The End of the Mango Fast

The end of the mango fast!

Mis queridos familiares y amigos,

Its been another week down here in Mexico! This week feels like it went by fast, I feel like its only been a day or two since I was last here at this internet cafe writing the last email. Its been a rainy week. When I first got here, I literally thought the heat and humidity would kill me. I got used to it though and it didnt really bug me at all. This past week, however, it has been cloudy and rainy. For the first time in forever I wasnt wet because of sweat, but I was still wet from rain haha. And then when I took a shower, the water was really cold because the sun hadnt heated it up outside. I was COLD!!!!!!!! It was such an alien and strange feeling. I didnt really like it to be honest but it felt nice to remember what it feels like to be cold haha.

I have had a mango fast for the past few weeks because we havent gone anywhere to buy good mangos. However, this past week I was blessed with mangos! Different members gave us mangos randomly and it was a very nice treat. We also went to a store that sells good mangos (bad mangos are mangos that are too ripe and mushy with black spots and cuts) so now I have a ton of mangos and life is goooood.

We didnt have a lot of success this week despite how hard we worked. It was pretty frusterating because people wouldnt be there for the appointments we had set or would be busy. We got a text from Karina on Wednesday that she didnt really want to meet with us anymore, but she didnt answer her phone when we called her. When we did eventually find her in her house we talked to her for a bit. She said that we believe in Prophets like she believes in the Saints and that she didnt understand the Book of Mormon at all. We talked to her for a while to explain and testified (and I even cried a little bit) and she agreed to continue meeting with us. This whole episode was very sudden and unexpected. From the experiences that we have had with her I thought for sure she had a testimony of the Restoration and that everything was going fine.

Our other investigator who has a baptisimal date was still asleep when we passed by to pick her up so that was kind of dissapointing. Pedro blessed the sacrament in Sacrament meeting! He had to start over a couple times but he did well. I am pretty happy with how much the members have been doing to help him and support him. The members here are pretty great. Its not like church back home, but they are trying their best. We dont really get a whole lot of referrals from the members, but we are starting to work more with the members who have spouses who arent members. We are also going to start trying harder to get members to come to lessons with us so that they have a friend when they come to church and it wont feel so foreign. We eat with members at 2pm for the main meal everyday besides Monday and Friday. Monday is our day of preparation so we dont have time to go to a members to eat, and friday is our food by faith day. It is something that President Call started a little before he left. We tell the members to not schedule a meal on friday so that we can have a chance to eat with less actives and investigators. We ended up not getting invited by anyone to eat this past friday, but we found a new investigator in the time we would have been eating so maybe thats how God wanted it to be.

I still dont have a picture of my new companion sorry! I keep forgetting. He is great and we work well together. He only has a month and 12 days more than me on the mission so we arent the best teachers, but we are working hard at improving. I dont really know why every companion I have had has had less than 8 months on the mission. It would be nice to have a companion who has like a year and a half of experience so they can teach me how to teach really well. Nevertheless I am still learning a lot from Elder Oliveros and we are having a great time together.

I hope Colin has a great time on his High Adventure! I really miss those, they were always so much fun. The camping even prepared me a bit for Mexico (because there are bugs everywhere). I am glad that work is going well for dad, and  I hope Abby starts to behave herself better. I am sooooo excited for Tucker! That is pretty cool that Natalie is leaving this week too. I hope everything goes well for everyone this week! I hope you enjoy the picture of the mango I sent. ¡Hasta luego!

con amor,

Elder Johns