Dear Family and Friends,

Happy New Year!! Hope you enjoy celebrating a new start!!

It was great to celebrate Christmas this week. Already though it seems like that happened a very long time ago! So weird how time flies but at the same time so much happens that the beginning of the week seems like it happened a month ago!

This was a really, really good week. We were able to teach a lot and even surpass some of our goals for the week! We were also able to see miracles. One day we prayed to know where we should go to find, and both of us received the impression that we should go to a certain street...we were able to talk to several people there that seemed really interested. The best part was that we knew that that was where we were supposed to be at that time, for whatever reason. Another day we went to St. Helena, a little town in the far-away part of our area and were received into the home of a woman when we knocked on her door. She is amazing and definitely someone who is searching. And we found her because Heavenly Father knows her and loves her and He directs us his servants. That same day (actually right next door) we knocked on the door of a young boy who used to meet with the missionaries. He has since been in contact with us and asking us lots of questions...he's searching for truth too, as well as his cousin. Again, Heavenly Father helped us to be there in the right place at the right time to find them.

I'm so grateful for the blessing to be serving here in Napa, seeing and helping the area strengthen, and being a part of the miracles that are happening in our mission.

Also, I forgot to tell the family when I talked to you on Christmas that my mission president said to tell you hello and that he is grateful for the sacrifice you are making as I serve here in the mission. He said he'll take good care of me!!! And he is. 

Anyway, love you all so much! Enjoy making some goals to start the new year--remember that it is through the power of Christ that real change can come into our hearts and into our lives. I know that power is real and am so grateful to have it sustaining me as I serve here in Napa.

So much love,

Hermana Alicia Brighton

Dear lovely family and friends,

Merry Christmas!! I am so grateful for all of you and your support and love! I hope that you have a wonderful Christmas Day as we commemorate the birth and life of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

I want to express my testimony that He lives. I know that He lived and died for us and gave everything so that we can find peace and joy here in this life and enjoy even greater happiness in the eternities in the presence of Him, Jesus Christ, and our Father in Heaven. I know They love us. I know that no matter what our failings are or how weak we feel, the grace Christ has provided through his atoning sacrifice is enough. It's enough to cover our sins, it's enough to lift us in all of our sorrows, and it's enough to heal us from every pain and disappointment that can come to us in this life. I've felt that healing power, that strength, and that grace. I've felt Christ's love and sustaining power even in the times of my deepest sadness, and I testify that He is always there for us.

Look to Him and live. That is the promise for all of us, and I know it is true. We can live more fully physically and spiritually, now and forever, if we put our faith and trust in Him.

This week in Napa has been wonderful. There has been a LOT of rain. Pouring! All night, all day, pretty much this whole weekend. The river yesterday was clear up close to overflowing. I haven't heard of any flooding in town, but I wouldn't be surprised if there was some in the surrounding areas and I think it's a definite possibility if we get any more rain.

Last night we went as a group of missionaries and caroled downtown. (The rain had stopped.) It was a wonderful time to just be able to sing our testimonies of Christ and see the smile it brought to people's faces. It was kind of funny because a reporter from channel two came and we got filmed and one of the Elders was interviewed. She wanted to know mostly just what we thought of the weather because that's what her story was about. But anyway, maybe we were on TV! 

This is a wonderful place to be spending the Christmas season. Everyone is very friendly and so many of the members have invited us to come to their homes today and tomorrow. Tonight we're eating tamales with one of the families, so I'm excited for that because I LOVE tamales, and I love them! Also this weekend we made cookies and cards and went and caroled to some of the members of our congregation and other people we are teaching. It was neat to do that, to feel of their love and gratitude and to remember doing the same thing back at home during Christmastime. 

Well, I hope that you all find ways to make this a very special Christmas, to reach out and serve those who are around you and to make room in your heart to receive our King.

I love you all and appreciate the cards, letters, support, and prayers!!

Love,
Hermana Brighton

Dear Family and Friends,

This has been a good week. I am so very grateful that Sister H was able to come to this area because she has connections from serving before around this area. It's awesome because it's helped us know better how we can find and teach and strengthen people in parts of our area that we weren't really focusing on before. 

Well, I am adjusting well I think to working with Sister H. I love the ideas and energy that she brings to the work here and the love that she has for the people we teach. With her, I am learning to see some things from a different angle. We work at a different pace and in a different way, but still it is with the same purpose and love for the Lord and for his children. I feel so blessed to receive her constant encouragement--she really has a gift of expressing love and support.

I hope that each of you is having a wonderful holiday season. At a time when we exchange gifts, I've been thinking and learning a lot about the precious gifts that our Father in Heaven has given each of us. Not just physical gifts like our bodies and our homes and families but also spiritual gifts and talents that help us to serve him and those around us. He truly has blessed each one of us with very special abilities that I think a lot of times we don't even recognize. 

Also..as far as trials are going. Still so far so good. I keep praying for them. And still seeing way more blessings than challenges each day. 

Thanks for you love and encouragement and prayers!

Love,
Hermana Alicia Brighton

Dear Family and Friends,

Hello! I hope you are having a wonderful, wonderful week!

This new transfer has started off amazingly! It was hard to see Sister O. leave, but I am so grateful for this opportunity to work with Sister H. here in Napa. She is a wonderful companion, and I am learning so much from her already. She is a great example to me of expressing lots of love; working, teaching, and living in unity; being very open; and living every day joyfully. I love her so much. And I'm excited to be working with her and helping and loving her.

This week (before the weekend) was a bit slow with transfers and Sister O going home, but it was at the same time a miraculous and marvelous week. Cesario was baptized and confirmed! We were led by the Spirit to the places we needed to be at the times we needed to be there! We found new people to start teaching!

It is wonderful to see how the Chapel Hill Branch is becoming more unified. There were a LOT of members that attended the temple trip Saturday, and there is excitement among the members to share the gospel more and progress toward making and keeping temple covenants.

I am so grateful for the wonderful blessing it is to be serving here in the Santa Rosa Mission!!!!

This week, our zone leaders invited us to accept a challenge from Sister Alba to pray for trials. I'm doing it. So far, so good. I hope to see a lot of growth in myself and in those we're serving as I try to be grateful and learn from all of the challenges that Heavenly Father sees fit to bless me with. I trust Him to make of me the best missionary (and person) that I can be. That means I'm reminding myself often to not worry so much about trying to be what I think is the ideal but rather to depend in every moment on the promptings of the Spirit to direct me and teach me and the power of the Atonement to give me power to do His will, not mine. It's a peaceful way to live.

I know that Heavenly Father knows all of us perfectly. He knows our divine potential, and we can ask him to help us get there! He'll help us (even when it means sending us trials to help us learn and grow). He loves us!! More than we can understand.

I love you all. Thank you for your prayers, your love, and your support.

Love,
Hermana Alicia Brighton

Dearest Family and Friends,

 

I hope you are having a fantastic week.

 

This has been a great week for us. It was my last week with just Sister O., and my new companion, Sister H. will be coming to Napa today. Sister O. is actually going to also be coming back to stay with us for a few more days until her family comes to pick her up this weekend. This Friday at 7, Cesario is getting baptized! It will be neat for Sister O. to be there for it! It has been wonderful to see how he has made changes and worked to be ready to be baptized this week.

 

It's also been very rainy this week! Wow! Beautiful though, and everything is drying out now, I think.

 

Well, time is super short because of transfers today, but I am grateful for each of you and your support. Please keep me in your prayers--I know Heavenly Father hears and answers each of the prayers that we offer for ourselves and for others.

 

Love,

Hermana Alicia Brighton