Become

Familia y Amigos,
Buenas Tardes! Como le va en todo? Buuuueno, aqui en la Republica Dominicana hace MUCHO calor, pero ya ustedes sabes, la mision no es facil. :) Pero....hope you all are enjoying the cool breezes back at home! Things here lately have been fraught with trials, I can´t lie. BUT, each day I realize that these trials are especially designed for me and that I´m learning to overcome my weaknesses. I reread a fantastic conference talk today by Elder Robbins on ¨What Manner of Men Ye Ought to Be¨ and found alot of wise counsel to apply to companions, investigators and especially myself. I encourage you all to check it out. Despite the struggles of fallen through baptismal dates and a lack of ward coordination, the Lord also sent an extra dose of help via our special conference with Elder Cornish. His messages were so incredibly inspiring and based on doctrine that it made me want to go out right away and apply everything. I love being in the presence of inspired leaders and feeling of the genuine love they have for us as missionaries as well as the people. Elder Cornish was actually a mission president here in the D.R. a few years back, so he knows what things are really like and knows how to really encourage us. It was a privilege and blessing to be taught by him this week. Another great blessing this week was seeing the baptism of Elsa. I´ve never had an investigator so excited to be baptized! Every time we visited her during the week she was just counting down, and seeing her dressed in white on Saturday was amazing. No matter how hard the mission gets, NOTHING beats the feeling of seeing people enter the waters of baptism wtih a true commitment to endure to the end. I was writing a letter this week and realized as I wrote it that before my mission I hadn´t really known what true joy was, because I hadn´t really known what true suffering was. But through the refining process of this mission, I have truly come to know both, and I wouldn´t change that experience for the world. It has shaped me into the person I needed to become...and is still refining me. As Elder Oaks explains ¨The final judgment is NOT just an evaluation of a sum total of good and evil acts...what we have done. It is an acknowledgment of the final effect...of what we have BECOME.¨ So true! Anyways, I hope you all have a lovely week, and thank you so much for all the letters and emails this last week, I needed them so much!
Love you!!!
Hermana Bradley