Prayer and Scripture Study

Hello family!

So it has been a good week here in Seaside. I'm glad you all had fun at Lake Powell, sounds like it was a blast! Start planning next summer's trip now. I'm thinking a week long thing. Just so you know. But just as long as I get to go there, I'll be happy. Also, I bet the Ashcroft reunion will be super fun. And also girls camp. Look at you all, planning tons and tons of trips and camp outs and stuff. Sounds like it will be a busy summer! And indexing! Wow! Keep up the good work. That BBQ sounds nice. And super fun. Buying food with names. Good work bishop! Also, sad that Afton Chambers had to come home. I'll keep her in my prayers. Hopefully she can get better and go back out. Speaking of coming home, Myley goes home July 29th. She is headed home a bit early, and she said it's a long story so she'll tell me later, but if you could just keep her in your prayers. She loves her mission, and I can tell she's really sad to be going home, but she knows that it's the right thing to do. So just pray for her. And then take care of her for me when she gets back. :) 

It's been a pretty good week. I got to go on a couple exchanges. The first one was with the Marina sisters, so I got to go work in Marina for a day with Sister Ikegami. She is my favorite. I love her so much. She's trying to transfer over to BYU right now, so you'll probably meet her next winter. She goes home in November, and we're talking about rooming together. We'll see what happens. But it was really fun. She is a really hard working missionary, and we are super good friends. I also got to go on exchanges with Sister Bassett this week, one of the Santa Cruz sisters. We came down here and worked, and she's super awesome as well. I feel so blessed. I get to work with all these incredible sisters. Seriously. We cover the sisters in our zone and in the Santa Cruz zone, and all of the sisters are INCREDIBLE! They are amazing! I just can't believe the caliber of sisters we have in this mission. Seriously, it's zion down here. 

In other news, President and Sister Watkins have officially gone home, and we have been graced with the presence of President and Sister Mella. They sound great. I haven't met them yet, but we'll be headed up to San Jose tomorrow morning for a meet and greet, so I'll get to meet them. I'll let you know how it goes! I'm sure they are great.I'm super excited to work with them! Hopefully I'll get to be an STL for a while so that I can work more closely with them. And I should be getting transferred next week, but I'll let you know for sure on Monday. We'll find out soon!

This week has been interesting. I'm in a great area, with a great companion, but a lot of things have been happening that try my patience. Investigators, different things my companion does, the ward on occasion... and I thought I was a pretty patient person, but I'm not at all. Sad day. This morning though I just sat there and thought about what was going through my head, and decided I was acting like a teenager... wow. Yeah, thought I got out of that phase a month ago... haha. But really, and it hit me hard how much I let little things that I can't control and that don't matter bother me. So I just prayed. And studied prayer. And wow, it's amazing what scripture study and prayer can do. I feel 100% better. I'm excited to have situations that try my patience. Not really, but more so. But when I prayed, and when I studied, I immediately felt better. And it's incredible the difference you can feel. The spirit was so much stronger, and I knew that that is what I have to focus on. Prayer, and scripture study. Those work when nothing else does. I can testify of that. So keep doing the little things. They will bless your life more than you know. I love you all. I hope you have a fantastic week. You are constantly in my prayers. Love you!

Love,

Hermana Bingham

Happy one year to me! My district got me a balloon. And a chicken. But that's a long story. :)

  I was on exchanges with sister Bassett on my one year, and we made a sign for Sister Craig, since she gets married this saturday. 

 day after.. but look what Hna. Thornton made for my one year the day before! 

I just forgot to take a pic

 She made me this little sign too. super cute!

Vicki and me. She's a less active member. I love her.

Janet, Hna. Thornton and me. Janet is another less active memeber that we've been working with.

Rescue

Hola familia!

It's been a good week! I am jealous of the fact that you are at lake powell right now, but as long as we go first thing next summer too, I think I'll be okay. I might forgive you. 

Sounds like you've got a lot of stuff going on! Girls camp prep, talks in sacrament (go Kyla!), indexing, exploring on the boat and fishing, Jayson is working at Magleby's too... wow! Pretty soon we'll have a family legacy at that place! My kids will work there too? Jokes. But like, for reals. We'll just keep this going forever. But in order to keep the chain, one of us will have to work there for a while after missions. I vote not me. :) 

It's been a good week here too! We had an awesome week for lessons... we got 26! Usually we get around 23, so this was awesome. We've had a lot of really good solid ones as well. Have a told you about Melanie? If I haven't I should. 

Here in the California San Jose Mission we focus a lot on the rescue. Basically bringing people that have already made sacred covenants back into the fold. It's really awesome. We believe that a rescue is just as important as a baptism. We just don't report them in numbers. But it is amazing!!! So Melanie is a less active that is returning to church. She has an amazing story! She grew up in the church down in Southern CA. She went to church, went to seminary, but as a teenager decided that she wanted to prove that she could be a good person and not be Mormon, and be a good person and drink, gave into peer pressure, and took her first drink of alcohol. After that it went downhill. She left the church, didn't really want anything to do with it, and became an alcoholic. She always believed in God, always was really in-tune to the spirit, was a spiritually aware person, had awesome experiences, and went to different churches. She thought she was winning. Right? Wrong. Well she hit rock bottom with the alcohol, and started going to AA meetings. She has now been sober for a few years. But her husband is an alcoholic that doesn't want to do anything about it. And there is a lot of other stuff that was wrong in the marriage, and she had been praying to know what to do. Should she get a divorce? She felt like he was holding her back, and it wasn't a very good situation. She has a 7.5 year old son, and didn't know what to do. Well one day she felt very strongly that she needed to get a divorce and leave him. So she and her son were staying with a friend, and they went to church on Sunday. And while she was sitting there she heard, "What are you doing here Melanie? I want you in the Mormon church." And she realized she didn't know what she was doing there. And as much as she didn't want to go back to the Mormon church, the next Sunday she showed up in our sacrament meeting. She met the bishop and the RS president, and decided that she wanted to take the discussions over again. The last time she had gone to church was 20 years earlier. We met her, set up an appointment with her, and all was well. But apparently the same day she came to our church, her husband showed up at her old church looking for her. So it was a miracle that she was at ours! And she is the most amazing person in the whole world. She really truly wants to know of the truth, she is so grateful that she is back in the church, she recognizes the hand of God in her life like no one else I've ever met... she loves the Book of Mormon and reads it all the time, and we are just lucky enough to be a part of teaching her and her journey back. She is preparing to receive her patriarchal blessing here in a couple months, and we are so excited for her. She is amazing! I feel so blessed to be able to learn from her. She is incredible. I will you all could meet her. But I just love the fact that missionary work isn't always finding people that have never been baptized. It's also helping the lost sheep that have wandered away from their covenants, and bringing them back. Missionary work is the greatest. I love you all. I hope you have a fantastic week. Say hi to Lake Powell for me, and tell it that I love it and miss it. :) Jokes. I love you all, I miss you all. Have an awesome week! 

Love,

Hermana Bingham

p.s. I decided what I want for Christmas. Or wedding. It would make a good present on either occasion. It's a book that is pictures of a lot of the temples in the US. It's called His Holy House by Boyd. you can find it at Deseret Book. A member of our bishopric just bought one, and it's like the greatest thing in the world. You should go look at it!

 Point Lobos!

 More

 Just watching some waves. On rocks. Right next to the ocean. No big deal.

 Um yeah. Beautiful, right?

 Just trying to catch some little crabs! Right next to the water!

 Sister Smith turned into Santa at the RS party!

Frostys and pb...try it.

Happy Father's Day

Hello family!

First off, HAPPY FATHER'S DAY DADDY!! I hope you had a fantabulous day, you deserve it! 

Sounds like you all had a good week. Good job with the race dad! I'm so proud! Sounds like you've been super busy mom. Good work! Oh wait, I have a question. A couple of weeks ago in Relief Society they came in and announced that now it's required that you take your own family names to the temple. Like, they'll check and see if you have names at the recommend desk. Is that true? That just sounds a little crazy. Good, but also, it would be hard to go to the temple as often! 

Also, I love the idea for the t-shirt mom. That sounds awesome. When is the reunion again? I'm sad I'll miss it. But I missed it last year, and I lived, so I'll be okay. :) Just tell me all about it. And Lake Powell! Is that this week? Sounds like so much fun! Have fun. I have no suggestions. It is just all beautiful and amazing and fun. I'm sure you'll all have a blast. :)

Also, I just found out that Kelsie, my old roommate is ENGAGED!! Crazy right? I'm so happy for her. She's getting married in november up in Portland. So I'll miss it. Oh well. But I'm just so happy for her! You'll have to fb stalk her okay mom? haha :)

So it's been a good week. We got to go on exchanges with the Watsonville hermanas this week, so I got to go hang out in Watsonville for the day with Hna. Arias. Remember her? She served in YB with me. It was really good. The poor girl is having a really hard time right now. Her companion and her are having some struggles right now, individually and together, so it was really amazing to be able to go work with her for a day and do my best to help her. She really opened up to me about everything that's been going on, and I was sitting there and just didn't know how to help. I didn't know what I could say or do that could possibly help her. She has been through SO much in her past, and it's all coming back to her memory now and she can't sleep at night. And she has low self-esteem, and blames herself for everything... I just didn't know what to do. She's been seeing a counselor from LDS family services, so that's been helping, but there I was, her STL and didn't know how to help her. But I learned a very important lesson. The Lord will put words in our mouth, all we have to do is open them. And yes, I've learned that lesson a thousand times, But it was really cool. I was able to share some experiences that I've had a the past couple of transfers, and use those to help her. I also read with her a part of E. Bednar's conference talk "Bear Up Their Burdens with Ease" from this last conference. It just popped into my head. And then a quote that Charlie mailed me a few months ago from Ralph Waldo Emmerson that says, "That which we persist in doing becomes easier; not that the task itself has changed, but our power to do is increased." or something like that. But it helped her a lot. I didn't say anything special, but it was amazing how the Lord brought things to my remembrance, and then let me speak so that I could help her somehow. He's kind of awesome. I know that as we open our mouths, he will put words there. We just have to be willing. Open your mouths, share your testimonies, be bold!! It will be awesome. I love you all!

Love,

Hermana Bingham

 Oh look, we jump again.

At the beach! Hna Thornton, me, Hna Kofford, Hna Anderson, Hna Santidrian

 Hna. Thornton and me!

 We decorated Sister Booher's door for her birthday!

This is how cold it was yesterday! Is it January, or June?!!?

Recent convert Keisha, her husband and son. She's moving! :(

Sacrament Meeting Attendance

Heyo family!

Sounds like it has been an awesome week! Scout camp (which I still want to hear about), gymnastics, cat allergies (What?!?!), new board games, quite the adventure! Also, I am super excited to play that new board game. Sounds like fun! Charlie and I are totally down, well, I'll just volunteer him. haha :) Also, sounds like Brother Steadman leading the music was quite the hit. :) Wish I could've seen that! So Rhett is back huh? Very cool. It's crazy how fast time flies. I mean, I will hit my year mark here in a couple weeks. So that's pretty nuts. I feel like I was just in the MTC. And I've been here for a year, I'm about to move into my last area here in a few weeks, we're getting a new mission president here in a couple weeks... Life is just insane. And flying by. I remember sitting there at the beginning of my mission, feeling like 18 months is FOREVER!! But it's the fastest thing I've ever done. Sad day. Also, mom was right. The church is sending end of december missionaries home early. I will be coming home the week before Christmas. At least according to what Sister Thornton told me! But we shall see, we shall see!

So this week was awesome! Full of miracles! We had a couple of zone training meetings that we had to go to, but they both went really well! I also did my first exchanges as an STL and it was super fun. But probably the best part of the whole week was yesterday! So we were sitting in sacrament meeting at nine in the Fort Ord ward, and no one came. It was super depressing. But then we headed over to Seaside ward sacrament meeting, and in walks our new investigator Ana (member referral, SCORE!), with her daughter that we had never met, and then Aldo came (another investigator), and then Pablo and Lidia came (Pablo and Lidia are recent converts, but Lidia hasnt' been able to come since her baptism because of work), and then in walked Tiffany! She is a less active member that hasn't been to church the whole time I've been here. She's really bitter and angry at God, she's not in full fellowship of the church, but she is the sweetest. I love her. And she came!!! I seriously just sat there during the sacrament and cried. I was so happy. It amazes me how much joy comes from people coming to church. Like really, that probably makes me more happy than anything at this point. When people are able to come and renew their covenants and feel of the powerful spirit that is in those meetings. It was awesome. Then Ana and her daughter had to leave before sunday school, but Aldo came, and so did the stake president, and the 2nd councilor in our bishopric, and Pablo and Lidia. Basically, it was the best lesson on faith you could ever have in a gospel principles class. It was awesome. Miracles! And then we made all of our goals for the week, so we rewarded ourselves by going to the ARP (addiction recovery program) meeting. Seriously, those things are the best. The spirit in those meetings is so strong, as these people try to overcome their weaknesses. Wow. They are just incredible. I don't even know how to describe them. But I do know that that spirit comes through the atonement of Jesus Christ. The atonement is so real, and I am so grateful for it. It's so amazing to me how much the atonement covers. It covers EVERYTHING! If we put our trust in Christ, and use His atonement, we can overpower any weakness, any trial, any sin, any sadness, or pain, or sorrow... And it's all because of Him. I love my Savior Jesus Christ, and I know that through Him, we can become perfect, even as He is. 

I love you all, and hope you have a fantastic week. You are all AMAZING!

Love,

Hermana Bingham

Having a Great Time

Hello family!!

It's been a good week. Okay, it's been a GREAT week!!! But before I talk about that... 

Bryce graduated! Congrats little bro! I'm so proud. I got your grad announcement a while back, and I love it. You're so old. Weird! And Maddy sang the national anthem! I bet it was amazing. Also, tell Jordan and Jessica congrats for me, and I will for sure keep Richard in my prayers. I'll miss Rufus. :(. Also, dad I'm proud of you for running a half! That's better than I could ever do! So keep it up! And Happy Anniversary mom and dad!! I love you both!

So I do have a new companion! She is amazing! Her name is Hermana Thornton, from Spokane Washington, and she is AMAZING! Seriously though, we are having so much fun down here. She did two years at BYU before the mission, and runs track for them. She's super cool. We've been very active this week. We played soccer on the beach one morning, we ran on the beach a different morning... Super fun. But I'm really excited to work with her. Already, it's been so awesome. Our numbers this week were incredible, lessons have been short, simple and powerful, but full of the spirit, it's been awesome. 

So I want to tell you about one of our miracles of the week. Her name is Tanya Cook. So a few weeks ago, the sisters down in Greenfield met her at one of their member's houses. Tanya's brother is a member, so she had been there for the weekend. Her dad died recently, and she had been having a really hard time with it. So one day she called her brother, and said "I want to join your church!" So the sisters went over there, taught her the plan of salvation, then on another occasion the restoration, and then set a baptismal date with her for June 21st. And then found out that she actually lives up in our area. haha!! So they passed her off to us. We hadn't been able to meet with her though until this past Tuesday. So it was seriously our first appointment after transfer meeting on Tuesday. Sister Thornton and I came down, met up with one of our members, and then went and met Tanya. Seriously, like all she wants is to be baptized. She already felt it was true. She's been praying and reading the Book of Mormon, so we just challenged her to pray specifically to know if it was true. Then on Wednesday she called us and said she got her answer that it was true, but not only did she get it, she got it 3 TIMES! It was so amazing. Then on Sunday, Hayley Anderson went to pick her up for church. So she came into sacrament meeting, took the sacrament, listened to a couple testimonies, and then got up and left. We didn't know why. But we had to run out to another meeting, but when we got back she still wasn't there. It was just Hayley and her husband. So we go ask them what happened, and Hayley told us that Tanya hadn't come back so she had gone out to see what was wrong. Turns out, Tanya had been really uncomfortable in the dress she was wearing. She felt it was too low cut, and that she had been getting some looks, and it made her uncomfortable. And she is on oxygen, but left it at home so she had just kind of started having a panic attack and got really nervous and uncomfortable. So Hayley was amazing and talked her through it, but took her home at her request. But then Tanya felt so bad for leaving church. So we went back over with Hayley that evening, and we talked it out with her. She felt better, it just turns out she suffered with a lot of self-esteem issues when she was younger and they were all coming back. But it got better, we had an amazing lesson with her, and she's coming back on Sunday. She is so prepared. She just wants to be baptized! When she left church she said, "I just need to go home and pray and read the Book of Mormon. That will help me feel better!" And that's what she did. She is so incredible. I'm excited for her.

Well, I love you all. I hope you have an amazing week. 

Love,

Hermana Bingham

Hermana Thornton and I

Lynda and Ennobong-members of our ward.