Howdy!

On July 18, Elder Johnson wrote:

Family and Friends:

This week was a great week because we had two baptisms! Adela and her mother Venustiana. They were so excited, especially after the baptism. I had the opportunity to baptize Venustiana, who is 90 years old. It was cool because we had to have three missionaries in the font to support her. She can't stand up, and has to roll around in a wheel chair. It was a good experience and she was beaming after her baptism.

My companion and I had an interesting experience this week. We bought bananas, just your normal average everyday red bananas (yes, red), and put them in the fridge. The day after I was washing some dishes and my companion reaches in the fridge for a banana. A few seconds later he yells, "AAAAHHHHHHHGGGGG!! WE'RE GOING TO DIE!!!" Needless to say, my interest was peaked. I asked him why, and he said that he stuck his hand in a spider web. We pulled out the bananas and inspected them. Sure enough, there was a big sticky spider web right in the middle of the bananas. We carefully opened them to look for the spider, and...there she was, big and black (your common banana spider, one of the most deadly in the whole world, one bite, and it's bye-bye, so long, bon voyage) and dead. Whew. We scraped the web off the bananas and put it on a plate for further inspection. The spider did not die from the cold of the fridge, not the dark, but died from giving birth to MANY baby banana spiders who were still hanging around in the web. They were still alive. We acted quickly and got some poison and killed all the tiny people killers before they could escape, then cleaned out the fridge and thoroughly cleaned the bananas. They are all dead now.

The produce here is really swell. Good fruits. The bolillios are...well, bread. The pan dulce is good, especially with some abuelita hot chocolate. I am indeed eating sufficiently. The chilies are hot. I found out that I must be allergic to some or something, because they give me a horribly bad and bitter taste in my mouth that fills my whole tongue and makes me want to puke. I have to sometimes swallow whole bites because chewing makes it a lot worse. There are all kinds of chilies here.

My companion is good. Our zone is good too, just doing what we do...The new president is a really great guy. He only brought his wife, all his kids are on their own.

I sent a picture of my desk. It's interesting, I guess.

Love:

Elder Johnson