Dear Mom,

I'm sorry, I confess: I wrote colton first. And now I don't have much time. But I am trying to send you the first pictures of my area that you will have seen as a sort of peace offering! Please forgive me! I'll try to be vivid while writing about my week as well because, to be perfectly honest, it's been a pretty good week.

So the rainy season continues. It doesn't sound like it's been as bad here as it is there. The thing is, here, it is always drizzling. And my companion, from honduras, always seems to be cold because of it. I'm fine. I love it. It reminds me of Minnesota rain, which I sorely miss (after a year in Utah and a year in Oaxaca, I need me a good ole thunderstorm or Tornado). By the way, just so you don't freak out hearing it from some other place, apparently a hurrican hit the coast of Oaxaca, but I'm a long way from the coast of Oaxaca and only heard about it from the news updates that arrive from my cell phone. Regardless, all the missionaries are safe. So don't you worry. This is much like the Earthquake that I didn't feel - I'm either REALLY oblivious in my missionary bubble or God doesn't want me to die. I think it's both.

Despite the rain (we kept working, only coming home early twice because of rain and my companion feeling sick - where I promptly beat him many times in the Monopoly deal card game that he bought), we had a really good week. Several really good, really Spiritual lessons, the most powerful being that which we had with Isai. Isai is the brother of a pretty awesome convert. He's twenty two years old, speaks really fast, fixates on weird things (if killing bugs is against the 10 commandments, for example), and is my project. I want him to get baptize. I want him to have a testimony. Because he wants to have a testimony. He nearly yelled at me once when I thanked him for being patient with us because he insisted that us coming here was a blessing. He just wants to do the right things, even if he's not very good at it. Problem is, he hasn't been progressing. He seems to have a special mental block for prayer. He almost never does it by himself. So we decided to get back to basics and teach him the Plan of Salvation. It turned into a rocking lesson. We talked about everything, answered doubts, and most importantly, followed the Spirit. Everyone felt it. His sister was in tears. My companion was in tears. I was feeling more reverent than I had in months. It was just one of those times when you know, without a single doubt in your mind, that God is and that He created a perfect plan for us. Perfect in every sense of the word. I couldn't even begin to deny the truthfulness of the Gospel in that moment. It got me on the right track, to say the least. I learned, above all, that I need to stop talking so much and needed to let the Spirit talk a bit. I can't teach MY lessons. I have to let Him teach HIS lessons. So that's what I tried to do.
And it has, relatively, worked. We taught another great plan of salvation lesson with a 29 year old lawyer. He actually started to make a diagram of the Plan as we spoke, under his own free will. With an inactive family and an investigator, we taught the Restoration, focusing specifically on Prophets and the blessing of having a modern-day prophet. We made some good headway with them, though they are still far from Activity. But it's been a great spiritual week. I've been humbled by the power of the Spirit. He really does know a lot more than me. Sometimes, I like to think that I'm pretty smart. I`m not. God is much, much smarter and really always teaching me things I should know. If I ever got around to listening to Him on a consistent basis, I think I'd live a pretty good life. 

The only problem with the week was this: despite the fact that a cool reference showed up to Church, Navith, our scheduled baptism for this week, did not. And she could have. Sounds like she just didn't want to. So we need to talk to her a little bit more and will probably be postponing the date again. That's a bummer, but I'm done just baptizing. I want to start converting. That's my goal. Because converts are awesome. THey have awesome testimonies. I want a testimony like that. Boy oh boy, do I have some work to do.

Okay, really, Mom, I don't need much in my year package. Just memories, music, and fruit certs. Spèaking of music, tell dad to put, really, ALL disney on that mp3 that he might be sending me as well as "Hallelujah" by Jeff Buckley and all of Israel Ka'amiole (I butchered that, didn't I?) as well. These are things that are permitted. Presidente might be pretty strict in some things, but he likes good music, so I'm fine.
Well, love you all. I'm gonna try to get some real letters off these weeks in the mail, so that'll be my week long project. Love you all and see you in 2 years!

Love,
Elder Johnson