The 1st Email, Week 1

Hola mi familia!

First off, I just want to apologize for taking so long to write you. My p-days are on Wednesday, so I haven't had a chance to write before now! But I appreciate the emails, and the package. You should see the pile of food in our apartment, it's insane. Like, super huge. We have all gotten packages full of food, and we're not allowed to eat in the classrooms, so it sits in the apartment and sometimes at night we pig out. It's pretty great. Of course then we're on a sugar high when we go to sleep, but esta bien (my accent button isn't working. Que triste). Oh and before I forget, please tell Brother and Sister McKee thanks for the cinnamon rolls. They sent me some and they were delicious. So tell them thanks a bagazillion. :) Oh! Jayson, the password for the voicemail is the last 4 digits of the phone number, which is 3541. And el baño is down the hall from where I´m sitting right now actually.

So the first day was pretty crazy. My brain felt like it was about to explode, especially when we met our teacher. She only speaks to us in Spanish, which is awesome, but sometimes hard. But now I understand 99% of what she´s saying. She served her mission in Malaga, crazy right? Her name is Hermana Gibson, and we love her. My district is awesome too. Hna. Raney (my companion) and I are both going to San Jose along with 2 of our elders, and then we have 2 hermanas and 2 elders going to Chicago. We have a great zone as well. Love them all.

So the first two days were pretty overwheming. There is a lot of Spanish to learn, and lots of everthing to learn. And to make matters worse, we were informed that we had to teach an investiagor on Friday in all Spanish. yeah, i figured that was coming, but it was still super freaky. And our first lesson went awful. We didn't know what he was saying and life was just frustrating. We taught him again on Saturday, and it was a lot better, but when we taught him again on Monday it was awesome. The spirit was actually there and we were communicating better with him. Hna. Raney has taken no spanish, so it's hard and I tend to dominate the lesson and talk the whole time. But we spread out more evenly on the lesson on Monday. It was good. COOL STORY! So we were talking about prayer, and it was almost time for us to leave, and I felt like I needed to find a scripture on prayer so I started looking while Hna. Raney was bearing her testimony. I had like a minute tops, and all I was able to do before she was done was flip to prayer in the index. So I asked Jose to read the first scripture I saw- 1 Nephi 18. He asked me why and I told him it was a good story about prayer and God hearing our prayers, praying that it was. So we left and I looked and guess what story it is? Nephi on the boat praying for the sea to be calm, and the sea and storm is calmed. It was so cool! I was definitely being guided by the spirit, and I am super grateful for that. So hopefully he gets something out of it and when we go back tonight he'll have read it and we can teach him something good. I have definitely learned to trust in the Lord and rely on the Holy Ghost, otherwise I will never make it through this place, let alone my mission. I do love it here though.

So I love being in Wyview. They kept the bunkbeds like the ones that were in Katrina and Kelsie's room, and that one's basically the same, and then in the single room they put bunk beds that stack directly on top of each other. So it's not bad. There are just four of us in an apartment, and no, I'm not in the same one that I was in at BYU. oh well. There are totally moving people from the main campus into mine today though. I was kind of jealous. Classes are in Raintree, ours is in a living room and other districts are in the old bedrooms. But it's pretty great. I like it. We eat in the pool house at Raintree. We only have one option for dinner, and since my first time eating at the main campus cafeteria was today (we can go there on pdays) it's fine because I don't know any better!

Well, my time is short, but I'll try to write you guys a letter. I hope you have fun at the family reunion and in Costa Rica! I love you so so much! Thanks for being so supportive of me! Love you guys!

Love,

Hermana Bingham

p.s. Oh yeah, I've seen Amanda Smith, pictured, Ciara, a couple guys from BYU, Tom Whitlock, Cody Pritchett, and Hazael Finkenthal. It's always nice to see a familiar face! I still need to see Skyler Flint and Craig Findlay though! hopefully soon!

Hna Raney and I

Me, Hna. Raney, Hna. Izu and Hna. Kinghorn (Chicago sisters)

Me, Hna. Raney, Hna. Izu and Hna. Kinghorn (Chicago sisters)