Hey! How in the world is everyone doing? Has it maybe been the longest? But the time has gone by too fast.

So my week. Can I just draw you a picture to help you all get a feel for my week?? Do you remember being a kid ready for a day at the beach. Pail and shovel in hand. Working effortlessly on the world's greatest sandcastle. The kind that has a little river circling it. Seashells bordering it. Laboring the whole day. Then standing back feeling the tightness of your sunburnt skin and with dirty sand covered hands attempt to fish out the crawly critters that somehow found place in your swim trunks. Yes. Then looking for your mother to show her your master piece, out of the corner of your eye see it. The wave comes slowly rolling in. And as if in slow motion gently surfs across your masterpiece, then retreats leaving you stunned, staring at the what once was a piece a art, but now nothing more than a piece of mush and seashells.

I don´t know if you´ve had that experience. I have. And this week somehow felt a lot like that. Long story short we prepared a man named Oscar for his baptism. He had his interview. He had all the lessons. He loves the church. He´s way excited for this covenant. Then BAM the wave hit. We went to his house Saturday to confirm everything for his baptism when he confessed to us that he had not really stopped smoking. It was really hard. My comp and I had worked endlessly with him. Prayed, fasted, and delighted to see changes and get everything prepared for his special day. We just sat there feeling like our sandcastle got crashed by a wave. Then on top of that our other investigator told us she decided she did not like the church and did not want us to visit her any more. That was kind of our week.

But I am all hopes that Oscar can change and we set a new date for him to be baptized. But the Lord is good and this week we also were able to see miracles. Maybe some day I´ll have the chance to tell you all about them.

I LOVE the work. Even when it´s hard. When it´s hard is when I have the chance to grow closer to the Lord. Hoorah for Israel. LOVE YOU ALL more than crawly things in the swimsuit....

Hna TAv

HELLO....

What's up everyone? I hope everyone is doing well. I am . Here in Spanish whenever we ask people how they are, they say, aqui mira, or here I am look. Yeah a little weird. But here I am look.

So let me just start out by quoting my zone leader, he said "Wow Hermana Tavenner, with you things are never boring are they". I don't even know how to tell my story.....

This week we had interviews with Pres. and during the interviews people were at the church cleaning and getting everything prepared for stake conference that weekend. We also had two baptisms of kids from a family we reactivated. So Saturday we passed by the church at 10 to start filling the font. Our mission leader said it takes about 2 hours or 2 1/2 hours to fill, which is normal, in my other area it was like 3 hours. So we started to fill ita nd then left to two appointments that we had planned. I kept having the thought to go back to the church. But these were really important appointments, and my companion said I was just worrying. So we went to the appointments. We had planned to grab lunch and then go to the church to stop the water, but again I had the thought to go back to the church. So we decided to order pizza at the church and eat that for lunch. When we arrived at the church building, OH MY LANTA. We maybe flooded the church.....

I think my mission leader was confused; maybe he thought I was asking how long it took to fill the church building. And with the stake conference priesthood session an hour and a half away, (not to mention my mission president would be speaking at it) we looked around at the flooded building feeling every joy in our heart drop to the floor.

We waded through the water until we got to the font and turned off the water. Luckily in El Salvador they only use tile and not carpet. I don't know how, but with help from members and prayers and us mopping like crazy somehow we had the baptisms and the stake priesthood session one hour later.

I have decided to listen from now on to the prompting I receive. I learned the lesson the hard way. But how grateful I am for this great power we have, the ability to receive inspiration from the Lord at whatever moment. If we keep our lines clean and clear from the clutter of the world, we can receive spiritual promptings. But we must do our part too, and ACT after we receive them......

Burnt hands, giving birth to jelly fish, preaching in buses, salvation of souls, flooding of church buildings right before stake conference, it's all part of the wonderful and glorious work of the Lord.

HOORAW FOR ISRAEL!!!

Hna Tav

Como están mis queridos hermanos y amigos? Santa vaca ya es bastante tiempo que no hablamos y no he visto sus carras tan bonitas (algunos de Ustedes..) pero de verdad un ano ya ha pasado. Espero que ya saben estoy pensando y orando por Ustedes casi siempre....



What’s up cutest family and dearest friends in the WORLD? Hows life in the states?? Thanks for the updates::::Soooo this week got a setter from Heidi (wow are you really home?), suz pants (you NEED to come to El Salvador!!), and invitation for Nicki’s wedding NDB ( cutest couple EVER).



So yeah you can tell it was a good week for me. I am doing really great. This week we had a baptism.. her name is Tatiana she is a young girl, 20 years old, her sister is already a member and so she was a reference. It was a hard process for her. She had to change a lot of things in her life. I"m sorry I'm not really into describing things. For me it is hard to write a lot about the people we are working with and the changes we are seeing because how does someone attempt to describe it? How do you write to other people that you found someone who wants to change their life. Who finally embraced the truth, who prayed and received an answer and that has entered into the gate that will one day lead them to eternal life, to the greatest joy they could ever hope for, to live with God in his mansions and inherit all that he has? How can I even describe that? I can't. So usually I just hope you know when I say someone was baptized you know that it was a hard painful process arriving at that point. But soooooooo worth it.

Next week we have another baptism, of two children. It was quite awesome really. Like our second day here we were wondering around, a tad lost, when some man who I didn't even know told us that members of our church lived in an apt near where we were. So we knocked on the door and found this huge family that was way inactive for many years. It was really neat though because the mother the night before decided she wanted to change her life and get back on the path, and the next day there we were. So their children will be baptized this Saturday and we are full of JOY.

You have a great heritage. You are sons and daughters of the prophets. Royal blood literally runs through your veins and the right to inherit all of the blessings of Abraham Isaac and Jacob. But what will you choose? Only YOU can reach out and take hold of those blessings. YOU were given your agency and the ability to choose eternal life to choose to be who you were created to be, but will you? Or will you be satisfied with what the world has to offer? Will you make this your home? Will you try to fit in here. To become apart of the world, the American dream, to be someone big someone important in this world, but someone who will never have your throne in the kingdom of our Father? It is up to US to choose. But we were made for something so much greater.

HOORAW FOR ISRAEL. Love you all more than pumpkin pie, and believe me I'm suffering haven't had it for like a year.....

Hermana Tavenner