Dear dear family and friends,

I hope you all are having a wonderful weekend. Funny thing, I didn't realize until halfway through today that most schools are out for President's Day. And that the post office is closed.

This week I want to share my testimony of sacrifice and diligence. I have seen over and over and over on my mission that when we work hard, when we take advantage of a few extra minutes at the end of the night (kind of like the experience Elder Brighton shared this weekend), and when we sacrifice our comfort for the Lord's work, we are inevitably blessed. Those are the moments when I most feel that I am an instrument in Heavenly Father's hand. 

This week, we met two different families who seemed very receptive, both of them on the two evenings when we were knocking doors in the very last moments of the evening. Also, we had two lessons that we taught while Hermana Zimmerman was not feeling that great. That was a sacrifice for her. And in both of those lessons, the men we were teaching accepted the invitation to be baptized at the end of next month. 

I want to tell a little more about the second of those lessons. 

It's 6:30 Sunday night after dinner and we go to see a man who is a referral from the English elders. Right outside his apartment is a huge bounce-house and a big hispanic birthday party going on. We have to literally squeeze past the bounce house to get to the flight of stairs up to his apartment. We knock on the door, I talk to him a little bit (I found out after that my companions could hear nothing of what he said because of the noise from the bounce-house) and he invites us in. We talk to him a little about his family, work, and life. He is Javier Yah, from Yucatan, Mexico. He is so sincere, asks questions as we teach him, and has the desire to be baptized by someone who has true priesthood authority. He agrees without hesitation to prepare himself to be baptized on 30 March. As we finish, he offers a sincere prayer, promising God that he will read all of the Book of Mormon and asking for help to prepare himself for baptism. 

I felt the Spirit confirm to me how much the gospel is going to bless the life of this man and his family. I am so happy for him. We're going back Wednesday to teach him again.

I hope you all have a wonderful week! Let us all continue in diligence, sacrificing what is necessary and all that we can to give our best to the Lord in our respective efforts to serve. Big or small as our responsibilities or opportunities may seem, they all count in the eyes of our Heavenly Father.

I love you all!!

Love,

Hermana Brighton