It's a new day!

Holy smokes I feel like its been forever since I last wrote and that SO much has happened. Where to begin? Well since most asked about 4th of july i will start there. That morning we drove up to Franklin, MA and had a meeting with 3 of the 9 zones and got to meet President and Sister Packard our new mission president and wife! They are soooo awesome! They are in their early 40's and Pres is from little ol Beaumont, TX and has a sweet southern accent and tons of those classic southern sayings. Blake probably knows what I'm talking about. He served his mission in So Cal and he remembers his mission so well- like when he talks about it, it seems as tho he just got off his mission. Sis. Packard is from Utah and served a mission in south america- Uruguay i think. They are both big time trial attorneys and were last in California practicing. Oh and did i mention that they have kids?! 4 of them! Its so cool having kids here in the mission!  Yup so that whole morning/noon we got to listen to them speak and introduce themselves and then got to personally greet them just for a couple seconds. But you could totally feel the love and the energy of a new young mission president. Needless to say, we all let that meeting excited for whats next.

Later that night we got together with a few missionaries and went to the bay of Providence and watched the fireworks that were shot off of a barge in the middle of the bay. it was pretty decent and we had a good time.

So if you recall that last monday I told you about going to the gymnastics gym with the huge foam pit that we all jumped in and did tricks and what not. Well, friday we went to that same gym to do a humongous service project-taking all the foam cubes out of the foam pit and then letting them air out and rise and then putting them all back. You would think, oh thats not too bad but they only do this like twice a year and there was 8 missionaries there and it took two hours of intense labor of throwing the foam cubes out of the pit and then took an hour lunch break and it took about an hour and a half to throw them all back. There were thousands of foam cubes!!!! It was so much fun tho! I don't think I've ever had so much fun, sweated so much, and been so sore afterwards from any other service project before. it was epic! I'll be sending pics of it soon :)

C and V did not get baptized this week because we just wanted a little more time for them to really understand everything, but now its all set for this Sunday and even their mom is going to be comming to church and the baptism!!!!! Those kids are so excited! V asked me to baptize him but first he asked one of our members, "if you were gonna get baptized, would you trust elder Johnson to baptize you?" haha. Too bad their sister stopped meeting with us. But im confident that she will come around someday soon.

Not too much else in regards to investigators cuz last week was filled with lots of meetings, a holiday, and lots of service. But it was a great week none the less.

yesterday we had zone leader council with President and Sister Packard and all the other zone leaders. It was so different from how Pres. Evans would do it. Thats why the title of the email is its a new day, because with a new mission president comes a lot of new things. new ideas, new changes, and new excitement. We were there at the mission home for the council from 8:30am til 4:00pm with only an hour lunch break. It was intense. Alot of information. We talked mostly about how to work with members and I am so stoked for the things that will happen here in this mission. President Packard is definitely the perfect man for the job here in New England. It will take awhile to start implementing his plans and ideas but once it starts going, amazing things will happen. I am convinced that success and miracles are out there within our reach. We just gotta move forward with these new plans and ideas and we will see the fruits. I wish i could tell you all about what i learned at the meeting but its impossible. Maybe over the next few months I'll share some of the things we are doing to work with members and help them with their sharing the gospel efforts. A quote by Pres Packard is this- "in our mission we will live or die by member work". And so, like what i've learned over and over and over again through out my mission, Change is GOOD! Embrace the change and love life :)

I love you all! Thanks for everything! Good luck to Nikki and Ryan and Carter in AZ! Thanks Grandpa Butler for going to my old Mission President's homecoming and reporting on it! I have the best family and friends in the world! :) OH and just so you know, im not getting transferred! I get to stay another round here in good old Providence! the promised land!


Love,
Elder Brady Johnson