saludas de El Salvador

Hola amado familia!
Things have been going well this week, we had a few miracles(I love miracles) happen this week. First we had one investigator, who when we met him told us he would never be baptised, tell us that he will be baptised in December. HUGE step for him, he had told us that when his daughter comes in December he'll be baptized, but he told us that whether or not she comes, he'll get baptized, he also promised he'd come to church the first sunday that his son is out of the hospital and back in the house(their son had a brain tumor that was operated on about a month ago)-.another huge miracle for him. We have seen him progress so much while we've been working with him.
Our other major miracle of the week came when we dropped by the church on mututal night to talk to the bishop really fast. He told us that one day he had been in his mom's house (which is infront of the church) when this young woman with a baby in her arms come over and said that someone from the church(the bishop of the other ward) had told her to talk to our bishop. SHe asked bishop if he could baptise her baby. He told her that we don't baptize babies in our church, we give them blessings, but that if she would like, we could baptize her, she said she'd like to be baptized, and bishop took down her name and address and when we came by he gave them to us. Her name is Diana, and she said she had gone to church with a friend 5 years ago, and they had given her a Gospel principles book that she had been reading as well as they had taught her how to pray, and that she had been praying since then. SHe said that she had been praying about Joseph Smith and she believed that he was a prophet... she is so amazing. She has been through so much in the last 5 years, and we are jsut so thrilled that we get to help her find the path to happiness. We're planning on the 17th of september for her baptism, and we're so excited about it.
Changes are this week. I am pretty sure I am staying, but we'll see on sunday night.
The El Salvador Temple opened to the public on tuesday the 23 and president said that one of these p-days we'll get to go to the temple. I am excited about that.
I read an article in a liahona about our refined heavenly home, and about learning to be more refined here will help us feel more at home there. It made me think about how our homes are supposed to be a little bit of peace and calm in the sea of caos of the world, but that so often(too often) we let the busy pace of the world flow right on into our homes, and we don't have a place of peace and calm.But how important it is to make that effort to have our home be that bit of calm where we can go to relax and enjoy those we love.
I also was reading another article about finding our own place to go to think and ponder and pray-to meditate- it talked about finding our own sacred grove. That doesn't mean wandering out into the wilderness or anything, just means finding a place in our home where we can have time to really talk to our heavenly father. where we can open our hearts and pour out our concerns and problems and honestly talk to Him. I think sometimes we (I personally) are so used to the formula, heavenly father, we are grateful, we ask for, in the name of... that we forget to actually talk. To pour out our souls in prayer, so Our loving heavenly father can help us. I have been taking some time in my personal prayers to turn it into a conversation, not just hey here is a list of things i am grateful for, and hey i'd like these thiings, but really say so today we didn't have a good day, or today was such a great day, or i have this concern, or i feel so blessed. I think at times I have been guilty of not really letting my prayers get beyond the ceiling, because they didn't come from my heart. I have gained such a great testimony that when we sincerely pour our hearts out to him, when we take our problems and concerns to him, maybe he won't take them away(probably not) BUT he will take the weight of them, so we can continue.
The dedication was great and our meeting with President Eyring was wonderful, I learned so much and it helped me change my perspective a bit.
I love these people, and I love learning about the gospel. And I love helping others learn about the gospel as well.
Con mucho amor,
Hna Allen