Dear Family and dear friends,

 

Hello! I hope you all are doing fantastically!

 

I have had a pretty exciting week. Besides the fact that I have been learning a ton and preparing to be a much much better missionary than I could have imagined, I also had an interesting blessing-in-disguise experience:

 

On Tuesday playing soccer with my companions and some other hermanas, I rolled/sprained my ankle. I went to kick the ball at the same time as another sister coming the other direction and my ankle just kind of snapped in. I was down on the ground, literally crying, it was so surprising and painful. Still managed to remember the name of my ankle in Spanish to tell my companions what was wrong! So then they helped me to the trainer in the little building outside (where we were playing) and the sister who checked me out did a couple tests and said it might be fractured. So they had to get a van to come pick us up. My companions were excited about that. (: Then the doctor in the health clinic said it seemed fine and I was able to walk with a brace but no crutches the rest of the day. I received a priesthood blessing that evening, and since then I have had just a little soreness with some movements but have been able to walk without the brace. It's been a miraculously quick recovery! A really cool thing though is that I have to do rehabilitation to make sure that I strengthen the ankle to prevent future injuries. A trainer I talked to said most people don't take care of it and have a permanently weakened joint afterward. So I am really determined to do everything they''ve told me, and I can already tell that it is helping.

 

It reminds me of how we have to diligently work to strengthen our testimonies and our characters. When something bad happens, we can use it to actually build and become better. We can gain confidence. Cool huh?

 

Anyway, I love you all!!

 

Have a great week.

 

Love,

Hermana Brighton

To my wonderful family and friends:

 

I love you! Thank you for your prayers on my behalf and for the letters of support.

 

This first week and a half of training has been wonderful. Definitely haven't been bored! We have had a very irregular schedule because of General Conference the first weekend we were here. Definitely switched things up for a couple days! And it was so wonderful to hear the words or our prophets and leaders. As you can imagine, the Saturday morning session of conference was really awesome here. When President Monson announced that young men will now be eligible to serve a mission at age 18, and young women at 19, it got a little crazy. Well, not too crazy since it's the MTC and it was conference, but there were definitely a few cheers, and you could just feel the excitement and energy in the room. You could hear everyone whispering to each other about how awesome it was and who they knew who would now be serving missions very soon. And then that's what we were all talking about  for the entire weekend. I am so excited for this change. The Tuesday after General Conference, Elder Bednar came and talked to us and mentioned the change (we sustain him as an apostle and prophet--how awesome is it that we got to hear his commentary on the inspired decision to make this change?!). He said, "When I hear people pontificating about why the missionary ages have changed, it cracks me up!" He continued to explain that it's silly to guess this reason or that and said he'd give us two reasons for the change:

 

1.The Lord can do His own work.

2. He will hasten His work is his own time.

 

Wow.

 

Also, my teacher made a comment yesterday about how we will be the missionaries to train these incoming 18- and 19-year-old missionaries.What a great responsibility and blessing that will be.

 

Some other details about life here in the missionary training center: There are 7 hermanas and 5 elders in my district. Nobody I've talked to has ever seen a district with so many sisters in it! It's awesome. We have class six hours a day most days. The rest of the time is studying and eating. I love it. Also, there are exercise classes for sisters in the mornings that I've really enjoyed, and we have gym time during the day when my companions and I usually play volleyball. Oh yes, I have two companions again! Just like in Conroe! It's a great blessing, and we get along super, super well. We speak Spanish together, pray together, serve together, study together, and love each other so much! Couldn't be more blessed. I know that I am with these sisters for a reason. One's going to California, the other to Dallas (same mission where Eric waited for his visa!).

 

THank you again for you love and support! Que Dios les bendiga mucho.

 

Love,

Hermana Brighton