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

Last week in the US of A

Hey Padres/Fam!

Im responding to several Emails so if it's a little scattered or I miss something sorry! Just ask me about it again! haha

I loved getting that package! It was soo cool! I'll have to write a letter about everyone in mi Districto pero i dont have time right now! There was a huge problem in the mail room so I didnt get the Package untill wednesday! EVERYONE is extremely jealous about the legos. Turns out, they're amazing! And the Flaming hot Cheetos were a gift from Heaven!  haha I got my travel plans like 4 hours after I wrote you guys last week! But I dont have them with me so I am just going to have to tell you what I remember, we leave for the airport on Sept 11 at 4:30, our flight leaves at 8:45. Then I think we have a 3 hour layover in LAX before heading to G town! So I have to go buy some phone cards before I go so I can call you! Hopefully we can time it so It's not during Nicks thing! Maybe we can time it so I call before and after so I can talk to all of you! That's so cool Nick is doing that, He's going to be an awesome drummer! He sounds like a busy kid, and wakes up earlier than I do! That's great that he can do that because waking up at 6:30 is awful if you ask me!

I am so Excited to be going! A little bummed out cause the guys in my district are so fun, but at the same time it's going to be so cool! We teach at least once a day here to our teachers and then once a week volunteers who speak spanish come in and we get to shoot the breeze with them, which was a little scary at first but it was soo fun! Spanish is comming hmmmm pretty good! I think of something in English and realize i can say it in spanish so it's pretty cool. Being surrounded by spanish will make it come super fast though so I'm way excited. It seems like all of you are seeing more and more missionaries, haha that's fun! I love the story about Kenzie hugging that Elder, I bet he was a little freaked out at first, SO FUNNY!

Biking sounds so fun! We need to go around Bear Lake! I would love to go down to San Fransisco to do that! It would be so fun! And we also need to go kayaking! I love doing that! Probably one of the best things you can do on water, I've been working out on this rowing machine here and it is sooo much fun! We need one of those too!

                 Im Pumped to see the bathroom when it's done! That thing is so gross, and it'll look SO GOOD redone! Oh and I just realized I have never talked about the food! The food here is hit and miss, a lot of the time they will have a meal with 1 AWESOME thing and the rest is terrible! but it's edible so it works! They say that we'll have better food down there because they have less people to feed.

the 2 and 1/2 weeks here have gone by so fast! It's like I just got here, so it's a little weird that we're leaving. Nothing really seems like it ever changes here, all of the days just blend together so time just flys by.

I love hearing about what is going on on the outside world! We get ZERO news here about what is happening! I heard that Neil Armstrong died! Any other news other than political? Both of them are clowns!

We get about 40 to 50 minutes of exercise time every day, so we play sand volleyball or basketball everyday. It's pretty hot out but the only time wer're out other than gym is in between classes so we dont notice too much! Next time I'll have to write down things/stories I have for you guys because I can't remember hardly any of them by the time Friday comes around!

Love you guys! Miss you tons, but this is great! I'm learning so much! I'm going to the temple to do Sealings in the temple today, I heard it's pretty cool so I wanna do it before I cant understand it!

LOVE YOU!

Elder Alex Johnstun

It's good and bad down here! Mostly good!

Hola FAMILIA!

I am great today! It's P day so I finally get to take a break from everything! It's fantastic! Mi espanol is a little bit better. I can pray and give a testimony, they're like a 5 year olds! But they still count!!! Haha just found a computer that doesn't have a timer so I actually take the time to say some stuff! It's nice to hear that everyone is staying busy and is doing well! Nick is soooo lucky that he gets to take that forensics class! I wanted to do that so badly! Is it like the CSI class?

And Mom I'm totally shocked that you painted the kitchen! NEVER would have seen that coming! oh yeah and same for Jayde getting that paddle board, WHO COULD HAVE THOUGHT OF THAT?! hahaha and that's great for Kenzie that she got so high on those! That's awesome!

Yup Dad! I do remember our Cincinnati trip! That was so much fun! And the part of the game that we saw (before we left and they got their butts kicked) was awesome! There's a kid in my district from Columbus, he's like half fluent in spanish! Haha and everyone that's down here that's been to ATL doesn't seem to like it much either! Oh yeah and all of our teachers were so excited to go to the first BYU game of the season. That's a bummer that the Bronsons arn't in our ward anymore. but that's great that we finally have a bigger primary!

For my daily funtivities, it's pretty much the same thing over and over and over and over again here. There's a saying here, the days are like weeks and the weeks are like days. And it's soo true! It's crazy, I've already done half of my time in this MTC! Yesterday we had to change rooms with some of the people in my district because the people in their room would talk all night and they got in trouble. SO STUPID. The kids who talked too much got like super yelled at and they almost weren't going to let them go into their missions next week! I think they have some issues down here... There are rules that are here just to have rules, like in foursquare, you can't raise the ball over your head. WHAT? That's rediclulous. Yup I know I still cant spell! So yeah I'm going to miss our old German speaking roommates, they were so cool.

So pretty much every morning I wake up at 6:20 and shower and get dressed. Then and 7 we have breakfast and after that we usually have gym where we play sand volleyball or basketball! Super fun! Then we have 2 classes that are 3 hours each of spanish and doctrine. lunch at 11:30, and dinner at 4:30. So by the time I go to bed at 10:30 I'm hungry and tired! Then you just repeat! That's my life down here! Oh and I've taught I think 4 or 5 lessons to a fake investigator in Spanish! My companion doesnt speak hardly any so i get a lot of speaking time! Last night we had a lesson and im pretty sure I asked him if he had feelings for us.... I got my words mixed up and he started cracking up! haha so that was funny, oh yeah and I also told him he can be forgiven of his FISH (Pescado) instead of his SINS (Pecados)! So hopefully I can get out all of my weird mistakes now instead of when im in the real feild!

I've got a line behind my so I probably otta finish up! Miss you guys so much! I think I'm going to write you a letter aswell today so expect one in the mail!

Love you all!

Elder Alex Johnstun

And here we go!

Well we have 5 days left with Alex until he heads out into the great big world to teach the gospel! He is very excited to get through the mtc as soon as possible and get to preachin! The mission farewell will be this sunday at 12:40 at the church on 2100 North. (2100 N. 770 E.) in North Ogden. Afterwards there will be an open house at 1898 N. 775 E. North Ogden, for anybody who wants to come by! We will use this blog to update you on Alex's mission weekly as he sends us emails and photos (hopefully LOTS of photos!) so be sure to enter your email to receive notification of updates!