Dear wonderful family and friends!

 

Hope you all are having a fantastic day!!

 

First, thank you Mom, Ashley, Alex, Scott, and Stacey for leaving the signs and cupcakes at our apartment yesterday for my birthday! I was so surprised to see that there for me from you guys that I started crying a little bit. Happy crying, of course. It was weird to think that you had been right there just a little earlier in the day. (I forget how close to home I am most of the time; for the most part it feels like a very different world.) Wow, you guys are the best! I blew out the candles last night (no, I didn't make it in one breath, oops!) and my companions and I enjoyed cupcakes. I loved the designs you made with the frosting--those were awesome cupcakes!! Thanks too for the cookies! I'm guessing Alex made them? They are fantastic, and Hermana Coogan really,really loves chocolate chip cookies so that was awesome for her. She said to tell you thank you!! I'm also really grateful for the candy and for the fruit--I've been missing oranges a little bit! And the peach was perfect. I ate it for lunch today! Again, that was just awesome!! Thank you so so much.

 

My companions have been very sweet to me today to help me celebrate my birthday! A dry erase note on the bathroom mirror, eating breakfast with me, getting peaches for me at the store, and we're going to go to a panaderia after this to get sweet bread because I haven't been yet. They are taking very good care of me (as they've been doing for this entire transfer). I sure love them. They are so awesome.

 

Well, I would like to tell you all about just one day from this week. It was a miraculous, awesome day. I'm going to basically just quote from my journal:

 

Saturday, 11 August 2012

 

Today was a marvelous day!

 

After reading during personal study the promise in 3 Nephi 18 that I will receive the good things I ask for in faith, I prayed that today we would be able to meet with every person we had planned for and then if there was an appointement that fell through it would be according to Heavenly Father's will and we would go where we needed to be. This prayer was answered. WE did have two of our hoped-for lessons fall through (although neither was a confirmed appointment), but we had much success in that time that we would have been teaching. We had our first lesson planned with [the woman I talked about last week] but had never been able to confirm the appointment with her because her phone has been out of commission. She was not home, so we left a note and went to try to contact some people who had been referred to us. There was one on fourth street with an address that didn't exist. So we knocked at the house with the closest street number. We woke up an older man who came out and talked to us. Turns out he and his wife are the only hispanics on the street. A little weird, since that means we have no idea where the person we were referred to actually lives, but what a blessing that we could meet him! We talked a little while and made plans to come back to teach him and his wife next week. After our other fallen-through lesson, we went to contact a man who lived very close by who'd been referred to us. His mother answered the door and told us he would be home later and named the time he should be back. We returned later after that time and met with him and his parents. He was referred by a friend he works with at Sonic. He met with missionaries about twenty years ago in Mexico when he was a teenager and seemed very excited for us to be there. We taught them about our purpose as missionaries and about prayer. One neat thing was that when we asked if they had any questions, his mother basically repeated back to us what we'd just explained. She really was listening and understanding! We invited him to come to church, and although circumstances make this week really tough if not impossible for him to come, he seemed positive about coming next week.

 

We also had a couple of especially great planned lessons today. We taught [two children we've been working with] about the Holy Ghost (again). [They have a pretty hard time paying attention and we have to keep teaching just a little at a time and reteaching things.] I sang them a primary song about the Holy Ghost and we played a game with a blindfold and someone whispering to try to help them understand how the Spirit speaks with a still small voice. I'm glad I've had a lifetime of those kinds of lessons with kids; otherwise it would be really frustrating to teach and not really be paid attention to! We also taught about the steps of the gospel to [a family who has been meeting with missionaries for a long time] and they said they will come to church tomorrow! It's been a while since they've gone. It is awesome to see them actually making changes in their lives to live what we're teaching them about! [Note: They did come to church yesterday!! I'm excited for them to keep learning a living the gospel more and more. I can tell they really want to have the peace and blessings that we've been teaching them about.]

 

Well, that was my journal entry. We had similar experiences yesterday too. I am so grateful to be here doing the Lord's work. It is truly a blessing to see the hand of the Lord working in the lives of His children. I know that He loves and watches over each one of us. He answers our prayers and helps us be the answers to other people's prayers. He'll do that for you too! 

 

Make your day a great day! I really appreciate all your love and prayers and support!

 

Sincerely,

Hermana Alicia Brighton