Glad Tidings of Great Joy

This past week things returned almost to normal in our work in the sector. We really were able to take advantage of the extra hour in the evenings. It's a valuable time. We also had our Book of Mormon activity and it went well. Luciano came and shared his testimony of the Book of Mormon. It was special and awesome.  We taught the papa of a member here who is 17 and it was really great. His name is Jorge and we hope to see him progress well.  This week I leave Chile and return home to Texas. I will miss all of what the mission has been. But it has prepared me for what comes next: endure to the end! I am excited for the adventures ahead. The experiences I have had here, and the people I have met have changed who I am and I am very grateful for everything I have accomplished here. It has been two years of constant progress and testimony building.  The secret to it all is simply doing the small and simple things. Daily prayer and scripture study, church each Sunda...

This was a pretty awesome week. We started teaching a lot of new people. This past Monday, we only had 30 minutes to work after P-Day ended before we had to be inside of the house. It was absolutely pouring rain. As I thought about it as we were getting ready to go, I thought, is this 30 minutes really worth it? But- it was a good test of faith for me to see where my desires really were. We went out and found a new person to teach, and when we came out of the lesson, the sun was brightly shining. Glorious is the work of the Lord! I had various intercambios this week. It was great to work with Elder Arnett once again. We had an incredible lesson with Luciano, who is 17. He doesn't believe in God as we see him. But in the middle of the lesson we asked him to kneel down with us and pray and he did. He finished with a huge smile on his face and we asked how it went. He said that he felt something weird and had desires to cry. It was an incredible experience. There's a lot of prog...

I forgot to hit "publish" last week, Sorry!! --Rebecca So this week was a little different than normal. Chile is going through a lot of protests and things so we spent a lot of time indoors this week. Some days we could only leave if we had specific appointments set and in the homes of members. And yesterday was the first day they let us wear our nametags publicly. We didn't wear proselyting clothes for a long time this week. It was rather different. Meant lots of time to study and meditate. Even with all of that, we were able to start teaching a new family this week. Suzi and two of her 4 children. We hope they can make good progress! They came to Natalia's baptism last week. On Saturday we attended the baptism of another sector in our zone and I did the baptismal interview earlier in the week. I love seeing the testimonies of these people as they choose to make this covenant with God. It is inspiring. I heard good news about Wilson and Alex in my old secto...

This week started off well on Monday night. We found an antiguo we wanted to go by in the area book and we knocked and talked to the lady who came out. She's a member turns out, and her husband is not. He has had many previous interactions with missionaries but never acted much before. Well, a minute or two after talking to her outside, he pulls up- home early from work (a very nice "coincidence"). I asked if we could go inside to meet them better and they said yes. We talked and got to know them for a bit, and the shared lesson 1. It was an incredible lesson and we even invited him to be baptized if he received an answer. He said he would! The catch was that later we asked him if he would pray to receive an answer and he responded that he would if he felt like it. He was unwilling to act to receive the answer. We are going to continue to try to work with him because I know he can receive the answer, he simply doesn't want to. It's sad what he is missing out on wi...

My new area is full of houses. Lots of houses and then the usual stretch of campo where we really will not focus on too much. We work two wards here, that are both pretty small. But it means double the work as we coordinate with two bishops, mission leaders, etc. Definitely going to keep me busy in these last weeks. We have met both bishops and are working with them to gain their confidence and respect. My new companion is Elder Ward. He is from Pleasant Grove, Utah and graduated in 2019 from Lone Peak High School. He is here with lots of desires to work hard. He speaks very well, but lack of understanding has been a shock for him. Almost always is at the beginning, but I know that the Gift of Tongues is real and he will be okay very soon. He left the Peru MTC last week. In the sector we are teaching a women named Natalia who has her baptismal date soon. She is super excited for it! We have had two lessons with her since I got here. In one, we also taught her two daughters of 4...

I will be headed back to Valdivia where I started my mission, but on the other side in another zone. I will be training a missionary of gold and also acting as the only Zone Leader in a zone of 20 missionaries. Lots to keep me focused. I just hope I can have a good influence in my 6 short weeks there. A. is doing well. His life is not easy at all, but the teaching continues well. We had an incredible experience with him this week. We were teaching him the plan of salvation and he stopped us to tell that he was ready to stop smoking. He had felt he needed to do it in the morning and as we talked he said that he felt a pressure on his heart and that the box of cigarettes in his pocket was really bothering him (we were teaching him in the chapel). So he asked us to throw them away and we happily obliged. He is very very sensible to the Spirit. He said that when he got rid of them that he felt an incredible peace that he couldn't explain. That he felt like he was floating. It was s...

This week we had a member of the 70 visit our mission. I had the privilege of accompanying him to all 3 conferences and learning so much. He talked about different things in each place, but I feel like it is all things I can apply to myself so there is a lot of bettering to be done. This week is the week of the 18 (you gotta say dieciocho). It is the week of their independence, so the whole week is kinda just partying. People will be in their house though so that will be good!  Anyways, don't have a lot to say this week, but I hope you all are well:)

This week we had various lessons with Francisco. He is progressing very well and is excited to come to church for the first time this upcoming Sunday. He could not come this week because he was in Valdivia. We also were able to find and teach Wilson again , but he chose not to come to church this week. There is work to be done with him. We are trying to find more people to teach. We have talked to many people, but have not been able to set times with them to have a formal lesson. We are trying to work on using our time better. It is a constant challenge, knowing how to use our time how God wants us to and following the promptings of His Spirit.

Last week was the week of transfers and we helped recieve 18 new missionaries.  On Monday, my new companion came to be with us from Calbuco. He is from San Marcos, Guatemala. I'm super excited to work with him and learn lots together. Elder Zamudio is headed off to Puerto Cisnes in the Coyhaique Zone. He will be doing a whitewash there and training. On Tuesday night after everyone got here and settled in a bit, we got to take a few Elders to a baptism that was happening nearby that evening. That baptism was Angel, the son of Gloria!! I am so grateful and happy that I got to see that and that he took the decision to be baptized. It was such a wonderful feeling to see them and all of the members again. I really felt like I had a positive impact on the people there. The next days were full of getting missionaries moved around to their new areas, and saying goodbye to a few friends who are headed home.  We have worked a lot with Francisco these past couple weeks. He ha...

This week brings some changes here! Elder Zamudio will be heading out and doing a whitewash with a new missionary in Puerto Cisnes, Coyhaique. I will be getting a new companion- Elder Bautista who is from Guatamala. I have worked with him a few times in intercambios so I know him a little already. He is very sincere and friendly and I am excited for the time I´ll have with him and the things I will learn. Angel, the son of Gloria in my old sector of Las Vegas, is getting baptized on Tuesday! I am super excited to see that and know that they continue to progress as a family! We had a couple of lessons with Wilson this week as well and he continues to progress well. He even came with us to a baptism on Saturday night. We have a lot of support from the members with him and I believe he will be baptized soon. We traveled to Saltos de Petrohue today and it was beautiful. God is an amazing Creator. Love you all lots, Elder Brighton

Sorry-- I forgot to post this last week Recently in our mission we had a change of focus on doing contacts. Before, we tried to do 100 each week. Like many, I am excited for the change in the way we see and focus on contacts. That being said, I want to share something I am learning. At times, we question why things have to change, or why something was not always the way it is now. A small example are the recent changes in how we do things at church. Instead of the 3 hours, they are just 2. Hometeaching has changed to Ministering. These changes do not mean that the way before was bad or uninspired. We believe in constant revelation, and for that reason changes come. Having the goal of 20 contacts a day, that was later changed to 100 each week, helped me a lot to be able to contact more. It helped me to get over my fear of talking to people and use my time better as I traveled from place to place. For me, it is important to recognize the good that these goals were for me and now ta...

This week brought a very large change- we finally received our smartphones here in the mission. It will be a pretty long process to distribute all of them throughout the mission but we already have them here. We had to watch various videos to be able to learn a little about them and they made some very interesting and important points. This is an opportunity to learn how to properly use technology for the rest of our lives.  The advancements in technology in the world are primarily occurring to help God advance His work in these last days. It does not replace face to face teaching, but rather supplements it. There are many other things as well, but those are some that immediately come to mind. We had the opportunity to use our phones for good a few times already. The biggest change is we now have WhatsApp, the messaging application that every one uses here so it is SO much easier to communicate with people now. It lead to a lesson we had on Sunday with Francisco. We hel...

So last week Mirta was baptized and confirmed! With the water problems in Osorno, we had to go to San Pablo. (Baptism requires a lot of water). The branch there helped us a lot in getting everything ready. It was so great to see all of them and feel there love and support. Scarlett was there too! She is still participating regularly and waiting for the permission to be able to get baptized, in December is most likely. This week I did a few intercambios and discovered how cool the Gospel Library App is. We were doing a contact and I downloaded the app on someones phone and showed them a video from it. They all stopped (the 5 kids) and watched it and listened to us bear testimony of Jesus Christ and the power to change and overcome. When we left, they were all super calm and it was so awesome to see the Spirit we invited into their home and how calm they were. The Elders from that sector told me they went back for the lesson we set for later and that it went really well! The family ...

No letter this week but here are some pictures Elder Brighton sent:

About 3 months ago we were approached by a man named Y in the street. At the time, he was very drunk but said that he loved "los mormones" and told us how much they had helped him and that it was the only church for him. We talked to him for a bit and that was that. We probably invited him to church on Sundays. During the next few days, we continued to run into him practically everyday (he was always drunk). At the end of the week, we were knocking doors, and waddaya know, Y opened up one of the doors. He let us inside and we talked a little, but it wasn´t a very spiritual environment. From there, we saw him every now and then but never tried going back. Two or three weeks ago we were going by and he stopped us and said he wanted to go to church tomorrow and told us to pass by and pick him up. So, Sunday morning we went to his house to pick him up. He was there, calmly eating breakfast and we walked to church together. We got to church and sat down and the meeting started...

It has been a pretty crazy couple of weeks for us. I can´t possibly include everything we did but I´ll share our schedule of this past week. Friday- We met President Meek and ate breakfast with him in his home and then drove the Isoms to the airport. That was sad. I think it was Friday that that happened. It was a long time ago. Saturday- The first meeting with the missionaries and President Meek! We had it here in the mission home with the missionaries of Osorno and Rahue. Monday- We got up early and headed north to Valdivia (about an hour and a half of driving) for the second zone conference with the missionaries from Valdivia, Calle Calle, and Villarrica. President Meek had to make a few phone calls before the conference, and we also met with some of the Zone Leaders to talk about their zone. We had a zone conference and it was great. Every conference was great and special. He talked about something a little different in each zone according to what the Spirit guided him ...

Hey everybody. A quick note. We went to Coyhaique at the begging of this week. It was gorgeous. A wonderful, quick trip. Even saw flamingos out there. And a tiny bit of snow. Ricardo got the Aaronic Priesthood last Sunday and is doing super well! He is going out to visit with the other missionaries too since we have been gone a lot. The new President gets here tomorrow and then we take a tour of the mission. Time is very short but great things are happening. I hope to get some good fotos to share afterwards! Love Elder Brighton