Glad Tidings of Great Joy

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 ...