Friday, August 14, 2015 -- Week #26 - Day #179 - Santa Cruz de Yojoa

So cars (and mototaxis, buses and motorcycles) pass by really, really close to pedestrians, you gotta be careful here. Sometimes they almost brush up against you, so that's a little startling. There's only so much edge of the road you can walk on, and they still hug the edge, even when there's no one else on the road. Little bit different than SPS.

There's also a lot of younger girls with babies already, we're teaching a couple where the guy's 23 years old, the girl's about to turn 18 years old in November, and they have a little girl who'll also turn 2 years old in November, they've been together since a little before they got pregnant. Makes you sit back and think a minute about how your life's going. It's still hard to get people married, and I would venture to say that most people are in an (union libre), or are just living together, having kids whenever. A little bit different than the way I was raised, and I'm glad that I've had the gospel in my life to help give me some direction. Anyways, we're happy to teach them, we'll discuss the importance of families as a part of the "Plan of Salvation," and see what needs to happen to get them married so they can be baptized. Gonna be interesting. The whole public breastfeeding thing is still very much a thing, by the way, still haven't gotten quite used to that. And every one lives with all the family, so sometimes we end up teaching a group of 8 people, although it's really hard to have seriously progressing investigators here. To be honest I sometimes feel like I'm talking to a wall, because there is absolutely zero expression or commitment from the said parties... just kinda the culture here I guess. It's also very hard to find and teach males, as they're usually working and it's just the women in the house with the kids. And if the guy's not on board with everything (aka, we haven't been able to teach him), it is really hard to have the women be strong in their decisions. Plus you've got the grandparents and all they have to say about whatever it is they think, and a whole lot of babies and toddlers all over the place... it's really interesting. Plus a lot of people can't / don't know how to read, so that adds another layer of interestingness to the whole equation. All in all, the mission is just really interesting right now! We've gotta find more people to teach, but there seems to be very little results right now, so the whole process is quite draining to be honest, and also that we have to walk 20-30 minutes to wherever they are uphill, both ways, on all those blessed rocks, it's a little physically draining as well. But, it's what we do here, so we'll just keep on rolling with it! We've made a goal to increase our contacts this week, so we'll see how that turns out.

And, as the crowning event, Hna Rosas's umbrella broke! So that's pretty sad, as she uses it every afternoon as we're walking around to block the sun, as she really doesn't like being hot (I've also taken to using my umbrella in the early afternoon, as the sun is a bit strong, although I'm not quite as religious in my usage as she is) and now she misses carrying it around. Plus, it was a nice umbrella. So now we have to go find a new umbrella for her. Ah, la mision!