Hermana Bingham's Adventures in San Jose: Changes

Hello Family!

So honestly, nothing too exciting happened this week. Probably the highlight was testimony meeting yesterday. Many people bore their testimonies, and it was great. But the best part was when little Geisy got up and bore his testimony. Do you all remember Geisy? He's 12 and got baptized a couple months ago? Well, when he got up and bore his testimony, and was so so nervous. And he started crying, and it was the most heart warming thing in the world. He talked about how he knew this church was true, and he knew he could pray to ask Heavenly Father to take care of his family, and that Heavenly Father would help him. It was so tender. Also, there is no better feeling in the world than seeing your recent converts get up and pass the sacrament, or bear their testimonies. It was awesome. And then Michelle got up and bore hers. It was the best ever. And then to top it off, Yahaira found us after sacrament meeting, and told us that she took out her nose piercing because she wants to feel cleaner and more pure. Later she told us she had a really good feeling when she took it out, and is going to take out her lip piercing this month. She wanted to take it out yesterday, we don't know if she did our not, but she's starting to change. She got a calling yesterday as the YW's secretary, and she's super excited. She's excited to be a friend and an example to the girls, and work with them. And she's working on changing even more so that she can feel clean and pure when she goes to the temple on the 8th with the ward to do baptisms for the dead. I'm so excited for her. Just the changes that you see others make is a huge blessing as a missionary. You watch them change their lives for their Savior. And it makes me think. What am I doing to change myself every day? What am I doing to be better for the Lord? Am I really repenting and changing? Or am I just stuck in a rut? So that's one of my goals for this year. Change. I know it's not super specific, but I want to leave old habits behind. Habits that don't bring me closer to my Savior are going in the trash. I am going to use the Atonement, and be better. Become better for me, for my investigators, for my family, but most importantly, for Him. Because He has given me everything, and I can give him a little of me back.

So New Years... it's different as a missionary. We still had to be in our houses at 9, in bed by 10:30, so we got to go to the ward party for an hour! from 8 to 9. But since it started at 8, and it's a latino party and we're on Latino standard time AND mormon standard time, it didn't really start until after we left. But it was still fun.

This week we watched the Restoration movie with one of our investigators Cinthia who is 16, her 11 year old brother Rodrigo, and her 7 year old sister Darlin. So we watched it, and then asked them what they thought, what they liked, and Darlin piped up and said, "That was the best movie I've ever seen!" It was so cute. What 7 year old likes the Restoration movie? She did! It was awesome! It was a really good experience, and Cinthia asked a lot of good questions. It was great. But really, Darlin is so adorable. She loves us. She gave us little Christmas presents. She drew us a picture, wrote Merry Christmas on a paper towel, and then painted a cross on these little stones. So cute. She's the greatest. out of the whole family, she's the one that reads in the Book of Mormon the most. Too bad we can't just baptize her. We need to find out when she turns 8. :)

Well, I hope you all have a fantastic week, I love you all! Talk to strangers! (Oh wait, that's my job... :)

Love,

Hermana Bingham