Adventures galore! That's the only way to describe this month for us. It started with attempting to make my birthday fun despite having to study for finals all day. Nate did a great job! He surprised me with an apartment decorated with balloons and toilet paper streamers (a Bushman tradition). Then he made me breakfast while I studied. After a few hours of cramming he took me shopping (a blast for me but misery for him). It was fun to actually buy stuff for myself (usually I try not to spend too much on myself on our dismal college student budget), which I could do because the Bushmans and my family spoiled me with money and gift cards this year.
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| Had some awesome friends over for treats on my birthday :) |
After scraping through finals, we headed off to Walla Walla, Washington. We rode with Nate's Grandma, and listened to
The Undaunted on tape. That was the fastest drive of my life lol :) Washington was all in a fuss with the final preparations for Shanie's wedding when we arrived. Nate and I tried to help out where we could, and we squeezed in a taco wagon run on our lunch break. The immediate family and the bridesmaids stayed in a hotel near the temple (in the Tri-Cities area) the night before the wedding, and Nate's dad treated us to a family dinner at The Outback that night.
The next day (the day of the wedding), we all managed to make it to the temple on time (barely) and Shanie and Kyle had a wonderful sealing ceremony. Afterward we took a thousand pictures, and I got to wear a pretty red dress and hold a little bouquet of roses. Then we ate a delicious lunch at the luncheon held afterward, and I dragged Nate and Squire away to a little more shopping in preparation for our trip to El Salvador. We got back to Walla Walla and the Rowley's house just in time for last minute prep and more pictures. Then the people started to rush in and, being a bridesmaid, I got the privilege to stand in the line (which never ended by the way). Nate was so kind to stand with me and bring me food and water :) I guess standing there was also a blessing because it reminded a lot of people that were coming through the line that they forgot to give us a wedding present, and we ended up with several more cards. So I won't complain :) Once the line was broken up, I dragged Nate out onto the dance floor. The lights and everything were so pretty that I couldn't help myself. We might not be the "newly-weds" of the family anymore, but we are still young and in love :)
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| Dinner the night before the big day. |
When the wedding was over and things calmed down, we had a lot of fun relaxing with the family. We went for walks by the lake, and had a picnic at Rooks Park for Sylvia's birthday. Nate and I drove all the way to Hermiston, OR to get the perfect present for Sylvia, and we stopped and played in the Columbia River on the way home. The fun ended too soon, though, and before I knew it we were headed back to Utah.
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| Walla Walla Sunset :) |
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| Boys playing in the wheat fields :) |
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| Nate and I at the Columbia River |
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| Nate drawing a heart in the sand for me :) |
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| We had fun trying to take cute shadow pictures :) |
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| The family on a walk :) |
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| Still walking :) |
We got to my parents house around 9 p.m. and had to finish packing for our trip to El Salvador. We went to bed around 2 and got up at 5 to get the airport by 6:30. My mom (she is an angel) got up early to drive us to the airport. Everything went well with our first flight to Dallas. We even met some other mission presidents who were flying to El Salvador as well for the reunion. In Dallas we were delayed for awhile, and I took a very uncomfortable nap on the airport chairs.
We got to El Salvador around 7 p.m. their time. Once we made it through customs (very different from the U.S. customs), we were picked up by a taxi and Nate's old Bishop ("obispo" in Spanish). The Bishop and his wife were so kind to let us stay with them that night, and they even gave up their bed for us. This was my first experience staying outside of the country, and I was shocked at the living conditions there. Most people don't have running water, but instead have a reservoir of water that they use for everything: washing hands, clothes, dishes, and flushing the toilet. You can't drink the water, and it is dangerous to walk around, even in the house, barefoot. The houses are made of cement and are all connected together, with bars covering the doors and windows, and they rarely have a yard. It's not safe to be out after dark, and very few families have a car, so they take buses everywhere they go. Nate and I had the privilege of either catching a ride with a member somewhere close, or taking the bus everywhere we went. Another thing that struck me was the way that a lot of people made their living. Everywhere we went there where people selling things, from fruit and candy to strange medicines and clothes. We rarely had to seek out what we wanted or needed to buy, because they would always come to us.
For the rest of the trip we mostly stayed with the Martinez family, who also live in Soyopango. From there we went to the surrounding areas to visit people that Nate either knew or baptized. On Friday we went to the mission reunion, and I got to meet a lot of Nate's old companions and friends from the mission. Saturday we went to the Temple Celebration with the Martinez family, which was a lot of fun. It was interesting to learn more about the culture of El Salvador, though I couldn't understand most of what they said in Spanish.
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| Nate and I with his Mission President and his wife. |
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| Mission reunion. |
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| Nate and Chavez, his mission companion. |
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| More than 2500 youth danced in the Temple Celebration. |
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| Nate and I at the temple celebration. |
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| Nate and Freddy at the Temple Celebration. |
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| After the temple dedication. |
On Sunday we watched the Temple Dedication from the Stake Center in Soyopango. Afterward we hopped on a bus and headed for Usulutan, one of Nate's areas. We were hoping to meet up with some people and see the new church building there (the old one was horrible), but the church was locked and no one was there. We later found out that they had had technical difficulties and were unable to broadcast the Temple Dedication there. So we had to walk back and try to find a place to stay. Everyone was looking at us strangely (we were in our church clothes carrying suitcases), and we later learned that that part of town had become more dangerous since Nate had been there. We were lucky nothing bad happened to us. We found a taxi and a hotel (which I was super stoked about because it had a hot shower and a swimming pool) and visited one family. The next day we went to visit one more family there, but it took a lot longer than expected, and we were running late to meet up with one of Nate's companions in another city. We were blessed to get a ride back to the hotel and to the bus terminal with one of the members there. I was SOOO excited to get out of Usulutan.
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| Nate and I with the member that gave us a ride. |
Our next stop was Sensuntepeque. It is a more colonial city with cobblestone roads, rolling hills, and tons of shops. I bought 4 shirts there for only $10 total. By far my favorite city in El Salvador. We went around visiting families that Nate and his companion Chavez had taught there. One family fed us dinner, and then we stayed with another family that had an extra room. That was my favorite day, despite spending 4 and 1/2 hours on buses to get there, and the rainstorm that started as we were on our way home for the night. All of it was fun somehow. Sensunte is just a magical place.
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| We met an awesome (and cranky) parrot :) |
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| Sensunte even had a gazebo!!!!!!! |
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| We came across some horses that were just roaming around without a fence. The sun is in my eyes, that's why my face looks like that lol :) |
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| The view in Sensuntepeque. |
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| Nate and I learning to make pupusas. |
The next morning we had breakfast at Nate's favorite pupusaria in town, and headed back to the capital for the wedding of Nate's MTC companion (he married an El Salvadorian girl). We got to the temple and were so excited to find that they had delicious (and normal) food in the distribution center across the parking lot. That food was heaven. We finished lunch just in time to hurry over to the temple for what we thought was going to be his friend's sealing. But it turns out that they were going through a endowment session at that time and were going to get sealed after. So we borrowed some clothes from the temple and went through a session with them. It was really exciting to be in the temple on the very first day that it was open, but it was also crazy. They were still getting things organized (naturally of course), so they were running behind. Then, they told me to wait in the girls locker room and gave me a number. I had no idea what was going on (they were all speaking Spanish to me) and I had no idea where Nate and his friend were. Finally I ran out of the locker room to look for them, and some concerned temple workers followed after me, wondering what was wrong. They found someone who spoke English to translate for me, and eventually I figured out where Nate was and what was going on. Finally we got to go to the session, and afterward we watched them get sealed. We were in the temple for 5 hours, which would have been amazing if I hadn't been so confused a lot of the time. There is nothing scarier than being alone in a locker room full of temple workers who don't speak the same language as you. Yikes!
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| I discovered that Pollo Campero has the best fried chicken! |
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| We ate lunch at the Mall with Putich and Krissa. |
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| Nate with Putich, the friend who got married, and Krissa, his new wife. |
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| I managed to capture one picture of the temple before the camera died. |
We headed back to Soyopango and stayed with the Martinez family again. We spent the next day with one of Nate's converts named Freddy. With him we went to see some ancient Lamanite ruins in San Andres. I thought it was so cool to be standing in a place where so much ancient Book of Mormon history took place. I wish I could have been there to see it then.
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| Nate and I with Freddy and his novia (girlfriend). |
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| Freddy in front of the ruins. |
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| Nate and I with Freddy and his mom. |
The next day we went with Hermano Martinez, his daughter, Cindy, and her son, Julito, to the beach. We went to a really secluded beach with black sand and huge waves. The only other people there were 5 or 6 American surfers. I saw more white people that day than I did anywhere else in El Salvador, which I thought was a little surprising and kinda funny. Nate had fun boogie boarding, and I played in the waves and the sand :) We ate lunch at a restaurant on the beach, and I was excited to eat some real fajitas (they were delicious!). On our way home we stopped by the fish market, saw some awesome ginormous fish, and bought some cool souvenirs for the family.
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| The perfect beach! As real and non-touristy as possible :) |
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| Left to right: Nate, Cindy, Julito and Hermano Martinez. |
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| The restaurant we had lunch at. |
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| Nate boogie boarding. |
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| View from the dock at the fish market. |
On our last day there we wound this down by visiting Llobasco, a town with a lot of artisan shops (they make fascinating ceramic souvenirs there). We picked up something for everyone, and brought home a sweet wind-chime for ourselves. It was a real treat! Then we stopped in Sensunte one last time before we headed to Soyopango to have dinner with another family. The next morning we were up bright and early to get to our flight on time, and though we had some more airport drama, we made it safely back to Salt Lake just in time for a Bushman family gathering.
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| Me outside one artisan shop :) |
It's safe to say that we had a nice, relaxing and exciting break. Now it's back to school and work and well...basically life :)
