Talking to people.. some cool, some crazy

¿Que Pasa familia? It sounds like you guys are doing a lot of fun
stuff! I love autumn when the trees change color! Its the best
temperature too! Its really hot here today and ive been playing soccer
for a couple of hours so im reeeeaaally sweaty right now! Jajaja lol
(mexican hahaha) ME GUSTA! haha anyways, a lot happened this week!
Monday we got to go out and talk to people, they gave each of us like
5 folletos (pamflets) and a Libro De Mormon so we could go and talk to
people and maybe teach a lesson! So we piled on this bus ( ill have to
take pictures of the busses here, they´re so crazy, talk about pimp my
bus!) and it was so full we couldnt close the doors so we had to hang
on! Oh yeah and my favorite part about this ride! You know how in the
Dominican kids pee on the side of the road and stuff? well...
appearantly adults do that here too! Only it wasnt pee...... hahaha
did not expect that to happen right off the bat! Then we got there and
it was a very VERY poor part of town, so there was a lot of hired
security guards around nicer buildings. Anyways, some poeple who were
horrible at spanish got latino comps. but me and Elder Jacobs speak
enough that we didnt get to :( so we walked around and tried to talk
to people, but they had either talked to other missionaries or they
didnt want to talk. Even worse than not being able to talk to people,
this INSANE old man talked to us for probably 30 minutes. He kept
mumbling and saying he was a Jaguar and growling at Elder Jacobs,
which was funny, but also scary! So when we had about 30 minutes left
we ran accross this guy. He said he didnt believe in any gospel
because he thought catholics were wrong and no one else was right
either. So i gave him a L de M and told him to read it and pray to see
if it was true. Then we talked a bit and I got his address and his
phone number so that the missionaries in the field could contact him.
He was very excited and said that even though he didnt believe in any
religions, we were like angles fighting off the devil, because we help
people make good decisions. It was really cool! I really want to know
what happens with him! haha it was funny, my compañero doesnt speak
much spanish, and he has a really hard time following conversations,
so the guy would ask him something and he would just look at me like
WHAT? it was really fun! Its a lot like mexico and the dominican here,
i havent really seen the run down parts of the Dominican, but its a
lot like the poor parts of mexico ive seen. But its way green! After
we prosolited (i know i cant spell¡ :) ) we played volleyball in the
pooring rain! It was soo fun. Then earlier this week my visa came
through so I went to some government building and signed stuff and had
a picutre taken! YAYA Done with that stuff! I hope! oh and some other
good and unrelated news, in Spanish there are 2 past tenses Preterit
and Imperfect. They have confused me since the dawn of time, but this
week, I FINNALY GOT IT! it was the best! Spanish is hard but its
slowwwwly commin! For our Pdays we have personal study in the
mornings, then we have breakfast in a bag, then we have free time
until 1 i believe. And there is a bunch of vendors that come and sell
stuff, so I had to buy a Guatemala jersey today! Plus I bought a
leather book case for my scriptures, They are hand made to order and
you get to pic the pictures that they burn into the front and back, so
mine has a picture of The Title of Liberty on the front and a mayan
ruin that they say could possibly be the tree of life picture on the
back! ITS GOING TO BE SAWEEET! so excited! Its nice to hear you almost
have a functioning primary! That is going to be great! Also i miss
american food sometimes, we had fried chicken this week and it was
heavan! Its so weird to think that i only have like 3 weeks left here!
WHAT? where has the time gone! Oh yeah and thank you so much for the
package! I got it on wednesday! I love all of it! The playdough
especially! and all of the halloween candy! Plus the pictures, i
havent had any pictures this whole time so its very nice to have them!
Thanks for all the support from all of you, im glad to hear that you
are all doing great! AH i only have a minute left! okay love all of
you! I love doing all of this work for the lord! THANKS FOR
EVERYTHING!

Spanish is coming along... I think

Hey Guys! It seems like you are all doing awesome! How was mexico? The
bathroom seems to be moving along pretty fast! Dad seems to be
traveling a lot! New York now!? That is one place i want to go to some
time, and definately see a ball game. Wow I dont even know what Jaydes
room would look like if it were clean! haha just kidding! And kenzie
is in lake powel? And you dont even know who with¡¿ haha thats funny,
didnt she start weber state this year? I remember when Weber got to be
the cool school when i was there, it was a party, That would be so
cool to be on TV Nick! What kind of competition is at Utah State¿ is
it school or just nick? So I thought I learned how to make spaces for
paragraphs last time but I was sorely mistaken! Sorry for the big run
on! Um lets see, we have awesome food everyday, and to  be honest I
usually have no idea what it is! Not Mac and Cheese! But its
delicious... mostly! haha one night we had ratatuilli(?) definately
mispelled that but it was so good! Plus we get icecream for every meal
so thats a plus! Yes we got to go to the temple this week! It was so
cool, we went to a spanish session and had to have the earphones and
say EVERYTHING in spanish so it was Really Crazy! I also found out
that There is, infact, no temple in my mission! So i need to soak it
up while im here! The temple here is in the Guatemala City South
mission, appearantly its the nicer area. And yes! We do get to watch
conference! No class for 2 days! haha and i am pretty sure it´ll be in
Ingles! So that´s good!  Spanish is comming along, usually. Some days
we give lessons and It comes out perfectly, and others i cant put a
sentance together, but it´s improving! A lot of times only about half
of us in the class know what our teacher is talking about so watching
peoples confused faces is always funny. Our teachers always teach us
bad words that sound really close to everyday words that we say a
lot... so that helps! Lets see, Monday we are going to go prosoliting!
I thought we´d either go with latinos or missionaries in the field but
it turns out that we just go with our compañeros! so im pretty nervous
for monday, we have 4 hours to find people! Everyone here speaks so
dang fast, its going to be so fun but really really really hard!  Oh
and we only get mail on Thursdays, so i havent got your package yet!
But hopefully it will be here next week! I Dont need anything yet I
will let you know if i do! And YES PLEASE PAINT MY ROOM! I hated
living in a white asylum! and new bed stuff is always good.  You guys
are awesome! I love being able to write every week! Love you! P.S.
They announced that Utah beat BYU, YESSSSSSSSSSSSSS! haha Best news of
the week!
Alex

Welcome to the GUAT!

Wow! It seems like i picked a good year to be gone! Both my teams are
going to suck it uppp! haha It was great to talk with you guys! It
seems like forever ago already! Have fun in Mexico! You guys should
just keep driving and meet me here hahaha, its only a 49 hour drive! I
wish I could have seen Nick play! Nick you are a fantastic drummer,
you realize you´re only a junior? You are going to become such a great
preformer, dont worry about a competition that you dont win every now
and then! I wish i could have a bike on my mission! I think Id go with
the same thing mom got, Do you think people would talk to me if i rode
that around? This CCM (MTC) Is sooooo great! We got to have a 2 hour
nap the day we got here, and then we got to go to bed 2 hours early!
the food is great! We have our own chef! And my teachers are great!
Hermana Reyes and Hermano Bonella, Bonella is a goofball. He learned
English from watching TV so he can speak pretty well, but every friday
night from now on we sing this song he calls The Pirate song, Its a
Himno that might only be in spanish, but in the chorus we have to
swing our arms like pirates. It is hilarious to watch him get into it.
AND they´ve already let us go
out and talk to REAL people! In provo we did this thing called TRC,
its when members volunteer to come and let you talk to them. But here
they dont have a lot of volunteers i guess, so they let us walk around
the temple and talk to people! SO FUN! Me and my companion Elder
Jacobs, talked to this old couple from Honduras. they are serving a
temple mission here and were incredibly nice! But so hard to
understand! We did pretty well though so it was good! It makes me so
excited to go out into the field! I love talking to the natives in
here, they just laugh at me sometimes but they are really nice! Oh
yeah and speaking of natives... The teachers here took everyones
passport and cameras because they have a tendancey to get stolen, so
no pictures for a while! You´ll have to tell me about mexico when you
guys get back, I emailed mom earlier this week so you guys get 2! hmmm
¿Que mas? This has been such a great experiance already, I can see why
everyone says it fly´s by! Ive learned a lot! You guys should start
reading Jesus the Christ, Its a pretty tough read but it has some
really crazy things in it that you wouldnt even think of! I just
barely started reading it but it is great.  Im not sure how to make
spaces for paragraphs on this keyboard so this is a bit of a run on!
Oh yeah! and for the mail here, they say its ran by a canadian so its
pretty reliable haha so it should take things about 10 to 15 days to
get here. Make sure when you write or send packages you write Elder
Alex Johnstun on it, otherwise i might have to pay taxes on it! Which
leads me to the money thats here "Quetzals" i think is how you spell
it, they look like monopoly money and someone said you cant rip them!
The ratio is about 6.5 to 1 US dollar.

Aha! I figured out how to make a space! So Im sending you guys a
letter today I think so you can test out how long it takes from my
end! Well ive only got a couple of minutes left, so ill email you guys
again in a week! HAVE fun in mexico! Oh yeah and good luck to Kenzie
with her Surgery, I hope that It takes care of her problemas! Love
You!
    Alex