Thursday, March 12, 2015

    The big day of our leaving had finally arrived.  We put the finishing touches on the vacating process in our apartment, took a couple of photos, and then wheeled our luggage to the elevator, and ultimately outside to the car that was waiting to take us to the airport.  It was a constant press to keep to our schedule and get out on time which kept the emotional departure on the back burner, so-to-speak, and kept the tears at bay for the most part.  Wonderful, kind friends said good-bye and wished us well as we left this unique and special part of our lives behind forever.  The suitcases were piled so high in the car as we drove away from our beautiful temple that I could hardly see out the window for one last glance.

    The Temple Recorder, Elder Alvarado, drove us to the airport and Pres. Valle came with us also.  We were so glad for their help and their hints about navigating the rules and regulations of the airport.  Our lunch of apples and  V-8 juice had to be given away before we could eat it and it turned out that our hunger was put off only by a couple of granola bars that were in my carry-on and some snack-size almonds and trail-mix for the whole trip.  We flew United and they don’t even give you a Biscotti cookie anymore!

    Both of our carry-on bags were set aside to be searched.  Glade had put in a pair of toe-nail scissors (not just little clippers) and it was buried deep in a case.  They searched and searched, put it through the scanner again, and were finally satisfied when Glade produced the trimmers.  He didn’t know that you had to put those in checked baggage.  A young man carefully went through all my things with gloved hands.  I don’t know what he was looking for, but when the search was ending, he took the curling iron from its heat-resistant cover and asked me in Spanish if that was for my hair.  I smiled and said yes; he seemed satisfied and let me proceed.

    All our departures ran late, but not enough but what the pilots were able to make up the extra time in-flight and we arrived on time.  It was a tight connection in Houston, however; but our missionary tags caught the attention of a local Branch President, also flying, whose wife had coincidentally served a mission in Tegucigalpa.  After our train ride, which was outside the building in the rain, he helped us find one of those motorized shuttles.  A kind lady drove us through the airport hallways calling out, “Car coming, car coming, car turning right,” etc. to clear us a path; and we made it just in time to board our flight to Salt Lake City.  We were on North American soil and I was so happy!

    We had enough time in Salt Lake before our last leg home to catch our breath.  Glade picked up a couple of muffins and there was a basketball game on the overhead TV—IN ENGLISH—so we were happy campers and started to relax a little.

    When we landed in Idaho Falls at 10:45 p.m., we were welcomed with cheers and smiles, a welcome home sign with all the greeters’ names, and tons of hugs and kisses from kids and grand kids and it was the most wonderful feeling in the world.  We were Home.

    We loaded luggage and piled into cars for the trip home.  Melissa presented us with a minkee quilt that her grandma made for us and I slept with it for a week!  It’s colder in Idaho for sure!  When we arrived, a spotlight on the roof lit up a huge “Welcome Home Grandma and Grandpa” banner over the sewing room window.  Jeff and Emi and family made the sign; Alexis brought it to Rigby; and Scott and his kids climbed onto the roof and with Tracen’s help, too, taped it across the window.  It made us feel remembered and loved. 

As we climbed out of the cars, everyone was “lingering” and we were appreciating the sign and the fact that it was all lit up so we could see it at midnight on our arrival.  Suddenly, I noticed a section of concrete curbing—the kind that borders landscaped plants and flowers—just off to my right where my bushes should have been!  My jaw dropped and I shouted “Where are the bushes?”  Well, long story short—Scott and Glade collaborated to take out all of the shrubs that bordered both sides of the driveway and ran across the front of the house clear to the East end.  They were all gone—along with two huge mugho pines and a weeping birch tree that were in a planting in the center of the front lawn!  What a shock. 

Everyone knew about this “little” project except for me, of course; and they were a little worried about my reaction—especially to the removal of the front lawn planting.  I planted, weeded, and nurtured all those bushes for over thirty years and now they were gone.  However, they were huge and were taking over the driveway and all the space where flowers used to bloom.  They were nearly six feet high and still growing so it was time for them to go—but I couldn’t have made that decision.  Scott hired a landscape company to do the work, and the removal took four days.  Scott also had a huge job to oversee everything and keep the workers on track.  Apparently it was a giant “mess” and one I was lucky to have missed.  It was done last fall along with the addition of dirt and sod to create sloped areas around the driveway clear to the courthouse on the North which was another big improvement.  Wow!  It will take some getting used to, but I can plant all the flowers I want now!

We stayed up and talked until the “wee hours” and then finally went to sleep in our own bed in our own home.

Sister Peterson with Sister Ocamp0

With good friend Sandy Toledo

Last look at our wonderfully comfortable apartment

We will be happy for our big kitchen at home where we don't
trip over each other all the time.
Notice the two faucets--the one on the left is extra filtered for drinking.

These friends helped load our luggage in the car.
From Left:  Brother Castañeda, Elder Alvarado--Temple Recorder, and Pres. Valle

Farewell to Sister Valle, Our ever-present guard friend, and Sister Casceras

One last look at our beautiful temple.

My favorite flowers.  Don't you think they look just like rhododendrons?

Arriving at the airport


One more photo before leaving

Waiting for our flight.  They changed gates for our flight but no
announcement was ever made.  A person had to find out by
observing what was gong on and following the "leader."

Our ride home to the United States!

At home the preparations were under way for a wonderful welcome.  A light
mounted next to the chimney lit up the sign in the dark and it was awesome.

Five of our kids taking a break in the preparations for lunch.
Tracen, Scott, Kristie, Justin, and Alexis!

Keegan and Amelia with a "Welcome Home" sign above
and Amelia and Grover are below.

Waiting for the plane in Idaho Falls

                                       Tracen, Melissa, Ethan, Emily, Kristie, and Marc.

They're Coming!!


Cameras Ready!!


We've arrived!  We're Home!!!

First Hugs!  Keegan, Ethan, Grover in front, and Amelia

Thank goodness for Skype so Grover knows who Grandma is!



More first Hugs!    From the far left are:
Emily with Keegan, Marc, Melissa, Kristie, Alexis, Justin, Amelia, and Me

 And they just kept coming!!  Alexis and Justin

Scott and Tracen are in the background. 

 Scott, Mom, Tracen, Keegan, Emily

Emily

Alexis and her Mom!!

Hugs from Kristie for all her Texas kids!

With Kristie

With Alexis

With Tracen, Grover, and Melissa

At home in our own kitchen in Garfield

We were welcomed home with gifts--the flowers (only the back side is shown, 

but the front is full of beautiful yellow mums) the gift basket with some of

our favorite things, a wrapped surprised, and, of course--Peterson brownies. 

Scott, Alexis, and funny Glade

Trying out our favorite brownies!

They tasted wonderful!

The wrapped gift was a hard -bound book of our Missionary blog

Volume  One--The First Year and it included all the photos, too.

Alexis took charge and all the kids helped.  What a thoughtful and 

wonderful gift.  When the blog is finished in the next few days, 

we will have Volume Two--The Second Year printed as well.

 In The Blue Room getting acquainted with Emma

I hoped she would recognize my face and my voice from Skype.

 The end of a long and blessed day!  All is Well. 

Wednesday, March 11, 2015

    What a roller coaster day!  There was no sleep for me after about 4:00 a.m. so it was also a long day, but we had a wonderful time on our last day in this beautiful temple.  We tried to soak in every sight and sound, enjoy every ordinance, and savor the hugs and good-byes. 

    The phone calls, visits, gifts, and kind wishes just kept coming all day and into the evening and we were overwhelmed by it all.  We have a lengthy list of emails now with the good intentions of keeping in touch which will certainly dissipate as time and distance separate us from our Honduran friends.  But it will be fun to keep in touch at Christmas time and special occasions.  Several sisters shared kind sentiments in the women’s part of the prayer meeting this morning and even though there was no one there to interpret, I understood most of what they said.  It warmed my heart to over-flowing. 

    President Ocampo and his wife had us come to their apartment after our shift where he released us as temple ordinance workers and gave us our certificates and letters.  They both shared their appreciation for our service in their country and in the temple and made us feel like our sacrifice to be here was important to them.  Pres. Ocampo also gave me a new Temple Recommend since mine expires this month and that was a nice experience.  He spoke enough English to get the job done.

    It would be too lengthy to list here all of the people who called and came by today, but we certainly felt loved and appreciated.  Everyone wants to come to the United States in the future and Glade promised to take them to Yellowstone Park if they get close enough to Idaho to come see us. Everyone expects us to come back and some said to bring our family so they can get acquainted J 

    We have been packing up everything, giving things away, throwing things away, and saving things for the couple from Washington who will be here to replace us in about ten days.  We have packed and weighed luggage—then re-packed and re-weighed it trying to distribute the contents and get each suitcase to the right weight.  That has been the hardest part of packing for sure!  Glade has been very patient with all the shuffling and he has to do all the lifting.  Needless to say—we are exhausted and ready for sleep. 

    Good Night Everyone.  We love you and can’t wait to see lots of family tomorrow night!   We are praying for safe travel for everyone.  It’s really hard for me when everyone is traveling such great distances, but I am trying not to worry too much and have faith that we will all arrived safely and have a wonderful gathering.  It’s hard to believe that this is our last night in Tegucigalpa.  There have been tears shed today, and I’m sure there will be more tomorrow.  That is a good message in itself.  

With Sister Ocampo.  We could have been closer friends
had we shared the same language, but we shared smiles
and feelings about the important things.

This is my sweet friend Sandy who speaks English and
was a life saver to me when we first arrived.
She did not come to the temple often, but often enough
to bring tender mercies and encouragement to me.

     

Tuesday, March 10, 2015

    Tonight we are starting to wonder if we will be able to get everything packed and all the details taken care of in the one remaining afternoon we have here tomorrow.  It is not that we haven’t been working on getting ready—we have actually taken care of lots and lots of details—but there just seems to be a lot of last minute “stuff” that we have to wait on until tomorrow afternoon. 

    We are actually starting to feel like we dare be excited about coming home.  It is hard to believe that we only have one more day to serve in this temple.  No future temple service will ever be like this experience and we feel reluctant to leave it all behind even though we are ready to be home.  Meeting great people and making so many wonderful friends has made it extra special.

    Brother and Sister Duarte and their daughter and her husband, the Villalobos, took us way across the city tonight for dinner to an Argentine restaurant in a beautiful new mall and high-rise business complex.  We drove for 30 minutes to get there and I realized after we left that here we were going out at night in this terribly dangerous city on our second to last night.  But these awesome people who live here weren’t worried, so I decided not to worry either.  J

We can’t remember the name of the restaurant, but it was a great place with really yummy food and we had a wonderful evening.  There was good conversation with plenty of English even though Sister Duarte deals with English like I deal with Spanish—we listen a lot and understand much more than we can speak. 

In the middle of the room was a large soup tureen filled with tomato soup and a myriad of things that made up a salad bar.  While we were dining on the soup and salad, the “meat buffet” was brought to the table still sizzling in a hot container (photo below) holding chicken, steak, and sausages.  Glade, of course, loved the steak and I was so happy with more chicken! 

These are just the nicest people and we will really miss them.  Their kind words and expressions of thanks were very tender to us and we will count them as forever friends. 

Good Night!  Take care everyone and hug the children and tell them how much you love them! 

Take your pick!! 

From the left;  the Villalobos couple (who are expecting a baby)
the Petersons, and the Duartes

 Monday, March 09, 2015

    The wind was very light early in the day, and it provided a peaceful background to our beautiful morning exercise outside.  Glade got his last haircut and I practiced my talk although my mind wouldn’t think straight and it was hard to remember anything that was in my notes!  Great.  That is not a good sign. J

    The Gomez’s provided a great lunch for us at noon and I know I’m gaining pounds like crazy not being used to eating so much.  A pureed soup made from potatoes, carrots, chicken broth, a little celery, cilantro, and some spices was the first course and it tasted really good.  A fresh green salad followed and the main course was a chicken dish cooked with veggies, and rice and beans.  They made a drink from the dried flower of a plant—can’t remember the name—and added beet juice to it so it was a beautiful red color.  It all tasted very good and the meal was topped off with a dish of ice cream.  Everyone assumes that North Americans love ice cream, and in Glade’s case, that is right on the mark!

    Glade received an email this morning from the stake Executive Secretary in our stake at home wanting to make an appointment for us to meet with the Stake President to be released and asked us if we would report to the High Council Sunday morning at 8:00 a.m. 

    Family Home Evening was such a special treat tonight with a lesson on gratitude, a lesson that always renews in our hearts all that Heavenly Father has given us.  It is important to focus on our blessings rather than on what we don’t have.  Following the lesson, each couple gave a presentation sharing a message by way of songs and poems most of which were directed to us and our leaving.  Most of them were original verses and it was so heart-warming; we felt loved and appreciated.  Glade played “Walk, Don’t Run” on his acoustical guitar and it was, of course, a hit. 

    The Castañedas served typical Honduran food which included shish kebabs with beef and some with chicken; re-fried beans with chips and tortillas, and fried banana chips.  There were also two original drinks, but we couldn’t tell what they were made from.  You can tell that we are not going home as lean as we had hoped!

    Our last two days in the temple will be early, but the stress of an early week is gone since it will be so short.  We gave away two more boxes of kitchen things today and finished some laundry.  My suitcases are nearly full and are still under the weight limit so—so far, so good! 

    We hope your FHE experiences were all good tonight.  Our testimonies and our families are the things that matter most.  They both need constant nurture, time, and study!  We love you so much and will see you soon.

    Good Night!

In the Gomez's apartment for lunch.

Brother and Sister Gomez, and Glade.

His name is Noel and hers is Yolanda.

Pres. and Sister Valle sang a song together
and it was beautiful.

Pres. and Sister Casceras are on the left.  She sang a traditional farewell song.
Brother Gomez--in the red shirt--read a poem he had written for us


Brother and Sister Navas.  She wrote and read something personal for us as well.


Pres. and Sister Ocampo sang a song she had written for us.  
It was personal, animated, fun, and full of love.


The Petersons!  This was our last Family Home Evening and we are
going to miss these wonderful people who were our family here.


The Castañedas prepared the FHE lesson and the great food


 The Dinner which was very tasty!
The big brown bowl has fried banana chips in it.

Glade playing "Walk, Don't Run" and having fun.