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