This Is It!!!

2  John 1:12   (Having many things to write unto you, I would not write with paper and ink: but I trust to come unto you, and speak face to face, that our joy may be full.)  

Just kidding. I'll write you a bit. :)

Wow. This is it. This is my last day. Well, not counting tomorrow, which will include going to the temple and hanging out at President's house. It's crazy to think that I'm already here. I've been a full time missionary for the last 18 months and it's about to end. This has been the greatest experience. I don't even know how to describe my mission in words. I have learned SO much, I don't even know where to start. I feel that on my mission I have truly come to learn who Jesus Christ and Heavenly Father are. I have found a personal relationship with each of them, and I can truly say that I KNOW They live, and that They love me. And I love Them. I don't know everything. I'm still a 20 year old girl trying to figure out life, but I do know that this is the true church of Jesus Christ that has been restored to the earth. I know that the Book of Mormon is true, because I have witnessed it's power, and have felt of it's spirit. 

But more than all that, I am I witness that Christ lives. I am a witness of the healing power of His atonement. "Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed." I have felt the healing power of the atonement in my life. I truly have. Sometimes in life, we feel alone. We feel weak, and like we can't do it. And in reality, we can't do it--alone. But with Christ, we can do all that the Father requires. And that is because of His atoning sacrifice for each and every one of us. I've seen the atonement heal me, and it continues to heal me and perfect me every day. I'm a work in progress, but I know that someday, with Christ's help, I can truly be even as He is. I've seen it work in the lives of so many others. I have seen people change, and become more happy and free. And I know that as we apply the atonement, and strive to become like Christ, we too can be truly free, and become perfected in Him. That is a promise given by God to each one of us. I am so grateful that I have learned that on my mission. 

I've also learned that this isn't the end! This is just a new beginning. And because of that, I'm not sad to leave. Of course, I'm leaving a piece of my heart here in California with all the people I have come to love, but I am not sad. I know that I will see theses people again, and that one day we will stand before the throne of God together and rejoice, because we have the gospel, and we can all live together as His children in His kingdom. I know that I can STILL be a missionary, just a little bit of a different kind of missionary. But I am so excited to see where life takes me. 

Thank you all for all your love and support. I love you all with my whole heart, and I'm so excited to see you all soon! 

See y'all Wednesday!

Love,

Hermana Bingham 

2 Timothy 4:6-7    (For I am now ready to be offered, and the time of my departure is at hand. I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith.)  

us in the crazy rainstorm--we just did work like normal! Nothing too exciting!

MTC--- reunited again! We sang at the despedida (Outgoing fireside) last night. 

I"ll show you more pics later! LOVE Y'ALL!!

Best 2nd to Last Week Ever!

Hey family!!!

Wow, what a great week it was! It was fantastic! The best second to last week that one could possibly have. First off, nothing crazy or bad happened this week, so that was good! It was a week of normal missionary work! And then, we had the ward Christmas party on Saturday, which was a blast! I love our ward so much. It sounds like you've already seen some pictures of us and crazy elf hats, and even a video, but I'll send you some more. I'm glad you enjoyed the video, and had fun showing it off to people. It was fun. The sister that always sends you those pictures has a son serving in Salt Lake, so she gets how it is to be a missionary parent and loves to send pictures every time we see her. :) But the ward Christmas party was great. There was tons of yummy food, including tamales!!! So we all ate delicious food, talked to everyone, and we even got to get our picture taken with a Mexican Santa Claus! So that was really fun. 

Then on Sunday we had a great day. We actually weren't able to watch the first presidency Christmas devotional because we were filling up the font for the baptism and couldn't figure out how to get it turned on... awkward. But we got everything ready for the baptism, and at 7pm we had the baptismal service. I gave a talk, then Andres got baptized, and then Hermana Buys and a couple of the elders bore testimony while Andres was changing, and then he got confirmed, and then Adriana his wife bore her testimony, and then he bore his testimony! It was a great baptismal service, and the spirit was really really powerful there. I'm so excited for their family to continue progressing. They'll be at the temple in a year. That's for sure. Hopefully I'll be able to get there. 

We also set a baptismal date for Amada and Bernardo's daughter Nicole this week. She's 10 and has learning disabilities, so she didn't get baptized with the rest of her family. But she's going to get baptized for her birthday, so we're super excited about that. Too bad her birthday isn't until January. :( who knows, maybe Hermana Boyd and I will road trip it out here. :)

If you haven't seen it yet, you should all go to christmas.mormon.org to watch the new video the church made called "He is the Gift." Watch it, share it, spread the Christmas spirit. There is no better way to share the gospel than through that video right now. It was supposedly the only add on youtube yesterday, so it's going to be big. It's a really good video, kind of like the "Because of Him" one for easter. It's really good though. We even have special contacting cards for it. I love it!!! 

Well, I hope you all have a great week. I'll see you all really really soon! Oh, and I'm sending two packages home today. One with books and stuff, and one with bedding and stuff. We have some spare bedding in our apartment, so no worries, I'm not going to freeze this week. :) I love you all. I'll see you really soon!!

Love,

Hermana Bingham

My comp and I at the ward Christmas party

Us and Hermana and Hermano Martinez, the ones that sent the video

Us with Mexican Santa

la familia Gonzalez

Us, the Gonzalez family, and Hermano and Hermana Garcia (hno Garcia baptized him)

Us, the Gonzalez family, Elder Rich, Elder Wilson, and Elder Prince

Us with the Gonzalez family

flight plans. just in case you didn't get them

Thanksgiving

Hello family!!!

Wow! Sounds like you all had a GREAT thanksgiving! Tell Julia congrats on the baby! She looks so cute! And I'm excited, because that means I can hold a baby when I get home. Woohoo!

So this week was nuts. I decided that I really don't like doctors (no offense Dad. :) ). The problem was that my poor companion has been pretty sick lately.. like feeling SUPER dizzy, and having stomach problems and everything, so a couple months ago we had to go to a gastro doctor, but last week ever since she started driving her dizziness has been worse. So our mission nurse told us to go to urgent care, so we went and they are having her go see an ENT later in December. Then we went home, went to one appointment, and then to dinner. And at dinner we were eating some Indian food that the member had brought from the restaurant she works at, and Hermana Buys started having an allergic reaction to the food that was really similar to her nut reaction. And she's REALLY allergic to nuts. So I drove her home since it was possibly and emergency, the elders met us at home, broke into our apartment before we got there to get her Benadryl and water, and then gave her a blessing. And then we waited, and waited, and she didn't get any better, in fact, she was feeling worse. But we pretty much figured that it wasn't her nut allergy, that it was something else, but we didn't know what. But the mission nurse told us to take her to the emergency room. So I had to drive her to the emergency room, and we were there for a couple hours. The doctors gave her some steroids to help with the reaction, and we waited. We got home around 9:30pm and crashed. But Wednesday morning when we woke up, she was SUPER exhausted... understandable, her body had just taken a huge hit with the reaction and everything. And we had a return appointment with the gastro doctor from a couple months before. So I don't like doctors because I've spent WAY to much time in a doctors office this week. But I am grateful for them. They helped us a lot this week. But all day Wednesday we pretty much stayed in and let her sleep. So I felt pretty useless and like I couldn't really do anything. But other than that she's been doing pretty good. This week we have to go get her blood drawn for a blood test for the gastro doctor, and get her some medicine for the dizziness... The poor thing. I feel so bad for her. So that began our crazy week!

The rest of it was pretty normal. Thanksgiving was great. We had a pretty normal thanksgiving dinner this year, at a family's home. We ate with the Navarro family. It was really fun. Then we headed over to Amada and Bernardo's house to help Bernardo with his talk, and she fed us more turkey and mashed potatoes, and TAMALES!!! They were so yummy. But I felt so sick... I ate WAY to much. But it was really fun, and a really good day. 

Then on Saturday Andres and Adriana got married! We helped decorate the church gym Friday night, and then again on Saturday. The wedding was beautiful, the reception was great, and we had a lot of fun. And now they are living the law of chastity, and he's one step closer to baptism, so that's the best part. He gets baptized on December 7th, at 7pm. Happy Birthday Daddy! haha. We're super excited. 

Well, it was a good week overall. Thanks for the love an encouragement. I love you all, and I hope you have a great week! Please pray that we can stay out of the hospital, or out of any kind of craziness this week. I just want to have a normal week! haha. I love you!

Love,

Hermana Bingham.

p.s. We get to tour the 49ers stadium for pday this week. It's in our area. Be jealous. :)

 Merry Christmas! Mini golfing last pday

Happy Thanksgiving!

I love my companion!

Adriana walking down the aisle!

us and Courtney Haight, the bishop's daughter

Cake. so cute!

us with the bride and groom!!