Miracles Are Happening!

Howdy Y'all!

My companion is from Texas... I say y'all now. Especially because this is my second comp from Texas. 

First off, sorry I'm emailing a bit later today. We went lazer tagging this morning with our zone. It was super fun. I definitely ran around like a crazy person. But lazer tag is totally different when you have to stay within sight and sound of your companion at all times. Not to mention your TWO companions! But it was really fun. So now we're back, and I'm emailing. super late. But that's alright! I'm here now, and that's all that matters. :)

So to answer some of your questions mom, yes, I did get the package. Thanks for the shirt and the candy. :) It got here, even without the apartment number. Second, yes, it's a Spanish ward, and it's on FIRE! Like seriously, the members are really strong, and really supportive of missionary work. Which honestly isn't super typical for Spanish wards since most of the people are recent converts. But here everyone knows what they are doing, all the auxiliaries are really strongly formed, and have really solid people in the leadership positions. It's really nice. And there are a lot of miracles happening right now. More details on that later. Third, I am still an STL, even though neither of my companions are. The other STL is in a different companionship, so now exchanges will be a little different. We'll have to figure that out. 

Having a native companion is really nice, because my Spanish does get corrected. The hard part however, is that she points them out ALL the time, so it's put a damper on my self confidence. And they are like, really tiny things, but every time I say it wrong she kind of jumps on me. So that's hard, but good. I'll get used to it. My struggle now is that I'm almost nervous to speak Spanish. Oh, and since there are 4 natives in this ward, I've been learning more bad words. Yikes. I had a goal not to learn any of those. And I had been doing good. they will just say it in a joking way, but it's not the greatest thing. But we do have a goal to speak more Spanish. 

So MIRACLES ARE HAPPENING! We've seen a couple big ones this week! We have this investigator named Amada. She is currently living with her "esposo" that she's not really married to, and their two children. She had been learning, but he wasn't super interested. But this week he started listening to us, and they decided on a date to get married! August 15th! Which is a huge step for them! That means they can get baptized soon! They are praying about that date right now! And it will be their family! Amada and Bernardo, and their daughter Nicole. We're so excited! 

The other big miracle that we saw this week is with Andres. Andres is the "esposo" guy of one of our active members named Adriana. He had been taking the lessons from missionaries a couple of years ago, but since then has wanted nothing to do with the church or us. But he's been warming up. The bishop has been visiting him, and last night he told the bishop that he wants to marry Adriana in November, and then get baptized on their daughter Genesis's birthday in December. SWEET!  It's progress. So we're going to go start meeting with him soon. 

The obedience thing has been getting better. Lucky for me, hermana Boyd and I are on the same page. So we're able to help set goals that will help us be better in the little things. So it got a little better this week, and we have more goals this next week to help us get even better. But as we've been increasing our obedience and the quality of our missionary work, we are really seeing those miracles. It's amazing. I'm so grateful for all the Lord does for us. And I know that it's by our obedience that we receive blessings. Even in the small things that seem insignificant. They are great in the eyes of the Lord. And it's worth it, because we show our Father how much we love Him, and then He blesses us, more than we can possibly imagine. I'm so grateful for this time I have to be a missionary. I couldn't imagine being anywhere else. I love you all. Have a fantastic week at the family reunion! 

lots of love,

hermana Bingham

p.s. address update since I sent it wrong last week!

3480 Granada Ave #147

Santa Clara, CA 95051

p.p.s  Big shout out to the Ashcroft clan at the reunion this week! love you all!

Cute kitties!

 We decided to match the elders... So this is us and elder Barbosa and elder Fernandez