Glad Tidings of Great Joy

Hey everyone! We are in Puerto Montt at the moment on our way to Osorno for leadership conference tomorrow. We flew up from Punta Arenas this morning. Don't have a ton of time, but here are a few questions and responses about my new area. I'm loving it here!  Love, Elder Brighton  1.How was your plane trip down to Punta Arenas? What did it feel like to travel alone or did another missionary fly down there with you at the same time? We traveled in a group of 5, 4 Elders and 1 hermana. I was the missionary with the most time in that group. The flight was 2 hours and a handful of minutes long. The airline is pretty similar to Frontier, as in you pay for everything up to your carry on bag. No free on board drinks.  2.It looks like the average temperatures are a bit cooler in Punta Arenas compared to Osorno. Does it feel different there? The weather is much different. They weren't lying when they say how windy it is down here. Thursday was even more so than normal a...

Big news this week- Cambios!!! I am headed to the sector of Austral, in Punta Arenas. The bottom of our mission, the bottom of Chile, and almost the bottom of the world. I am excited to get to see that part of our mission. I will travel there in plane, about a 2 hour flight I believe.  My first (and third) companion, Elder Azeredo is coming to San Pablo to be with Elder Cano. That is crazy but they will get along well. I always get some strange cambios. I will miss San Pablo and the members here. It is a beautiful little town and I have made a lot of memories. I don't know much about my new sector but I will try to include some more details next week! I gave a talk on Sunday about the importance of teaching with and by the Spirit. He is the true teacher, he that brings to the heart the truths that we hear and read. Without him, we can not teach in a way that makes an impact, perhaps we can not teach at all. This principle applies heavily to missionaries, but also to any...

Sorry I don't have much time to write today. We took a little, uhm, detour, coming down a mountain on a trip we had and ended up having to take the later bus to back home. It was a fun trip though and very pretty. Chile is a beautiful country. This week we focused on really having the Spirit with us constantly and doing our best to recognize him. We learn in the scriptures that we can have Him with us always, but I think we have to have that desire too as explained in Doctrine and Covenants.  Love you all, Elder Brighton

We started our new year off well here in San Pablo. We had a couple of really great lessons and taught important principles such as the law of chastity, tithing, baptism, etc. Many people say or think that the commandments we have are restrictions on our freedom, but I know that they are there to bless our lives. The reason for obedience is to make us happy, and so that we can receive blessings!  The principle of sacrifice applies. If we want to receive things, we have to give up other things. To buy, we pay money. The best part is, that with God, the sacrifices we make are so small compared to the things received. We are asked to pay a tenth of our income, and then he gives us everything else we need! We are asked to live the law of chastity, and we can have an eternal family! We are asked to be baptized and endure to the end, and we can enjoy celestial glory forever and eternal life!  These are all what you could call large things, or maybe even "difficult" commandm...

Happy New Year!! I have been in Chile for a full calendar year now. 2018 was full of fun memories and I hope to make more in 2019! I hope I can make it a year full of personal growth and accomplishments. And a year full of service as was 2018 for me. Speaking of service, we helped a less active sister rake her yard this past week. The grass was all dead because she had sprayed poison so we borrowed a metal rake from someone and just raked it and the roots came up pretty easy. Some good work:) We had another project planned for that day but some torrential rains arrived in the morning out of no where so that got postponed. Scarlett and Oscar came to church yesterday. It was Oscar's first time and he really enjoyed it. Said it was much more tranquilo than what he was used to. He told us he didn't feel the spirit in the church he was at now, and I am pretty sure he felt it yesterday at church with us. Scarlett is continuing to progress very well and we have fun teaching he...

Merry Christmas!! This morning we had a little devotional with our zone in the Mission Home so that was really cool. Blessings of living near the mission base during the time of the Holidays. Had some stories and musical numbers followed by a french toast breakfast. First time I have ever eaten french toast. Verdict: not bad at all.  The city here is pretty busy and bustling with everyone getting ready for the big night tonight. It is a very warm sunny day though! There shall be no white Christmas here this year. We did some service on Saturday for a family that is inactive, but there 9 year old son comes to church every week. His name is Tomás. We helped dig out a ton of grass and wheel barrowed it and a mountain of dirt out front. I had a lot of fun doing that kind of work again! They're a wonderful family and invited us over to cenar with them tonight (eat dinner). That will be really nice and fun. Tomorrow evening Hermana Barbara invited us over to eat an once with her....

Big news of the week: My magnet name tag arrived that I ordered 9 months ago!!! Not that big of a deal, but the anticipation has finally come to an end. Took it out for a spin today and it performed well while we played volleyball with a group of missionaries.  Important things that happened this week: We found and taught 6 new investigators this week. We have been praying for and focusing on that a lot and it has been happening. Our focus now needs to shift a little bit on really helping these people progress and keep commitments while still searching for and finding more people to teach. The key to being a successful missionary (or anything) is being able to focus on more than one thing at a time. That is a teaching from our mission president's wife. We are getting into the Christmas season here and have quite a nice tree set up with lights and decorations donated from a less active family we are working with. Don't forget about the church's LIGHT THE WORLD initia...