.
We had an opportunity to visit La Casa de Reina de Sophia, an orphanage, last week. It is really a home for children who have the AIDS virus whose parents can not afford medication or are not being given proper care. It is funded by the Queen of Spain. It was very well run and maintained. The 16 children were very happy. We brought cookies and juice.
We also visited Suchitoto, a colonial town near a large lake. There are some great artisans in El Salvador. We are enjoying this free time which will come to an end once the offices are completed. As the project advances we will have more responsibility on the site.
The worst so far? Mosquitos and me not being able to communicate!!
The best so far? 80 degree weather every day, the Internet and Skype and oovoo and being able to keep in touch and see our family! It's a great time to be alive!
Friday, December 26, 2008
Christmas!
We had our first Christmas in a tropical climate! It was definately quiet in our little casita but not so outside! Fireworks had been going off since the week before Christmas. There is one area where booths are set up selling fireworks and this is a serious business! Christmas Eve is big day here to celebrate the holiday with fireworks, presents, church for some and then dinner around midnight or after. We had fireworks going until after midnight. Serious bomb things than shook the windows!
We attended a potluck dinner at an American's home. There were 4 families. They have between them 7 kids under age 13. So it was really fun. We had a great ham from Costco in the states! One of the guys had brought it home in a carry-0n from his last business trip!
On Christmas day Jim and I drove to the beach. It's about 30 miles from here. We didn't get "on" the beach. We were more or less sight-seeing. We weren't sure where to go or where to park sooooo next time. Besides, by noon the whole country was coming to the beach-so we went home!
We have some veggies coming up in some boxes of dirt in the yard. We are so excited to have nice weather all the time! It's endless summer down here to us! Even though we are North of the equator they call this summer right now and it's their "cool" season. Winter starts in May.
We've had several missionary activites keeping us busy and several ward activities for the holidays. We had a Christmas dinner at church. For la cena we had turkey, tamalies, rice (always), potatoe salad (always), rolls and cake. It started at 6:30 but didn't get going until around 8:00 and we didn't eat until around 9 pm. This is dinner time. Jim and I are ready for bed by 9:00 so we're going to have to change our schedule!
Last weekend Jim and I made cookies for the Christmas goodie bags for the missionaries. We made about 900. 14 batches. We made them over two days and put them in the freezer. It was fun! We made Grandma Fenn's Ranger cookies. They are Jim's specialty.
On the 23rd we had a Christmas dinner with all the missionaries in the El Salvador West Mission. There are about 154. There's 20 more in Belize.
It was amazing to have that many young people in one group. They are so great. We just love them!
There is progress on the temple project! Yeah! They've been moving dirt and trees for a week now. There's a gate and new security guards (with uniforms) and several pieces of very large equipment, surveyors and lots of activity. It's exciting to see something finally happening. Jim attended 3 meetings last week (all in Spanish) at the architect's office. I have been working on photos of the site.
And so it begins!!
Other than that, we've been making trips around the city to learn the roads and how to get places. It's crazy to drive here. The roads are crazy. There seems to be no order. At least there's none to me now. Maybe in a few months.....
We attended a potluck dinner at an American's home. There were 4 families. They have between them 7 kids under age 13. So it was really fun. We had a great ham from Costco in the states! One of the guys had brought it home in a carry-0n from his last business trip!
On Christmas day Jim and I drove to the beach. It's about 30 miles from here. We didn't get "on" the beach. We were more or less sight-seeing. We weren't sure where to go or where to park sooooo next time. Besides, by noon the whole country was coming to the beach-so we went home!
We have some veggies coming up in some boxes of dirt in the yard. We are so excited to have nice weather all the time! It's endless summer down here to us! Even though we are North of the equator they call this summer right now and it's their "cool" season. Winter starts in May.
We've had several missionary activites keeping us busy and several ward activities for the holidays. We had a Christmas dinner at church. For la cena we had turkey, tamalies, rice (always), potatoe salad (always), rolls and cake. It started at 6:30 but didn't get going until around 8:00 and we didn't eat until around 9 pm. This is dinner time. Jim and I are ready for bed by 9:00 so we're going to have to change our schedule!
Last weekend Jim and I made cookies for the Christmas goodie bags for the missionaries. We made about 900. 14 batches. We made them over two days and put them in the freezer. It was fun! We made Grandma Fenn's Ranger cookies. They are Jim's specialty.
On the 23rd we had a Christmas dinner with all the missionaries in the El Salvador West Mission. There are about 154. There's 20 more in Belize.
It was amazing to have that many young people in one group. They are so great. We just love them!
There is progress on the temple project! Yeah! They've been moving dirt and trees for a week now. There's a gate and new security guards (with uniforms) and several pieces of very large equipment, surveyors and lots of activity. It's exciting to see something finally happening. Jim attended 3 meetings last week (all in Spanish) at the architect's office. I have been working on photos of the site.
And so it begins!!
Other than that, we've been making trips around the city to learn the roads and how to get places. It's crazy to drive here. The roads are crazy. There seems to be no order. At least there's none to me now. Maybe in a few months.....
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Elder and Hermana Fenn
10 Nov 2008 MTC
Self portrait
On site with our "cascos" on. Mine is pink.
Our Backyard
We chose the casita for the garden