April 1st-January 1st

SO I'm not quite sure if y'all did the math with the title but...........I literally have 9 months to the day of when I come home from my mission................it's terrible.........and weird all at the same time. And this is no April Fool's joke. So werid.....

Anyhoo, so I really don't have THAT much time for e-mailing cuz I think we might need to drive all the way to Kaneohe to get the oil and filter changed in the car. SO, I'll have to type fast.

But I really want to share with y'all the epiphany I had with my companion this last week or so. A TON of people come in the VC and take one look at our name tags and just go, "wow, talk about an EASY mission!" or "Huh, you guys sure got it EASY don't you? I mean don't get me wrong, a mission's a mission, but admit it, this is EASY, it doesn't even snow here! In MY mission......."

Fact: A mission is only as hard you CHOOSE it to be.
FACT: A mission's difficulty is based on the missionary's DECISION to change, not the climate, or the investigators, or the mission president, or the companions, government, poverty, plumbing system, WHATEVER!
FACT: Changing the bad habits you've developed over 20-somought years, changing your personality, your goals, your desires, your WILL, to match the will of Heavenly Father and our Savior is the most difficult thing you could ever do on your mission.

And this is all coming from a direct revelation from Heavenly Father that I received upon prayerfully asking for guidance to comfort my companion who was receiving a TON of comments like the ones above. A mission is hard, when a person decides to CHANGE. Change is VERY, VERY difficult. Especially when you're your changing your will to match the will of God's. This is a LIFE-TIME journey and trying to make a LEAP on your mission is that much harder. I can not tell you how many missionaries I've met that went on their missions, came back, and were the EXACT SAME. They went to Argentina, Chile, Philippines, New York, and all sorts of other missions but it didn't matter HOW "difficult" the climate, environment, and all those things were, because they never DECIDED to change themselves. Only when you DECIDE to FERVENTLY pray, fast, SEARCH and STUDY the scriptures and PLEAD with Heavenly Father for help to over come your sins, bad habits, bad character traits, and to instead become the person Heavenly Father wants you to be, only THEN does your mission become hard. Only THEN do you have INCREDIBLE obstacles to overcome and trials to  conquer. And it is THEN, that if you have NO "conversions" on your mission, you know you had 1. Your own. But THAT is the essence of true conversion. Changing your will to align with Heavenly Fathers. To have NO desire to do evil. To expel all the pride from your heart.

I have a hard mission.

love,
Sister Bradley

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