JOHNSON IN WISCONSIN

Hey ya'll. Not a whole lot to say this week. We have 5 investigators were teaching (Anna, Malina, the Bertram's, Loana, and Patty) and i have 6 more weeks to train Elder Thompson in Marquette. Transfers are this week of course i have nothing to worry about. Im hoping to set a baptism day or few before i leave. A lot can happen in 6 weeks. Its still cool outside. In the 40's and 30's with snow flurries here and there but nothing that sticks around. Im curious as to when the real winter will hit up here. Im continuing to lean day by day and grow so much. Ive been a missionary for 51 weeks and boy has the time flown by. I dont really have any concept of time anymore. The days flow inot weeks, then into months and now into a yeat. Crazy. Lovin it!!

Hey ya'll. I think im at the peak of my mission. Only 2 more weeks till i reach the summiut and start my down hill trek. Im also at the peak of the work. We found 2 new investagators tracting on Saturday to add to our busy teachign pool. Anna, the nmu table girl and Malina, the subway girl are both reading the book of mormon and praying. The lessons are going well with them they just need a personal confirmation that its true before they are ready for baptism. They both have potential. The real good news is that The Bertrams were at church yesterday. The plan is to work with gettign Kim ordained to be a priest so that he can baptize Amber. They plan on going to the temple to be sealed as a family a year after her baptism!!! It may take a little time to prepare them and we still have a lot to teach but they made a big step by coming to church yesterday. Its ever missionary's dream to find a familt to help prepare to be sealed in the temple and im excited for this oppurtunity. Jon is doing great and already growing in the gospel. Its so rewarding to see someone youve taught and baptized remain active in the gospel. Hes a stud. Its gonna be a busy week. Its snowing outside right now and its only October. Its all good though. Marquette is a blessed place especially for the missionary work. Im excited to continue to see progress with the people we are teaching. Were hoping to set a baptism date or two this week. Any prayers would be greatly appreciated. Till next week..chow.

Name that movie!!! Last week was pretty good. Anna came to church yesterday again. Weve taught her the first three lessons and she enjoys church. She will probably get baptized. Our other 2 investigators right now are doing well too. Remember the Subway girl? Her name is Malina and we started teaching her as well. She plans on coming to institute and church this coming week. She was kinda raised mormon but her mom was less active. Her brother joined the church in high school and recently returned home from his mission. She has good baptism potential as well. Were also teaching Kim and Amber Bertram. Kim is a member who has been inactive for a long time and Amber has never gotten baptized although she has a testimony and loves the church. They have a 2 year old boy and she is pregnant with a girl to be born in Feb. I can honestly see them at the temple someday. their biggest hurdle is coming to church regurlarly. less active/part member families are good missionary meat. We got snow on Friday. Yup winter comes early in the U.P. It snowed most of the day but most of it didnt stick to the ground and its all gone now. I didnt know id have to get out my winter coat, hat and gloves so soon. It's gonna be in the 50's today i think. The snow was just another reminder to me that im almost a year long missionary. When i started it was snowing and now ive seen Spring, Summer and Fall and winter is almost back. In 3 weeks ill be half way done. That is crazy to think. It feels like it though. Life has gotten quite routine. Especailly this transfer. Part of it has to be that ive been in this area longer than anyof my previous ones so i know most of the members and i know of many people to visit in every town of our area. I know the streets and stuff like that. The lord has blessed me with great organizational and cooridnational skills which makes the work easy for me to handle. Switicing to senior companion was so easy especially considering i was a senior companion last transfer too. Its cool that what i call fun out here is teaching the gospel. Since thats all we primarliy do i look forward each day to sitting and talking to peopel about teh gospel. Back home what was fun was going to rock concerts, watching sports and going to movies ect. But out here i dont do any of that and im really content with what i do, whiich is visiting people and sharing the gospel. Its so fun and awesome to see how peoples lives are blessed because of it. The people here are excited too cuz the Tigers are going to the world series. Im in Michigan remember so there is a lot of hype about that right now. When they win the world series ill get a Tigers world series t shirt from Wal Mart and say "I was in Michagan when they won it". Its great up here.

Its goin well here. Might have snow in a few days. Thats the U.P. for you. Elder Thompson is doing great. He's so much sharper than i was when i frist came out. Hes teaching me a lot and its a good experience to train. On Sunday Jon was confrimed and recieved the holy ghost and aaronic priesthood! He's so rad. Anna, our investigator came to church for the first time too and loved it. It was fast and testimony meeting. I feel that she will get baptized. And get this. have you ever gotten a spiritiual prompting for craving Subway??? On friday morning i just all the sudden was craving Subway so for lunch we went there to eat and one of the girls making my sandwich (turkey, american cheese, mayo, lettuce and olives on a french bun) said to us"Hey, my brother just got off his mission in Indionesia) I said thats cool and we went to sit down and eat cuz it was pretty busy in there and we couldne chat with her. It finally settled down and i kept getting prompted to go talk to her. Ends up that she is not a member and her brother is the only member in her family and she has attended chucrh in Colorado and thought about getting baptized there but then she moved up here. Well now we got her number and were gonna start teaching her the lessons!!So cool that the lord led us there through a craving of food. Alma 37 "by small and simple things are great things brought to pass!!" Yesterday Elder Steven E. Snow of the 70 came here for mission tour and we had halkf the mission in Appleton and listened to him speak and give a presentation about bettering our work. It was cool. Last night we had a slumber party in Iron Mountain and were having a zone p-day here today and going bowling later before heading back to Marquette tonight. I really feel that ill se at leats 1 more baptiasm before i leave Marquette and maybee more. It makes your mission so worth it when you see a baptsim. Its been worth it even without them too but its great to feel a part of helping others see the blessings of the gosepel. Thats why i came here to help others and i suppose the lord blesses us with knowledge and learnign and personal growth too!! Fall is here and winter is around the corner already..urgggg

Im having fun training. Elder Thompson is doing great and is an excellant missionary. He has a great testimony and vigor for the work and were doin great. He loves basketball and bowling just like me so things are great. Let me tell you how things are going: AWESOME! This is gonna be long but read it. Missions are the best experinces we can have in our lives. Yesterday was one of the greatest days of my life. This weekends confrence was the best ive ever seen. Particularly the last session yeasterday afternoon. The spirit was so strong and the talk that Elder Holland gave was so powerful. When he declared to the world that we have a liveing prophet and apostles that are inspired of God and recieve revelation. God loves us. He has sent his gospel to the earth. My mind caught reflection to the many other people and churches of the world that do not have confrence or a prophet. I was thinking of how much they miss out on and how fortunate we are to have that. I hope you were able to see conrence this weekend and if not, read every single talk. They are gods words and warinings to us that this world is getting worse and worse and the only refuge is through the Gospel of Jesus Christ. I know that this is his church. I have not a shred of doubt about that. President Hinkley then spoke i could feel his love and sincerity. He is a prophet!!!! God loves us so much!!!! We are so lucky to have this knowledge. I know he prepares ways for us to have spitiual experiences. The choir then sang the three verses of the Hymn and tehn they put the words of the first verse again on the screen "We thank thee o God for a prophet" I started singing with everyone else in the chapel and after the first line tears came into my eyes as the spitrit bore sincere witness to me again, just like it has many times past, that the gospel of Jesus Christ has been restored and we have a savior that loves us so much. I havent cried very often but i couldnt help myself as everybody sang that verse. I love my savior and this mission experience. As if it couldnt get better, it did. I had the privlege of baptizing Jon Flippin right after the session. I began teaching him a month ago and to see the whole process was such a blessing. The closing hymn was The Spirit of God and Jon had tears in his eyes. What an amazing day for me. One i will never forget. What an honor to be an instrument in the lord's hands. Jon and i will be friends from here on out as he is my special convert i suppose you could say. This is why i came on a mission. To help others and boy have i gotten so much in return. I never thought it would be the experience it has been and to think i have 13 more months of this is awesome. Thats was yesterday, The rest of the week was great too. We started teaching Anna, the girl we met when we set up the table at the Univesrity. We had a great first lesson with her and were gonne teach her with members this week. She wasnt able to come yesterday which was a bummer cuz had she beem there she would have asked to be baptized. I think she will anyways. Aftere teaching her last week she wal holding the Book of Mormon in her hands and moing it saying "This feels really good, it just feels right" We told her that what she was feeling was the spirit. Oh if she ends up getting baptized how great will be my joy. Remember the carpet lady, Olive. She came yesterday evening to the last session and the baptism. Now shes told elders in the past that the was Episcipaien or whatever and she didnt need to get baptized but i think yesterday hit her. Were gonna see her again this week to help in her garden and talk to her about yesterday and invite her to be baptized. We'll see how she reacts. Missionaries for a few years have been working on her. We had interviews and our mission is starting a new program to promote member missionary work. Its called Prepare to succed. We teach a 21 day program of 4 visits to an active family and its supposed to get us member referrals which leads to baptism. So far this year out mission only has 166 baptisms but they have set a goal for 136 more by christmas (which would be about double the rate) so great things are happening out here. The lors's work is moving forward. Im so glad ot be a part of it and will never froget the experiences ive had on my mission. Have a great week and continue doing the best you can to live the gospel. Love Elder Benjamin Johnson