JOHNSON IN WISCONSIN

So Why You Headed to the airport, flyin somewhere

2007-11-05T09:23:00.000-08:00

Alrightty so its been forever since ive written on here. My bad. Well i fly home in 11 days and im pretty excited to get home and see family and friends. I will miss a lot of things from the mission as well. Its been a great 2 years. Appleton has been great. After Beth's baptism ive seen 3 others. Rob Zimmer, a freind of a sweet couple in the ward was baptized on Oct 12th!! Then a week later on the 20th of October we had the baptsims of 2 girls that go to Lawrence University. Sabrina Miller, who me and E. Winkler just so happened to teach back in Madison, and her roomate that she brought to church and only took us 3 weeks to baptize her. Whats really cool is that this weekend, my last, Amanda Roe, Beth's 15 year old sister is gettin baptized which i couldnt describe a better way to finish the mission. Its been a blast and the blessings have been great, especially in Appleton. The church is true!!! I know that a lot better than I did 2 years ago. Love ya's......Elder Johnson

Yay

2007-09-10T10:21:00.000-07:00

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

September 4th - Hip Hop Horray

2007-09-08T18:33:00.000-07:00

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

August 27th - Hi

2007-09-08T18:29:00.000-07:00

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

August 20th - And the 3-2 pitch......

2007-09-08T18:22:00.000-07:00

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!!

August 13th - Cheers

2007-09-08T18:19:00.000-07:00

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

August 6th - Hello Again

2007-09-08T18:11:00.000-07:00

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.....

July 30th - Good day mate

2007-09-08T18:09:00.000-07:00

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

You guys got hosed....

2007-07-23T09:17:00.000-07:00

The significance of that statement will be mentioned later. So life is movin along, you will not believe what phone call I got on Friday...no it wasn’t for free pizza....not it wasn’t from Steven Spielberg....it was from Sister Roberts, it was my trunky call. Every transfer she calls the missionaries that are going home in a few months...yah, it was weird. She asks if your Bishop, Stake President, Home address and all that stuff are the same (I’ll have to give her the new info when you all move to Silverdale) and then the last question she asks is what airport to buy your plane ticket for. I told her that since the church is paying I wanted to fly to Australia and she laughed and said "Elder Johnson you need to go home, plus I don’t think your mother would like that too much". I guess she is right. Its hasn’t really hit me yet that my time is getting shorter and shorter. I don’t think it does till they get on the plane, well I making the best with the time I have left although it gets tough at times.
We got some bummer news about Cynthia. To start with the good news we had a great lesson with her last week and she has decided to get baptized!!! That’s the exciting part; she has gotten confirmation through prayer that it’s right. The bummer is that her mom isn’t gonna let her go into the water. Booo. She doesn’t turn 18 till September of next year which means she will have to wait until then unless we can get written permission from her mom. She is cool with her coming to church and the lessons and all but when she asked about baptism she told her that they are Catholics and they've been Catholics forever etc. SO yah, I was pretty bummed after she told us on Saturday at the stake pioneer day picnic. I’ve been waiting to see a baptism forever and we finally have somebody ready to go and the mom nixes it.
I’ve seen a lot of disappointments like this on my mission, a lot of baptisms falling through, I guess it’s what I needed to learn to handle. She assures us that she is gonna stay active and if she has to wait a year, then she will so the good news is that she has converted although she may have to wait to receive all the full blessings. I’m tellin ya, I might get fired from some big job later in life and it probably won’t phase me as im getting used to disappointments. We still have hope and are praying that her mom will have her heart softened. I’ve seen many miracles and have faith that more will occur. Something really cool is happening with Ina Minney, the English old lady in that one picture, I’ll update you about that next week.......I’m gaining a stronger testimony of the sacrament out here and realizing how I can choose weaknesses every week and repent during the sacrament and see a change in myself.
Recently I have overcome road rage, 7 weeks ago when I first got transferred here and began driving again (after 6 months on a bus) I was yelling at everybody on the road (let me tell ya, they are horrible drivers here and the street lines make no sense) and I realized that it was making me angry and thus taking the spirit away. A few weeks ago I decided to repent and work on that weakness and took the sacrament with that in mind a few weeks ago and now I have no road rage at all. It’s amazing what the sacrament can do as we truly repent and seek to change and renew the covenants we made at baptism.
I and E. Greer also had a special fast yesterday and I’m growing in the fast department as well. I also am gaining a testimony of the word of wisdom as of last night. We were at the Spanish/Hmong Elders apartment doing numbers and faxes and we were outside on the porch with our cell phone where we get reception and a drunk guy without a shirt and a beer in his hand walked up to us and started talking to us. He was pretty funny and very plastered, probably the happiest drunk we’ve met in a while. He had some great 1 liners. Including "I may have to puke on your bushes". I asked him how many beers he had that night and his reply was " Counters don’t drink and drinkers don’t count" and then he told us he had a friend that served a mission in Peru and told us that we got hosed getting sent to Wisconsin and finally a girl, must have been his friend came up and grabbed him and he said "Sorry guys, but she's a lot hotter than you" and they walked off. It was pretty funny...lesson learned...stay away from the booze. Good ole Wisconsin. Well that’s the news for this week. Love ya lots. Later. Elder Ben Johnson

My fingers hurts, and now your back is going to hurt, cuz you just pulled landscaping duty

2007-07-09T09:48:00.000-07:00

Actually my finger doesn’t hurt, and I am not wearing a splint anymore!!! A nurse in the ward told me on Wednesday to take it off, so I did and I cleaned it and it looked and felt well enough not to wear the lovely cast anymore! It’s nice to have so much freedom. At first it was very stiff so I've been exercising the joints and now I can make a fist although the top joint that broke is going to be a while before I can move it fully and the tip is still sore so I don’t have full use out of it but it’s a lot better than before. I still wear the splint when I sleep and in the shower to protect the newly healed joint and it look different than my other fingers with a small bump but nothing too noticeable.

The other big news is that I'm getting hooked up with another sweet companion. The zone leaders get their transfer calls on Sunday night before transfers and Elder Anderson is getting transferred to Idaho Falls and I’m getting, bun dun dun....Elder Davey Greer!! He is stalwart and one of the best missionaries we’ve got, he hasn’t even been out a year yet, not till next week- so he is going zl pretty early. He is coming from Osh Kosh, just 15 minutes south and I served around him in Madison and was pumped for this upcoming transfer.........

This past week was one of the most draining and tiring weeks I've had on the mission. Last Monday we taught Beth and Cynthia the Plan of Salvation at the church with Spencer and Jenna and then we all went to play disc golf. Later in the week, Beth informed us of her desire to be baptized!!! And that she prayed and got an overwhelming feeling that what we’ve taught her is true. She is solid and will be baptized on September 8th, only because she is leaving this week for a job in Minnesota and will be back at the end of the summer. Cynthia is going well too, both were at church again yesterday, and were planning to set a baptism date with her this afternoon, probably sometime before the end of the month. We have been truly blessed this transfer. On Tuesday we had our mini zone conference with Pres. and Sister Barrett and boy did they look green. He is stellar though and has great vision for our mission and has the traditional knee slapper humor that we all expect from High Priests. He really scored points with us by taking me and my companion and the assistants out to the Outback for dinner that night as well.
On Wednesday we spent the 4th at the church for our picnic then all of us Appleton Elders went out to Wrightstown out in the middle of nowhere and spent the day with some of the 2nd ward Elder's investigators. They had a bunch of home fireworks that they lit off and a BBQ and yard games. It was a good day. Then on Friday night I and E. Anderson got permission to go to the Wisconsin Timberattlers game and guess what? They are one of the Mariners farm teams. A-ball. I had no idea till we got there and saw the M's logos and such. Cool stuff, it was a fun game. Finally on Saturday we had our stake wide missionary musical concert and had a decent turnout. I sang for the first time in front of people accompanied by another elder. E. Anderson played "The Scientist" by Coldplay on the piano and me and E. Morse sang How Great Thou Art to the music. The words fit ti the song and it was really fun. Then yesterday was the Sabbath, whew...I’m so exhausted. Life is good although things won’t settle down till next Monday, this week we lose the car and we’ve got transfers and got to go down to Fond Du Lac for a baptismal interview and we will be running our bum's off this week too. What maked it all worth it is that 2 prepared people will be getting baptized here this summer and that is exciting. Beth and Cynthia are becoming good friends themselves and we and the Benyos are all excited to see them both get baptized. I’m realizing that becoming friends with your investigators is really helpful is seeing them progress, once they can see past you as the robotic missionary and see you as a caring friend and see how much the gospel blesses your life, I feel that helps them grasp it so much better, at least that’s how its been for Beth and Cynthia, I never thought going disc golfing with your investigators would produce such results, but I’ll take it. Have a splendous week, the church is true, I’m busy and it’s hot but its all for the best. Love Elder Benjamin R. Johnson

Its my Farsha

2007-06-18T08:54:00.000-07:00

Hey ya'll,Another week has snuck by us. This past week me and Elder Anderson rode our bikes as we have the car 3 outta 4 weeks. It was a hot and humid week. I dont like sweating like it does out here, it all adds to the experience and also to my top 10 reaslons why i would never move back here. Bike riding was good exercise. Not a whole lot of excitement. Were doing a decent amount of teaching. Only have one real progressing investigator but she works alot and live a half hour out into the country so we done see her much but she's been to church a few times. Her name is Cynthia and she's 17 and she has been doing great. Her nephew Anthony, 9, was baptized here last transfer and she attended his baptism and confrimation and church a few more times and she told us that she has learned meore the past month than she has her whole life at the Catholic church. She pretty golden and will probably be baptized soon. As far as Steven is concrened, we had to move his date back a few weeks as he hasnt been progressing like he needs to to be baptized. Were not sure if its gonna happen. We'll see. Were working with a less active, Dave Timberlake who were trying to get ready to recieve the aaronic presthood and were working with a few more less active members and some other investigators as well. Its been pretty up and down lately. The mission certainly has not been a cake walk, some days its the greatest thing in the world and others i just wish it was finished..defenitly a roller coaster out here, the one thing i have noticed is that the lord has always lifted me and given me a boost when i need it. On Thursday morning we do weekly planning and i was pretty sick, my allergies have been killer the last few weeks and i was sick of being sick and we had no appointments all that day and i had no motivation to do anything, i just wanted to sleep all day. We finally left our apartment at 1:30 and i prayed that the lord would lead us to have a meaningful day and we did!! We taught 6 lessons and met a cool less active sister that hasnt liked missionaries for a long time but she let us in and by the end she was cool with us and we ended up going over to her house again the next day to paint out in the sweltering heat for 3 hours and she fed us dinner and we met her family, including a daughter that is interested and may soon take the lessons. The lord's hand is so present in the work and my testimony has been so strengthened these past 19 months. Its great to be here although tough at times. I just started reading in Isiah, its nice to have the Old testamen tstudy guide i scored for free in Madison to help me understand it. Ive also been studying the Law of Moses a lot recently and seeing how much symbolism is there. I intend to read books abotu the old testament when i get home as there is so much to learn in it. I really enjoy all of the study time i get on a mission. Did i mention that i gave a talk in sacrament meeting yesterday and I talked about Fathers and how important a role they play in the gospel. Read the first few verses of 1 Nephi 11 and Enos for examples. Im not counting down but i did start reading Psalms backwards yesterday. there are 150 of them and a lot of missionaries like to read the D&C backwards till they go home but that would be too long so i saved Psalms and i read 149 today. Its a lot a fun and worth while out here but id be a liar if i didnt say im really looking forward to finishing my mission and take what ive learned and progress through my next phases of life. I cant begin to express my gratitude for all the blessings ive recieved from my mission (even having to wear a smelly splint on my finger.) I love you and wish you a splendid week and hold to the rod!! Love Elder Benjamin!!

Grab my arm, other arm, my other arm

2007-06-11T09:21:00.000-07:00

Thats what i have to say to everybody who wants to shake mt right hand, i have to makie it awkward by putting my left hand out and switching everything up. Thats been the most annoying part of having a finger in a splint. Ive been super busy as a zone leader but its all good. We had our last interviews with Pres. and Sis. Hunt and the new mission president, Pres. Barret begins his service on July 1st. Ill miss the Hunts, they have been awesome. Me and Elder Anderosn set the new mission record for invites in a week with 1,247 with the help of one of the nations biggest Flag day parades here in Appleton. People lined the streets and we handed out pass along cards and paphlets that were just collecting dust in our closet and were hoping it benefits somebody and produces so media referrals for us. Elder Anderson has also been doing magic card tricks for people as we like to go to parks and he uses that to break the ice with people as weve been experimenting with new ideas to proselyte. We have a baptism dat set for June 23rd with Steven Winters, 18, who is headed off to boot camp for the army national guard in July so were pretty excited for him. Well i gotta go. I love Dan and Josie Collins, and Uncle John and Ant Teresa and anybody else that reads my blog. Keep the faith and ill keep the gangrene away from my finger!!! Bueno, Love Elder Ben Johnson

I Knew it was you, I could smell ya gettin off the elevator

2007-06-04T08:54:00.000-07:00

Its been a few weeks, well i broke my finger on Memorial day and now its in a aplint for 6 weeks. Fun stuff. I just got transferred to Appleton about 45 minutes south of Green Bay kinda in the middle of the stateGreetings from Appleton Wisconsin. It sure is a different place than Madison. There are about 70, 000 people here and it’s a usual Midwest town I suppose. Houndini, the magician is from here and our area goes out into the farm country which is a nice change from my last area. We have quite a few copmpanionships here, 3 english a Spanish and a hmong companionship. Im excited to be here. The ward is different as the families are older and there is quite a bit of youth here. There are a few soon to be missionaries that are very active in helping us out. I bore my testimony in church yesterday to introduce myself here. This ward has had 8 baptisms this year already and they have a good ward mission plan that is helping the members. Our Bishop and Ward Mission Leader aer way gung ho about the work too so im excited to be here. There is already some baptism potentials that were teaching right now. E. Anderson and I are having fun although the first few days have been stressful with transfers and being a zl. Ive been pretty busy with phone calls and paper work and we have to prepare a training for the zone tomorrow at interviews. That’s the life of a zl and we haven’t been to bed on time one night so far. Its tough. We have a cell phone as they used to live with members but now we have our own place and we have to go over to the spanish elders apartment to fax stuff to the mission office and we get home late at nights, we need to get a land line at our apartment so that we can do everything from our place. I'll enjoy it here once i get settled in and get to know the area. It is nice to be serving with another friend making 2 great companions in a row and ill probably get hooked up till i go home. Im not sure if ill finish my mission here. Its possible but i could do 2 transfers here a 2 somwhere else. This is E. Anderson's last transfer and he'll go home in July so my guess is 3 and 3 but time will tell. The finger is doin ok. It doesnt hurt and ive gotten alot better with my left hand and using the other 3 fingers that i can with my right hand. Hasnt been a problem yet and im gonna get a blessing to make sure that it heals properly. I wont go to the doctor till the end of the transfer so that they can take off the splint and make sure it heaed right. Im missiong b ball a little bit but not too much. Alls i coiuld ask for is some sun as it has been raining since i got here. It is alos nice to have a car again. We get a car 3/4 weeks which is nice and convenient. Overall im well but tired, things will be so much better when we get a phone line at our house, we live in the upstairs apartment of a house, the guy renting it out to us lives downstairs so its nice not to live in an apartment complex too. One mre thing that happened is that we attended a wedding on saturday for one of the recent converts here. It was held at a baptist church and was a tradional wedding, the first i have ever attended. They used the words "till the end of your mortal life" as opposed to "for time and all eternity" which was odd but true. Im sure that the temple cermony will be a better experience. Well i have not much else to say. I love you guys and my testimony is strong. Im continuing to grow and learn each day that my mission goes by and im greateful for all the blessings iver recieved for my service. Its weired to see the day count in my journal keep on going up, i reached 573 today. Time flies when you are having fun. Keep the faith and let the good times roll. Love Elder Ben Johnson .

Did i catch a niner in there?

2007-05-14T08:53:00.000-07:00

Alright im sorry i havent kept this up for a while, my bad. Im still in Madison and serving with E. Whitlock. Hes been one of my favorite comps out here and were becoming great friends. the work is well as we have 2 baptismal dates set and teaching quite a few people right now. Th weather is nice, sunny and warm and its finally green everyhwhere. Madison looks a lot bettet with all of its trees and lakes. I have now been out for 18 months so i have completed 3/4 of my mission and will be returning home in November. These next 6 months will be fun too, being a missionary in the states right now is fun as the church is getting in the news a lot laltely with that 4 hour Pbs documentry about the church a few weeks ago and Mitt Romney running for Pres and all that stuff. Ive been told that there is a hollywood movie coming out this summer that is about the mountain meadows massacure that makes Brigham Young and the church look bad so the church is a hot topic right now and weve been getting a lot of questions and we gotta resolve all the flase assertions that this wiked world spreads about God's church. Its fun to be a missionary! I will likely be getting transferred in two weeks as ive been here near 6 months and E. Whitlock is gonna train a new missionary here. Thats the news from me. I love you all and wish you a swell week. Hi Teresa and John in Seattle. Ive been a bum and i owe you guys a letter so be checking you mail soon. K. Later. Elder Benjamin R. Johnson

Its True Isnt it?

2007-04-02T08:44:00.000-07:00

Last week was good, taught a lot more (still in search for some real serious investigators though, taugha new couple in a members home between sessions yesterday which was sweet but they gotta lot of hurdles to overcome) and boy was confrence awesome. Sat and Sunday morning sessions rocked. Was your testimony strenghtened? (dumb question) Mine sure was, another lego :)....I especially liked Elder Jensens talk about Hymns and conversion cuz some of my most spiritual experiences involve the hymns. It was almost 4 years ago that I sang "Joseph Smith's First Prayer" at the wilderness youth confrence. That day chaged my life. It was then that my personal tetstimony began and that day was when i decided to serve a mission, and now 17 months into it im I continue to see all the blessings of the gospel in my life. Over that sr. year i continued to watch my testimony grow and ive had a few more hymns that i hold dear to me that i recieved direct spiritual witnesses of this church. Leads right into the talk given by Elder Pace yesterday. Ive had too many direct witnesses that i cannot deny that have been rocks to my testimony, even when doubts and uncertaintity come in i cannot deny those experiences and i know this church is true and that the gospel is great, no matter what somebody trys to tell me (and belive me, out here people are alwyas tryin to sway us). There were so many other great talks given. If you didnt catch them all i would exhort you to check them out cuz they are God's words. (sorry to use scripture language, but im a missionary). In arenect email from Whitney she asked if i noticed how mush i have changed out here. Yes, i have notcied a big change in myself out here. The mission has changed me in so many ways and provided such an amazing experience to refelct upon. I love reading now, i used to hate it, but now i cannot get enough of the scriptures and gospel books, i have a nice list to acquire and read at home over the years. I love attending church and confrence because of what i learn there, not because its a great social place. I used to view confrence as drudgery but now i lesten intensly to each speaker noting how i can apply what they are teaching. My faith has increased, my testimony strenghtened. Ive learened humitilty and patience. I have learened how to deal with adversity, challeneges, disappointments and trials. I look at life in a different life always trying to see what heavenly father is trying to teach me during those experiences. My mission has taught me so many valuablr lessons and prepared me for my future and growth in the gospel and frowth as a son of God trying to return to him. Thats what this life is for, just ask Amulek in Alma 34. Were preparing to meet God and a mission is doing a great job teaching me how to do that better. Rm's always seemed so much different that those theier same age without a mission under their belt. I know why they are more mature and wiser. Ive benefited so much from my service in the Wisconsin Milwaukee mission, where God knew i could have these experinces that have blessed my life so much. I understand the roles of Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ in my life and witout them id be nothing. Im am so grateful for all the blessings in my life. I truly have been blessed with goodly parents and great friends in life. I wouldnt have asked for a better family. I look forward to the 6 weeks between Tahnksgiving and New Years that ill be home to spend time with ya'll. Of course you know i eventually gotta go off to college so hopefully that wont happen for a while. One things happeneg recently is ive been getting the question "how long do you have left elder?" When you begin your mission its' "how long have you been out elder" and now they wanna know when you go home. The number is 7 and a half months and that number keeps on getting smaller. Ah, its April already. In 6 weeks i get to call again. How fun. Well we have a huge zone p day at the park, there will be brats(its the big thing in Wisconsin, im not a huge fan but ill eat em anyways). There will be over 30 missionaries tehre. Zone confrence is a week early this transfer and every transfer they move the location to a different unit in the satke and guess where we get to go tomorow. JANESVILLE!!!! my birth place, my genisis. Im excited to get to vist there again, it will bring back great memories. I love you and wish you a swell. Week, mommy travel safely to Hawaii and take lots of pictures for me!!! Love yous so much. Take care, Love Elder Benjamin!!!!

You do something like this and totally reddem yourself

2007-03-19T08:55:00.000-07:00

This past week was incredible. I gave a district meeting about miracles and inviting more people. Elder Ballard last year challenged all the missionaries in the world to invite at least 10 people a day (which for a companionship is 20 people per day 140 per week)> for some reason i had not applied myself to that challenge from an apostle from the lord as i know we would be blessed by comitting ourseleves so last week me and E. Whiltock got bold and started inviting everybody, busses, streets, houses, and bpy were we blessed. We taught 20 lessons last week (which in our mission is really good). We met so many new people to teach and saw a few miracles of our own. Last night we were tractign a street and were havinh no luck. We were tired and hungry and murmuring cuz nobody on that street would talk to us. There were only 2 houses left and we honestly wanted to say "screw it lest go home and eat dinner" but we knocked on the 2nd to lats door and this guy Dave told us to come in. He proceeded to tell us that he had just gotten back from Utah as his son is going to a school for kids who need help from breaking the law and stuff like that. He said he has always been impressed with our church and that this last time in Utah he was really thinking about looking into the church and we showed up on his doorstep, talk about the Lord having a hand in this work!! He had not time to talk unfortunatly so we quiickly gave him a BOM and got his contact info and he wants us to teach him. Man i love being a missionary as it strenghthens my testimony so much, even when we were complaining and almost gave up we got blessed by finding this new & prepared man to teach. Sometimes we just need a wake up call. I cannot wait till i come home and i can read to you from my journal all of the miracles i have seen on my mission and testify to you that the Lord really does lead us and guide us in our lives when we turn to him. Dave was only one of many new people we met last week and hope to teach again. Life is good in Madison!

Do you want me to sing it to you, SURE

2007-03-12T09:22:00.000-07:00

Benjamin is stayin in Madison for 6 more weeks. E. Winkler got shipped off to Wisconsin Rapids and i got a new companion Elder Whitlock. He has been out 8 months and is from Salt Lake City. I love him. I had met him at Christmas Zone Cnfrence and i was excited that we are getting to serve together. Its my first companion ive had in 7 months that im way tight with. Weve had a fun few days thus far. He is an actor and has agents back home and he's been in some comercials and a few indy films. That was an answer to prayer. The weather is so much nicer, all the snow has been melting and its in the 50's today! I like that a lot better. I am also the distrcilt leader again, ive been off the last 3 months but im so excited to be it again. One of my duties is to interview baptismal canadites in my district and i got to do that on Saturday night. It was a great experience. We met at Cal Boui's home of the Madison 2nd ward. My Zone Leaders, Elders Aho & Hyde were there as well and Marcus, who was baptized yesterday. I felt honored to interview him and pass him for baptism. Marcus is 29 and has had a rough life and his friend Cal brought him to church in December and wow, what the gospel does for people. His countence was so great as he was so happy for the cleansing effect of the Atonement of Jesus Christ and was very excited for his baptism. I got to interview him and share my testimony and excitement for his baptism much like King Benjamin in Mosiah 5. Afterwards we all met in the front room and all bore our testimonies and the spirit was so strong. I felt the smae burning feeling i felt when i baptized Jon Flippin. It was another one of those spiritual witnesses of the gospel that i cannot deny. Ive had quite a few on the mission and added another lego to my tower on Saturday. I know this church is true and the gospel is such a blessing. Yesterday, Nan, our 78 year old investigator came to sacrament meeting and enjoyed it! We plan to keep teaching her even though she doesnt fully grasp the depth of what we teach with her age but you never know. We got a lesson tonight at the Cannon's, their friend wants to learn about the church so were hoping that turns into a new investiagtor. Good things are happening. Each week i have experinces that strengthen me and help me love my savior and his gospel more and more. Ive had so many cool things happen that wouldnt had i not come on a mission. Well peace out.

Hello McFly anybody home?

2007-03-05T09:38:00.000-08:00

How come nobody ever posts comments on here, give me a shout if you actually read this thing! Love you all!

theres like a butt load of gangs in this school

2007-03-05T09:36:00.000-08:00

Hey, I now go through my trials and challenges by trying to figure out what the lord is trying to teach me and what im supposed to learn from it. I went through that when i lost my camera and i learned that i need to exercise more faith in Christ when i face trials, even though at the time i was very stressed i look back now and realize it helped me learn and grow and will prepare me for my trials in the futre. Its awsome to see the lord give us object lessons in life and maybee this operation is for you to learn something. Be sure to pray often and talk with heavenly father about it and try and see what you can learn from your experinces in life, i do that a lot in the mission field. The scriptures teach us that when we put our trust in the lord we are promised with strength in our afflictions. Have a prayer in your heart always, check out Mosiah 24, its a great illustration of that, one of my favorite chapters. Also look at 2 Nephi 4, great sermon by Nephi. Oh boy what would life be withut the BOM. Well, tranfers are this week and E. Winkler is most likely leaving so i should be gettin a new companion and be in Madison 6 more weeks. Im ok with that. 2 transfer areas are wierd so im happy to stay another even with the bus during winter. Hopefully all the snow and cold will only last a few more weeks, its gettin reall old. Im much more pleasent during spring and summer. We have a few new people to teach as this transfer starts. Jamses doesnt want offical meetings in members homes anymore but said we could stop by. He plans to continue studying the BOM and about Joseph Smith but so far he doesnt feel that he was a prophet afetr he translated the BOM. With time i feel that he will come around. I am goinng to strongly encourage him to attend general confrence in a few weeks, nothing better than hearing the inspired words of a prophet and apostles. We got a new investigator last week, Nan Mulhern, a 76 year old widowed Irish woman we met tracting 2 weeks ago and gave her a BOM on her doorstep. We taught her the Restoration and she loved it and is a ver sweet older lady. Were taking Sister Watkind from the ward over there tomorrow for another lesson. Whats really cool is that she only lives 3 blocks form the church and she plans to go with us next week. SWEET! We hopefully gonna start teaching Tammy, the Burtons neighbor this week, the weather last week sorta messed that up on Saturday. We also have a nice list of potentilas that we are gonna work on and hopefully get some new investigatrs as we contact and teach them so this next transfer could be exciting. I will probably become the District Leader (i enjoyed it a few months ago so that will be nice) again and this will be the 7th transfer in a row that me and E. Larka, form Sweeden, will be in the same district. He is training on Campus so that should be fun. Tomorrw we are having a combined district meeting with everybody serving in the Madison zone at the Capital!! We got a swee hook up form a mamber and we get to use on of the rooms of the capital, maybee we can make some new laws while we are there. Another week has paseed and i still feel strong in the faith. I love this gospel and my time i have to be a missionary, its such a rewarding experience. I got a nice taste of the fruits of my labors today as Sister Guenther in Marqutte emailed me and told me that she got her temple reccomend and should be going to Chicago to get her endowment. She has only been a member for 18 months and has a had a rouhg firrst year and a half as a member going through a divorce and heath issues and a bunch if stuff and remember how she used to feed us every week? She told me that i played a big part in helping her prepaerf for the temple and get her recomned and keep her on track. It was nice to hear that i am impacting peoples lives from my service. There were a lot of people who helped me get where i am and thats whay i came out here, to share my testimony and joy in the gospel with others to help them and i guess i am doign that, even without tons of baptisms. The last few weeks me and E. WInkler have been discussing that part of our calling as a missionary (especially in Wisconsin) is to edify the saints, and i guess thats how i was able to help Sister Guenther. I love being in the service of my fellow man and God, Mosiah 2:17, sorry ill stop showing off. I get lots of time to read the scriptures out here. I will be 16 months on Firday and will only have 1/3 of my mission remaining. I cant imagine what it will be like not to be a missionary. Luckily i still have to wait a while before i know. Have a fun March week. What happened to February? Love you all so much and let the good times roll. Love, Elder Benjamin Russell (not Richard) Johnson

I think its time for Dodgeball

2007-02-26T09:05:00.000-08:00

Hello my brothers and sisters in the gospel,I had so much to write to my mom that it was easier for me to just paste it for all you to read, go pop some popcorn and grab a cola cuz its long but i want you all to know how fun a mission is. Enjoy:Hello family,K, let me first answere your questions. I still think i prefer Washington winters over Wisconsin ones, i am not a cold fan and although my tolernace for cold has changed (its 30 right now and thats noting) ths snow is fun to play in but it sucks when its around all the time, rain is easy, id prefer to drive to the mountains to play in it rather than it being an annoynace all the time, lets just say i plan to never visit the midwest during winter time again. Yes there have been times when having "time off" would be nice but that would make it extrememly difficutlt to get back to the routine so thats why missionaries dotn come home for holidays, its better just to hack it the tow years and then be a member missionary for life. I do belive seminary helped but the 1 hour of study we get every morning is maybee my favorite part of the day, its all about repetition, the more you read the BOM the more you will learn from it. Im currently in 3 Nephi and when i finish this round i will have read it 6 times!!! I love stuffing myself with as much study as i can, its great to see how much ive learned. SO, this past week has been wild. Let me start with Tuesday-Thursday. SPRING! Upper 30's and low 40's no clouds beautiful. All the snow melted and we did tons of tracting and were blessed by giving out 6 BOM's and making a niuce potential investigators list to chek up on in the future. On Friday night i went on exchanges with Elder Anderson of the Madison 4th ward and Elder Winkler went with a bunch if other missionaries to Monroe tp play in a piano concert. We went bowling with a less active guy and his nonmember wife who they are teaching and then wnet to pizza hut and had a lesson with them there. When we had first gotten to bowling it barely started snowing and by the time we left pizza hut there was 6 inches of snow on the ground, it was coming down like crazy. The other elders got snowed in Monroe and i got to stay the night with Elder Anderson and thats when the fun started. We got to the apartment and went outside to play in the snow and saw a car that was stuck so we went and pushed them out and there was another car stuck down the street and helped them. We figured tons more people would get stuck that night so we got a skillet and a pot (we had no shovel) and perched out on the street just waiting for people to get stuck and we would run outta nowhere and help them. We were out there till 2 am helping people get outta the snow and the roads were so bad. It was so much fun. We eneded up pushing 12 cars outta the snow, digging thier tires out with a skillet and pots. We didnt get to bed till late but it was so worth it. People looked at us weird for coming outta the woods to help them but they were also grateful. It took them till 1 pm on Saturday to finally pick us up... We all went to the stake center to attend a baptism for a lady named Lorraine Winchel. Her daughter was baptized into the singles branch a year and a half ago and never thought her mom would join the church. It was amazing the spirit that is felt at baptsims. God has restored his church and given us his authority to baptize and organize his kingdom on the earth. It was fun. Yesterday chuurch was cancled throuout the stake so we held a missionary sacrament meeting at the ZL's apartment and we had 12 Elders there. It was awesome. It remninded me of the first sacrament meeting that Joseph Smith and the early members of the church held. We sang hymns and had a testismny meeting and its so awesome being around missionaries. We have such a special calling and its amazing to see how grown up everybody is. Sure, were still boys but the mission matures us so much. I feel like ive grown so much in so many ways. What a great 15 and a half months it has been. Despite all the disappointments i know that my efforts are eternal and even though i may not see tons of baptisms im still doing whats right and i have certainly benefited a ton from my mission. I love getting Legos to add to my tower. So we gave James some D&C to read as we founf out he doesnt have a testimony of Joseph Smith, hoping that would help him. To our dismay we got a message on our machine telling us that he has decided that he is not a prophet and he feels the D&C contradicts the Bible and the BOM. It doesnt make any sense. He professes the BOM to be God's word and he loves reading it but he cant accept the prophet that brought it forth. He also wanted to cancle our appointment for this week. Oh well, i guess ive gotten stuck with all the stubborn people on my mission as ive had people like this in all my areas, the accetp 80 percent of the gospel and you simply cant do that. You cant pick and choose what you like and dont like about the Gospel. The good news is that were gonna start teaching a girl named Tammy who came to churhc last week. She is neighbors with a sweet family in the ward and we sat by her on the bus the other day and invited her to hear the lessons in the Burton's home and she accepted. Hopefully that will go well. All thses experinces are making me stronger and my testimony grows each day. I love you all so much and im grateful for your testimones and examples in my life, which helped me to get here and im ever so grateful for my time to serve, even in winter striken Wisconsin. Well i gotta go, enough tyoing for one day. The church is true and i Love you!!!!! Zone Confrene tomorrow!!! Adios, Elder Ben Johnson

I got robbed by a sweet old lady on a motorized cart

2007-02-12T09:24:00.000-08:00

Hey ya'll. Two weeks ago it was freakin cold, below 0 for some time and even worse with the wind chill but its back up into the teens and 20's again. I got to go to the Chicago Temple on Friday, it was so awesome. The second we got in i could feel the difference from the outside world. There is such a calm, peaceful feeling and its so quiet, bright and white, oh i miss it. The lord's presense there is so strong. It made more sense to me this time and was a great review. It was another reinforcement of my testimony. Testimonies are like a tower of legos. Its as if each time we have a spiritual experince or have a great lesson at church or sacramnet meeting or the temple, or any time when you feel so strongly the truthfullness of the gospel it's like adding another lego to the tower. I had some legos before i came on the mission and ive added so many out here, its seems as if daily, especially when i do my scripture study. Its awesome, keep on adding you own legos!!!!On Tuesday we had interviews. I officilly go home the 16th of November. We had a dinner and lesson that night at the Dimonds home with James and we set a baptismal date for Feb 25th. he hasnt officialy said that he wants to be baptized yet but we felt setting the date would help him to really hunker down and recive a firm answer about it from the Lord. We committed him to pray at least twice a day and read from the BOM each day. I can't see him not getting baptized. He took us to churhc again yesterday and he continues to love it. He was reading the BOM before sacrament meeting started and we noticed that he was looking ta baptism in the index so that was a good sign. We have another lesson tomorrow night. On a rather sad not i may have lost my digital camera. I had it one Friday night and when we left the apartment saturday morning, i didnt use it at all on Saturday and it wasnt in my backpak when we got home. We visited 7 different homes that day (i take my scriptures outta my bag, which is also where my camera is, so it might have fallen out) and so far it hasnt surfaced. Ive been retracing all my steps that day and hopefully it will turn up. Ive been praying that ill find it and im confident it will be in my possesion soon. If not by this time next week i suppose ill have to buy a new one. Crap happens. I still have my testimony and my faith and that keeps me goin even when stuff like this happens and thats what is important. I would have gone home by now if i didnt have the gospel knowledge and testimony that i have cuz missions sure are ups and downs. The church is true. The Book of Mormon is so precious. We wouldn't have nearly as much of the Plan of Salvation without it. Other christians are missing out so much without this scripture. I have really come to love the BOM and have such a strong testimony of it. Have a fun week and stand fast in the faith. I love you alls so much. Love. Elder Ben

George, your new book arrived, oh Hi Marty!

2007-01-29T08:36:00.000-08:00

Hello. Sorry i haven posted much lately. Its hard to get enough time in the libraries here in Madison. Let me update you on things here. Hello,First off transfers...we werent involved, me and E. Winkler are staying in Madison which is sweet cuz were gonna have a great transfer. Its nice staying with somone as i dont have to convert him to the area. We both expected it to happen and were happy about it. Thats awesome that you are going to the temple. Im jealous as i havent been since the MTC but we will probablt get to go this month sometime as the Chicago temple isnt very far away and the singles ward goes once a month. Hopefully that will happen. im doin a lot better this time. I still havent heard from Jon at all but i cant dwell on that, still a bummer but outta my hands. Well James Lusher, our investigator, picked us up and took us to church yesterday and he loved it! He is progressing very well. We are gonna set a baptism date with him tomorrow night!! He is very ready and should have recieved his answer by now, it should be within the next few weeks. I went to the Wisconsin Badgers b ball game on Wednesday. Get this, so the tickets we had were for the very last row of the upper bowl (they were free so i couldn't complain) but we werent gonna stay all the way up there the whole time so we scouted the bottom bowl for seats that nobdy showed up for (it was tough as it was a sellout as UW is ranked #2 in the nation) but we spotted some. So at half time we wnet down and took our seats...ROW 5!!! in the middle and nobidy ever came so we watched the 2nd half way up close, it was so awesome...good times...its weird. Serving in Madison has beem interesting...ive had some of my biggest headaches and lots of stress here but ive also had some of my best memories here and met some of the coolest people and had tons of fun. I guess it goes to show that we will have opposition but at the same time we really get to appreciate the good times and blessings that God gives us. When we understand taht god loves us and we are going through trials to learn and grow and not to be punished it makes teh whole difference. Thats one thing ive noticed about members of the church, we seem to handle tirals and challeneges in life differently than others that dont have the restored gospel in thier lives. Through the Atonement of Christ we can overcome anything and make it through any challenge that comes our way, ive experince that many times out here. I know that the church is true and im grateful for this time i have to share my testimony!! Im really excited for James, ill hopefully see his baptism this month. We have our lesson in the Dimond's hoem with him tomorrow night. As for today we are gonna go and visit Chris Farley's grave. Yup he is buried here. He grew up in Madison. Have a great week and enjoy your warm weather. Its winter here, and that card of the elders at the freezing bus stop was a good one. I dont get iceiclies coming out of my nose though!! Love you!! Love Elder Benjamin Johnson

Listen to Ignacio

2007-01-08T08:54:00.000-08:00

Things here are crazy. If i could describe my 3 weeks in Madison in one word it would be: headache. This place is hard and i feel like i was sent here so the lord could stretch me. I suppose we get trials on a mission too. ive been prayin more here than i have anywhere else. It just blows having to rely on busses and other people to drive me places, things would be so much easier if i had a car here, but i dont, so im dealin with it even though its been very stressful. Things are gettin better now that the holidays are over but its still been challenging. It looks as if a few members here are giving us refferals and one is in a members home this week so that is exciting. Were also still working on Aretha, the lady that wants to get rebaptized and she comin along well. Ill be ok.I guess its making me really appreciate my time i had in Marquette. Today we are going down to Stoughton for p day. It should be fun. I dont know what else really to say. I cant even remember which scripture to do today and im having a hard time thinking of one. Um, heres a classic, John 3:16. Sorry im just nopt thinkin right now, its been a crazy couple of days. Dont worry about me though, ill get through this. Like ive said before a mission is ups and downs and im gonna learn from my time here. I hit 14 months tomorrow. It continues to roll on by. Well i gotta let my comp use the computer. We have limited comps at this library, love ya's and hopefully ill have a better week. Love Elder Benjamin.

Happy New Year

2007-01-02T13:53:00.000-08:00

Its been a few weeks as its been crazy but here is an update from Madisons Wisconsins. Finally, the holidays are over, now everything can get goin. Last night we got to stay up late (approved by the assistants) and we saw the whole Boise State vs Oklahoma game. It was the best football game ive ever watched. We were all rooting got Boise State (we had a fe missionaries from Idaho there) and it was such an exciting finish. About 14 missionaries were packed in the living room of a members home in Madison. It was so much fun. Life in Madison is gettin better. The lord answered our prayers last week by leading us to somone he has prepared to hear the gospel. A girl sat by me on the bus on Friday and asked "where is your church". We ended up talking for 15 minutes during which i taught her the Restoration and gave her a BOM. On Saturday morning we had one of the best lessons ive had on the mission. We taught her the Restoration and the spirit was so strong. When we asked her why she sat by me she started crying and said that she wasn't happy. We bore our testimonies about how the gospel of Jesus Christ brings true happiness.We told her we were servants of God and that he loves her and it wasnt a coincedence that we ran into her on the bus. She plans to come to church and be baptized. She said the closing prayer and in tears thanked God for sending us to her. That was such a sweet feeling. Her name is Starla. Its people like her that made me want to serve a mission and when we have experiences like that it makes it so fulfilling and worth all the sacrafice. We are gonna set a date with her next time we visit with her. I love this work. Our mission is heating up and its lookin like were gonna catch fire for 2007 as we had a tough 2006 as far as the baptisms went. My faith has increased so much with all these experiences on the mission. I really am getting blessed being here and i will reflect upon my mission for the rest of my life. Im happy to be here, its a fun time. Were also getting blessed with such nice weather. i especially appreciate no snow having to walk around so much. Well i gotta jet. I wish you all a great week. Crazy, i go home this year. I love ya's.

Since this is Ant Bethanys 93rd Christmas she can offer Grace, Grace, she passed away 30 years ago

2006-12-18T09:07:00.000-08:00

My time in Marquette expired and i got sent to the other end of the mission way down south to Madison, WI. Im in the heart of Madison. Were at the campus library right now. UW Madison is one of the craziest universities in the country. We dont actually cover campus. There are another set of Elders that cover campus and teach all the single people. My area covers downtown, the isthmus, and the south side (kinda ghetto but nothin like Milwaukee). We ride the bus (booooo). The bus system here isnt very efficint for missionary work. the routes and schedules arent very convienent. We might be on bike a lot. Its not even winter here. There hasnt been snow for 2 weeks and we may not even have a white christmas. Thats unheard of for Wisconsin. The work here is tough. We dont have any investigators only a small list of potentials and less actives. SO im coming from one of the busuiset areas in Marquette to one of the toughest areas in the mission. We will be doing tons of tracting and street and bus contacting. I think Pres sent me here to jumpstart the work here. Ill do my best. My companion is Elder Josh Winkler. Hes from Fielding, UT (in the same county as Brigham City). He from the middle of nowhere farm land. He's really cool. I like him. Hes been out for 6 1/2 months so im his 4th companion. Hes my 8th. Were having fun although the first few days have been tough as ive been adjusting to the new area and everything and settling in from transfers. It took all day Thursday to get here. Whats crazy is that Elder J. Johnson (my 2nd companion) went up to Marquette to bust E. Thompson. I called them last night and it sounded like they are doin alright. The first few days of moving to a new area it takes a little while before we get up to full speed but were looking forward to this transfer. Im glad to be in Madison serving around some of my good buddies. Were playin basketball this afternoon. Ive already had a bum tell us that he was "A drunk homeless woman" and that he was going to "go sleep in the woods with the owls" and a guy on State street (the main street in Madison) played "Jesus loves me this i know, for the bible tells me so" on his giutar and kazoo (i recorded him on my camera) so im glad to be around all the crazies of a big city again. Life is good. Im not sure what time im calling next Monday. I will call you soometime before then to arrange the phone call. Probablt on Saturday or Sunday. Were having lunch at a members house that day so well get home 3-4 our time so somtime after 2 pm at home probably. Ill let you know for sure. The ward here feeds us every night. The ward is composed of young married college couples (most form out west). They have 2 nurseryes and seriously 30 babies. Its the loudest sacrament meeting ive ever seen. At least 30 married couples in thier 20's. Its crazy. In fact i guess the Thomas' in B2, their dautter just moved back home to Kenmore. Next week at church look for the Stangers. They just moved form here to go back home. I ddint get to meet them, they left the day i got here. I alos met a guy that went to Juanita high school that know the Wells, a brother from Bellevue, and a sister from Kent, so there is a lot of Washington roots in the Madison 1st ward. I love you all. I hope i gave you enough to read. I cannot wait to chat next week. Today's scripture is Proverbs 3:5. Have a nice week. Love Elder Benjamin.

Dad that tree wont even fit in our backyard

2006-12-11T07:30:00.000-08:00

Its not going in our backyard Russ, its going in our living room. Man for the 2nd year in a row im gonna miss seeing that movie. Yes we got tons of snow at the beginning of the week but the past few days its been sunny and rather warm (by warm i mean upper 30's, low 40's). Im gonna laught at all yous when i get home and you will all be bundling up for 35 degrees and ill be out in shorts and a t shirt. You dont even know what cold is. After emailing last week we played football with the zone (12 Elders) and it was snowing and 15 out side. One of the funnest things ive done on my mission. We then went bowling and had a chikcen enchilada dinner at the church. On Tuesday we went down to Appleton, WI and had our christmas zone confrence with the zones of missionaries. It was a blast. I saw a few of my former companions and many other of my buddies. We didnt get home to Marquette till after midnight. Thats why i wanna go somewhere else. Its been fun but im tired of all this travel time. Since Wedensday ive been at the normal grind of missionary work. I am most likely being transferred this Thursday (calls come tomorrow night).Im ready for a new area and companion. Its been fun with E. Thopmson and he's taught me alot but 3 months is enough. Its been tought at times as were very different people but i made it through. Yesterday was sorta tough for me saying goodbye to all the awesome members of the Marquette ward (i only attended church here 24 times). It was new for me as i didnt get very attached to the members in my previous areas as i was not there too long but I'll miss this ward big time. I also got a little homesick (for the first time in a while) as the YW put on a program for sacrament meeting and they were all sinignig this song (it sounded like an EFY song) and it reminded me of all my awsome friends back home and then i missed my family and then i was thinking about Christmas and how ill have a telephone to talk too and thats it and it was a weird sacrament meeting. I juts had all these emotions including being sad to leave this ward. I got over it though as soon as the meeting ended. Ill miss the people im teaching as well. Great news!! We set a baptism date with an old lady named Loana yesterday!! Its for Jan 7th. We tracted into her back in October and weve been teaching her every week. She already has read the whole BOM and has a testimony of it. She wants to be baptized. Im pretty excited, its every missionaries dream to see somebody they found on their own efforts get baptized (of course the lord led us to her). Im confident that she and Carly (whos date is set for Jan 21st) will be baptized even though I wont be there to see them. Its great to be a part of the process. Thats my exciting news. Well it seems i typed a lot. Thats ok. Lots of stuff goin on. Well remember the reason for the season.

You know in some cultures the only thing they eat is vomit

2006-12-04T08:26:00.000-08:00

In this culture it snows. It bagan snowing on Friday and has been in the 20's and snowing since. We have about a foot on the ground now. Im learning how to drive in the snow. I dont have much experience as i was in the passenger seat last winter but im taking it slowly. I was wondering when winter would arrive. Im actually in Iron Mountain, MI, where tyhe ZL's livve and were having a zone pday with football in the snow and then bowling and tomorrow moringin we go down to Appleton for our christmas zone confrence. Its gonna be a blast. Th work is movin along slowly. Its very difficult to see baptisms. Having smoebody convert to the church is a very long and slow process for many peoeple and im learning that. Our mission is one of the toughest if not the toughest mission in the U.S. It requires a lot of patience to sreve in Wisconsin and the U.P. There just arent very many members and the growth is slow. I love serving here though. I know the lord sends us where were suppposed to go. Ive met awesome people and had great experiences in each of my areas thus far that i wouldnt trade for anywhere else. I love the work and serving, even in the harsh winters, and this year's has just begun.

Get that Corn outta my face!

2006-11-27T08:39:00.000-08:00

Thanksgiving was grand. We watched Nacho Libre, a dumb but funny movie. We also watched the football game and ate lots of food. It was an okay week of missionary work. We did a lot of tracting last week as most of our investigators were away for the holiday and we didnt have many appointments. Its all good though. We lately have set a goal to give out a Book of Mormon on ever street we tract on. We pray to find somebody on that street before we start knocking and it has worked every time. We are trying to flood Marquette with the Book of Mormon. Ive been a little discouraged lately as the three people we have committed to baptism still havent made it to church. I can invite, teach and encourage and they have to pull thier load and so far they arent. Its so frustrating. The bright spot is Jon blessed the sacrament yesterday for the first time and he's a rock. Next week we have 2 sleepover nights in a row in Iron Mtn. where the zl's live. Were having a zone p day on monday and then we travel to Appleton, WI on Tuesday morning for christmas zone confrence and then come home that night. There will be 3 zones there, i cant wait. Till then, adios....Ignacio

Conditioner is better, i go on the hair and make it sliky and smooth

2006-11-20T10:00:00.000-08:00

Last week was a good one. We got 3 people this week to commit to bapsism!! Malina, the subway girl, wants to be baptized. Were not sure when or where (its a long story) but she has set a goal for herself to be baptized and thats what counts. Carly, she is roomates with a girl in the ward named Bethany,. We taught her for the third time last week and she said that she has really felt the spirit as she reads the BOM. We taught the Gospel of Jesus Christ to her and at the end i asked her if she would like to be baptized. She looked at me and said "Well, im not ready yet, but yes i want to be baptized". Thats was so good to hear. We gotta still take baby steps with her but we have the date set for Jan 21 as she goes home downstate (that means lower michigan) for a month between semesters so we gotta wait till she gets back. We visited the Bertram's agan. Kim still wants to baptize his wife Amber but they have only come to church once in the last month, so were taking baby steps with them too. Ill get transferrred before any of them get in the water but i look forward to pray for them durinf district meetings in the comign months when they are baptized. At each district meeting (which i conduct now as the DL) we have a speacial prayer for all the people being baptized that week in the mission so i hope to see thier names on the list in the next few months! Jon is doing great. He passed the sacrament for the first time yesterday and let me tell ya, seeing someone you taught and baptized prgress in the gospel as well as he has is the most fulfilling feeling there is, it totally makes coming on a mission so worth all the time and sacrafice. It has beem such a blessing and good experience for me that even without baptisms it would still be worth it but baptisms are the icing on the cake. Work is good. Thursday will be fun. Gonna play football in the morning and then going to the Raymonds in Saywer for the day. Gonna eat lots of food, watch some football and Nacko Libre. It will be a fun day. We have christmas zone confrnce in two weeks and then christmas in a month so theres a lot of fun in store here in the mission. Its good to get holidays and events to throw in the mix with our everday missionary life routine. HAPPY THANSGIVING 2006, ill be home to eat turkey with ya'll in 2007.

How often do you really look at a Man's shoes?

2006-11-13T08:27:00.000-08:00

Well my shoes are pretty scuffed. Ive been a missionary over a year now. I went over my hump last Thursday and im now on the downhill stretch. Its a good feeling. A mission is like a marathon and to be on the second half feels good as ive accomplished a lot this first year ans i have another to go. Its gone fast. Im in my 4th area with my 10th companion. I started out at the MTC (Stolk), Janesville (Gent), Milwaukee (Johnson, Spencer, Mulford), Sheboygan (Dockter) and now Marquette (Peltier, Smethurst, Thompson). Im a district leader and im fifnishing training. Ive had many great experiences and met many awesome people on my mission. The midwest is a very different from home. Ive seen the coldest snowyd days and some of the hottest humid days as well. So far 2 people ive taught have been baptized (Colton in Janesville and Jon in Marquette). Its great to be a part of helping them recive the blessings of the gospel in their lives. My i year of sacrafice for coming on a mission is defenitly qorth the many years that they will be blessed in the gospel and into the eternities. Ive learned so much more about the gospel than i could have imagined. My testimony has been greatly strengthened out here. I would not trade this past year for anything. The church is true!! The Book of Mormon is true!! God still speaks to us through a living Prophet!!! I love you all and look forward to seeing you in a year!!

For goodness sake, Lets eat some cake!

2006-11-06T08:52:00.000-08:00

Trasnsfers came and went last week and as expected Elder Thompson and I are staying in Marquette. Thers are 5 1/2 weeks left in the transfers. The news that i did get is that i got called to be the districe leader. I have responsibilty for my districe which is us and the Houghtob Elders so there are only 4 of us in the district. All i really need to do is gather the numbers form my district and report them to my zone leaders and prepare training to give at district meetings on Tuesday mornings. Thats really all the exciting news. Nothing to excting is happening with our 7 invsetigators were just teaching them and it going really slow seeing progression with them. We had fun at the NMU football game on saturday. Its nice to see a soprting event every once in a while. Well you all have fun and remember, work hard and party hard.

a dime a paper, 20 papers..thats 2 dollars. Cash

2006-10-30T08:38:00.000-08:00

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!!

Nice joke, joeky joke maker

2006-10-23T08:24:00.000-07:00

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.

Im not a smart man Jenny, but i know what love is

2006-10-16T08:56:00.000-07:00

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.

Who would win in a fight..A hurricane or a certain Mike Ditka?

2006-10-10T08:52:00.000-07:00

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

Weve Landed On The Moon!!!!!

2006-10-02T08:15:00.000-07:00

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

Andy Dufraine arrived in Shawshank Prison in 1947

2006-09-25T09:12:00.000-07:00

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.

I shall call him Mini Me

2006-09-18T08:49:00.000-07:00

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.

Sid!! Your poptarts are ready, Alright!

2006-09-11T08:25:00.000-07:00

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.

Napoleon, like anybody is going to even know that

2006-09-04T08:12:00.000-07:00

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!"

"Words that end in amburger"

2006-08-28T08:34:00.000-07:00

Not much to say this week. Life is up and down. The work has been very stressful lately and Madera is not getting baptized for a while until she takes its seriously. John is doing real well and he is going to pray about getting baptized. I think he is going to and that would make me so happy, considering i tracted into him at the beginning of July and ive seen him progress so much since we started teaching him. Uh, U.P. is fun and lots of people to teach right now and were hoping to get a few of them to start coming to church. Hopefully ill have more to say next week. Till then, chow.

Hey kids look, a deer!!

2006-08-21T08:19:00.000-07:00

I came close to death, or at least major head trauma. On saturday we were tracting on this street next to a highway and a forrest and this deer came out of the forrest and almost got hit by a car so it darted across the street and was headed right for me. I ran twords the house and screamed and it ran into the nieghboors yard and ran into their fence. I was afraid of getting a hoof to the face. Only in the U.P. Life is well. We reset our baptsim date with Madera for sep 10th although she missed chucrh yesterday. grrr. She needs to come the next three weeks for it to happen. We were blessed with three new invstigators last week from tracting and contacting old media referrals. I have been praying for a few more people to increase our teaching pool and the lord answered my prayers this week. Its noce to have many different people to visit and teach. I began learning the guitar yesterday. Ron, one of our investigators has been offering me free lessons the last few weeks so i finally took him up on it. We are now gonna combine guitar lessons with our teaching appointments. My fingers are kinda sore today but i have learned 5 chords already. 9 1/2 months down already. Its amazing how time flies when your having fun!

"Harry your alive, and your a horrible shot"

2006-08-14T08:16:00.000-07:00

Elder Peltier is now home and Elder Smethurst is home too in a way. He is my new companion and he was trained up here over a year ago. He has been out for 19 months and is a 6-2 250 lb blonde canadian with glasses from Edmonton. He is pretty funny and a happy fellow. We get along and its nice that he has already served here before so i dont have to convert him to the area. Transfers was fun. We had to go down to Green Bay and along the woay i got to stop and see one of the greatest spotrs landmarks in the world: Lambeau Field, the home of the Green Bay Packers. It was sweet. On saturday we went deep out into the woods with the elders quorum to gather firewood for the winter. The winters here are brutal and they stockpile forewood now for it. The work is ok although it could be better. Some of our investigators arent progressing as much as we would like. Even the people who want to get baptized arent doing what they need to for it to happen and its very discouraging. I wanna see people get baptized and recieve the blessings of the gospel but they have to make that choice. I do my part of teaching the gospel, encouraging and supporotring but ultimately it comes down to them. i cant decide for them. Its like the phrase "you can lead a horse to water but you cant make him drink" Thats what is happening at the moment. They are at the water, now i gotta be patient till they drink. It will happen though. And if not, ive done what i can. I still love the work, even though its very difficult. Marquette is awesome. Lovin every minute up here. Later eh!!

Lets not argue over who killed who

2006-08-07T08:18:00.000-07:00

Summer in Marquette is flying by. Another new month already. Its so beautiful up here. Elder Peltier and i go down to a lakefront park almost every night for dinner and play catch with a baseball. Were getting noticed to cuz we stand out wearing suits with baseball gloves. Weve taught some people down there. Its so nice on Lake Superior. I really love water. The great lakes are nice. Transfers are this week. Elder Peltier goes home and ill be getting a new companion. Ill find out who tomorrow night. I likely will be going senior companion and ive got a great feel for the work here. Three people were teaching are so close to baptism they just need to overcome some hurdles, like coming to church and living the law of chastity and word of wisdom. So ive got wuite the task for this upcoming transfer. Summertime is awesome. It may not last too much longer up here in the U.P. Ill enjoy it while its here for sure.

Gee Ricky, sure sorry your mom blew up

2006-07-31T07:55:00.001-07:00

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!!!

Carl, so nice to see you!!

2006-07-24T09:26:00.000-07:00

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.

Is she hot?...i like her bangs

2006-07-17T08:48:00.000-07:00

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.

You hit that guy!!!....he shouldnt have been standing there

2006-07-10T07:35:00.000-07:00

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.

Im sorry, I dont speak freaky deaky Dutch

2006-07-03T08:52:00.000-07:00

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!!!!!

We got jammed....Rasberry

2006-06-12T10:34:00.000-07:00

Elder Dockter and i got jammed yesterday again as none of our investigators came to church..We have a ton of people with a lot of potential and i believe that a few will get baptized if we can just get them to chucrh. Our lessionas are going great with Grieselda, Myra and Jamie all of which are looking great. Although i dont say much i can feel the spirit and can see them learning and loving our lessons we teach them. We dont tract very much as we have so many people we see regurly during the week. Its really cool. I can see at leats 1 of them getting baptized afeter i leave Sheboygan in a few weeks. Well our week was fun and busy. I went on exchanges with the zone leaders and spent some time in Appleton and then i got to go to Spansih confrence at teh mission home in Greendale, when all the spanish missionareis in the mission (20 of them) meet and have afun day of food and games and other things. I was lucky to go since not many english Elders get to attend. Well hopefully next week i can reprt some investigators coming to churhc. Till then..hasta luego.

I know, i know, its called a Belgium dip

2006-06-05T10:06:00.000-07:00

Okay so the last two weeks have been great in Sheboygan. Firstly the Spanish deal isnt gonna happen. Im not gonna switch. the language is too difficlut to learn with such limited time to study so ill be staying Elglish which means ill finish the transfer here and probably get transferred at the end of the month. Im cool with it. it was my decision. Well the weather here is so crzyy. Some days of hot and humid in the 80's as you sweat alot and my shirt sticks to me and our apartment turns into a sauna. Weve had some crazy midwest thunderstorms, way more excitng than back in Seattle and then nice crsip days like today. The work is going alright. Were teaching a few people that speak English, which is nice as i can participate but the Spanish appointments can get quite borning for me. We have high hopes for Grieselda. She's in her 30's and has two small kids and shes feeding us alot and our appoinments go well. She hasnt made it to church yet but when she does we know she'll liek it. We have a feeling that she will get baptized. Elder Docktor is way cool. Were having fun even though he talks abour girls and dating and swimming and all this stuff hes gonna do in Augus when he gets home. In a nutshell life is like that scen in Shawshank Redemption when Andy Dufraine and his buddies are chuggin back beer's on the roof of the prison after a hard days work. (minus the beer of course). Well i wish you all a fun June week.

Donde esta la biblioteca Peter

2006-05-22T10:02:00.000-07:00

That quote is from Dodgeball. Well i got a big surprise for transfers. Im goign into a spanish zebra which means that i spend a transfer with a spanish speaking missionary and he teaches me the language and i try and learn it and i can possiobly become spanish speaking missionary the remainder of my mission. Im learng alot so far and can already bare my testimony and pray in Spanish. I got moved up to Sheboygan on the coast of Lake Michigan an hour north of Milwaukee. My new comapnion, Elder Dockter is from Cali and is way cool. he is teache me spanish and were having fun. ill keep you posted on my progress with learnign. Just dont get to excited as this is only a trial and i may not switch so spanish. It all depedns upon how well i learn and the needs of the mission. Nonetheless this will be an interesting 6 weeks as i can spak much right now and we only do spansih work so when we teach i just sit there and he does all the talking. Well life is still good. Take care. Adios.

Did you pay the gas bill?

2006-05-15T14:47:00.000-07:00

Hello. I got to talk to my family yesterday which was pretty cool. Im really enjoying my mission right now. This week is transfers so im on pins and needles wondering if i am leaving Milwaukee. ive been her three months so its possible. I know that Elder Devin Williams needs a comapnion over in Appleton so ive been praying for that. We'll see. Ill be happy either way. I love the city but at the same time i wouldnt mind going somewhere up North in the county to spend the summer. I could use a break from all the people. On a side note can anybody that actually reads this psot a comment that way i can see who actually reads this. Just curious on how my ratings are. Thanks. Love you all. And for those of you that compalin about my typing errors, im a missionary and i dont have time to type really slow and proofread my stuff. Sorry.

I'll give Audrey a quarter too!!

2006-05-08T13:21:00.000-07:00

Yep. A quarter of my mission has past. Tomorrow officaly marks my 6 month mark on my mission. Ive had two areas and 5 companions (including the MTC) and have learned and grown a ton thus far. Mission life is defenitly a round of ups and downs. Wisconsin has some of the craziest weather patterns. Ive enjoyed my stay here thus far. Im really looking forward to the 18 months remaing i have to serve. Im determined to improve and get fully lost in the work as their have been times, especially in Milwaukee when ive not had myself fully into the work . My time is precious and im not gonna waste any more of it or take it for granted. I wish you all a wonderful summer and look forward to my year address in 6 months.

I dont know, build her a cake or something

2006-05-01T15:45:00.000-07:00

Hell all. The last two weeks have gone well. Terrance, the man who wrote us the letter, has been to church every week and has progressed quite well. He wants to get baptized although he may not need to as he may be less accountable. He does have some sort of learning disability but we'll see. We are now 10-2 playing ball in the hood. Im loving this area and having tons of fun with my companions, Elders Spencer and Mulford. I turned 20 about 10 days ago so i feel pretty old. My Uncle Merril was in milwakee on a business trip and hung out with us for a bit. Seeing Merrill was pretty cool. He took us out to a red robin type place on th river downtown. It was fun to see someone in my previous life. After a while out here its as if everyone you knew before the mission is dead. These are my friends now. This is my home. You know that you arent gonna go home and that your stuck with this lifestyle so you just accept it and move on. You get pretty content with what youve got out here and it anit much. No tv, music (well none i wanna listen to) just wearing a suit and tie knocking on doors and teaching people. Day in and day out. You just get used to it i guess. Im having tons of fun. Tow awesome companions and a great area. Im reallly cherishing this transfer as i may not have another one like it. Eventually ill go somewhwhere up north where there is nothing to do but till then ill enjoy Milwaukee. Peace.

THE TRIMEGA!!

2006-04-17T14:42:00.000-07:00

That is the name of our basketball team here in th ghetto. It consists of me (Johnson) Spencedawg and Mulfy. Weve been playing ball every day in the hood. no worries were still working hard, but having fun too. The city is the best area in the mission. Weve been playing kids three on three and schooling them. Our deal is that if we win then we get to teach them about the gospel. Weve been earning quite a bit of street creditibility out here. Lots of fun. Well the works goin well. We had some pretty good meeting with our investigators last week. We met with Murray. He is such a stud. He was at chucrh and he's so ready to get baptized. All we need to do is get him to go down to the courthouse to get his marrige license and he'll get married and baptized. We suspect tht the 100 dollars that is required has been holding him back so were trying to get the Branch President to help us out. He'll be a great member. We had another person at church yesterday too..A couple weeks ago we got a letter from a man who saw missionaries walking around and decided that he wanted to become a missionary for our church (he's 44) and wrote us a letter. Weve been trying to contact him but have had no luck in finding him. Never answeres his phone and is never home...Then yesterday he came to church!!! Afterwards we taught him and now he's an investigator. So Sweet. Well life is good here. Got some temps in the 70's last week. Very humid. I can tell that it will ne a hot summer. Im not complaining though, id take that over the winters here anyday. Elder Mulford, Elder Gent and I are going to the Milwaukee Bucks game in a few hours. Im so excited. E Speccer is going with Gents companion for the night. We get to go to one game per sport per season. Were going to a Brewers baseball game against the Braves on the 24 too. Im pumped. Lovin it here in Mil-town.

Double the fun with double mint gum

2006-04-10T16:14:00.000-07:00

Ive hit my 5 month mark out here on the mission. Life is great. I got two new companions Elders Spencer and Mulford...both ballas like me. I was quite surprised to get two new companions. They dont usually do this but we had an odd numer of missionaries at this time. Were gonna be playing so much street ball with all the kids in the ghetto. The three of us are so fun and get along great. Im a way happier missionary than last transfer. The weather is so much nicer too! Milwaukee is such a trashy city but im in the sweetest area in th whole mission. Devin got transferred to Appleton so i dont see him anymore. I have a good chance of seeing my first baptism this transfer and if not we'll at least be setting some baptism dates soon. Im loving being a missionary. The gospel is true. Were all so lucky to have it in our lives. Im so grateful for all your friendships and all the great memories i have of you all. I miss you but i dont. Ill see ya in many months but your all still in my prayers and mean so much. Thanks for your testimonies and support. Without you guys i wouldnt be here and i wouldnt have as strong of a testimony as i do. The gospel is true!!! Joseph Smith, The Book of Mormon, Gordon B!!! All of it. Im loving this time i have to proclaim it too Gangsta Milwaukeeeians. I love you all. Take care and stay cool....Elder Benjamin R Johnson

Heres the best part, He's the one they binned it on

2006-04-03T14:29:00.000-07:00

Life in Milwaukee went roling this week with zone confrence on Wednseday and General Confrence on Sat and Sunday so we only had three days to do missionary work. Confrence was great. Some very good talks and instruction from our living prophet and apostles. Im looking forward to transfers this week and getting a new companion to change things up. This transfer has been fun but im ready for a change. I see potential here and am ready to start fresh and get working hard to help this area grow. The weather has finally warmed up, now in the upper 40's and 50's so i dont have to wear my coat and hat anymore. Im hoping that ive seen the last of bitter coldness and snow this winter. Well you'll find out my new comp next week. By the way youve probably noticed i use movie qouts for my headings. Anyone know this weeks. If so then ill give you a medal when i get home.

Hows High School Billy

2006-03-27T15:03:00.000-08:00

These past two weeks have been great. I really love serving in the city. Elder Johnson and I have been teaching machines and have found 8 or so people this transfer that we are currently teaching. The tough commitment is them coming to church. Other then that they are learning well. We are staying pretty busy and have met some awesome people here. We saw "25 wives" again this past week and got pictures with him although i had to pay him 3 dollars to get him to pose with us. It was worth it though. I had a old white guy do a Richard Nixon impression for us. A bum was walking by us and stopped us and sang a high pitched love song whil holding his liqour bottle. He told us that he had girl problems. I gave him a BOM pass along card. We played some b-ball in the mad ghetto at a school yard and they nicknamed me Luke Ridenour. Life is going great. Being a missionary is great. I love proclaiming the gospel to people becuase i know that my message is true. The gospel has been restored!!! Its wonderful and i love sharing it with people, even in the ghetto of Milwaukee.

Idiot, Gosh!

2006-03-13T17:06:00.000-08:00

I cant beleive that ive left this info out of my three posts since arriving in Milwaukee. Just so ya'll know my district leader here is Elder Devin Williams (my good friend that grew up in Bothell 2nd ward) so its been great to be serving right next to him. Hes an awesome missionary and it was cool enough that we got called to the same misssion but to be in the same district is bomb!!! Just though that some of you would like to know that. Im out.

Do you realize what you've done

2006-03-13T15:00:00.000-08:00

This past week was a good one for Elder Johnson and i. We met two new investigators who we taough great first lessons. Then we also met with Daryl and he read from the BOM and felt the spirit and said that he belives it to be the word of god (which it is) and that he knows its true. He will be coming to chucrh this next week. So we have three good investigators right now. Life in the ghetto rolls with funny people. We saw a dude weve named "25 wives" cuz hes always on crack and the first time we saw him he was trying to convince us that everybody should have 25 wives. Weven seen him a few times and yesterday we saw him on our way home from chucrh and we rolled the window down and yelled "25 wives!" at him and he looked at me and said "hey white boy!" it was great. Then he tried throwng a sandwich at our car. He missed. The weather has been crazy here. We had temps in the 50's and we played some ball with all the black kids on Saturday. Today its very windy outside. I dunno whats up. Well Milwaukee is dodin great. Take care.

Cornbread, Aint nothin wrong with that

2006-03-06T09:37:00.000-08:00

Hi all. Life in the ghetto is alright. This past week i learned how tough missionary work is here. Its not that the people arent receptive its that they dont keep commitments and finding real investigators is tough. The people are actaully very receptive and we teach a ton of people when we tract but even when we set return appointments they are never home when we go back. Its frustratiing but oh well. We will probably meet 5-10 new investgators a week but actally seeing them is the question. Its fun being in the city. I see something random and funny ever day. Drunks, bums, wackos...Milwaukee has got it all. I even heard my first gunshot on Saturday. It was in braod daylight too!!! We got off that block after we heard it. We saw a guy try to roundhouse kick another guy but he missed. We had a guy on the bus that was so drunk that he couldnt stop laughing hysterically...then another guy that was dropping the "f bomb" every other word. He was talking to himself too....So fun. And its been snowing for the past 24 hours so we have a ton of new snow. I cant wait for spring to get here.

Hit the road Jack

2006-02-27T14:22:00.000-08:00

Remember when they used to play that at Mariners games after the opposing pitcher got rocked and they went to the bullpen. Anyways, i got tranfered this past week to downtown Milwaukee (City A) or otherwise known as the ghetto. No joke. 90% of our area is where all the african americans in Milwaukee live. When we got tracting were literally the only whit folks around. They like us though but that doesnt mean that we stay out past dark. Forget about it. Were usually in our apartment by 6pm. We ride the bus everwhere and we go downtown sometimes. My new companion just so happens to be the other Elder Johnson in the mission so its "Johnson&Johnson" in da hood. I like being back in the city, i miss Seattle though. Milwaukee doesnt quite cut it for me. Well thats the big news. Tell ya more about it next week. Peace Out dawgs.

Thats pretty sick Chubs

2006-02-20T12:02:00.000-08:00

Actually i was pretty sick. I had a nasty cold from Wednesday to today as its finally settling down. That and the extremly cold temperature (below zero with the windchill) caused us to have a lesser productice week than usual. We got a bunch of snow and there was a sweet thunderstrom at the same time it was pouring snow so that was pretty cool. Its tough being away from home. Out here all the people care about is the Packers, Nascar and Hunting. Not to mention that they talk funny. Im giving them a hard time. Ive met some pretty cool people here and most people are nice. I got to tour the GM assembly plant here this morning. It was sweet to see all these cars being made by robots and tons of people. Well transfers are this week so i should be getting a new companion and maybee a new area. Youll all get to find out next week. Take care.

1,2,5,...3 sir..3

2006-02-13T12:54:00.000-08:00

Wow. Ive gone over the three month mark. February is flyin by fast. The last two weeks have been up and down. The good news is that Colton will be getting baptized within the next 2-3 weeks. Im so excited for him. Hes so sharp and ready. The bad news is that i havent been seeing as much progress with our other few investigators as i would like. The fact is that investigators that we meet off tracting dont progress nearly as well as those that are member referrals and unfortunately i havent been making a good enough effort working with the members here so its made the work hard. I have realized that this work is not easy and requires a lot of patience. Im having fun and i love teaching but a lot of random stuff has happened recently that has made me discouraged at times such as seeing promising people just not be interested anymore and what not. Oh well, thats how it goes. Im looking forward to the new week. I know that as long as i work hard that the blessing will come. Happy Valentines Day to everybody. See ya.

Mock Yeah, Ing Yeah, Bird Yeah

2006-01-30T12:02:00.001-08:00

Hello all. Elder Gent and i had a great week. We taught 15 lessons and made honor roll. It was awesome. We taught a ton of people off of tracting. Yesterday we taught a 14 year old boy, Colton who has come to chucrch the past 3 weeks. He said that he feels that this is the true church and he loves being there. His mom is a less active member. He has a ton of potential for baptism. We should be able to get him baptized by the end of the transfer on Feb 23. That would be so cool. We had another great appointment with Michael and Krystal, a couple that we tracted into last week. We showed them the Restoration DVD and commited them to pray and read about the BOM and Jospeh Smith. It was just an overall great week. The work here has really picked up the last 2 weeks and my love for the work has grown a ton. Well my mail income has tapered down to like 1-2 letters a week so it would be nice to hear from somebody. I know you all have my mission address. Im still having a great time nonetheless. Cyanara.

Mock Yeah, Ing Yeah, Bird Yeah

2006-01-30T12:02:00.000-08:00

Whats that sound, its a funny squeaky sound

2006-01-23T12:23:00.000-08:00

Thats the sound of the Seahawks going to the superbowl. I knew it would happen. The first time i cant watch it they will be there. Its okay though. Serving the mission is more important. This past week was a good one in Janesville. We found 3 new investigators from tracting and we had a bunch of appointments this weekend. We still havent set a date with Rebecca but we did meet with her twice. She has a few court dates and has to get her own place to live before she gets her kids back. The good news is that she hasnt smoked for a week. We got 6 inches of snow on Friday so it was nice to see that again. While tracting i was inviting an older lady on her doorstep when her big dog peed all over my left shoe and leg. I didnt even notice till it was finished. Then it started steaming as it was cold outside. I invited another lady who told me she was a wicken or white witch. She looked like one too. That was the highligts of my past week here in Janesville.

My name is Richie Cunningham and this is my wife Oprah

2006-01-16T10:01:00.000-08:00

Transfers have come and gone and Elder Gent and I are here in Janesville for another 6 weeks. Elder Torgersons boy arrived a bit late on saturday but he's here nontheless. Elder Mangum is his name. This past week we had very litttle progress. We didnt meet with Rebecca this past week so we still havens set a date with her yet but we plan too. While tracting we ran into a few people who yelled out at us CANT YOU READ because they had NO SOLICITING signs on their doorsteps. Firstly we arent selling anyhthing and secondly were only inviting them to come unto Christ and gain their salvation. Not my problem just funny when they get so mad at us for knocking. Anyways its still like spring out here. We had a high of 52 the other day. Unheard of in January around here. One more thing, Wisconsin doesnt require any form of car insurance so ther are a ton of beat up cars on the road. Its funny to see all these cars with big ol dents in them. Well hopefully ill have more exciting news next week. Bye.

Come see if you can outdrive the amazing golf ball wacker guy

2006-01-09T11:28:00.000-08:00

We got news last week that Elder Torgerson will be training a brand new missionary here in Janesville this week. This week is transfer week and most likely Elder Gent and i will be staying here and Elder Torgerson and his baby will be here as well. It will be great for me not to be the new one anymore. In fact today is my two month mark on the mission (MTC included) and by Thursday ill have completed my first transfer in Wisconsin. (A transfer is 6 weeks). The work her continues to go slow although Elder Gent and i might set a baptismal date this week for Rebecca. Were shooting for early February and she still has to get to church and quit smoking (shes improved a ton the last two weeks). FYI a baptismal date is only a goal and means nothing till you get them in the water therfore im not getting overly excited yet. She wants to get baptized but we still need her to show the effort to get there. Other than that weve been working a lot with less actives and doing plenty of tracting, even though we havent been tracting in snow. Its been to warm to snow lately and most of it is gone. It even rained a few times on us. Thats all ive got.

Hip, Hip Hop, Hiphoponotomos....Happy New Year

2005-12-31T09:04:00.000-08:00

Hello all. Well the library was closed last monday due to Christmas and will be this monday due to New Years so that why im here on saturday. Well Christmas was good. Ive gotten a lot of food in packages and i was able to speak with my family and that was nice although it made me a little homesick for a while. But im fine now. Work lately has been tough. December was a tough month with the holidays and the flu going around it makes meeting with people a hard thing. Luckily i havent gotten sick yet but some of our investigators have and some have been on vacation and such so weve been doing a lot of tracting. In December, Elder Gent and I taought 7 people the first lesson but haven been able to meet with them a 2nd time yeat due to the above reasons. Im learning patience out here. I havent even taught the 2nd lesson sinct the MTC. Hopefully things will settle down in January and we can meet with them more often. We had a recent heat wave here with temps in the upper 30's and low 40's. Yeah most of our snow melted but then last night it snowed 2 inches back on so i got to see a little green this week. I wish all of you a happy new year and look forward to hearing from you this year. Adios.

oe I know i cant spell

2005-12-19T11:26:00.000-08:00

I type really fast cuz i do emails and all this stuff and i only have an hour and a half each week so excuze the spelling errors.

The names Christmas, Loyd Christmas

2005-12-19T11:18:00.000-08:00

Merry Christmas everyone. I know its still a few days away but i cant wait to call home. It was another cold week of snow. It snowed 6 inches on us last Wednesday and there is tons of it on the ground. Elder Gent and i stayed quite busy helping some people move, voulenteering at the hospital and tracting and teaching. Most of our investigtors still arent progressing very fast but we continue to work with them. We taught an awesome Elderly couple on friday and they accepted the Book of Mormon and we commited them to pray about it and we are gonna visit them again soon. Ill keep you updated. Their our most promsing investigators at the moment. I had my tougest day on Thursday as i got very tired and had little motivation to do anything. Luckily the lord is here for me and ive had three awesome days in a row. I keep hearinf about my boys, da Seahawks and i might be able to watch the Super Bowl preview against the Colts on Saturday as we are allowed to watch on pg movie and a sporting event on Christmas eve. I alos hear that UW b ball is crusing. Well i hope you all have a great Christmas week. Travel safely and enjoy being around your familes. Take Care.

Badgers, We dont need no stinkin Badgers

2005-12-12T13:15:00.000-08:00

Another week down. Janesville continues to go well. We have a few more investiators now but who knows how far they will go. We have quite a few visits to make this week. I saw a sign in a parking lot that said "Parking for Expectant Mothers and Guests with small Children". That was new. It continues to be snowy and cold although it was a warm 36 today (thats warm here). We see signs on peoles homes that say "No jevohas witnesses" and "no cults or preachers". You see a lot of strange stuff on a mission. The one thing other than people that i miss right now is my music. I find myself singing my rock songs in my head. Its awesome when we do our laundry and we can hear radio station music for a short bit. Well hopefully ill have more exciting stuff to say next week. We found a hill that was about 20 feet high so maybee i miss mountains a little bit. Adios.

A little town called Aspen

2005-12-05T14:07:00.000-08:00

Ha. Im actually in Janesville, WI. Located 50 miles southeast of Madison at the bottom of the sate. Its a big town of 60,000 people, kinda like Kirkland. My companion is Elder Gent from Bremerton, WA and hes been out for 15 months. He is rad and we have a lot of fun. We live with two other Elders and we split the town in half so we take the east side of town and they take the west. It has snowed two seperate days here but it will be white for a while cuz when it snows here it doesnt melt cuz it never warms up enough to melt it. We woke up this morning and it was 1 degree outside. The temp now is 17 but the wind chill makes it feel below zero. BRRRR. Well the work here is going well. We have quite a few appontments this week and referrals so we are staying busy. We tract an hour or two a day and we have a car that we share with the other two Elders. Well ill give you all an update next week. Peace Out!!!

Elder Johnson

2005-11-06T19:31:00.000-08:00

Today I officialy became a missionary and was set apart by President Baxter. It was awesome. Good luck in life to everybody in the next 2 years!!!!!!!

My Going Away Party

2005-11-05T16:47:00.000-08:00

Very sad today. Having my going away party. Going bowling later!