No time today to write so it looks like it wont be til Saturday. Sorry :( i feel so bad. but just know that im really really loving life. I couldn't have asked for a better way to end my mission. I love my comp and my area and we are teaching a ton and W& Jr and this other lady T are all getting baptized on Nov 4th and they all 3 came to church and same with our next door neighbor, L. It was a legit Sunday. We are making some great progress with W and J's mom. Things are coming. We are out doing stuff for president and what not usually every day from morning til 5pm and then work in our area from 5-9 and with that short time we manage to lead our zone with people coming to church, people with a baptismal date and lessons taught in the week. Don't ask me how but we'll just go with it :) Thanks for all the updates and support from everyone! Someone told me that I just have 8 weeks left... yikes. played soccer today with tons of missionaries (like 25!) It was heaven! Cept all of the really good players have already gone home. Oh well it was still good.

Brock you are the man! I love you. I'm really interested to hear what kind of things you've seen about me that have changed because of my mission. Mom you are fabulous! I love your insights. I shared the one with Pres Packard about how Christ counseled everyone go home to digest everything and then came back the next day to learn again cuz that is exactly what we are doing in our mission. Pres has unloaded quite a bit of info and tips and training and we took a step back to let people think about it and try it out and now we are going at it again just reinforcing everything.

Alright love you bye!

ps I totes got accepted to BYU! So mom if you could keep on helping me with all of that, that would be great. put me in a khmae class, photography class, ballroom, computer class of some sort so i can be more acquainted with them, and maybe a spanish class, and whatever else i need to be in. Thanks Momma you are the BEST!

Love,

Elder Brady Johnson

Sorry to write so late in the week

We are so insanely busy this week and it all has to do with the announcement made by Pres Monson about age changes for missionaries. Let me just say that A LOT more missionaries are coming out then were to be expected which is awesome, especially tons more sisters-super awesome. But that means they need to find where to put them. Well our mission has requested 50 more missionaries making our mission have 250 (the max a mission can have). Still not sure what will actually happen but Elder R and I are in charge of gathering all of the hundreds of suggestions from the missionaries here on where to put the new ones. That includes deciding where to put them (as in which branch or ward), if they are elders or sisters, if they speak english, Hatian, creole, portuguese, or spanish; and where to actually put them within the ward boundaries (cuz here, wards are multiple cities/towns big); plus we have to find out how many members are in each ward/where do most of the members live within each boundary, etc.

Obviously we don't make any final decisions-thats done by the mission pres but we get everything ready, all the info, so he can make a decision. We could start increasing our mission numbers within the next 6-9 weeks which means no time. Yeah, pretty intense! So I am sincerely sorry for the lack of writing, but Im doing all that i can to write in my journal so i can be sure to tell you all about the crazy and fun things that are happening here at this time. There is alot of excitement in the air and good things are coming. I'm only sad that i will just be here to set everything up but not get to see how it all works out. I love being a missionary and I love that our prophet continues to receive revelation for the Church. The Second Coming is near and that is why the church is getting more serious about spreading this gospel throughout the world. Please be a part of that spreading of the message. Nothing could be more important, and nothing can bring the spirit more fully into your life then when you are sharing the gospel. I love you all! Thanks for all of the Love and support!

PS: Dad you are a baller! i love it. Brock, you are such a stud! Mom your insights are amazing! Wescotts, I absolutely LOVED your package!!!! I think it was one of the best package i've received on my mission. So thanks! :)  Nikki your package was also one of the best! much needed! loved it. Blake and Ryan, Mom and Dad thanks for the advice. Everyone/anyone else that i've forgotten, thank you for everything!

Love,

Elder Brady Johnson

What day is it?

As you can see by the title, i do not know what is going on. This week was a blur and i don't even know what day it is most of the time. All i know is that things are super busy and I am having so much fun. I love serving with Elder R. And i know you are all pronouncing it wrong but it rhymes with Fever so we often call him R Fever (like Bieber fever -and everyone's got it haha). He is from Mesa Arizona, and no he doesn't know the Allens. He is the youngest of 5 and loves to skate and is very musically talented (was in a band as the drummer plus he sings and plays guitar too). So you might be thinking that we must be pretty different but actually we aren't. We get along very well and have a lot of fun. He's pretty overwhelmed with the idea of him being the new assistant but he will do great!

We have yet to have time to get our feet underneath us as it has been go go go for the past week plus 10hours of conference, arrivals, transfers, departures, Zone Leader council and office work. Fun, huh? No but really i love it. We thought that by having the Traveling Elders (and mom they are just new to our mission not to all missions) we would be freed up a lot more to work in our area but i don't think that will be happening. Cuz this transfer we have interviews with President, where we go with the Pres and Traveling Elders around the whole mission and do various trainings while President interviews each missionary, and we also have Zone Conference. Its gonna be insane but super fun.

Picking up the Arrivals from the Airport was probably one of the funnest things i've done on my mission (that may be a bit of a stretch but still, it was awesome). Sister K from Portugal was in that group and my buddy Butch totally served in her branch and worked a lot with her family and preparing her to serve a mission. He was actually there when she opened her mission call and found out she was coming here. Small world, huh? She's way cool. Elder C (dad's friends's son from Rexburg) was also in that group and he was telling me that he stayed at our house a while ago! Small world again. Geez it blows my mind how many connections you can have all over the place when you are a Mormon.

So we picked them up, drove them to the Cambridge church for a light snack and then got to take them out contacting/talking to people in down town Boston. Elder R and I took the "party bus"(12 passenger van we drive during transfer week-I want one when i get home haha) and a whole car full and went to Copley station right next to the John Hancock building and let them loose. We went with them and it was such a rush to be out contacting in the heart of Boston. The new missionaries did very well and had alot of fun. For some it was a big wake up call but good experience.

So that was last tuesday. the next day we spent with them at the mission home giving various trainings on what is to be expected/how we do missionary work in our mission/how we work with members/ everything they need to know. Power packed day and it was splendid, but the children (new missionaries look like children to me) were pretty exhausted. Thursday was the transfer meeting and going to the temple with the departing missionaries and hanging out with them all night and hearing the fabulous advice from the Packards for whats next for those missionaries as they go home. I love the Packards so much! They had us 4 AP's (the 2 traveling elders are counted as APs too) over for family home evening and we ate delicious salmon, all performed a talent, told some stories, read the email from their son who is on a mission, and President taught us from the scriptures. They really are my family away from family.

As for Conference here are some things I loved. 1) it was incredible. I'm sad its my last one as a missionary. All the talks kinda run together for me in my head but some things I picked out was that we really are lead by modern revelations. It is incredible to know that President Monson really is a Prophet and that he receives direct revelation from the Lord to know what to do to help the work progress. I'm so excited for the age change for missionaries. Its going to be amazing. I'm excited for Brock, I can't believe he can already go on a mission so soon after i get home. He is going to be such a great missionary, I wish i could have him as one of my companions.

In reviewing my notes, I realized that a lot of what was emphasized or maybe just my focus was the need to help others and be aware of others and how you can bring them closer to Christ. I really liked what the relief society Pres said "first observe, then serve" Its a great motto to live by. Pres Eyring also talked about building zion and we are trying to do that in our mission...ok so just got a text and we got to go help some sisters with a ride some where.... so to be continued. haha Sorry Family!

I love you all!

Love, Elder Brady Johnson

Thanks mom for the packages for Elder B and Elder A. They get left out alot because they are from Cambodia and so far from home. I'm so excited for Brock and Stacy and Homecoming! I miss high school so badly. I wanna go back ha. Make sure to send me some pictures of them and their dates. Good times.

So i don't have much time this week cuz we don't get a P-day cuz we are with the new greenies Tuesday and Wednesday then transfer meeting and temple trip on Thursday and then party all night (well, not really) with the departing missionaries and then Friday we wake up super early to take them all to the airport. Its gonna be a blast!

My first Transfers went well. It was a lot harder than I thought and it took many hours of counseling and thinking and prayer to finally get every once situated. It was interesting to me that there weren't any "he needs to go here" or "she has to be with this companion" feelings, but as we worked on the transfer board, things just fell into place and felt right. It was pretty fun knowing everyone's fate before they did :)

The L family all came to church!-cept for the mom. but the 4 kids all came and it was awesome! The ward members surprised them with their very own scripture quad each! That was unexpected but they loved it. We had some sweet lessons with them this week as well and we are finally getting somewhere with them and I think they finally like us.

Oh I almost forgot. I'm getting a new companion. His name is Elder R and I have already been living in the same apartment with him for the last 6 weeks and we are best buds so its going to be really great. Im really excited. Elder R and I are the AP's and then Elder M and Elder M are the, brand new to our mission, "traveling Elders." What they do is go where ever they want when ever they want and help, lift, encourage, inspire, and train other missionaries throughout the mission full time. So they will live with us and come to church with us but other than that, they will be all over the mission. Elder M is an awesome missionary and will do great things in that responsibility. I will continue doing the things in the office and organizing things/running the behind the scenes operations, where i like to be. I'm stoked to be with Elder R and with the new traveling elders, we will have more free time to work in our area and I forsee alot of great things on the horizon.

Well thats about it! Love yall!

Love,

Elder Brady Johnson