Hermana Bingham's Adventures in San Jose: 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