Farewell to President Lorenzana

Elder Johnson, President Lorenzana, and Elder Snell

Elder Johnson, Roxani Quiroa, Lorena Velasquez, Estuardo Quiroa, and Elder Snell

President Ordon with his wife and Roxani,Quiroa, Lorena Velasquez, & Estuardo Quiroa

Baptized on June 26 2011

6-27-2011

OK this week was especially cool. We were able to baptize 3 more people on Sunday June 26, 2011. Their names are; Roxani Quiroa, Estuardo Quirao, and Lorena Velasquez. Another big event was on Thursday June 23, 2011 a farewell conference was held for President Lorenzana, it was pretty sad to listen to him talk and tell everyone goodbye, but I'm excited for the new President Bautista to arrive, he should arrive Tues and if everything goes as planned we should meet the new President Thursday this would mean another 3 hour bus ride into Xela. It takes about 3 hours on the chicken buses with no air, I guess you could say they have air the windows are rolled down. I will miss President Lorenzana we had a great relationship. I don't know how this new President will be and what kind of relationship I will have that is hard. I also said goodbye to 3 of my good friends it was time for them to go home. We were able to take some photos with President Lorenzana. This morning, Monday June 27, 2011 my companion Elder Snell and I got back on the chicken bus at 4:30 in the morning to head back to Xela. President Lorenzana wanted to say a special goodbye to a few of the missionaries and we were one of those few who got to go and say goodbye again. The weather in Xela is much cooler than Chinique. I did get the box thank you mom and dad. I'm still getting all of grandpa and grandma Davis' letters I just get them in bulk, when the mail is delivered to me. Thank you so much for the letters Grandpa and grandma. The temple is coming along the outside looks done they are now working to finish the inside. We still have our baptism set for this Sunday July 3, 2011 for Harrison. I love you all, Happy birthday to momma this week.

Love

Kyle Johnson

Serving with The Armour of God

Elder Johnson , Early morning in Chinique

6-20-2011

The picture I sent home for the week is of me enjoying the early morning in the city of Chinique. We had a baptism fall through this week we had to marry the people and the guy backed out at the last minute and without having them married we couldn't baptize the lady, but no worries the husband will come to his senses one day. On the bright side we do have another baptism for the 3rd of July.....The kids name is Harrison he's 18 and he's been investigating the church for about 3 years now. He has read the Book of Mormon twice and he is just now making the decision to get baptized by us!!!!! Pretty cool huh. I honestly don't know what you want to hear because not much happens here other than all the drug dealings my companion Elder Snell and I see. I guess Chinique is a very large drug trafficking town and it's not as quite as we had first thought. President Ordon informed us to avoid the police at all cost because they are paid by the drug cartel and moonshiners. We also learned that 4 out of every 6 houses we pass sells drugs or some other sort of illegal substance. Quite interesting if you ask me, but we are definitely a little more on our guard now and always looking over our backs. I'm getting into writing letters lately so I'll start writing everyone a little more personally, it helps me to pass the time.

Well that's all folks!

Love Kyle Johnson

Still serving in Chinique

Elder Johnson's new cowboy hat

Elder Snell, Walker Arrevalo, Marta Pelico and Elder Johnson Little boys ??

Walker Arrevalo and Marta Pelico on their baptism day 6-12-2011 President Ordon

Elder Snell in the Jungle

Tire tread glued on the tire

6-13-2011

This week I was able to get some pictures off for you guys. I'm going to explain them

Elder Snell and I are still companions here in Chinique, this is our 3rd change together. We had 2 more baptisms this week which took place on Sunday, June 12, 2011. Walker Arrevalo is a 15 year old who loves the church. Marta Pelico, she is a single mother who was looking for something that she felt was missing in her life. I bought a cowboy hat that I wear to do service in. I am still sick I had to go and give a stool sample, the test came back negative for pretty much everything so the mission nurse told me to eat more fiber! The package has arrived at the post office in Quatemala, they are holding the package they want $15 more dollars. The new mission President comes June 28th. One of the pictures I sent home is of a tire, this is how they get more use out of old tires. They buy rubber in the bulk and glue old rubber over the old tire. Look close and you will see the glue.

Love, Kyle

Every Member a Missionary

Elder Snell and Elder Johnson

6-6-2011

I don't plan on writing to much this week not much happened. Next week is transfer week. I am still sick I have now lost 13 pounds and still losing. I have talked to the mission nurse and they don't know what to do with me. I have also tried the anti diarrhea pills but nothing seems to help. The most exciting thing that happened was on Saturday Elder Snell and I went on an adventure and ran through the jungle and took some cool pictures. We also had a district conference with all the leaders from Quiche in Xela which was OK, I really didn't get much out of it but that's OK. As far as the missionary work goes we have the members here who are very willing to help us, they love us so much and it's almost to the point where we don't even have to contact anymore. It's awesome. I've realized something though my mission President is tired of being here and all the missionaries can tell so the mission is kind of falling apart.

Love you guys and I'll write you next week.

Love,

Kyle Johnson

Warm Water

Elder Kyle Johnson, Juana Garcia Chanchavac, and Elder Snell

Elder Snell, Juana Garcia Chanchavac at her baptism 5-29-2011

5-30-2011

Hey everybody, so not much happened this week I got really sick and lost about 7 pounds. Sunday morning we baptized again. With this baptism it makes 6 for this month. Other than that on Sunday we confirmed 7 people to the priesthood. Elder Snell was officially called as the 2nd counselor, oh and our baptisms name is Juana Garcia Chanchavac. So the only story I have is about this week is our baptism story. The cool part about the baptism is the fact we went to some natural hot springs about 30 min out side our area and had the baptism there. The water was super warm which was cool even though I didn't get to get in. To answer your question we had a mini conference in Xela last week and no I did not get your package.

P.S. I wrote your letter mom and it talks more about what happened in the conference we had so I know you will enjoy everything I wrote.

Love,

Elder Kyle Johnson

Proud to be a Eagle Scout

5-23-2011

Birthday party for Alecio at Pres Ordon's home

Elder Johnson

5-23-2011

Ok so a few things happened this week but I'm going to sum it up pretty short because I don't have much time today we have to go to Xela today. So here it goes.

1- We had a baptism that fell through on Saturday. It was the daughter of Juana the sister we baptized, what happened was the daughter, or Jessica is her name. She was interested in learning more about the church so we started teaching her, and we put a baptismal date with her for Saturday. Well everything was going good until the day before her baptism when we found out her Aunt had been talking bad about the church and discouraged Jessica the day of her baptism she backed out.

2- The scouts of Guatemala came to Quiche and Elder Snell and I got to show our Eagle scout cards and talk at their presentation.

3- Sunday was Alecio's birthday we had a cake and a little party at Pres. Ordon's house

Well that's all but I might get on Wednesday because they are cutting our p-day short.

Love,

Elder Johnson

A Knock on the Door

President Ordon his wife and the Castro Family Juna, Alecio, Milton, Jose This family was baptized May 15, 2011

Elder Snell, Castro family, Juana, Alecio, Milton, Jose, President Ordon, his wife & Elder Johnson

5-16-2011

Hey Everybody,

So this week was a little more eventful than the last because a few things actually happened. One being the baptism you can see we had from the pictures I sent you. The story goes like this... We had just entered the house Thursday night around 6:30 pm when we usually enter the house around 9:00 pm but we had not eaten all day and we thought it would be a good idea to take a break and eat some dinner then head back out afterwards. Well as we were eating President Ordon knocked on our door. He told us he had a family at his house at that moment that has been investigating the church and wanted to receive the lessons as fast as they could and then get baptized Sunday.......We thought he was pulling our leg because he saw we were in our house and it wasn't 9:00 pm yet, but he was dead serious. So we grabbed our stuff and ran over to his house where sure enough there they were waiting for us. So the story continues with us teaching them the lesson's Thursday, Friday, Saturday, then Sunday they came to church and we taught them the last lesson that night right before we had their baptism, Sunday May 15, 2011. There are 4 people in the family that we baptized so here's their names starting with the mom: Juana Castro, oldest son: Alecio Castro, middle son Milton Castro, and last but not least the little son Jose Castro. We would have baptized the dad too but he was killed last year so he wasn't around. So that's my news for the week. Oh and I was called as secretary on Sunday so hopefully I get to spend some more time here with Snell.

Love you guys and I'll talk to you all later.

Love Kyle Johnson