This letter was from Feb. 11. Somehow I made it a draft instead of a post.  The Feb 19 letter is below this one now- Hermana Brighton has been transferred but no new address yet.

Dear wonderful family and friends,

I send you my warmest greetings! Hope you're doing fantastic!!

Not much time to relate all the wonderful experiences of this week, but I've seen miracles and felt Heavenly Father guiding us. I absolutely love Napa. I grow to love it and the people here more every day.

This week we started running the sidewalks in the morning instead of going over to the track. It has been a nice change of pace and the distance seems shorter when you're not going in circles. Also, we get to see and talk to more people that way! At least say good morning, and oftentimes also share a little card with a picture of Jesus Christ on it (the one for a Finding Faith in Christ DVD) and invite them to learn more about Him.

I love you all and appreciate your support and your prayers in my behalf!

Love,

Hermana Brighton

February 19, 2013
Dear Family and Friends,

From what I've heard from you all, it sounds like you are staying busy and happy! It's always good to hear about the great things you're doing, and I'm grateful for your continued support and your examples to me.

So big news this week: I am going to a new area today. I've loved being here in Napa for the time that Heavenly Father has permitted me to serve the people here. It feels a little weird to be leaving because to me right now, these people here are my life and my everything. But I know that Heavenly Father has much for me to do and many people whose lives I can touch in my new area. So I'm excited to be going to Rhonert Park! (I don't know how to spell Rohnert, Ronhert, Rhonert? but I hear there's an H somewhere in it and I will let you know when I find out!) My new companion is Hermana Ellsworth and I will also let you know more about her next week! She came to the mission after me--has been here about 10 week, I believe--and I will be finishing the in-field 12-week training program with her. Lots of changes! And lots of responsibility.

Well, this last week we kept working really hard here in Napa to find new people to teach. And we had a lot of success. Just in the past 8 or 9 days we have started teaching 7 new people, including two families. One of these families has a particularly amazing story of how we found them. But I don't have time to do it justice so I guess it will be a cliffhanger unti

One of the sons, Marcos saw the Elders the other day on the street and talked to them and told them he is looking for a church and wants to change his life and they said he was crying and just really wanted help and recognized them as someone who could give that help. Well he gave them his address and we went looking for him but the number didn't exist. Turns out it was flipped around and we tried the reverse address and there was an A and B apartment there. Well the first time we talked to the family in B but they didn't know who Marcos was. And nobody answered in A. But Hermana Rawson said she felt sure that A was the right one, and sure enough, when we went back Sunday, there was Marcos and he invited us in and we had an incredible lesson with him and he wanted to do everything he could to know for himself the message we shared was true--he's started reading the Book of Mormon, he prayed with us, and he's preparing himself to be baptized next month. When we went back yesterday, he wanted us to teach his whole family! His dad and sister and brother all listened along with him as we explained about the plan of happiness that Heavenly Father has for them to be able to live forever as a family. And they also said that they want to continue to learn and prepare for baptism as well. It was just an incredible blessing and a miracle that we were able to receive because we were willing to continue working hard even up to the very last day of our time together here in Napa.

Well, time is short! But I love you all and appreciate your prayers for me. Have a great week!!

Much love,

Hermana Brighton

Dear Family and Friends,

I hope you all are doing great!! I appreciate your support so much...just that you are reading this letter means a lot to me. Please keep me in your prayers--I know your faith on my behalf truly strengthens and blesses me in my efforts.

I'm going to try to write a little more this week because I know I'm generally pretty bad at providing much detail or sharing many experiences.

So last Monday, we had an appointment but the man wasn't home, so we stopped by to visit Daniel who lives in one of the apartments below. We'd talked with him before but then he hadn't been there for our appointment with him. Anyway, his daughter opened the door and told us that he was about to take a shower but that he was coming. We were kind of confused, but we waited a little bit, but after a while we figured he wasn't going to come out, so we wrote out a note on a card to give to the little girl to give to her dad. Well, just as we gave her the card, he came out and invited us in. We sat down and talked with him and taught him and he was very receptive. It was funny because his two little girls were driving him crazy and he kept trying to send them into the other room with their mom, but they wouldn't stay there. They wanted to be out in the living room with us! We talked a lot about how important our families are and how the gospel of Jesus Christ has blessed our families. It has! I love being able to explain that to people. Anyway, we set an appointment to continue teaching him, and he wanted to meet us at the church for the lesson, which we thought would be great so we could show him the church and kind of give him a tour. After the lesson, we went and had a family home evening with the family of our branch president (the leader of our Spanish congregation) and talked about the Articles of Faith. He was gone because something came up he had to do at church, but we taught his wife and three of this four kids. His wife works on Sundays, so she doesn't come to church, so we try to meet with her and help her keep growing her testimony and knowledge of the gospel. She joined the church when they got married, so she hasn't been learning about it all her life...for example, that was her first time reading the Articles of Faith!

On Tuesday we had district meeting, a meeting of the 3 of us missionary companionships that are grouped together. It's for training, and this week we talked about overcoming discouragement and also how to begin teaching people--how to introduce ourselves and our purpose and get to know them and just set up a good relationship and environment for teaching and learning with the Spirit. In the afternoon, we met with a lady who we had just started teaching...well, she told us she isn't really interested in continuing to learn. She was just leaving to go walking when we got there so we said we'd be happy to walk with her. She said that was great, but then when we got outside she wanted to just stand/sit outside and talk with us, and we had a little conversation where she told us a lot of reasons she doesn't want to change. It was sad because we know the changes the gospel would bring to her life would all be good changes and bless her so much. After that we had a lesson with one of the members who lives nearby. He got baptized about a year and half ago but doesn't come to church anymore. He's super busy and also a little disorganized but a very very kind man. Has such a good heart. We talked about the plan of happiness that Heavenly Father has for us and also the things that we need to do in life to live the Gospel. His friend who has been meeting with the Elders was also there and we taught them both. Tuesday night we had an incredible lesson with Irene. She's someone the missionaries had taught a while back and we went by the other day and she was really glad and said she'd been wanting to come to church and asked us to come back. We brought a member--the president of the Relief Society in the branch--with us and as soon as we got there, Irene was so happy because they knew each other! They used to work together! I know Heavenly Father guided us to bring that specific sister with us. Irene was really glad that she would know someone at church and wanted to come this week! We had a really good lesson and she said we could come again Friday. 

I type way too slow...I'm running out of time and there is so much more to tell because that is just two days. Well, some follow-up at least: Daniel wasn't there for our lesson at the church Thursday. Hasn't answered our phone calls but we're going to keep trying to go by and try to catch him home again...no luck yet. Hoping he just forgot on Thursday...life is busy. We had our lesson Friday with Irene. She is reading little by little and learning and wants to continue and prepare herself to be baptized. She didn't make it to church on Sunday, but she doesn't have a phone, so we don't know why yet.

Also a couple other highlights: We went out to do service this week--put on yellow shirts and jeans and went to look for ways to help people. We found a man in the community garden that's close to our house and we ended up doing some weeding. It was fun, and he was really nice and asked us questions about what we do as missionaries. He kind of disappeared partway through though, it was kind of weird. Also, we had dinner with a lady the Spanish-speaking Elders are teaching and she gave us shrimp soup. It's starting to grow on me...maybe pretty soon I'll start liking seafood. Fingers crossed. (:

Well, I've got to go...

I love you all!!!!

Love,

Hermana Brighton

Dear family and friends,

I hope that you are having a great day!!

I am, like my brother, finding myself thinking of home more often lately. Missing it a little more. But there is always so much to do and so many people here to think of that those thoughts don't linger long. I'm really glad to be here in Napa still, to be serving among so many that I have come to develop ties with and to also be meeting lots of new people here. We've been making a special effort to talk to more people lately and I've been impressed by how many are willing to talk with us and even express interest and desires in meeting with us or other missionaries again to learn more about the restored gospel of Jesus Christ.

Yesterday we had a really great experience: 

 We had an appointment for a second lesson with a woman we started teaching this week. We'd invited the branch president to come with us and he was there. Well, she wasn't home! But we asked him if he would visit some other people in the area with us...he agreed and we called a lady that lives down the street from where we were. She was home, said we could come by, we got there, and....it was amazing. She felt the Spirit so strongly that she was weeping before we even started the lesson, and President Ceballos being there was perfect because he was able to reassure her about problems she is having in a way that we couldn't have done ourselves. Later in the lesson she accepted a baptismal date, a goal that she can start working toward to follow the example of Jesus Christ and make a covenant to serve God for the rest of her life...she wants to make those changes in her life, and Heavenly Father knew just when the time would come that she would be ready to open up to us. Then he sent us at that time with the help that she needed.

I know Heavenly Father loves His children and am grateful for opportunities like that one to help them feel His love and learn how to come unto Christ. 

Experiences like that make missed appointments and cold, rainy days seem like no disappointment, no sacrifice at all. It's wonderful to see the light and relief and peace that comes into people's countenances as they learn and begin to live the way Heavenly Father intends us to.

I know God our Father lives and loves each one of us. I know He sent Jesus Christ His Son to suffer for our sins and sorrows and through Him comes all the peace and joy we need and want.

I love you all. Thank you for your prayers and support.

Love,

Hermana Brighton

Dear family and friends,

Well this first week of the transfer has been marvelous. Just fantastic! I hope that you all also had a wonderful week. (:

So my new companion, Hermana Rawson, is wonderful. She has been here in the Santa Rosa Mission just six week more than me and we get along great. We are very much on the same page and both just want to give the work we're doing all we've got. We've been exhausted at the end of every day. I love it!

So this week we had an appointment with a man named Mario who I had met the week before with Sister Hernandez when he was working outside of his house. He lives with his wife and their 10-month-old newborn in an apartment behind his mom's house. We taught him and his wife about the restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ and about the Book of Mormon, and they were really interested and asked a lot of questions and have sincere desires to learn for themselves what is the truth. The mom especially told us she wants the kind of peace and direction we talked about for her son.

It was awesome! We also found a lot of other new people to start teaching this week. It was miraculous!!

Also...this week I tried eating grasshoppers! They're not too bad! Especially seasoned with limon y sal.

Well, things are going great! I appreciate your love and prayers! Have a fantastic week!! I know Heavenly Father is always there for us and loves us so very much. As we turn to Him, he truly changes us. He's changing me, and it feels great!

Love,

Hermana Brighton

Dear wonderful family and friends,

 

Today marks the start of a new transfer. I'm staying here in Napa!!! And I am getting a new companion. Sister R.. My first non-Hispanic companion, so it's going to be different. Especially as far as understanding the language goes, but I think I am ready! In any case, I know Heavenly Father will help us. Hermana R. has been here on her mission for 6 months and I'm excited to meet her this afternoon and start learning from her! Another change with this new transfer is that my official "training" has ended. So that means one less hour of studies in the morning and one more hour to be out and working!

 

So I just have to share about the wonderful going-away meal that one of the families in the branch prepared for us last night in honor of the my companion and another Elder who are leaving the area. It was an incredible soup of all kinds of seafood. Really spectacular, with clam and shrimp and fish and even huge crab legs! I know they put a ton of work into it and it was a sacrifice for them to provide such a meal for us, so I was super grateful, but wow, I was so nervous when I saw it, knowing I was going to have to eat all that seafood!! Well, you can all be very proud of me because I ate it right up!!! Ashley, thank you for all the times of making me try shrimp and stuff because that was good preparation. Also, of all of it, the crab was probably the best. Oh besides the vegetables in the soup...that was really the best part! Something funny is that afterward my companion commented that it was super spicy...but I hadn't noticed that it was spicy at all!! Shows where my focus was!

 

Please keep me in your prayers. There is so, so much work to be done here in Napa, so many people that are prepared to learn about the restored gospel of Jesus Christ. And so many people that need to be lifted and believe that Heavenly Father really is there for them. It's incredible and also at times overwhelming! I love these people so much and want to do all I can to serve and help them...it's a big responsibility. I love you all too and hope you are finding joy in serving the Lord and those around you in your own ways.

 

Love,

Sister Brighton

 

 

Dear Family and Friends,

This week I hope you're doing great! I send you my love and also want to remind you of the greatness of Heavenly Father's love and mercy.

This week we had a young woman with us for three days. She was serving a "mini-mission," and it was a really cool experience. It was interesting to see how she reacted to missionary life because it's become some a normal everyday thing for me to do things like teach a lesson to a family, bear my testimony to someone we meet on the street, or knock on doors and invite people to learn about the restored gospel of Jesus Christ. It reminded me of how amazing and important missionary work really is.

I'm grateful to be here and to be having experiences that are teaching me a lot about love and obedience and consecration and commitment. Thank you so much for your prayers and your support.

Lots of love,

Hermana Alicia Brighton