JOHNSON IN WISCONSIN

Life goes well in Marquete. I must say that this is the sweetest ward in the world. The member rock. We had a few investigators at chucrh again. Mary Annne came for her second week in a row and Brianna for her third week in a row!!! Its cool to see people at chucrh that you have helped get there. Were gonna challenge Brianna to get baptized this week. Mary Anne is liking chucrh a lot. Her brother is a recent convert in Arizona and weve reactivated her husband Ron all cuz Ron's daugheter just moved in with them last month and has gotten them interested in church. All Mary Anne will need to do is quit smoking and marry Ron and she'sll be set. Kyle is at scout camp this week and we'll set the exact date for his baptism the next time that we see him. Probably in August soon. This is a blessed area. Weve had some sweet thunderstorms last week. Ive seen more thunderstorms on my mission than all my time back home in Seattle. Training calls come tomorrow night and ill learn whether or not ill be training this coming transfer. Ill be goinng senior companion most likely but i probably wont train yet as there are too many missionaries older than me who havent trained yet. We'll seee tomorrow. Zone cnfrence last week was awesome. I always feel the spirit so strong there and i get more and more excited abotu being a missionary evry time. The church is true!!!

Yesterday was quite a crazy day. I got the pedigree chart from Deborah this week and it turns out that ive found some distant relatives here. Whitny and Martha Johnson are 80 years old and their son Stewart (the Bishop) and His wife are related to us. My great great great grandpa, John Johnson or Jorgenson is where we lined up. He was born in Denmark and that is where he joined the churh. He migrated to the U.S. in 1853 and settled in Brigham City in 1854. He had a few wives and im the descendant of one of his wives and the Johnson's here are from one of his other wives. That makes the bishop my 4th cousin removed or something like that. Whats really crazy is that Whitney, the old gesser just so happened to give a talk yesterday in sacrament meeting about the pioneers and he had a bunch of his kids and their kids (my 4th and 5th cousins) there to hear him speak. He opened his talk by announcing the news that i was related to all of them way down the lines so i got to meet a bunch of distant family. It was really cool. Were gonna go over there and Whitney has a bunch of history about John Johnson in Denmark. Thats way cool that i was sent here to Marquette. I dont know what you all back there no about our forefathers but maybee im gonna find so cool new stuff for Grandma huh. Ill get some pictures with them and send them sometime. The older couple are so rad. He was so happy to have me serving. I call him Grandpa now. I joked with them that they better start remembering my birthday. Church was also awesome cuz we had 3 investigators at church. We also set a baptism date last week with Madera Raymond. She is the daughter of a recent convert from last year. She was gonna get baptized with her mom last summer but she was on probation at the time and she no longer is. The date is set for August 12. Kyle might get baptized the same day too!!! We might do it in Lake Superior. Whitney and Martha live on the lake and have a beach for their backyard so they have people get baptized out there a lot. Its so cool to be here.

It was a cooker yesterday. its been in the 90's the last few days and it got over 100 degrees yesterday. thats with the humidity out here too. it makes you sweat a lot. we didnt do any tracting in it so it was alright. We had a great week. we made a lot of progress with the people that we are teaching. Brianna came to church yesterday!!! She also told us that she would get baptized if she found out for sure that the church is true (and she will soon). We also got the goahead to teach a 13 year old kid Kyle this past week. He has been coming to church for about 9 months or so (his next door neightbor is a deacon in the ward) and we got his parents approval to teach him the lessons and baptize him so were starting that tomorrow. We also tracted into a way cool guy on Monday and taught him again on Friday and hes looking really good. His name is John and he is very humble and open minded and is really absorbinng the gospel. We told him about temple marrige and eternal families and really caught his interenst as he has a wife and two kids and appears to bea great family man. Were also working with a few part member families as well. This place has the potential to explode with baptisms. there coudl be anywhere from 5-10 baptisms whithn the next 6 months if theese people come around. this is a blessed area. im glad to be here. im enjoying the work more right now than at any point of my mission thus far. Elder Peltier is the man and were enjoying the summer in Marquette. Love ya'll.

I hit my 1/3 mark on my mission yesterday. Where has all the time gone. Ive really enjoyed my mission thus far. Fun areas, cool companions and great memories. The lord's work truly is a blessing to be a part of. Marquette is a great area and im so glad to be here for the summer. The U.P. is a huge forrest with little hick towns spread throughtout. They have a different way of life up here. I saw a dog that was leashed to a boat motor is somebodys back yard. The work here is beginning to simmer. Were teaching some cool people right now and we might set a baptism date with someone this week. Elder Peltier is way cool and were having fun times up here. Life is good, all is well, all is well.

Sorry i have taken so long. The computers in Sheboygan were ancient so i never had time to get here but now i can. I got moved up to Marquette, MI in the Upper Peninsula above Wisconsin. Its the best time of the year to be up in the north woods on teh coast of Lake Superior. Ive been out 8 months and im already in my 4th area so i should be staying here for at leats 3 transfers maybee 4. My new companion is Elder Peltier from Vernal, UT. I will be his last companion as he goes home in August so im killing him here. He's a lot of fun to serve with. He was my zone leader back in Milwaukee so we were both pretty excited about the chnace we have to serev here. This area has a ton of potential as the members have been giving us referreals of people to teach and we are focusing on a few part member families as well. The U.P. is a different place. Lots of trees and animals and the people talk funny. They are a lot of Finnish, Sweeds, Polish and Danish decent. Their accents are funny. Here is an example of what they said to me "Tell me a-boot you familee". They are really nice up here. Theres also a college here, Northern Michogan University so there are plenty of collge kids to talk too. I was happy to leave Sheboygan and there are some people there i worked with that may get baptized in the coming months. Colton, whom i taught in Janesville finally got baptized this past Saturday. He is such a stud and i was happy to hear that he finnaly got baptized. This area has a lot of potential and im excited for this summer!!!!!