Dear Wonderful Family and Friends,

I hope that you have had a fantastic week! 

This was a really good week. I've learned and grown a lot. It's amazing how there is always more that I can learn...from the scriptures, from my companion, from the people we teach, from other missionaries and leaders. 

An update on the man who calls us his angels. We were finally able to teach him again this week! And we are going back again tomorrow. He was supposed to come to sacrament meeting yesterday but didn't make it. But the fact that he wanted to come was a big step! I'll continue to keep you posted :)

I just want to share this week my testimony of the Book of Mormon.

I know that the Book of Mormon is the word of God. I love it. It really is my favorite book. Lately I have been trying to treasure it more, and one thing that I've done--it was a suggestion I heard from another missionary--is read just one verse each night right before I go to sleep. It's been amazing how much I've learned from one verse, a verse that I just randomly open up to. I'm grateful for the Spirit that I feel when I read the Book of Mormon, and I am grateful for the blessings of the fulness of the Gospel of Jesus Christ that it teaches.

I invite you all to read the Book of Mormon, if you haven't done it yet, and to treasure the words of the Book of Mormon more, no matter how many times you've read it before. I invite you, because it has helped me so much and I know it will help you too.

Much love,

Hermana Brighton

Dear Friends and Family,

Thank you for your support and your prayers on my behalf. There are times when I really need it that I can feel that extra supporting strength. Thank you!!!

We had a pretty great week, with lots of teaching. We were able to have a couple of the young women come with us to teaching appointments this week, and that was really great! I think I've mentioned it, but it's so neat to see their excitement for the work. All of the members of the congregation here in Vallejo are super supportive of us. It's an amazing area.

So...an update on the man that found us on the street a few weeks ago who told us he believed we were angels. We haven't been able to teach him since that first Saturday! But we have been in contact with him...he is super busy working, working, working several jobs. But he said to us the last time we saw him that every time he talks to us he has a better day afterward. We keep praying for him and in time I know he's going to start the new life that he is looking for.

Thought I would share some pictures this week since I've neglected to send any for quite some time.

Enjoy!

I love you all.

Love,

Hermana Brighton

Hermana Brighton and Sonny   

  with a branch member and companions

           

Dear Friends and Family,

What a week! I hope that you all have been doing fantastic. This week has seemed really long and really short all at once. It's because so much happened. Wednesday, Hermana E left for Peru. We got up at about 2 am for her to be all ready to leave with a senior missionary couple who came and picked her up at about 3 am. Then Hermana B and I went back to bed for 3 hours. And woke up the next day feeling a little weird with only the two of us. We've adjusted now and it kind of seems like a long time ago that Hermana E was with us. Weird how that happens. Thursday we had a zone conference in Napa...so about forty missionaries with all the ones from Napa and Vallejo together. Napa is only about a half hour away, so it wasn't too much of a trip. Thursday night, we ate at a taco truck that belongs to one of the members. I had a really good burrito. It was my first time eating at a taco truck/stand on my mission, if you can believe that. For some reason, it seems to me that it would have been more common. Thursday there was also an activity for all the sisters from one of the English wards and from the Spanish branch. We went by because one of the members had told us she was bringing a friend she wanted us to meet...we waited a while, she didn't show up, then just as we were heading out, she showed up. Funny how things work out sometimes. Anyway, we did at least get to meet her, so that was one of many miracles for the week. Another great miracle was that another one of the young women in the branch has decided she wants to serve a mission. She came up to us yesterday and asked if she can go to lessons with us. It's exciting to see how the youth are getting excited to prepare for missions and be involved in missionary work now. I can definitely see why this area needed Hermanas. For lots of reasons, actually. For example, another miracle this week. Our plans had fallen through and we had a list of several people we could go try and see. I felt we should go by a particular woman, and when she got there she was so surprised to see SISTER missionaries and so happy. She broke down in tears and was talking about how sometimes you just need other girls to talk to about things...she lives with all men and according to the other missionaries, she hadn't been super receptive to the Elders who have come by in the past. Wow. Another miracle: we went by to see someone who I used to teach in Napa, a less active member who moved here to Vallejo at the end of the time I was in Napa. Anyway, her daughter in law who I had also met before was home and let us in and before we knew it we were cleaning her kitchen for her because she has a brand new baby and it's super hard and then we were teaching her about the Book of Mormon and she was talking about figuring out how to get to church.

It's awesome to be a part of the work of our Heavenly Father!

Hope you are having a great week and seeing your miracles too!

Love,

Hermana Brighton

Hola mis queridos amigos y mi familia maravillosa!

I hope that you all are having a fantastic week! It cooled down for us after the fourth of July here and has been pretty pleasant and even chilly in the evenings/mornings. 

This week was miraculous!!

I want to share one of the amazing happenings:

On Thursday, the 4th, we were walking in a neighborhood when a man pulled over in his car on the street we'd just crossed and called out to us. We turned around and he started talking to us, telling us that he wanted to change his life and he saw us and knew that we were angels sent to help him. He asked us if we had a pamphlet or anything we could give him. Of course, we did! We also got his address and set up a time to go visit him. When we went to his house on Saturday, he was so excited to see us. He said he was afraid we weren't going to come. We met his two sons and his daughter, and we taught him about the gospel of Jesus Christ. He wants to change--to quit drinking and to be a better husband and father. He knows and has great faith that Jesus Christ can help him! He has a goal to get baptized on the 27th of this month. It is going to require more miracles for him to be prepared, but I have no doubt that he can do it. I'll keep you all posted.

In other news, one of my dear companions is leaving already. She got her visa and heads to her mission in Trujillo, Peru early Wednesday morning. I'll miss her lots--I've learned so much from her diligence. She came knowing very little Spanish and has surprised and impressed me again and again by the clarity and power of her teaching. She truly communicates through the power of the Holy Ghost. 

I've been thinking a lot this week about Elder Brighton in his mission and the miracles he has helped bring to pass through his faith and obedience and diligence. He is such a great inspiration to me and has helped me to strive to achieve the ideal, to be the very best and most consecrated servant of the Lord that I can be. I'm grateful for the miracles that I've been able to see in the work, in the missionaries around me, and in myself.

God, our Father in Heaven knows us. He answers our prayers. He blesses us with the miracles that bring about his promised blessings, sometimes in the ways and in the moments that we least expect.

I love you all. I appreciate so much your support and your prayers. Truly I have felt those prayers supporting and uplifting me.

Lots of love,

Hermana Brighton