Just a note to anyone who may have written, he said mail came last week from the mission office and there was nothing for him so your letters won't get to him for probably another 4 weeks or so. Keep writing, he'll get them.
Dear family and friends,

Another great week in Mexico! A lot of hard work of course, but wouldn´t have it any other way.

For some reason today I do not know so much what to share in regards to the events that have passed this week, and so I will share an idea. Just a quick thought on the subject of prayer. What is it and why should we pray?

First why.

We are literally the children of God. You are the child of our Father in Heaven. And just like your parents on the earth like to hear from you and know what is going on, our Father in Heaven wants to hear from us. How are we doing, what are we feeling, what questions do we have and what do we want help with.

What is a prayer. It is a comunication with God. It goes two ways if we take the time to wait and listen for an answer. After praying, if we want an answer, we need to take a minute to stay still, quiet and allow God to communicate to us by the power of the Holy Ghost through our thoughts and feelings. We are likely not going to hear a voice, but I promise that you will have distinct thoughts and impressions that you will recognize did not come from your own mind. 

I would love to invite you to say a quick prayer, if nothing else, for me. I can use all the help and prayers I can get here. Still working hard to learn the language, the culture, and let go of myself and my desires and needs and just focus on the people around me. So a quick prayer from you would be awesome. We can both benefit.

Praying is simple and easy. Just remember that you are talking to someone who loves you and wants to hear from you.

Start by adressing your Father in Heaven (¨Dear Heavenly Father¨ for example)

Give Him thanks for the things you have in your life (family, friends, health, food, etc...)

Ask Him for things that you need or want 

Close ¨In the name of Jesus Christ, amen.¨

Really the most important part is to be sincere. Talk, and then when you finish your prayer, take a minute to be still and pay attention to your thoughts and feelings.

I wanted to share this today because I have seen incredible blessings this week from prayer. I know that there is in fact a God and that He lives and is involved in the world today. He is waiting for all of us to reach out to Him. We do that through prayer.

And so these are my thoughts for the week.

To anyone fearing that this blog will become a weekly sermon, I would give you a word of comfort. I promise to keep this blog completely genuine. What I am feeling I will share. I imagine that will usually be exciting or unusual events from the week. The promise holds true, write to me, and you will get a letter back!

I will in turn be praying for all of you and hoping to hear from you soon.

Much love,

Elder Brighton