Haha! That quest annoyed me too when I first started playing.
I'm not really for modding when you very first try out a game, but there are some quality-of-life ones that make it a lot better -- one of my favourites is one that adds little icons of the townspeople on the map so you know where they are! Because they all move around during the day too and have their own schedules so sometimes they're hard to find, haha.
Best advice for this game is to take it slow and not rush. 🙂 It doesn't matter if you find all 26 people in the first day or if it takes you all month! Just take it at your own pace.