It's a great day to be alive and Thankful!

Alright peeps so here's the deal. I'll be seeing you all shortly so my emails will be a bit shortly :) Mostly because i don't even remember what happens every  day any more. but here are the wonderful things (plus i will attach pics and each pic is worth 1000 words):

Transfers were this week so from tuesday to friday we are pretty much out of our area/home and in the mission home with either the new arrivals or the departures or at transfer meeting. Each time we make take the departing missionaries to the airport its harder and harder mostly because it is saying goodbye to friends that i've served most of my mission with. I had the privilege of taking my trainer(we one of them cuz i was trained in a trio) to the airport for him to go home. Elder A is finally leaving America. What a sad day. One pic is me and him saying goodbye. Yup we are holding a stuffed animal. That is elder A for ya :)
As he is walking away, I say out loud and on video, because i recorded it, He is never going to make it to Cambodia. Well it turns out that while trying to get on his flight from NY to vancuver Canada or maybe whilst in Canada he didn't have the right documents to proceed so they sent him back to NY or kept him there... we are a little unsure on details. Well all of a sudden no one knows where this missionary is at but he is not on his right airplane to Cambodia. Sister Packard calls me and asks what i think happened or where he might be and i said Greenland (inside joke for all that know this kid) and that didn't help the situation. But luckily Sunday morning all of a sudden Elder A shows up in Cambodia safe and sound. No one knows how. I personally think he snuck on thru the landing gear and rode the whole way in the luggage rack. But the world will never know.

Next thing is I'm Thankful for all of you!

Lastly, we had two more baptisms this week..... I said we had 2 more baptisms! Ya they came out of no where, kinda. It was the 2 D kids. We went over on Monday to teach a regular lesson after taking a whole week off from visiting them and only the mom was home. So we talked to her and had a really good lesson and tried to resolve her concerns about her children being baptized. She was not really having it and we felt kinda defeated. Then she just asked for the records so she could sign them. Wait What? good thing i had just put them in my backpack just in case. I handed it to her and she said that she just wants to get it done. Huh? we even tried to dissuade her by saying she doesn't have to do anything unless she really wants to and she feels that it is right, and she said that it was fine and that we should do it sunday and expect her to be there too. Then we left. We were confused when we left and looked at each other and said, "Did that just happen?" So we decided to wait til our next appointment on friday to make sure it was legit.

So friday we come back and yup she's serious. So with just saturday to prepare we got the whole program together but with some serious doubts that they would all show up on sunday. Well as you can see in the picture, They all showed up and the baptism went fabulously! The ward and tons of missionaries have been working to get these 2 kids baptized for at least 3 years. So it was a very big deal to them and tons came to support. I couldn't help but feel pretty good about myself having accomplished this feat. But then I had a really humbling experience during the closing hymn. I was pondering about this whole experience and how it all happened so fast and how did it even happen when it hit me. This is the Lord's work. Not mine. Its not about me or the things I can do because regardless what I try to do to help people convert and come unto Christ, ultimately it is God that changes people's hearts. It is He that can work through me if I am worthy, but otherwise i am nothing.

There are many examples of this throughout my mission but I will just emphasize this one. Elder R and I came in wanting to be the missionaries to finally baptize these kids. We wanted to finally get this family together and coming to church and progressing towards Christ. We went over 3 or 4 times a weeks and taught many lessons. It was not easy, if you only knew the family. But we didn't give up. So after all we could do, we came close, it was the night before their original baptism date that the mom changed her mind and said no. We were so close and yet forever away and we were crushed. I felt so defeated. That's where the lesson comes in when Heavenly Father looks at us and says, "You know you can't do this without me. I'm in control and can do anything. So I'm going to give this one to you just because I love you and because the time is now right but watch and see how I am in control and that I will do things in my own due time." Ok so maybe He didn't say it like that but you get the point. And the point is, we have to depend and rely on the Lord. There is NO WAY that we could've got their mother to change her mind on our own. It was the spirit of God and we are all on His time. I hope you get what I'm saying, cuz it makes more sense in my head then it does when i try to explain it.

Thats it. Love ya! Have a fabulous Thanksgiving! (ps we have multiple places that we can go to eat so we are all set!)
Love,
Elder Brady Johnson