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

Mohawks and wild dogs

5-10-2011
Kyle and Elder Snell with their Mohawk hair cuts this style didn't last long only long enough for the picture

Elder Snell baiting a wild dog. The dogs keep breaking into their house and getting into their garbage.

Ok so I didn't get very many pictures from this week just the 1st one is Elder Snell and I after we cut our hair into Mohawks for some fun on Sunday night but don't worry we only had them long enough to take the pictures then we buzzed them off. The 2nd picture is of us baiting dogs in our house because we keep getting these little dogs breaking in and eating our garbage, so we took fish hooks and tried to snag it but the thing got away. Other than that it was great to talk to everyone and hear how your all doing. Well that's all I have for this week so love you guys and I'll have more to write next Monday.
Love, Elder Kyle Johnson

One year to go !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Baptisms and Blackberries
5-2-2011
My letter this week is short, because I will be calling home on Sunday for Mother's day. I can't believe it has been a year, 1 more year to go WHAOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!
Elder Johnson


This is Lorena she is 21 and has 2 children. She has been taking the discussions and wanted to be baptized so we finished the discussions on Friday April 29 2011 then she was baptized that same day.

One of my favorite things is on Sunday we hike up this mountain and pick wild blackberries. They are very sweet and I enjoy the relaxing time. The berries aren't ready if they are red they have to be black to pick.

This is one of my favorite pictures these are Pres. Ordon sons, we were doing service and they crashed.

Happy Easter

4-25-2011

Hey everybody happy Easter or Holy week which ever you feel like celebrating.....down here it was the holy week...... Anyways just to start the letter Edwin's baptism did not to through because it turns out he was a member already but the branch President down here is extremely lazy fellow and doesn't fill out all the data on the computer so according to Salt Lake Edwin wasn't a member till we found his papers and got everything fixed.

Oh to answer your question if the rainy season started YES it did and it hit hard when it came because it has been raining since Thursday and hasn't stopped. Our house has tons of leaks and I had to move my bed and put buckets everywhere its crazy. Oh and since the rainy season hit our water is brown it is gross..... our shower water is brown, our sink water also....but it's OK we'll live....

So story of the week, so we had an interesting experience with our investigator family we have the Ramos Lux Family.... What happened was we were planning on going out to there house to talk to them about coming to church on Sunday so we started off to there house and well we found them on the trail and lets just say the mom and dad were not the soberest at the time so we helped the dad Estevan who was passed out faced first in the dirt get to his feet and then we carried him on our backs because there was a huge storm coming and we didn't want him to get soaking wet. So the story is we get the guy back to his house and in bed and talk to his dad who is a member and the dad told us a story about how he was converted......It turns out the dad was a drunk and 2 missionaries carried him back to his house about 1 year ago exactly, and it changed his life and he was baptised with his wife, so hopefully something will happen with this family from our good example we set for them. Other than that there is not much else that happened because it rained so badly this week we really couldn't leave the house, and if me and Snell are here for another change we are going to be set apart as 2nd counselor and secretary. Well love you family and I'll send pictures later.

Love Elder Kyle Johnson

Building the gospel by building a fence

4-17-2011

Kyle and Elder Snell putting information into the computer this is there calling as 2nd counselor and branch secretary. They switch off every other week..

Kyle's new Hammock which he bought in Chichicastenango

This is a road we walk down to the investigators house.

We thought we saw someone hang them self but it was just a scarecrow

Kyle and Elder Snell doing service for President Ordon

Small child in tree (Pres Ordon Son)

Elder Snell building a barb wire fence

President Ordon and Elder Snell

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

This week was a little better. I guess you could say as far as the work goes and all that good stuff because 1st off we received a reference from one of the members to go and contact his daughters family. It turns out there are 9 people in the family and we are now teaching them so we were pretty happy about that.

We also put a baptismal date for tomorrow with this kid so we'll be having another baptism his name is Edwin Hernandez. Other than that we helped the district Pres do some service putting up barbwire fencing around his land, and then later that night he went with us to contact his reference and we taught her the restoration and she came to church Sunday.

Well I'll send you the other pictures I have right now in a different email so this is good bye.

Love you all

Love Elder Kyle Johnson

Off to Xela for a seminary

4-11-2011 So my week was interesting to say the least. 1- We went down to Xela for 3 days to have a seminary so we could learn to teach better and be better missionaries, it was really cool because I learned a lot and we stayed in a hotel for 2 nights because our area's are so far away. 2- Well as far as work goes not much happened because we were gone all week long and we are going to be going back to Xela all this week for a special North American Conference. 3-Me and Elder Snell found out that we are the 2nd counselor and Branch Secretary this past week so all Sunday long we were in the office filling out records that the Branch President hasn't been doing and a ton of stuff like that.... Just so you all know I'm fine and the work is going good we have about 3 families we are working with and we hope at least 1 family if not all 3 gets baptized. I want to send pictures but there is no USB jack on my computer so I'll send some later today and I'll write more then to. Question that were asked; Q- What do you eat? A lot of soup and bread. What ever we buy we have to carry in our back packs and we have to walk long distances. Q- What food do you miss the most? Momma I miss your cooking Q- Who is 2nd counselor and who is Branch President? We switch off every other week. Q- How is the temple coming along will it open in July? No they say it will now open 2012 they are behind on the building. Q- How did you like conference? I loved it. Love all of you I hope all goes well. Love Elder Johnson

Short and to the point

4-4-2011
OK so don't be upset when i don't write much this week because honestly i don't have much to write about.General conference was cool and i enjoyed the talks, we have a lot of references to work with and we have plenty of investigators. This email is kinda short and to the point but I'm tired of writing the same thing every week. I'll let you guys know if we get people to accept baptismal challenges or if i have any cool stories but i have about a year, and telling you i taught lesson 1,2, or 3 for the hundredth time gets kinda boring. I love you guys tons and I'm starting to miss you all more and more but i promise to stick it out and make it home in about a year.

Love Kyle

Pedro's Baptism

Kyle , in front of the city sign.

Elder Snell, Pedro, and Elder Johnson. Pedro was baptized 3-26-2011 Pedro is 12 years old in this picture.

3-28-2011

Hello family,

We have a ton of references from the members because they think we're the greatest thing that's ever happened in this area. The way it's looking we should have about 3-4 more baptisms this change which would be really nice.

Oh so gross story, we have a lady that cooks for us and this week we were blessed with the opportunity to eat cow tongue at her house... just so you know I am not a huge fan of tongue.

Another story, so we live in the second story of a building and we have a huge balcony ....which is really nice by the way. anyways so Friday night there were a ton of drunks out and about because we have a bar a few houses down from our house and at about 9:45- 10:00ish we hear one really loud drunk beneath our house so we run outside and sure enough this guy is trying to get inside the gate which goes to our stairs so we had to get rid of him somehow or he would have gotten in... our solution ....A Bucket of Water. It worked to say the least and the guy tried yelling at us but he really couldn't talk he was so drunk, and we watched him cross the street and pass out on his face. The End.

Well love you family

Love Elder Johnson

Transfered to Chinique

3-21-2011

Well I got changed this week so this is how we got our luggage to the bus terminal, I don't know about you guys but to me it looks like trek all over again!!!!!!!

Chinique, which is in the department of Quiche this is now where I am serving

My new Companion Elder Snell he is from Alaska

Elder Snell with the lizard we found in our house!

3-21-2011
Well I got changed this week. I am now in the town of Chinique which is in the department of Quiche. I bet your all wondering who's my companion......... Well I'm pleased to tell all of you that I'm now companions with Elder Snell. We came into the field in the same group, I sat behind him on the plane ride down here and he has been my best friend the past 10 months of my mission and well now we are companions. I don't know how it happened or how long it will last but I'm one happy missionary right now especially since we are already having success with our first baptism this coming Saturday. Elder Snell is from Alaska. Ok so you guys kinda have a hint of where I'm at and who I'm with so now I'll share some stories of what happened this week. So as I said earlier we have a baptism this coming weekend and the picture I sent of my area is from the kids house which is about an hour and a half's hike from the church straight up a hill. It is kinda funny actually because 3/4 of the branch I'm now in, lives 1-2 hours away from the city up in the mountains, and we found out the branch is about 87 people. It's crazy to see how humble and faithful these people are. Anyways back to the kid, his name is Pedro and he is 12 years old......we actually had to find his birth papers because he didn't know when his birthday was, neither did his family. Actually none of them knew when they were born, and Pedro turned 12 the 4th of February and didn't even know it, how sad huh. It was the first time in my life that I've met someone that didn't know when they were born. Another story so were in sacrament meeting and the Branch President invites a kid up to the stage to share something with the branch....... well it turns out it was his mission call and he opened it and read it in front of the whole branch and for the first time!!!!!!!! I'm not quite sure if they are aloud to do that but I thought it was a cool thing to do.
Just so you all know there are only 6 Elders in my zone, and my zone covers the biggest department in all of the Quetzaltenango mission.
Oh me and my companion also found out this week we have a pet dog, we named her lady and she follows us all over the mountains and comes to all of our appointments with us it's pretty cool, she's a really pretty lab and she lives in the house next to us but comes everywhere with us.
Well that's all for this week.
Love Elder Johnson

Raining again

Making tortillas

The Molina family.... Momma Molina takes good care of me.

Son of an inactive family

We were able to eat Subway

3-14-2011

I'm in an Internet cafe area called La Esperanza or in English the hope.

Ok so lets see what happened this week.......Well it's starting to rain again down here which is nice because the dust was starting to kill me. I didn't know about the Japan thing till I read your email. So my comp got sick this week but anything that did happen I snapped pictures of so you guys get something from me. The little kid is the son of an inactive member family, the family that I sent pictures of is the Molina family (my Latina momma). I sent you guys a picture of me making tortillas. So Sunday my comp had to go to Momostenango to sing at a church building dedication they were having there for one of the villages that had a brand new church building built for them, it's a huge church I passed by it all the time when I was in Momos. So I was stuck with Gledhill and Estrada which was fun because we were out working and it started to pour on us to the point where I felt like I had jumped in a pool with all my clothes on, but luckily a member let us in and we were able to talk with them and wait out the rain. After that we headed back to the house where we changed and made our tortillas.

But as far as the work goes Kevin is doing great and he is super excited to be baptized so if i don't get changed out this Wednesday I'm hoping to be here to baptize him. Oh and the subway you see is what I ate for lunch today! We got permission to go eat there and I thought I was gonna die the food was so good.

Love you guys a ton and I sure miss all of you.

Love Elder Johnson

p.s. I don't even recognize Jackson when you send me pictures of him.

Knocking doors

Knocking doors, They didn't answer the door I wonder why?????????

How to wear your hair when you don't have time for a hair cut.

3-7-11

Hey family,

Well 10 months have gone by very very slow and very very fast....I'm not sure how to describe it but anyways I have a few stories for the week and a couple of pictures so here it goes.

1. I'm pretty sure I told you guys about the investigator who just about lost it last week .... well his grandson has been coming to church with us since we started visiting them and this last Sunday the Bishop wanted an interview with him and us to get to know him better and all that good stuff and in that interview Kevin the boy accepted a baptismal date for the 19th of this month so all we need to do is get the permission from the grandpa and were set.

2. My hair got really long and I haven't had the opportunity to cut it so I decided to do a comb over which you can see from the picture.

3. I got sick this week with a cold and I'm just barely getting better..... I decided I'd rather have the flu because with the flu you stay down and a cold you can keep on going but it's really hard to.

4. We received another set of Elders to our area..... so now there's 6 elders that all go to the same ward.

5. I miss the family, but I am almost half way done.

6.. We went and did 3 baptismal interviews for another area in our zone.

Yes I finished the Book of Mormon! It was a cool experience, it really ties together well when you read it fast like that. (In 10 days) My next goal is next time one of my companions get sick I want to read it in 1 day.

So that was my week everyone, I hope you all enjoyed it. Love you guys tons and I'll talk to you next week.

Love Elder Johnson

Saved by a testimony

I might not be able to see my Jackson, Maddie or Haylee, but this little Latina baby has adopted me.

Brother of the Latina baby

Me in front of the Quetzaltenango temple

Angel Moroni

2-28-2011

Those are the pictures for the week and other than that nothing at all happened this week but I guess I'll share a little story. So this week we received a reference from the coolest family in the world, the Molina family-- just a side note Blanca Molina the mom of the family which is about 57 years old is so nice to us its crazy so I've officially adopted her as my Latina mom. I will send pictures of the family when I take some more pictures. Anyways back to the reference story so we go to this reference who's name is Luis Casteneda and his grandson Kevin, so we were told that his wife had just recently died and all of his oldest kids which were 3. So this guy has had some hard times and we thought it would be a good idea to share the plan of salvation and give him a hope for his life.......Well we were wrong because the whole lesson blew up when we reached the spirit world.....it was a disaster but lucky we had the Molina family there with us and they calmed him down and saved the lesson with their testimonies and some advice. The results were Kevin was in church with us this Sunday and we will probably see a baptism from him which is good because the poor little Kevin is only 10 and has been through alot of things already so the church sill really help him throughout his life. Well that's all I have for you guys this week and I look forward to next week. Oh and I hit 10 months this week!!!!!!! Almost a year.
Love Elder Kyle Johnson

Growing up

2-21-2011


Elder Gledhill, Elder Estrada, Kyle

Comp. Elder Marshall Chopping wood

Dead dog in black water

Bottle cap collection

2-21-2011

Hey I'm sorry to hear you guys were all sick, I know it's a no fun being sick. That reminds me of something though, one thing I learned is when I got sick and didn't have my family to take care of me I became alot more dependent and had to grow up alot more when it happened. But anyways it stinks to hear that hunting is going so down hill, even I can tell the difference from when I started hunting with dad to now. It really is getting harder to find things these days. I will let you all know I still get my fair share of hunting in down here and it's year round, haha wouldn't you know!!!!!! The average stray mut is in season all year long and itis smiled upon in this country every time there is one less of them running around. Which reminds me I have a picture of of a dead mut lying in the river I will send you. I didn't kill it, I'm pretty sure the water did Ha Ha, cause the water is black. Other than that this week we lost about 4 investigators that were getting ready for baptism because one, the mom found out we don't drink coffee and told us quote "I have been drinking coffee since I was 3 years old and I don't plan on stopping, besides I think it's better that I return to my old church so my family can be together there." So this week was pretty lame, other than that we got 2 different less active members back to church and we also had 1 new investigator in church so we'll see what happens with him his name is Sergio and he's about 29 years old. I'll make sure to send you pictures. What food do I miss most......

Defiantly In & Out Burger, and just about every other fast food restaurant that I once had the free agency to go to.

Oh I almost forgot to tell you guys I took on the challenge of reading the Book of Mormon in 10 days, its going well, I have it planed all out to help me finish it in time the only hard thing is I have to wake up 2 hours earlier than usual to finish the planned reading days. Well love you guys, and talk to you next week.

Love, Elder Kyle Johnson