Dear family and friends,

I hope that you all are doing wonderfully! I know with school starting it's a time of a lot of changes for a lot of us. This week was a time of HUGE changes for our mission. Literally, everything changed.

On Tuesday, we had a mission leadership conference and received...iPads. We took them home with us but had to keep them secret until the next day when the rest of the missionaries, including my companions, received them at the specialized training we had. It was a huge surprise!

So now all of our records are to be kept on the iPads...no more paper area book. And we are to use them for our studies and in lessons and also to teach lessons on Facebook and Skype. It's amazing!

Here is something even more amazing: we are now allowed to teach not just people who live in our area but anyone in any part of the world. 

I cannot even explain how I felt when they told us that on Tuesday. Literally the entire world has opened up. We can teach people on the other side of the world and help them prepare to meet with missionaries in their own areas. And we can seek out friends, acquaintances, anyone we know who might be receptive to the message of the gospel.

Heavenly Father truly is hastening his work! (D&C 88:73)

Love you all!!!

Hermana Brighton

Hi to my wonderful family and dear friends!

Thank you so much to each of you for your support and prayers and encouragement.

This week unfortunately has to be really quick because we had a last-minute doctor visit this afternoon that took up emailing time. Hermana B has been a bit sick; please keep her in your prayers.

On that note, I would ask that you really just pray for both of my companions. Adjusting to mission life hasn't been too easy for them and the past week has been one of trials as well as miracles. Thank you!

A wonderful miracle was that on exchanges this week, when I was in another area, my companions and one of the English sisters found two new people who want us to start teaching them! We also found two people for the English sisters to teach in their area. It was a fantastic day!!!

I know God loves us and that he is mindful and watchful of us.

Love you all!!!

Hermana Brighton

To my dear friends and wonderful family:

First, as always, I hope that you are having a fantastic day. And I hope that as you read this your day will get just a little bit better!

Now, some news:

Our new companion joined us here in Vallejo on Wednesday. Her name is Hermana F, and she is from southern Spain! So...her Spanish is perfect-she's teaching us a lot-and she is learning English. It has been awesome to hear about her experiences with missionary work--in her ward in Spain, they had 80+ convert baptisms last year. There are people getting baptized every weekend, and she said that most of them are friends and family members of the members. Wow! A little more about Hermana F: she has an older brother who served his mission in Scotland and a little brother who is 6 years old. She is studying piano and so is very musically inclined. She will turn 20 on Wednesday. (:

Now for the next chapter of Sergio, the man who calls us his angels. The last time we taught him, he told us that he has decided he wants to stick with his Catholic faith. He thanked us profusely for what we have done for him and said that we helped him so much. For now, we are not teaching him anymore. So heartbreaking, but he has definitely had a seed planted in his heart and hopefully he will nurture it and let it grow at some time in the future.

Finding and feeling the joy in the journey can be difficult at times when we do not see immediate results from our best efforts. I'm so blessed to have companions who are so supportive and filled with faith...a great miracle I see almost every day is how Heavenly Father blesses and inspires us to motivate and encourage one another. We lift each other up.

Okay, now I want to try to quickly give you all kind of an idea of what our work is like right now and how the days typically go. We study from 8 am to 12 pm. Then lunch and out the door at 1 pm. We are doing a lot of finding activities right now...trying to visit people who were taught in the past, talking to everyone, knocking on doors, looking for opportunities to serve. We are teaching several people but the last couple weeks has been a whole lot of cancelled appointments and not too much teaching. We are also trying to help several individuals and families who are currently less active in the church. This week we have a couple of family home evenings planned, one tonight with a family that we are teaching and another Thursday night with a less-active member--a sister who I actually taught before when I was in Napa. Almost every night, we have dinner with a family from the branch---they take really good care of us (: As you know, we have a car. I haven't used my bike at all yet here in Vallejo...current companion isn't too keen on riding a bicycle, so that's okay. Our area is pretty big, and actually it is comprised of a couple different sections, one in the north and another smaller one in the east. We have 1000 miles each month.

Let me know if you have any questions I can answer!!

I want to finish by just thanking you for your support. Thank you for your  letters and emails and cards and drawings. :) Thank you especially to all of you who pray continually on my behalf.

Have a wonderful week!

Much love,

Hermana Brighton

Dear Family and Friends,

Hope that your August has gotten off to a great start!!

So I cannot believe that we have once again come to the end of another six-week transfer. Sister B and I will be staying together in Vallejo...and we will also be getting a new companion. Another brand-new missionary who I will be training! I'm so grateful for the opportunity to be here where I am and also to continue learning from Hermana B. It will be a challenge and a blessing to adjust once again to the dynamic of a threesome. We're ready for it!!

I know that Heavenly Father is blessing us and those we're teaching. This last week we saw our specific prayers answered as we plead for miracles on behalf of our investigators. Please keep praying for us!

Sorry that the email is short this week...

I love you all!

Sincerely,

Hermana Brighton