Wonderful family and dear friends,

This last week was amazing.

There is so much happening in the work of salvation here in Davis, CA. On Wednesday, one of the members, Hermana R***o, whose calling is to be a branch missionary and help us with our work, took us to visit one of her friends. This friend has two little boys and lives at the end of a very long dirt road in the middle of a bunch of fields. I think they were tomato fields, but they have already been harvested. Anyway, she was very receptive to us and we are excited to keep teaching her. When we went back to see her on Saturday, again with Hermana R***o, she had other visitors there...but we think she'll be happy to have us back another day. The awesome thing was that when we went back with Hermana R***o to her house, she told her nephew who was there, "Hey, the Sisters are here to teach you about the plan of salvation." At first, he sort of ignored her, but we started talking to him a little bit more, and he really was interested in talking with us. We taught him and his little sister and we are excited to go teach these two teenagers again (and hopefully their dad as well, according to them) later on this week. 

On Thursday, Hermano R**s, another family member of a member in our ward, told us that he wants to get baptized! He is a wonderful man...he has helped his wife to get active again in the church and the gospel, and his earnest desire to gain his own testimony and be an example and blessing for his children is inspiring. As he knelt and prayed with us on Thursday evening, I was just filled with so much admiration and love for him. That's what it feels like to be a part of the journey of one of Heavenly Father's children back to Him.

On Sunday, we found out that this young woman who has been coming to church every week with her grandma for four or five weeks is not even a member! I had no idea...she comes to everything. So it was easy to ask her, "hey, do you want to meet with us missionaries so you can learn more about the church and how to be a member?" She is excited about it!

We also started teaching a lot of other new people and families this week. We have so much to do that we find we hardly have time to be on Facebook and do all the work that is piling up for us there too. 

It's a privilege and a pleasure to be serving the Lord Jesus Christ at this time in this place. Things are going really, really well. And just getting better.

I love you all!

Have a wonderful week, and please take advantage of the opportunity to hear and hearken to the words of God for us right now in general conference this weekend! http://www.lds.org/prophets-and-apostles/unto-all-the-world/general-conference-has-something-for-you-b?cid=HPTH092613099&lang=eng

Love,

Hermana Brighton

Dear family and friends,

There is plenty to tell you about this week!

It is hard to believe that I have been in Davis for only 5 days! Already so much has happened here. 

First off, about Davis. It's a college town. We cover the whole town. So far, we have spent most of our time in a few different apartment complexes and a trailer park. I've seen the college campus only from a distance. There are 3 members that live in Davis...we go to church in Woodland with the Spanish branch there. We live with another companionship of sisters. They cover the young single adults and the married students.

We do quite a bit of driving between Davis and Woodland because we have a lot of our dinners with members there and also all our church meetings. But we have most of our missionary meetings here in Davis because it is kind of a midway point with other missionaries who are serving farther out.

Next. My companion! Hermana Sarah C., from Los Angeles, CA. This is her 3rd transfer, like I think I mentioned last week. She is a great missionary...super happy, obedient, and hardworking. She is the youngest of six (three boys and three girls just like us), so she is like our Stacey. (: She really likes Life cereal, or at least that is what I thought when I saw 3 boxes of it on our counter when I arrived. Turns out that is what they had on sale at Grocery Outlet...a pack of 3 Life cereals. Anyway, she likes a good deal! She worked in take-out catering at BYU with Hermana B. (previous companion) last year. She is majoring in recreation management and has just one year left when she goes back to BYU.

Saturday we had a huge thunderstorm. It was funny to see people outside watching the rain come down and some even taking pictures. It was only slightly more severe than the thunderstorms we get in Houston. There was some pretty good hail for a little while though. And we got pretty wet!

I'm excited to be here and I'll be telling you more about the people that I've met and will be meeting here in Davis (and in Woodland).

Love you all!

Hermana Brighton

Dear Family and Friends,

It's been another amazing week. And it's been my last week here in Vallejo. On Wednesday I am headed to Davis. I'll be serving with Hermana C.. She came to the mission the same time as Hermana B (current companion), so this will be her third transfer. I'm excited! Davis is a college town...and I hear it is really good for biking, so hopefully I'll get to put my bicycle to use again!

The time here in Vallejo has gone by so fast. It seems weird to be leaving already! Hermana F. is staying here and getting a new companion and both Hermana B. and I are leaving.

An amazing thing that happened on Facebook this week: Gary A., from Santa Barbara, CA, friended Hermana F. on Tuesday. We started teaching him on Skype on Wednesday, and on Thursday he set the goal to be baptized on the 12th of October. He had met with missionaries before when he lived in Vallejo, so I think that is how/why he found us. It's been amazing to teach him, and this week he will start meeting with the missionaries in his area.

Incredible miracles are happening! Stay on the look-out!

Love,
Hermana Brighton

Dear Family and Friends,

I hope you all are having a wonderful day!

This last week has been an incredible one. We were able to start teaching four new people, including a really nice family and an older woman who is the mom/grandma of one of the families in the branch here in Vallejo. She comes to church with them frequently, but when we first got here, she did not want to talk to us at all. When we went over to their house, she would disappear to her bedroom. But now she feels comfortable with us and actually wants to talk to us. She is such a sweet lady.

Seeing people change is so rewarding. I feel so grateful to have been able to see so much change in people around me recently. I've been blessed to see the progression of my companions, and that has been amazing. Another wonderful example hit me yesterday, when two of the members that I had been teaching in Napa, who never came to church in the whole time I was there, were in sacrament meeting here in Vallejo.

It is a joy to be a servant of Jesus Christ! Even after so many months, I am still amazed by the love that I can feel for people that I hardly know. And by how willing so many people are to just open up to us and let us love and help them.

 Thank you for your prayers on behalf of me and my companions. We've been showered with miracles and blessings.

I hope you all have a wonderful week!

Love,

Hermana Brighton

P.S. I thought some of you might wonder how our schedule/the work has changed with the iPads. Right now, we have a three-hour "flex schedule"  where we are supposed to spend an hour each day transferring our written records to the digital device and then up to two additional hours sharing the gospel online. On Saturday, we received a lot of extra training on how to use Facebook more effectively, so I should have more details to share with you soon about how the online work is progressing! Already there are missionaries in the mission who are teaching people across the world. And pretty soon we are going to start teaching one of Hermana F.'s friends in Spain. It's amazing!

I've been told that some of the pictures that I have posted to the blog have not been viewable.  The following link should allow you to see most of the photos previously posted.

Hermana Brighton's Mission photos

Dear wonderful family and friends,

Each of you is wonderful. Whether you are my little sister, my parent, or my  friend, you are also my spiritual sibling and a child of our Heavenly Father. He has a plan for you. He loves you. I know it. If you're not sure, or if you ever feel like you've forgotten, ask Him!

I'm so grateful for the love that our Heavenly Father has for each one of us. I've been able to feel that love so much this week, especially through the love that I've been able to feel for those around me. My companions, people we taught, random people we talked to (even ones who didn't want to talk to us).

I think I forgot to tell you all last week that our mission is the first mission to receive the iPads. There have been a few tests of the devices in different zones and districts of missionaries, but we're the first entire mission to have them. Isn't that amazing? It really makes me think about how it's not an accident that I am here in this mission. Well, I already knew that and knew it from day one, but I also know that there is a reason that I'm specifically in a mission where I can use the Internet to preach the gospel to all the world. I am really excited to get it figured out. Here's the good part that I'm realizing more and more: I can help anyone. Anyone who has a Facebook account and needs to learn about or be reminded about the restored gospel of Jesus Christ and how to live it so that they can receive all the blessings of Christ's atoning sacrifice. Who do you know that falls into that category? Let me know, and my companions and I will try and get in contact with them and start inviting and helping them to come to Christ. You can email me or (better) send me a message on Facebook. My facebook name is Hermana Alicia Brighton. (:

This next weekend we are going to be receiving some more training on how to use the iPads and the Internet more effectively. It's a really exciting time. I know this is Heavenly Father's work and it is hastening because He loves each one of His children with a love that is infinite and perfect. And I love you too, in my finite and imperfect way, but with my whole heart. (: Have a wonderful week!

Love,

Hermana Brighton