DINNERS EVERY NIGHT!!

Hello mi familia!

I'll explain the subject of this email in a little bit. But first off, it was so good to see all of you! I am so grateful we get to skype. It's way more fun. My poor companion couldn't get skype figured out/her familiy couldn't so she ended up having to use a phone, but spent most of her time saying "Are you there? Can you see me?" Technology... it sucks. But it worked out great for us, so I'm happy! It was so good to see how happy you all are and how well everything is going. Question: how tall is Kyla now? Am I officially the shortest in the family yet? Anyways, It was so good to see you. For reals. And I'm glad the holiday was good too. Sounds like you had a fun one filled with lots of family. Speaking of which, I need Lori's address and Grandma B's address. I want to send them thank you notes, but I don't have their addresses... so it makes it a little hard.

So I feel like so much happened this week, it's hard to know where to start! I guess I'll start with the most awesome, which was Christmas Eve. I know you already heard this story, but just bear with me. Some people haven't. :)

So on Christmas Eve we had this awesome missionary devotional, where President told us that we have gone from the lowest baptizing mission in California, to the highest baptizing mission in California. Awesome! Also, he said his goal for next year is 1000 baptisms. Which is an insane goal. That is like, South America status right there. It is going to be an awesome year, full of miracles. And I'm just lucky enough to get to spend the whole year on my mission. Yay!! What a way to end it, right? But lets not think about that right now. Anyways, so after this devo Hna. Monical and I head home to do some studies, and we end up getting carried away finding things to give to one of our investigator families, Aide and her kids. We had gotten them those little kid Book of Mormon stories, and another cute little Christmas book called the inkeepers wife, but we wanted to get them other stuff too. They are super poor, and were struggling this Christmas. So we found a Finding Faith in Christ DVD for them, and a memeber that lives in our area but is in a different ward was so sweet and gave us these little purses with chapstick, mints and advil inside, but we ended up giving the little purses to Aide and her daughter. We also gave them a box of swiss miss packets, and it was awesome. BUT, the best part was getting a call from Bishop Medina. He said he was on his way to Bishop's storehouse, and had been thinking about Aide. Did she need anything? So we call her, and she literally has like, nothing. She had been washing their clothes with dishsoap, they didn't have shampoo, they don't even have spoons. She was so embarrassed, but asked if we could get them maybe some floor cleaner, shampoo, laundry detergent and toilet paper. But from talking to her, Hna. Monical and I decided we were going to do a little more. We called Bishop and told him the situation, and told him we wanted to get her some food too. As we were talking about it, bishop just says, "I'm just going to get her one of everything, how does that sound?" We were so excited. Later that night we went to her house, and bishop is there with his van, FULL of boxes and boxes of food, cleaning supplies, toilet paper, everything that she could need. It was AMAZING. All the YB missionaries were there and we helped unload it and put it outside her door. Then we sang "Nearer my God to Thee" to her when she opened the door, and brought everything in. She was crying, and the kids were so excited. It really reminded me of the true meaning of Christmas. I couldn't even sing the last verse of the song, because I was crying. The spirit was there SO strong. Christmas isn't about the tree, or the gifts, or the snow, or anything like that. It's all about giving. Our Savior has given us everything, and this is our time to give a little back to him. And the best way we can do that is by serving others. This was seriously the best Christmas I have ever had. And I never want it to end. When I get home, I want to keep finding ways to serve others, especially during the holiday season. It was an incredible experience.

On Christmas day, I got to talk to you, obviously, and then we just visited different member's houses. It was fun to be able to see them and share a christmas message with them. It was great. But Christmas morning all the YB misssionaries met at our apartment, the elders sat outside, and we ate breakfast together. While we ate we discussed what we could do to help make our ward better. It was awesome. We have a new Yerba Buena ward vision statement: DINNERS EVERY NIGHT!! Not just because we're hungry and want to get fed, but eating a people's houses is a good way to get in and show them that you care, and get to know them. Also, because this umcoming week we had no dinners. None. But we spent an hour calling people yesterday, and now we have dinner every night. We're excited. We really want the members to trust us so that we can help them, and also get refferals and get them involved in missionary work. We are so excited. Also, we're going to start playing soccer every two weeks as a ward, and having the memebers invite their friends, so that we can find new investigators. We're so excited. We made lots of goals to help progress the work. We're starting off the new year with a 40 day fast as a ward. A different family fasting for missionary work every day. It's gonna be awesome. I'm excited to see how the work progresses.

It's been a great week. And I'm excited for this week too. Missionary work is seriously the best. I love it with my whole heart. I don't think I'm going to come home. Ever. Jokes, I miss you all a lot. I'll come home when it's my time. But someone will have to drag me onto the plane. I don't want this experience to end, ever. It's the best thing in the world!!!

I love you all, have an awesome week! Choose the right, return with honor, and remember, "by small and simple things, great things come to pass" (AKA: read, pray and go to church :) ) LOVE YOU!!!

Love,

Hermana Bingham

Christmas Eve dinner at the Escalante's. Yerba Buena missionaries and Sandy

 Merry Christmas!

 Merry Christmas from our ZL's. Twinkies are back in business. :)

Yerba Buena meeting: Vision statement, DINNER EVERY NIGHT!! 

Me, Hnas Fischetti, Monical, Arias, Elders Lopez and James. Best. Ward. Ever.

Merry Christmas

Hello Family!

Guess what? it's December 23rd, and I get to Skype you on Wednesday! Woohoo! I'm super excited, just so ya'll know. And yes, 11am for you, and 10 for me. So yeah. I'm super pumped. Merry Christmas everyone! I feel like an awful missionary, people are sending their families packages, but honestly I can't afford it. So I'm sending my face over a satelite and missionary blessings. Also, all my love. And this email. ;) Don't hate me.

So, I got a suprise package from amazon this week... I'm gonna assume it was from you. Funny story behind it though. So the address you have is my mission office, which is not open on Saturdays. Well aparently the amazon delivery guy didn't know that, so he shows up at the church (mission office is in the Yerba Buena church building) saturday morning with my package, and no where to put it. Luckily our primary kids were having a breakfast there, so the primary president, Hna Gonzalez is going to make sure lights are off and doors are locked after. She goes to the door, and all of a sudden this delivery guy starts running at her, yelling "Sister Bingham?" She said "No, I'm Sister Gonzalez" so he was like, well, you can sign for her! So she signed for me and took the package and set it by the mission office door. Then some elders found it, sent me a text, and told me it was there. So I got it, it was just kind of funny how it happened. Thanks! I haven't opened it yet, so I have no clue what it is, but I will in a couple days! Also, Thanks Grandma Bingham and Grandma Ashcroft for the packages. I'm planning on writing thank you letters after Christmas when I actually open them. :)

So this week.. if I could pick one word to describe this week I would pick... I don't know. There are too many. Crazy, amazing, spiritual, life-changing, happy, frustrating, stressful... yeah.. kind of bipolar. There we go. That could be a good one. So here's what happened. Yahaira was all set to go. It was happening. We went to the Oakland temple with her Saturday night, which was beautiful and an incredible experience. Then on Wednesday we met with her. Wednesday morning she had her last final, and she felt really stressed about it. So after she took it, she gave into temptation and smoked a cigarette and some weed... yikes. So we were disappointed to say the least. We told her we'd probably have to move her date, but inside we really didn't want to. She felt super bad. Like, super bad. So we call the bishop to get his advice. He said he would be down for whatever we decided to do, but he was concerned about what she would do the next time she was stressed. But even more than that, he was concerned about her boyfriend. He told us that he wanted her to break up with him before she got baptized. Yeah, that's not our place bishop, but okay, we'll do our best. We had already taught the law of chastity on monday, and everything was going great with that. Also, it was the best law of chastity lesson I've ever taught. super awesome. So we met with her on Thursday and just talk to her. We devised a plan for what she could do next time she was stressed, and then said, "so we want to talk about your boyfriend..." Then she told us she was going to see him after us, and she was planning on breaking up with him. WHAT?!?!?!?!?!?! How cool is that? So we got everything figured out, she dumped him because he wasn't supporting her and she didn't want the temptation, and on Friday she passed her interview and was baptized Saturday night. it was CRAZY!! She's coming with us to a lesson tonight, and we're so excited. Her baptism was THE BEST baptisimal service I've ever seen. So it was her, and Jared Paredes, who is an excommunicated memeber that got baptized (I'm skyping at his house), and seriously, the spirit was SO INCREDIBLY STRONG! You have no idea. I can't even descibe it. It was just amazing. They both shared their testimonies, and holy cow, it was just beautiful. I was bawling my eyes out. The atonement is real people... so incredibly real. Something Jared said really stuck out to me. He said something like, "My testimony of the Atonement is that none of us are worthy of it, but God loves us enough to let us use it anyway." It was better worded than that, but still. It really made me think. Am I using the atonement the way i should be? So I decided that was something I'm going to work on. Is not taking the atonement for granted. It was an incredible experience.

So this morning I woke up at 4:30 and hiked a mountain to watch the sunrise. It's called mission peak, and it was so much fun. Early, but fun. And beautiful. And my butt and thighs hurt really bad. But it was so much fun! Hard, but fun. :) And we were done and home by 9:20, so that was nice!

I love you all, and I can't wait to SEE YOU!! So cool! Have an awesome Christmas eve, and Christmas morning. Send everyone my love! Merry Christmas! Talk to you soon! :)

Love,

Hermana Bingham

 Oakland temple. Us with Yahaira, and her friend David.

 Me, Yahaira and Hna. Monical at her baptism.

 Me, Hna. Monical, Marifer and Jared Paredes, after the baptism.

 The view!

 More view from the top of Mission Peak

 Sister Arias and I. We survived!

 I made it!!!

 Sunrise!

So pretty, so worth it!

Feliz Navidad

Feliz Navidad!!

Ay! It is December 16, that is less than 10 days until Christmas. What the? So here's the deal with Skype and stuff... We are going over to a memebers house at 10 in the morning on Christmas to skype. So I will probably be skyping shortly after 10. My skype name is just amayabing I think, if you want to try to add me before then life might be easier, but who knows. I am going to write down dad's and we'll figure it out. No worries people! I am SOOOOOOOO excited to talk to you all! If you have any more questions, and happen to see this within the next little bit, just write me back and I can answer them. We'll have like 45 minutes, so yeah. It will be great. We're going over to the Paredes house to skype, so I'm hopiong you can meet them. They are honestly my favorite people I've met here. They are SO COOL!! And they are feeding us that night too. They are just always so willing to help us out, and take care of us. They are awesome. I'm super excited.

So this week... it was an interesting week. That's for sure. First off, on Tuesday we got asked to go help at the Creche exhibit in Palo Alto. Which is this HUGE thing the church does every year with nativity scenes from all over the world, and different performances every night... it's really cool. Also, a BAGAZILLION non members are touring our church building every year... it's awesome. Missionary work. Bam. But anyways, Tuesday night we drove up there, super excited to be hosting and helping people go around, and us ourselves seeing the exhibit... but we got put in the little kids room, helping them make wise men crowns and telescopes, and play dress up with nativity scene dress ups... yeah. First thought: really, I have to spend the next 3 hours of my life making crowns? I won't even get to see the exhibit!! But after a while in there, I realized how FUN it is! Kids are so stinking adorable, it was awesome, helping kids make crafts and stuff. The teacher in me definitely came out... it was a blast. I didn't get to see much of the exhibit, because we had an appointment at 8 we had to race back to San Jose for, but from what I did see, it was really cool. We'll have to come back out and see it in a few years.

Second item of business... Yahaira's date got moved to THIS SATURDAY! we're super excited. Like, she is awesome. We just found out she has a boyfriend though, so we're probably going to teacher her the law of chastity tonight. Wish us luck. :) It should be interesting. We are so excited for her though. Pray for her, we don't want this to fall through!

Thirdly, we got put on bikes this week. Yup. Bikes. We had a car get yanked from our zone, and now us and the elders are in a car share, meaning we are BIKING half of the week. So that's always fun. My bike is pink, it's super adorable. We look ridiculous riding around in skirts on bikes with helments, and we get super hot and sweaty (yum right?) so that's fun. And my thighs shall soon be ripped. I'm excited. I think... We rode on Saturday, and it was only fun for the first 5 minutes, then I realized how out of shape I am. Yup... good stuff. The bike thing is kicking my butt.

So another worry is that the youth of our ward are REALLY stuggling. Like, every single one of them has a drug problem, or something is going on. We had a really good chat with two of the young women on Saturday at the ward chirstmas dinner, and we're hoping to try to help them a little bit. If anyone has any ideas on how to help struggling youth, please let me know! Mom, if you could also ask sister baker or sister prichett for yw activity ideas, that would be awesome.

And Jileen, I haven't heard of Colfax. I'll ask around this week, and see what I can do. It's possible! If it's anywhere in my mission, which goes from like, Fremont down to Monterrey. I'll ask around though.

Have a great week family! I can't wait to talk to you on Christmas!! I love you all!

love,

Hermana Bingham

Our Christmas corner!

 Bikes!!

 The youth in our ward acted out the nativity scene...it was awesome!

 Elder James fencing Jared--if Elder James won, we got to shove Jared's face 

in cake for his birthday (latino thing). If Jared won, we don't

The dog licking cake off his face. Elder James didn't win, we shoved his face in anyway.

Good News...

GOOD NEWS!! I'M STAYING IN YERBA BUENA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! You have no idea how excited I am. So we're usually in one area for about 4 transfers, so this will be my 4th here, so I'll probably move in January. I was just scared that I might be leaving for some reason, but I'm not. So all is well. We just started a new transfer this morning, and I'm SUPER excited. It's going to be a good one. Wanna know why? Well, it's STORY TIME!!! Your favorite, I know. :)

So Mariela Medina, the bishops daughter invited her friend over for dinner with us a couple months ago. The friend showed up, Kofford and I talked with her and nothing else really happened. Well, this girl shows up for church with Mariela for the primary program. And then last week she was at church again. Well, good news, she lives in our area. Her name is Yahaira. So the elders set up an appointment to meet with her on Tuesday, and then asked us to go. So we go, but they had invited a guy because they thought the elders were coming, and people were being dramatic and upset, so Elder Alvarez and Elder Bird (our zone leaders) ended up coming with us. We taught the Restoration to Yahaira, and Isaiah, her friend. and it was AWESOME!!!!!!!!!!! She accepted a baptisimal invitation, and we have a date for the 28th with her. :) The next day Elder Bird called us and told us that that lesson was the best lesson he had ever seen sisters teach. Which was a really high compliment. Elder Bird is from Spanish Fork, and I went to high school with him. So you know me, I'm always more nervous around people from home and that I've known before, and I've made myself look like a complete idiot in front of him before. So this coming from him was huge for me. He's also been out for a long time, he should go home in the next couple of transfers I think, and he's been an AP. He's an awesome missionary. And he just complemented us over and over on our teaching. It was SUPER cool. The spirit was in that lesson so strong. And I learned a lot from Elder Alvarez and Elder Bird too. It was really cool.

We met again with Yahaira on Saturday. She brought another friend (who does that? :) ), and we taught the plan of salvation. We were also forseeing some word of wisdom problems, so we taught that too. Here's the cool thing though. She has had a problem with smoking cigarettes. Well, about 2.5 weeks ago she lost her id, and hasn't been able to buy them. She has also wanted to ask people for cigarettes, but hasn't. Then she prayed and thanks Heavenly Father that she lost her id so she couldn't buy cigarettes. SO COOL! She also came to church on Sunday even though she had food poisoning, and told us that someday she wants to serve a mission. Um, WHAT??!?!!?!? She is the greatest. We're super excited for her. We're probably going to move up her date to the 21st though. She's super ready. Also, Jared Paredes, a memeber of our ward who was excommunicated, is getting rebaptized on the 21st. He just found out last night. We are SO excited for him. So the 21st will be an awesome day. I"m super excited.

It's getting chillier here, but word is it's going to warm back up. Booyah. Also, our heater died this week, so that was an adventure. We were stuyding all bundled up, it was freezing!! We finally got a new one, so now we are warm. :) But now our bathtub won't drain, at all. I even tried to unclog the drain... so yeah. Life is interesting. We take the water out with a bowl after we shower and dump it in the sink... pics to come. :)

I did get to watch part of the 1st presidency devo with Jared and Marifer Paredes last night. We started it late, so I saw the last two talks, but it was really good. I liked it a lot!! :)

Well, I hope you all have an awesome week! Oh yeah, BRYCE: how are college applications going? Where did you apply? Also, when are you starting your mission papers? And getting your patriarchal blessing? I wanna know! Digame boy!!

Love you all,

Hermana Bingham

 Us with our car. Yeah, brand new, 2014 chevy cruze. Mom and dad would NEVER trust me to drive this car, but God does!!! I've been driving this for the last 6 weeks. Boo ya.

Us all snuggled up when our heater was broken. I stink at self timer.

 Language study in bed. It was warmer with all those blankets!

 Getting the water out of our tub at night... gross.

Really gross.

A Really Good Week

Family!!!

HAPPY DECEMBER!!! I'm happy to report that December 1st was a nice 70 degrees and sunny! I love California. Everytime I get chilly at night when it's dark, I just remind myself that there is snow in Utah, so life could be worse. :)

In other news, this week was great! For Thanksgiving we had a completely normal day. Like really. The only difference was that we ate turkey at dinner. :) We had dinner with a member of our ward, Teresa Guardado. She's a recent convert and loves the missionaries. So all of us ate with her. We had turkey and rice and mashed potatoes, with a nice costco pumpkin pie for dessert. It was really nice of her to feed us. There were 11 people there in total. So a little different from normal thanksgivings, but it was still really good. It was nice to be able to just try and find people in the street and share a scripture on gratitude with them, and pray with them about the things we are all grateful for. So it was a good day. :)

Thank you so much for the package!! How did you know I wanted that MoTab cd? You know me too well! and I LOVE the christmas tree!!! I put it up right away. The 25 days of Christmas is fun too! I opened up the first envelope yesterday and we shared our first candies! We decided to eat the candy at night and do the envelopes in the morning. So today I opened up #2. I love it! Thank you so so much! Also, the gifts are tucked away in the box so I'm not tempted to snoop. :)

Also this Saturday we had a BAPTISM!!!! Michelle, our 10 year old got baptized, along with her 8 year old sister Samantha. Their parents are members, but had been inactive for along time, so this step and everything leading up to it has reactivated their family. So it was a really neat experience. BUT, there is more to the story than that. :) So the baptism was supposed to be at 4, so we called our ward mission leader to have him fill up the font. Then before the baptism we decided to do a language study at our apartment from 2:30-3:30 so we could get to the baptism at 3:30ish and get everything in order. We get a call at 3 from Elder Alvarez, saying that Mario (the WML) had called him to have him fill the font. Also, they had to leave to go visit a former, so if we got to the church before him, could we set up a TV for their lesson that was supposed to take place after the baptism and check the water? Sure elder, why not. So we get to the church, and see that the elders are already there, so we immediately go find our girls and get them jumpsuits. Well, the girls go into the bathroom to change and we just hear "Um, sisters, there is water EVERYWHERE!" Hna Monical and I just look at each other, and then take off sprinting to the font. The elders were in there, and had just realized they forgot to turn off the water... So both the mens and womens bathrooms were completely flooded, as was the font. Good work. So we get it turned off, and un plug it so it will drain a little bit. Well, once you un plug it, the stopper just kind of floats around in the water, and doesn't plug again without any help. So elder Alvarez says, "close the curtains please" and goes in the bathroom. We all know what he's about to do, so we're just laughing. Then he peaks his head out and says "please close the curtains!" and Michelle says, "are you naked" His response? "Yep." Nice one elder. So we quickly closed the curtains and Elder Alvarez got to go for a swim in the font, then we got to mop up the bathrooms before the baptism. The service ended up starting 45 minutes late because their friend that was giving the talk wasn't there (she was driving from Modesto.. it's a ways away). So that was fun. But it all worked, the girls got dunked, we're all happy. :)

Then we ate the biggest dinner of our lives at the Cisneros house. The fed us all their Thanksgiving left overs. So we start off with this HUGE plate of ham and stuffing and potatoes and corn, and then they bring out a big sandwich, like a Torta. Holy crap, it was SO MUCH FOOD! I still feel fat from that. And we fasted all day yesterday. Yikes.

It was a really good week, and we saw lots of miracles. Thank you for all your love and support and prayers. I love you all, and hope your week is fantastic!

Love,

Hermana Bingham

We set up this Christmas tree in the office this week!

 We found a tree in the office to take home!

 Me with a few of the contents of my christmas package. The stockings were already hung:)

 End of November and it's a nice warm 73 degrees out. No biggie.

 Weekly planning with our new pillowcases. Which we LOVE!

 See, we really are weekly planning, even though we're on the floor 

with pillows and have sweats on under our skirts. :)

 Mopping up after the flood in the font

 The font

 Michelle, Me, Hna. Monical, Samantha

 3 generations! We all taught Michelle. My comp and I, Sister Kofford (my mom), 

and Sister Packer (Koff's mom, my abuelita). :)

This was taken yesterday, December 1st. Yes, it is that green outside. :)

Happy Thanksgiving!

HAPPY THANKSGIVING FAMILY!!

Don't worry, I've got some people taking care of me. I have no clue what we do for Thanksgiving here, but I do know a member of our ward signed up to feed us so we're set. Yay! I'm super excited. Oh, and tell Josh I'll bring a pie to dinner. In 2015. :) I'll bring the pie for my adult face! haha!

So Kyla is donig the Bazaar huh? Sounds like fun! I'm sure it will be fine, and you'll make a bunch of money and it will be great. Go, sell, win! YAY!!! I'm proud of you both. You'll do great.

You got my testimony right? I sent it last week. I hope you don't have to face the wrath of Brother Mathie, but I"ll re send it just in case.

I am definitely past the days of snooping, so I"ll be a good girl and not look. Having surprises is more fun. :) Thanks for sending a package though. I'm excited to get it! Thank you thank you!!!

Good job investing in Bitcoin dad! Wanna invest some of my savings in it? Just kidding, but not. I don't want to lose all of my monies, but it would be nice to have some. Maybe we'll just wait until I get home, then you can teach me all about investing. Woohoo!

So I am super grateful this week. I am so EXTREMELY grateful that I have the opportunity to be a missionary, here in San Jose, speaking Spanish. I am really so incredibly blessed. We all are. I hear stories and see people that literally have nothing, and here I am, with parents that love me, an incredible family, amazing friends, the restored gospel, and knowledge of it.. I have so much, and sometimes I almost feel guilty. But Then I just decide to be grateful instead. I am so thankful for this gospel. It has changed my life. For reals. I love it so so much. I just finished the Book of Mormon this morning. It is TRUE!! For reals. I am so grateful to have it. It can change lives, I've seen it, in my own life and in the lifes of those around me. I am so grateful that a 14 year old boy (think about it, 1 year older than Kyla) had a question, and had enough faith to ask: to pray and find an answer for himself. I am so grateful that admist all the trials, he never backed down. He stood for what he knew was right, and because of him, we have the restored gospel of Jesus Christ on the earth today. We have the Book of Mormon, we have prophets, we have the preisthood, we have it all. I love this gospel. I love you. Thank you all for everything. I love each and every one of you.

Have a happy Thanksgiving!

Love,

Hermana Bingham

LOVE YOU ALL!!!

That is how we study in the morning. It's cold outside. 

Hey Fam-damily!

Hey fam-damily!

YAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAY KYLA!! Way to not let that beam get to you! haha! I knew I had the most AMAZING hermanita in the entire world! I'm so proud!

Mom, I wear a small. And if it's not too late to put in a request, I would LOVE  primary children's songbook in spanish. if they have a little one, that would be awesome, otherwise a big one is great. I don't NEED it, but I really want to learn those songs in spanish. I play the piano in primary every week, and I hear them, but the piano kinda drowns out the little kids, so I don't get to hear the words. But the are really pretty in Spanish.

Also, I am 99.99999% positive I will get to skype you. We will go over to a members house or something and take turns skyping. So I'll probably get to talk to your faces! YAY!!! That just sounds a whole heck of a lot easier than phone calls. Although those are great too. I decided I left at the perfect time. I will get to talk to you the day before my 6 month mark, and then in May, (nice and spread out), and then my release date is Dec 24, 2014, so I'll fly in Christmas eve. Pretty cool right? Merry Christmas family! But that's still in a year, so let's not talk about that one too much right now. Time goes by WAY too fast, and I'm trying to grasp onto each precious moment. I've been out for almost 5 months. WHAT? I'm about to have my first Christmas away from home, and I feel like I left just yesterday. It's insane. I'm halfway through my 3rd in-field transfer, and I'll probably leave Yerba Buena either in a couple weeks, or next transfer. Probably next, but there's always a possiblity. And it breaks my heart. This really is the BEST area EVER, and I really do have the BEST mission EVER! I know every missionary says that, but I really do have the best one. In most missions, the motto or objective is Find, Teach, Baptize. But in the California San Jose mission, we Find, Teach, Baptize, Rescue, Serve. We get to do service all over the community for about 10 hours each week. And we work with less actives too. We don't only find new people to help bring closer to Christ, but we help the people that have ALREADY made sacred covenants with their Heavenly Father come BACK to His fold. I love it.

So some cool stories for this week. First off, we're teaching this family. La familia Hernandez. They are from Honduras, and how we found them is CRAZY. So a few months ago, we met Cinthia, the 16 year old daughter. We were talking to her and from the conversation we had, we thought she was a memeber of our church. She had just gotten here form Honduras, and she had been to our church once there, but was baptized into a different church. She was confused though. So we met her whole family. Well, now we are teaching ALL of them: Dad, Mom, Cinthia (16), Rodrigo (11), and Darling (7). They are super cool. We're hoping to set a bap date with them this week. We watched Finding Faith in Christ with them and they loved it. It was a cool experience.

We also met this girl named Aide this week. She has two daughters, one 13 and one 8, so ANOTHER FAMILY! woohoo! She was a refferal from a memeber, and she has been asking to see us for a while. She's super cool and is really excited to learn more. YAY! I'll update on her later. She's amazing. We've only met with her once, but we'll see her again this week.

We have SO much going on, it's hard to write about it all. But those are a couple of the highlights. I wish I had more time to write more about all of our investigators, but alas, I do not. :(

Yesterday we went to the beach, which is why I'm emailing today. It was fun. We walked around the warf and got tons of free clam chowder samples, and then sat on the beach. It was chilly, so we were all in sweat pants and hoodies, but it was super fun. It was nice to relax and take a break. I also met one of Craig Applegate's old mission companions who is from Monterrey (the beach where we were) and is friends with one of the elders in our mission, who used to live there too. So that was pretty cool. Small world.

Well family, I love you. You're all really great. I'm going to go write my testimony now, so you'll get that too. I love you! Have a fantastic week. Just think, in a month I'll get to talk to your faces!! YAY!

Love,

Hermana Bingham

Yerba Buena sisters and the wharf. 

 My comp and I, eating a giant ice cream.

 Hermana Monical and I, by the ocean!

 Yerba Buena sisters by the ocean

 Sister Spackman and I, shopping. :)

Sister Arias and me freezing our tails off.

Agency

My dearest family,

Firstly, I would like to apologize for the delay in emailing. Yesterday was Veterans Day. Libraries are closed. I hate monday holidays. :) But here I am now, ready to write!

This week, well, nothing new. Stacey and Alex didn't get married, they feel like it's too soon, so we're going to go get things figured out today. Also, Alex came home totally drunk the other night so yep. That's not happening anytime soon. We weren't able to meet with Javier. Hopefully we'll be able to set up a cita for this week so we can blow his socks off with the spirit and get him dunked. Also, at church again. Michelle, our 10 year old, wasn't even at church this sunday. We had NO ONE at church. Stacey and Alex didn't go, which is SUPER WEIRD! I don't know what's going on. We're doing everything we can... sometimes it just doesn't work I suppose. There is this darn thing called agency. :)

So yesterday for pday I played soccer with my zone! It was fun! It also helped me to realize how truly out of shape I am. Usually on pdays I just play settlers of Catan with some other Elders. :) But playing soccer and being out of shape gave me a thought. I need something to work out with in the mornings. And then I remembered how much I love the insanity workouts. So it's convenient that you asked what I needed/wanted for Christmas, and I don't really need much, but if it's alright, I would like the insanity dvds. They are approved by the mission president, so it's totally okay. And I'm not sure, but they might be kind of expensive, so if that doesn't work that's okay, just some pinterest workouts porfa! And then other than that I would like my teddy bear (sometimes you need someone to cuddle with after a hard day), and a new white cap sleeve from modbod. Mine is dying... :( But that's all I am really in dire need/want of. And those aren't even totally necessary. I'm pretty much set out here. So whatever you want to do is fine with me. :) Thanks for asking!

So I will write my testimony. I'll do it today if I have time, but otherwise next week it shall be. How does my plaque look? ;)

I did not hear the news about the RS/YW broadcasts. That will be cool! I used to like the fact that it was only once a year instead of twice, but now that I'm older and wiser and enjoy conference more, I'm super excited for this! It will be great! YAY!!!

Sounds like dad HATED that movie. Poor guy. I'll watch it with you someday mom. I'm always up for a good movie! Well, right now I mostly just stick to the testaments or the Joseph Smith, Prophet of the Restoration movie during my lunch break, or this DVD of like, over 100 mensajes mormones that this RM in my ward gave me. I use it for language study sometimes, since they are ALL in spanish. Score. :) But someday I'll watch normal movies again! So write it down, we'll watch it.

My companion is great. Unfortuantely, I am really bad at remembering to take pictures, so we took a selfie in the parking lot before we came in so that you could see her. She's an amazing teacher, and I'm going to learn a lot from her. We have our differences, yes, and sometimes it's hard, but that's okay. You live and you learn. But we're doing good. Working hard.

Can I just invite you all to PLEASE read your scriptures everyday, and pray everyday and go to church? As a missionary I have come to realize how much those little things TRULY bless our lives. And I know that before my mission, I didn't read. Honestly, I didn't pray as much as I should either. But now I have a firm testimony of doing the little things. And the frustrating thing is that people don't do it! So do it! It will bless your life more than you can imagine! Like, for reals. I can promise you that you will see blessings if you take 5 minutes to read, and some time to pray. Please do it!

I love you all, and I hope your week is wonderful. I can't wait to talk to you in just a little bit over a month! YAY! Love you!

Love,

Hermana Bingham

Hna. Monical and I in the parking lot before we emailed. Does my face look fatter?
I feel like I look different. Oh well!

Sunny CA

Dearest family,

hahahahahahahahaha it SNOWED?????????!?!?!? That sucks. It's still sunny, high 60's to high 70's degree weather here. LOVIN it! I'm turning into a wimp though, I freeze, and at night I sleep with sweatpants, a long sleeved shirt, a hoodie, my sheets, quilt, and another blanket, and to top it all off, I stick a rice bag in the foot of my bed... because it keeps my toes warm. Yup. That's what California does to you. Turns you into a wimp. :) But really, it doesn't feel like November. It still feels like it's September at least. But it's November, which means it's almost Thanksgiving, and then Christmas, and then I'll hit my 6 month mark and be 1/3 of the way done, and that will just be weird. Bleh. Time flies when you're having fun right? Or doing the work of the Lord. Which I think is pretty fun!

So Bryce did the Manhawk huh? Unfortunately, I was not able to see the video. Dad sent it to me, but for some reason I still can't watch it. So it looks like I will have to wait another 14 months to see my brother look like a fool. Just teasin, I'm sure it was great! I'm really really sad that I can't see it! :'(

Mom, those baby TOMS are adorable! So so so cute! When I have babies, I expect you to make me like, a gazillion pairs, okay? Good. And I totally think you should sell them on Etsy. Might as well make some money for it right? And they are SO stinkin cute! Also, how tall is Kyla? It looks like that poodle skirt fit her how it fit me, so is she just as tall as me now? Ridiculous. I will officially accept my title as the shortest person in our family. Que triste. It's not like I'm even that short! Oh well, I've come to embrace that trait of mine...

Sounds like Austin and Beccy had a good time touring the world! Man, what a trip. They will just be super famous, and we'll be the people that just sit back and are like, "Hey! I know them! Cool!" and we'll feel all special.

So as you all know, I got a new companion this week. Her name is Hermana Monical, and she is from Wisconsin. She's 22, and she's been out for almost 10 months. She's really nice and sweet. Sorry, no pictures were taken this week, but I'll try to send some next week. She's great, it's just different. I miss Koffs a lot. She's in Saratoga right now (don't ask me where that is, I don't know), so I don't get to see her very often. But Hna. Monical is great, and we're getting lots of work done, so that's good. It's weird being the only one that knows the area and having to make all the decisions, but oh well. Such is the life of a missionary right?

So exciting news of the week! We have these investigators named Stacey and Alex. My first transfer here, we had gotten Stacey as a referral and the other Yerba Buena sisters had taught her one lesson, but realized she was in our area so they gave her to us. So Kofford was sick one day so I went with Hermana Jones to go teach Stacey. We taught her about the plan of salvation. At the time, she was SUPER pregnant and she loved the principal of eternal families. She has a brother that was adopted by some members in Gilroy, and he was sealed to them and she goes to church with them all the time, and loves it. Well, Alex came home that day and we taught the two of them together, and they liked it a lot (Alex is her boyfriend). Well, because she was prego and in school, and he worked a lot, they kind of fell off the face of the earth. But we were finally able to set up an appointment with her again for this last wednesday. We taught her about the gospel of Jesus Christ, and about baptism, and set a date with her for the 16th. We went back on Saturday, and taught Alex (we basically did a big giant overview of EVERYTHING) and he also accepted a bap invite, and we set his date for the 16th too. Then we taught them the law of chastity. They are living together, and just had a baby together, so kind of a touchy subject. But it went really well because we focused on the temple and eternal families, and we set a WEDDING date with them for the 9th. This weekend! We were SO excited! They are like, Golden. beyond golden. Platinum investies. We were so happy! Well, they still want to get baptized, but they think getting married this weekend might be a little fast. We're going to go visit them again and talk it over. They probably won't get married this weekend, or baptized on the 16th, but it will happen this transfer. I can feel it! :) YAY for eternal families and covenants! PLEASE pray for them!!!

Mom, of course I will pray for you! I'm sorry you still have a cough, that is not fun! I hope it goes away soon!

I love you all, and I hope you have a fantastic week. Keep reading your scriptures and praying and trying to have missionary experiences! It will bless your life!!

Love,

Hermana Bingham

Insane week

My dearest family,

This week... insane. just to put it all in one word. A lot of interesting things have happened. First off, Sister Kofford is getting transferred tomorrow... it sucks. We are like, bestest friends, and now she has to leave me. I really don't want a new companion. But there's a possibility that she'll get transferred to the other spanish ward that meets in our building, so I could still see her all the time. But maybe not. Transfers stink. I don't like them. But it's been a good 12 weeks with her. I love her to death. I couldn't have asked for a better companion.

Second, every six weeks there is an outgoing missionary fireside. In spanish, we call it the despedida. This is where all the missionaries that are leaving for home share their testimonies, some recent converts or re-activated less actives share testimonies, and there is a musical number. And President and Sister Watkins talk too. :) So one of our dear sisters, Sister Hall, is headed home. She was Sister Raney's trainer, and an STL, so we see her semi often and her and Koffs are good friends. So she asked Koffs to sing at the despedida. So Koffs sang and I accompanied her on the piano. It was so fun! The song was called "I have not seen, yet I believe" a Sally DeFord song. It was awesome! Also, there were like A BAGAZILLION people there. Like, the entire chapel and cultural hall was full... yikes. But it was fun and went really well.

I have a REALLY cool story for all y'all now. Like, really cool. So this week we were going through formers to try to find new investigators, and I came across this family. Missionaries started visiting them in Dec 2007, kept going for like a yearish, maybe more, stopped, and then about a year and a half ago, other missionaries went and visited, and stopped about a year ago. So I decided that we needed to go see them. We decided to go during the hour of power, hoping something good would come out of it. So we head over to their apartment, and knock on the door. I can hear people inside, but no one answers. So we knock again. (Keep in mind that I have a curse... everytime I try to lead a lesson, and do 90% of the talking, lessons fall through, people don't answer.... really, like every single time. It sucks.) So we wait, and then the door opens. This man comes to the door, and I say, "Javier?" and it was him! But here's the weird part... I feel like I know him. I have NEVER seen him before in my life, but I just felt like I knew him! And a couple weeks before Elder Hammond (our zone leader) had been talking about how we made promises to people in the pre-mortal life that we would find them here. And what I'm gathering is that I knew him, and I made a promise to him that I would bring him the gospel. Cool right? So we talked to him for a bit and set up a return appointment for Saturday. So we get there Saturday and started visiting with him, and he just starts bawling. He doesn't have a job right now and last year he was in an accident and broke his neck, and is just having a really really hard time right now. So I told him "Creo que hay un razon que estamos aqui. El evangelio puede ayudarle con todas estas problemas, y queremos compartir como." Or in other words, I think there is a reason that we're here. The gospel can help you with all of these problems, and we want to share how. And he agreed that he thinks there is a reason too. MIssionaries had been visiting for years, but this time was different. We asked him to come to church, and he said he'd try. Which with EVERYBODY else, that means they won't come. So we weren't expecting him. Sad that our trust in the people is so low... it happens. But then he walked into the chapel with his 4 year old son Diego! WOW!! A sister in our ward gave a talk on covenants, and after Javier said that he needs these covenants, and the thinks that this is the way! And it is the way! I've just got a really good feeling about this family. Javier is the dad, and Alejandra is his wife. They have 3 kids, Jared (17), Omar (8) and Diego (4). Pray for them please!

In other news, 21 happened again! But here's the crazy part, after 5 weeks into the transfer, we only had 8 baptisms. This weekend we had 13! Thirteen baptisms in our zone in 2 days. Crazy right! It was a miracle! And Jesse got baptized! We are so so so happy!

I love this gospel. It is so true. The restoration really did happen, and we have the restored gospel on the earth today. I am so grateful for it. I love it, and I love my Heavenly Father and my Savior Jesus Christ.

I love you all, have an amazing week.

Love,

Hermana Bingham

 Us with Geisy before his baptism

Koffs and I with Sister Hall, who is going home this week. :( 

 E. Hathcock, Hna. Raney and I. Also E. James (a memeber of my zone)
because we needed another elder in the picture. :)

 Koffs and I with Jared and Marifer Paredes. Our favorite members. We eat at their house every Sunday, and take good care of us. Marifer is standing on a chair. She's super short, so she wanted to be tall like everyone else. :)

 Sister Jensen, me, Elder Vernon, Elder Nielson, Sister Kofford, and Sister Spackman. The Elders and Koffs and I have a secret agent joke. Also we like to play settlers of Catan on pdays. That's how this picture came about.

 The sisters of Yerba Buena. Jensen and Koffs are getting transferred. :(

Koffs and I with Adairis (one of our investigators) and her son Angelo

Flying Spaghetti Monsters

Hey family!!

How's life? Sounds like life is pretty busy, but pretty good! Which is always good. That's what I like to hear.

Sounds like school and work and gym and choir and calander making and everything is going wonderfully for all of you. That makes me so happy! Good work Bryce for getting a 28! Get it up to a 30, that will get you half tuition at BYU. What colleges are you applying to? BYU, BYU, BYU, and BYU right? No but really, where do you want to go? You can't just give me a "I'm appying for colleges right now" and then not tell me where you want to go!

Jayson, how was your campout? I want to hear all about it! Digame todo!!!

Kyla, sounds like gym is going great! With the backhandspring again and fly aways and adding in a twist? Wow! Tell me more! Pictures? Videos? :)

Mom, sounds like you've been keeping busy with activity days and calander making and primary. It sounds like your 10 lost tribes game was a hit! Sounds like fun! And I've never really understood the whole having a testimony of the church and the Book of Mormon but not Joseph Smith thing either. It doesn't make sense. Like, at all. Maybe someday we'll find out what's going on in their brains. But probably even then it won't make sense. And yay for the Calander being faster! Woohoo! Saving time and energy. Booya. Also dineros. That's always good.

And Dad, it sounds like you've also been busy with work and callings and all that good stuff. Keep up the hard work. I've decided that busy is the best way to live life. It goes by faster that way. :) Also, there is never a dull moment. And you learn new things all the time!

Speaking of learning new things: Yesterday while contacting Sister Kofford and I talked to a guy that said he belonged to the Pastastolic church. Or in other words, The Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster. It's real, his friend that was standing right there looked it up because he knew nothing about it either. Basically, this guy claims that he believes that a Flying Spaghetti Monster created the earth, and everything in it. Which is just ridiculous, Spaghetti wasn't even created until the 1800s. Also, they can basically do whatever they want. And heaven and hell... well you'll just have to look into it. I don't know if it's appropriate to be writing in a missionary email home that will be going on a blog for everybody to read. Basically, this "church" is ridiculous, and for men that just want to party and don't have to be self concious about commandments or rules or anything like that. But I'm 99 percent positive that no woman would join this church. It's ridiculous. Also, a flying spaghetti monster? Really? Oh well, you learn interesting things being on a mission. Also I learned this week that since I'm from Utah I have the power to make a phone call and make people disappear... yeah. I don't get it either. Crazy people.

We had a better week this week. We found out the Geisy will be able to get baptized this saturday. it's 95% likely to happen. We passed him to the elders though, since he techinically lives in their area. But still pretty cool after all the trouble we went through with him. And Adairis, one of our FAVORITE investigators (is it bad that I'm picking favorites?) and her esposo person Miguel and their baby Angelo CAME TO CHURCH YESTERDAY!!! I never thought I would be so happy about someone coming to church. But we haven't had an investigator at church for the last 4 weeks, and they have never come to church (except for twice like, 2 years ago) and Kofford has been teaching her most of the time she's been here, which is 4 transfers. They are still difficult in some areas, like seeing why they need to get married, and why baptism is important (we've taught the restoration about 50 times) but they are amazing and we love them and they're trying. So it's good. We also made those sugar cookies that you sent me mom, and then took them a plate and a note and ding dong ditched it. Turns out she wasn't home, but later that night she texted us and we had the sweetest conversation ever. We told her how much she has influenced us for good and that we love her, and she was so sweet. She told us she loves us with all her heart and she never wants us to leave. She said she'll never forget us and we've helped her so much. It was super tender. It's moments like those when you realize that you are making a difference. Even if it seems like NONE of your investigators care at all and you aren't helping anybody, you are. And you may not always see it. But you are helping people change their lives, and just being there for them is so incredibly important. Also, helping them get eternal salvation. It's pretty great. Man I'm lucky.

I hope everything continues to go great. I love you all, and you're always in my prayers. Have a great week!

I love you!!

Love,

Hermana Bingham

p.s. I'm still lovin the perm. :)