Mis queridos familiares y amigos,

Espero que hayan tenido una semana magnifica!

I arrived here to Novato on Wednesday afternoon! The Spanish branch here is the biggest congregation that I have served in my whole mission. Wow! We have SO many members of the church that live in our area, many of whom don't actually come to church right now, and many of whom have members of their family who are not members of the church. Currently we are teaching several of those families, and I think we'll be teaching more! The area is pretty big geographically as well. There is SO much potential, I am so excited.

So far, I haven't met a lot of the people we are teaching because one of my companions has been pretty sick. I'm blessed because this is the first time that I've had to spend a significant amount of time inside with a sick companion...and even more blessed because so far I have never been sick enough to not be able to do missionary work. Please pray for Hermana Zimmerman to be able to make a quick recovery!

So, more about my companions:

Hermana Zimmerman is from southern California. She has been on her mission for about nine months. She was studying molecular biology at BYU, just like me! We overlapped one year, but I don't think we ever had any classes together. She has two sisters, one older who is married and has a little daughter, and one younger. Hermana Zimmerman has been here in the area for just six weeks, so she knows it pretty well but not super well...we've still gotten a little lost a couple times. 

Hermana Harris.

Is hilarious.

She has kept us laughing every day and definitely helps us not take ourselves too seriously. As I think I mentioned before, I worked with her quite a bit in Davis/Woodland because I was exchanging with her companionship for two transfers and we were in the same branch. I love her!

Both of my companions never really wanted to serve missions until they knew they had to do it and came! It's interesting how different everyone's story is, how many different paths brought us to this mission.

Oh! I almost forgot...my new address. Mom, can you please make sure Grandma and Grandpa Brissette get it?! Thank you so much!

1514 Hill Road #49

Novato, CA 94947

Thank you for all of the support and encouragement you all continue to give me, especially the weeekly letters from Mom and Dad. It means so much. And the many letters from Grandma--thank you!! Thank you as well for your continued prayers on behalf of me, my companions, and those we teach. I'm so grateful to have a wonderful family and great friends like you all. 

I wish you a wonderful week!

Love,

Hermana Brighton

Queridos amigos y familiares,

I hope you have all had a wonderful week!!

This week was amazing in Davis. We found a lot of new people to teach and did a lot of teaching. We worked really hard and were very blessed. I love that combination.

On Friday, we received word that I'm leaving this area to go to Novato. I'll be serving once again in the San Rafael Stake, which also includes Rohnert Park where I served before. I am excited of course to meet new people and get to know a new area. I'll be serving in another threesome with Hermana Harris and Hermana Zimmerman. I've exchanged with Hermana Harris when she was here in Woodland, and she is fantastic! She is from Montana and is taller than me (I haven't had very many companions where that has been the case!). I don't know Hermana Zimmerman but I am excited to get to know her.

I have learned so much and been so blessed here in this area. It's hard to leave it. Even families that I just started teaching this week are so dear to me and my heart aches knowing that I won't be the one coming to that next appointment that we have with them. It's a good thing to feel that way, I suppose, because it is so wonderful to feel that love for so many people and to feel that I really know them. I was talking to one of the sisters in the branch about that this weekend at a dinner appointment, and she made the comment that we do as Christ does when we really get to know the people, that in knowing them and their needs and seeking to fulfill them we are truly representing the Savior for them. Made me want to do a better job of really knowing each of the people I work with, those I teach and those I serve alongside alike.

We have so much to do today! This morning we took some time to help with a service project that the stake had organized along with some other churches in the community. We raked leaves and helped move plants at an addiction recovery center. It was time well spent! Now we'll be heading out to do shoppping, cleaning, laundry, packing...everything to prepare for another wonderful week and all the many changes that it will bring us.

I love you all so much. Have a wonderful week!

Love,

Hermana Brighton

Dear wonderful family and friends,

I hope that you all have had a fantastic week. Looks like Mom has had some fun with paint in the house this week. It kind of looks like something out of a Dr. Suess book, the colors are so bright! How are you who live there liking it?

Next comes...an awesome experience from this past Monday. After dinner, we went with the family that fed us dinner to go visit one of the ladies that we are teaching in the hospital. She had an outpatient surgery but got an infection and had to be in the hospital for a few days. We visited, sang some hymns to her, and prayed. We were about to leave when her doctor came into the room and announced that she does NOT have cancer! She had been very worried, and we had been praying a lot for her. It was a really special experience to be able to share that moment with her and her family.

Another amazing experience of this week. Last night, Brandon shared his story of learning about the gospel, coming to know it was true, and being baptized at a fireside here in Davis. He talked a lot about how much one of his new friends at church helped him in the process, including how much it meant to him that that friend could be the one to baptize him. Both of them are seniors in high school, and he said that knowing that there are other people trying to do the same things he is trying to do has helped him a lot. I am so happy to know that he has such a great support system in place that will continue even after Hermana Law and I leave the area. 

Next, a report on our mission leadership council. It was yet another wonderful and very spiritual experience. The first afternoon when we got there, we did a service project widening one of the trails and making it more safe for use by the young women who come to camp there in the summers. After that, we spent pretty much the rest of the camp in meetings receiving leadership training and other instruction. My portion of the the training went well. I especially enjoyed sharing the story of when Eric and I were little and squeezed pomegranate juice all over our babysitter's shirt...connecting the way that we view little kids who do naughty things like that with the way that Heavenly Father views us, his precious children, and can see beyond our current weakness and follies to the great potential that we have. (Side note: I need to improve my storytelling abilities still because the story was supposed to be funny, but nobody laughed.) I also shared the poem that Elder Brighton wrote about the Atonement in talking about how each soul is of such great worth.

My main take-away from our leadership council:

We can have high expectations because God has promised us great blessings.

I love doing the work of our Father in Heaven. I love Him and know that he will fulfill His promises to us.

I love you all and wish you a wonderful week.

Love,

Hermana Brighton

Dear family and friends,

I hope you have had a great first few days of 2014. I looked at my journal last night and realized that I had continued to put 2013 for the past few days. I guess I just wanted to go back to the beginning of this last year instead of continuing on and turning the page to the next one.

I certainly have done a lot of growing and learning in this past year. I can hardly believe that I spent the entire year of 2014 as Hermana Brighton, serving in the California Santa Rosa Mission. It has flown by so fast. And at the same time so much has happened. During just this year, for example, I lived in 4 different cities and served with 10 different companions. That first area sometimes seems more than a year away now because everything is so different now than it was then. Wow.

For the first time in I don't know how many years, I set no resolutions on January 1st. On one hand, I feel a little bad about that. On the other hand, not so bad because I do have goals...just didn't set them to specifically coincide with the new year. I've found I have often forgotten my new year's resolutions by the end of the year anyway. I went back and looked at mine from last year...I hadn't specifically remembered them all year but I definitely have made progress in achieving them and have set many goals throughout the course of the year that have helped me in that progression.

I thought I might share some of the thoughts that I have had throughout this week...a little different than sharing stories, but if I have time I will share a couple of the events from this week too.

I was thinking  the other night about how the worth of souls is great in the sight of God. (One reason I was thinking about that is because I am teaching about "Leaders and Our Divine Potential" this week at the mission leadership council, which by the way is going to be over three days at Camp Liahona in the Redwoods. I am glad that I remembered that just now because I meant to tell you all about it and almost forgot. I probably would have remembered for sure to tell you next week anyway!) So back to the thought. I was thinking about our worth and then about how every soul is of equally great worth. And how the work of bringing a soul unto Christ isn't completed just in introducing someone to Him and His gospel. It extends throughout the lifetime of a person and then probably beyond. And every person we come in contact with is in that process. So then I thought about all the companions that I have had and how, just like I have a responsibility to continue to support and encourage those who I have helped to become members of the church, I may have a similar responsibility toward each one of them. To continue to maintain contact with and encourage them throughout our lives. Because their soul is just as precious.

Another thought. As we learn the gospel, we must Know, Do, and Be. So I read 2 Nephi 31 the other day and placed what I learned about each of the first principles and ordinances of the gospel (faith in Jesus Christ, repentance, baptism, receiving the Gift of the Holy Ghost) into categories of know, do, and be. It became kind of a chart and it is interesting to see how each step of the gospel applies at each different level of living it. And how the steps of knowing, doing and being build upon one another just as the steps of the gospel build on each other.

So a couple of events. A miracle. We were praying to be able to teach someone because everything had cancelled one night and in the middle of the prayer we got a call from a sister who was happy to have us come and teach her and her family.

Upcoming event. Brandon, who just got baptized last weekend, is going to share his testimony in a "Why I Believe" fireside this coming Sunday here in Davis. We had an awesome lesson with him this week about missionary work. He was so happy to realize that he can be and has been an example for his friends, and he is also already thinking about serving a full-time mission.

Well, it has been another wonderful week for me in the service of Jesus Christ. I still have much to learn and improve and am looking forward to another week in which I can continue to do just that. Please keep doing that yourselves too! I love you!

Hermana Brighton