San Joseph

July 31, 2017

Dear Family and Friends,

Sorry for the sometimes sporadic emails where I write a ton or a little bit. I have been trying to make it a higher priority to at least mention something but very often the time gets away from me. Many times I blank out on what happened during the week if I don`t have my journal. This week, like most of the weeks, passed very quickly. In looking back on it, I am amazed at how much we actually did. One of the things that I am convinced of is that there are many things, very specific things, that can be learned only in the mission. Not that they can`t be learned back home, but they are things that are forced upon one in the mission. Like for example, planning. Something that I never thought of as that important until I arrived to Chile and I realized how little time there is in a day. Sure there are 24 hours, but after sleeping and eating and studying and the occasional meeting, there isn`t an unlimited amount of time to the things we need to get done. It happens at the very least, once a week, where we run out of time in the day to teach, contact, and find.

So, it is crucial to us that we, everyday, maximize the time that we have to do these things. It is so important that they have dedicated a large chapter of Preach My Gospel just to the importance of planning and using time with wisdom!

I hope that you all have a great week!

Love,

Elder Brayton

cooper.brayton@myldsmail.net

The learning never ends!!

July 17, 2017

Hello Family and friends!!

Every week I try and talk about or at least mention some of the things that I think that are important that I have learned or experienced. Well this passed week, being a week full of conferences and intercambios {exchanges (when they get a chance to work with other missionaries)}, I am not sure where to start. One thing that I can say that will never stop surprising me is how much there is to be learned still. We did intercambios with one of the new traveling assistants and he is good! I felt like a new missionary again! It was very much a humbling experience and a learning opportunity. We went around the zone doing interviews for different areas, including our own, and several people were able to get baptized because of it! He helped me learn, or helped me realize, the importance of staying humble at all times and the attribute of being ``teachable``.  The missionary has way less time in the mission than I do and I thought that I would be able to teach him some things.... but boy was I wrong! Also, the conference that we had with President was bomb! We were talking all about planning and using time more effectively. The interview that I had with him following the meeting was equally uplifting. It never ceases to amaze me how much he loves the missionaries here and all he does for them.

We recently made a trip back to the caves with some of the new Elders who had never been there before. I will send along some of those pictures. I hope that you all have a great week. Remember....to never stop learning!!

Love,

Elder Brayton

cooper.brayton@myldsmail.net

CAmBios!

July 4, 2017

Hi Everyone,

Welp, the day has come. Elder Capuñay and I received our cambios {transfers} and he is headed down to Copiapo. I just came from down there so I was able to tell him all about it and all the cold weather that he should expect. He is headed down to Piapote, a sector that was part of my first district. We sent him off this morning and I am already with my new comp. He was on the other side of Arica so we just met up in the middle this morning. His name is Elder Lopez. He is a newer missionary with about 4 months in the mission. He is from Chihuahua, Mexico, so we are pretty much neighbors. He is my first Mexican companion. I think it will be good to get used to learning and getting familiar with the sayings and different vocabulary that there is in Mexico... seeing that that will be most of what I see and hear later on. 

This last week I have been sort of reflecting on the different things that I have learned on my mission. I was trying to maybe sum up what I had learned in a couple of sentences but I came up empty handed. I have been blessed to be able to come to where I am today only because I have followed the councel of Jesus and other leaders of His church. Our Heavenly Father, like any other parent would for their child, wants the absolute best for us and has given us all the things that we need to be happy. And despite all of that, more often than not, I see people doing the exact opposite of the things that they know they should be doing. Their only excuse is that everyone else is doing it..... Well that is just great, but wasn't it Peter that called us a peculiar people? He called us weird because we go against the grain of normal. But that is what we must do and that is ALL that is asked of us. The bar has been set by our Savior and although He lived a very difficult life, I know that He is the happiest person to be on this earth. Never has a person been so obedient and never has a person been more happy. A quote I read this week that I loved was counsel given from a father to his kids was:  

“The testimony I have of the reality and love of Jesus Christ has been the compass of my life. … It [is] a pure, burning witness of the Spirit that He lives, that He is my Redeemer and Friend in every time of need. Our challenge … is to come to know [the Savior] … and, through faith in Him, to overcome the trials and temptations of this world. Let us be faithful and true, trusting in Him.”

I hope that you all have a happy 4th of July. Be careful with the fireworks!

Love,

Elder Brayton

cooper.brayton@myldsmail.net

West Coast Winter!

June 19,2017

Hi Everyone!

Well, I can't say that it has been a slow or boring week because things like that don't exist, but as I sit down to write everyone, my mind has gone completely blank. Things still continue to move at an outstanding rate, with all of the divisions, intercambios and interviews that happen during the week everything passes very quickly. In one week more we will be ending another transfer and possibly getting a new comp. One of the things that we have been doing recently is a string of activities in the church to try and get people out of the streets or out from their homes. We have been seeing better results every week as people spread the word and invite their friends. Sorry this week is going to be really short. Here is a talk that I have been studying this week that talks a lot about the grace... something that I now understand and appreciate much better!

Thank you again for all of your prayers and support!

Love,

Elder Brayton

cooper.brayton@myldsmail.net

His Grace is Sufficient

June 12, 2017

Dear Family and Friends,

This week has been one of those weeks in the mission that it is so difficult to not get sad but at the same time, a week that strengthens your testimony a ton. I got to have a very life changing experience for me! It has strengthened my testimony in the plan that God has for everyone of his children and for our families. The first came from an interview that I conducted on Thursday with Patricio(Pato). This was the first time that I had actually met him face to face. However, I am familiar with his situation. He has, just a couple of weeks ago, been informed that his 10 year old daughter has terminal cancer. She has been allowed to return home from Santiago with a life expectancy of only 3 more months. I can only imagine that this is something that would destroy any parent to know. Instead of giving up or getting mad at God, Pato decided that he needed to strengthen his own faith to be able to help the rest of his family be strong whenever that day comes when his daughter passes away. In the interview, he told me that he just wanted to know that he would be able to see his daughter again. I was given the opportunity to testify of the Plan of Salvation that God has for everyone. I was able to promise him that if he is faithful to all the commandments that he would be able to see his daughter in the morning of the resurrection. Never in my mission have I felt the way I did in that room with Pato. I ended sharing my testimony and crying a lot. This past week, Pato was baptized and confirmed!!  He is excited to be able to continue learning and strengthening his testimony. 

Whenever I found out about the situation with Pato we made a call to the mission president, who made a call to the area presidency, whom made a call to the First Presidency. All of this so that they could all be praying for Erica (Pato's daughter). After the interview, we told Pato what we had done and we offered to give his daughter a blessing. He accepted without hesitation. The blessing was something super special. We felt prompted to give her a blessing of complete recovery. During the blessing thoughts of this little girls future blinked across my mind. Her graduation, her marriage and her with her own eternal family. Also during the blessing both me my comp and I said that we felt like every single member of the Quorum of the 12 and the First Presidency with us as we layed our hands on her head. It was something that I will never be able to describe fully -- but something that has touched me deeply and left everyone present weeping.

The other thing that happened this week was the passing away of the little brother of Jerko. Jerko has been meeting with us for a couple of months. When his little brother passed away he called us and asked us to pretty much lead the funeral. The traditions here are different, but basically it isn't uncommon for a family to have to pay a ridiculous amount of money to have someone from a church to speak at a funeral. The family was extremely grateful when they heard that everything that we do is non-profit. At the actual funeral we were able to speak in front of about 50 people about the Plan of Salvation.

This week has made me so grateful that I am sealed to my family for time and all eternity. I am grateful that others can learn about these blessings that God has for us and that they can also partake in the blessing that are available. I love you all and I am so thankful for all of my friends and family and the support that I get from each of you.

Love,

Elder Brayton

cooper.brayton@myldsmail.net

Lessons from Liberty Jail

June 5, 2017

Dear family and friends!!

I don´t think that we are supposed to have favorite scriptures, but this is my new favorite one. This week I met a lady that told us that God had abandoned her. So we start reading with her D&C 121-122, where Joseph Smith is in Liberty Jail and he begins with more or less the same doubt. This lady has been bouncing around Chile almost her whole life, and she has definitely been through a lot of stuff in her life. After hearing her story, I felt that she had been through more than most people her age(she is 35). After reading with her and listening to her stories, we were able to testify of the truthfulness of the love that God has for everyone. That in no moment will He abandons us. We may be disobedient and weak at times but He is always there waiting, watching, and listening for our prayers. One part that I especially liked at the end of the reading (and where Anglia started to cry) was in the one of the last verses of the last section, where it begins to talk about all the trials that one may experience and all the blessings that come after enduring said trials. 

I hope and pray that each of you will take this opportunity to look at the strength that God has offered you.

Love,

Elder Brayton

cooper.brayton@myldsmail.net

Talks and teachings

May 29, 2017

Skyping into Conference

Hi to all of my family and friends,

This week, I spoke in church. I got to speak about the stumbling blocks that often come up in life. It was sweet because this time I was told that I had to talk in advance. Last week I talked about opposition and this isn't exactly the same thing. Where opposition could be an actual trial or something that you can put a label on, the stumbling blocks that we come across can be anything that impedes our belief or understanding -- as well as normal obstacles to progress. It was a little different, but I learned a lot and am excited for this week coming up. Tomorrow the missionaries that are in the city of Arica are going to have a conference with the President of the MTC in Santiago. After the conference, my district is going to have a Q&A with him so he can help new missionaries coming into the field. I´m exited to help in any way I can. Within the district, we have been doing a lot of things very different than normal. Things that are within the rules of the mission but outside of the normal. So I think that is maybe why he wants to see what's different. 

It is looking like we are going to have another marriage in the sector. We had one of our investigators come up to us after a lesson and he told us that he wanted to get married to his girlfriend. So we are going to help him make that happen in these next couple of weeks. They are so awesome! Claudia and Jercko have been coming to all of the activities these last couple of weeks and she brings all 3 of her kids to church even though her kids behave terribly. But the ward helps out them and everyone grabs a kid and tries to keep them calm and entertained. She has been loving that and even though he cant come to church because of work, he is progressing really well.

I hope that you all have a great week!

Love,

Elder Brayton

cooper.brayton@myldsmail.net