August 26, 2019


¡Hola Y'all!

     I have officially survived my first transfer (6 weeks) in California! thankfully Hermana Hinton and I are still going to be kicking it together in La Habra for another transfer. Honestly, it's been a blast and a half here, and I'm so pumped to see what the next 11 transfers hold in this gorgeous place.

This week has been so wild, but so so good. We found 4 new people to teach!! They are all so cool, but one of them for surely was a miracle visit. Hermana Hinton and I were kind of bummed out about some plans falling through, so we decided to go visit this guy, Silverio, because some other missionaries sent us his information. We get to his house and he's just sitting in his truck outside, but when he saw us he got sooo excited! He immediately started talking to us and opened up so much and basically was like, "I have all of these problems, but I know that you know God so you can help me." Heck yeah, we can. After talking for a while, we ended up calling some Elders to come over and talk to him as well. Usually, these Elders are over in Long Beach, but thankfully they were in La Habra for a baptism and were able to get there in like 5 minutes (when the other closest Spanish speaking Elders are 20 minutes away), talk about un milagro! That ended up being such a crazy cool spiritual experience. 

Also this week on Sunday, I spoke in Church! It was my first time giving a talk in Spanish so I was just a little bit nervous, but our branch is so teeny tiny so I was only speaking in front of like 30 people. They were all so nice after too and kept complimenting me on my Spanish, but I think they just felt bad;) 

Every day though I am constantly being humbled and reminded how important it is to have faith in God's plan for us! We may not always understand, but I know that there is a reason for everything and all things are possible with faith in Jesus Christ! There's an awesome scripture in El Libro de Mormon about having faith, and it's in Alma 32:27. It says, "But behold, if ye will awake and arouse your faculties, even to an experiment upon my words, and exercise a particle of faith, yea, even if ye can no more than desire to believe, let this desire work in you, even until ye believe in a manner that ye can give place for a portion of my words." Me encanta esta escritura! In a way, it's almost like faking it till you make it. All you need is that desire to have faith and that desire to do and be better, and then true faith will follow. 

But hey! I am so incredibly thankful for all of you, and I love y'all so much! I hope everyone has an amazing week:) and good luck to everyone that's starting school!! 

Con Amor,

Hermana Brayton

2500 N Bristol St.

Santa Ana, CA

92706

Fifi♡ (I'm adopting her as my third grandma I think)

TacoNazo and horchata

These cutie-pie sisters we went on splits with for a little bit

They have ~soft trees~ here and it's the weirdest thing

Still here for the sunset pics

Life is SO Good, Man

August 19, 2019


¡Hola Y'all!

    Can I just say that I literally love California? Because I really do. It's so dang gorgeous all the time, and I'm so excited for a few of our sweet little Latino amigos and how they're progressing:) 

      Throughout the week, I was able to meet a few really interesting people, and our conversations with them really hit home and made me think about a lot of things. One of them was this sweet, funny, Philippino lady named Pas, and she reminded me so much of my aunt Beau. She was so kind and so willing to talk to us, in fact, we ended up talking in her front yard for an hour. She told us all about her life and the trials she's faced, but then she was like "You know, what's the point of getting mad at people and at situations you can't control? Just be happy. Life is good, man!" Life is so good, man!!! The other lady we talked to was while I was on exchanges with Sister Opfar, and I don't really want to get into what happened, but my heart just exploded for her. So many people on this Earth are facing such hard times, but to be quite honest if everyone could just show each other genuine kindness and love with no strings attached, how much happier would life be? Life is so good, but making life feel good for others that need it is better! I hope that y'all can all show love for those around you, no matter the situation! I know that you will feel so good because of it, but more importantly you'll help others in more ways than you realize. But anyway that's just my soapbox for this week.

I'll just leave y'all with this scripture in El Nuevo Testamento in Matthew 25:40 where Jesus is telling what he will say to us on the day when we all stand before him and Heavenly Father. He says, 

"Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me."

 Entonces, necesitamos treat others the way we would treat Jesus Christ, or at least the way we would in his presence. 

I love y'all so so much and I'm so grateful every day for the prayers and examples! Les amo!

Con amor,

Hermana Brayton:)

Joe's Italian ice

Just our casual drive to the mission office past the Angel's stadium

Free Library=Libro de Mormón:') kind of trendy now;)

Mi compañera y yo

ELOTES (exactly like Nacho Libre)

Sister Opfar and I on ~exchanges~

The Spirit and Atomic Wings

August 12, 2019

¡Hola y'all!!

What a week! Honestly, I really don't even know where to start or what to say because at this point it feels like this week has been 10 years long, but it also went by in the blink of an eye. There were so many good things this week!! We had some super, super awesome lessons with quite a few people! I love that it's getting un poquito easier to understand real Spanish because I'm getting to know everyone here so much better! It's so cool to hear about all the crazy things some of these people have lived through, and to know about things they are still having to face today. Sometimes it's so exciting, and other times it's completely heartbreaking, but it's always humbling:) 

On Friday this week, we had an amazing opportunity to get half of the mission together (like 120 or so people) and Elder Curtis and his cute wife came down from Salt Lake to talk to us all! They are so cool, and I swear that man has the entire Book of Mormon memorized. They talked a lot about how important it is to always have the Holy Spirit with you to guide you and help you along the way. We also really need the Spirit with us as missionaries because in the end, that's the only way we're able to teach people. It's been so evident so far in our lessons whenever the Spirit is there because you can feel it so strongly and everything just seems to go so smoothly and my Spanish is a little bit less painful to listen to (which I am always grateful for).

Also this week, one of the families we're teaching is so generous and so funny, but they definitely accidentally almost killed us. So bascially, everytime we go over there they feed us and it's such a blessing because like I said before, homemade Mexican food is awesome. However, this time, we get a text right before heading our there and the wife, Karina, was like "Les gusta Wing Stop?" Now I love wings so much, so of course we were like heck yes we like Wing Stop. Once we got there and taught our lesson, Karina asked us what kind we liked and if we liked spicy stuff. She had told us before how much she loves spicy food, and I know that Mexican women don't mess around when it comes to that stuff, so I went the safe route and just said not really, but my poor sweet companion Hermana Hinton said that she loves spicy food. That my friends was where we went wrong. Long story short, she ordered us ATOMIC WINGS. After Hermana Hinton took her first bite, her face turned bright red and her eyes immediately started watering like crazy, so of course we were all laughing at her. But! Then they looked at me and they were like okay your turn... Y'all. I promise you my mouth/lips/face/body has never been in so much pain before. I know it sounds like I'm just being dramatic, but I'm not really I swear. So yeah please everyone think of me next time you go to a wing place, and maybe try the Atomic ones in memory of my tastebuds.

But hey! I love y'all so so much, but Heavenly Father loves you more! I really appreciate all of the emails and support, and I'm sorry if I don't always get back to your emails as quickly as I would like to! Really quick I just want to leave y'all with a scripture from Matthew in El Nuevo Testamento, in chapter 21 verse 22 it's Jesus talking to his disciples and he says "And all things, whatsoever ye shall ask in prayer, believing, ye shall receive." I know that there are some really, really hard things going on right now in the world and in everyone's lives, but more than that, I know that Jesus Christ is truly our Savior. I know that the Holy Ghost is truly our comforter, and I know that God listens to every single one of our prayers and loves each one us more than we can comprehend. Please never forget that, and please email me if you ever need a reminder!! I hope everyone has an amazing week!

Todo Mi Amor,

Hermana Brayton:)

South Carolinian's!! It's still so crazy to me that sweet Hermana Wright and I got to be in the same mission but I love this girl so much!!

First crockpot meal

Fifi!!

Everyone LOOK at how pretty my companion is!!

Sweeter than Lemonade

August 5, 2019

¡Hola y'all!

   It's my happy 2 month anniversary of being on the mish!! So crazy I can't believe it. This week was such a fun one too:) I just have to start by saying the home-cooked Mexican food is the BEST thing in the world. Some of the people we are teaching live together in this huge house, and they texted us out of the blue one day and asked if we liked pulique with rice. Neither of us knew what that was but we were so excited she texted us we were like of course we love that. So we ended up having this amazing dinner with these amazing people and I love them!! 

     Also this week I got to go on exchanges for the first time, which is just like when you switch companions for a day. I went with Sister Humphreys who is an ASL missionary and it was seriously the coolest experience ever! I went with her to a lesson with this sweetest little deaf Mexican lady, who didn't really know ASL but she knows LSM (like Spanish sign language) and so Sister Humphreys has been teaching herself that as well so she can communicate better with her. But sometimes there would be a word that Sis Humphreys didn't know, so Nona (the lady she was teaching) would sign the letters to spell the word, but Sis Humphreys doesn't know Spanish so I would translate for her and it was so awesome!! 

     To end our awesome week, Hermana Hinton and I stole this idea for a Lemonade stand from mi amor Hermana Clark, and it was so fun:) There was a Corn Festival going on here in La Habra that apparently is a super big deal, so we decided to set up like right on the edge of the park where it was. That only lasted for like an hour before we got kicked out haha but it's okay because we just went down the street a little bit and set up again in front of these super nice people's yard. We were able to talk to a bunch of people, and we got a ton of compliments on how good our lemonade was, and one of the Elders with us just kept saying "it's because we made it with the love of the Gospel, and that's sweeter than lemonade!" And that my friends, is the truth. I was reading in Enos the other day in El Libro de Mormón, and in verse 27 at the end it says, "and I shall see his face with pleasure, and he will say unto me: Come unto me, ye blessed, there is a place prepared for you in the mansions of my Father," and if that isn't the sweetest thing you've ever heard then I don't know what is! Just picturing Christ saying that to me is so insane, like I know that there are definitely so many happy times in this life and I'm so thankful for all of them, but hearing those words would be like the most genuine, unimaginable joy I think we could ever experience. And that's what we're here for! To share the knowledge of this amazing joy that's to come with everyone around us! AH it's so exciting:) but hey I love y'all so so much and I'm grateful para siempre for the examples that you are for me! 

Con todo mi amor,

Hermana Brayton:)

Hermanas Humphreys and Brayton

In N Out celebration lunch for my 2-month mission bday

Operation Lemon Squeeze at the park 

Operation Lemon Squeeze pt 2 in front of someone's house

An old truck that my grandpa would LOVE:) (there are so many cute old cars here it's so cool)