Dear wonderful family and friends,

I hope your December has gotten off to a great start! We have definitely been feeling the winter cold here. Just like in Houston, it's a humid cold that goes right through you. Coats, tights, and gloves have been keeping me warm enough! (Except for Friday night when it rained and my feet, including my shoes, got soaking wet!)

Transfers are again this week...the big surprise for me is that I am not changing area or companions!! I will still be working with Hermana L here in Davis. I am super excited for that. I love this area, and there is so much good going on here that I am so glad to be able to be a part of. It is also a huge blessing to be able to serve with Hermana Lfor a second transfer. We have developed a good balance in teaching, as well as a good relationship in general. I feel like we are really both committed to our improvement and our goals to achieve excellence, and we help each other to find those things that we can do better and to stay motivated and be grateful all the time.

What else? Brandon is getting ready to be baptized on the 28th of this month. He had talked to his parents before our lesson on Tuesday, and they were on board for him to get baptized. He didn't come to church yesterday, so we went over in the evening to see what happened. He had some things come up with his family, but we had a really great conversation about why coming to sacrament meeting every week matters so much. It was definitely a spiritual experience, and he made a personal commitment to make church attendance a priority. Lessons with him are always a wonderful, faith-building experience. 

Our mission is starting a pilot program to use family history to help us find people. We received training this last Saturday at the mission leadership council, and we will be training our zone this Friday to use the familysearch.org site and the "My Family" booklet as a way to introduce people to family history and the church. In the training on Saturday, Elder Richards of the seventy, who is in charge of the pilot, had us open our own family tree and look at documents from our ancestors. I looked at a death record of Tomas Bow Brighton, who, if you don't know, had a rather interesting death. He was a streetcar conductor in Salt Lake City and was shot by a man who held up the street car. Family history is exciting, and it brings a special spirit (even when you're reading about the violent end of your great great grandfather). I'm excited to use it more as a way to find people who are interested in learning about the restored gospel.

I hope you all have a fantastic week!! Stay warm.

Love,

Hermana Brighton