The Holidays are Here!

Dearest Family and Friends,

Happy Holidays!!! Can you believe Christmas is right around the corner?? I am beyond excited!!!! There are a couple houses that have some lights turned on, but only a couple. It's beginning to look like Christmas!! Well, this week has been absolutely AMAZING!!! I can't even begin to describe how amazing it has been!!

First off, we had 2 amazing lessons with 2 amazing investigators. The first is named Hector. He is the boyfriend of one of our strongest members. They want to get married in the temple one day!! Hector really wants to get baptized. He has come to church quite a bit, but he travels a lot, so we haven't really been able to teach him. Well, he is finally back for good!! So, we were finally able to meet with him and teach him the first lesson. Yay!! he absolutely loved it. He agreed to be baptized!! So, we have an incredible baptism taking place on December 12th! Yay!!! He even prayed for the first time!! Zoraida (the member) was just crying! There was such a sweet spirit! I am SOO lucky to be able to be a part of this! The second is Fermin. I think I've talked about him. (His name is pronounced "fair-mean") He is the one who is going through a mighty change right now. He has been coming to church for himself, and taking the lessons as well. We taught him the Restoration, and he loved it. He needs to be taught really simply. For 2 weeks, he wouldn't pray. He just wouldn't. It's really hard to get him to keep his commitments. But, something changed in him this past week. He is so different. He has a different light about him. We had a lesson with him in a member's home. It was so great! We decided to teach simply, and just teach him about faith. It was a great lesson! WE invited him to baptism, and he said yes. He said a genuine yes. He said he'd really been thinking about it for a long time, but he just needed help to get there. We told him we were here! We gave him the date of December 26th to prepare. He has agreed. Wow. Can you believe it?? I certainly can. He is so ready. He has really changed.

He has friendshipped the young single adults in the branch, and has totally changed his friend circle. It's incredible to watch. He is absolutely amazing. We are going to help him every step of the way. He also prayed for the first time in his life during the lesson! The first time ever!! It was so sweet! He had the biggest smile on his face! Wow. I am so so so so so so lucky to be here!!!!!!!

Thanksgiving....I had the BEST thanksgiving  ever!!!! My mom sent me a package to help me make a Thanksgiving dinner! No one invited us over.....sad day.....so I cooked a real Thanksgiving dinner! It was the whole 9 yards!! It was the best meal I've ever had!! The Sandy Springs Sisters also didn't have anyone to go to, so they came over! We put on Christmas music and ate the best meal of our entire lives! What a great day!!! Thanksgiving is such a wonderful holiday. We all took turns saying what we're grateful for. It was amazing to just sit and talk about our blessings. We truly are blessed! I just love the holidays!!!

Leticia.....so remember our awesome referral?? Yep, she's awesome. We went to teach her twice this last week. The first time we taught her, she was talking a lot about her family are all members, and how she went with them to church when she was little....mmmmm? We kind of got this feeling that she was a member herself. So we texted her and asked. Well, yep......she's a member. She hasn't been to church in 26 years though. Wow. so she's very less active. Heavenly Father led us to one of his really lost sheep!! She was going to come to church yesterday, but she was DEATHLY ill. But, she lives in the same complex as our Assistant Ward Mission Leader...so he can take her anytime! Her daughter isn't a member, and is TOTALLY willing to drive her to church. Her daughter is super interested when we come over! This is a wonderful window of opportunity! So, that was our big news of the week. :)

Fasting....so we visited one of our less actives this past week. She doesn't want to come to church because she always feels guilty when she comes because she's not living according to the Gospel. It's been hard to work with her. But she's changed a lot! She used to be so sad! Now, she is so happy! We simply have to go to her house, present a topic or scripture, and ask her thoughts, then the spirit touches her heart, and she talks it out to us and figures out the answer on her own! We only need to bring the spirit. She's amazing. She said she wanted to fast, and we offered to fast with her. We did a 24-hour fast with her. It was incredible! The cool part of the story is this.....we specifically fasted to find a family to teach (all of our progressing investigators are 40 year old men...we need to find some families!!) So we started our fast at 6, and at 7 we went to visit a referral in East Point. Well, the lady answered the door and invited us in. Guess what? She has 5 kids!!!! there was our family!!!!!!!!!! We were sooooo excited!!! The power of fasting is real!! It was so incredible. The Lord is truly blessing us!!

Wow. It's been a great week! There is SOO much going on!!! SO much! I am grateful for this opportunity I have to be a missionary. I truly am. I am so grateful for this Holiday season! Thank you all for your love and support. I love you all so much! Have a great holiday season!

Love,

Hermana Bringhurst

Yummy

Happy Thanksgiving

Dearest Family and Friends,

Can you believe it's Thanksgiving this week??? And Christmas right after that?? I can't believe it!!! The holidays are here!!!! I wish there was snow here, it's hard to get into the holiday spirit without the snow! I just love the holiday season! Maybe more people will be willing to hear our message!!! :)

So, a bit of news to start out. Sister Meneses' visa came. It came about a week ago. She is staying until the end of the transfer. So, she will be leaving on December 14th. I am SO sad!!! I know the Lord wanted her here for this short amount of time for a reason. She had definitely made an impact on me! And also the people we are teaching. I am going to miss her a lot. :(

Temple/Zone Training....so we got to go to the temple this last week!! That's always my favorite! It's such a great time for me to get spiritually rejuvenated, and also to receive revelation for my investigators. It's truly a sacred place. I especially love being there with all of the missionaries. There is such strength in the session! My companions and I were the last sisters in the celestial room, and we were just surrounded by the Priesthood. It was such a neat feeling to be in such a sacred place with so many worthy men who hold the priesthood. I just love the temple. :) We had a GREAT time training with our zone. We talked about working with the members. We sure talk about this a lot. That means it's super important!! We also got trained on this new system they're implementing in the cars. it's called TIWI. It's a mission driver accountability program. It's a little box attached to our windshield, and it monitors our speed, seatbelts, etc. It's incredible. We each have a card and have to sign in every time we drive. If we speed, it turns red and says "check your speed" and you have 15 seconds to slow down before it marks it on your record. It also monitors aggressive driving (breaking too hard, turning too fast, etc) so the goal is for all of us to be safe drivers, and be in the "green" zone. This is supposed to save the church a lot of money, and prevent accidents from happening. It's very scary and intimidating, but it's keeping us safe!!

Headquarters Referral....so we received an AWESOME referral this last week from church headquarters. This lady lived in Mexico, and was taught by the missionaries. Then she moved here and has lived here for 26 years without ever going to church! I guess now she's decided she wants to hear the missionaries again! Her uncle is a bishop in Mexico! She knows a LOT about the church. She's really excited to get the lessons! When we came to the door she said, "what a miracle! You came!" It was so touching. her name is Leticia. I can't WAIT to teach her more!!!!

Exchanges...so we had exchanges this last week, and I went to English speaking for the first time with Sister Alofipo!!! It was SOOO much fun! It was SO different. I learned a TON. I first learned that I love Spanish, I love my area, and I love the people I teach. I also learned how much easier it is to express yourself in English. Haha. It was so much fun. Members took us out to eat to Red Lobster and Mellow Mushroom for dinner during the two days! Yay for American food!!! I had SUCH a great time!!

Branch BBQ....we had a brand BBQ for THanksgiving this last Friday. Abraham came!!!! He was able to meet a lot of the branch members!! It was SOOO much fun! Branch activities are always fun. Leave it to the Hispanics to throw a great party!!

Fermin....one of our members is friends with Fermin. He lives in the apartment below her. He is a party guy. He drinks, smokes, goes to strip clubs, etc. The whole nine yards. He is in love with this member, so he had come to church a couple times so that she would consider marrying him.....THEN.....something changed inside him. He wanted us to teach him the missionary discussions. He is really changing....but not for her. He is changing for himself. It is absolutely incredible to watch!!! It's people like him that make missionary work so incredible! We get to watch a man change his life! He has come to church 6 times....and this last Sunday, he PICKED up one of our MEMBERS and drove them to church. OUR INVESTIGATORS ARE DRIVING OUR MEMBERS!!!! This never happens. He is truly doing this out of a desire to develop a relationship with God. I hope I stay in Chamblee long enough to see him baptized. He's going to take some time, but he is worth it. Just watching him change is a priceless gift. :)

Our game plan....so, we only have 4 ish progressing investigators....and we used to have 12. We really need to get our investigators progressing. We were trying to figure out what we could do. We decided that we needed to be progressing missionaries in order to have progressing investigators. So, we decided as a companionship that every time we come up with the commitment for our investigators, we are going to come up with one for us as a companionship. Then, when we follow up with the investigator, we will follow up personally as a companionship to make sure we are progressing WITH our investigators. We are REALLY excited about this idea, and we're excited to see some blessings come from it!!

So, that was my week. It was amazing, as usual. Just being a missionary is amazing!!!! I hope you all have a great Thanksgiving!! I am thankful for this Gospel, my family, the opportunity I have to represent Jesus Christ, my investigators, the Chamblee Branch, the

Georgia Atlanta Mission, the Atonement, and my Savior Jesus Christ. I love you all! Hope y'all have a great week!

Love,

Hermana Bringhurst

Mary Kay, Smoke Detectors, and Tablets

Dearest Family and Friends,

Yet another amazing week has passed here in Atlanta Georgia.....sadly there isn't any snow....but it's okay!! We are listening to Christmas Music!!! Haha!! :)

Juan....so I wanted to give an update on him. He is doing super amazing!!! He still won't come to church or be baptized, BUT we taught him the Word of Wisdom, and before we even got to the "why we don't" or "what will happen if we do keep this law" part, he asked "Okay, so it says no coffee, and I believe that this Word of Wisdom is true...how do I stop drinking coffee?" HELLO!!!!! He is SOOO awesome!! I can't even believe it!!! He just rocks my socks. So we finished talking about the Word of Wisdom and his question got answered. :) He is so awesome. I can't believe he won't come to church or get baptized, but he'll read the BOM and keep the Word of Wisdom. Haha, he'll come around someday. :)

Abraham y Milagros....I just LOVE these two. They really are like our parents here on the mission. I just wanted to share that while I was on exchanges a while back with Sister Creech, I called Abraham to set an appointment, and I had completely lost my voice that day because I'd done so much talking!! Abraham asked if he could say a prayer for me. So right there on the call, my investigator said a prayer that I would get my voice back so I could keep preaching the word and being a missionary. It was so sweet. I was in tears. I just can't believe how much love these two have for us missionaries. Even though they don't believe in the BOM or will come to church, they are the kindest people I have ever met on the mission. It's people like this and experiences like this that I will cherish whether they get baptized or not. :)

Sister Conference....so we had the wonderful opportunity of having all the sisters in the whole mission get together this last week!!! It was SOOOOO much fun!! There are 70 of us total. It's amazing!! We talked a lot about the Priesthood, and how we receive the same blessings, but how we also need to respect those who hold a Priesthood office and not overstep our boundaries. We referenced Conference a lot, and just had a good "you are awesome!" talk. We also had to be instructed on "what do you do if someone is flirting with you?" It was awkward. It was such a fun conference. Sister Foote is just SOOO sweet!! We got to practice a Christmas song that the Sisters are singing. Sister Foote asked me to play for it, so that should be way fun!! We also had a fun lunch and got to know all the sisters, and then we had a clothing exchange!! It was SOO fun! Sister Foote wants to do one every 6 months. I am so looking forward to the next one!

Member Referrals....Okay, so this is where the title of the email comes in. We received 2 member referrals this week. One member wanted us to come to her boss's house and teach her there, and the other member wanted us to come to her house, and she was going to bring a friend. Both of these appointments happened to be on the same day. So, we went to the first one. We were SOO excited!!! We NEVER get member referrals!!! So, we go into the house, and it's NOT a Hispanic house. The member came in and said that we'd be teaching in English. Ok, great. So then the old lady comes in, and we start trying to teach her....part way through our "why did you want to see the missionaries today?" talk, we found out that we weren't there to teach her about the Gospel....we were called over to teach her how to use her new tablet. Awkward. So, we spent about 30 minutes teaching this really old lady how to use a tablet while she told us crazy stories. So, that didn't go as planned. Then. The second member referral. The member took us into the room of her apartment complex where people would have a business meeting. Then in walks a representative of the Mary Kay make up company. Awkward. She began setting up products, and mirrors for everyone. So it turns out that our member is trying to become a representative for Mary kay as well, so she needed to bring friends to a demonstration so she could practice. We were bamboozled!!! So we had about an hour long Mary Kay demonstration. At least my face was soft by the end. The weirdest part was at the very end when we had to recite "face, face, you are amazing and beautiful, and you can stay that way with Mary Kay!" while looking in the mirror. Awkward. So, our member lessons did not go as planned this week. Haha, it was really funny, and really awkward.

Service Activity....so our district and one other district from our zone were asked to do a service project for Red Cross this week. We arrived, and had to put on the Red Cross vests and everything. It was totally official. Then I was given my assignment as "installer" .....huh? Installing what exactly??? It turns out that the project was going around the city and offering to install smoke detectors for free. Yikes. I have NEVER installed a smoke detector. We got a 5 minute tutorial and we were off. I got a drill, a ladder, and a flashlight. YIKES!!! I was nervous. I ended up installing 2 smoke detectors that day.....let's just say that is something I NEVER anticipated doing on the mission. I just love being a missionary. You get to have all these crazy opportunities!

Primary Program....so it was the Primary Program for our branch yesterday. you can't go wrong with the primary program!! I was SOOO excited! I got to play the piano :) THe kids are just sooo cute. Their testimonies are just so simple, and yet so powerful. I definitely learned from them. We also got to teach Relief Society. We taught Chapter 22 about bringing the Gospel to the world, and how we can all be missionaries. How perfect!!! I was so excited for the opportunity! It ended up going really well. :) I just love the Chamblee branch. I love being here.

So, that's my week for you!!! It was definitely an interesting one!! That's why I love being a missionary! You never know what is going to happen!! I love you all!!

Love,

Hermana Bringhurst

I'm Running Out of Subject Line Ideas . . .

Dearest Family and Friends,

Here I am in Georgia and yet another amazing week has come and gone. I am so privileged to be here, and I have SOOO many amazing experiences awaiting me! I just love being a missionary. So I am going to go in order of how my week went, so yes I will talk about transfers, but later. :)

Library Story....so last week we had to go to the library to do training online, and as we were leaving, a sister called to us and said, "hello sisters!!!" We knew she was LDS because no one talks to us unless they know us. She asked us if we were the sisters going to her "Time out for women" speech. We said we weren't because it wasn't in our area. Then we just started talking. She was with her mom, and her 2 friends that weren't members. We talked about the missionaries that had given her a book of Mormon. She said she wanted to learn Spanish. We told her if she read the Book of Mormon in English and Spanish side by side, that she would learn Spanish. So we gave her a Book of Mormon in Spanish. We talked for a while. Then we asked if we could say a prayer with them. We asked if there was anything we could pray for specifically. My companions told me to say the prayer because they feel awkward saying prayers in English, and they feel like I'm not awkward in Engligh...haha. So, I said the prayer. It was such a powerful experience as we all stood in a circle and prayed together. The lady wanted to take pictures with us :) It was SOOOO much fun to talk with them. This lady, Zandra, that we met is such a great example. She is doing SOOO many good things in her life. SHe is such an example to many, and I'm glad I met her. :)

Christmas Pajamas....so, we went to Target because Hermana Gallardo needed to buy a coat because she didn't have one, and Sister Stewart and I saw these ADORABLE Christmas pajamas....we couldn't help ourselves. WE HAD TO GET THEM. We decided it would be fun to get some for our new companion to welcome her into our companionship, so we got
her some too. So, that was REALLY fun. :)

Juan....so an update on Juan. He was on date for baptism....but he told us this last week that he doesn't want to get baptized. He just can't change from his catholic traditions....it was sad. BUT. He said he prayed about the Book of Mormon and he knows without a doubt that the book is true.....so we know because he has that knowledge, through time he will accept baptism. We'll keep working with him. :)

Transfers....okay, so here is the big news of this week. We got an ADORABLE new companion. Her name is Hermana Meneses (pronounced just as it's written). She is supposed to be serving in Ecuador, so she is awaiting her VISA. They said it wouldn't take very long,.....so we're thinking we'll be lucky to have her here for 2 transfers. We think she might be cleared after one transfer. We'll see. We hope she stays longer!!! She really wants to! She is from Salt Lake City but her
parents are from Mexico. She knows Spanish already, which is helpful to us when we want to know what a word means. She is so sweet. She is so excited about  the work. She is always quizzing herself on the area, the investigators, the members, etc. She really cares about this area and it hasn't even been a week!!!!! I am AMAZED!!!!! it is so fun to be a trainer. I feel like I get to learn all over again! It's such a great review. Being called as a trainer was the perfect opportunity
to redevelop really good habits. I am really excited for this opportunity. I was bummed about being in a trio again....but I know the Lord put us here for a reason, and now I'm pretty used to a trio so it's not that bad. I am really excited for this transfer!!!!! :) She really is the perfect little missionary. I can't even get over it. Even though she already knows the language, she's really humble and accept our teachings and advice. This is literally the most perfect situation I could ever be in. I just love her. So our first day was really interesting. We dropped her stuff off at the airport, then we went to Grady hospital. One of our members gave us a referral. There was a lady in the ICU who was taking missionary lessons in English, but wanted them in Spanish. So, we went to visit her in the hospital. We taught her husband Bill (not Hispanic, he's black) while we waited, and then visited her in the hospital and taught her a short lesson. It was definitely the first time that's happened to me. We ended up having to give her over to the Spanish elders in another area because they live in Carrollton, and that is NOT in our area. So, it was a fun first day. We've just had so much fun this week. We've visited less
actives, members, etc. We went knocking and found an Asian man that pretended to not know English. We also ran into a gay couple....that was REALLY awkward, and there were killer dogs in the apartment too. Yikes. What a great first week!! Haha. We have been having SOOO much fun with her!

Temple.....we have a goal this transfer to take 5 people to the temple in the branch who haven't gone before. Whether that be less actives that we re activate, or members that haven't gone, and we help them out. :) We really feel like we need to stress the temple with our members and less actives this transfer. We are really excited to see how this transfer goes!! :) One of the less actives we visited REALLY wants to prepare to get her endownments...but she can't come to church
because of work, so we're going to work with her on that, and help her prepare to go to the temple. :)

Sunday....so we had a great Sunday! President Foote talked about Sunday's at transfer meeting. He talked about how regardless of what investigators come, or what happens on Sunday, it's always the best day because we get to partake of the Sacrament. I couldn't agree more!!! So, we were put to the test on Sunday. Saturday night we visited Maria, she used to be on date but stopped progressing. We invited her to church. She works every Sunday and NEVER comes. But we
still invite her. THIS TIME she actually said yes!!! She said she needed a ride. We gave her the number of a member family that could take her. Maria said she'd call in the morning to make sure they were coming and she'd be ready. So, we worked all that out. We sat in church, and watched the family walk in that was supposed to bring her...but no Maria. What had happened? We talked to them after Sacrament meeting and they said that she was there...but said she didn't want to come. ARE YOU KIDDING ME??? I was devastated....she had never been able to come because of work but REALLY wanted to. Finally her opportunity comes, the family driving her is at her door, and she denies it. I was heartbroken. I just had to know that we did everything we could have. And.....I got to partake of the Sacrament. :) We also had a GREAT correlation after church. We had our ward mission leader and assistant there. They talked about each investigator and less active we were working with. We picked our most progressing, and they said that they would use the full forces of the
branch to friendship these people and help them out. I am SOOOO excited to work with the branch more. Things are really coming together!!!!!

Chamblee really is growing. This is a tough area, and a tough branch, but it's getting stronger. I can't wait to see what happens this transfer. I am SO lucky to be a missionary, and I'm so excited to be here! I will keep all of you in my prayers this week. Thanks for all the support. I love you all!!

Love,
Hermana Bringhurst

Staying in Chamblee! :)

Dearest Family and Friends,

Can you believe I've been out for 4 months already?? Time is truly crazy on a mission. I can't even believe how fast it goes!! So, I have some news about transfers. Sister Gallardo will be leaving and joining another companionship to make a trio, and Sister Stewart and I are staying here in Chamblee and we will be training a sister coming in who is waiting for her visa. Her mission call is for Ecuador, but she's here until her visa comes!!! The Lord is really loving trios in the Spanish areas! ;) I will be sure and tell you more details this week after transfers. :)

Juan....so this week we brought the first counselor in the branch presidency and his wife to a lesson with Juan. It was such an incredible lesson!! You can always count on Hermano Portillo to be bold, but loving. He did such a great job! It was such a powerful lesson. Juan reads the Book of Mormon, and he loves it. He is basically living his life like he's LDS, he just isn't baptized, and won't get baptized because he was baptized in the Catholic church. After this lesson, we asked him again about baptism and gave him a date. He said yes, but only if we kept teaching him and helped him prepare....of COURSE we will!!! It's why we are here! We were soooo excited!! All he needs to do is come to church, and he is ready!!!! I am beyond excited!!!

Exchanges....so exchanges were kind of a turning point for me on my mission. As I said last week, I stayed in Spanish by myself and my companions went English speaking. I was really nervous, but I knew the Lord would help me. I went into exchanges with a lesson that I wanted to learn. I wanted the Lord to help me see through this exchange that I CAN speak this language eventually, and that if the Lord ever needed me to train someone down the road in my mission, that I would feel like I could be there for them. so that's what I wanted to learn. Exchanges were the most amazing experience I've had on my mission so far. I now know what the gift of tongues is. The Lord didn't suddenly make me fluent for 2 days, he just simply helped me to understand Spanish, and be able to remember what I had studied. it was incredible. I really put my trust in the Lord. I am HIs instrument, and this is His work. I simply needed to put my trust in Him and let Him use me how He needed. It was amazing!!!! During the exchange we were able to do service, visit investigators, less actives, and members, and even go knocking. We found a sweet lady named Ana while we were knocking. She basically told me that she knew God sent us to her door. She actually took the Book of Mormon out of my hand and said, "can I have this? I'd like to read it." It was AMAZING!!! She has been reading the Book of Mormon, and we are going back and visiting her this week. What an amazing experience. I simply loved exchanges. I learned that this is the Lord's work, and not mine, and that if I put my trust in Him, He will do whatever necessary with me to ensure the work going forward - all I need to do is stay in tune with the spirit and be obedient and TRUST. So, exchanges were amazing!!! I think they really prepared me for this next transfer. :)

Service.....so we were able to do a LOT of service this week, which is rare. Our district was excluded from the last zone service project (apparently we were the farthest away and they didn't want the whole zone there) and the Hispanic culture isn't really good at accepting help. BUT this week we had a lady in the branch ask us to come and clean her carpet. So, Sister Creech (the STL) and I were able to go to her house and vacuum, and clean her carpets for 4 hours. It was nice to have an opportunity to serve. Hopefully she'll spread the word around the branch so that more people will ask us to come and serve!! So, since our district was excluded from the last zone service project, they found another one for just our district. So, our district and the zone leaders went to this church in Lithonia and we helped out with their "Disaster awareness seminar" thingy. At first we were just "greeters" but there wasn't a need for 12 greeters...so us sisters were asked to participate in their seminar. We sat through an hour long meeting about "Emergency Response" and then they made us participate in their "speed talk" activity. They set up two sets of chairs in circles around the room, and we just rotated in the circle and talked to a lot of the people there....it was like speed dating...but with people from various "disaster companies" I met a lady who works for Red Cross, another lady from hazardous materials company....etc. The questions were "what brought you to your organization?" "How will this seminar help your company and the community?" How on EARTH was this service? I had NO answers....I just bore my testimony and talked about being a missionary. You don't get to be a part of a disaster relief seminar everyday on your mission! ;) We then had the opportunity to serve lunch to everyone. The elders were done greeting, so they just got to sit there while us sisters wore aprons, hair nets, and gloves and served food. It was really fun!!! We helped load stuff in cars and clean up the whole event. Apparently the people who sponsor this every year always ask the missionaries to come! So, that was a great opportunity! :)

KFC miracle....so we ate at KFC one day, and there were two Hispanic families. We decided to give them pass along cards...sadly one of the families left. Then our companionship got in a small argument, and we just left the restaurant...then the spirit reminded us that we needed to give that card away. We were reluctant because we didn't have the best of feelings with each other at the moment, but we decided to do it. So we gave them the card and said, "we are misisonaries, here is our card! have a nice day!" and that was it....later that night we got a text from the KFC family!!! They said, "hey you this is the family from KFC, you gave us your card, where is your church?"" Holy cow!!! That NEVER happens. EVER. So, we are really excited to go and start teaching them!! Our testimony of pass along cards has really been strengthened!!!

So, our district leader challenged us in our next family email to share how the Lord has blessed us on our mission. So, here it goes. Where do I even begin? The lord has blessed me with many choice experiences. I get to be a part of people's conversion. It's amazing to watch. I also have the opportunity to be really close to the spirit, and see people the way God and Jesus Christ see them. I've also been blessed on my mission to realize JUST how important my family is to me. I've always loved and appreciated them....but moreso now that I've been away. The Lord has blessed me in countless ways. I can't even describe it. I am so blessed to be a missionary.

With Love,

Hermana Bringhurst