JOHNSON IN WISCONSIN

To begin describing my weekend I must say it was nothing short of amazing. Beth Roe was baptized Friday evening and the service was wonderful. The place was packed with members and she had invited a bunch of friends from school that came and Ina Minney was there and President Barrett! We called him the night before and invited him to come and share his testimony during the minor intermission during us changing our clothes. It was great and I caught the last few minutes of his testimony and the spirit was radiating in the room. The baptism went well and i felt so privileged to hold the priesthood and be able to do the ordinance with her. A small child commented "wow that was fast" referring to the actual baptism itself but the blessings are eternal. Beth's nonmember mother, Anne, was there and she was feeling it. On Saturday night we had been invited to go to a cookout by a young guy named Jeremy. He works at the children's museum that we do service at and he invited us and the Hmong Elders over. He and a few friends run a community house for people to come and enjoy the company of good christian people and every Friday and Saturday evening they BBQ it up and anybody is invited, prime missionary opportunity you see. We went and it was awesome. At 1 time all 4 of us were teaching different people and at the end we had a large Bible study. There were about 6 guys and a few gals that had their Bibles with them, some people that also carry scriptures around. We sat in a circle and went through Ezekiel and Isiah about some prophecies of the Restoration and the Book of Mormon and we shared things form the Book of Mormon and gave them all a copy. They meet there every weekend and invited us back which we will do for sure. It was one of the coolest things I've done on the mission. Most of them attend non-denominational churches and we're going back this weekend and will invite them to attend a Sunday with us and see how their Book of Mormon studies went. Yesterday at church Beth got confirmed and she was so happy. Anne was there again but had to leave before sacrament meeting ended due to illness. We are gonna start teaching her, no set appointment yet but it will happen this week. Sweet. Last night took the cake though. Yesterday morning the Beebe's, a young couple in the ward invited us over to their house to meet a friend of theirs who wanted to meet us, so we agreed. Brad, an 18 year old kid in the ward who's getting ready for his mission drove us out to their place in Dale and I must say he's golden. So golden that we set a baptism date with him for the 29th of September!!!!! His name is Rob and he works at the same office that Zach and Tianna Beebe do. He told us that 4 months ago he was really depressed and felt dark in life and he prayed one night that God would send him an angel to bring light into his life, he was looking for friends, some people who don't drink and smoke and live at bars. The next morning at work, Zach showed up at his cubicle and began talking with him and they started to become friends over the summer and his life began to change. He saw the light in the Beebe's lives and realized it must be the church they go to. He didn't tell them until this last Wednesday when they had him over for dinner that they had been an answer to his prayers and he broke down in tears thanking them for having the light that they do and for the next few nights he would come over and they basically told him everything about the church and gave him a Book of Mormon and watched the Restoration with him and they called us because they told him that he needed to talk to us. He already has a testimony and kept talking about the light he saw in us members and that he kept feeling the spirit. Of course we wasted no time in committing him to baptism and we told him that the reason we have that light is because we try to follow the example of our Savior Jesus Christ. We testified of the atonement and how he can repent of his past and receive a remission of his sins through baptism and the holy ghost and he accepted. Awesome huh. I wont complain. He has truly been prepared by the lord. In my studies last week I came across awesome verses in Alma 12 :9-10 about how if we "harden out hearts we will receive a lesser portion of the word and if we don't harden our hearts we will receive a greater portion of the word and we will have the mysteries of God unfolded to our view until they are full." Rob obviously has an open and soft heart which is why the gospel has pierced his heart and brought in him "a mighty change of heart and a desire to do good continuously". That's what it's all about folks. Keep your hearts open and soft at all times and in all things and that's how we will learn what God wants us to learn or as they care called the mysteries of God. I'm so grateful for my mission and the scriptures opening my eyes to so many gospel truths. My life will be so much richer having served a mission for which i am ever grateful. Yes a lot of sacrifice but so worth it. I love this gospel. I love this work. I love my father in heaven and his son Jesus Christ. And i love all of you. May you be blessed with a wonderful week. Gotta go. Love Elder Ben Johnson

Hey, It's Tuesday since the holiday was yesterday. It was fun, Me and E. Winkler participated in our ward talent show. I recited Doctrine and Covenants Section 4 and Winky played the piano. It's fun serving with him again. When we were in Madison he was still pretty green , but after 6 months of separation he is a very fine tuned seasoned missionary and on top of his game and were having a good time. I suppose it has to be good when there's a baptism on Friday night!! Beth got home last week and we met with her a bunch and she came to church and is getting baptized Friday night at 7pm! I'm so excited, she asked me to baptize her, and its looking like we'll have a lot of people in attendance. Her non member biological mother and sister will be there and at church for her confirmation. They are supportive of it and want to learn more to understand why she is making the decision to be baptized and join the church. Beth could be a domino effect for her family, at least that's what were hoping. She's got a lot of support from the ward as she had many friends from school in the two wards here and she just enrolled in early morning seminary. Nothing better than seeing some fruits on the mission. Other than her, we're having a hard time with our other investigators and less active's to keep their commitments, especially coming to church. Despite commitments to come and phone calls to remind them they aren't coming. We thought the 1pm church would help but not the other day. We've got some great people were teaching its just hard not seeing them progress like they have the potential too. Well we'll get Beth dunked and then work on em big time. I'm loving Appleton although I wouldn't mind a change for my last transfer. We had our interviews with Pres. Barret last week and I requested to get sent back to Marquette for my final 6 weeks. Its possible as they are taking Elders out of some of the smaller areas and putting them in the bigger cities and I told him about how my last 2 areas were 6 month areas and the last transfer can be a little hard so we'll see what happens. I trust whatever he feels inspired to do. There's another Elder, Larsen, who I've been good friends with for a long time that I'd love to serve with too. Still got a month to go this transfer but i gave him the heads up. 10 weeks left which is crazy and its September and like 90 out today, nice and toasty and were going on bikes for the week. Times are good. I'm praying for y'all everyday. Gotta run, love ya's so much and look forward to reporting my weekend and hearing about yours. Chow. Love Elder Ben Johnson

Well I'm doing OK. Little up and down. Its been sorta stressful with many things recently. The best news is that Beth finally gets home this week and were gonna get her ready for her baptism on the 8th. Overall the work is going great. We've got a lot of sweet investigators and 3 less active families with kids of baptismal age that were working with. I can see alot happening in this area if the people would just keep their commitments. The tough one right now is coming to church. That's like pulling teeth but this Sunday we start going at 1pm as we switch with the other ward in the building. Pres. Barrett has been talking a lot about having a good vision for your area and serving with all your might. Our mission is in a slump. A few years ago our mission was getting around 400 baptisms a year and this year we are only on pace for around 230 so there is a lot of room for improvement. I can see the potential for 8 baptisms in the Appleton 1st ward, I really can, although the people have to make it happen, that's been the hardest part, we cant get them to drink the water but we can lead them too it. I feel that we will be extending a lot of baptismal invitations this transfer and hopefully they will accept them and actually go through with it. Its tough. Ive been doing it my whole mission. I love being able to bare my testimony that people can receive confirmation form God that what we teach is true and that the Restored Gospel will bless their lives but they have to put forth their effort and its hard to get them to do that. Alma 42:27 sums it up pretty good. Well time is running short. I love you and wish you a great week. Love, Elder Ben Johnson

A curve ball. That's what President Barret threw this week. Last night we got the zone leader transfer calls and it was very unexpected. Well I'm staying in Appleton which makes me very happy. Elder Greer is going to Wasau which means I'm getting a new companion. Well he's not so new, its Elder Winkler. Yup the same Winkler that I spent 3 months in Madison with is coming here and now I'm training him to be a zone leader. Not what I expected but I'm looking forward to it. There have been a lot of changes to the mission and even more coming this upcoming transfer. Its interesting to see the way that different mission presidents work..... Me and Winky had some good times in Mad town and Appleton is even better. I'm so happy to stay here. Beth should be getting home at the end of this week and well get here set for her baptism in a few weeks. We attended a baptism in the 2nd ward and it was really good and is making me excited for ours soon. I'll be sad to see Greer leave. He's been a fun companion and we've seen a lot of progress in the area since he has arrived. We got 3 referrals last week, 2 from members and a media referral that we will contact this week so things are going great. Saturday was pretty fun. We decided that since President Barret was coming through Appleton to pick me up for the game that he should go to a teaching appointment with us. So he went with me and E. Greer to visit Ina Minnie, our old English lady friend. It went well and he did great but still no baptismal commitment from her. We're pulling everything out of the bag we can to get her in the water and she is so hard to figure out. It was still fun nonetheless to take our mission president to a teaching appointment. Well E. Greer ended up staying with some other missionaries in Appleton and I rode up in the mission van with Pres Barrett, Sister Barrett, Todd, their 17 year old son, the Assistants and we met up with the Green Bay elders and went to the game. It was a lot of fun despite the rain and the Seahawks getting whooped. I mean how often do you get to go to a football game at Lambeau Field and get to see your home team also! I know that Guptill will be jealous. It was a blast even though I was very outnumbered being a Seahawks fan and wearing my Seahawks tie. There were a few other Hawks fans there but none of the other missionaries and I refused to cheer for the Packers. We were probably the only sober people there too. So much beer and whatnot. It was fun and I got lots of sweet pictures. Well that's my report. Staying strong working hard, having fun in the rain. It started raining Saturday morning and hasn't stopped since. Yes I got the stamps, thank you, now I can write to you again. Yay. I love you and wish you a splendid week. Love Elder Benjamin!!

Good morning,Ok ok, about the tooth...Its getting fixed tomorrow. Other than that my life is busy. We have a large teaching pool of investigators and less actives that we've been working with which is nice, I love having people to teach. We were on bikes last week and it was hottttt making it mucho fun. I enjoy getting the one week a month to ride the bikes. On Tuesday the zone conference was awesome. Pres. Barret changed things up a bit and I like it a lot. The spirit was very strong and it was a very inspiring meeting. He is such a great teacher, I'm sure he will be speaking in General Conference someday if not at the next one to fill the vacancy. It was sad to learn of Pres. Faust's passing as I've grown to love all of the Apostles from conference although I know he is continuing the work on the other side. After the conference me and E. Greer went to Sheboygan for the night to do exchanges with our District leader and it was cool seeing my old area. We especially loved seeing Lake Michigan as we rarely see Lake Winnebago here as its not in our area. I love water!! It was hard leaving there. When we got back to Appleton we had some great days and the lord is blessing us. We are now teaching 2 single sisters in the ward who have been inactive for a while and each have 2 kids of baptismal age that we are going to teach and try and baptize and get their mom's back to church. Sister Dupont came with her 2 kids yesterday for the first time in a while and it was so nice to see them there. Cynthia was also at church but her mom still wont budge. So we had a few miracles last week but due to time I have to condense. So we decided to go tracting near our home and found a cool lady who took a BOM and invited us back over tonight to teach her and her husband and they have 2 young kids. We were pumped and have been looking forward to that for a few days....Well last night we were on our bikes with an hour left to proselyte and I was tired and wanted to just come home and we got a call on our cell and it was that family . She told us that they wanted to cancel our appointment for tonight and that they are going to stick with their current church....BUMMED.. I was so bummed that they canceled on us and that really made me just want to give up for the night. E. Greer suggested we just park our bikes and tract the street we were on and even though that was the last thing I wanted to do I remembered why I came out here and that I was there for the lord and not myself so I parked my bike and decided to make the sacrifice and knock on some doors....So get this, the first door we knock on was a middle aged woman who was really nice and said she would be interested in learning about the church but she was too busy at the moment. I asked her what she was doing tonight at 7;30 and she said she would be home and I said "We'll be here at 7:30 tomorrow night and teach you!" She hesitated and when we gave her the puppy dog look she couldn't say no so she agreed. I knew we had to teach somebody this evening. Bro. Allen is going with us. Another miracle in the mission field and it was such an awesome feeling. Its been tons of experiences like this that have really boosted my testimony on the mission. There really is nothing like it. I'm loving it right now got to lot of exciting things going on this week and look forward to writing again next week. Mom thanks for writing every week. Other than the forwarded emails for some of my missionary friend nobody writes anymore, oh and Ashley sends me those letters, so its nice to hear from home once a week. I love you and wish you a splendid week. Chow...Love Elder Ben Johnson

I'm having a great time in Appleton and I hope to stay for next transfer as well. I'm wearing all red ties this week. I came out with only 8 ties and now I have 40 of them many I have acquired at thrift stores for less than a buck a piece. I'm gonna wear all my blue ties next week and have 1 color tie weeks! SO fun. There are lots of pretty farms outside of Appleton and I love all of the corn fields..all we had was a forest in the UP last summer. There are also loud crickets at night and I like the buzzing sound, another Midwest thing. Life is so fun, I'm loving my mission and enjoying all the great experiences, memories, people and places. I love flipping through my journals and photo books and cant wait to show them all to you in only 3 months...crazy huh...Well running out of time. The church is true and oh yeah...I bought my Ipod finally last week at Best Buy for only 239.99!!!! Ive got a cool member that is gonna put all my church music on it for me!! I've been wanting one for a long time and I'm glad to have it...that's the only worldly possession I've been wanting as of late. Alright gotta go, Love you and have a fun week. Good luck with all the moving stuff and you are always in my prayers. Love ya, Elder Benny Boy.....

Hello, Good Morning, Happy Monday,Boy do I need a break, I'm glad its p-day. I've been very tired lately and a little stressed with zone leader stuff as of late but I wont get into that. I'm sure this calling is preparing me for future callings in the church. Life is rolling along. Our miracle with Ina Minney is still on hold. We had a really good lesson about baptism with her on Saturday but she wont do it without her 42 year old son, Luke, who lives in Chicago. That's her big hang up....Keep in mind that missionaries have been visiting her for more than 20 years...It could still happen but got to wait, luckily her son is visiting this weekend and she will talk to him about it. Nothing new with Cynthia, her mom wont budge, so no baptism any time soon. It happens. Latest on Beth is that she is enjoying her summer job in Minnesota and reading her Book of Mormon and still planning on her September 8th baptism, so that is still awesome. Were also making some progress with some of our other investigators and we've been doing tons of less active work as of late. This ward has had some great success stories with reactivating members and I think its due to the awesome Bishop and ward leadership and the home teaching is really strong here. I'm glad to be serving in such a stellar ward.....On Friday we spent the day at the EAA Air Show in Osh Kosh. Its the 2nd largest air show in the world. there were tons of cool planes there and my favorite was the black hawk helicopter. The show was sad as after the first race there was a crash and a pilot died, we didn't see it but saw the ambulances and all that's stuff so most of the show got canceled. the little bit that we did see was pretty cool......Last night was very edifying. There was a stake adult fireside and President Christiansen, the stake president delivered a bold and powerful address similar to that of Jacob in Jacob 2. He warned against the evils of our day and counseled us to stay out of the world and live worthy lifestyles. I wrote down notes and some suggestions that he told us that I plan to apply. One thing he stressed was watching out for all the filth and garbage in the media. So true. that's one thing I do not look forward too when I get home is having to face all the media when I get back, its nice not to have a TV to watch or the radio and such as Satan has got a great hold on those things. It was a very humbling and loving discourse that he gave. I know that he was an inspired servant of God in his counsel. I needed to hear some of what he said as I prepare to go home in a few months. Till then ill continue to work hard, study hard and learn as much as I can before that. My testimony is strong and getting stronger. I love you all so much and look forward to hearing for you next week. Love's.....Elder Ben