Happy Birthday!

Hello family!!

Sounds like everyone had a good week! Thank you SOOOOOOOOOOOOO much for all the birthday wishes. I loved the package. It was awesome. I wore my dress yesterday, wearing my shirt today (and will wear the llama shirt later) and I'll probably make my cake sometime today. We didn't have time yesterday, we were gone ALL day. We had ward council at 8, were at church until 2, then Raelma (one of our investigators) got us pupusas for my birthday, we had one lesson, and then went and grabbed dinner from our bishops family before we had to head up to San Jose for Hermana Bench's outgoing fireside. They were so cute. They made us dinner and made me a cake. They sang to me and I blew out the candles. It was so sweet. Then we had to run. 

So every six weeks, the missionaries that are going home speak at a fireside in San Jose. They share their testimonies, there are some musical numbers, and people from all over the mission come to see it. Also some recent converts speak. It's really awesome. And last night President and Sister Watkins spoke as well because it is their last outgoing before they leave in June. We will miss them so much. So it was kind of a crazy birthday, but it was fun. I got to see lots of people from the Yerba Buena ward, and it was really good. But it was overall a good day. We might do something today to party, but there is a lot of stuff we have to get done for Hermana Bench before she leaves tomorrow.

So tomorrow is transfer meeting. I will be getting a new companion and I'm super excited. President said he's sending me someone good because I only have six weeks left here. Also, this transfer I've been assigned to be and STL (Sister Training Leader). Which basically means that I get to go on exchanges with the sisters in my area, and help them, make sure they are doing okay, all that good stuff. I'm super excited to be able to learn from all of them. It will be an awesome experience. 

This week was kind of crazy. Because of my new assignment we had a meeting up in San Jose on Friday. But we found out Thursday night at 10:35 we had to be up there Friday morning. So that was crazy. We had to cancel all our appointments. It was super sad. But other than that it's been good. Since it's Hermana Bench's last week, everyone has been feeding us. Lunch and dinner. So we've been set!

I learned a lot in my meeting. We talked a lot about serving up. I'm so excited to be able to serve other sisters in this mission. It will be awesome. I get to help so many people. I'm nervous, and feeling a little inadequate, but I'm super excited to learn from all the other sisters here. 

I love you all. Sorry this email is kind of super lame. Hopefully I'll have more time to write next week! I love you!

Love,

Hermana Bingham

 Lopez family and us

A member took us to Bubba Gump's for my birthday. They sang to me

Maschger family. They are like, our favorites. 

Sister's Training

Hey there family!

It's been an awesome week! Sounds like you had a great one as well. Lots of fun things going on. Mom, I love those patterns of light videos. They are the best. It's a great talk. 

So this week was awesome. We started off by having Zone Conference on Tuesday, which knocked out a good chunk of our day because it was up in San Jose. But it was awesome. We had a big Q&A panel, so we could ask whatever we wanted and members of our mission presidency and their wives and President and Sister Watkins would give us advice. We talked a lot about school, marriage, and family and it was really good. We got lots of good advice. 

And then on Saturday we had a sister's training for all 107 sisters in our mission. We went up to San Jose, and had a full day (9-3) of speakers, activities, lunch, being edified, seeing old friends... It was really fun. I got to spend a lot of the day with Sister Kofford, because we were divided into groups and she was in mine. She says she thinks about living with you guys more and more often. She's seriously considering it. But we'll let you know when she gets all the for sure details figured out. It was fun. We had a special guest speaker, which was none other than Elaine S. Dalton! It was so cool, because she was the general YW's president when I was in young woman's. She kept saying how lucky she was to get to come talk to "her young women." She is so amazing. We all stood up and recited the young woman's theme, and she talked about how we are daughters of our Heavenly Father, and because we know that, and we are members of His church, we carry His light. And people see that light. Even if they don't know who we are, they see our light.  She told us we are NOT ordinary, we are very special, and that we were reserved for now, according to the foreknowledge of God (Alma 13). That before this life we were kept in Heaven and prepared for right now---for this time we have on early. And then she talked about how we were saved because of our testimonies. We all know that we fought and WON a war of words in the premortal existence. We won the war with our testimonies of Jesus Christ. And we were all saved for this point in time because of those testimonies. We are to do here, exactly what we did there. Fight with our testimonies to bring our brothers and sisters back to our Father in Heaven. And we are able to do that because of our faith. We have to let Him lead us by the hand. She also told us a story of some young women that she met in Africa. They were talking about some of the challenges that they had, what their lives were like, who they were, and then Sister Dalton asked them what the most challenging thing about being a young woman in Africa was. And they were silent. She said that usually when she asks that question, girls shoot up their hands with answers like modesty, or language that you hear at school, or drugs... stuff like that. But these girls were quiet. So she asked again. And they were still quiet. Finally, one of them stood up and said, "Yes it is true, we have many challenges. But Sister Dalton don't you know? We have the restored gospel of Jesus Christ." How amazing is that? Yes we have challenges, but we have the restored gospel. I challenge each of us to have that attitude. life may be hard. We may have trials and burdens. But always remember, that we have the restored gospel of Jesus Christ. And with that, we can do anything. 

I love you all, and hope you have a fantastic week. Always remember how lucky you are to have the gospel. There are so many people out there that don't. 

Love,

Hermana Bingham

We had to cancel all our appointments Monday night
because Sister Bench had an eye infection.

  I made authentic paella!

  ...from a box. Not as good. :(

Cherryl got baptized!!!!

Melissa Booher (her member roommate), Cherryl, Sister Bench, and me. Yay!!!

Happy Mother's Day!

Hey fam!

 It was so awesome to talk to you all yesterday! I loved it! I can't believe Bryce is going to Argentina! That is so awesome! Seriously, I was thinking about it ALL day yesterday. Whenever I had a minute to think, I was thinking about Argentina, and my brother rocking the missionary work down there! I'm so excited for you Bryce, and good news, the video did work! I figured it out! So I got to watch it. It was upside down. But it was fun to watch. :) I also got to see Kyla's blooper... nice. That was pretty good. I got everyone laughing. :) So thanks for that. 

But it was SO GOOD to see all your faces yesterday! I love skyping home. It's fun. I get to actually talk to you. And laugh with you! It kind of re-energizes me for the next little while. So crazy to think that the next time I actually talk to you or see your faces will be Christmas. And I will be getting released. Not sure how much I like that thought, but we don't need to talk about that. 

Thank you so much for all your love and support. I really have been blessed with the best family ever. I love you all so much and I am so grateful for your support out here in the mission field. Sometimes, life is hard out here. But what keeps me going is knowing that I have family, and friends, and a Heavenly Father and Savior that are ALWAYS on my side. So thank you so much. You are all such good examples to me. I'm so grateful that I have you in my life. Thanks mom and dad for being the best parents ever. For teaching me the gospel and making sure I was doing the best I could, and living up to my potential. I needed the push. :) And thank you Bryce and Jayson for being super awesome brothers. You two never cease to make me laugh. And Kyla, I am so glad I prayed you into the family. ;) You are the best little sister ever. I am so glad I have you. Thanks for everything you are, and the example you are to me. 

I love you all. I hope you have a fantastic week. Sorry this is so short... I just told you everything yesterday! I love you!

Love,

Hermana Bingham

We painted a rainbow for service! Here are some pictures! 

Mission Calls and Skype

Hey fam!!!

Sounds like you all have had a good week! Women's conference, daddy/daughter time, trip to St. George, super fun! Also, BRYCE'S MISSION CALL IS COMING THIS WEEK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! You have no idea how excited I am. I'm like, dying. No joke. Like, I have been telling EVERYONE for the past couple of weeks that my brother is getting his call, and that I'm super excited. And proud. Man, I can't wait! Also, I get to talk to ya'll on Sunday! So that's super fun! 

This week was pretty good. We found some awesome new investigators, finished teaching Cherryl everything (all that's left is her interview, and then baptism on the 17th!!!!), set a date for June 28th with Enner (he can only come to church every other week :( ), did lots of service, and all sorts of fun stuff. This week we got to help set up for the stake women's conference. It was really fun. We set up lots and lots of tables, and decorated them all with this sister in our ward that's a caterer. It was really fun. Time consuming, but fun. And then we got to go eat lunch there the next day, and see all our hard work be put to use. I liked it. It was really fun. But really sad because like, no one showed up to help this lady set up, so it took way longer than it needed too. Poor thing. But we got it done, and that's all that matters. Enner has been reading and really likes it. He believes that it's all true, and is really excited to get baptized. Cherryl has been telling everyone about her baptism, and is so excited. Problem is that she's obese, so we've been working with President Watkins figuring out how to baptize her, and what to do about clothes. But it's coming along. Also, Have I told ya'll about Raelma? She is SO COOL! We met her last transfer. She was a referral from a member of our ward, so Sister Bench and Sister Spackman went and started teaching her. She has been studying the church for about 10 years, and was actually the one that introduced the member that referred us to her to the church. She didn't get baptized though because her husband was super against it. So she put it on the back burner for a while. But she is so prepared. She has a triple, has read it all, has read the gospel principles book, studies preach my gospel... everything. She's so cool. she and her husband got a divorce, so now she's ready to get baptized. But, she has a friend in El Salvador that wants to get baptized too. But the missionaries haven't been in contact with him. We've been trying to get them in contact, but nothing has worked. They want to get baptized on the same day, because they also want to get sealed in the temple together. He's coming up here in maybe June or July. But this week we talked to her about not waiting, and she's praying about being baptized this weekend! We're so excited. Pray hard for her! 

I love you all, and I can't wait to talk to you on Mother's day. It will be so fun! I hope you have a great week! See you soon!

Love,

Hermana Bingham

We decorated Cherryl's door for her birthday!

Some random lady tied a balloon to sister Bench's wrist while we were contacting. 

We couldn't get it off!