A LITTLE SURREAL

Hi Everyone,
Wow. I can hardly believe the time has come for me to be writing my last family email to you all! Where has the time gone? Honestly, I think I just thought my mission was going to last forever and now that it´s come down to the end, I feel a little unsettled! But I know the Lord has a bigger and better plan than I could ever understand, so I´m just going to try to hold on to the ride! This last week (and a half since I last wrote really) has been a rather long and trial filled time, but always with big blessings. First of all, I have a wicked gripe (that´s what they call colds) that I can only blame on myself since we got caught in a freak rainstorm over the weekend and I unwisely ignored the Spirit when it told me to bring my umbrella. Ironically, later on that same day the Spirit told me to NOT leave the keys in the chapel library where I again ignored the prompting and found myself cursing my stupidity when we arrived to the house later without the keys in tow. Hermana Bradley strikes again! Haha. Now I´m just trying to not let my head explode with this head cold of death, but I hope to make a full recovery before Tuesday when I´ll get to see all your lovely faces!!!


Anyways, as for the work, which is way more important than my cold anyway, it´s going amazing! We had Alondra´s baptism on Saturday and it was quite possibly my favorite service I´ve had here in Villa Carmen. It would have been almost perfect, had we started on time instead of waiting 45 minutes for a special person to show up...but all´s well that ends well right? Right. We´ve also been blessed to find 2 new young families lately, and I am so sad that I won´t get to see them progress! But I´m happy to know that I will get to hear all about them from Hermana McEntire in the future. We also were able to put baptismal dates with Saul and Noeli, who both finally made it, not only to church, but the ward Christmas party as well! I just love those two and how they ALWAYS read everything we assign them and ask so many questions and just hunger for more knowledge of the gospel. Why can´t everyone be like that? Haha. Anyways, the Christmas party was a HUGE success as well and it just made me sad to know I´m going to have to leave this ward family! It´s crazy how fast people can become like your family when you´re on a mission. But I just have to keep telling myself that I will come back someday.

Here at the end of this crazy mission business, I can´t help but compare it to a rollercoaster. There´s moments where you´re up in the air with your stomache in your head wondering when you´re going to puke, and others where you´re laughing your head off and wishing it would never end. But by the end, when it´s all said and done, you want to go again, and you can´t. So you just have to content yourself with the memories and move on. However, I will always ALWAYS be grateful for the decision I made to come on a mission. For all the good, bad, hard, sad, and high moments. It was all worth it. I love this gospel. I love my Savior. And I am determined to continue being a representative of Jesus Christ for the rest of my life! Love you all and SEE YOU SO SOON!!!!!
Hermana Bradley
(For the last time! Sad!)