Dear family and friends,

I hope that you are having a great day!!

I am, like my brother, finding myself thinking of home more often lately. Missing it a little more. But there is always so much to do and so many people here to think of that those thoughts don't linger long. I'm really glad to be here in Napa still, to be serving among so many that I have come to develop ties with and to also be meeting lots of new people here. We've been making a special effort to talk to more people lately and I've been impressed by how many are willing to talk with us and even express interest and desires in meeting with us or other missionaries again to learn more about the restored gospel of Jesus Christ.

Yesterday we had a really great experience: 

 We had an appointment for a second lesson with a woman we started teaching this week. We'd invited the branch president to come with us and he was there. Well, she wasn't home! But we asked him if he would visit some other people in the area with us...he agreed and we called a lady that lives down the street from where we were. She was home, said we could come by, we got there, and....it was amazing. She felt the Spirit so strongly that she was weeping before we even started the lesson, and President Ceballos being there was perfect because he was able to reassure her about problems she is having in a way that we couldn't have done ourselves. Later in the lesson she accepted a baptismal date, a goal that she can start working toward to follow the example of Jesus Christ and make a covenant to serve God for the rest of her life...she wants to make those changes in her life, and Heavenly Father knew just when the time would come that she would be ready to open up to us. Then he sent us at that time with the help that she needed.

I know Heavenly Father loves His children and am grateful for opportunities like that one to help them feel His love and learn how to come unto Christ. 

Experiences like that make missed appointments and cold, rainy days seem like no disappointment, no sacrifice at all. It's wonderful to see the light and relief and peace that comes into people's countenances as they learn and begin to live the way Heavenly Father intends us to.

I know God our Father lives and loves each one of us. I know He sent Jesus Christ His Son to suffer for our sins and sorrows and through Him comes all the peace and joy we need and want.

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

Love,

Hermana Brighton

Dear family and friends,

Well this first week of the transfer has been marvelous. Just fantastic! I hope that you all also had a wonderful week. (:

So my new companion, Hermana Rawson, is wonderful. She has been here in the Santa Rosa Mission just six week more than me and we get along great. We are very much on the same page and both just want to give the work we're doing all we've got. We've been exhausted at the end of every day. I love it!

So this week we had an appointment with a man named Mario who I had met the week before with Sister Hernandez when he was working outside of his house. He lives with his wife and their 10-month-old newborn in an apartment behind his mom's house. We taught him and his wife about the restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ and about the Book of Mormon, and they were really interested and asked a lot of questions and have sincere desires to learn for themselves what is the truth. The mom especially told us she wants the kind of peace and direction we talked about for her son.

It was awesome! We also found a lot of other new people to start teaching this week. It was miraculous!!

Also...this week I tried eating grasshoppers! They're not too bad! Especially seasoned with limon y sal.

Well, things are going great! I appreciate your love and prayers! Have a fantastic week!! I know Heavenly Father is always there for us and loves us so very much. As we turn to Him, he truly changes us. He's changing me, and it feels great!

Love,

Hermana Brighton

Dear wonderful family and friends,

 

Today marks the start of a new transfer. I'm staying here in Napa!!! And I am getting a new companion. Sister R.. My first non-Hispanic companion, so it's going to be different. Especially as far as understanding the language goes, but I think I am ready! In any case, I know Heavenly Father will help us. Hermana R. has been here on her mission for 6 months and I'm excited to meet her this afternoon and start learning from her! Another change with this new transfer is that my official "training" has ended. So that means one less hour of studies in the morning and one more hour to be out and working!

 

So I just have to share about the wonderful going-away meal that one of the families in the branch prepared for us last night in honor of the my companion and another Elder who are leaving the area. It was an incredible soup of all kinds of seafood. Really spectacular, with clam and shrimp and fish and even huge crab legs! I know they put a ton of work into it and it was a sacrifice for them to provide such a meal for us, so I was super grateful, but wow, I was so nervous when I saw it, knowing I was going to have to eat all that seafood!! Well, you can all be very proud of me because I ate it right up!!! Ashley, thank you for all the times of making me try shrimp and stuff because that was good preparation. Also, of all of it, the crab was probably the best. Oh besides the vegetables in the soup...that was really the best part! Something funny is that afterward my companion commented that it was super spicy...but I hadn't noticed that it was spicy at all!! Shows where my focus was!

 

Please keep me in your prayers. There is so, so much work to be done here in Napa, so many people that are prepared to learn about the restored gospel of Jesus Christ. And so many people that need to be lifted and believe that Heavenly Father really is there for them. It's incredible and also at times overwhelming! I love these people so much and want to do all I can to serve and help them...it's a big responsibility. I love you all too and hope you are finding joy in serving the Lord and those around you in your own ways.

 

Love,

Sister Brighton

 

 

Dear Family and Friends,

This week I hope you're doing great! I send you my love and also want to remind you of the greatness of Heavenly Father's love and mercy.

This week we had a young woman with us for three days. She was serving a "mini-mission," and it was a really cool experience. It was interesting to see how she reacted to missionary life because it's become some a normal everyday thing for me to do things like teach a lesson to a family, bear my testimony to someone we meet on the street, or knock on doors and invite people to learn about the restored gospel of Jesus Christ. It reminded me of how amazing and important missionary work really is.

I'm grateful to be here and to be having experiences that are teaching me a lot about love and obedience and consecration and commitment. Thank you so much for your prayers and your support.

Lots of love,

Hermana Alicia Brighton