Día 195

Last Monday I cut my hair all by myself. Cool right? The only problem was that the #2 clipper that Elder Mejia has isn't quite the same as the #2 clipper that Elder Johnson always used on the sides of my head and the back... so it ended up really really short. I then had to cut the top pretty short as well so as to not look foolish. All in all... I'm pretty sure my hair is shorter than it has ever been in my life with the exception to when I was born. Elder Mejia has taken to calling me G.I. Joe, and when we had district meeting, one of the Elder Nuñéz saluted me. However, as my mom always said, "the difference between a good haircut and a bad haircut is about 3 weeks."

Wednesday was a fun morning. I had to go to the offices in San Fernando and do a whole bunch of paper work... things to be legal in this country. Funny enough... it was the same stuff I did when I had recently arrived. The problem was that they thought those papers were good for 6 months, so they didn't move on to the next step yet... and the papers had expired... so with my tourist visa of 3 months... I've been illegal here for about 3 months... it's probably fine. Next week I should be going to Retiro to finish up everything and hopefully I will at last be legal here.

This past week was just about the same... we taught a lot of lessons, but we didn't find very many new investigators, and Adrian was the only one who came to church yesterday. Adrian is living with a sister from the ward and they have a couple children together. He's attended church a ton of times and the only thing that he needs to be baptized is to get married. For some reason he's scared, but we had some really spiritual lessons with him this week. A Mormon Message that is probably my favorite is "Escoged Hoy" by President Eyring. I'm guessing it would be something like choose today, but it probably has a different name in English. It's really great. 

Carlos, another investigator, was really excited to come to church, and he's progressing really well. The only problem was, his neice had her 15 year old birthday party Saturday night at his house. 15 years old here is really big for girls for some reason. The party started at about 9:00 PM... and when we passed by to pick him up for church at 9:00 AM Sunday morning, the party was still going on. He was also a tad bit drunk... but he felt really, really bad for not being able to come to church and was crying as he apologized. I think this week we'll work a little bit on the Word of Wisdom.

I know I'm in Pablo Nogués for a wise purpose and the Lord wants me here right now. I have faith that as we continue working hard with patience we will be able to see success in this area and help the Lord in His vineyard. 

I love you all. Que la fuerza les acompañe.

Elder John William Garrett