JOHNSON IN WISCONSIN

Elder Dustin Thompson arrived in Marquette, MI in 2006. Thats my boy. He is from St. George, UT and has a great testimony of the gospel and great vigor to do the work. Thats good cuz there is much happening in this area. John Flippin is getting baptized this Sunday night at 6pm and we still have many others we are teahing. We have been doing lots of less active work as well. Elder Thopmson is very green and ignorant about the work but every missionary is when he fist gets here. Im excited to get to train him how to do missionary work. It will be a challeneging experience but im sure that ill learn and enjoy this. I love Marquette despite the declining temps. It rained a lot last week too. The fall colors are so nice. I love the trees up here. Well gotta good week planned. Peace.

Ok i gotta long one today. First off. I got my training call last week and i get a brand new missionary from the MTC on Thursday. Thats awesome for a few reasons: 1 is i get a new companion and i get to stay here another 3 months!! Im so excited to get to drive and ive got a great feel for the area and gonna have tons of fun. Im a little nervous as to what kind of elder ill get but the lord will send me one that i am capable of training and learning from. Ive learned so much since i was trained and im excited to get to pass along that knowledge to somone else. Its my first time as the official sr. companion (this transfer was for me) so i finally get to drive! Secondly we had a cool experince at the University. On Wednesday we set up our table at NMU and gave out 3 Book of Mormons and 18 pass along cards. It wasnt as busy as we had hoped but we did gain 1 new investgigator and thats all that counts. Her name is Anna. She is a student there from Ohio and her mom is a member back home and she has jhad the missionaries at her house a ton cuz her mom was a less active there. So she saw us and came over to talk to us for a bit. She told us that she has contemplated joining the church in the past. We asked her if she had ever taken the missionary lessons. She said no. We asked her if she had a Book of Moromn and she said no. So guess what. We gave her a book of mormon and got her contact info and were gonna teach her the first lesson sometime this week. I love this work!!! We were inspired to be there and so was she. I know that the lord is behind this work. He is always leading us to people and even people to us. Ive seen to many miracles and coincidences to be ablt to doubt his hand out here. It amazes me that there are atheists in the world. Just look outside at the earth and behold his marvelous creations. I know that John Flippin was prepared before we started teaching him. He came to church again yesterday (which was actually a broadcast of stake confrence from Green Bay) and were set to have his baptism on Oct 1 after general confrence. Im so happy to be an insturment in the lord's hands to bring about his great purposes. The lord converts the people i just teach his gospel and act as his mouthpiece. Im often amazed at the amount of growth and learning ive experinced my first 10 1/2 months. I look forward to 13 1/2 more growth and learning as well. Im so happy to be in Marquette. My new missionary is gonna be lucky to have this be his first area and im privleged to pass on my knowledge and hopefully help him become a seasoned missionary by the time im gone. Enough reading. Go get a snack or something. Love ya's.

Last week was pretty sweet. We had 3 investigators @ church yesterday. John Flippin is progressing really well and his baptism is gonna be between the Sunday sessions of confrence. I guess he wanted the prophet to speak at his baptism. There is still potential for more people here to be baptized in the coming months. Training calls come tomorrow and i hope that i get one. Im ready to train a new missionary and id love to up here in Marquette. That and i need a new companion. My current one is a nice guy and all but he drives me nuts and im tired of being around him 24/7. If i dont train then i may have to stay another transfer with him and i would rather not but i will have to i suppose. The weather changes fast here. Summer is surely gone. Its gotten quite a bit cooler over the past few days but its still very beautiful. I want to have a summer home here on Lake Superior when i retire someday. Thats way to far ahead to even imagine. Later.

Hey ya'll. The lord has answered my prayers this past week. We got a member referral from another branch in the stake for a student at NMU here. His name is John F. not to be confused with the other John ive been teaching. So john is very prepared and we set a baptism date with him on our first visit. It was amazing. He's already been to church a few times in escanaba and he qiut drinking and started turning his life around 6 months ago and now we are preparing him for baptism, whats awesome is that the happiness of the people he saw at church is what made him come to us. Its so true, the gospel makes us happy and makes us a light unto the world. Everything else is goin well too. The weather has cooled down a lot lately and the trees are beginning to change into fal colors, gold and red. In a few weeks it will look very differnt here. We did service at a dog show on friday which was fun. Those dog people take it so seriousy too. We are staring up saturday morning basketball at the church which makes me so happy too. Thinsg are on the rise in Marquette. My mission is 40 % complete and beore long ill be a year out. Ive seen much progress in myself and in my areas. Happy labor day. We are going to a ward labor day party at the beach in a little bit. "Yous guys have a nice week hey!"