Trip to El Salvador

Before I get started on our trip to El Salvador, I want to share one picture with you! We all think this is pretty funny! This is the Christmas tree in Sololá. Notice the Gallo (rooster head on top of the star)! The Gallo is on the label design of Guatemala's oldest continually produced beer, dating back to 1896. It is also the most famous beer in the country, and has become part of Guatemalan popular culture.

 

On now with more important stuff!! On Friday Dec. 26th our group headed out for Santa Ana, El Salvador for our pioneer meeting and Circuit Assembly around 8:00am. We rented a bus for all of us to go together in comfort. It is the Hello Kitty bus! Pretty cute huh? You should have seen all the looks we got to and from El Salvador! :0)

 

 

Next main stop after bathroom breaks and lunch is the border. Pretty easy and smooth! On the Guatemala side you go in, stand in line and get a stamped ticket. Get back on the bus, cross the border to El Salvador and a border agent comes on the bus and checks your passports and takes the stamped ticket and then you're on your way! Here are some pics around the border crossing.

 

 

 

 

 

 

We arrived at Hostal Las Flores in Chalchuapa Santa Ana around 5:15pm. Our driver Marvin hadn't looked up exactly how to get to our accommodations, so we drove around a little bit before we started to get directions from different people in the town. We had made reservations prior to arriving but they first said they couldn't accommodate everyone, but then figured out they could. Hostal Las Flores to me is a cross between a hotel and a hostel. Here is some pics of the place.

 

 

 

 

Here are the different statues they have placed around the grounds of the Hostal. Quite weird and creepy we all thought!

 

 

We were served a great breakfast each morning for $3 pp. Ruth was the cook. She had lived in the states for 32 years. The first morning we had scrambled eggs, fried plantain, bread, frijoles, milk, coffee and juice. The second morning: French toast, spinach and cheese pupusas, boiled plantain, frijoles, milk, juice and coffee. The third morning we were served chicken flautas, tomato and avocado wedges, sausage, frijoles, plantain with a type of creamy rice pudding on top, bread, coffee, juice and milk, a little odd for breakfast I thought, but it was very good! Ruth told us next time we come we can help her cook in the kitchen. Sounds like fun!!! We want to learn how to make pupusas! Just in case you don't know:

A pupusa (Spanish pronunciation: [puˈpusa], from Pipil pupusaw) is a traditional Salvadorian dish made of a thick, handmade corn tortilla (made using masa de maíz, a cornmeal dough used in Mesoamerican cuisine) that is usually filled with a blend of the following:

• cheese (queso) (usually a soft cheese called Quesillo found throughout Central America)
• cooked pork meat ground to a paste consistency (called chicharrón, not to be confused with fried pork rind, which is also known as chicharrón in some other countries)
• refried beans (frijoles refritos), or queso con loroco (loroco is a vine flower bud from Central America).

The two most common pupusas are the pupusa de quesillo (cheese) and more popular pupusa mixta with mixed ingredients of cheese, beans,^[1] and chicharrón. Pupusas are typically served with curtido (lightly fermented cabbage slaw with red chilies and vinegar).


On Saturday morning some in the group went to visit the Tazumal Mayan Ruins in walking distance from the hostal. Here are a few pics of that.

 

Does this surprise anyone? Monkey, I mean Morgan, in a tree! :0)

 

Saturday around noon-ish we headed out for the Pioneer meeting at the Kingdom Hall. We had an attendance of 105 regular pioneers. English of course!

Austin's first pioneer meeting. Their first as a married couple!

Andy and Natalie Perez from our cong. They are from Georgia. Awesome couple!!!

Brother Garcia, our C.O.

 

Mark and Allison Cooney from our cong. They are from Glasgow, Scotland. Another awesome couple!

 

Mitchel Wright our Secretary giving a part interviewing Diego Garcia (the taller of the two brothers on the left), who is a newly appointed elder in our cong.

Mike and Morgan's first pioneer meeting. So fun to share this as a family! (Ashlie made Morgan's top from Guatemalan fabric.)

Before the meeting started.

Another pic before it started.


Sunday morning we headed out at 7:30am for the Circuit Assembly. Peak attendance was 315! No baptismal candidates. Three of our elders had parts. Mike, Mark and Mitchel (our 3 Muskateers)! Here are pics of our day at the assembly at the Assembly Hall in Santa Ana! What a spiritual feast!!




Ready to head out for the assembly!

 

Here are pics outside and in of the Assembly Hall. Not sure why, being in a warmer climate, but this building is not air conditioned. They might be re-thinking that! It wasn't unbearable in there but we wouldn't have objected to some cool air!

 

 

 

Just in case you are wondering, the black things hanging from the ceiling are speakers.

 

Baptism pool. Pretty cool! It is also a fountain but it wasn't turned on when I took the pics.

Courtyard out by the baptism pool.

Looking into the hall from the baptism pool.

Getting ready for their walk through.

Ashlie making sure Austin is put together before going on stage for walk through.

Mike's turn.

And now Ashlie and Austin's turn.

Mark Cooney interviewing Nancy Gross. Great job!

Mitchel Wright. Another job well done!

Then it was Mike's turn. Awesome job by him and his participants, Ashlie and Austin!
(I have a video clip of their interviews but I'm having trouble getting it on here, as soon as I get it to work, I'll add it!)



We headed back for Pana on Monday, Dec. 29th! We stopped in Guatemala City to have pizza at Papa Johns. That was a little bit of a fisasco. The couldn't seem to get several of our pizzas right! But once they did, they were oh so good! We all made it back safe and sound around 6:00pm! What a wonderful, spriritually satisfying weekend! As a sister here would say, "Thank you Jehovah God!"