Missionary Work

Buenos Dias!!

Hello family! It's going to be a good week. I can just feel it in my bones. This weekend we got to see the baptism of Lidia Perez, the wife of a recent convert. We also set baptismal dates for her son and his wife for March 29th. We are so excited. The baptism was beautiful. We were running around like chickens with our heads cut off before, but all was well. We had some powerful testimonies born, sacred ordinances performed, and lives changed. Awesome right? It was a good day. Unfortunately, due to craziness before, we didn't get to take pictures before the baptism, but we got some after. It was awesome. 

Carlos was supposed to get baptized this weekend, but since he's only been to church once, and they are supposed to go 3 times before they get baptized we had to move it to the 15th. He got stuck at work and couldn't come. He felt so bad though. I've never seen anyone feel so bad for not going to church. He's amazing. He just kept apologizing to us and even though we told him that it was okay since it wasn't his fault, he just kept apologizing over and over. And then when he prayed at the close of the lesson, he actually repented for it? Like, he asked for forgiveness right then and there! And he's working on getting every sunday off. Or at least going into work a little bit later. He's so golden. We had a lesson with him last night in a member's home, and in the middle of the lesson, the wife of this member family looked at her husband and said, "He is so golden!" It was funny. But really. We taught him about the word of wisdom last night, and he just soaks it all in. Like a sponge. The other day he basically taught US the gospel of Jesus Christ. He just takes everything in, he studies everything, he is always asking for a new chapter to read and study in the Book of Mormon... he's just awesome. I am so blessed to have the chance to teach him. He is so amazing. We love him. I'm so excited for him to get baptized here in a couple weeks. He's going to make the best member. He came to the adult session of stake conference this saturday too. He even WALKED! In the dark! Just to get there. He's amazing. 

So like I mentioned, we had stake conference this week. It was awesome. The Saturday night adult session was all about missionary work. I loved one thing that Sister Watkins said. She said, "If we're scared about missionary work, it's because we don't understand it." It's so true. I was TERRIFIED to be a missionary. Some days I still am. It's scary to share something that's so close and tender to you. But just open your mouth. I loved something else she said. She said that the Lord knows who is prepared. We don't have to know. We just have to be willing to open our mouths at any time. Talk to everyone! She also said, "Pray for those experiences (missionary experiences) with the intent to be obedient - that is the single-most powerful thing we can do." I love that. The most powerful thing we can do is pray. It's so true! And then I love something our stake president, President Green said. He said, "There is no spiritual power in living by convenience." So true. The gospel is not convenient. It isn't easy. It's hard, and we have to work for out blessings. But that is where spiritual power comes from. I love it. 

I'm so proud of you mom for finally finding names! That is so cool! When we thought all hope was lost! I'm so excited for you all to be able to go to the temple and do the ordinances for these people! And maybe when I get home I can help you with family history work! Yay! I'm so proud of you all. 

I'm sad to here that Bishop Carrick got released! He sent all the missionaries in the ward a super nice email though. I'm going to miss him as a Bishop. He was the best. But who knows, maybe someday I'll be in his stake! Find out where his boundaries are, and put me in there! Jokes. But only kind of. 

I hope you all have a good week! I love you all, and I'm always praying for you! 

Love,

Hermana Bingham

 Us with Pablo and Lidia

All the missionaries that have taught them! 

Valentine's Day

Yay!!! I get tax money! Yay for 5 dollars! On the bright side, I won't have anything to file taxes for this next year. How nice. :) Thanks for doing that mommy! Also, thanks so much for the package! It came on Valentine's day, so that was a nice surprise! Good timing! I loved it. When we found the peeps, Sister Bench said, "I love peeps! She knows me so well!" It was kind of funny. But we are all enjoying all the treats, and I love the shirt. I wore it on Saturday. Thank you!!!!

What a good looking couple! That's seriously so adorable. I just sent the picture to Amanda. She probably got one from her mom too, but I felt like sharing as well. :) 

Sounds like Bryce's birthday and Valentine's day were really fun! I was thinking about creme-brule all day long, I hope you know. I was like, "man, mom is making creme-brule today. And I won't get any." But then I got a package full of yummy treats, and muddy buddies, which I had been craving. So it was okay. :)

So the Payson temple will be dedicated in the 3rd quarter of 2015 huh? YAY!! That's so exciting!! We'll have to all go to the dedication together. It will be so much fun. I'm so excited. Speaking of the temple, I hear there is a new new temple video. Have you seen it? How is it? Tell me everything!

This week was pretty exciting. Probably the most exciting thing is that on Tuesday night I got a phone call from the Yerba Buena sisters telling me that Leslie and Aleilee were going to get baptized that friday. Valentine's day. So I got to go up for a baptism! Leslie is 14 and Aleilee is 8. Aide, their mom, still hasn't gotten baptized, but she said soon. I'm not exactly sure what is holding her back. So Sister Smith, a lovely member here drove me all the way to San Jose for their baptism. It was awesome!

We also set a baptismal date for Carlos this week. He will get baptized March 1st. We are so excited for him. It will be awesome. Lidia is getting baptized this Friday, so we're excited for that too. the work is hastening down here! Lots of good stuff. I'm super excited. 

Funny story of the week. Yesterday I met an less active member that is from Japan! I told her that dad served in Japan, and so the member I was on splits with said, "Oh, do you like Japanese food then?" So I said, I LOVE Japanese food! Which is true, I do like it. Well, aparently when you tell that to an old lady from Japan, it means that you LOVE sushi. So immediately she and her sister go into the kitchen and start making sushi. Yuck. It was so cute though. How do you say no? So she sent me home with a big plate of sushi. Lucky for me, Sister Spackman likes sushi, so I brought her a nice treat. :) It was funny. I learned that I need to specify that I like Japanese food, just not sushi. :) 

I love you all! It's been a good week. I've learned a lot this week that even when it feels like no one else is there, the Lord is. He is always there to listen. I had a couple rough days personally this week, but I know that when I pray and ask for help, He will always give it to me. And if we look for the little tender mercies that He sends us, we can feel His love more. I love you all. Have a great week!

With lots of love,

Hermana Bingham

p.s. have fun doing family history tonight!!! :)

At the aquarium last week

Jelly fish!

A clam!!

 The ocean

 Titanic!

 Leslie and Aleilee's baptism: Me, Sister Monical,

Aleilee, Leslie, Sister Bradshaw, Dione, and Aide

 Sister Monical, Leslie and I

 Sister Monical, Aleilee and I

 Me, Aide, Aleilee and Dione

Geisy, Me, Samantha and Michelle. They were at the baptism! 
Michelle hugged me and cried when she saw me 

because she missed me so much.  It was tender! :)

 Happy V-day

Again. We're nuts.

Pebble Beach

Dear family,

Sounds like a lot of fun things are going on over there! YW's (stressful, but fun in the end), Dad's half marathon (GO DAD!!!), Mission papers (YAY BRYCE!!!), Olympics, google-earth stalking my apartment... (good one mom) and all sorts of stuff! Sounds like a party. 

HAPPY VALENTINES DAY!!!! It will be weird not being at home with a fancy dinner from mom and creme-brulee, but I guess I wasn't at home last year either, so that's that. :) Have fun! 

So this week was AWESOME!!! So much stuff happened. First, on Wednesday Sister Bench and I spent all day volunteering at the Pebble Beach golf pro tournament (Sister Spackman was on splits with a member). That was fun. Basically we spent all day driving around in a golf cart, emptying trash cans and watching people practice. It wasn't actually a tournament day, so it was a little more low key, but I'm pretty sure I saw a bunch of famous golf players. Did I have any clue who they were? Nope. Not a single clue. But Sister Bench and I had fun trying to decide who was famous and who wasn't. It was interesting. We got free hats too. YAY! I thought about sending it home to dad, but it barely fits my head, so there is no way it would fit yours dad. :) 

This week we also set a baptismal date for Lidia Mendez. She is the wife of a recent convert named Pablo. She'll get baptized the 22 of Feb, so we're super pumped. Also Carlos will hopefully getting baptized on March 1st. We don't have a date for him yet, but he's praying about the 1st. So if you could pray for them, it would be AWESOME!! Also, pray for Jose Manuel Duenas. He's a recent convert that hasn't been to church since his baptism a month ago... yikes. We're worried. We see him once or twice a week, but he just doesn't come to church, and we can't figure out what to do to help him. Also we have another Jose Manuel, Becky (Pablo and Lidia's daughter), Cristela, Maribel, and Eduardo. There's a list for ya!! :) They need prayers!!! Thanks!

So the other super exciting thing that happened this week, is that Elder Cook of the quorum of the 12 came to our mission! Saturday morning we got up and drove to San Jose in the rain and listened to him speak! It was awesome! We all got to go up and shake his hand, and then he and his wife spoke to us. Then Elder Packer of the 70 spoke to us, and also President and Sister Watkins. Then we had a lunch break and then went back in for a mission conference, which took the place of zone conferences this transfer. It was so cool being right there, 2 rows away from an apostle. He talked a lot about how we are here for a reason. That could be because of the people or the place, or it could be because of the specific mission president. I thought that was interesting. But it's true. I know I needed to be with President and Sister Watkins for a reason. They are amazing. I am so blessed to get to work with them.  But the talk Elder cook gave was amazing. Unfortunately, I left my notes at home, but something that really stuck out to me is that he told us that we should put a lot of emphasis on the restoration. Specifically on Joseph Smith's first vision. Because that is what sets us apart. Because of that moment, we have the restored gospel of Jesus Christ here on the earth again. It was that moment that changed everything. It was really cool He also left an apostolic blessing upon us that we would be blessed as we serve, as well as the people at home. It was a huge comfort and blessing to be able to listen to him speak. It was really cool. 

I love you all. I hope you have a good Valentine's day, and that you have a fantastic week! Also, 

HAPPY BIRTHDAY BRYCE!!!!! Have a fantastic day!! Love you!

Love,

Hermana Bingham

 Hermana Bench and I at Pebble Beach

 Me driving the golf cart around

Us at the mission conference on Saturday. After Elder Cook!

Sister Raney, Sister Kofford, and I. They are companions now. Tender!!!!

In the Tribune?!

Dearest family,

I was in the Salt Lake Tribune? Um, what?!?!?! I had no clue that was going to happen. I remember the service that it's talking about... I think, but I honestly don't know how it got in there. There were never reporters or anything. Who knows. Some of the people in charge took pictures, but oh well. Who knows. But I'm famous! Cool! :)

To answer your questions, I am in a car this time. Thank goodness. This used to be a bike area for sisters, but we cover two wards, and it would be WAY to hard. It's super hilly here. So I am luckily back in a car! yay! Our teaching pool is awesome! We've been finding so many new investigators that have a lot of potential, and we're hoping to set two baptismal dates this week. Hopefully they'll happen. For service we do different things. We help out in this community garden once a week, we help at meals on wheels and habitat for humanity, and salvation army, so that's all fun. And we're doing a special service this week. We are helping out at the AT&T golf pro tournament here at Pebble Beach golf course and Monterey peninsula course. Unfortunately, I won't be located at Pebble Beach: I hear it's BEAUTIFUL! But I'll be at the Monterey Peninsula course meeting (okay probably just seeing) famous people that I have NO CLUE who they are. Fun right? Maybe I'll recognize someone and tell you all about it. :) 

So you asked if I have any great experiences... of course I do! We always have great experiences as missionaries! This week... hum. I left my planner in the car. Whoopsie! I guess one of the highlights of the week has been the amount of work we were able to do! We got 32 lessons, with 11 of those being with a member present. Which is a mission high for me. Our goal for this next week is to get 15 member present lessons.  We've just been killing ourselves with the work, coming home every night completely exhausted, and wanting to pass out in our beds. And then still having to plan and update the area book and all that stuff. We also have found a few new investigators this week. 7 I think... It's hard to keep track. One of them is this guy named Carlos. I guess before I got here, Hna. Spackman and her companion contacted him at Mi Pueblo (speaking of, do they have those in Utah? They should...), and then a week ago he was at a less active and his nonmember "wife's" house. So we taught him too, and he was pretty cool. Seemed interested, but didn't think a ton about it. Then we got a referral from the MTC  for a guy named Carlos. It's the SAME GUY. He called the number on a card for a Book of Mormon. Hna. Bench and Hna. Spackman met with him while I was on splits with someone else, and he had read all of 2 Nephi 31 and memorized the chapter headings, and had read a whole bunch of other stuff, so yeah. He's super prepared. And Heavenly Father knows that, and knew that we needed a push, so he put him in our path 3 different times. Yup. Thanks. :)

So we were reading the talk called "Hastening the Lord's Game Plan" by Gifford... that really animated guy. It's so good! I invite you all to read it for family home evening tonight, and then put the plan he has into action. Remember that that is basically scripture for us, and we need to be doing it. So talk about it for FHE, and then do it! Do those three steps he talks about. 1-praying for missionary experiences, 2-praying for the missionaries in your area and their investigators by name, and 3-invite someone to an activity in our out of your home. Or just invite someone to do something. Post a link to a mormon message on your facebook, I don't know... it can be so simple! So will you do it? Good! We need the help of members. Every missionary does. Even in Utah where they cover like, 8 billion wards. We all need help and prayers and action. The Lord's work is hastening, and he needs every player.

I love you all! I hope you have a fantastic week!

Love you lots,

Hermana Bingham

Sister Bench and I at the butterfly garden. There were NO butterflies. 

Well, like one. And one dead one... :)

The three of us at the wharf last pday. 

Here is the Salt Lake Tribune article:

Photo from the Tribune article

Mormon missionaries ditching suits, donning jeans to do more service

LDS » Bay Area elders and sisters are spending their days helping area nonprofits.

By Peggy Fletcher Stack

| The Salt Lake Tribune

First Published Jan 31 2014 09:23 am • Last Updated Feb 01 2014 02:42 pm

In Northern California, the image of Mormon missionaries in dark suits and white shirts, knocking on doors at inconvenient times, is being replaced by the sight of these name-tag-wearing twosomes in blue jeans and T-shirts, hoeing gardens, scrubbing off graffiti, dishing out food in homeless shelters and reading with refugees.

It’s part of the LDS Church’s recognition that its long-held practice of "tracting," going door to door handing out church materials and delivering religious messages, is no longer effective. Now few people are home during the late morning and early afternoon, and those who are may not want to be disturbed.

"The world has changed," LDS apostle L. Tom Perry said in June 2013. "The nature of missionary work must change if the Lord will accomplish his work."

People today, he added, are often "less willing to let strangers into their homes."

The LDS San Jose Mission already had discontinued tracting. Mission leaders got the word three years ago from church headquarters in Salt Lake City: Find something else for these eager, young full-time missionaries to do.

And it’s not about baptizing.

So San Jose leaders proposed that missionaries provide two hours of nonproselytizing community service every day, five days a week — up from the normal four or so hours a week. This meant that Mormons would have to build partnerships with charitable organizations in their area that might need regular volunteers.

With the help of Web designers in Utah, LDS public-affairs officials in San Jose created a website called justserve.org,which lists organizations with service opportunities.

"We met with a lot of nonprofit organizations," explains Randy Mack, an accountant and regional LDS public-affairs co-director with his wife, Pat. "We said, ‘Here’s what we are doing. If you have anything we could do, let us put these projects on our website.’ "

The Mormon missionaries have taken to their new assignments with relish, he says. "Because of their being involved with service, people love the missionaries. They are welcomed and get very positive responses — a much different response than knocking on doors."

On top of that, they have more meaningful ways to fill those daytime hours, Mack says. In addition, missionaries are less likely to have health problems or depression, and relationships between the pairs known as "companionships" have improved.

"It’s all been very positive," he says. "The mission president is really excited about it."

The San Jose initiative was a pilot program, but was followed about a year ago in Dallas and Denver.Others are urging that all Mormon missionaries perform extra community service.

Elder Chad Le Beau,18, of Peoria, Ariz., has been in the Bay Area for about seven months, as an American Sign Language missionary (both his parents are deaf). He and his companion spend a lot of his service hours helping out at the California School for the Deaf in Fremont.

"We volunteer at homecoming events, set up parking, cook hamburgers for everybody and help out at basketball games — keeping score, working the shot clock and interpreting for the refs," Le Beau says in a phone interview. "I love service. It builds friendships and love that cannot be obtained through any other means."

Le Beau enjoys this part of his mission a lot.

"Being able to help someone and noticing that you’ve made a difference," he says, "I don’t see how you could not feel good about that."

Other missionaries are helping with an after-school program in a low-income area in East San Jose, which serves kids who are at high risk for joining gangs, says September Higham, an LDS Relief Society president in Mountain View, Calif. They "hang out with the kids, play handball, help with homework and provide other mentoring services."

This organization reached out to the missionaries in particular, Higham says, "because they had trouble finding volunteers who were available between 3 and 5 in the afternoon."

These young Mormons also help a neighborhood association clean up trash around the so-called "Jungle," a large homeless encampment in San Jose and one of the biggest in the nation.

About six to 12 missionaries clean out cow stalls and chicken coops, put in irrigation systems, and weed and mulch once a week at Hidden Villa, a nonprofit educational organization, Higham says. Another 15 missionaries work several times a week for a wildlife-habitat-restoration group called Acterra, removing invasive plants, planting native species and providing other services.

"The missionaries were recently honored at the [Acterra] organization’s volunteer dinner as the ‘largest core group’ of volunteers," she says.

Each pair of missionaries has to find its own service opportunities, which fit within established guidelines:

• The service has to be within or near their assigned areas.

• Missionaries are not allowed to use power tools and can go only four steps up a ladder.

• Missionaries are not allowed to work directly with children in most cases. (Exceptions are where there are lots of adults around and the service is in a public area.)

• Missionaries always must be within sight and sound of their companions.

• Missionaries always have to wear their name tags.

When evaluating service prospects, missionaries are told "to use good judgment and protect the name of Christ."

Higham celebrates this move toward putting more service in Mormon missions.

"We’re sending a whole generation of young missionaries back home with the awareness and the experience to engage in service in their own communities," she says. "Some of these missionaries will become community leaders and the experience they gained at age 19 or 20 working with the homeless, at-risk youth, disabled individuals and other disadvantaged populations will become invaluable."

Transferred!

I AM SO SORRY I DIDN'T WRITE LAST WEEK!!!!!

So here's my excuse. A pretty valid one might I add. So Monday was MLK day, so libraries weren't open to let us email. And in that case, we usually just email on Tuesday. So I think, "awesome, where ever I go I'll just be able to email on Tuesday!" Wrong. Transfers were Tuesday morning, and I got transferred to Seaside, which has a Family History library that we are allowed to email in on Mondays. So I didn't get to email, because the people here had already emailed. So that's my lame excuse, but I feel really bad and I apologize! Sorry! :)

So my new address is:

740 Casanova Ave. Apt 14

Monterey, CA 93940

So stuffs can just go here. Because I'm FOREVER and a half away from the mission office. For reals. 

So since I have two weeks of stuff to catch up on, here it goes!

Not much happened last week. Mostly it was just a lot of goodbyes, and seeing people in the ward I wanted to see. Other than that I pretty normal week. But last Monday (MLK day) we got to go to Monterey! We had no clue I was going to go there the next day since we find out at transfer meeting on Tuesday, but we had permission to go down and hit the beach, and this BEAUTIFUL place called Point Lobos. It was just us Yerba Buena sisters. A little girls day out. We went to Point Lobos and hiked around, and it was awesome. Then we went to Carmel beach. It was super fun. Then that night we went to see Aide one last time. We were reading the intro to the Book of Mormon with her, because she had been kind of confused as it excactly what the BofM is. So we read it, and then we were promising her blessings, and I told her she would recieve an answer if she prayed and asked. She just looked at me and said, "Hermana, ya lo recibi!" or, "Hermana, I already recieved it!" Um, WHAT?!?!!??!!?!? So she told us her story. She was sitting here reading the Book of Mormon, in Ether 12:4, which I had written down for her the time before, and she started to smell roses. (Um, okay, I was thinking she was crazy at this point) So she prayed, and then flipped to Moroni 10:3-5 (which I had also written down for her) and started to smell roses again. Then she remembered that 10 years ago, she was watching the news and there was this story of someone that was sitting in her house, and smelt roses. She got up to follow the scent, and as soon as she moved, a car crashed into the house, right where she had been sitting. When Aide saw that, she wondered if it was from God. So when she read the BofM and smelt roses, she realized that that book is the word of God, and it was true. So she's getting baptized!!!! I'm so excited! I hope I can go back up!!

So I got transferred to Seaside! And I'm in a trio! My new companions are Sister Spackman (who I served with in YB for my first 3 transfers), and Sister Bench. Sister Bench has been out for about 14 months, and Sister Spackman for 11. So I'm the baby again, but President told us he is excited to have all three of us down here and getting the spanish rolling. Right now we serve in the Seaside first ward, and the Fort Ord ward, and both are english wards with spanish groups. My goal is to get a spanish branch here. We'll see how it goes. I"m so excited! It is BEAUTIFUL down here! And it's so fun to be in a trio. We all get along really well, and we're getting lots of members to go on splits with us so we can get double the work done. YAY!! It's awesome. The wards here are great, they are super missionary focused and willing to help us out with anything. It's weird, because we eat mostly white people food, but it's still yummy. I just miss the Mexican food! But I love this area! 

Once again, sorry I didn't write!!! I feel awful, but that is the life of transfers. I love you all! Have an awesome week!!!

Love,

Hermana Bingham

 We got to do service in a Koi pond. And wear waders

 Cute, right?

 The Hernandez family. They will be baptized someday

 The Gonzalez family, my companion and I.
Another one of my favorite YB families

 My grandma, my mom, and me. Packer, Kofford and me

 Point Lobos!

 More Point Lobos! BEAUTIFUL, RIGHT?!?!

 One more from Point Lobos!

 Aide and I

My new companions and I! 
Hna Bench, Me and Hna Spackman with our chocolate de abuelita!! 

It's the best hot chocolate EVER!!!

Goodbyes

My dearest family,

First off, little Vivien is SOOOOOOOOOOOOO CUTE!! Tell Mikey and Andrea congrats for me! She is so adorable! I was sitting here in the library like, dying because she's so cute. Also, the fact that I don't get to see her for like, a year. Or even hold any kind of baby. That rule sucks. Just so you all know. You know how I am with kids... this is torture.

So mom, I'm SO excited for your new calling! YW's will be great for you, and an adventure. Plus, girls camp is super fun, and you'll get to go with Kyla and embarrass her. :) That's the best part right? Jokes. And I think you'll be able to really help those girls. I mean, I was in the same situation as them a couple years ago (a couple years? WHAT?) and you know how much it sucked. Obviously, because you were the one I was crying to all the time. But you understand what these girls need, and you'll be able to help them. It will be awesome! And don't worry about the Come Follow Me cirriculum. If there is one thing I've learned, it's that if you study and try your best, you just need to open your mouth and the Lord will put words in. The Spirit will help and guide you. You just have to tudy the topic! :)

So Jayson got hurt snowboarding, Kyla's back is sore, what's going on over there? You're all getting injured!! Let me know how Kyla is doing. And Jayson. I hope that you both feel better soon!

Bryce, your masquarade mask looks pretty cool! I like it! It looks much better than the one I got, that I spent a decent amount of monies on and then didn't really like it.

Jayson, it sounds like basketball is going really well! Tell me more! Since you were all supposed to write me and NO ONE DID!! Stinkers. :) And yes, I did have to rat you out to mom. :)

So this week... I don't even remember what we did. It FLEW by. And now we're in week 6 of this transfer, so this Saturday night I'll probably be getting a phone call giving me the worst news ever... transfers... yuck. I love this area too much. I don't want to leave! Ever! It is seriously the best! And things are getting even better! This last week, as a district (3 yb companionships and 1 english companionship) we had 21 progressing investigators, 16 investigators at church, 94 lessons and 53 baptisimal invitations!!! It was so awesome! (And may I just throw out, that 14/16 investigators at church were in Yerba Buena. We doubled the size of the primary :) ). We're so excited. Everything is getting better and better, and I'm going to leave... yup. not fun. Transfers are the worst. But, it's okay! I'll just go make some other area the best!

This week we've been exploring a part of our area that has been pretty missionary dry for a while. We hadn't had a ton of success in that area before, so we kind of just left it. But this week we went there and have been seeing a lot of success. So that's been fun. I couldn't stop smiling the whole time. I had no clue where I was, no clue what was going on, but it was so fun! Maybe I'll do okay with transfers... who knows. I had to say goodbye to Marifer Paredes yesterday because she's leaving to go to Canada to see her family tomorrow, and I cried. I don't want to leave. So that makes me think I'll have a really hard time.

Wish us luck this week. We're going to work hard, and make this the best last week ever! I love you all, have an awesome week! Love you!

Love,

Hermana Bingham

 Sleds?!?!?! What is this! There is no snow!!!!

 Happy one year mark Sister Monical!!

Last dinner with Jared and Marifer! And Fusar, the dog!

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

Sandy's off to BYU!!

 Happy New Year! Love, the Yerba Buena missionaries, 

plus Sister Christensen, our STL, who was with us for the day.

 Crazy sister missionaries. And Sandy!

At the ball drop in NYC! oh wait... :)