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