Dear Family and Friends,

I hope that you all are doing great! 

This week was an incredible one for me. We saw so many miracles, and I learned so very much.

On Tuesday, we decided to stop by the apartment where a lady named Josefa who comes to our English classes lives. She was home and opened the door and invited us right in. Then we taught her about how the gospel of Jesus Christ has been restored to the earth and how it can bless her and her family and invited her to be baptized as Jesus was. She said yes, and asked us if she could keep the pamphlet that we had given her during the lesson so she could keep reading and learning...that was neat because usually we have to ask people to read. On Thursday, she wasn't at English class, but then we called her to see if she was coming and she had just gotten home and said she hadn't been sure if she should come because she was going to be late. We told her it was no problem and she could still come! So she did, and she got to meet a lot of the sisters who were there making tamales for a girls camp fundraiser. And we were able to teach her again about The Book of Mormon and how she can read it and pray about it to know for herself that it is true. We also set a goal with her for her to be baptized on the 27th of April. After the lesson, we studied English with her and after that we went back to the kitchen and she told the sisters they could borrow her big pot if they needed (which they did). So we drove with one of the sisters to drop her off and pick up the pot. She is just so kind and generous. It's such a blessing to be a part of her life. We are teaching her again tonight and are going to read from the Book of Mormon with her and help her understand how it applies to her life so that she will want to keep reading the whole book!

On Wednesday afternoon, we stopped by to see another woman, Lydia, who we have been trying to start teaching for a long time. She just never had time before but she was always really nice and said she wanted us to come back she just couldn't listen to us right then. So Wednesday we had a great conversation with her and taught a little about how much the complete gospel of Jesus Christ can bless her life. She just found out that she has Celiac disease and has a lot of health problems she's been recovering from. She has a desire to be closer to God and do what is right and to learn for herself the truth.

This Saturday, we had an amazing opportunity to hear from an apostle. Elder Quentin L. Cook visited our mission. He talked to us a lot about how we should work with and support the members of the church in our area, how regardless of what we think our personalities are, we should be warm and friendly and reach out to everyone. Our zone had the special opportunity and blessing of being able to sing a special musical number during the meeting. We sang the hymn "Lord, I Would Follow Thee." I love that hymn so much, especially because I also studied it before we sang and thought about the words and lot. I am especially touched by the lines in it that say, "Who am I to judge another when I walk imperfectly? In the quiet heart is hidden sorrows that the eye can't see." I like it even better in Spanish because it says basically, "I will not judge anyone because my understanding is imperfect. In the heart are hidden sorrows that can't be seen." Either way, the message is really powerful, especially for me because I've definitely had experiences where I've learned more later about what someone is going through and wished I'd had more compassion earlier.

My companion and I are doing well. Sister Ellsworth is helping me learn so much. She has a gift to be able to be very supportive and has helped me so much this last week to see how I can really improve with how I interact with people. Things I had never thought about before but that really mean a lot to people. It's amazing! 

I can see myself changing. I am so grateful for the opportunity and blessing to be serving here as a servant of God. I love Jesus Christ and His Gospel. I know He lives. I'm so grateful for his love.

I love each of you and hope all is well! Have a happy Easter as we remember the great sacrifice of our Savior and power and peace and hope that his Atonement and Resurrection bring into our lives.

Love,

Hermana Brighton

Dear Family and Friends,

Hello! I hope that you all are doing great!!

Ashley sent me a list of questions this week, so I thought it would be fun to try and answer them in my email.

How is your Spanish coming along? Are you thinking in Spanish more than English? I guess you have more contact with English speaking people so you're probably not losing your grasp of English as much as Eric might be.
My Spanish is good. I am understanding better and better and can usually express myself without too much of a struggle. Still room for improvement for sure. I think I still think mostly in English because, like she mentions, we do a lot in English. And recently most of our contacts and the people who answer doors we knock on speak English! So don't think I can afford to lose it (:

What lesson is the hardest to teach and why? What lesson is your favorite to teach?
Probably the Plan of Salvation is the most difficult because there is so much that I know and understand about it, but when you're teaching someone for the first time you have to focus on what is most important. My favorite: the first lesson, the Restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
What are some favorite scriptures for you lately? Any inspiring quotes?
D&C 123:17 We have this one on our bulletin board right now. A quote I really like right now is "The attitude of urgency is happiness."
Eating seafood lately? Here in Florida we went to a place that was kind of like an indoor fish market and we got some shrimp that they cooked for us with medium heat spices and lemon. They were really good, but spicier than I thought. My nose started running and my eyes got watery. But like I said the shrimp was delicious and just writing about it makes me want more.
Nope, not lately. Not since Napa, actually. Yay!

Favorite hymns?

Hermana Ellsworth and I have enjoyed singing to people, especially members who feed us. We even tried doing it when we knocked on doors one day. Only one person wanted us to sing, but it was really good. Our favorites to do are Nearer My God to Thee and In Humility Our Savior.

Hermana Ellsworth and I are doing well. We've been walking a lot this week, trying to just be able to talk to more people and find more who we can teach!

Thank you so much for your prayers. I'm so grateful for all your love and support.

Love,

Hermana Brighton

Dearest Family and Friends,

I hope that you all are having a FANTASTIC week. 

This should be a really good week! We have found an area in our area with a bunch of apartments where it seems like a lot of Hispanics live, and we're going to get to work there. Hermana Ellsworth made the point this week that in every place that we have knocked on all the doors, we have found at least one person who was interested...someone who seemed prepared. It's true and it was neat to look back and think of all the different places we've been and the people that we found. Hopefully this week that will continue, but we will get to keep teaching the people we'll find because they'll speak Spanish! (: Really, though, no matter whether we get to be the missionaries that teach them or not, it is such an amazing experience to talk to someone who's searching for more in their life and has their heart and mind open to learn about the restored Gospel of Jesus Christ. I'm so grateful for every encounter like that that I have had on my mission. There have been so many!

Also, another great thing that this week has going for it: daylight savings time! The time change means that it's actually still light after dinner!!! I'm so so so glad because people are often less receptive to us after dark. Go figure! Makes it harder to go knock on doors. Anyway, I think I exclaimed at least 4 or 5 times last night about how happy I was that it was still light. I've never been so glad for the time change. (:

It's funny, because we spend hours knocking on doors and trying to track down people who've said they might be interested and sometimes it seems a whole day or a whole week of that doesn't amount to much as far as finding anyone who really wants to talk to us. Then somebody who IS interested comes along and we hardly have to do anything! That happened to us this week. We were just out trying to see if some people were home that the other missionaries had sent us to see when we got a call about a man named Manuel who talked with his friend who is a member of the church and said he would like to meet with the missionaries. Well, we gave him a call and he didn't answer. But a few minutes later, he called us right back and said we could come over to his house later in the day. So we went over there with one of the sisters from the Spanish branch and we met him and he told us about the experiences that he's had recently that have made him want to live life better and be closer to God. He's going through a lot medically so his schedule is hectic with doctor appointments, but he accepted our invitations to read about the Plan of Salvation and to start reading the Book of Mormon. He is a man who is searching...what a joy to know that we can truly help him find answers that will bring him and his family peace and joy now and for eternity! 

In every day there are miracles. This is God's work.

I don't remember if I every really described the apartment and area where we're living for you. So I thought that might be kind of fun. Our apartment is super nice (I believe I had at least mentioned that much). We live very close to the Sonoma State University so there are lots of college students in the area, but our complex is more like condominiums so I think it's more families and older people. From what (or who) I've seen. We have two stories. The kitchen, our bedroom, a living room where we study, a bathroom, and a closet with our washer and dryer are downstairs. Then upstairs is the loft with another bathroom and little tiny bedroom. I use the bathroom upstairs for showering in the morning. Sometimes we go up to the loft for our weekly planning sessions. This week though we actually did it in our bedroom because we were cold and the downstairs bathroom and bedroom are pretty much the only rooms that get warm. We also have a dishwasher that we have used only once because we just don't use that many dishes. The owner told us she got if fixed and wanted to make sure it was working...so we had to use it that once to check for her. (: Hand-washing dishes is just easier when there aren't very many. Right now it's really pretty outside our apartment on the streets where we walk in the mornings for our exercise. Things are in bloom, and there are a whole bunch of really pretty pink trees. They smell really good too. I love that it is springtime and getting warmer. We did have a couple rainy days this week, but I think we needed it so that was nice. 

Thanks for reading my longer email this week. I'm trying to do better at saying and sharing more (: I love you all. Thank you for your support and especially for your prayers for me!

Have a great week.

Love,

Hermana Brighton

Dear Family and Friends,

Hey this will be quick! It's been a good week. Lots of work just trying to find people to teach still, but we've had lots of good conversations with people and I am enjoying my time here in Rohnert Park. Hope you all are doing great! This will be a special week because we're going to the temple in Oakland on Thursday. I am looking forward to that and also looking forward to working hard and talking to lots more people this week. It's a blessing to be able to share my testimony with everyone, to know that even if they don't want to listen, maybe something we said or even just our smiles will stick with them and get them thinking or even just lift their spirits a little. Anyway, that's it for today. Hope you all have a great week!! Thank you once again for your support and your prayers on my behalf.

Love,

Hermana Brighton