The Gospel is light and truth and happiness

This week I hit the 6th month mark of being home from my mission and it was kind of a surreal experience.  On one hand it feels like I got home just yesterday and on the other hand it feels like the mission was another life time, almost like a dream.  Hitting that mark made me reflect back on who I was at the end of my mission, the things I swore I would never go back to ( cough cough facebook, instagram, sleeping in, etc.), and who I had envisioned I would become.  It made me look inside myself ask if I was reaching that potential, and if I was a better person than I was 6 months ago or had I fallen behind.  Sometimes it's hard to be brutally honest with yourself. To be honest, I wasn't convinced that I had quite lived up to my own expectations that I had set for myself, and I could see all the little areas where I had fallen short time and time again...but then I started reading in John 1:11-12 which reads, "He came unto his own, and his own receiveth him not.  But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believeth on his name," and I was overcome with peace.  I came to the realization that I had been relying on my own personal strength so heavily when what I really needed to be doing was drawing on the power of God to accomplish my goals and ambitions.  Just like Moses failed three times before he finally asked in the name of God for help, I was trying to fight my own battle which is so much more challenging and ultimately impossible to succeed at.  The gospel is light and truth and happiness and I began to feel a change in myself, just as I had seen in so many people in the field.  As we heavily rely on the power and the light that Christ's Atonement brings into our lives, I know that we will become all that God has planned for us to be...which sometimes is not what we had envision...but it is always so much better.