Mom, the Oscars do matter to me, as it turns out. Something I've learned here on my mission. I really, truly, honestly, love movies. But I cannot watch them. It only becomes a problem when we enter a house with the intention to teach and the first thing they do is bring up the recent movie they watched. Because then I go off, talking about movies for a good fifteen minutes. And then these investigators stop being investigators and start just being my friends and then I don't do my job as well as I could. So, yup, I guess the Oscars matter to me. But anyways, on to life.
So, I've run into a problem here in Puerto Angel. We did divisions with the zone leader last week and Elder Gonzales gave me a piece of advice that I've quickly and subconsciously become obsessed with. He told me that there are three types of investigators that we should really focus ourselves on and use our time with: Investigators who accept baptismal dates, investigators that go to church, and investigators who do both. Here's the problem: we don't have very many of those three. So I am constantly looking for new investigators. My all-world patience with my struggling investigators is slowly (quickly) vanishing. Instead of sticking with it until the change, I teach three lessons and then start looking for newbies. And Puerto is small. But life goes on.
We do have several cool stories/happenings of the week. First of all, my companion has conjunctivitis, so we went to the doctor on Friday. The doctor lives in Pochutla. We visited two (count 'em) places: the doctor and the pharmacy. We found three (count 'em) references for the Pochutlan Elders. Way to go with open your mouth, Elders! Third, Joel, the kid who did not believe in God a week ago, is ready to be baptised. He has done a lot of bad things in his life (more than I am legally entitled to say), but he wants to be baptized and he wants to change his life. I hope he stays active.
As for my investigators, our coolest would have to be Dora, the sister of three guys who my companion and his former companion tried to teach. We found her one day when we went to search for one of the drunks in my first week. She is progressing awesome. She loves the doctrine of the resurrection because whenever she thinks of her dead mom, she imagines her young and perfect again. She loves reading the Book of Mormon because it takes her away to a "real place." She knows going to Church is important. She will probably be my next baptism in two weeks.
Also, English is coming in handy. We were walking at like 8 oclock at night the other day. Note: Here, in Puerto Angel, 8 is bedtime. It makes it really hard to proselytize. I'm pretty sure nobody here works either. They just lie around in hammocks, finding money in the giant papayas that are falling like giant, dangerous, and delicious bombs. Anyway, walking at night when nobody was awake when all of the sudden a teenage girl jumped out at us and requested help with her English homework from the Guerro (person who does not have black hair, brown eyes, and dark skin). We are teaching her family tonight. We've also started English classes and we have like 8 students, an all time high for me.
Anyway, I've got to go. This weekend I will be getting on a bus for 10 hours to arrive in Oaxaca to hear an Apostle of the Lord speak, go to the temple, eat a good lunch, and then get back on a bus and drive another 10 hours to make it back to Puerto in time to bless the sacrament. I'm excited. Love you all. Bye
Love,
Elder Johnson
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