Merry Christmas from Colombia-Puppet Pics and AUDIO files!

I'm WAY EXCITED TO SEE YOU GUYS!!!!!!!!!!!
 I was thinking the 25th around 10 or 11 AM Colombian time. Any problems?
Let me know and we'll change it. But I can't call before hand so it's got
to be set today.

The "Muppets" were a HUGE hit with the zone conference. Very funny but we
broke about a thousand rules making it so we didn't win haha. ;) He did not specify the rules they broke making them. Maybe they spent too long on them. And judging by how AWESOME they are....I'm wondering if they googled a how to video or something. I did send him some written instructions, but his puppets are better than mine are so...? I'm just super amazed!!!! NO VIDEO though! :(

The district is very fun but at times disobedient. I'm learning to relax and accept the agency of others while keeping mine in line. It's hard to remember to do but I'm doing very well and having a  lot of fun. Finally. He's been struggling for a while with this. It's good to hear him relax some.

My comp and I have been getting along very well lately and we're all like best friends in the district. It's going to be sad to leave when it happens.

I asked him about his plans when he gets home next August. My plan right now is to get home and WORK! Because I have no money saved up nor a plan of where or what to study. So i'm thinking about working until I have enough money to GO to college and then I'll try to figure where and what. 

I love you and I'll talk more about teaching during our call! Ha! I read other Elder's blogs and they are all about their teaching and contacting and spiritual experiences. I think it's great to hear that Justin is having fun too. But I would like to hear SOME teaching experiences! ;)

Let me know now when you want to Skype! Or google hangout! ;)

Love you!

Merry Christmas!

Audio link of Justin playing his arrangement of Silent Night.

Audio Link of Justin talking... Just for fun. Here! 

NOW for THE AMAZING PUPPETS THEY MADE!!!

Elder Rudolf made by Elder Skinner

Elder Romero made Elder Dende

Elder Cortes made Elder Goku who is probably my favorite! haha

And Elder Munar made Elder Niche. (or Elder Marley part 2)

Elder Charlie made by mom and sent to Colombia.

The Classic Elder Marley (made by them all) still loved above all the rest. 

               

They sewed everything by hand!

The aftermath!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

Our OWN Apartment!

Heyyyyyyy!!!! Sup fam?!?!??!

We made our puppets today! You'll get to see the video next week of the
performance. It's going to be suuuper funny. And it has to be in English
for the latins to practice. So you'll understand it. MAybe haha ;) We had
some fun but we did it by hand because nobody has a sewing machine. So it
took all day. hence the late letter ;) Had some parts where we laughed
pretty dang hard.

WE MOVED INTO OUR NEW HOUSE!!!!!! I'm sooooo happy cause now we plan and
study!!!!!! It's a nice house too. Very new. But VERY hot. We don't really
have any sort of air from the outside. So it's been pretty nuts! But hey.
No mosquitos. No other elders ;) Life is good!

We didn't do much teaching this week but we had a noche de hogar (FHE) with
the pensionista last night which was pretty cool. Her husband was kind of
annoyed because he doesn't love a lot of people coming to the house but he
begged our pardon for being so hard to read and stubborn. It all turned out
very well.

Short letter, I know. But we talk the 24th or 25th. I'll let you know what
my comp thinks and when we'll do it :) SUPER EXCITED!!!

Love you mom!!!

Elder J Skinney

December!

Service project

I´m glad you like Elder Marley. He's been used to scare just about everyone in the house. I still have the image of him burned into my head as we walked into our house and found him waiting in the dark door way with Charlie hanging by the neck from a jump rope haha... But hey. We'll some other ones ;)

Things have been even worse on the time wasting side of the coin. Elder Cortes is SUPER funny and cool so we are always talking WAY too much. He also has this little projector and a DVD player so they've watched a couple of missionary movies. I watched one called God's Army (which I totally shouldn't have done) and it was actually pretty inspiring and we all went to bed feeling awesome and with ganas de trabajar (desire to work). But the next morning we all went right back into the routine. Everyone sleeping in or sleeping trying to do exercise. That second one is me. I'll do like 20 push-ups and then rest for a second and then wake up five minutes later.

I have been SO tired. It's not even funny. I can't even sit still for too long or I just fall asleep. The mornings are just brutal. I don't think i'm getting the right kind of sleep or I'm being woken up in a sleep stage that's not good to be woken up in.

I talked to the mission medic or area doctor, Elder Sheffield, and he said that I'm physically tired (obviously) but due to stress and getting sick recently, also mentally and psychologically exhausted. He really helped when he asked me about stress and helped me to re-realize that everything is going to be okay.

As far as teaching goes, our pensionista's husband is getting excited about baptism and we've finally established a good relationship with him. He's pretty hard to read so it took a good 6 weeks to break through the shell. But he's getting excited and is coming to church so that's pretty sweet. Keep praying for him!

Well, I'm hoping you're all doing swell.

Love you mom!!!

Meet Elder Marley

HEY!!!! Glad to hear about Thanksgiving and all the goodness going on.

Super happy to hear about Chris slowly getting better. Keep going Johnsons!!

This week was a little better. Elder Rebolledo left this morning and guess
who shows up in his place. ELDER CORTES!!! My companion from Pasto! He was
also companions with Elder Romero as my zone leaders in San Fernando. So
that was pretty cool. He got hear this morning and it was all good and fun.
HE has a mild tazer and convinced me in to letting him taze me in the arm.
It was pretty funny! I know you are just shaking your head in disapproval
but hey. I'm still an idiot 🙌

I enjoyed the letter from Sister Young. She's right about everything. In
sort of a crazy way but she's right haha. ;) Our sister missionary here in Oklahoma wrote to him. 

Dairon and Karen are going well but super slow. We've been working with a
less active returned missionary to help him get married and get his GF
baptized. So that's something that's pretty cool.

Not much else to say. We'll see some more news this week! Hopefully good
news.

Love you mom!

Short letter but he sends longer audio files. They have parts about people in the mission and their missionary progress, so I can't really post them. But he told us that they love Elder Charlie, the puppet we sent to him. They are going to make three other puppets (they've made one already) and use them for their part in the Christmas program. (Don't worry, I think it's at a ward party or mission party or something. NOT church. haha) All the missionaries have to do something and it HAS to be in English, which J says will be pretty challenging for his Latin companions who speak either NONE of very little. 

Their puppet is Elder Marley and J says he's super scary looking. He told us a story about waking up super early one morning to knocking on the front door. Justin, in his half asleep state, panicked, thinking it was the mission president who has been going around and just showing up at apartments at random times to see how the missionaries are behaving. Justin's panic (even though they weren't doing anything wrong...) led him to turn over to his clock and be terrified by Elder Marley right in his face propped up on a broomstick. He said he sort of freaked out, much to the delight of his fellow missionaries in the apartment. 

 See Elder Marley below.

Elder Skinner and Elder Charlie

  

Sugar Cane!

This is Elder Marley (Named after Bob Marley). They made this on their own out of one of those polyester shopping bags. The hair is made with an old sock, and his arms are stuffed with the rest of the old sock. I'm just so impressed! I love it. 

I guess the two puppet elders are often kidnapped and held hostage by the two companionships. 

Hopefully some missionary work is getting done down there too! PS He did say they did all this on a P-Day! I was supposed to make sure I said that. ;)