Hola Familia!

It is great to hear from y'all. Things are going great here, a little more difficult because it is semana santa. it is a huge festival here and for the first time since I came shops are closed. They don't close on sundays but they close for semana santa. The cyber is open only for us today. very nice of them, so we're writing a lot earlier than normal. Cambios are this coming wednesday, and president lopez said that we'll have some missionaries from este with those of us from oeste for the transition of the area, Hna woods is going to santa ana and we're pretty sure Hna Clark is too. This morning some of the Elders from mission este brought mattresses for their missionaries and they told us there will be 4 missionaries coming so we aren't sure if we'll even be here for another full cambio or if we'll just introduce them to the area, the investigators and then go to another area in our mission. We had a multizona on monday and president said that as part of the transition we'll be together for at least one week. We're on the edge of our seats to figure out what will happen. The multizona on monday was awesome. We watched a talk that Elder Holland gave in the MTC in provo the day before I reported. I had watched it in english in the CCM but it was great in spanish too. He talks about how the mission changed his life and how our savior calls us to be fishers of men not just for 2 years but for our entire lives. It is so powerful. I don't know if there is a place that you can watch it, but wow.
Mom I got your letter pouch on mon. thanks :D I love getting mail. Still no sign of the package though. Oh and don't worry about Peanut Butter. I found some. XD
I was reading a liahona the other day and came across a great scripture and quote. IN the liahona(& ensign)from March 2010 there is an article called Safe in his hands and it says,"In any of the difficulties that lie ahead of us, as individuals and as a people, the Lord’s voice should echo in our hearts: “Fear not, little children, for you are mine, and I have overcome the world, and you are of them that my Father hath given me” (D&C 50:41)." I liked it a lot.
So Because of semana santa we aren't going to have a wedding and baptism this weekend. We have plans for monday. We need one more piece for the wedding, a copy of this thing called a DUI(doo'ee) the photo identification here and Hno Mauricio's expired last week and he went to get a new one this week but the office was closed until monday. But we have a couple of other investigators that have been off and on investigators. Mostly becasue they work a lot so we could get in touch with them, but they have been coming to church most weeks. One said she'd get baptized, but she wants her boyfriend to baptize her so we are waiting for her to tell us when he can.
The work is hard, but great, and I am so greatful for the opportunity to be here. I am amazed everyday of the ways that the lord shapes us to be what he needs, and the person he is shaping me to be.
I probably wont' have pday on friday next week, it will probably be a little more than a week until my next pday. (monday after next)
Love you all
Love Hna Allen

Another week has flown by

Wow another week, its friday already, I feel like I just wrote yesterday. We start semana 6 on this next monday, wow this cambio has really flown by. We found an abogado that will marry our investigators without needing a certificate de nacimiento, apparently it is a personal preference, so on the 23rd we're going to have a wedding and a baptism. :D We might get to have 2 people be baptized because we can't find the Hna's records. She's supposed to be looking for her cerificate of bautismal, but if not she'll be baptized with her husband. We were a bit concerned that she'd be offended, but she just laughed and accepted it.
We have a few other investigators that are positive, but are progressing slowly and have many difficulties. We hope to see one investigator in particular at church this sun. He came once before, but we'd only taught him once and he just showed up and we didn't know he was there and he left before we could get to him and talk to him after church(you always talk to new faces). It wasn't a very good experience for him, no one talked to him, that was the sunday of ward conference so there was a lot of vocab and phrases that he didn't understand, and he didn't get the raising the arm thing. Anyway we introduced a powerful new convert to him (actually they already knew each other from their wild drinking days, and Hno Luiz joked that instead of talking about spilt beer now the'd talk about the gospel.) Hno Luiz is an interesting story by inteslf. He'd been attending church for 7 years, and his entire family was members, but he had never been bapized. The entire ward thought he was already a member, so when he got baptized this Jan they didn't understand why. Anyway Hna Woods has had an interesting week(and therefore me as well) we had an Elder with appendicitis, several more with amoebas that don't die with the regular treatments, so the treatment was changed, and a couple of Elders with emotional issues. One who they brought in to be the comp of the post op Elder who has to stay in San Salvador until at least next Mon, so they get to chill in the Office until then. So we went to San Salvador 3 times this past week and we're going again today. Also a big step aparently President told her that she'll be going to Santa Ana this next change. And that it will be what we thought originally, one of the missionaries from the other mission and one of the missionaries from our mission will be companions for one change in all the areas that we are turning over to the other mission. In July my mission changes to the El Salvador Santa Ana/Belice mission, and the mission office and presidents home will be in Santa Ana. As part of that we are turning over All of San Salvador that our mission is in as well as Santa Techla and probably all of La Libertad Stake but I am not sure. Anyway next change it'll eiher be me or Hna Clark here in Las Palmeras 1 and since Hna Clark will probably be the next enfermera and Hna Woods has been the Enfirmera for more than half of her mission it will probably be me that stays and orients the other mission to Las Palmeras 1.
So I've learned a lot here, and one of the things that Hna Woods keeps telling me is that the lord doesn't call us to do things unless he knows we can do it. As I think about how lost I get here in my area at times I think, alright, If I am not capable of doing it, I won't be asked to do it. All I have to do is rememer that the lord doesn't ask about my capabilty, but rather my availability, and as I demonstrate my dependability the lord will strengthen my capability to do what he asks. She tells me about when she was made Sr companion on her 2nd change and was asked to train at the same time as she had been the enfermera for one change. She said she couldn't remember anyone and she didn't feel like she knew the area but as she worked on it she was able to do it, because the lord increased her capabiliy.
The language is coming, I undersand more and more every day, and I feel more and more comfortable talking everyday as well.
My time is up but I love you all, Thank you so much for your support!

Greetings once again from Santa Tecla!

Hola y'all!
It is so good to hear from you. Mom, I'm honestly not sure how pouch works, all I know is that every monday the office elders get a manila envelope with dear elders and pouch mail. Which my lucky 2 comps get to sort while I sit in the room with Hna Woods while she charts the incidents from the week. Missionary health is interesting, We had one elder this past week who had had amoebas(supposedly the most common cause of recurrent diarrhea here) its called entamoeba histalytica and the treatment is 2 sets of pills the first is 3 days of 2000mg and the 2nd is 3 days of 500mg of a different med. The first is supposed to kill the amoebas and the 2nd the kesaise (kinda like eggs) and then you're done but it is way rough on the liver and so you can't have the treatment any more often than every three months, so if you get amoebas again your out of luck. But this Elder took the pills, finished and called the day after saying he didn't ever feel better, and hna woods told him sometimes it takes a bit of time, and so he waited for another week and called and said, I still have diarrhea, I'm loosing weight really bad and i feel really week, he had another test and it was still positive for amoebas. But the problem is we don't know if he got a bad round of the first meds the first time or what, so Dr. MacArthur said to start him on flagyll and hope that helps. Poor elder. We Talked to another this morning that sounds like a torn rotator cuff. P-day is dangerous. So many missionaries get hurt on P-day.

Anyway for this week we went to the office 2x(normally only once but we wanted to see this Hna who thinks she broke her foot, she didn't come, and Hna Woods was like, I'm not going to say have an xray until I see this foot) we also spend an evening taking an Elder with an unexplained fever(39 Celsius) for 1 week, that didn't respond to abx, to an internalist. The first time we've used this doctor so Hna Woods went with him and I sat in the waiting room.
We also had our district meeting in La Puerta this week, so I got to see the ocean as we drove past it in the bus, and the white sand too. That was exciting, but it is really hot down there.

Anyway so we spent a lot of time traveling this week, but our family that need to get married almost have all the paperwork they need. This morning we had an awesome lesson with just the parents, and we brought a member who had had troubles overcoming an alcohol addiction as well, and he was like, I know it can be hard, but my door is always open, any time you need support or someone to talk to, come on down to my house.He also said to remember that we don't make covenants with the missionaries, the bishop etc, we make covenants with God. He was so powerful, I wish every recent convert (actually every member) was as great of a member missionary as him.

The other Hnas have a family that came to conference :) He actually quit his job so he could come, he said, I know that god wants me in Church, so I'll go and trust that he'll help me find another job. :) what faith! He has to get divorced, before he can get married to the woman he's living with now, so we probably won't be able to baptize him this change, but we're trusting in and seeing so many miracles. This Hno has read the Book of Mormon 2 times before we found him and he has such a strong testimony of the gospel! Thank you those who came before who planted seeds for us.

They also have been teaching an Hna who´s the sister of the Hno who came with us to teach this morning. She also came to conference and was so excited about it, She worked late yesterday and so they didn't get to teach her again this week, but we're hopeful that she'll be at church this sun and that she'll accept a baptismal date, She has a testimony of the living prophet so :).
We also taught a wonderful woman who we had put in the investigatores antiguos section of the area book, but we felt prompted to visit her yesterday and she said she'd come to church this Sunday She says she knows the BOM is the word of god, and that Joseph Smith was a prophet, but i think she's been having trouble leaving her other church because of her friends there. Even though she has LDS friends.

SO this week really has flown by, we've worked hard and we are always finding new people, the unfortunate part for us is that many of them don't actually live in our area so we are always giving references to other groups of missionaries. We always pray that they'll go and find them, or call them or what not. We have talked to 3 other people in the last week who have read the BOM, and believe it, one of them came to conference, but he says the missionaries haven't come to his house yet or called (he works in front of our house so we see him every other day).

Mormon.org isn't really translated into spanish yet so we don't do much with it, Anita, besides that most of the people we talk to don't have internet access.
Bryce Your description reminded me of so many of the pasages (knid of like sidewalks, but there isn't a road, its just the path between the houses) in a few of the colonias.
My time is about over, Love Y'all and hope to hear what is going on in your lives ;)
Love Hermana Allen

Hola y'all

Greetings from El Salvador (otra vez) I got pouch mail from Mom, Jake and Bryce on monday thanks!
It was good to hear from you and it was fun to read Anita's email as well, though I'm pretty sure I missed something (like why she was in the mtc for so long)
Ok mom:
What is your favorite scripture you would like to have on your missionary plaque.My favorite scripture right now is either Moses 6:32 And the Lord said unto Enoch: Go forth and do as I have commanded thee, and no man shall pierce thee. Open thy mouth, and it shall be filled, and I will give thee utterance... or Moroni 8:16 ....Behold, I speak with boldness, having aauthority from God; and I fear not what man can do; for bperfect clove dcasteth out all fear.
Also I need a wallet size picture, got any ideas where to direct me to one you'd like? There is a pic on my blog that will probably work it is the one I sent in with my papers.

This week has been an interesting series of ups and downs. Our investigator had his interview for baptism, he had to have it with pres lopez because he is a former madero(gang member). down here all gang members have tattoos. People who aren't in a gang don't do tattoos, so you can tell be seeing if they have tattoos as long as they haven't been in the states. anyway all went well and we started planning a wedding!! and a baptism(this is the dad of the two boys who were baptized last week) plans for a wedding on the 8th of april and a baptism on the 9th, but i think that might change (Hna Sandra wants to change the day of the wedding to Sat so her mom and sister can come, sounds reasonable to me). (UP) day before yesterday a dear friend of the family passed away and yesterday hno turned back to the bottle for comfort(down) we've arranged for various members to help him( it seems like every newish member has 2 things in common 1 they all have to get married before they can be baptized, and 2 have to quit smoking or drinking).
We found several great nuevos, and taught them a couple of lessons, then went back and one was sick, one was busy, and one just wasn't there. so goes missionary work.
Our other half is teaching a family that the Hno has read the BOM 2 times and is working on a third, he has a testimony of the BOM, the big obstacles are 1 his work calls him in at any time and so far he has worked every sunday, and 2 his 'spouse' doesn't want to get married. They call each other spouse even if they aren't married, it makes it a bit difficult to figure out if they actually are married or have been together for long enough to just say that.
It has been hot here this week, even the el savadoranians say so, though their version of cold is less that 70 Fahrenheit. It has been in the 90s this week. Oh and I don't think I told you last week, our water has been working for the past week and half. its been great to take a shower (not pour water over yourself with a bowl.) and its even greater to be able to wash dishes in the sink. and not at the pila. And to be able to flush the toilets. :D what a blessing running water. Well i'm about out of time, hope to hear from you all, oh and Bryce and Anita, just cc me if you can. :D
Love y'all Hna Allen
PS my p-day is on friday this cambio in case you haven't noticed