#16 - October 8, 2012
Hey Hey Hey!!
To answer your question, conference was
AH-MAZING! All four sessions were just incredible. The mission announcement blew
our minds! We were at our stake president's house for that session and Sister
Chatter and I were just speechless! 18 and 19 years old?!?!?! by the time I
leave, I am going to be an old grandma in the mission! ;) All these 18 and 19
year old young'uns are going to be comin' in but it just goes to show how the
work is hastening and it is SUPER exciting!!! I can't believe that Shay's Bishop
is shooting for 40 referrals a week...we are shooting for two per ward in our
stake so I can’t even imagine forty or having too many people to teach. That is
amazing! And beyond exciting!! and Shay is right, I do write too much ahah. I
don’t think I could write letters as short as him, even if I tried :P
So, we were able to get three of our investigators to the Sunday AM session which was crazy hectic!
Jacob did go! It was funny we kept checking in on him to make sure he wouldn’t forget what time
he and his friend had to be a trax. Can’t trust those 17 year old boys...;) He
really enjoyed conference he has definitely been prepared by the Lord and is
ready. He listened intently and has a lot of good questions about...well, just
about everything haha. We asked his friend, who is a member, how he feels about
the age change and he said he was stoked! We then asked Jacob if he would like
to serve a mission and he said that he has been really thinking about it and
that he probably would. We hope to visit with him tonight and talk to him more
about what he felt yesterday. :)
We also had our Chinese investigator come
she was sooooo funny!!! You know how the Chinese love to take
pictures???....yeah, well. She took SOOO many pictures she was like the
paparazzi! At least her flash wasn't on....:P) and then Jenny came as well. She
is 20 and has a kid. She is so close to baptism. She just needs to move out (she
is living with her boyfriend.) But
yeah, AWESOME experience we were really close too in the section right in front
of the door where the GAs come out on the right side. REALLY CLOSE.
OH, and to top it off, I saw Sister Fisher!! I about started crying when
I saw her like I saw a little piece of home and it just HIT me. We only got to talk about
five minutes but it was a really good chat. We are struggling with some of the same things ;)
so it was good to talk about and to see how the other is doing with it. She looked happy and
amazing and beautiful as always though :) I didn’t get a pic though!!
I am kicking myself about that oh well, there is April, it will pass by fast,
I know it will. Time is a crazy thing. Rachel, I am still working on your letter hopefully I can get
it done today! I can only write letters on P-days so when
its over...its over and I have to wait till next Monday.
That’s awesome you guys have been getting such good weather. Weird though. How is my 'faith' doing?? I hope it isn’t dying...that would be just plain sad. Utah is getting really cold...and I have
no winter clothes :/ I bought some clothes today but am going to take some
back so don’t be too alarmed when you see how much I spent...>.< I found
some better stuff and need to take the other stuff back. The main thing I need
are any sweaters that I left behind and maybe my gray big coat. It doesn't have
to come this week but by the end of the month would be great :)
Love the pics!! Thanks Nevan buddy! You guys look legit in the XC uniforms. Good job! And the goats are SOOOO cute!!! And where in the heck did the turkey come from!?! Looks yummy ;) And Dad...I
want to learn how to ride a motorcycle. Is that okay?! :)
And yes, Shay should still apply to BYUI wouldn't hurt it will be good to have some options. It's crazy that he is
already having to worry about that...he goes home in seven months...what the HECK?!
This week will be crazy. We have two baptisms in the Spanish branch and then one the week after and then another the week after that. So...busy busy we are loving it though it’s fabulous. We just
found out that on Halloween the mission is going to the River Jordan temple so I
was just thinking...in my first three months out in the field, I will have gone
to four different temples. How cool is that? :)
I have been hearing a lot of good things about Romney and about that last debate. Props to Romney :) About time Obama is tied up in his own words and promises.
Anyway, the work is great! I am doing so well. I have my moments, but who doesn't? ;) I am growing SO much in so many different ways. I am so grateful for this opportunity that I have to serve.
Thank you for all that you do to support and encourage me :) Thank you for your
prayers and love :) Pass that on to the branch too! I will make sure to shoot a
letter off the Johnson's and Bennett's, Mitchell's, and Sister Benjamin within
the next couple weeks. But until then, tell Sis Benjamin thank you for the
journal! I LOVE it. And Grandma, I got your letter!! Thank you so much. It
brought a HUGE smile to my face. I love you!
Until next time!! You guys are the best family this sister missionary could ask for!! Wake up each day with thankful
hearts! Because we are so blessed. The church is true!
Love, Hermana Bingham
p.s. NICOLE HARGROVE. It's your time. DO IT. :) LOVE YOU!
pps. I am going to have to send the SD
card home next week...unless we have time to run by Wal-Mart later. I will try
my hardest!
# 16 October 1, 2012
Hey hey hey!
Ah, that was so sweet of Brittany to send me a postcard!! We haven't picked up the mail yet today so maybe I will see it today :) Maybe I can send her a Utah Postcard ;) Utah is a pretty foreign place
too...it's up there with Italy :) I hope she is doing well and is having a blast and staying safe!
Anyway, I love the Branch!! Sister Mitchell sent me a card a couple weeks back and
I need to write her! Tell her thank you so much when you see her and I will make sure to send her something
and can you get me the Bennett's and the Johnson's addresses? I want to write
them too and anyone you think could use a letter in the branch or any of the
youth.
OH! And that reminds me I need pictures of the family! I
have NO pictures it is so sad so I need pics of all of us and some of the
animals too. The kids we teach love hearing stories about the animals...so at
least with the pics I can have some props send them in the mail I can’t print on
the computers. And sorry Marie Riley, but I laughed (or quietly giggled to
myself because we are in the library) when I read about the apple cider. That
STINKS but for some reason I find that hilarious. I am so bad sometimes.
This week was a fabulous week!!! We have been trying for the longest time to find new
Spanish investigators with no luck! The rest of the English wards in the stake are doing really
well with the Ward Mission Process and we are teaching and receiving a lot of referrals. Even
though most of the families are less active, it is still important that we have
activity in each ward so the ward can receive blessings for helping the
missionaries and the work. The Spanish branch is struggling.
Sister Chatter and I had a fast yesterday and prayed and have been praying that we may find more investigators. I have a testimony of fasting and praying because before the day was over we had two new
Spanish investigators and they are both on date to be baptized :D it was pretty
crazy! DEFINITELY A MIRACLE!! We are so happy!!! One of the investigator's is
Ricardo and he was in jail for a time because they were going to be deported but
for some reason he was allowed to come back. That experience in jail humbled him
and he now has a desire to learn more about Christ. He had some spiritual
experiences too so it was amazing to teach him and see him open his heart to the
message of the gospel.
Marcus and Isabelle were baptized last week!!! Yay –we
have been fasting and praying for them as well! It has been a long process
getting them into the waters of baptism so it was such a sweet experience to see
how happy they were to finally be baptized! Marcus, who is 9, came out of the
water and started clapping J and then after his confirmation on Sunday, he walked
down the aisle at church holding his certificate high in the air with a huge
smile pasted on his face, it was hilarious! Bless their hearts!
Those are three miracles that happened this week! Things are starting to really pick
up we are teaching like crazy and its insane. Yesterday we went to four sacrament meetings
and taught seven lessons, and its was CRAZY busy. One of my favorite people teaching is Sherri
and she is doing so well!! I don’t know if you remember her from past emails,
but she is coming back to church! She has made leaps and bounds since I first
met her my first week out in the field! Last Monday, we had service with her
where we just organized Christmas ornaments and decorations and listened to
Christmas music! It was AWESOME. She is such a sweetheart.
People here are just amazing. Everyone is so loving and supportive in the stake!
At the RS broadcast before the meeting started, the Mission President brought me and
Sister Chatter at the front to explain how we get the members and the stake leaders to love us so much:)
Apparently he gets phone calls! We just love and serve and they love and help us back with the work. There are so many people that need help and we are here to help provide that help. Everyone else is progressing well towards baptism. Zealan and Kaz are doing really well! They are ready...we are just waiting on the Dad :(
Jacob (senior from Alta) is so busy with football but we have an appointment with him tonight. He is hungry to learn and one of the most humble kids I have ever met, super sweet and nice and
we are excited to be teaching him and helping him.
Last week’s temple trip to Temple Square was SO GOOD!! Live session was a little weird but super cool to see. The spirit in the temple is indescribable, so powerful and it was wonderful to go through
with my old MTC district, to see all of them again.
Sister Wanlass and I were comps again for half a day!!! I love that chica, she is doing well.
I will send pics probably next week. I need to print, we don't have time today to do that but I promise I
will send the SD card NEXT WEEK!! And I got the other SD card in the mail...thank you! I can’t think of
anything else in particular to write about...I need to start writing notes as
the week goes on so I don't forget. It’s crazy how everything blends together
and it’s a little overwhelming to sit and try to remember everything! I will get
better at that so my emails aren't so all over the place!
I really LOVED the RS broadcast. What an amazing and powerful experience!! I never remember one being so good, honestly I had some questions and all of them were answered. I felt like everything
EVERYONE said was directed right at me and what my investigators need to hear
and how I can better help them. Heavenly Father knows exactly how to help us He
has helped me so much! I loved the talks on the Atonement and the love of the
Savior for each of us. Everything just hit home. It apples so differently now,
as a missionary. It was beautiful. I am so excited for conference!!! Look for me
on TV :) J-K. We are going with the Chinese lady and Jacob I believe, so stoked,
I love this gospel :)
I love reading Shay's and Jared's emails it makes me so doggone happy to be sharing
this experience at the same time with them. Serving a mission is unlike anything that I could ever have imagined.
There are no words to describe what missionary work is like. Yes, its work, hard
work, but there is nothing so satisfying or rewarding especially when you see
the happiness on the faces of those as they step into the waters of baptism.
There is nothing greater than feeling that happiness and love for that person
and feeling the love that our Heavenly Father has for them.
I love you all! So glad everything is going well and that you have sun!! You're welcome :) I sent some up there for
ya! I have been asking for a trade and we actually have had some rain! Good job
Nevan and Kaylin on the running! Keep it up!!
Okay, gotta go!
Love you all and thank you all for all you
do!! And thank you for your prayers :)
Until next week
Love, Sister Bingham
Ah, that was so sweet of Brittany to send me a postcard!! We haven't picked up the mail yet today so maybe I will see it today :) Maybe I can send her a Utah Postcard ;) Utah is a pretty foreign place
too...it's up there with Italy :) I hope she is doing well and is having a blast and staying safe!
Anyway, I love the Branch!! Sister Mitchell sent me a card a couple weeks back and
I need to write her! Tell her thank you so much when you see her and I will make sure to send her something
and can you get me the Bennett's and the Johnson's addresses? I want to write
them too and anyone you think could use a letter in the branch or any of the
youth.
OH! And that reminds me I need pictures of the family! I
have NO pictures it is so sad so I need pics of all of us and some of the
animals too. The kids we teach love hearing stories about the animals...so at
least with the pics I can have some props send them in the mail I can’t print on
the computers. And sorry Marie Riley, but I laughed (or quietly giggled to
myself because we are in the library) when I read about the apple cider. That
STINKS but for some reason I find that hilarious. I am so bad sometimes.
This week was a fabulous week!!! We have been trying for the longest time to find new
Spanish investigators with no luck! The rest of the English wards in the stake are doing really
well with the Ward Mission Process and we are teaching and receiving a lot of referrals. Even
though most of the families are less active, it is still important that we have
activity in each ward so the ward can receive blessings for helping the
missionaries and the work. The Spanish branch is struggling.
Sister Chatter and I had a fast yesterday and prayed and have been praying that we may find more investigators. I have a testimony of fasting and praying because before the day was over we had two new
Spanish investigators and they are both on date to be baptized :D it was pretty
crazy! DEFINITELY A MIRACLE!! We are so happy!!! One of the investigator's is
Ricardo and he was in jail for a time because they were going to be deported but
for some reason he was allowed to come back. That experience in jail humbled him
and he now has a desire to learn more about Christ. He had some spiritual
experiences too so it was amazing to teach him and see him open his heart to the
message of the gospel.
Marcus and Isabelle were baptized last week!!! Yay –we
have been fasting and praying for them as well! It has been a long process
getting them into the waters of baptism so it was such a sweet experience to see
how happy they were to finally be baptized! Marcus, who is 9, came out of the
water and started clapping J and then after his confirmation on Sunday, he walked
down the aisle at church holding his certificate high in the air with a huge
smile pasted on his face, it was hilarious! Bless their hearts!
Those are three miracles that happened this week! Things are starting to really pick
up we are teaching like crazy and its insane. Yesterday we went to four sacrament meetings
and taught seven lessons, and its was CRAZY busy. One of my favorite people teaching is Sherri
and she is doing so well!! I don’t know if you remember her from past emails,
but she is coming back to church! She has made leaps and bounds since I first
met her my first week out in the field! Last Monday, we had service with her
where we just organized Christmas ornaments and decorations and listened to
Christmas music! It was AWESOME. She is such a sweetheart.
People here are just amazing. Everyone is so loving and supportive in the stake!
At the RS broadcast before the meeting started, the Mission President brought me and
Sister Chatter at the front to explain how we get the members and the stake leaders to love us so much:)
Apparently he gets phone calls! We just love and serve and they love and help us back with the work. There are so many people that need help and we are here to help provide that help. Everyone else is progressing well towards baptism. Zealan and Kaz are doing really well! They are ready...we are just waiting on the Dad :(
Jacob (senior from Alta) is so busy with football but we have an appointment with him tonight. He is hungry to learn and one of the most humble kids I have ever met, super sweet and nice and
we are excited to be teaching him and helping him.
Last week’s temple trip to Temple Square was SO GOOD!! Live session was a little weird but super cool to see. The spirit in the temple is indescribable, so powerful and it was wonderful to go through
with my old MTC district, to see all of them again.
Sister Wanlass and I were comps again for half a day!!! I love that chica, she is doing well.
I will send pics probably next week. I need to print, we don't have time today to do that but I promise I
will send the SD card NEXT WEEK!! And I got the other SD card in the mail...thank you! I can’t think of
anything else in particular to write about...I need to start writing notes as
the week goes on so I don't forget. It’s crazy how everything blends together
and it’s a little overwhelming to sit and try to remember everything! I will get
better at that so my emails aren't so all over the place!
I really LOVED the RS broadcast. What an amazing and powerful experience!! I never remember one being so good, honestly I had some questions and all of them were answered. I felt like everything
EVERYONE said was directed right at me and what my investigators need to hear
and how I can better help them. Heavenly Father knows exactly how to help us He
has helped me so much! I loved the talks on the Atonement and the love of the
Savior for each of us. Everything just hit home. It apples so differently now,
as a missionary. It was beautiful. I am so excited for conference!!! Look for me
on TV :) J-K. We are going with the Chinese lady and Jacob I believe, so stoked,
I love this gospel :)
I love reading Shay's and Jared's emails it makes me so doggone happy to be sharing
this experience at the same time with them. Serving a mission is unlike anything that I could ever have imagined.
There are no words to describe what missionary work is like. Yes, its work, hard
work, but there is nothing so satisfying or rewarding especially when you see
the happiness on the faces of those as they step into the waters of baptism.
There is nothing greater than feeling that happiness and love for that person
and feeling the love that our Heavenly Father has for them.
I love you all! So glad everything is going well and that you have sun!! You're welcome :) I sent some up there for
ya! I have been asking for a trade and we actually have had some rain! Good job
Nevan and Kaylin on the running! Keep it up!!
Okay, gotta go!
Love you all and thank you all for all you
do!! And thank you for your prayers :)
Until next week
Love, Sister Bingham
# 15 - September 24, 2012
Hola Familia!!
Oh Shay. His letters make me laugh. He is such a goofball ;)
My question is how in the world does he keep his letters so
short?!!? That is so hard!! But that is a weakness I have...being
brief, simple, and clear. So yeah...we will see how that goes.
Seeing Annette at Zupas was SO FUN! I looked over and
couldn't believe she was right there!! My companion kept saying,
go say hi! I finally did, and it was so neat to see her:) It made my
day! Then of course, she said she would make sure to post the
picture and tell all of you I said hi. It definitely makes me
seem so close haha. Bless her heart!! If Brenda wants to go out to eat
anywhere in Draper sometime (mainly Zupas, Corner Bakery, and
Pirate-Os) she has a good chance of running into me. That would
be so funny.
Anyway, I laughed at the horse committee part. That is so crazy
to think that you are doing that all again. It seems so long ago that we
were doing that, but also feels just like yesterday. Time is so
stinkin' weird!! I can't believe that I am already in my 8th
week out in the field!
This week, all the second transfer missionaries are going to Temple Square and doing
a session in the Temple on Thursday. I am so stoked!! And I get to see all my
MTC district peeps again :) and we just found out that we can go to conference!!
YAY! So, Sister Chatter and I have tickets for the Sunday morning session and we
are hopefully going with Jacob (17 yr old investigator) and his less
active Mom. We have tickets for them too. Our Stake President gave
us a boat load of tickets. It helps when he loves us so darn much ;)
Oh, that reminds me transfers were last week and Sister Meyers was
transferred to West Jordan and her companion is my MTC comp,
Sister Wanlass!! So that was pretty funny. Sister Chatter and I are
doing really well!! We are having a lot of fun together, she is a
wonderful trainer and our teaching just keeps getting better and better.
We are teaching some amazing people right now. We are
still just trying to find new investigators because a lot of our old
investigators are baptized.
Wow, I was just talking to this man for about 10 minutes and he
asked if we have problems with elders flirting with us all the time
because we are so pretty! Ha - wow people here :P anyway, so
yeah. We are working a lot with less actives and recent converts.
We have been teaching this man named David, he apparently he has some criminal
charges on his record-.- We were unaware of this. He just showed up to church
and wants to change his life and make things right with God. But he is homeless
and lives in his van. His wife kicked him out of the house. So we have been helping him
and teaching him. He was baptized when he was 9 but doesn’t know a thing about
the gospel. As we have taught him, the spirit has been so strong so we feel
he is sincere. He told us that a few years ago, two girls that looked just like us approached
him and gave him a bible. He believes that wasn't a coincidence so
that was neat. But our ward mission leader is worried about him and so
is one of the other ward mission leaders that is in his wife's ward.
So...we will see what happens.
We met a Chinese lady that wants to be baptized next month on her
birthday. I can’t give her name but she is an AMAZING LADY. But, here
is the thing, the Chinese government sent her here to the U to teach and
for more education, then to go back to China when the school
year ends. Her situation is sticky because if the government finds out,
even her family she could be in big trouble. She wants a secret and private
baptism only us and the fellowshipping family and it needs to be quick.
We are in the midst of planning that but it is amazing to be teaching
someone who is going to help take the gospel to China! They apparently have
LDS congregations that meet in secret and she was able to get in touch with them.
We have two baptisms this week Marcus and Isabel (the ones
with the Mom that almost ran us over :P) They are doing really well.
The Elders took the family to Temple Square and they had an amazing
experience there, so that was really good. could tell you more about Sherri, and some of our other
teaching appts but I don't have time! One of our Recent Converts
got deported :( So that was sad. ICE came in and handcuffed him and
shipped him out along with another Hispanic in the home. WE
loved teaching him! Amazing man. The Hispanic recent converts we have
are so funny. They let me practice teaching in Spanish which is REALLY
nice for me :) Bless their hearts. And most of them are taking English
lessons so they will practice English with me too. It's fun!
Sister Chatter and I have ‘heart-attacked’ a few homes and that
has been fun! We heart-attacked Raquel the other day she almost
caught us! We hid by her garage and we were laughing so hard we
worried that people were going to see us and call the police, or something.
Regarding news from home:
I can't believe the Kolditzs are coming home! What the heck?!
Tell them I said hi :)and yes I remember the Dunns! That is super
cool. Sad to hear the Blanchard's are moving :( I am not going to
recognize the Branch when I come home! Tell them I said hi and
that I wish them luck :)
Kaylin took my drawings over to Mike Swift?!Really?! Haha, oh
dear. That was nice of him to say that I have potential :) I have been
drawing a lot of SpongeBob (For Titi, this little Hispanic boy SO
cute!) I have also been drawing a lot of farm animals when we
leave notes for Sherri. She loves horses and farm stuff so that’s been
fun.
Good job Kaylin on your YW medallion!! Shoot, you’re only 12! I think I
was like 15 or almost 16 when I got mine. So, congrats. That is
awesome!
Good job Nevan for being such an awesome young man at dances and not a
wallflower :) We gals, like that!
Good job Shay...for losing your camera...not really. naughty!
Good job on the finished (well, put together) Mustang Dad!! I can just
hear it in my head! You can rival the Peeks now!! People are going to
hear you and think 'Oh, there go those Peeks boys again.' :P I think
you should rev by their house a few times. Can I drive it when I get
home? ;) The Chevy Malibu I drive right now is completely gutless. Its
sad. It's a 2010 though, so its nice but...still gutless. I miss the
Mustang :)
And how cute that my ‘wittle-snwap-dwagons are gwowing!’If they end up
dying, what does that mean?! ;) Anyway, so the work is going
great! We are busy and running all over the place but it's fun, and we are doing
very well! All the wards are really starting to jump in with both feet
so things should be picking up very soon. People are being prepared.
It’s exciting! Time to see some miracles :) Hope everyone is doing
well!! Miss you all! Love you!
Hermana Bingham
p.s. My winter stuff is going to have to be sent up within the next
few weeks. The weather is getting cooler. Just a heads up! Love you!
Thank you for everything you do!
Oh and can I get the address to the Phoenix Arizona Mission and the LA
Visitor center mission?? Thank you!
A chanch meeting with Annette Barns who reported "she was glowing, and beautiful, and happy...we hugged and hugged.
#14 - September 17, 2012
Hola Familia :)
My week went really well!! There are always the low and high moments.
Missionary encompasses both ends of the spectrums and all that is in between ;)
I am so glad to hear that Sister Fisher is doing well. I have been to temple
square several times but have yet to see her! All the Sisters we work with know
her and I tell them to say hi, so hopefully they are passing the message
along.
You remember last week when I talked about how Sister
Meyers woke up with the flu on Monday?? Well, the next morning
Sister Chatter woke up with the flu so I had two throwing up companions
:P Poor gals. We didn't leave the house Tuesday...just slept. I felt
REALLY nauseous but I never threw up. I was able to keep it
down, but I wonder if I would have gotten better faster if I
would have just let it come out, but afraid that if I did, I
wouldn't stop! We missed all our District and Mission meetings
on Tuesday and Wednesday. On Wednesday we proselyted for a couple
hours after dinner, but that was it. We couldn't handle anymore than that.
Thursday was our first full day and it was kind of rough. We
hadn't studied or anything for a few days so we were already a little
rusty lol but we made it! I think I can safely say we are all back to normal
functioning speed. Our dinner appts have been feeding us soups
and salads everyday which has been REALLY nice.
We had some cool experiences this week! A couple weeks ago, as we
were looking at the un-baptized lists and I came across a name and
felt like I should highlight it. Every time I went back and looked at the list, that name still
just stuck out. So, on Thursday, after dinner we had about 20 minutes till our next appt, I
suggested we go there...because the name popped into my head again. As we parked there was this
kid, who looked to be about 19 in the driveway packing stuff into his car. We
walked up to him and he was really happy to see us, I don't know if it was just
because we are sisters ;) or because we are missionaries...or both but he was
just really happy. WE introduced ourselves and he said he really liked my talk on Sunday,
I realized he was in the 8th ward, his name was Jake. As we started
talking, we found out that he had left on his mission back in June (we were in
the MTC at the same time) but came home after a week because he felt like he
couldn't do it. He got pretty emotional and it’s been bothering him ever since.
His parents are going through a divorce right now and his life just seems to be
falling apart.
We testified to him about missions and about how Heavenly Father loves him and he
is his son and that there are people out there that the Lord needs him to talk
to and to bless. He had been praying for someone to talk to and said we were the
answer to his prayer. He said he knew the Lord had sent us over that day. So...that was
so neat to see. It was neat for me to recognize a blessing from following a prompting from the Spirit.
That was a wonderful highlight of the week.
We walked back to the car parked across the street, I tried releasing the emergency
break but accidently popped the hood. My companions were dying of embarrassment,
I thought it was funny that they were embarrassed. I just sat there for a
second...then I gave in and drove around the corner and fixed the hood.
Sheesh...what's the problem?? It was hilarious!! I guess they have never done
that?! We were laughing so hard...then some biker guy tried to wave us down
before I had stopped to tell us our hood was popped. What a nice Utahan ;)
Speaking of Utahans...everyone was going CRAZY last weekend
because of the Utah/BYU game. WE shouldn't have even bothered visiting people
everyone was watching the game! There are so many Ute fans up
here...kind of disgusting. They bleed red. I feel like a minority :P
And then Utah WON of all things. Goodness. Our stake president
texted us the score at like 11 at night even HE was going crazy.
Poor BYU...
We have a four more people on date. Isabel and Marcus are back on date for Sept 29
but the Elders are teaching them because of what happened with the Mom a couple weeks ago...
we would rather that she not run us over :P
We found a new investigator last week, Jacob a senior football player at Alta High.
Good kid and he has a baptismal date for Oct 5 so hopefully he won’t flake out
on us and hopefully he isn't letting us in just because we are sisters :P That
is a problem here unfortunately but I think he is sincere, he has been
reading the BOM and praying. Also, we have a woman named Jenny whose brother was
baptized back in June and then a few other people that want to be
baptized but have some SERIOUS issues to resolve first...like
arrests, WOW problems, and law of chastity problems. To name a few ;)
I think my favorite person to visit is Sherri. She is a less active
Sisters referral and she is so sweet! She has been away from the
church for many years and is ready to bring God back into her
life. She is so unhappy and is ready for a change and has been searching
the scriptures, praying and always has questions for us when we
come. Those are the best lessons!! The Spirit is so strong because it
is easier to teach to her needs and to have the spirit testify of
things that she needs to hear. So powerful! I love that woman.
And her favorite animal is horses, especially paints and quarters. She
has horse stuff all over her apt...instant connection! I always draw horse
sticky notes and stick them on her door. She has kept them all
ahah.
Zealen and Kaz are 11 and 8 cutest kids EVER. Zealen says the
funniest things!!! I need to take a quote book over there when I
go. They both want to be baptized but there Dad said, "absolutely not'.
He served a mission and everything but has no remaining testimony.
Even though he doesn't want them to be baptized, he is encouraging
them to serve missions when they are older. Why - I have no idea! Its
confusing. We are praying that his heart will be softened so his kids
can be baptized. I love those kids to death. SO CUTE.
Everything else is going well! There is some drama in the Zone.
But, that’s not important - people need to focus and quit...flirting.
Regarding family:
Sounds like you had a good week!! I love the termite/ slug
story!!! Dad, serves you right :P that’s disgusting!!! I think I
puked a little in my mouth...this morning I caught a HUGE beetle in our
bathroom. It sent goosebumps up my arm when it crawled on my
hand. Ugh. I have heard that quote from Elder Dyas before. It’s a good quote and I
can see that now! Even this early on my mission!
I am glad Kaylin is taking drawing lessons! Develop that talent!
hat’s awesome and keep developing the piano talent too
KAYLIN!! And Nevan aka Minimus, why would you want to contribute to the puke
pile?? Gross :P Boys (eye roll)
Anyway, I have to write president! I love you all! The church is
true!! Missions are amazing and I thank the Lord everyday that I
have this opportunity to be out here serving!! There is no better work :)
Thank you for all the support everyone!
Love, Hermana Bingham
Oh, and tell Steve McClain I said HI TOO!
Oh wait, I realize I haven't given a spiritual thought in a few
weeks. Here is one that I wrote to President. Enjoy!
There is a scripture in Mosiah 24 I believe where it talks about
Alma and his people and how they were persecuted by Amulon and his
people. They were told that they would be killed if they were caught
praying. As I read that chapter I was amazed at the faith and patience
they had in their afflictions. They were praying continually in their
earts and submitted themselves CHEERFULLY unto the Lord with faith
and patience. Even though they were doing this, the Lord didn't take
away their afflictions right away. Rather, he helped 'lift their
burdens' so that they could bear them.
We all go and will continue to go through afflictions and like
the people of Alma, the Lord will help lift us up. He won't
necessarily take them away which is important to remember.
We need to always trust in the Lord and have that same Faith and
patience that the people of Alma had. It’s also important to not only
endure through our afflictions, but to do so CHEERFULLY. To submit
ourselves to the Lord with happy hearts and as we do this, we can
know that the Lord has promised us deliverance :)
LOVE
YOU ALL! BE HAPPY!! And if you have to fry and pop slugs to do
that....that's disturbing...haha JUST KIDDING!
Love, Sister Bingham
My week went really well!! There are always the low and high moments.
Missionary encompasses both ends of the spectrums and all that is in between ;)
I am so glad to hear that Sister Fisher is doing well. I have been to temple
square several times but have yet to see her! All the Sisters we work with know
her and I tell them to say hi, so hopefully they are passing the message
along.
You remember last week when I talked about how Sister
Meyers woke up with the flu on Monday?? Well, the next morning
Sister Chatter woke up with the flu so I had two throwing up companions
:P Poor gals. We didn't leave the house Tuesday...just slept. I felt
REALLY nauseous but I never threw up. I was able to keep it
down, but I wonder if I would have gotten better faster if I
would have just let it come out, but afraid that if I did, I
wouldn't stop! We missed all our District and Mission meetings
on Tuesday and Wednesday. On Wednesday we proselyted for a couple
hours after dinner, but that was it. We couldn't handle anymore than that.
Thursday was our first full day and it was kind of rough. We
hadn't studied or anything for a few days so we were already a little
rusty lol but we made it! I think I can safely say we are all back to normal
functioning speed. Our dinner appts have been feeding us soups
and salads everyday which has been REALLY nice.
We had some cool experiences this week! A couple weeks ago, as we
were looking at the un-baptized lists and I came across a name and
felt like I should highlight it. Every time I went back and looked at the list, that name still
just stuck out. So, on Thursday, after dinner we had about 20 minutes till our next appt, I
suggested we go there...because the name popped into my head again. As we parked there was this
kid, who looked to be about 19 in the driveway packing stuff into his car. We
walked up to him and he was really happy to see us, I don't know if it was just
because we are sisters ;) or because we are missionaries...or both but he was
just really happy. WE introduced ourselves and he said he really liked my talk on Sunday,
I realized he was in the 8th ward, his name was Jake. As we started
talking, we found out that he had left on his mission back in June (we were in
the MTC at the same time) but came home after a week because he felt like he
couldn't do it. He got pretty emotional and it’s been bothering him ever since.
His parents are going through a divorce right now and his life just seems to be
falling apart.
We testified to him about missions and about how Heavenly Father loves him and he
is his son and that there are people out there that the Lord needs him to talk
to and to bless. He had been praying for someone to talk to and said we were the
answer to his prayer. He said he knew the Lord had sent us over that day. So...that was
so neat to see. It was neat for me to recognize a blessing from following a prompting from the Spirit.
That was a wonderful highlight of the week.
We walked back to the car parked across the street, I tried releasing the emergency
break but accidently popped the hood. My companions were dying of embarrassment,
I thought it was funny that they were embarrassed. I just sat there for a
second...then I gave in and drove around the corner and fixed the hood.
Sheesh...what's the problem?? It was hilarious!! I guess they have never done
that?! We were laughing so hard...then some biker guy tried to wave us down
before I had stopped to tell us our hood was popped. What a nice Utahan ;)
Speaking of Utahans...everyone was going CRAZY last weekend
because of the Utah/BYU game. WE shouldn't have even bothered visiting people
everyone was watching the game! There are so many Ute fans up
here...kind of disgusting. They bleed red. I feel like a minority :P
And then Utah WON of all things. Goodness. Our stake president
texted us the score at like 11 at night even HE was going crazy.
Poor BYU...
We have a four more people on date. Isabel and Marcus are back on date for Sept 29
but the Elders are teaching them because of what happened with the Mom a couple weeks ago...
we would rather that she not run us over :P
We found a new investigator last week, Jacob a senior football player at Alta High.
Good kid and he has a baptismal date for Oct 5 so hopefully he won’t flake out
on us and hopefully he isn't letting us in just because we are sisters :P That
is a problem here unfortunately but I think he is sincere, he has been
reading the BOM and praying. Also, we have a woman named Jenny whose brother was
baptized back in June and then a few other people that want to be
baptized but have some SERIOUS issues to resolve first...like
arrests, WOW problems, and law of chastity problems. To name a few ;)
I think my favorite person to visit is Sherri. She is a less active
Sisters referral and she is so sweet! She has been away from the
church for many years and is ready to bring God back into her
life. She is so unhappy and is ready for a change and has been searching
the scriptures, praying and always has questions for us when we
come. Those are the best lessons!! The Spirit is so strong because it
is easier to teach to her needs and to have the spirit testify of
things that she needs to hear. So powerful! I love that woman.
And her favorite animal is horses, especially paints and quarters. She
has horse stuff all over her apt...instant connection! I always draw horse
sticky notes and stick them on her door. She has kept them all
ahah.
Zealen and Kaz are 11 and 8 cutest kids EVER. Zealen says the
funniest things!!! I need to take a quote book over there when I
go. They both want to be baptized but there Dad said, "absolutely not'.
He served a mission and everything but has no remaining testimony.
Even though he doesn't want them to be baptized, he is encouraging
them to serve missions when they are older. Why - I have no idea! Its
confusing. We are praying that his heart will be softened so his kids
can be baptized. I love those kids to death. SO CUTE.
Everything else is going well! There is some drama in the Zone.
But, that’s not important - people need to focus and quit...flirting.
Regarding family:
Sounds like you had a good week!! I love the termite/ slug
story!!! Dad, serves you right :P that’s disgusting!!! I think I
puked a little in my mouth...this morning I caught a HUGE beetle in our
bathroom. It sent goosebumps up my arm when it crawled on my
hand. Ugh. I have heard that quote from Elder Dyas before. It’s a good quote and I
can see that now! Even this early on my mission!
I am glad Kaylin is taking drawing lessons! Develop that talent!
hat’s awesome and keep developing the piano talent too
KAYLIN!! And Nevan aka Minimus, why would you want to contribute to the puke
pile?? Gross :P Boys (eye roll)
Anyway, I have to write president! I love you all! The church is
true!! Missions are amazing and I thank the Lord everyday that I
have this opportunity to be out here serving!! There is no better work :)
Thank you for all the support everyone!
Love, Hermana Bingham
Oh, and tell Steve McClain I said HI TOO!
Oh wait, I realize I haven't given a spiritual thought in a few
weeks. Here is one that I wrote to President. Enjoy!
There is a scripture in Mosiah 24 I believe where it talks about
Alma and his people and how they were persecuted by Amulon and his
people. They were told that they would be killed if they were caught
praying. As I read that chapter I was amazed at the faith and patience
they had in their afflictions. They were praying continually in their
earts and submitted themselves CHEERFULLY unto the Lord with faith
and patience. Even though they were doing this, the Lord didn't take
away their afflictions right away. Rather, he helped 'lift their
burdens' so that they could bear them.
We all go and will continue to go through afflictions and like
the people of Alma, the Lord will help lift us up. He won't
necessarily take them away which is important to remember.
We need to always trust in the Lord and have that same Faith and
patience that the people of Alma had. It’s also important to not only
endure through our afflictions, but to do so CHEERFULLY. To submit
ourselves to the Lord with happy hearts and as we do this, we can
know that the Lord has promised us deliverance :)
LOVE
YOU ALL! BE HAPPY!! And if you have to fry and pop slugs to do
that....that's disturbing...haha JUST KIDDING!
Love, Sister Bingham
#13 - September 10, 2012
Hola Familia!!
Sorry about the worrisome email...but it is about to get
a little worse :P I will just mention it right off the bat so I can end
with the good stuff that happened this week. First of all, I have been
fighting nausea the past few days and haven't eaten a whole lot
of food. Luckily, our dinner appts have been falling through, so its
been a little easier to handle my blood sugar. It hasn't been bad but it
definitely has been a challenge to make sure I check it.
Sometimes, I get to the end of the day and realize I had only
checked my sugar once ...oops. Its hard to take care of myself sometimes when my schedule changes from day to day and we are going 100% all day long. No down time to do much of anything.
But such is missionary life :)
I love it though - but yeah, my diabetes doesn't love it so much. However, the
worst part is that Sister Meyers woke up with the flu and has been throwing up
all day. I have been fighting nausea but I can still function. I realize that
all I've eaten today is a cup of applesauce and some soup the Elders brought us.
I just can't eat. Anyway, so when we woke up, we called our DL and he came
over right away with the rest of the elders in our district and they gave
Sister Meyers and I a blessing. I feel a little better, but the nausea still
comes in waves. So...pray that I don't catch the flu. Because,
if I do, I am in BWIG TWOUBLE.
The elders have been very helpful though, they have brought us medicine, food, drinks,
and whatever other things we have needed. They have also been calling us periodically throughout
the day and coming by. WE also called the President's wife and let her know
(don't worry ;)But yeah, so today has been fun :) Sister Chatter and I went
on splits so we could get our shopping and necessities done. I am now the
designated driver, which is also fun ;)
About the insulin, I haven't been wearing my pump. I just have been using the shots.
It helps me be more aware of what I am eating. That is why I asked for the pens.
But I just got that shipment of insulin last week so I have all these bottles of
insulin now...I might just have to use my pump till I use those I guess. Do you think
I should see an endocrinologist or someone up here? I don't know how they could help me. I suppose it wouldn't hurt. They have a free medical clinic at the mission office but they are just volunteer doctors
and PAs. Don't think they could really help me. Glad to hearmy blood work was normal...jeez. I hate my body
sometimes haha. But it's not really as bad as it sounds.
Heavenly Father has been blessing me with strength to be able to work. My
blessing this morning was really comforting because the elder that gave
it said some specific things about my health and suffering, and he
doesn't even know of my diabetic ailment. The power of the Spirit is
amazing ;) It was something that I really needed to hear.
Anyway, lets see. My talk went great yesterday!! Just so you know,
I had about a half hour to prepare it lol. Thank goodness that the spirit is the teacher and not me!
I virtually went up there with an idea of what I wanted to talk about but nothing really
planned, also they had a missionary homecoming that day and a baby blessing
so the place was PACKED. It looked like our stake conference. Doesn't that
sound fun, Mom? :P So, it was a neat opportunity to speak as the full
time missionary and then to have an RM speak as well. We made up the
whole program. The spirit completely guided me as to what I should
say. I shared and talked about the story of Peter in Luke 5 and then
also what the Savior taught in John...10 I think? It went really well!
It got us some referrals which is always good :)
5:5 And Simon answering said unto him, Master, we have toiled all the night,
and have taken nothing: nevertheless at thy word I will let down the net.
5:6 And when they had this done, they inclosed a great multitude of fishes:
and their net brake.
5:7 And they beckoned unto their partners, which were in the other ship, that
they should come and help them. And they came, and filled both the ships, so
that they began to sink.
5:8 When Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus' knees, saying, Depart from me; for I am a sinful man,
O Lord.
5:9 For he was astonished, and all that were with him, at the draught of the
fishes which they had taken:
5:10 And so was also James, and John, the sons of Zebedee, which were
partners with Simon. And Jesus said unto Simon, Fear not; from henceforth thou
shalt catch men.
5:11 And when they had brought their ships to land, they forsook all, and followed him.
This past week was filled with so MUCH DRAMA! The only
companionship really baptizing in our zone is us so
the zone isn't doing so hot. So our ZLs have been cracking down and
really stressing numbers..which is really irritating then for some reason,
we got pulled into the mix for saying that and so the APs have been
calling. The coordinating sister came and talked to us, our DL has been arguing
with one of our ZL and things are just not going well.
It's seriously like a soap opera haha. It's insane.
Now good things. Raquel was baptized on Saturday!!!
YAY! She was SO happy! She was crying the WHOLE
time at her baptism and the spirit was so strong. She was so prepared to
accept the gospel, it's not even funny.Her testimony is so
strong! I felt so blessed to have been able to teach her. She was just
golden. We found a new investigator yesterday, Jacob. He is an 18 year
old attending Alta High and was kind of introduced to the gospel through
some of the guys on the football team. He also signed up for seminary
so he is really interested. WE taught him yesterday for the first time
and taught him the first discussion and extended the invite to be
baptized and he said yes! Gotta love when that happens!
He is such a good kid and the spirit was so strong in that lesson.
His date is scheduled for Oct 5.
Our other people are falling off unfortunately. I think that stresses out our leaders.
We can only do what we can but people have their agency. WE are still teaching them
but it is just going to take longer. Hermano Cisneros needs to fix his WOW issue and Francisco
needs to take care of the situation up in Colorado for his arrest and make restitution so
we will see what happens with that.
They are good wonderful people. I love them all but they just...need more time
and that extra bit of faith to take that step and take action. Because we
are baptizing a lot right now, our teaching pool is shrinking and we
need to start contacting and OYMing more. (Open Your Mouth which means
to talk to people and testify ;) Its scary as heck sometimes. I OYMed
this Hispanic the other day and it was hecka scary at first. My
companions just stared at me and nudged me forward and so I was
just like, all right, here goes nothin'! And it went really well!! I am
telling ya, when you have faith and just act on that, the spirit can
work miracles! Even in Spanish ;) We got a return appt with him this
week. His name is also Francisco.
So this week was a good week. It had its 'fun' moments
but that just gives flavor to the missionary life, right? Just making
memories! I realize that on missions, your weaknesses and
mistakes are magnified because they don't just affect you anymore. They
affect so many others and I think that has been the hardest thing so far.
But I am SO grateful for that though, because it is helping me be such a
better person and a better missionary.
All right. Nevan and Kaylin. Good luck at your first CC meet!!! Just
go have fun and Kaylin...just make note of where the blackberries are,
okay? :P GO MULES ;) And that is SO awesome that Richie is going on a
mission!!!! Good for him!! I am so stoked for him! He is going
to LOVE it! Wow. I am just speechless. So proud!
I have to write the president now. Can you
send that SD card back that I gave you? If you haven't deleted the pics,
can you just leave them on there? If you have, that’s okay too. I will send
you the next chapter of pictures next week when I get that :)
Anyway, thank you all for your prayers and love! Sorry to worry
you all...DONT WORRY. All is well! Just keep the prayers coming ;) I
am happy! I love this work! And I love you all!
Hermana Bingham
p.s. And what is all this staff stuff with Shay? What does that mean?
And yeah, my mission president is definitely a tough love kinda guy.
He LOVES to pick on me during trainings. Why? No idea. He just loves
the sisters in his mission so much, he loves to embarrass us. :P
Thanks for the political updates. Keep them coming as things happen!
It's good to be somewhat in the know
Sorry about the worrisome email...but it is about to get
a little worse :P I will just mention it right off the bat so I can end
with the good stuff that happened this week. First of all, I have been
fighting nausea the past few days and haven't eaten a whole lot
of food. Luckily, our dinner appts have been falling through, so its
been a little easier to handle my blood sugar. It hasn't been bad but it
definitely has been a challenge to make sure I check it.
Sometimes, I get to the end of the day and realize I had only
checked my sugar once ...oops. Its hard to take care of myself sometimes when my schedule changes from day to day and we are going 100% all day long. No down time to do much of anything.
But such is missionary life :)
I love it though - but yeah, my diabetes doesn't love it so much. However, the
worst part is that Sister Meyers woke up with the flu and has been throwing up
all day. I have been fighting nausea but I can still function. I realize that
all I've eaten today is a cup of applesauce and some soup the Elders brought us.
I just can't eat. Anyway, so when we woke up, we called our DL and he came
over right away with the rest of the elders in our district and they gave
Sister Meyers and I a blessing. I feel a little better, but the nausea still
comes in waves. So...pray that I don't catch the flu. Because,
if I do, I am in BWIG TWOUBLE.
The elders have been very helpful though, they have brought us medicine, food, drinks,
and whatever other things we have needed. They have also been calling us periodically throughout
the day and coming by. WE also called the President's wife and let her know
(don't worry ;)But yeah, so today has been fun :) Sister Chatter and I went
on splits so we could get our shopping and necessities done. I am now the
designated driver, which is also fun ;)
About the insulin, I haven't been wearing my pump. I just have been using the shots.
It helps me be more aware of what I am eating. That is why I asked for the pens.
But I just got that shipment of insulin last week so I have all these bottles of
insulin now...I might just have to use my pump till I use those I guess. Do you think
I should see an endocrinologist or someone up here? I don't know how they could help me. I suppose it wouldn't hurt. They have a free medical clinic at the mission office but they are just volunteer doctors
and PAs. Don't think they could really help me. Glad to hearmy blood work was normal...jeez. I hate my body
sometimes haha. But it's not really as bad as it sounds.
Heavenly Father has been blessing me with strength to be able to work. My
blessing this morning was really comforting because the elder that gave
it said some specific things about my health and suffering, and he
doesn't even know of my diabetic ailment. The power of the Spirit is
amazing ;) It was something that I really needed to hear.
Anyway, lets see. My talk went great yesterday!! Just so you know,
I had about a half hour to prepare it lol. Thank goodness that the spirit is the teacher and not me!
I virtually went up there with an idea of what I wanted to talk about but nothing really
planned, also they had a missionary homecoming that day and a baby blessing
so the place was PACKED. It looked like our stake conference. Doesn't that
sound fun, Mom? :P So, it was a neat opportunity to speak as the full
time missionary and then to have an RM speak as well. We made up the
whole program. The spirit completely guided me as to what I should
say. I shared and talked about the story of Peter in Luke 5 and then
also what the Savior taught in John...10 I think? It went really well!
It got us some referrals which is always good :)
5:5 And Simon answering said unto him, Master, we have toiled all the night,
and have taken nothing: nevertheless at thy word I will let down the net.
5:6 And when they had this done, they inclosed a great multitude of fishes:
and their net brake.
5:7 And they beckoned unto their partners, which were in the other ship, that
they should come and help them. And they came, and filled both the ships, so
that they began to sink.
5:8 When Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus' knees, saying, Depart from me; for I am a sinful man,
O Lord.
5:9 For he was astonished, and all that were with him, at the draught of the
fishes which they had taken:
5:10 And so was also James, and John, the sons of Zebedee, which were
partners with Simon. And Jesus said unto Simon, Fear not; from henceforth thou
shalt catch men.
5:11 And when they had brought their ships to land, they forsook all, and followed him.
This past week was filled with so MUCH DRAMA! The only
companionship really baptizing in our zone is us so
the zone isn't doing so hot. So our ZLs have been cracking down and
really stressing numbers..which is really irritating then for some reason,
we got pulled into the mix for saying that and so the APs have been
calling. The coordinating sister came and talked to us, our DL has been arguing
with one of our ZL and things are just not going well.
It's seriously like a soap opera haha. It's insane.
Now good things. Raquel was baptized on Saturday!!!
YAY! She was SO happy! She was crying the WHOLE
time at her baptism and the spirit was so strong. She was so prepared to
accept the gospel, it's not even funny.Her testimony is so
strong! I felt so blessed to have been able to teach her. She was just
golden. We found a new investigator yesterday, Jacob. He is an 18 year
old attending Alta High and was kind of introduced to the gospel through
some of the guys on the football team. He also signed up for seminary
so he is really interested. WE taught him yesterday for the first time
and taught him the first discussion and extended the invite to be
baptized and he said yes! Gotta love when that happens!
He is such a good kid and the spirit was so strong in that lesson.
His date is scheduled for Oct 5.
Our other people are falling off unfortunately. I think that stresses out our leaders.
We can only do what we can but people have their agency. WE are still teaching them
but it is just going to take longer. Hermano Cisneros needs to fix his WOW issue and Francisco
needs to take care of the situation up in Colorado for his arrest and make restitution so
we will see what happens with that.
They are good wonderful people. I love them all but they just...need more time
and that extra bit of faith to take that step and take action. Because we
are baptizing a lot right now, our teaching pool is shrinking and we
need to start contacting and OYMing more. (Open Your Mouth which means
to talk to people and testify ;) Its scary as heck sometimes. I OYMed
this Hispanic the other day and it was hecka scary at first. My
companions just stared at me and nudged me forward and so I was
just like, all right, here goes nothin'! And it went really well!! I am
telling ya, when you have faith and just act on that, the spirit can
work miracles! Even in Spanish ;) We got a return appt with him this
week. His name is also Francisco.
So this week was a good week. It had its 'fun' moments
but that just gives flavor to the missionary life, right? Just making
memories! I realize that on missions, your weaknesses and
mistakes are magnified because they don't just affect you anymore. They
affect so many others and I think that has been the hardest thing so far.
But I am SO grateful for that though, because it is helping me be such a
better person and a better missionary.
All right. Nevan and Kaylin. Good luck at your first CC meet!!! Just
go have fun and Kaylin...just make note of where the blackberries are,
okay? :P GO MULES ;) And that is SO awesome that Richie is going on a
mission!!!! Good for him!! I am so stoked for him! He is going
to LOVE it! Wow. I am just speechless. So proud!
I have to write the president now. Can you
send that SD card back that I gave you? If you haven't deleted the pics,
can you just leave them on there? If you have, that’s okay too. I will send
you the next chapter of pictures next week when I get that :)
Anyway, thank you all for your prayers and love! Sorry to worry
you all...DONT WORRY. All is well! Just keep the prayers coming ;) I
am happy! I love this work! And I love you all!
Hermana Bingham
p.s. And what is all this staff stuff with Shay? What does that mean?
And yeah, my mission president is definitely a tough love kinda guy.
He LOVES to pick on me during trainings. Why? No idea. He just loves
the sisters in his mission so much, he loves to embarrass us. :P
Thanks for the political updates. Keep them coming as things happen!
It's good to be somewhat in the know
Subject: Re: #12 - SEPTEMBER 4, 2012
Hola Familia!!
Oh man, your email made me laugh...Bless Nevan's heart!!! I can just picture him out there on the porch at midnight, half naked, with Shay's eagle scout knife. To be honest, when I was picturing it, I
was picturing Dwight, on the office, because it is something he would totally
do...no offense Nevan!! Way to be the man of the household though!! And I guess
you didn't see anything?? Maybe it was that dumb diesel barrel again...if Goose
was there, I would definitely accuse him off chuckin' the hay feeder thing
around...or cribbing on the panels and ripping them out of the wall...silly Goose ;)
Oh- haha and the blackberries...Kaylin, you crack me up. Good job and I think Dad has
gone out of town at least three times since I have been gone and theBingham household seems to have been
pretty darn productive each time. Good job guys!! Dad, you should be proud.
Oh and Dad, I was just thinking the other day. I am up at 6AM every morning
which makes it 5AM in Washington and I think I can safely say that I am now
up earlier than you are most mornings! YES! This will probably be the only time in
my ENTIRE life where it will be like that ;) So, HA!
So, this last week went pretty darn well! We had some interesting things
happen...some REALLY interesting things happen. I had a little greenie
breakdown on...lets see, Friday I think? But its all good. I was just
keeping in some things until it was starting to overflow so I just let
it out and I felt MUUUUUCH better afterwards. I guess everyone has their
greenie breakdowns so I finally just had mine and got it over with.
My companions are awesome! The most difficult thing is trying to
figure out how to be more efficient as a trio. Because there is 3 of us, we can be getting
a lot more done and accomplished than we are so...we are figuring that out
and its getting better. I am definitely getting better at how things work.
I am getting better at talking to Hispanics on the phone...oh my goodness
gracious, that is so fun.. -.- (--That face reminds me of Shay) They
just LOVE TO GO ON AND ON AND ON. Bless their hearts, but I always have to cut them off.
I have to be careful though because they get offended so darn easily.
Anyway, okay so this week...let’s see, Marcus (9 yrs) and Isabel (13 yrs)
are scheduled for a baptism on Sept 16. They live with their Mom and her
boyfriend. Mom is inactive and unfortunately has some bad
experiences with the church. The boyfriend is really supportive and wants
his 'step kids' to be baptized. He loves the church and what it teaches and
how Mormons live. Anyway, we went over to do some service for them and
mow their lawn last Wednesday. Well, Spencer (the 300 lbs boyfriend)
comes out to start the mowers and what not. So, while we are mowing
and weed whipping, the garage door opens and the Mom comes, I kid you
not, SQUEALING out of the garage and spins the minivan around 007
style, and floors it out of the driveway. She almost hit me and
Sister Meyers she didn't even look if we had been out in the middle of the
driveway, I am convinced she would have killed us and not even cared. Then
Spencer apologized and said that we better stop coming over because,
in a nutshell, they have had trust issues and she doesn't want us flirting with her
boyfriend. So yeah, that sucked. Never been accused of flirting with a 300 lbs
guy before, Ew, so we haven't been over since the Elders are going to have to go
over and teach the kids now :(
Hailey (10 yrs): Hailey was baptized on Saturday!! I LOVE this
family!! They are probably my favorite. We have spent a lot of time
with them. Ingrid is the aunt and is inactive. She however is
rekindling her faith and is coming back to church. The whole family is just
doing so much better and love us and have been so grateful for our friendship
and helping them invite the spirit back into their home. It has been
amazing to see them become so much happier in the last month as we
teach them. Awesome family.
There was this little Hispanic girl at the baptism that came up to me, tugged on my skirt, and told me
that I was the prettiest one there. HOW CUTE IS THAT?! She said she wanted
to be my friend...made my heart melt. Little Hispanic kids are so CUTE! This little other
boy, Titi, loves it when I draw SpongeBob for him. I am so glad my SpongeBob
drawing skills are being put to good use on my mission. ;)
We picked up a new investigator yesterday, Hermano Cisneros. I extended the invitation to be
baptized on Sept 23 and he accepted. However, we found out later that he is an
alcoholic and has had some drug trafficking (or however you spell it) in
his home. The Branch president told us that he doesn't want us teaching him
in his home so we have to teach him somewhere else. he also told us to be
careful...he has been iffy in the past sothis should be fun. Crazy people
;) Nice guy though. But then again, of course he will be nice to us.
We are just a bunch of pretty Hermanas. Gosh. We have
another Hispanic man Francisco that we are teaching that apparently has a
warrant out for his arrest in Colorado. Why? I have no idea. He was in jail for
a couple years and we are not sure what happened after that...sketchy! Nice
guy though. He has been reading his Book of Mormon and keeping his
commitments. He REALLY wants to be baptized. Hopefully we can get his
situation cleared up.
The other day we were eating dinner with a family and the littlest kid, Johnny
is a HANDFUL, anyway we were just finishing up with desert and he comes
storming into the kitchen whipping around a wet toilet bowl brush and
splashing water EVERYWHERE. It was HILARIOUS. Gross but nonetheless,
hysterical and he would whip it around in the kitchen too..haha, random thought.
Also we had a HUGE storm hit draper and Sandy. Hail and a flash flood on some roads. We almost got killed. This car almost t-boned us and it was SCARY. There are definitely some angels looking out for us!
Anyway, this week is going to be crazy. We have a mission tour conference
on Wednesday, ALL day. Exchanges with the AP Sisters this weekend and
then I have to speak on Sunday with the high councilman. Wanna come down
here and do that for me Mom?? I will let you borrow my badge... ;) We also
have Raquel's baptism on Saturday which I am stoked for.
Anyway, that it in a nutshell of my adventures this week.
It was a good week. It is surprising how fast each Monday comes and goes. I love being
out here. Missionary work is SO GREAT! Yeah, its hard but it is the best
hard that is out there. I have some scriptures for soon to be SisterHiggins because I just
remembered that she goes into the MTC soon!! Crazy!
Acts 18: 9-11: Now the Lord spoke to Paul in the night by a vision, “Do not be afraid, but speak, and do not keep silent; for I am with you, and no one will attack you to hurt you; for I have many
people in this city.” And he continued there a year and six months, teaching the word of God among
them,
Hel 10:4-5: Blessed art thou, Nephi, for those things which thou hast done; for I have beheld how thou hast with unwearyingness declared the word, which I have given unto thee, unto this people. And thou hast not feared them, and hast not sought thine own life, but hast sought my will, and to keep my commandments.
5 And now, because thou hast done this with such unwearyingness, behold, I will bless thee forever; and I will make thee mighty in word and in deed, in faith and in works; yea, even that all things shall be done unto thee according to thy word, for thou shalt not ask that which is contrary to my will.
Alma 29:9 (my scripture plaque!) I know that which the Lord hath commanded me, and I glory in it. I do anot glory of myself, but I glory in that which the Lord hath commanded me; yea, and this is my
glory, that perhaps I may be an instrument in the hands of God to bring
some soul to repentance; and this is my joy.
-
D&C 38:7 (64:33-34, 78:17-18) But behold, verily, verily, I say unto you that mine eyes
are upon you. I am in your midst and ye cannot see me
I don't remember exactly what they say and I don't have my scripts with me but they have been SUCH a huge comfort for me since I have been out. Just know that even the best missionaries; Alma, Amulek,
Paul, Aaron, etc went through hard times. Missions wouldn't be missions without those hard times. I have said this before but missions never become easy; we just enjoy doing the things that are hard. And that is SO true. I can testify to that ;) Just know that you are going to be an amazing instrument in the hands of the Lord to bless the lives of SO many people. Never worry about whether you are a good missionary or not or never worry about what you are going to say. Just have faith and trust in the Lord and let the Spirit work miracles through you. I have already seen the Lord work through me and I know that he has in other ways that I haven't notice. Never forget that! Love you Sister Higgins! Just love the people you serve. As long as you do that, you will LOVE being a missionary ;) Which I know you should have no problem with because you are one of the most loving people I have EVER met.
Ashley and Jared!! HAPPY BIRTHDAY!! You are getting so DARN OLD!!! When did that happen?!? Oh shoot, if you're getting old that means I am already old. Daaaang. It doesn't matter ;)
And Grandma Nancy thank you SO SO SO SO much for the package! It made my day! And
the skirts are BEAUTIFUL! You have such good taste! In fact, I am wearing one of the
skirts right now as I write this. So thank you so much. Love you so much and miss you ;)
Anyway, love you all! Glad you had a good week!
I do have a question though! What the hay is going on with the elections
and Mitt Romney and Obama and the convention? Fill me in!
Okay...I know I had more to say but I can't remember...I will probably remember as soon
as I log off...anyway, just know that I love you all! I am doing very well and
am SO SO grateful for this opportunity I have to serve. It already has been
such a huge blessing and I have only been out a month lol. It's just getting started ;)
Love, Hermana Bingham
Oh man, your email made me laugh...Bless Nevan's heart!!! I can just picture him out there on the porch at midnight, half naked, with Shay's eagle scout knife. To be honest, when I was picturing it, I
was picturing Dwight, on the office, because it is something he would totally
do...no offense Nevan!! Way to be the man of the household though!! And I guess
you didn't see anything?? Maybe it was that dumb diesel barrel again...if Goose
was there, I would definitely accuse him off chuckin' the hay feeder thing
around...or cribbing on the panels and ripping them out of the wall...silly Goose ;)
Oh- haha and the blackberries...Kaylin, you crack me up. Good job and I think Dad has
gone out of town at least three times since I have been gone and theBingham household seems to have been
pretty darn productive each time. Good job guys!! Dad, you should be proud.
Oh and Dad, I was just thinking the other day. I am up at 6AM every morning
which makes it 5AM in Washington and I think I can safely say that I am now
up earlier than you are most mornings! YES! This will probably be the only time in
my ENTIRE life where it will be like that ;) So, HA!
So, this last week went pretty darn well! We had some interesting things
happen...some REALLY interesting things happen. I had a little greenie
breakdown on...lets see, Friday I think? But its all good. I was just
keeping in some things until it was starting to overflow so I just let
it out and I felt MUUUUUCH better afterwards. I guess everyone has their
greenie breakdowns so I finally just had mine and got it over with.
My companions are awesome! The most difficult thing is trying to
figure out how to be more efficient as a trio. Because there is 3 of us, we can be getting
a lot more done and accomplished than we are so...we are figuring that out
and its getting better. I am definitely getting better at how things work.
I am getting better at talking to Hispanics on the phone...oh my goodness
gracious, that is so fun.. -.- (--That face reminds me of Shay) They
just LOVE TO GO ON AND ON AND ON. Bless their hearts, but I always have to cut them off.
I have to be careful though because they get offended so darn easily.
Anyway, okay so this week...let’s see, Marcus (9 yrs) and Isabel (13 yrs)
are scheduled for a baptism on Sept 16. They live with their Mom and her
boyfriend. Mom is inactive and unfortunately has some bad
experiences with the church. The boyfriend is really supportive and wants
his 'step kids' to be baptized. He loves the church and what it teaches and
how Mormons live. Anyway, we went over to do some service for them and
mow their lawn last Wednesday. Well, Spencer (the 300 lbs boyfriend)
comes out to start the mowers and what not. So, while we are mowing
and weed whipping, the garage door opens and the Mom comes, I kid you
not, SQUEALING out of the garage and spins the minivan around 007
style, and floors it out of the driveway. She almost hit me and
Sister Meyers she didn't even look if we had been out in the middle of the
driveway, I am convinced she would have killed us and not even cared. Then
Spencer apologized and said that we better stop coming over because,
in a nutshell, they have had trust issues and she doesn't want us flirting with her
boyfriend. So yeah, that sucked. Never been accused of flirting with a 300 lbs
guy before, Ew, so we haven't been over since the Elders are going to have to go
over and teach the kids now :(
Hailey (10 yrs): Hailey was baptized on Saturday!! I LOVE this
family!! They are probably my favorite. We have spent a lot of time
with them. Ingrid is the aunt and is inactive. She however is
rekindling her faith and is coming back to church. The whole family is just
doing so much better and love us and have been so grateful for our friendship
and helping them invite the spirit back into their home. It has been
amazing to see them become so much happier in the last month as we
teach them. Awesome family.
There was this little Hispanic girl at the baptism that came up to me, tugged on my skirt, and told me
that I was the prettiest one there. HOW CUTE IS THAT?! She said she wanted
to be my friend...made my heart melt. Little Hispanic kids are so CUTE! This little other
boy, Titi, loves it when I draw SpongeBob for him. I am so glad my SpongeBob
drawing skills are being put to good use on my mission. ;)
We picked up a new investigator yesterday, Hermano Cisneros. I extended the invitation to be
baptized on Sept 23 and he accepted. However, we found out later that he is an
alcoholic and has had some drug trafficking (or however you spell it) in
his home. The Branch president told us that he doesn't want us teaching him
in his home so we have to teach him somewhere else. he also told us to be
careful...he has been iffy in the past sothis should be fun. Crazy people
;) Nice guy though. But then again, of course he will be nice to us.
We are just a bunch of pretty Hermanas. Gosh. We have
another Hispanic man Francisco that we are teaching that apparently has a
warrant out for his arrest in Colorado. Why? I have no idea. He was in jail for
a couple years and we are not sure what happened after that...sketchy! Nice
guy though. He has been reading his Book of Mormon and keeping his
commitments. He REALLY wants to be baptized. Hopefully we can get his
situation cleared up.
The other day we were eating dinner with a family and the littlest kid, Johnny
is a HANDFUL, anyway we were just finishing up with desert and he comes
storming into the kitchen whipping around a wet toilet bowl brush and
splashing water EVERYWHERE. It was HILARIOUS. Gross but nonetheless,
hysterical and he would whip it around in the kitchen too..haha, random thought.
Also we had a HUGE storm hit draper and Sandy. Hail and a flash flood on some roads. We almost got killed. This car almost t-boned us and it was SCARY. There are definitely some angels looking out for us!
Anyway, this week is going to be crazy. We have a mission tour conference
on Wednesday, ALL day. Exchanges with the AP Sisters this weekend and
then I have to speak on Sunday with the high councilman. Wanna come down
here and do that for me Mom?? I will let you borrow my badge... ;) We also
have Raquel's baptism on Saturday which I am stoked for.
Anyway, that it in a nutshell of my adventures this week.
It was a good week. It is surprising how fast each Monday comes and goes. I love being
out here. Missionary work is SO GREAT! Yeah, its hard but it is the best
hard that is out there. I have some scriptures for soon to be SisterHiggins because I just
remembered that she goes into the MTC soon!! Crazy!
Acts 18: 9-11: Now the Lord spoke to Paul in the night by a vision, “Do not be afraid, but speak, and do not keep silent; for I am with you, and no one will attack you to hurt you; for I have many
people in this city.” And he continued there a year and six months, teaching the word of God among
them,
Hel 10:4-5: Blessed art thou, Nephi, for those things which thou hast done; for I have beheld how thou hast with unwearyingness declared the word, which I have given unto thee, unto this people. And thou hast not feared them, and hast not sought thine own life, but hast sought my will, and to keep my commandments.
5 And now, because thou hast done this with such unwearyingness, behold, I will bless thee forever; and I will make thee mighty in word and in deed, in faith and in works; yea, even that all things shall be done unto thee according to thy word, for thou shalt not ask that which is contrary to my will.
Alma 29:9 (my scripture plaque!) I know that which the Lord hath commanded me, and I glory in it. I do anot glory of myself, but I glory in that which the Lord hath commanded me; yea, and this is my
glory, that perhaps I may be an instrument in the hands of God to bring
some soul to repentance; and this is my joy.
-
D&C 38:7 (64:33-34, 78:17-18) But behold, verily, verily, I say unto you that mine eyes
are upon you. I am in your midst and ye cannot see me
I don't remember exactly what they say and I don't have my scripts with me but they have been SUCH a huge comfort for me since I have been out. Just know that even the best missionaries; Alma, Amulek,
Paul, Aaron, etc went through hard times. Missions wouldn't be missions without those hard times. I have said this before but missions never become easy; we just enjoy doing the things that are hard. And that is SO true. I can testify to that ;) Just know that you are going to be an amazing instrument in the hands of the Lord to bless the lives of SO many people. Never worry about whether you are a good missionary or not or never worry about what you are going to say. Just have faith and trust in the Lord and let the Spirit work miracles through you. I have already seen the Lord work through me and I know that he has in other ways that I haven't notice. Never forget that! Love you Sister Higgins! Just love the people you serve. As long as you do that, you will LOVE being a missionary ;) Which I know you should have no problem with because you are one of the most loving people I have EVER met.
Ashley and Jared!! HAPPY BIRTHDAY!! You are getting so DARN OLD!!! When did that happen?!? Oh shoot, if you're getting old that means I am already old. Daaaang. It doesn't matter ;)
And Grandma Nancy thank you SO SO SO SO much for the package! It made my day! And
the skirts are BEAUTIFUL! You have such good taste! In fact, I am wearing one of the
skirts right now as I write this. So thank you so much. Love you so much and miss you ;)
Anyway, love you all! Glad you had a good week!
I do have a question though! What the hay is going on with the elections
and Mitt Romney and Obama and the convention? Fill me in!
Okay...I know I had more to say but I can't remember...I will probably remember as soon
as I log off...anyway, just know that I love you all! I am doing very well and
am SO SO grateful for this opportunity I have to serve. It already has been
such a huge blessing and I have only been out a month lol. It's just getting started ;)
Love, Hermana Bingham
August 27, 2012
Hola Familia!
Sounds like your week was...exciting: P
Nevan's email was just full of enthusiasm and fun...maybe as I write, I will think of some questions to ask him. Kaylin's email...well, at least it had hearts and smiley faces ;) Thanks Kayface and you guys are very welcome! I am glad you like the hymnbooks. I have one is Spanish with my name on it :)
So, this last week was pretty good. Hecka busy but that's normal haha. We had training, zone conference, stake conference, and all sorts of trainings and meetings and in between all of that, we were teaching and trying to contact people. We also had another temple square visit
which went awesome! We took Hailey, she’s 10 and is being baptized this
Saturday. Her Mom is divorced and semi-active. She is one of those people
that’s just comfortable being a caterpillar rather than stretching herself
and becoming what she is capable of becoming in the Gospel. She doesn't
really have a desire to go to the temple or anything. She knows the church
is true and she goes every Sunday, almost, but is kind of a 'Sunday Mormon'
if you know what I mean ;) She is awesome though and we LOVE visiting her
and Hailey. She lives with her sister, Ingrid, who is less active. We have
been working with them for awhile and I think taking them to temple square
was PERFECT.
I was talking to the Mom and we had a good moment. She was crying and was pretty much bearing her testimony to me and how she needs to be better for her kids and stronger in the Gospel. Ingrid, also, felt the Spirit and is taking those baby steps in coming back. I think the whole
trip was more beneficial for them than for Hailey. Afterwards, we went to a
Rancho Market and oh my goodness, it was so good!! It was a Mexican grocery
store with a little restaurant inside! I felt like I was in some foreign Hispanic country when I was in there ;) It’s about as foreign as I get in Utah haha.
Raquel is continuing to progress to baptism. She is so darn cute she loves everything
about the gospel! Her grandson, Alex, istoo they are both golden. They get baptized Sept 8.
Right now, we have five people on date for September which is really good. We have a
couple other potential baptisms but those people are kind of shady...so we will
see. I hope so!
Let’s see, what else is happening...stake conference was
really good!! We had Elder Gavarett from the seventy come and speak. Our
mission president also came with his wife and spoke. My companions
are teaching me how to fear the man...golly. Apparently he is notorious for
calling up missionaries and asking them to recite or teach or do something
during stake conferences so...I was freaking out...just a little. I was making
sure I had the first vision memorized in both languages and the missionary
purpose and looking over everything that he might ask us about. Being the
greenie, I figured I was on the chopping block anyway it ended up not being
that bad though, he just called us up and had us stand there while he told
the whole stake that they had three miracles among them and yadadadada...he
said some pretty nice things about us though ;) Bless that man. He is
awesome. I love that man. He just scares the living daylights out of all of
us. :P Oh well...what can you do?!?
I have come to the hard realization that I will probably be embarrassed a few
times in front of the whole mission or stake that I am serving in at some point. So...hopefully I
won’t be scarred when it eventually happens ;)
Other than that, the work is progressing! We are teaching a lot and have
so many more to contact and teach! I am still working on my fear when it comes to door
approaches. Gosh, scariest thing I have probably ever done. Some Catholic
guy slammed the door in my face the other day...I really had to pray to
have love and charity for the guy. Rude! The Spanish is coming along its
hard when we are teaching a lot of English. I am not speaking it as much as
I need to be. My companions are patient and supportive though, bless their
hearts. I can communicate easily enough, I just now need to expand my
vocabulary and learn the doctrine better in the lessons in preach my
gospel and I will be good to go.
Anyway, like I said, it was a good week. But, it was pretty rough, not gonna lie.
I just want to be that powerful missionary and confident. I hate this middle stage
where I feel like I don't really know what I am doing. Sister Meyers is very helpful she is a lot
like me and I picture myself being a lot like her in the future months, we
click very well and have a lot of fun together along with SisterChatter.
Even though it’s been hard and frustrating at times, I am so happy to be here. I have never felt so close to my Heavenly Father. So far, this mission has been teaching me how to rely on the Savior and
to recognize how much I need him. It is stretching me and forcing me out of my
comfort zone. It is teaching me how to love others and to forget about myself.
Because when I focus on myself, I am not happy. I am only happy when I am
thinking about those whom I am serving. The Lord is with me every step of the
way, as he is with all of us. We can do all things though him, who strengthens us,
us.
Anyway, the pictures on the phone-was itof me and the dogs?? If
so, that was sent from one of the mission leaders from the ward ;) We can't
send you pictures from the mission phone because that is against the rules
lol Good ol' Brother Smalley sent those. He is a funny one ;) And I have
yet to come across an Elder Stuart BUT I will keep a look out. I am
sure I will run into him at some point and OH, I have come across a few people
who have heard of Cathlamet! A couple other people thought I was talking about
Willamette (wow, I forgot how to spell it...)
So glad you have fun buckin' hay! ;) I am not going to lie, I would LOVE to buck some hay right
now. I would love to get some exercise! I am sick of eating and sitting all
day...it's kind of killing me. I like how you have Kaylin driving the
trucks...go Kaylin! And Nevan stacking...building up those muscles ;)
WEll, nothing else too exciting happened this week just the norm.
So happy to hear how Walker is doing so proud of him and his decision.
Time to write the President. Glad you are all doing well! Love you all and miss you!
The church is true! Hurrah for Israel!
Love, Hermana Bingham
p.s. Thanks for Shay's and Jared's emails
:) I love reading about how they are doing.
Oh and p.s. check out the mission website.
They post pictures of us at training
and what not :) You might find some of me
and my zone.
http://www.utahslcsouthmission.com/wp/
Sounds like your week was...exciting: P
Nevan's email was just full of enthusiasm and fun...maybe as I write, I will think of some questions to ask him. Kaylin's email...well, at least it had hearts and smiley faces ;) Thanks Kayface and you guys are very welcome! I am glad you like the hymnbooks. I have one is Spanish with my name on it :)
So, this last week was pretty good. Hecka busy but that's normal haha. We had training, zone conference, stake conference, and all sorts of trainings and meetings and in between all of that, we were teaching and trying to contact people. We also had another temple square visit
which went awesome! We took Hailey, she’s 10 and is being baptized this
Saturday. Her Mom is divorced and semi-active. She is one of those people
that’s just comfortable being a caterpillar rather than stretching herself
and becoming what she is capable of becoming in the Gospel. She doesn't
really have a desire to go to the temple or anything. She knows the church
is true and she goes every Sunday, almost, but is kind of a 'Sunday Mormon'
if you know what I mean ;) She is awesome though and we LOVE visiting her
and Hailey. She lives with her sister, Ingrid, who is less active. We have
been working with them for awhile and I think taking them to temple square
was PERFECT.
I was talking to the Mom and we had a good moment. She was crying and was pretty much bearing her testimony to me and how she needs to be better for her kids and stronger in the Gospel. Ingrid, also, felt the Spirit and is taking those baby steps in coming back. I think the whole
trip was more beneficial for them than for Hailey. Afterwards, we went to a
Rancho Market and oh my goodness, it was so good!! It was a Mexican grocery
store with a little restaurant inside! I felt like I was in some foreign Hispanic country when I was in there ;) It’s about as foreign as I get in Utah haha.
Raquel is continuing to progress to baptism. She is so darn cute she loves everything
about the gospel! Her grandson, Alex, istoo they are both golden. They get baptized Sept 8.
Right now, we have five people on date for September which is really good. We have a
couple other potential baptisms but those people are kind of shady...so we will
see. I hope so!
Let’s see, what else is happening...stake conference was
really good!! We had Elder Gavarett from the seventy come and speak. Our
mission president also came with his wife and spoke. My companions
are teaching me how to fear the man...golly. Apparently he is notorious for
calling up missionaries and asking them to recite or teach or do something
during stake conferences so...I was freaking out...just a little. I was making
sure I had the first vision memorized in both languages and the missionary
purpose and looking over everything that he might ask us about. Being the
greenie, I figured I was on the chopping block anyway it ended up not being
that bad though, he just called us up and had us stand there while he told
the whole stake that they had three miracles among them and yadadadada...he
said some pretty nice things about us though ;) Bless that man. He is
awesome. I love that man. He just scares the living daylights out of all of
us. :P Oh well...what can you do?!?
I have come to the hard realization that I will probably be embarrassed a few
times in front of the whole mission or stake that I am serving in at some point. So...hopefully I
won’t be scarred when it eventually happens ;)
Other than that, the work is progressing! We are teaching a lot and have
so many more to contact and teach! I am still working on my fear when it comes to door
approaches. Gosh, scariest thing I have probably ever done. Some Catholic
guy slammed the door in my face the other day...I really had to pray to
have love and charity for the guy. Rude! The Spanish is coming along its
hard when we are teaching a lot of English. I am not speaking it as much as
I need to be. My companions are patient and supportive though, bless their
hearts. I can communicate easily enough, I just now need to expand my
vocabulary and learn the doctrine better in the lessons in preach my
gospel and I will be good to go.
Anyway, like I said, it was a good week. But, it was pretty rough, not gonna lie.
I just want to be that powerful missionary and confident. I hate this middle stage
where I feel like I don't really know what I am doing. Sister Meyers is very helpful she is a lot
like me and I picture myself being a lot like her in the future months, we
click very well and have a lot of fun together along with SisterChatter.
Even though it’s been hard and frustrating at times, I am so happy to be here. I have never felt so close to my Heavenly Father. So far, this mission has been teaching me how to rely on the Savior and
to recognize how much I need him. It is stretching me and forcing me out of my
comfort zone. It is teaching me how to love others and to forget about myself.
Because when I focus on myself, I am not happy. I am only happy when I am
thinking about those whom I am serving. The Lord is with me every step of the
way, as he is with all of us. We can do all things though him, who strengthens us,
us.
Anyway, the pictures on the phone-was itof me and the dogs?? If
so, that was sent from one of the mission leaders from the ward ;) We can't
send you pictures from the mission phone because that is against the rules
lol Good ol' Brother Smalley sent those. He is a funny one ;) And I have
yet to come across an Elder Stuart BUT I will keep a look out. I am
sure I will run into him at some point and OH, I have come across a few people
who have heard of Cathlamet! A couple other people thought I was talking about
Willamette (wow, I forgot how to spell it...)
So glad you have fun buckin' hay! ;) I am not going to lie, I would LOVE to buck some hay right
now. I would love to get some exercise! I am sick of eating and sitting all
day...it's kind of killing me. I like how you have Kaylin driving the
trucks...go Kaylin! And Nevan stacking...building up those muscles ;)
WEll, nothing else too exciting happened this week just the norm.
So happy to hear how Walker is doing so proud of him and his decision.
Time to write the President. Glad you are all doing well! Love you all and miss you!
The church is true! Hurrah for Israel!
Love, Hermana Bingham
p.s. Thanks for Shay's and Jared's emails
:) I love reading about how they are doing.
Oh and p.s. check out the mission website.
They post pictures of us at training
and what not :) You might find some of me
and my zone.
http://www.utahslcsouthmission.com/wp/
August 13, 2012
Hola Familia!!
Oh my goodness gracious!! I loved hearing about the camping trip!
And yes, how could I ever forget Camp No-amenities ;) I LOVE looking back
on it though. We definitely made some memories. Good times good times!
Sometimes I can't believe that it is mid-august and that it is fair time
already! You guys are going to have to back into school here in a couple weeks!
Have fun with that Nevan and Kaylin ;) Did you two like your
hymnbooks?! And I went ahead and bought an SD card at the MTC
before I left so you can just take your sweet time sending that
one back.
Okay, so you ready to hear about my week?!?! HOLY CAMOLEY, where to
START?!! I dont even know!! It has been an amazing week!! Amazingly
hard, extremely tiring, un-relentlessly busy but absolutely rewarding.
I will start back to the day before we left the MTC.
So...Tuesday was a weird day! Three people from our district, which
ncluded Hermana Zidek, left at 5AM Tuesday morning. It was
crazy because we woke up 5 minutes before she was supposed to report
at the travel office and she wasnt even done packing. So that was
insane. But we got her down there safe and sound and the bus hadnt left her yet.
While she was getting on, I could see Elder Janzen (who was in our
district) and we all waved to him. That was our first goodbye
and it was hard!! Harder than I thought it would be!!
So . . .Hermana Wanlass, Hermana Bateman, and I wandered around as a trio
the rest of the day. It was weird. And then later that day the REST of
our district headed out to the mission home in SLC south. We went and
said goodbye to all of them but that one wasnt AS bad because Hermana
anlass and I were just going to see them the next morning. :)
It still was so surreal to see them all walking away with their luggage
thinking about how we were going to be doing that in about 12 hours.
Still didnt seem real.
So. . . the three of us remaining survivors of District 49C spent the rest
of the day going to the devotional and cleaning our classroom.
It was SO sad. And Exciting at the same time haha. We talked about all
the funny moments and good memories we had after spending 100s of
hours in there over the course of two months haha. We also said
goodbye to the other districts in our zone and our Branch Presidency.
I LOVED THE MTC. I hope Jenna and Lori just live it up there...every
single day! It goes by so fast. Especially when you are there
for only three weeks.
Next morning, we were off!! WE got to the mission home 20 minutes later
:P I know, long trip. I am still recovering from the jet lag. But
we spent most of the day in training. WE met President Miller and his
wife. AMAZING GUY and he LOVES the sister missionaries.
There are definitely some serious perks to being a sister missionary.
And then later on in the day, (drum roll) we met our new
companions!! We all got on different sides of the chapel and President Miller would
bring the two companions together in the middle. So...not only was I
lucky enough to get one AWESOME trainer, but I was so blessed and
fortunate to get TWO amazing trainers!! I am in a trio with
Hermana Chatter and Hermana Meyers and they are SO COOL.
We have had so much fun together and they have been doing such an amazing job
training me. They love me ;) Which helps lol. They both leave for home in
December and know what they are doing. They have been the highest baptizing
companionship in the zone the last couple transfers so...I am
with pros :) They have helped make this transition into the field very fun
and exciting for me! I LOVE SERVING HERE! Utah is so stinkin' amazing!
There is SO much work that needs to be done. SO MUCH, I can't even
begin to describe. What is kind of cool is that we teach both in Spanish and English
which has helped not make the transition as stressful for me. We cover
an English stake, Eastridge, and a Spanish branch which covers nine
stakes. So our area is HUGE for the Spanish branch.
We are assigned to the Draper Zone so I am currently in Draper and it is SO
BEAUTIFUL UP HERE! The people are pretty well off up here. I will probably be
here for at least two transfers. We are up on the mountain and so we walk out
of our house and BAM-there is the valley! So pretty. WE live with a
family in their basement but...as you probably know, the members
up here are loaded so it is a NICE basement. Flat screen TV, leather
couches, kitchen, two tables, big room with big beds and a
bathroom. So, yeah my life is pretty hard ;)
The members here are incredible and help SO much with the missionary work. Wow, does
it make a HUGE difference when the members are involved. They also make really
good dinners another plus to being in Utah. However, when we eat with the
Spanish branch members, I brace myself. haha, because the whole
portion size concept does NOT EXIST in Hispanic culture! They are
going to kill me. Yep. ;) So...GUESS WHAT?! I have been teaching...in
both Spanish and English.
I was able to commit THREE people to baptism in the 5 days I have been here...
EN ESPANOL! The first was Raquel and her daughter, Evelyn, and her two kids live with her.
The sweetest lady EVER. She has definitely been prepared to hear the message of the
gospel in her life. She was golden. And her grandson, Alex who is 11,
also has a baptism date. Evelyn was baptized when she was 11 but
doesn’t remember much. The last two times we have taught, the
spirit was SO strong. They were both crying. So it was really sweet ;) to be
a part of that. The other woman was Maria. We committed her last
night. She told us that we have a light that she wants. And that
she feels something when we bear testimony of what we know.
Holy cow, there are so many other people. Haylee, Taylor, Hana, Oscar,
Cody, Lupe, Anabel, Manuel, and list goes on and on and on and on. The
members give us referrals like crazy and are SO involved in the
work. But, I will have to share their stories later ;) So, something cool.
The Salt lake City South mission baptizes weekly. WEEKLY. If we are
being obedient, working hard, and doing all that we can do, we can
have a baptism each week. Which is the mission goal.
Sometimes, obviously you don’t have a baptism every week, but if you have a
total of 5 to 6 baptisms each transfer, then that adds up to one each week.
Before, I would have scoffed at that but it is SO POSSIBLE and
SO TRUE. The field here is truly white and ready to harvest. Elder
Ballard said that the reason so many missionaries are being sent
to Utah is because the Lord has commanded it. Zion needs to be
strengthened. It needs help. And as Utah missionaries, it is our
job to strive to strengthen Zion. WE work with A LOT of less active
members. TONS. Which adds to the load because we also have to be
finding and baptizing. So...when I get off my mission, I plan to
hibernate for a month because...I AM GOING TO BE SO BEAT!. Ha.
Just a warning ;) I love the work though! It will be so nice when I
finally become a Preach My Gospel missionary and learn to teach and am
familiar with the work and how it is run.
I want to SO bad do my part but I need to be patient as I am being
trained. UGH. I hate transition phases sometimes. I just want to
GO. And be that missionary that I want to be NOW. But...that will come.
I know it :) So, i am just going to enjoy being awkward and 'cute'
as my trainers always call me. So, apparently I am cute. Maybe that
will help us get into some doors, eh? ;) This week is going to be exciting!
Tomorrow we are going to the Oquirrh Temple as a district. Then
I have training on Wednesday and I will be able to see all my old MTC
district peeps, and then we plan to take a few investigators to
Temple Square on Friday..and then we have two baptisms this
weekend. And we have lessons galore.
Holy camoley. SO MUCH TEACHING!! WHICH IS AWESOME! I am going to
become one of those super chatty RMs...just a warning to you all.
But yes, the work here is progressing.
We have seven baptisms on date three of which were from this weekend and we hope to
get another one set in a couple days so we are dunking people like crazy! It is
so exciting! It is so exciting to see people discover the gospel and the
blessings of following Jesus Christ! There is so much power when you are in a
lesson and you look your investigator in the eye and testify of
what you know to be true-that this is the true gospel of Jesus Christ. It
has been restored and Heavenly Father talks to his Children today. By
following the example of Jesus Christ, we can enjoy the blessings of
being clean, of having a fullness of joy in this life, and eternal life
to come. The church is true!! I am SO Stoked to start this journey as
a missionary!!
I will admit, it was weird being out of the MTC. REALLY
WEIRD. I was actually in a CAR. And I am in charge of the phone so I have
been texting and calling people like crazy. I feel so popular. And
today we went to the mall for p-day and had some fun (yeah sorry, I spent some
money. I REALLY needed some clothes. REALLY BAD. And apparently, we
HAVE to have blazers. That was a pain to look for and not very cheap
unfortunately...) But I will be good on clothes for awhile. :)
Lets see...I feel like this email is SO scrambled. So sorry for
that...but surely it can’t be as bad as Shays :P No offense lil
bro. But just know that I am doing VERY well, I am VERY happy, and life is
good. It’s hard but it’s a good hard ;) Heavenly Father has blessed me
with the ability to be optimistic and happy which I realize is a gift.
So, all is well! "And should we die before this journeys through, happy day! All is
well!!" ;) haha, just kidding!! But sometimes, I sing that when
I feel like keeling over and Sister Chatter and Meyers get a kick out of it.
Bless their hearts.
Anyway, time to write the President. I can’t think of anything
else. Seriously, my brain is fried so my letters the next couple weeks
might be just crazy until I can organize my brain haha! But like I said,
life is good!! Keep me in your prayers! Love you all!
Love, Hermana Bingham
THE CHURCH IS TRUE. Now, go and tell all your friends.
Hola Familia!!
Oh my goodness gracious!! I loved hearing about the camping trip!
And yes, how could I ever forget Camp No-amenities ;) I LOVE looking back
on it though. We definitely made some memories. Good times good times!
Sometimes I can't believe that it is mid-august and that it is fair time
already! You guys are going to have to back into school here in a couple weeks!
Have fun with that Nevan and Kaylin ;) Did you two like your
hymnbooks?! And I went ahead and bought an SD card at the MTC
before I left so you can just take your sweet time sending that
one back.
Okay, so you ready to hear about my week?!?! HOLY CAMOLEY, where to
START?!! I dont even know!! It has been an amazing week!! Amazingly
hard, extremely tiring, un-relentlessly busy but absolutely rewarding.
I will start back to the day before we left the MTC.
So...Tuesday was a weird day! Three people from our district, which
ncluded Hermana Zidek, left at 5AM Tuesday morning. It was
crazy because we woke up 5 minutes before she was supposed to report
at the travel office and she wasnt even done packing. So that was
insane. But we got her down there safe and sound and the bus hadnt left her yet.
While she was getting on, I could see Elder Janzen (who was in our
district) and we all waved to him. That was our first goodbye
and it was hard!! Harder than I thought it would be!!
So . . .Hermana Wanlass, Hermana Bateman, and I wandered around as a trio
the rest of the day. It was weird. And then later that day the REST of
our district headed out to the mission home in SLC south. We went and
said goodbye to all of them but that one wasnt AS bad because Hermana
anlass and I were just going to see them the next morning. :)
It still was so surreal to see them all walking away with their luggage
thinking about how we were going to be doing that in about 12 hours.
Still didnt seem real.
So. . . the three of us remaining survivors of District 49C spent the rest
of the day going to the devotional and cleaning our classroom.
It was SO sad. And Exciting at the same time haha. We talked about all
the funny moments and good memories we had after spending 100s of
hours in there over the course of two months haha. We also said
goodbye to the other districts in our zone and our Branch Presidency.
I LOVED THE MTC. I hope Jenna and Lori just live it up there...every
single day! It goes by so fast. Especially when you are there
for only three weeks.
Next morning, we were off!! WE got to the mission home 20 minutes later
:P I know, long trip. I am still recovering from the jet lag. But
we spent most of the day in training. WE met President Miller and his
wife. AMAZING GUY and he LOVES the sister missionaries.
There are definitely some serious perks to being a sister missionary.
And then later on in the day, (drum roll) we met our new
companions!! We all got on different sides of the chapel and President Miller would
bring the two companions together in the middle. So...not only was I
lucky enough to get one AWESOME trainer, but I was so blessed and
fortunate to get TWO amazing trainers!! I am in a trio with
Hermana Chatter and Hermana Meyers and they are SO COOL.
We have had so much fun together and they have been doing such an amazing job
training me. They love me ;) Which helps lol. They both leave for home in
December and know what they are doing. They have been the highest baptizing
companionship in the zone the last couple transfers so...I am
with pros :) They have helped make this transition into the field very fun
and exciting for me! I LOVE SERVING HERE! Utah is so stinkin' amazing!
There is SO much work that needs to be done. SO MUCH, I can't even
begin to describe. What is kind of cool is that we teach both in Spanish and English
which has helped not make the transition as stressful for me. We cover
an English stake, Eastridge, and a Spanish branch which covers nine
stakes. So our area is HUGE for the Spanish branch.
We are assigned to the Draper Zone so I am currently in Draper and it is SO
BEAUTIFUL UP HERE! The people are pretty well off up here. I will probably be
here for at least two transfers. We are up on the mountain and so we walk out
of our house and BAM-there is the valley! So pretty. WE live with a
family in their basement but...as you probably know, the members
up here are loaded so it is a NICE basement. Flat screen TV, leather
couches, kitchen, two tables, big room with big beds and a
bathroom. So, yeah my life is pretty hard ;)
The members here are incredible and help SO much with the missionary work. Wow, does
it make a HUGE difference when the members are involved. They also make really
good dinners another plus to being in Utah. However, when we eat with the
Spanish branch members, I brace myself. haha, because the whole
portion size concept does NOT EXIST in Hispanic culture! They are
going to kill me. Yep. ;) So...GUESS WHAT?! I have been teaching...in
both Spanish and English.
I was able to commit THREE people to baptism in the 5 days I have been here...
EN ESPANOL! The first was Raquel and her daughter, Evelyn, and her two kids live with her.
The sweetest lady EVER. She has definitely been prepared to hear the message of the
gospel in her life. She was golden. And her grandson, Alex who is 11,
also has a baptism date. Evelyn was baptized when she was 11 but
doesn’t remember much. The last two times we have taught, the
spirit was SO strong. They were both crying. So it was really sweet ;) to be
a part of that. The other woman was Maria. We committed her last
night. She told us that we have a light that she wants. And that
she feels something when we bear testimony of what we know.
Holy cow, there are so many other people. Haylee, Taylor, Hana, Oscar,
Cody, Lupe, Anabel, Manuel, and list goes on and on and on and on. The
members give us referrals like crazy and are SO involved in the
work. But, I will have to share their stories later ;) So, something cool.
The Salt lake City South mission baptizes weekly. WEEKLY. If we are
being obedient, working hard, and doing all that we can do, we can
have a baptism each week. Which is the mission goal.
Sometimes, obviously you don’t have a baptism every week, but if you have a
total of 5 to 6 baptisms each transfer, then that adds up to one each week.
Before, I would have scoffed at that but it is SO POSSIBLE and
SO TRUE. The field here is truly white and ready to harvest. Elder
Ballard said that the reason so many missionaries are being sent
to Utah is because the Lord has commanded it. Zion needs to be
strengthened. It needs help. And as Utah missionaries, it is our
job to strive to strengthen Zion. WE work with A LOT of less active
members. TONS. Which adds to the load because we also have to be
finding and baptizing. So...when I get off my mission, I plan to
hibernate for a month because...I AM GOING TO BE SO BEAT!. Ha.
Just a warning ;) I love the work though! It will be so nice when I
finally become a Preach My Gospel missionary and learn to teach and am
familiar with the work and how it is run.
I want to SO bad do my part but I need to be patient as I am being
trained. UGH. I hate transition phases sometimes. I just want to
GO. And be that missionary that I want to be NOW. But...that will come.
I know it :) So, i am just going to enjoy being awkward and 'cute'
as my trainers always call me. So, apparently I am cute. Maybe that
will help us get into some doors, eh? ;) This week is going to be exciting!
Tomorrow we are going to the Oquirrh Temple as a district. Then
I have training on Wednesday and I will be able to see all my old MTC
district peeps, and then we plan to take a few investigators to
Temple Square on Friday..and then we have two baptisms this
weekend. And we have lessons galore.
Holy camoley. SO MUCH TEACHING!! WHICH IS AWESOME! I am going to
become one of those super chatty RMs...just a warning to you all.
But yes, the work here is progressing.
We have seven baptisms on date three of which were from this weekend and we hope to
get another one set in a couple days so we are dunking people like crazy! It is
so exciting! It is so exciting to see people discover the gospel and the
blessings of following Jesus Christ! There is so much power when you are in a
lesson and you look your investigator in the eye and testify of
what you know to be true-that this is the true gospel of Jesus Christ. It
has been restored and Heavenly Father talks to his Children today. By
following the example of Jesus Christ, we can enjoy the blessings of
being clean, of having a fullness of joy in this life, and eternal life
to come. The church is true!! I am SO Stoked to start this journey as
a missionary!!
I will admit, it was weird being out of the MTC. REALLY
WEIRD. I was actually in a CAR. And I am in charge of the phone so I have
been texting and calling people like crazy. I feel so popular. And
today we went to the mall for p-day and had some fun (yeah sorry, I spent some
money. I REALLY needed some clothes. REALLY BAD. And apparently, we
HAVE to have blazers. That was a pain to look for and not very cheap
unfortunately...) But I will be good on clothes for awhile. :)
Lets see...I feel like this email is SO scrambled. So sorry for
that...but surely it can’t be as bad as Shays :P No offense lil
bro. But just know that I am doing VERY well, I am VERY happy, and life is
good. It’s hard but it’s a good hard ;) Heavenly Father has blessed me
with the ability to be optimistic and happy which I realize is a gift.
So, all is well! "And should we die before this journeys through, happy day! All is
well!!" ;) haha, just kidding!! But sometimes, I sing that when
I feel like keeling over and Sister Chatter and Meyers get a kick out of it.
Bless their hearts.
Anyway, time to write the President. I can’t think of anything
else. Seriously, my brain is fried so my letters the next couple weeks
might be just crazy until I can organize my brain haha! But like I said,
life is good!! Keep me in your prayers! Love you all!
Love, Hermana Bingham
THE CHURCH IS TRUE. Now, go and tell all your friends.
August 1, 2012
Hola
Familia!!
Holy camoley, I totally forgot that the Warrens were headed up that way soon!
Mainly because I can't believe it is AUGUST today!!! Where has the time gone?!
I have no stinkin' idea. I have been in the MTC for almost two months now...say
what?! My district
is kind of freaking out it. Its hilarious. We are all so excited though! So
excited to talk to REAL people and to teach REAL people.
The role playing canonly take you so far...ha, the other day Hermana Wanlass
and I were teaching Mateo and Alberto (which happens to just be two other
elders in our district,
Elders Johnston and McDaniel whom we love! We always get paired up with them
and
have a blast). Anyway, we got about two minutes into the lesson and for some
reason just started busting up laughing...why? I have no idea.
Elder Johnston and I were sick and coughing and we had also both lost our
voices so when we started laughing, it just sounded ridiculous which made us
laugh harder. Elder McDaniel just laughs...to laugh. Remember how you get into
those laughing fits during
night prayers, Mom?? And it is IMPOSSIBLE to stop?? And then you get the rest
of
us cracking up and then it is just hopeless/? And Dad is the only one not
laughing but is looking at all of us like we are a bunch of fruit loops???
Which
makes us laugh harder?!?!? Yeah, well...that’s what happened to us. And then it
didn't help when I prayed and asked that Alberto and RICARDO be blessed.
Oops...sorry Mateo. Ricardo is one of our other investigators. Anyway, long
story short, we left that lesson with sore abs, teary eyes, and I doubt Alberto
and Mateo learned a thing. ;)
Hermana Zidek and Hermana Bateman have also been having FUNNY lessons! We are
all just getting silly and are suffering a little from cabin fever! The other
day, Hermana Zidek
smacked one of her investigators in the head with her Book of Mormon when he
said he didn't think he needed to be baptized because he already was baptized
in
his church!!...She then said, "Pues, tenemos una problems con su
bautismo".
haha, she pretty much said that they had a problem with his baptism. oh and
sometimes she growls at them. She is so stinkin' hilarious. We are all just
having waaaay too much fun with this.
Anyway, tons of funny stuff happened this weekend. Hermana Bateman has hurt her
feet (how?? No idea) and looks like a cripple when she walks. We have been
laughing at her
alllllll week. And this morning, Hermana Bateman and I woke up at 4:30 to do
laundry so we could have it done before we went to the temple...well, when we
walked up the ramp, it was pitch black and as we opened to door to outside, the
Joseph Smith statue scared us to bits!!! Seriously thought it was some creepy
guy. Yep. It was fun. I could write tons more but....ugh, no time. i guess
the point I am trying to get across is that we need to leave before we wreak
more havoc in this place ahaha.
I was bummed to hear about Goose! What the hay??? We never had problems with
him. Hopefully it was just the supplement he was taking. And Arie!! GAH! What
the heck! That is so sad that it had to end like that...really, breaks my
heart.
Thanks for the update on Sister Fisher! I am SO SO SO happy to hear that she is
doing so well, of course, I am not surprised. That girl was born to be a
missionary ;) And LORI
GOODWIN!! You report in ONE WEEK!! Holy camoley, that is INSANE! Its also crazy
that i am LEAVING that day. The bus leaves at 6AM so I don't know how emailing
is going to work or if I am going to even have a p-day so you might not hear
from me next week...we'll see :) Anyway, Lori. Good luck with everything! This
place is amazing. Enjoy it. It is stressful yes, but the wonderful moments FAR
outnumber the stressful ones, in my opinion. I have grown so much here. I am
sad
to leave it. It is, definitely in its own way, a temple :) I remember that
Elder
Kevin Breach reports today along with Sister Shelby Olsen from our ward, so you
will have some friends here! YAY! I plan to keep a look out for both of them
today!
So, my spiritual thought this week (I am glad you are using mine thoughts for
branch council ;) So, I listened to a talk by Elder Holland that is called
"MISSIONS ARE FOREVER". Sister Higgins and Sister Goodwin....WATCH
THIS TALK. I think it is on the
LDS.org website somewhere or on the MTC website. FIND IT. Actually, everyone
should just watch it. It is so powerfully amazing. I could write so much about
it but I feel impressed to talk about the last thing he said.
He said he reflects on his mission EVERYDAY of his life and that every good
thing that has come in his life has been because of his mission. He said that
his life was forever
changed and then, in his powerful Elder Holland voice, said DONT YOU DARE WASTE
IT. Anyway, at the end he said he has spent a long time reflecting on why
missionary work is so hard. Why is it so hard? Why is life so hard sometimes?
Why do we become so discouraged and allow ourselves to be dragged down?? Why is
this so hard?
Here was his answer:
Salvation is not a cheap experience. Why should it be easy for us, if it wasn't
easy for Him? The road to Salvation goes through Gethsemane. It carries a cross
to Calvary. We are His disciples-his devoted soldiers. How can we say that and
not experience a
little of what he experienced. You have to be strong. We have come in His name.
We are His witnesses. As soon as you say that, you have signed on to a package
of experiences. It will not be easy. There will be times when we will cry
"abba"
, just like our Savior. We will have a little taste of what he went through-so
we can understand. Every mission is hard. There was never a mission that was
easy. It will cost a lot from us, because it cost a lot OF HIM.
What an amazing opportunity this is for us to experience trial, hardship, and
challenges that will bring us a better understanding of the Atonement of Jesus
Christ. It is so
worth it. I love being a missionary :) I want to make sure that I give my all
because the Lord deserves nothing less. He will not ask for more than my all. I
am here because the Father has sent me. I have been called by a prophet of God.
That is the only way I can be here. He has called me from the world, and has
sent me forth with authority and power to preach his Gospel. And that goes for
all you wonderful ladies preparing to go on missions :) AH IT IS SO GREAT! I
cant even speak Spanish yet and I think its great!! HAHA!. When things get
hard,
just laugh. That’s what I do. And it helps a ton. Even if it sounds fake
because
then I end up laughing for real at how ridiculous I am. ;)
One last thought: As missionaries, we represent the Lord, the greatest of all,
which makes us the greatest of all, as we serve him :) Remember that.
Anyway, I love you all. I hope you have a WONDERFUL vacation in the Washington
rain ;) Send a little down here for me, will ya? :) And I will send up some
sun. There is
PLENTY of it down here.
Happy Birthday
GRANDMA!!!! How old are you? 26? I forget... ;)
I plan to send my SD card home this week so you can finally have some pics...I
have a lot! I will make sure to write a little caption for most of them.
And yes, I got the ballot and mailed it yesterday and i loved Nevan's EFY
letter.
I wish I had time so I could write more about it but i have less than a
minute.
And Thank you Gma Nancy for the help with the clothes! Shoot, send them
down here if you have them. They will get here in time :)
Love, Hermana Jasmine Bingham
OH!!! P.S. Curtis Killpack is on my floor and I have seen him several times. he
looks great!! And there is an Elder in his zone that, I am not even kidding,
looks JUST LIKE SHAY! Elder Killpack came and found me and showed me to this
Elder. I just stared at
him is disbelief. It was crazy. I told him that we need to get a pic so I can
show you. Shay is a little taller with a skinnier face but this elder has his
smile, mannerisms, eyes...everything. it TRIPPED ME OUT. Anyway, Elder Killpack
is doing fabulous if Aunt Brenda wants to pass that on. I saw him after his
first Spanish lesson and it was rough but he was taking it really well ahah. I
remember when I was a young MTC go-er. ;) Those were the days....haha.
Anyway, wish me luck!! Next time I email you, I will be out in the campo. AHH!
Keep me in your prayers :) LOVE YOU ALL!!! I will try to send another letter
soon....there is
still so much I want to write.
-2nd Message- Well, I am going way over for doing this but i have a quote for
Jenna and Lori!!!!
It is by President Hinckley:
"Many young women are serving missions, many are preparing to serve NOT
because they aren't married or have nothing else to do, but because they have a
desire to serve and are therefore called to the work. The reason so many are
going is because in the
next generation Heavenly Father will be sending His Priesthood Army to the
Earth. He wants to send them to mothers who have been properly trained and
taught in the Gospel. And what better training can a young woman have than of
serving a mission"
Can I get an "amen!"
Anyway, Sister Fisher shared that with me and I wanted to pass it on. YOU
LADIES ARE AWESOME!!
LOVE
YOU!! I feel so blessed to be wearing the black name tag with all ya'll
JULY 25, 2012
Hola Familia!
Elder Bingham looks so good in his picture! Yeah, a little skinny I suppose, but happy and healthy!
I still can´t believe he is now on the downhill. He only has, what, 10 months left? Santa vaca! (technically
that means holy cow in Spanish but I have NO idea if it works, I just made it up ;)
Every time I think about being on a mission along with Shay and Jared, it
makes me so darn happy. How neat is that?! That even though we are thousands of
miles apart for a few years, we are becoming closer than ever. It's pretty
awesome. I love being a missionary :) Everyone should just go on a
mission...just sayin' ;)
So...this past week was, like always, another awesome week. I was sick,
though...again. SO ANNOYING. I lost my voice again, but it was even worse this
time around. Yesterday, Hermana Wanlass and I were teaching one of our
'investigators' Ricardo, and right in the middle of explaining about the plan of
salvation, I broke into a huge coughing fit. When I tried to talk, my voice
sounded like the voice of a chain smoker, haha. I looked over at Ricardo and he
was laughing at me. Yep, Spirit gone. Thanks Ricardo. Haha, just kidding.
It was a fabulous lesson though. Our lessons are definitely getting
better...we are finally learning how to teach the doctrine simply and to ask
inspired questions. It's been quite the struggle sometimes to have faith to
trust that through the power of the Holy Ghost, you shall know what to say in
the moment you need it. But I have learned that he will never fail you. NUNCA. I
am so GRATEFUL for the things that I am learning, and for how much my testimony
has grown about SO MANY THINGS. I am so grateful for the things I am learning
about the Gospel and our Savior. I realize that I have so much more to learn and
sometimes it overwhelms me, BUT it is also a blessing. There is no end to our
progression. We can just keep on learning and growing and becoming closer to our
Heavenly Father and Savior.
I think the biggest thing I have come to really know, is that my Heavenly
Father and Savior love me. I knew it before, but not like I know it now. I have
felt it SO many times here, so much so that it is almost tangible. It gives me
hope, courage, faith, and trust. I couldn't imagine living without knowing that.
WHICH is why I am a missionary, right? ;) To let the world know that they have a
loving Father in Heaven.
Alright, let’s see...other things. OH! On Sunday, I gave my very first
talk....ALL IN ESPANOL. And guess what the topic was...the Atonement. Claro.
Shoot, it is hard to do that topic justice in ENGLISH but it went REALLY well. I
loved speaking in Spanish. I had a feeling I would be called up to speak.
FYI-everyone in the zone is asked to prepare a talk on a given topic and then
two people are randomly called up during sacrament meeting. So you don’t know if
you are going to speak or not till RIGHT before. How would you like that, Mom?
;) So I made sure I put some time into it... I wasn’t that surprised when the
Branch President said my name. Also, being that there are only 4 Hermanas in the
zone, the odds of all four of us speaking before we leave is fairly high,
so...we knew we were already on the chopping block. BUT, I am done now. I can
relax for my last two Sundays here...
THAT IS CRAZY. Two weeks from today, we get on our bus and drive 20
minutes north to the Great Salt Lake South mission...haha! I love it. I am so
pumped. My Espanol is getting better and I can express myself fairly well now
BUT it feels SO FAR from ready for the field...but then again, when do you ever
feel ready??
I was talking to some elders yesterday going to Estonia, Turkey and Albania.
IT humbled me. All of a sudden, Espanol didn't seem so bad...haha :P It seemed
easy actually. So, I LOVE SPANISH!! I really do. I am going to be one of those
people that will speak Spanish all the time when I get home because I will love
it so much. Probably even more than English ;) SO...you guys better start
learning Spanish!! Shay too...;)
Anyway, the rest of the week was just amazing!! Nothing in particular
happened like me dying my hair or whatever just a lot of awesome spiritual
experiences here and there. Cada Dia. Each day) Yesterday, we had someone speak
to us who was an emeritus seventy. He talked about how we are modern day
pioneers. I LOVE HEARING THAT.
I have always loved hearing about the pioneers and admired them for their
faith, diligence, and strength. I always thought that there was a reason why I
wasn’t born during that time...because I wouldn't have made it haha. And not
just because I am diabetic...;) I obviously would not have made it if I had
diabetes and lived back then. Hearing that we are modern day pioneers is the
coolest thing.
We, as missionaries will be pioneers as we bring salvation to our families through our service.
We will be pioneers by bringing the gospel to those who do not have it.
We can be pioneers to a family who has not yet had the opportunity to hear the greatest news on earth.
Pioneer faith is needed just as much today as ever before.
We bear the name of Jesus Christ over our hearts.
We don't have to pull handcarts over the plains to be pioneers.
We ARE pioneers already. YES! The Lord is working hard but he needs us to do the footwork.
Thanks Kaylin for the Girls Camp update!! SO HAPPY to hear you had fun. I
remember the testimony meetings. Fueron el mejor!! (They were the best) And yes,
I could read all of Google translator's Spanish...well, almost. For some reason,
Google likes to omit letters. Silly Google and it thinks it knows everything. I
loved reading through your story in Spanish and I am looking forward to Nevan's
novel about EFY. Ah man, good times!! Makes me feel old to hear Nevan and Kaylin
experience these awesome things!! Enjoy them you young tikes!! Take every chance
to allow your testimony to grow :)
Anyway, sounds like you had a fun week!! Gotta love Bald Eagles Day ;) Did
Dad go this year??!!? Haha, chiste. (joke)
I can't believe that it is almost August and it's family vacation time! SAY
WHAT?! I hope you have a fabulous time! Enjoy the rain ;) where in the world has
the summer gone?!?! Time just keeps on flying by!! It’s insane to think that I
have been here for almost two months.
Que en el mundo?! Pero en serio, it has been the most amazing experience
ever...and it's just getting started ;) (What in the world?! But seriously)
I have a quote for Lori and Jenna and forgot it in my room. I think I will
try to come down later and send it. LOVE YOU ALL CHICAS!!
Thank you for all your prayers and love and support. Miss you all :)
Love, Hermana Bingham
Elder Bingham looks so good in his picture! Yeah, a little skinny I suppose, but happy and healthy!
I still can´t believe he is now on the downhill. He only has, what, 10 months left? Santa vaca! (technically
that means holy cow in Spanish but I have NO idea if it works, I just made it up ;)
Every time I think about being on a mission along with Shay and Jared, it
makes me so darn happy. How neat is that?! That even though we are thousands of
miles apart for a few years, we are becoming closer than ever. It's pretty
awesome. I love being a missionary :) Everyone should just go on a
mission...just sayin' ;)
So...this past week was, like always, another awesome week. I was sick,
though...again. SO ANNOYING. I lost my voice again, but it was even worse this
time around. Yesterday, Hermana Wanlass and I were teaching one of our
'investigators' Ricardo, and right in the middle of explaining about the plan of
salvation, I broke into a huge coughing fit. When I tried to talk, my voice
sounded like the voice of a chain smoker, haha. I looked over at Ricardo and he
was laughing at me. Yep, Spirit gone. Thanks Ricardo. Haha, just kidding.
It was a fabulous lesson though. Our lessons are definitely getting
better...we are finally learning how to teach the doctrine simply and to ask
inspired questions. It's been quite the struggle sometimes to have faith to
trust that through the power of the Holy Ghost, you shall know what to say in
the moment you need it. But I have learned that he will never fail you. NUNCA. I
am so GRATEFUL for the things that I am learning, and for how much my testimony
has grown about SO MANY THINGS. I am so grateful for the things I am learning
about the Gospel and our Savior. I realize that I have so much more to learn and
sometimes it overwhelms me, BUT it is also a blessing. There is no end to our
progression. We can just keep on learning and growing and becoming closer to our
Heavenly Father and Savior.
I think the biggest thing I have come to really know, is that my Heavenly
Father and Savior love me. I knew it before, but not like I know it now. I have
felt it SO many times here, so much so that it is almost tangible. It gives me
hope, courage, faith, and trust. I couldn't imagine living without knowing that.
WHICH is why I am a missionary, right? ;) To let the world know that they have a
loving Father in Heaven.
Alright, let’s see...other things. OH! On Sunday, I gave my very first
talk....ALL IN ESPANOL. And guess what the topic was...the Atonement. Claro.
Shoot, it is hard to do that topic justice in ENGLISH but it went REALLY well. I
loved speaking in Spanish. I had a feeling I would be called up to speak.
FYI-everyone in the zone is asked to prepare a talk on a given topic and then
two people are randomly called up during sacrament meeting. So you don’t know if
you are going to speak or not till RIGHT before. How would you like that, Mom?
;) So I made sure I put some time into it... I wasn’t that surprised when the
Branch President said my name. Also, being that there are only 4 Hermanas in the
zone, the odds of all four of us speaking before we leave is fairly high,
so...we knew we were already on the chopping block. BUT, I am done now. I can
relax for my last two Sundays here...
THAT IS CRAZY. Two weeks from today, we get on our bus and drive 20
minutes north to the Great Salt Lake South mission...haha! I love it. I am so
pumped. My Espanol is getting better and I can express myself fairly well now
BUT it feels SO FAR from ready for the field...but then again, when do you ever
feel ready??
I was talking to some elders yesterday going to Estonia, Turkey and Albania.
IT humbled me. All of a sudden, Espanol didn't seem so bad...haha :P It seemed
easy actually. So, I LOVE SPANISH!! I really do. I am going to be one of those
people that will speak Spanish all the time when I get home because I will love
it so much. Probably even more than English ;) SO...you guys better start
learning Spanish!! Shay too...;)
Anyway, the rest of the week was just amazing!! Nothing in particular
happened like me dying my hair or whatever just a lot of awesome spiritual
experiences here and there. Cada Dia. Each day) Yesterday, we had someone speak
to us who was an emeritus seventy. He talked about how we are modern day
pioneers. I LOVE HEARING THAT.
I have always loved hearing about the pioneers and admired them for their
faith, diligence, and strength. I always thought that there was a reason why I
wasn’t born during that time...because I wouldn't have made it haha. And not
just because I am diabetic...;) I obviously would not have made it if I had
diabetes and lived back then. Hearing that we are modern day pioneers is the
coolest thing.
We, as missionaries will be pioneers as we bring salvation to our families through our service.
We will be pioneers by bringing the gospel to those who do not have it.
We can be pioneers to a family who has not yet had the opportunity to hear the greatest news on earth.
Pioneer faith is needed just as much today as ever before.
We bear the name of Jesus Christ over our hearts.
We don't have to pull handcarts over the plains to be pioneers.
We ARE pioneers already. YES! The Lord is working hard but he needs us to do the footwork.
Thanks Kaylin for the Girls Camp update!! SO HAPPY to hear you had fun. I
remember the testimony meetings. Fueron el mejor!! (They were the best) And yes,
I could read all of Google translator's Spanish...well, almost. For some reason,
Google likes to omit letters. Silly Google and it thinks it knows everything. I
loved reading through your story in Spanish and I am looking forward to Nevan's
novel about EFY. Ah man, good times!! Makes me feel old to hear Nevan and Kaylin
experience these awesome things!! Enjoy them you young tikes!! Take every chance
to allow your testimony to grow :)
Anyway, sounds like you had a fun week!! Gotta love Bald Eagles Day ;) Did
Dad go this year??!!? Haha, chiste. (joke)
I can't believe that it is almost August and it's family vacation time! SAY
WHAT?! I hope you have a fabulous time! Enjoy the rain ;) where in the world has
the summer gone?!?! Time just keeps on flying by!! It’s insane to think that I
have been here for almost two months.
Que en el mundo?! Pero en serio, it has been the most amazing experience
ever...and it's just getting started ;) (What in the world?! But seriously)
I have a quote for Lori and Jenna and forgot it in my room. I think I will
try to come down later and send it. LOVE YOU ALL CHICAS!!
Thank you for all your prayers and love and support. Miss you all :)
Love, Hermana Bingham
July 18, 2012
Hola Familia!!
Yeah, last week's letter was CRAZY. This week wasn't nearly as nuts but it was still awesome :) Like always.
So, I never got Shay's letter from last week...but I got your email to him and
Jared's email. Weird. For some reason, the Dear Elders you sent me last week
didn't get to me till Monday. Make sure you put the mailbox (309) in there. It
was penciled in so I guess you might have forgotten??
I just want to thank everyone who has written me!! I seriously got about 10 -13 pages of Dear Elders on
Monday and get about that much each week. It is awesome. Makes me feel loved :)
Jessica, I mean Sister Fisher, and Hermana Dawe and Elder Taylor all head out this week..
.so, I am one of two now from our ward fending for ourselves in the MTC ;) It is so weird to think that
my time here at the MTC is almost over. In three weeks from today, I head out to
the field. It is so funny to hear everyone else's travel plans who are going all
over the world. Our travel plans are going to go something like this,
"Get on the Bus at (insert time here: better not be 5AM or something ridiculous
;) yep.
It’s funny. Hermana Wanlass and I like to joke about it. Shoot, we could walk there if
we really wanted to. haha, but we are SO STOKED. Scared as heck, but excited to be out
with the people and to use what we have learned here. The MTC has been such an amazing blessing. I
cannot tell you enough how wonderful and sacred this place is. It is so removed
from the world. It is like its own temple.
Speaking of temples...we had the coolest experience this morning! The Provo temple has been closed the past
couple weeks for cleaning. So...we set up a time to go up and volunteer to help
clean. It took a couple weeks but we finally got a time.
This morning, we had the opportunity to clean the temple for 3-1/2 hours. We got there around 8AM and
they dressed us in white scrubs and tennis shoes (probably the most
comfortable thing I have worn since being here). It was SO COOL. The temple
workers were so cute. The women had all served missions and told us amazing
stories and how the mission has blessed their lives. Anyway, they went ahead and
shipped the elders outside where they were going to be ripping up carpet and
scrubbing glue off the concrete. Now ... this is when I say that it is SO NICE
BEING A GIRL. You know what we Hermanas got to do?? Go and play with the
temple's jewelry. AKA, we got to go up to the celestial room where they lowered
the HUGE chandelier and we got to clean every piece of crystal on that thing. It
has around 4500 pieces of crystal and weighs about 1800 lbs FYI.
It was the most amazing experience. We we able to just kneel on the white carpet
underneath the chandelier and clean the beautiful crystal pieces. It
was so neat to see them up close and individually and to see the framework
and design of the chandelier. After we were finished, we all sat in a
circle underneath it and the maintenance (wow, I totally forgot
how to spell that) guy turned down the lights in the room and lit up the
chandelier for us. As we were sitting there, we got to watch as he lifted the
chandelier back into its place. No words to describe what that was like. It was
so BEAUTIFUL. Probably would have been an awesome picture with us 4 Hermanas
sitting underneath it as it ascended back into its place, with only its light
shining in the room. So UNREAL. It was also cool to be in temple when it was so
empty...with us in our white scrubs and tennis ha-ha.
So, for all of you who are endowed, next time you are in the celestial room in the Provo temple,
just know that I,with 3 of my Hermanas, cleaned and rubbed every single one of those 4500 pieces
of crystal. :) And no Dad, I did not break ONE piece of crystal! I know, you may
not believe me but against all odds, I broke NOTHING. The Lord made sure of that
;) Temples are such amazing places. What an amazing blessing it us to have these
sacred Temples in our lives. LOVE them. The temple opens back up next week, so I
will be able to go 2 more times before i head out to the field which I am so
happy about! I will also be able to look up at that Chandelier and remember
cleaning every one of those pieces. It will never be the same again ;)
Anyway, glad to hear everyone is doing well. Glad to hear that Kaylin had fun at
Girls Camp! I loved girls’ camp and building that ginormous camp necklace.
I remember looking at that before I left. Good times, good memories!
Loved hearing about the truck. BAHA! Sorry to laugh at the misfortune but the whole story is kind of hilarious.
And I didn't realize that Sister Hathaway had moved that much. I remember
helping her move once upon a time. Seems like FOREVER AGO.
And to answer Jared's question, yes I knew about the boundary change. They have actually moved some missionaries
over already. But I get to stay in SLC South which I am happy about :) I am
already attached to it and didn't want to be moved.
Anyway, I only have a few minutes left. I SO WISH I HAD MORE TIME.
But this week was amazing...as they always are. We had some awesome speakers.
One of which was Jenny Oaks Baker, Dallin H Oaks daughter. She is the amazing violinist. I have actually listened to her music so it was awesome to have her here and performing for us. This weeks theme was
enduring to the end. I loved it and hearing the amazing testimonies and stories.
I realized that Missions will never become easy. WE will just come to
enjoy doing the things that are hard. And that your day will always go the way
the corner of your mouth is going. Makes sure it is going the right way :P The
mission is a journey, and the Lord builds us step by step. Experience by
experience. It is our Duty to stand and give everyone the most IMPORTANT message
that exists WITH THE GREATEST conviction on Earth--and that is that HE lives.
Live a life that TESTIFIES of that each and every day. Let it be evident in
everything that you do...and in every smile that you give. Have Faith in Him.
Have faith in his plan for you and those you teach. Have faith in his timing.
Faith faces towards the future.
Well, I need to close. I love you all!!
JENNA HIGGINS!!! Thank you so much for your letter!! You made ME CRY! Love you so much. I plan to write you a
letter today so look out for it the next couple days. Rachel Fisher...you also
have one coming your way. ;) You both are in my prayers always ;) Love you
chicas.
Love you family!! You are in my prayers and I miss you all so stinkin' much! However, there is no other place
I'd rather be than serving my Lord for the next year and half! HE LIVES! The
church is true!!
Love Hermana Bingham <3
P.S: I want NEVAN to write to me about EFY and Kaylin to write to me about GIRLS CAMP!
Ahora. DO it. Or you will get a loving Jasmine beating when I get home ;) ha-ha, solo un chiste. But
really, I want to hear about it!
PPS: Thanks for looking for clothes. I know it’s a pain. But I am not going to be too picky. I just need
some better options. I TRUST YOU! ;)
PPS: Shay, you are a dork. That is all. I still love you!
*******************************************************************************************************8
Hola Familia!!
Yeah, last week's letter was CRAZY. This week wasn't nearly as nuts but it was still awesome :) Like always.
So, I never got Shay's letter from last week...but I got your email to him and
Jared's email. Weird. For some reason, the Dear Elders you sent me last week
didn't get to me till Monday. Make sure you put the mailbox (309) in there. It
was penciled in so I guess you might have forgotten??
I just want to thank everyone who has written me!! I seriously got about 10 -13 pages of Dear Elders on
Monday and get about that much each week. It is awesome. Makes me feel loved :)
Jessica, I mean Sister Fisher, and Hermana Dawe and Elder Taylor all head out this week..
.so, I am one of two now from our ward fending for ourselves in the MTC ;) It is so weird to think that
my time here at the MTC is almost over. In three weeks from today, I head out to
the field. It is so funny to hear everyone else's travel plans who are going all
over the world. Our travel plans are going to go something like this,
"Get on the Bus at (insert time here: better not be 5AM or something ridiculous
;) yep.
It’s funny. Hermana Wanlass and I like to joke about it. Shoot, we could walk there if
we really wanted to. haha, but we are SO STOKED. Scared as heck, but excited to be out
with the people and to use what we have learned here. The MTC has been such an amazing blessing. I
cannot tell you enough how wonderful and sacred this place is. It is so removed
from the world. It is like its own temple.
Speaking of temples...we had the coolest experience this morning! The Provo temple has been closed the past
couple weeks for cleaning. So...we set up a time to go up and volunteer to help
clean. It took a couple weeks but we finally got a time.
This morning, we had the opportunity to clean the temple for 3-1/2 hours. We got there around 8AM and
they dressed us in white scrubs and tennis shoes (probably the most
comfortable thing I have worn since being here). It was SO COOL. The temple
workers were so cute. The women had all served missions and told us amazing
stories and how the mission has blessed their lives. Anyway, they went ahead and
shipped the elders outside where they were going to be ripping up carpet and
scrubbing glue off the concrete. Now ... this is when I say that it is SO NICE
BEING A GIRL. You know what we Hermanas got to do?? Go and play with the
temple's jewelry. AKA, we got to go up to the celestial room where they lowered
the HUGE chandelier and we got to clean every piece of crystal on that thing. It
has around 4500 pieces of crystal and weighs about 1800 lbs FYI.
It was the most amazing experience. We we able to just kneel on the white carpet
underneath the chandelier and clean the beautiful crystal pieces. It
was so neat to see them up close and individually and to see the framework
and design of the chandelier. After we were finished, we all sat in a
circle underneath it and the maintenance (wow, I totally forgot
how to spell that) guy turned down the lights in the room and lit up the
chandelier for us. As we were sitting there, we got to watch as he lifted the
chandelier back into its place. No words to describe what that was like. It was
so BEAUTIFUL. Probably would have been an awesome picture with us 4 Hermanas
sitting underneath it as it ascended back into its place, with only its light
shining in the room. So UNREAL. It was also cool to be in temple when it was so
empty...with us in our white scrubs and tennis ha-ha.
So, for all of you who are endowed, next time you are in the celestial room in the Provo temple,
just know that I,with 3 of my Hermanas, cleaned and rubbed every single one of those 4500 pieces
of crystal. :) And no Dad, I did not break ONE piece of crystal! I know, you may
not believe me but against all odds, I broke NOTHING. The Lord made sure of that
;) Temples are such amazing places. What an amazing blessing it us to have these
sacred Temples in our lives. LOVE them. The temple opens back up next week, so I
will be able to go 2 more times before i head out to the field which I am so
happy about! I will also be able to look up at that Chandelier and remember
cleaning every one of those pieces. It will never be the same again ;)
Anyway, glad to hear everyone is doing well. Glad to hear that Kaylin had fun at
Girls Camp! I loved girls’ camp and building that ginormous camp necklace.
I remember looking at that before I left. Good times, good memories!
Loved hearing about the truck. BAHA! Sorry to laugh at the misfortune but the whole story is kind of hilarious.
And I didn't realize that Sister Hathaway had moved that much. I remember
helping her move once upon a time. Seems like FOREVER AGO.
And to answer Jared's question, yes I knew about the boundary change. They have actually moved some missionaries
over already. But I get to stay in SLC South which I am happy about :) I am
already attached to it and didn't want to be moved.
Anyway, I only have a few minutes left. I SO WISH I HAD MORE TIME.
But this week was amazing...as they always are. We had some awesome speakers.
One of which was Jenny Oaks Baker, Dallin H Oaks daughter. She is the amazing violinist. I have actually listened to her music so it was awesome to have her here and performing for us. This weeks theme was
enduring to the end. I loved it and hearing the amazing testimonies and stories.
I realized that Missions will never become easy. WE will just come to
enjoy doing the things that are hard. And that your day will always go the way
the corner of your mouth is going. Makes sure it is going the right way :P The
mission is a journey, and the Lord builds us step by step. Experience by
experience. It is our Duty to stand and give everyone the most IMPORTANT message
that exists WITH THE GREATEST conviction on Earth--and that is that HE lives.
Live a life that TESTIFIES of that each and every day. Let it be evident in
everything that you do...and in every smile that you give. Have Faith in Him.
Have faith in his plan for you and those you teach. Have faith in his timing.
Faith faces towards the future.
Well, I need to close. I love you all!!
JENNA HIGGINS!!! Thank you so much for your letter!! You made ME CRY! Love you so much. I plan to write you a
letter today so look out for it the next couple days. Rachel Fisher...you also
have one coming your way. ;) You both are in my prayers always ;) Love you
chicas.
Love you family!! You are in my prayers and I miss you all so stinkin' much! However, there is no other place
I'd rather be than serving my Lord for the next year and half! HE LIVES! The
church is true!!
Love Hermana Bingham <3
P.S: I want NEVAN to write to me about EFY and Kaylin to write to me about GIRLS CAMP!
Ahora. DO it. Or you will get a loving Jasmine beating when I get home ;) ha-ha, solo un chiste. But
really, I want to hear about it!
PPS: Thanks for looking for clothes. I know it’s a pain. But I am not going to be too picky. I just need
some better options. I TRUST YOU! ;)
PPS: Shay, you are a dork. That is all. I still love you!
*******************************************************************************************************8
CRAZY WEEK!!!
July 11, 2012
Haha, your letter made me laugh. I am DEFINITELY not going to pray for another trial again. That was just silly.
I will have plenty of those later so why voluntarily ask for more, right??? I think I might try praying for a cure for Diabetes... ;)
Anyway, THANK YOU SO MUCH for telling me about Jenna's mission call!! I am in the laundry room right now
and I about screamed out loud because I was so excited. Hermana Whitney Dawe is sitting right next to me though and so I was able to pass on the news!! Then we both proceeded to yelp out loud in excitement. I am so happy for her!!
CONGRATULATIONS SISTER HIGGINS!!! We are so happy for you!!! I can't wait to see Jessica and tell her! And Megan Chipman...and Elder Taylor...and all my friends. "Are those my friends?!" Haha, gotta love Kid History. You are so right about it being a party here. It really feels like it sometimes. I LOVE being here. It is so where I am supposed to be.
I am so happy and it is so awesome to share that happiness with all my amazing friends. Very different from what Shay experienced that’s for sure. Kudos to him. It was definitely a comfort to me knowing that I had friends that had gone
in before me and several coming in after me. It is such a blessing to be serving the Lord with all of them. Ah man. Good feelings all around :)
My branch president shared a powerful testimony of missions last night. He talked about how that final interview with the Stake President at the end of your mission WILL come. And it will come sooner than you anticipate. And it will be a sacred moment. You will reflect on the last one and half years of your life and the sanctity of that time spent serving the
Lord. It will be surreal as you take that badge off for the last time as you are released from that sacred calling as one of the Lord's missionaries.
Whata sacred blessing it is to serve. My heart is so full and my spirit so happy that I have this opportunity to
represent my Savior and declare his Gospel. The mission is such a short blip in our eternal existence but has such a divine and powerful impact in our eternal journey in becoming like our Heavenly Father. Its great!!! I just can't
adequately describe what I am feeling. But, I am happy :) I am so glad I am here :) Don't worry, I still miss ya'll! Kinda....haha, JUST KIDDING!
Okay, moving on. We had some crazy happenings this week!!!
First story: This one is kind of humorous and stupid. SO, I was chewing on my pen
because that’s just what I do...I chew on my pens. Well, it ended up exploding
and I got a whole bunch of blue gel pen ink in my hair. HOW? I have no
stinkin' idea. I had an awesome faddish blue streak in my hair for a couple
days...it actually looked kind of cool. ;)
Second story: As my district and I were leaving the computer lab last Saturday, there was this
girl that was walking down the hall very slowly towards us...by herself. You
know Samara off The Ring?? Well, think of that as I tell this story. Well, she
was wearing only a temple dress with no shoes. She was vigorously rubbing her
hands together and mumbling something under her breath. Well, some of the
elders tried talking to her and asking her questions but she wouldn't
answer...she just kept walking with her head down and hair in her face...like
Samara.
We went and fetched some zone resource teachers and they
tried talking to her. She finally stopped and just stood there. Her hands were
rubbed raw and she had scratches all up her arm. Finally when one of the
teachers asked her "Who are you with?" She slowly looked up at him and said, "I
am with Christ". It was the most bizarre thing!!
They then took her away and the Elders in my district were about to go in their
pants they were so freaked out. We found out later that this woman was a
schizophrenic and had gotten into the MTC a couple times,
claiming she was coming in as a volunteer for TRC. Yeah...weird.
Okay third story: This one is the craziest. It happened on Monday night.
The alarm went off in the morning and I remember thinking, "There is no way it
is already time to get up!" Hermana Bateman got up to turn it off and then all of a sudden
I heard her say, "Crap!" Well, it turns out that it wasn't her alarm clock. It was the fire
alarm. I jumped out of bed and looked at the time on my pump. It was only a
little after midnight. ALL of a sudden, we heard doors slamming open and girls
SCREAMING. I think as Americans, we kind of go into drill mode when this
happens. After all, how many fire drills have we been through in high school
and middle school? Well, we all ran to our door and swung it open and I just
remember standing there for a few seconds as I watched as complete heck brokeloose.
The Samoan girls next to us were in hysterics and runningall over the place. I saw a girl trip
and two or three girls trip over here andsprawl on the ground. It was insane.
Girls were screaming to get out of the building asap. All of a sudden, we all realized
that maybe this was actually serious. So we ran back in, grab our shoes and keys
and ran back out. As I ran back out into the hall, this one girl was on the floor
convulsing. It was kind of disturbing. I ran over to her and tried to get her to calm down
because her friends were in hysterics at what to do and were not helping. Sheesh. But she
was not calming down and I knew she was going to have to be carried out. I
couldn't do it though...she had at least 50 lbs on me. Luckily another big girl
came and picked her up and carried her out.
So, with that, the hysteric screaming, and the painstakingly loud alarms, it was
absolute chaos. BUT, we all made it out. I think only one girl passed out. We were stuck
outside till about two in themorning before we were told we could go back in. And get this...it was only
because an alarm had malfunctioned. All that because of a malfunction. See?? THE
MTC is SUCH a fun place. Who knew it could be so exciting and unpredictable?!?!
;) Getting up a few hours later was a killer though...haha.
Anyway, so it was a fun filled week full of excitement!!
Putting that aside, Hermana Wanlass and I have had some awesome teaching
experiences. Our Spanish is coming together and we are understanding our
investigators more which is an amazing experience. Teaching TRC with the
volunteers is amazingly fun! They are so cute. We have taught mainly these cute
old ladies that served Spanish speaking missions long ago and they treat us like
their own granddaughters. Its kind of adorable.
It’s so weird to think that we have less than a month left in the MTC. Sister
Fisher and Hermana Dawe already leave next Wednesday. SAY WHAT?! I only
have 4 weeks left which is kind of scary...ah!!! But I am so excited.
Glad to hear that shay is doing better.
I haven't got those Dear elders with his email yet...you must have sent them
late. I will probably get it tonight.
Sorry to hear about Good Chicken.
I am sad that I am not with Nevan to help him with the burial ceremony. Why are
the chickens dying??
I finally have a scripture for my plaque!! I think I want to do Alma
29:9-10. I had such a hard time picking it required some serious decision making
skills...which I lack in. It was a struggle but I overcame it ;) Tell
Brother Hone that I am sorry!!! Take a pic of it when you get it up :) Use one
of my pics that I posted on Facebook before I left :)
And real quick, have you looked for any new shirts and skirts that I talked about a couple weeks
ago?? I need some cuter dressier outfits. Sorry about that...clothes are a pain :)
Anyway, love you all! Glad to hear your 4th was good! They actually gave us ice cream here and
let us watch the Stadium of Fire fireworks and stay out pass 10:30...it was a
party!
The church is true!!! I love being a missionary! There is no other place I'd rather be than
serving my Heavenly Father!!
Love, Hermana Bingham <3
Alma 29
9 I know that which the Lord hath commanded me, and I glory in it. I do not glory of
myself, but I glory in that which the Lord hath commanded me; yea, and this is
my glory, that perhaps I may be an instrument in the hands of God to bring some
soul to repentance; and this is my joy.
10 And behold, when I see many of my brethren truly penitent, and coming to the Lord
their God, then is my soul filled with joy; then do I remember what
the Lord has done for me, yea, even that he hath heard my prayer; yea,
then do I remember his merciful arm which he extended towards me.
Haha, your letter made me laugh. I am DEFINITELY not going to pray for another trial again. That was just silly.
I will have plenty of those later so why voluntarily ask for more, right??? I think I might try praying for a cure for Diabetes... ;)
Anyway, THANK YOU SO MUCH for telling me about Jenna's mission call!! I am in the laundry room right now
and I about screamed out loud because I was so excited. Hermana Whitney Dawe is sitting right next to me though and so I was able to pass on the news!! Then we both proceeded to yelp out loud in excitement. I am so happy for her!!
CONGRATULATIONS SISTER HIGGINS!!! We are so happy for you!!! I can't wait to see Jessica and tell her! And Megan Chipman...and Elder Taylor...and all my friends. "Are those my friends?!" Haha, gotta love Kid History. You are so right about it being a party here. It really feels like it sometimes. I LOVE being here. It is so where I am supposed to be.
I am so happy and it is so awesome to share that happiness with all my amazing friends. Very different from what Shay experienced that’s for sure. Kudos to him. It was definitely a comfort to me knowing that I had friends that had gone
in before me and several coming in after me. It is such a blessing to be serving the Lord with all of them. Ah man. Good feelings all around :)
My branch president shared a powerful testimony of missions last night. He talked about how that final interview with the Stake President at the end of your mission WILL come. And it will come sooner than you anticipate. And it will be a sacred moment. You will reflect on the last one and half years of your life and the sanctity of that time spent serving the
Lord. It will be surreal as you take that badge off for the last time as you are released from that sacred calling as one of the Lord's missionaries.
Whata sacred blessing it is to serve. My heart is so full and my spirit so happy that I have this opportunity to
represent my Savior and declare his Gospel. The mission is such a short blip in our eternal existence but has such a divine and powerful impact in our eternal journey in becoming like our Heavenly Father. Its great!!! I just can't
adequately describe what I am feeling. But, I am happy :) I am so glad I am here :) Don't worry, I still miss ya'll! Kinda....haha, JUST KIDDING!
Okay, moving on. We had some crazy happenings this week!!!
First story: This one is kind of humorous and stupid. SO, I was chewing on my pen
because that’s just what I do...I chew on my pens. Well, it ended up exploding
and I got a whole bunch of blue gel pen ink in my hair. HOW? I have no
stinkin' idea. I had an awesome faddish blue streak in my hair for a couple
days...it actually looked kind of cool. ;)
Second story: As my district and I were leaving the computer lab last Saturday, there was this
girl that was walking down the hall very slowly towards us...by herself. You
know Samara off The Ring?? Well, think of that as I tell this story. Well, she
was wearing only a temple dress with no shoes. She was vigorously rubbing her
hands together and mumbling something under her breath. Well, some of the
elders tried talking to her and asking her questions but she wouldn't
answer...she just kept walking with her head down and hair in her face...like
Samara.
We went and fetched some zone resource teachers and they
tried talking to her. She finally stopped and just stood there. Her hands were
rubbed raw and she had scratches all up her arm. Finally when one of the
teachers asked her "Who are you with?" She slowly looked up at him and said, "I
am with Christ". It was the most bizarre thing!!
They then took her away and the Elders in my district were about to go in their
pants they were so freaked out. We found out later that this woman was a
schizophrenic and had gotten into the MTC a couple times,
claiming she was coming in as a volunteer for TRC. Yeah...weird.
Okay third story: This one is the craziest. It happened on Monday night.
The alarm went off in the morning and I remember thinking, "There is no way it
is already time to get up!" Hermana Bateman got up to turn it off and then all of a sudden
I heard her say, "Crap!" Well, it turns out that it wasn't her alarm clock. It was the fire
alarm. I jumped out of bed and looked at the time on my pump. It was only a
little after midnight. ALL of a sudden, we heard doors slamming open and girls
SCREAMING. I think as Americans, we kind of go into drill mode when this
happens. After all, how many fire drills have we been through in high school
and middle school? Well, we all ran to our door and swung it open and I just
remember standing there for a few seconds as I watched as complete heck brokeloose.
The Samoan girls next to us were in hysterics and runningall over the place. I saw a girl trip
and two or three girls trip over here andsprawl on the ground. It was insane.
Girls were screaming to get out of the building asap. All of a sudden, we all realized
that maybe this was actually serious. So we ran back in, grab our shoes and keys
and ran back out. As I ran back out into the hall, this one girl was on the floor
convulsing. It was kind of disturbing. I ran over to her and tried to get her to calm down
because her friends were in hysterics at what to do and were not helping. Sheesh. But she
was not calming down and I knew she was going to have to be carried out. I
couldn't do it though...she had at least 50 lbs on me. Luckily another big girl
came and picked her up and carried her out.
So, with that, the hysteric screaming, and the painstakingly loud alarms, it was
absolute chaos. BUT, we all made it out. I think only one girl passed out. We were stuck
outside till about two in themorning before we were told we could go back in. And get this...it was only
because an alarm had malfunctioned. All that because of a malfunction. See?? THE
MTC is SUCH a fun place. Who knew it could be so exciting and unpredictable?!?!
;) Getting up a few hours later was a killer though...haha.
Anyway, so it was a fun filled week full of excitement!!
Putting that aside, Hermana Wanlass and I have had some awesome teaching
experiences. Our Spanish is coming together and we are understanding our
investigators more which is an amazing experience. Teaching TRC with the
volunteers is amazingly fun! They are so cute. We have taught mainly these cute
old ladies that served Spanish speaking missions long ago and they treat us like
their own granddaughters. Its kind of adorable.
It’s so weird to think that we have less than a month left in the MTC. Sister
Fisher and Hermana Dawe already leave next Wednesday. SAY WHAT?! I only
have 4 weeks left which is kind of scary...ah!!! But I am so excited.
Glad to hear that shay is doing better.
I haven't got those Dear elders with his email yet...you must have sent them
late. I will probably get it tonight.
Sorry to hear about Good Chicken.
I am sad that I am not with Nevan to help him with the burial ceremony. Why are
the chickens dying??
I finally have a scripture for my plaque!! I think I want to do Alma
29:9-10. I had such a hard time picking it required some serious decision making
skills...which I lack in. It was a struggle but I overcame it ;) Tell
Brother Hone that I am sorry!!! Take a pic of it when you get it up :) Use one
of my pics that I posted on Facebook before I left :)
And real quick, have you looked for any new shirts and skirts that I talked about a couple weeks
ago?? I need some cuter dressier outfits. Sorry about that...clothes are a pain :)
Anyway, love you all! Glad to hear your 4th was good! They actually gave us ice cream here and
let us watch the Stadium of Fire fireworks and stay out pass 10:30...it was a
party!
The church is true!!! I love being a missionary! There is no other place I'd rather be than
serving my Heavenly Father!!
Love, Hermana Bingham <3
Alma 29
9 I know that which the Lord hath commanded me, and I glory in it. I do not glory of
myself, but I glory in that which the Lord hath commanded me; yea, and this is
my glory, that perhaps I may be an instrument in the hands of God to bring some
soul to repentance; and this is my joy.
10 And behold, when I see many of my brethren truly penitent, and coming to the Lord
their God, then is my soul filled with joy; then do I remember what
the Lord has done for me, yea, even that he hath heard my prayer; yea,
then do I remember his merciful arm which he extended towards me.
July 4, 2012
HOLA FAMILIA!!
I love the pictures! Those little monsters are so cute! And Washington is so green, holy cow!
Utah is so hot and crispy right now and the air is just horrible because of the fires
going on. On one of the days you could look up to the mountains and see an
orangeish yellowish glow from the fires on the other side so I figured it was
probably pretty serious and wasn't surprised when Brenda and Jared were talking
about them in their letters. That’s kind of scary. Hopefully we get some rain
soon .. .. I WOULD LOVE SOME RAIN and clouds. I am such a Washingtonian ;)
Anyway, HAPPY FOURTH OF JULY!! I bet you guys are just partying it up in
Cathlamet in the rain ;) It is so weird to be going on with normal life in the MTC
when you can hear Provo just hopping with the Fourth of July festivities. Yesterday and today, there
have been hot air balloons all over the place which has been cool to watch. We
can also hear the sound check going on at the Stadium. The beach boys and Scotty
McCreery!! YAYA! I seriously have forgotten music and all those songs I listened
to before I left. It’s so weird!! All everyone sings is Hymns...and Christmas
songs. Oh, and Dora the Explorer for the Spanish speakers. It’s kind of
hilarious.
So, the coolest thing happened last week among a bazillion other things of course which I WISH I
had the time to write about!! GAH! This will mainly be for Rachel, Lori, Jenna,
and my roomies I guess. But Hermana Whitney Dawe came into the MTC last
Wednesday. It is so fun to have so many people I know coming in!!! Anyway, I
kept an eye out for her but didn't see her at all. HOWEVER, my zone leaders told
me that we had a new district coming in and they had four Hermanas. So, in my mind
I was like, that would be SO cool if Whitney ended up being one of those
Hermanas but I knew the chances were slim.
There are SO many Spanish speaking zones here at the MTC, it is crazy. Well, on
Thursday I finally ran into her and asked her what branch she was in....well guess what...
SHE IS IN MY ZONE. In fact, her district classroom is RIGHT next to mine. And our zone is
all on the same schedule. So we have spent so much time together because I see
her EVERYDAY all the time. We have gym together and meals together and church
together and meetings together and everything together. We also live on the same
floor so the other night we just got to sit and chat for half an hour about life
and catch up. It was so nice. She is doing so well and is so excited to be here.
The first few days of course were crazy, but we have helped her and her
companion through it and they are getting the hang of things. I love it!
It is such a blessing to have so many friends here. It makes the MTC that much more of a
fabulous place to be. Anyway, so that was a highlight. Unfortunately, I was sick this past week.
Haha, Shay and I must be related ;) ON Wednesday, I was just thinking about things here and decided to
pray for heavenly father to give me another challenge...why? I have no stinkin'
idea. I am just going crazy I guess. I just felt so good those first few weeks
when I was so humbled and on my knees all the time asking for direction and
strength. I had never felt so close to the spirit and my savior before and I
wanted to feel that again.
So, in my prayer Thursday night, as I was about to pray for another challenge, I stopped and
contemplated whether I really wanted to ask for that because that is a request
that the Lord could EASILY answer, right?? Well, I was laughing to myself about
how ridiculous it was but went ahead and asked for another challenge, amid all
my other challenges about MTC life. Well, the next morning, my prayer was
answered. I woke up sick. Yep, it was horrible.
I felt TERRIBLE for the next 3 or 4 days. I still don’t feel well but am doing much better, don’t worry. My
blood sugar was all over the place, I had a sore throat, headache, stuffy nose,
and my voice was gone. I sounded like a man who had been smoking for decades. I
broke out into laughter during some of our lessons because I sounded so
ridiculous...oops. haha. And then, not only that, on Saturday, I woke up and my
left eye was SEALED SHUT. I had to pry it open. It was beat read and swollen
like no other. I went to the clinic and guess what...they said it was infected.
ARE YOU SERIOUS!? You know in the mission packet where it talks about not taking
contacts or being careful with contacts because of risk of infection?? And how I
scoffed at that??? Yeah, well who is scoffing now. Not me. So I can’t wear
contacts for another two weeks and have some antibiotic eye drops that I am
using. So...I am just walking around blind. I squint at everyone which actually
is kind of funny...oh well, what can you do?
I feel like Two Face off of batman for some reason. That whole side of my face is just...messed up.
BUT, it is much better today. I will probably start wearing my contacts sooner
than I should.
We'll see. Other than that, this past week has been great. I have been so humbled and I am
grateful that God allows challenges and trials to come into our lives. Not
because they are easy or desired but rather because they help us to love and
develop the Character of Christ within us and we learn to turn outward rather
than inward as hardships befall us. I am definitely learning how to be more
selfless and to love and rely on my savior more :) And bless my Companion's
heart. she has been marvelous these past few days.
Okay, before I close I have a letter for shay in my awesomely non-grammatically correct Spanish:
Hola Elder Bingham!
Su espanol es muy mal. Debe practicar mas porque su espanol necisita trabajo mas
:P. Pero, esta bien. Yo perdono usted. Estoy feliz a escuchar que esta mejor.
Pero, tengo algun palabras por usted. Parada estarando enfermo! Okay? Bien.
Jaja, en realidad, estoy enferma esta ultima semana tambien. Como divertido! Mi
cabeza fue enferma y mi ojo fue inficionado. Entonces, no puedo usar
mi...uhhh...lente de contacto. Es no bien. No me gusta! Pero, estoy sentiendo
mejor.
Entonces, tengo cinco semanas y entonces salo el CCM! Es loco! Me encanta el CCM y mi
districto y my maestros y mi companera, y otras hermanas en mi zona. El CCM ha
estar muy divertido. Estare triste cuando y salo.
Pues, este tiempo todos tengo por escribiendo en espanol por usted. Dira me que usted
entender, okay? Yo no entiendo su portuguese. Pues...yo entiendi un poco :) Es
weird. Espanol es mejor!!!
Es su cara!! Te amo! Buenas suerte!!
Okay, that took awhile and the grammar is terrible but I want to see what he can pick out of it :)
Well, I have to close already. Tell everyone I said hi. Have grandma tell the ladies i all
said hi and that I think about them and pray for them :)
Hope you have a fabulous day! I think they may let us watch the fireworks tonight believe it or not!!
YAY!! Love you all!
Love, Hermana Bingham
p.s. I promise to send you my plaque scripture this week in a letter or next week.
And I can't send pics yet. Actually, maybe I will send my SD card at the end of the week with my
scripture plaque scripture, okay? :D
Thank you Aunt Karla for your letter!! I loved it. I will have one sent your way soon ;)
LOVE YOU ALL!
p.p.s. And thank you everyone for your letters!! I received a ton this week and felt so loved. I will
try to write you all back as soon as possible. <3
Here is what Jasmine wrote to Shay translated by Google-
I don't know who, but someone made a bunch of errors... probably Google.
;-)
"Elder Bingham Hello!
Your Spanish is very bad. You should practice your Spanish but
because wanting some more work: P. But, okay. I forgive you. I'm happy to hear
that this better. But I have some words for you. Estarando stop sick! Okay?
Right. Haha, actually, I'm sick this last week too. How fun!
My head was sick and my eye was infected. So I cannot use my ... uhhh ... contact lens.
It is not good. I do not like! But I'm sentiendo better.
So I have five weeks and then salo MCC! It's crazy! I love CCM
and my district and my teachers and my partner, and other sisters in my area.
The CCM has to be fun. I'll be sad when and salo.
Well, this time all I have for writing in Spanish for you. Tell
me you understand, okay? I do not understand your Portuguese. Well ... I
entiendi :) It's a little weird. Spanish is better! Is your face! I love you!
Good luck!"
June 27, 2012
Dear Familia!!!
I gotta say, I love the Pride and Prejudice reference. I have been quoting that, North and South,
Cranford, Emma, and others a ton since I have been here!! Luckily, the Hermanas
I am rooming with know the movies too and we quote them to each other. Its
pretty hilarious! We've been trying to say them to each other in Espanol and
that makes it even MORE hilarious. Ha, good times!!
This past week has been awesome. This whole experience just keeps getting better and better and I
can't believe I have been here for three weeks already. In MTC terms, this is
technically Week 4 for us and that marked the transition into PURE ESPANOL
during class. Before they would jump between English and
Espanol but now it is pure Spanish which is muy divertido...sometimes ;) The Spanish is getting
better though!! The other day, my companera and I gave our first lesson without
looking at our notes...which was awesome!! We taught about the restoration and
Joseph Smith and a little about the Book of Mormon. Of course, our Spanish is
still broken and sporadic but we were able to get the message across haha.
Sometimes, I have no idea how the teachers can stay in character. I feel like I
would be laughing my head off!!
Who knows what things we have said that we have no idea about!!! We could
have born testimony that Jesus Christ died for our fishes rather than our sins!!
(Pecados means 'sins' and pescados means 'fish'. That is a COMMON mistake ;)
And there are SEVERAL others that I am sure I have messed up on...but hey,
we have had sooooo much fun laughing at our mistakes. My district is hilarious
and we have all messed up so much in our spanish that there is nothing
more to be embarrassed about. No more shame.
Anyway, lessons are going well. Hermana Wanlass and I are getting much better
about relying on the spirit, especially as we become more confident in our Espanol speaking
abilities :)
So, yesterday was the COOLEST day ever!!! Tuesdays are always awesome because we have the MTC
devotional. But before I get into that, let me back up a little. This last week
has been the new training seminar thing for all the new Mission Presidents. So
on top of the already almost 3000 missionaries here, we got an additional 110
new mission presidents and their wives on campus. So the MTC was a mad house all
week!! Half the campus was blocked off to missionaries and security was
ridiculously insane because the Prophet and other general authorities were
coming every day to speak to the mission presidents.
So...having said that, everyone was stoked for the devotional because the odds of having an
Apostle or another general authority speak was pretty dang good. SO, people
were lining up outside the building TWO hours before it even started. My comp
was in the choir so I got to stand right near the front of the line ;) YES!
Anyway, we all file in there and everyone is loud and talking and the
excitement and anticipation was THICK.
All of a sudden the front doors open and in walks
Elder Oaks...and then
Elder Bednar...and then
Elder Andersen,
Elder Holland, . . . . . . . . . . . . and they just kept COMING!
Elder Cook,
Elder Christoffersen,
Elder Ballard,
Elder Russell M. Nelson,
Elder L. Tom Perry, and
Elder Richard G. Scott.
The only ones NOT there were Elder Hales and Pres. Boyd K. Packer.
It was the most amazing experience ever. A huge hush just swept
around the room and we all stood in amazement as they kept filing in. TO be
honest, I was expecting maybe two Apostles at most...but shoot, TEN?
I don't know when that will ever happen to me again...and I was so close. The
Spirit in there was so strong. So powerful. I seriously felt the same feeling I
feel in the temple...when you can almost literally feel the presence of the
Savior. Elder Perry spoke and gave a powerful testimony of the Savior at the
end that literally shook the building. Afterwards, they left and all waved as
they departed. It was so surreal to see all the missionaries waving as they
walked out.
We are an army of the Lord, going out to proclaim his gospel. And
like Helaman, they are our leaders and generals. Elder Holland blew a
kiss...don't worry, I caught it and put it in my pocket for safe keeping ;) So,
yesterday was absolutely amazing. No words to adequately describe it.
Especially through email.
Let’s see, along with that, we have had a lot of amazing speakers and many
spiritual experiences. My testimony just keeps on building and I can feel myself
becoming closer to being fully converted to the Gospel of Christ. :) It is an
amazing feeling and this is an amazing work.
Alright, on to other things. I have seen JESSICA!! (Sister Fisher I mean ;) I have seen her a few
times in passing. I saw her for the first time last Thursday and when we finally
saw each other, we screamed out loud and made a HUGE scene in the middle of the
Cafeteria but we didn't care...obviously haha. She looked so good and SO HAPPY.
I couldn’t stop the tears from coming and neither could she. We were able to
talk and catch up for about 10 minutes and then she had to go. Unfortunately,
our meal times are at different times but every time I see her, we hug and talk
for a few quick minutes. I am so happy she is here.
We got a picture with Elder Taylor from our ward and had a little ward party ;)
When Whitney Dawe gets here today, there will be i think 5 people from our ward here at the MTC.
SO NEAT!! So pass on to Rachel that Jessica is doing fabulous and is super
happy! She already has the beautiful sister missionary glow about her :) And we
both LOVE our girlies and hope you are all doing well (Jenna, Lori, Melissa,
Rachel, Tori :) We think and pray for you all.
On Saturday, we had a huge movie night for the whole MTC and we watched the
Other Side of Heaven. What a beautiful movie!! IT made me so stoked to finally get out into the field
and start serving and loving the people of South Salt Lake :) I know that I need
to have patience though...ugh.I just can't wait to share the Gospel of Christ
with others and to bring them that happiness and those blessings. We are so lessed!
Okay, I only have a few minutes left. Thank you so much for sending that box.
To be honest, I wish I had done my shopping a little better. I need more dressy shirts.
My shirts are too casual :( So if you could keep an eye out for that, that would be great.
Check out the Loft website. It is a store down here in Utah. Ask Brenda, maybe
she knows where you can buy a couple. Any color would be great. Maybe two more
skirts would be good too to match the shirts you buy. Try and find shirts that
are a bit of a looser style. Sorry, I know it’s a pain but that would be great.
And the black shoes came .. thank you so much for getting those to me so fast!!!
About pictures, I have to send you the SD card. They took away the photo shop here at the MTC and
we can’t email pics. It stinks. Maybe I can do that in the next couple days :)
I wish I had more time to tell you more!!! I love this gospel!! I love my savior!! The church is
true and I am so happy to be serving His Children :)
I love you all and think of you often! And Happy Birthday Gpa JON!! LOVE YOU!
Love, Hermana Bingham
P.S. I put shay on the prayer roll. Poor ol' bloke. Hopefully he gets better soon.
LOVE YOU ELDER BINGHAM!!
Tell the branch I said hi and pray for them all! and keep dear eldering those letters!! That saves
a lot of time!
I gotta say, I love the Pride and Prejudice reference. I have been quoting that, North and South,
Cranford, Emma, and others a ton since I have been here!! Luckily, the Hermanas
I am rooming with know the movies too and we quote them to each other. Its
pretty hilarious! We've been trying to say them to each other in Espanol and
that makes it even MORE hilarious. Ha, good times!!
This past week has been awesome. This whole experience just keeps getting better and better and I
can't believe I have been here for three weeks already. In MTC terms, this is
technically Week 4 for us and that marked the transition into PURE ESPANOL
during class. Before they would jump between English and
Espanol but now it is pure Spanish which is muy divertido...sometimes ;) The Spanish is getting
better though!! The other day, my companera and I gave our first lesson without
looking at our notes...which was awesome!! We taught about the restoration and
Joseph Smith and a little about the Book of Mormon. Of course, our Spanish is
still broken and sporadic but we were able to get the message across haha.
Sometimes, I have no idea how the teachers can stay in character. I feel like I
would be laughing my head off!!
Who knows what things we have said that we have no idea about!!! We could
have born testimony that Jesus Christ died for our fishes rather than our sins!!
(Pecados means 'sins' and pescados means 'fish'. That is a COMMON mistake ;)
And there are SEVERAL others that I am sure I have messed up on...but hey,
we have had sooooo much fun laughing at our mistakes. My district is hilarious
and we have all messed up so much in our spanish that there is nothing
more to be embarrassed about. No more shame.
Anyway, lessons are going well. Hermana Wanlass and I are getting much better
about relying on the spirit, especially as we become more confident in our Espanol speaking
abilities :)
So, yesterday was the COOLEST day ever!!! Tuesdays are always awesome because we have the MTC
devotional. But before I get into that, let me back up a little. This last week
has been the new training seminar thing for all the new Mission Presidents. So
on top of the already almost 3000 missionaries here, we got an additional 110
new mission presidents and their wives on campus. So the MTC was a mad house all
week!! Half the campus was blocked off to missionaries and security was
ridiculously insane because the Prophet and other general authorities were
coming every day to speak to the mission presidents.
So...having said that, everyone was stoked for the devotional because the odds of having an
Apostle or another general authority speak was pretty dang good. SO, people
were lining up outside the building TWO hours before it even started. My comp
was in the choir so I got to stand right near the front of the line ;) YES!
Anyway, we all file in there and everyone is loud and talking and the
excitement and anticipation was THICK.
All of a sudden the front doors open and in walks
Elder Oaks...and then
Elder Bednar...and then
Elder Andersen,
Elder Holland, . . . . . . . . . . . . and they just kept COMING!
Elder Cook,
Elder Christoffersen,
Elder Ballard,
Elder Russell M. Nelson,
Elder L. Tom Perry, and
Elder Richard G. Scott.
The only ones NOT there were Elder Hales and Pres. Boyd K. Packer.
It was the most amazing experience ever. A huge hush just swept
around the room and we all stood in amazement as they kept filing in. TO be
honest, I was expecting maybe two Apostles at most...but shoot, TEN?
I don't know when that will ever happen to me again...and I was so close. The
Spirit in there was so strong. So powerful. I seriously felt the same feeling I
feel in the temple...when you can almost literally feel the presence of the
Savior. Elder Perry spoke and gave a powerful testimony of the Savior at the
end that literally shook the building. Afterwards, they left and all waved as
they departed. It was so surreal to see all the missionaries waving as they
walked out.
We are an army of the Lord, going out to proclaim his gospel. And
like Helaman, they are our leaders and generals. Elder Holland blew a
kiss...don't worry, I caught it and put it in my pocket for safe keeping ;) So,
yesterday was absolutely amazing. No words to adequately describe it.
Especially through email.
Let’s see, along with that, we have had a lot of amazing speakers and many
spiritual experiences. My testimony just keeps on building and I can feel myself
becoming closer to being fully converted to the Gospel of Christ. :) It is an
amazing feeling and this is an amazing work.
Alright, on to other things. I have seen JESSICA!! (Sister Fisher I mean ;) I have seen her a few
times in passing. I saw her for the first time last Thursday and when we finally
saw each other, we screamed out loud and made a HUGE scene in the middle of the
Cafeteria but we didn't care...obviously haha. She looked so good and SO HAPPY.
I couldn’t stop the tears from coming and neither could she. We were able to
talk and catch up for about 10 minutes and then she had to go. Unfortunately,
our meal times are at different times but every time I see her, we hug and talk
for a few quick minutes. I am so happy she is here.
We got a picture with Elder Taylor from our ward and had a little ward party ;)
When Whitney Dawe gets here today, there will be i think 5 people from our ward here at the MTC.
SO NEAT!! So pass on to Rachel that Jessica is doing fabulous and is super
happy! She already has the beautiful sister missionary glow about her :) And we
both LOVE our girlies and hope you are all doing well (Jenna, Lori, Melissa,
Rachel, Tori :) We think and pray for you all.
On Saturday, we had a huge movie night for the whole MTC and we watched the
Other Side of Heaven. What a beautiful movie!! IT made me so stoked to finally get out into the field
and start serving and loving the people of South Salt Lake :) I know that I need
to have patience though...ugh.I just can't wait to share the Gospel of Christ
with others and to bring them that happiness and those blessings. We are so lessed!
Okay, I only have a few minutes left. Thank you so much for sending that box.
To be honest, I wish I had done my shopping a little better. I need more dressy shirts.
My shirts are too casual :( So if you could keep an eye out for that, that would be great.
Check out the Loft website. It is a store down here in Utah. Ask Brenda, maybe
she knows where you can buy a couple. Any color would be great. Maybe two more
skirts would be good too to match the shirts you buy. Try and find shirts that
are a bit of a looser style. Sorry, I know it’s a pain but that would be great.
And the black shoes came .. thank you so much for getting those to me so fast!!!
About pictures, I have to send you the SD card. They took away the photo shop here at the MTC and
we can’t email pics. It stinks. Maybe I can do that in the next couple days :)
I wish I had more time to tell you more!!! I love this gospel!! I love my savior!! The church is
true and I am so happy to be serving His Children :)
I love you all and think of you often! And Happy Birthday Gpa JON!! LOVE YOU!
Love, Hermana Bingham
P.S. I put shay on the prayer roll. Poor ol' bloke. Hopefully he gets better soon.
LOVE YOU ELDER BINGHAM!!
Tell the branch I said hi and pray for them all! and keep dear eldering those letters!! That saves
a lot of time!
June 20, 2012 - #2
Hey familia!!
You got a turkey?! Awww....cute! Hermana Wanlass thinks you should name it Gordo...which is fat in
espanol. ;)
Glad to hear that everyone is doing well and that I was able to make you all cry...and that Shay
thought it was too gushy and stuff. Boys ;) I am sure he secretly enjoyed it. I
have to admit, I laughed when you said the Lexus broke down. How does that
happen?!?! Good thing you have good ol' Acury Buddy to rely on, eh? Go team Acura!
This week was another fabulous week. Definitely had its stressful moments, not going to lie. I
can't remember if I told you but we found out our first progressing investigator
was actually our second teacher for the rest of the time we are in the MTC. We
about freaked out and died haha. When he came walking in, we all looked at him
and were like, "Pues, pues, pues, que tenemos aqui" which means "Well, well,
well what have we here". He got a good laugh out of that.
So...funny story. Well, actually there are a TON of funny things that happened this last week.
On Monday, Hermana Wanlass and I received our second progressing investigator (who
is also our teacher). Someone referred him to us. His name is Ricardo and that
is all we knew about him so...we went to his 'house' and knocked on the door.
Well, when he answered I told him who we were and that we have a message about
Jesus Christ for him. Well, because our teacher decided to be super kind and
nice to us (sarcasm), he talked REALLY fast and said a bunch of nonsense haha.
I believe he asked us how long it was going to take and I told him not very long.
He asked if it was going to be five minutes or ten or whatever and seemed to be
in a hurry, so to be polite I said five minutes would be fine. Well, he then
said, "fine, why dont you just share it really fast right here at the
door"...say what?!?!? So, my companera and I shared our thought right there...in
the middle of the hall...and it was really embarrassing and...painful. At one
point, my teacher broke out of character and started laughing at us and at the
time I was bearing my testimony and I couldnt help but laugh too!! NOT COOL
Hermano. NOT COOL! So, I was just like whatever and asked if we could come back
friday and TOLD him we were going to take 20 minutes this time, not five.
After he agreed, we left and I wasn't sure if I wanted to laugh or cry. So I decided
to laugh...and I ended up laughing so hard, I cried. So...I did both. But to be
honest, it really was HILARIOUS. My companera and I have been laughing about it
since. And everytime I see my teacher I feel like glaring at him for throwing us
that curve ball but I cant get too mad at him...he is just being realistic and
trying to give us real situations that we WILL come across out in the field.
If only I could SPEAK THE LANGUAGE!! I had an interview with him during class,
and he told me I did very well and he was 'content' with how it went...whatever that
means lol. But it was nice to hear that he thinks I am progressing well in the
language and that he is impressed. In class one of the days, he had me be
his investigator and we did a demo of a lesson all in spanish in front of the
district and luckily, I was able to understand and answer most of his questions.
He talks so dang fast...so I was glad that I was understanding it...and its only
week 2!! That blows my mind!
To be honest though, its coming. I am getting the hang of it. My grammar sucks pretty
bad but I am learning and when I really sit down and think about it, I have learned A TON.
Its amazing what I am able to communicate and say after only being here for 2
weeks. The Lord really blesses you and qualifies you for the work...thank
goodness ;) I have seen so many little miracles in my time here. I wish I could
tell you all my thoughts, impressions, revelatory moments, and answers to
prayers that I have gotten but that would take WAAAAAYYYY too long. The clock on
the corner of the screen keeps counting down and it freaks me out lol.
Another exciting thing this week that happened was the TRC. WOW, what an awesome experience. i
LOVE THE TRC (Teaching Resource Center). It was nice to just practice our
spanish skills, teaching skills, and conversation skills with a member. The
spirit was so strong and Hermana Wanlass and I were so relaxed and unified. We
left feeling hopefull and rejuvenated. Now...we just need to learn how to do
that during our lessons. We meet with our second investigator tonight...her name
is Sandra and she is a devout Jew. So...this should be fun!!!! ;)
This week, the new mission presidents along with the apostles and the First Presidency start coming
down to the MTC. Security has already picked up and we have some awesome
firesides and devotionals set up for next week! I am so EXCITED!!!
Also, I don't know if they broadcast the MTC Devotionals on BYU-TV or something but if they do, you
should totally watch it! I am in the MTC choir and apparently the last two
weeks, the cameras have zoomed in right on my FACE! So...check that out if you
can because then you can see me :D Who wouldnt want that, right? ;) I have had a
ton of elders recognize me around campus because of that...
Lets see, other than that nothing else new going on. The MTC is still wonderful! I recieve
spiritual dumpings nearly everyday!! My testimony continues to grow leaps and
bounds. I am absolutely having the time of my life. I have never laughed so much
in my life, nor felt the spirit so strong. I love all the people here, I love my
district. We seriously are like one big family of 12 kids and I will definitely
cry when it is time to say goodbye to all of them.
Congrats to Kaylin for going to do baptisms for the first time! Its such an amazing experience,
huh? I love the temple. I love doing sessions in the Provo temple each week. Who
knew it was such a BEAUTIFUL temple on the inside!!! I think it is even more
pretty than Portland ;) I lvoe the comfort and peace I feel in there. I just
pour my heart out to Heavenly Father each week when I go and I just feel
his love SO STRONG. Its amazing.
So here is my little devotional thought for you guys this week...and I would like Nevan and Kaylin to
pay attention to this. READ YOUR SCRIPTURES. Pray before you start and have a
study journal next to you while you read along with highlighters and the like.
Go into your scripture study with a question. It can be anything really such as,
"How do I recognize the spirit?" or "How do I recieve answers and how do I know
when I do?" You can ask anything. You can ask about how to endure trials
and hardships. And I PROMISE you that as you do that, you will receive answers
and revelation.
Sometimes, you might read a scripture and feel impressed to underline or highlight
it because something just spoke to you. Well, guess what? That is a form of revelation
and may be an answer to your prayer. Something just as small as that.
Pray with sincerity, study/ponder the scriptures, and ask. And Heavenly Father will
answer :) I can testify to that.
I love you all. I think about you all the time and pray for you :) I wish I had more time
to write but I got to go.
Love, Hermana Bingham
(Hopefully I can send pictures soon)
p.s. Mom I need black shoes. Apparently the ones I brought arent allowed...>:( You can go on
my Amazon account and look for the propet tan shoes I bought and just order the
same ones in black. Also, it would be great if you could send me a cuople more
workout t-shirts and Shay's grey sweats. Oh, and my curling iron! Sorry for the
grocery list...THANK YOU SO MUCH! LOVE YOU!> And I did get my insulin thank
goodness.
Oh and DAD!! Happy late father's day!!! I LOVE YOU SO MUCH! Thank
you for all you have done for me and for all you continue to do for me. It does
not go unnoticed. I promise :)
PPS Have Kaylin and Nevan send me Dear Elders!! I want to hear from them :)
PPPS Thank you for forwarding my emails. I Am SO STOKED TO see JESSICA!!!
AHHH!!!!
You got a turkey?! Awww....cute! Hermana Wanlass thinks you should name it Gordo...which is fat in
espanol. ;)
Glad to hear that everyone is doing well and that I was able to make you all cry...and that Shay
thought it was too gushy and stuff. Boys ;) I am sure he secretly enjoyed it. I
have to admit, I laughed when you said the Lexus broke down. How does that
happen?!?! Good thing you have good ol' Acury Buddy to rely on, eh? Go team Acura!
This week was another fabulous week. Definitely had its stressful moments, not going to lie. I
can't remember if I told you but we found out our first progressing investigator
was actually our second teacher for the rest of the time we are in the MTC. We
about freaked out and died haha. When he came walking in, we all looked at him
and were like, "Pues, pues, pues, que tenemos aqui" which means "Well, well,
well what have we here". He got a good laugh out of that.
So...funny story. Well, actually there are a TON of funny things that happened this last week.
On Monday, Hermana Wanlass and I received our second progressing investigator (who
is also our teacher). Someone referred him to us. His name is Ricardo and that
is all we knew about him so...we went to his 'house' and knocked on the door.
Well, when he answered I told him who we were and that we have a message about
Jesus Christ for him. Well, because our teacher decided to be super kind and
nice to us (sarcasm), he talked REALLY fast and said a bunch of nonsense haha.
I believe he asked us how long it was going to take and I told him not very long.
He asked if it was going to be five minutes or ten or whatever and seemed to be
in a hurry, so to be polite I said five minutes would be fine. Well, he then
said, "fine, why dont you just share it really fast right here at the
door"...say what?!?!? So, my companera and I shared our thought right there...in
the middle of the hall...and it was really embarrassing and...painful. At one
point, my teacher broke out of character and started laughing at us and at the
time I was bearing my testimony and I couldnt help but laugh too!! NOT COOL
Hermano. NOT COOL! So, I was just like whatever and asked if we could come back
friday and TOLD him we were going to take 20 minutes this time, not five.
After he agreed, we left and I wasn't sure if I wanted to laugh or cry. So I decided
to laugh...and I ended up laughing so hard, I cried. So...I did both. But to be
honest, it really was HILARIOUS. My companera and I have been laughing about it
since. And everytime I see my teacher I feel like glaring at him for throwing us
that curve ball but I cant get too mad at him...he is just being realistic and
trying to give us real situations that we WILL come across out in the field.
If only I could SPEAK THE LANGUAGE!! I had an interview with him during class,
and he told me I did very well and he was 'content' with how it went...whatever that
means lol. But it was nice to hear that he thinks I am progressing well in the
language and that he is impressed. In class one of the days, he had me be
his investigator and we did a demo of a lesson all in spanish in front of the
district and luckily, I was able to understand and answer most of his questions.
He talks so dang fast...so I was glad that I was understanding it...and its only
week 2!! That blows my mind!
To be honest though, its coming. I am getting the hang of it. My grammar sucks pretty
bad but I am learning and when I really sit down and think about it, I have learned A TON.
Its amazing what I am able to communicate and say after only being here for 2
weeks. The Lord really blesses you and qualifies you for the work...thank
goodness ;) I have seen so many little miracles in my time here. I wish I could
tell you all my thoughts, impressions, revelatory moments, and answers to
prayers that I have gotten but that would take WAAAAAYYYY too long. The clock on
the corner of the screen keeps counting down and it freaks me out lol.
Another exciting thing this week that happened was the TRC. WOW, what an awesome experience. i
LOVE THE TRC (Teaching Resource Center). It was nice to just practice our
spanish skills, teaching skills, and conversation skills with a member. The
spirit was so strong and Hermana Wanlass and I were so relaxed and unified. We
left feeling hopefull and rejuvenated. Now...we just need to learn how to do
that during our lessons. We meet with our second investigator tonight...her name
is Sandra and she is a devout Jew. So...this should be fun!!!! ;)
This week, the new mission presidents along with the apostles and the First Presidency start coming
down to the MTC. Security has already picked up and we have some awesome
firesides and devotionals set up for next week! I am so EXCITED!!!
Also, I don't know if they broadcast the MTC Devotionals on BYU-TV or something but if they do, you
should totally watch it! I am in the MTC choir and apparently the last two
weeks, the cameras have zoomed in right on my FACE! So...check that out if you
can because then you can see me :D Who wouldnt want that, right? ;) I have had a
ton of elders recognize me around campus because of that...
Lets see, other than that nothing else new going on. The MTC is still wonderful! I recieve
spiritual dumpings nearly everyday!! My testimony continues to grow leaps and
bounds. I am absolutely having the time of my life. I have never laughed so much
in my life, nor felt the spirit so strong. I love all the people here, I love my
district. We seriously are like one big family of 12 kids and I will definitely
cry when it is time to say goodbye to all of them.
Congrats to Kaylin for going to do baptisms for the first time! Its such an amazing experience,
huh? I love the temple. I love doing sessions in the Provo temple each week. Who
knew it was such a BEAUTIFUL temple on the inside!!! I think it is even more
pretty than Portland ;) I lvoe the comfort and peace I feel in there. I just
pour my heart out to Heavenly Father each week when I go and I just feel
his love SO STRONG. Its amazing.
So here is my little devotional thought for you guys this week...and I would like Nevan and Kaylin to
pay attention to this. READ YOUR SCRIPTURES. Pray before you start and have a
study journal next to you while you read along with highlighters and the like.
Go into your scripture study with a question. It can be anything really such as,
"How do I recognize the spirit?" or "How do I recieve answers and how do I know
when I do?" You can ask anything. You can ask about how to endure trials
and hardships. And I PROMISE you that as you do that, you will receive answers
and revelation.
Sometimes, you might read a scripture and feel impressed to underline or highlight
it because something just spoke to you. Well, guess what? That is a form of revelation
and may be an answer to your prayer. Something just as small as that.
Pray with sincerity, study/ponder the scriptures, and ask. And Heavenly Father will
answer :) I can testify to that.
I love you all. I think about you all the time and pray for you :) I wish I had more time
to write but I got to go.
Love, Hermana Bingham
(Hopefully I can send pictures soon)
p.s. Mom I need black shoes. Apparently the ones I brought arent allowed...>:( You can go on
my Amazon account and look for the propet tan shoes I bought and just order the
same ones in black. Also, it would be great if you could send me a cuople more
workout t-shirts and Shay's grey sweats. Oh, and my curling iron! Sorry for the
grocery list...THANK YOU SO MUCH! LOVE YOU!> And I did get my insulin thank
goodness.
Oh and DAD!! Happy late father's day!!! I LOVE YOU SO MUCH! Thank
you for all you have done for me and for all you continue to do for me. It does
not go unnoticed. I promise :)
PPS Have Kaylin and Nevan send me Dear Elders!! I want to hear from them :)
PPPS Thank you for forwarding my emails. I Am SO STOKED TO see JESSICA!!!
AHHH!!!!
June 12, 2012
MI FAMILIA!!!
Oh my goodness gracious!!! I don't even know
where to start!!
How do you sum up a week of crazy
awesomeness?!?!
I
I am SOOOOO happy to hear Nevan had a good time. I remember what I
felt that first time I went to EFY. Especially after testimony meeting. All of
the girls were BALLING, including me and of course, even some of the tough guys
had tears streaming down their cheeks. And I wore my bracelet for an additional
6 or 7 months...I challenge you to try and beat that Nevan. However, the
bracelet was kind of DISGUSTING by the end when I finally parted ways with it
and cut it off :D But yes, what an amazing thing EFY is. What a blessing!
Anyway, let’s see. I have only 30 minutes to write and read
letters...(however, if you hold down the minimize button, if freezes the clock
;) There are ALWAYS loop holes. Not that you should always be looking for them
ha-ha.
So, day one .Ron and Brenda took me to Sizzler and then we drove to
the MTC and I think my head was in the clouds all that morning. I didn’t know
what to expect. I was excited, nervous, happy, humble, and about every other
emotion in the book. When Brenda and Ron dropped me off, the elders snatched my
bags and started walking, ha-ha! Talk about kicking you off to the curb! But
they were so nice and I was so excited to get this thing going ;)
After goodbyes, I met with my host and she made the rounds with me. She
took me to my residence hall, gave me a tour, gave me my nametag ;), MTC card
and all that fun stuff. When I was in line to get my MTC card, I walked up to
this sister and she read my 'Hermana Bingham' and asked me where I was from.
After I told her, she asked if I knew Karl and Sue Bingham...haha, and of
course, I was like, why of course!! They are my grandparents and this sister
just broke into and huge smile and just started laughing!!! I was so lost...and
then she went on to tell me that Aunt JoAnn is her...grandma, I think?? I can’t
remember but to make a long story short, it was Debbie Matheson!! My long lost
cousin! I was laughing so hard I couldn't believe it! Wow, it is a small world.
So, you never know when you just might randomly run into some family members
;)
So, I was probably on campus for less than an hour and they already had me speaking
Spanish!! Shay was right when they said that you only speak your language for the first
few days. I had a total of about 15 class hours those first couple days and it was ALL IN
ESPAÑOL!!! I feel like they got a bat, labeled in Spanish, and beat me over the
head with it ha-ha. By the end of the day, we could pray, bear our testimonies,
and do door approaches in Spanish. How CRAZY is that?!??! It is absolutely
insane. Those first couple days were SO BUSY! But sooooo goood.
Someone said here that the days pass like weeks and the weeks pass like days and
I feel like that is accurate. This past week went by so fast but the days take....a little longer ;) My maestra
(teacher) is amazing. She is a lot of fun and works us HARD. I can see why they
do it this way though...because it works ;)
So, today is day 7. You want to know how many discussions I have given.
CUATRO! My compañera and I have given four discussions to an investigator in
ESPAÑOL. His name is Octavio and he is from Lima, Peru and speaks NO English.
We have said some HILARIOUS things. One elder in my zone said that Joseph Smith
translated the Book of Mormon from golden plataños (bananas) instead of planchas (plates).
There have been so many funny slip ups. Octavio told me he is a carpenter and my compañera said
something about how she had gotten a wood working kit once and that she is no
good with wood. Well, it translated out to us telling him that wood is no good.
So, we totally insulted is occupation. Sorry Octavio :P We also told him once
how we killed ourselves with laughter but stopped after we said "We killed
ourselves" and couldn’t finish the sentence because we were laughing and
he was looking at us funny and laughing at us...not sure how that tied into our
lesson...I can’t remember. It has been so much fun though teaching Octavio.
It’s been overwhelming at times, because there are so many things I could tell him in
ENGLISH to answer his questions. I have been prompted to say SO MANY THINGS BUT
I CANT because I don’t have the SPANISH WORDS to SAY them. So, that has had its
frustrating moments but we are still reaching our goals. His is reading the BOM
and coming to church with us and praying ;) So it has been fabulous.
My district is wonderful! Great group of elders and hermanas. There are 8 Elders and 4 Hermanas
and we have had SO much fun together. We spend about 6 to 8 hours a day together in a classroom.
So, every once in awhile we have to have a couple crazy moments to let out some
steam and laugh. GREAT group of missionaries. I love them all.
My companera, Hermana is FABULOUS. She is 24 and from New Jersey. She is JUST like Elise.
Same personality and same quirks and so we fit together like two puzzle pieces.
She has had a few breakdowns...apparently she has some bi polar issues but the
Lord has blessed me so much this past week with a steady mind, steady emotions,
and I have been able to help her because of that. She is doing better and we
just love each other. All of us 4 hermanas are already really close and love
being together.
I have 5 more minutes before the computer shuts down. The MTC has been an
AMAZING experience so far. I have never felt so close to Heavenly Father. I have
never felt his love so strong before in my entire life. I feel so blessed to be
here and I know this is where I am supposed to be. I love being a missionary. I
love feeling the love of my Savior. On Sunday, I balled my eyes out in almost
every meeting not because I was feeling overwhelmed, but rather because I was so
DARN HAPPY.
What a fabulous feeling. Life is wonderful. This is going to be so stinkin' hard but I welcome it.
I welcome the challenges. We wake up around 6 every morning (ugh ;) bet Dad will be happy to hear that)
but I wake up to the sound of birds (thank goodness not a pressure washer, no offense
Dad) and it makes me feel at home away from home.
I love you all! You are in my prayers and I appreciate your prayers. I
wish I had another half an hour. There is so MUCH more I could write. Just know
that I love you and miss you. I am happy and I am doing VERY well.
Talk to you next week! Love, Hermana Bingham
P.S. Tellshay I said hi!!! I hope he feels better. That’s rotten luck. He is in my
prayers and I am so happy we areMISSIONARIES. THE CHURCH IS
TRUE.
Oh my goodness gracious!!! I don't even know
where to start!!
How do you sum up a week of crazy
awesomeness?!?!
I
I am SOOOOO happy to hear Nevan had a good time. I remember what I
felt that first time I went to EFY. Especially after testimony meeting. All of
the girls were BALLING, including me and of course, even some of the tough guys
had tears streaming down their cheeks. And I wore my bracelet for an additional
6 or 7 months...I challenge you to try and beat that Nevan. However, the
bracelet was kind of DISGUSTING by the end when I finally parted ways with it
and cut it off :D But yes, what an amazing thing EFY is. What a blessing!
Anyway, let’s see. I have only 30 minutes to write and read
letters...(however, if you hold down the minimize button, if freezes the clock
;) There are ALWAYS loop holes. Not that you should always be looking for them
ha-ha.
So, day one .Ron and Brenda took me to Sizzler and then we drove to
the MTC and I think my head was in the clouds all that morning. I didn’t know
what to expect. I was excited, nervous, happy, humble, and about every other
emotion in the book. When Brenda and Ron dropped me off, the elders snatched my
bags and started walking, ha-ha! Talk about kicking you off to the curb! But
they were so nice and I was so excited to get this thing going ;)
After goodbyes, I met with my host and she made the rounds with me. She
took me to my residence hall, gave me a tour, gave me my nametag ;), MTC card
and all that fun stuff. When I was in line to get my MTC card, I walked up to
this sister and she read my 'Hermana Bingham' and asked me where I was from.
After I told her, she asked if I knew Karl and Sue Bingham...haha, and of
course, I was like, why of course!! They are my grandparents and this sister
just broke into and huge smile and just started laughing!!! I was so lost...and
then she went on to tell me that Aunt JoAnn is her...grandma, I think?? I can’t
remember but to make a long story short, it was Debbie Matheson!! My long lost
cousin! I was laughing so hard I couldn't believe it! Wow, it is a small world.
So, you never know when you just might randomly run into some family members
;)
So, I was probably on campus for less than an hour and they already had me speaking
Spanish!! Shay was right when they said that you only speak your language for the first
few days. I had a total of about 15 class hours those first couple days and it was ALL IN
ESPAÑOL!!! I feel like they got a bat, labeled in Spanish, and beat me over the
head with it ha-ha. By the end of the day, we could pray, bear our testimonies,
and do door approaches in Spanish. How CRAZY is that?!??! It is absolutely
insane. Those first couple days were SO BUSY! But sooooo goood.
Someone said here that the days pass like weeks and the weeks pass like days and
I feel like that is accurate. This past week went by so fast but the days take....a little longer ;) My maestra
(teacher) is amazing. She is a lot of fun and works us HARD. I can see why they
do it this way though...because it works ;)
So, today is day 7. You want to know how many discussions I have given.
CUATRO! My compañera and I have given four discussions to an investigator in
ESPAÑOL. His name is Octavio and he is from Lima, Peru and speaks NO English.
We have said some HILARIOUS things. One elder in my zone said that Joseph Smith
translated the Book of Mormon from golden plataños (bananas) instead of planchas (plates).
There have been so many funny slip ups. Octavio told me he is a carpenter and my compañera said
something about how she had gotten a wood working kit once and that she is no
good with wood. Well, it translated out to us telling him that wood is no good.
So, we totally insulted is occupation. Sorry Octavio :P We also told him once
how we killed ourselves with laughter but stopped after we said "We killed
ourselves" and couldn’t finish the sentence because we were laughing and
he was looking at us funny and laughing at us...not sure how that tied into our
lesson...I can’t remember. It has been so much fun though teaching Octavio.
It’s been overwhelming at times, because there are so many things I could tell him in
ENGLISH to answer his questions. I have been prompted to say SO MANY THINGS BUT
I CANT because I don’t have the SPANISH WORDS to SAY them. So, that has had its
frustrating moments but we are still reaching our goals. His is reading the BOM
and coming to church with us and praying ;) So it has been fabulous.
My district is wonderful! Great group of elders and hermanas. There are 8 Elders and 4 Hermanas
and we have had SO much fun together. We spend about 6 to 8 hours a day together in a classroom.
So, every once in awhile we have to have a couple crazy moments to let out some
steam and laugh. GREAT group of missionaries. I love them all.
My companera, Hermana is FABULOUS. She is 24 and from New Jersey. She is JUST like Elise.
Same personality and same quirks and so we fit together like two puzzle pieces.
She has had a few breakdowns...apparently she has some bi polar issues but the
Lord has blessed me so much this past week with a steady mind, steady emotions,
and I have been able to help her because of that. She is doing better and we
just love each other. All of us 4 hermanas are already really close and love
being together.
I have 5 more minutes before the computer shuts down. The MTC has been an
AMAZING experience so far. I have never felt so close to Heavenly Father. I have
never felt his love so strong before in my entire life. I feel so blessed to be
here and I know this is where I am supposed to be. I love being a missionary. I
love feeling the love of my Savior. On Sunday, I balled my eyes out in almost
every meeting not because I was feeling overwhelmed, but rather because I was so
DARN HAPPY.
What a fabulous feeling. Life is wonderful. This is going to be so stinkin' hard but I welcome it.
I welcome the challenges. We wake up around 6 every morning (ugh ;) bet Dad will be happy to hear that)
but I wake up to the sound of birds (thank goodness not a pressure washer, no offense
Dad) and it makes me feel at home away from home.
I love you all! You are in my prayers and I appreciate your prayers. I
wish I had another half an hour. There is so MUCH more I could write. Just know
that I love you and miss you. I am happy and I am doing VERY well.
Talk to you next week! Love, Hermana Bingham
P.S. Tellshay I said hi!!! I hope he feels better. That’s rotten luck. He is in my
prayers and I am so happy we areMISSIONARIES. THE CHURCH IS
TRUE.
June 6, 2012 - the final good-bys! Family with Jasmine are Aunt Brenda, Uncle Ron, cousins Ashley, Courtney, Jeremy and Paige, also brother Nevan in Orem to attend EFY. Quickly to offer any help possibly needed were all the Elders in sight!
The First GOODBYE
5/10/12
Alright. I HATE goodbyes. I loathe them actually. I am almost determined to never say goodbye again. Rather, let's replace it with 'see ya later' or 'see you soon, then'. Goodbye just seems so final and done.
My Mom and I have been talking about selling our last horse, Goose, for a couple months now. I sold my other horse, Robin (yeah, apparently we like to name our horses after birds), a couple years ago and that was a ROUGH sale. Robin was my first horse. I had had him since he was 6 months old and I was 10. We grew up together and with the help of my Mom, broke him out to ride, and Robin in turn taught me how to ride haha ;) I fell in the dirt and flew over fences many times, but he and I clicked. I got him and he got me...even though he pretended he didn't sometimes. Jerk ;P We had so much fun and I absolutely ADORED him and LOVED his personality. He was so darn cute with his little whinny and silly crow hops. I showed him 4-H for a couple years, first year at age 4, and then started showing Goose I think when he was around age 4 or 5 as well. We actually foaled Goose out. We bought his dam when she was pregnant with him. My 10 year old self was SO EXCITED to have a foal. I was already putting dibs on him ;) My Mom primarily broke him out, and then I got on him and started teaching him leads, leg pressure, neck reining, patterns, and what not. He and I did fairly well and won a belt buckle and a few other things and competed at the state fair. He has such a sweet, submissive, willing personality. We did parades, horseback riding lessons for kids around the community, jumping, gaming, and sprinted around the fields during hay baling time. Even got him to jump a few bales ;) It was the good life...filled with good times and awesome memories! My favorite time of year was towards the end of track season, because that was when summer was so close you could almost taste it! And that meant riding and training for some horse showin'. It was finally time to pull out the tack, grease it up, and polish up those bits and spurs, and fetch the boots. That was where it was at for me. That was me.
So, why in the world would we sell Goose? With the plan to go on a mission and just being away from home for 3 years, Goose wasn't getting the attention that he needed. He deserved a good home where he could be pampered and ridden everyday by some new little aspiring cowboy or cowgirl munchkins ;). I wanted some little girl to love him and ride him just as much as I did when I was growing up. So, the plan was to sell Goose at the end of May which would give me time to put 30 days on him and grease up those rusty hinges. After all, he hasn't really been worked and ridden the past three years since I have been away at BYU with the exception of me randomly pulling him out of the pasture when I come home on break. ;)
And lets be honest, I wanted time to spend with him before I had to say see you later. So granted, I was happy with the three weeks I was going to get with him. I knew it was going to be hard, but I thought I would be okay after preparing for it for a few weeks. However, after a week with him, we get a phone call from a woman who heard that we had a big nice gelding for sale...haha, yeah. So much for those three weeks. The woman's name who called was Darcy. She was looking for a nice show gelding for her two young kids that could also be a good riding horse for her husband. I told her that Goose definitely could be a match. They came down last weekend and I had him looking really good. He was all cleaned up and had received his gentleman's haircut. Maybe that is why he acted like such a gentleman. I saddled him up and rode him around for them. Then they got on him and fell in love with him...which I wasn't surprised about at all...I mean, how can you NOT fall in love with the giant teddy bear??! The kids were ecstatic about him. They asked if they could take him for a week and put him on trial before they made a final decision.
On Monday, I got this email from...Goose. How stinkin' cute is that?! I got it around 10 PM and I ran into my Mom's room while my parents were getting ready for bed and read it to them...I was smiling the whole time I was reading it. I mean, who can say they got an email from their horse?? I CAN!
Hi Mom!
Just wanted to check in with you and let you know all is fine. I had a nice trailer ride last night to Elma.....a bit long, but I made it. When we got here, I found a nice stall with hay and water.....room service at its finest. In the morning, I got put out on a nice little paddock, although I have to admit, the grass here isn’t nearly as green as your house! It was a beautiful foggy morning. I met a delightful little boy called Tucker....he has “the magic” whistle and I just couldn’t help myself from running to greet him, I think he and I will be fast friends. I have yet to meet the other horses here on the farm, but they seem pretty mellow, just like me! After the family returned from church, they loaded me and the other horse up and we went to a friend’s arena. It was a great place and I was very relaxed. I got quite a work out today while we were there. Vince [Darcy's husband] rode, Nichole [trainer] rode (you met her last night), that cute little Grace [Darcy's daughter] rode and so did Darcy. Wow, I have a lot of work to do around here teaching them to ride correctly, but they learned my “buttons” quickly and even though I had different riders, you know me, I put my head down and did my work to the best of my abilities! We got back to the farm and I went back to the paddock, but this time, I got to meet my paddock neighbor! We sniffed over the fence buy my tummy rumbled and I went right back to munching (my favorite past time). I am now quietly tucked back into my stall for the night so thought I would say goodnight and sleep tight. I will be heading to bed as soon as I finish my hay......I think they have another busy day planned for me tomorrow.
Talk to you soon,
Your Goose! :0)
Well, last night, not even a week later, they called and said they have made their decision and they want him...which I KNEW was going to happen unless he bucked someone off or did something that he simply would not do. So, its a done deal. I am horseless. Hopefully, in a few years, after I settle somewhere, that won't be the case anymore ;) I feel like I lost my identity....ha. But all is good. I have only cried a couple times ;) I am just so tickled he went to such a good home. So, goodbye Goose. It's been real. I'll never forget you, bud. You have a special place in my heart <3
Alright. I HATE goodbyes. I loathe them actually. I am almost determined to never say goodbye again. Rather, let's replace it with 'see ya later' or 'see you soon, then'. Goodbye just seems so final and done.
My Mom and I have been talking about selling our last horse, Goose, for a couple months now. I sold my other horse, Robin (yeah, apparently we like to name our horses after birds), a couple years ago and that was a ROUGH sale. Robin was my first horse. I had had him since he was 6 months old and I was 10. We grew up together and with the help of my Mom, broke him out to ride, and Robin in turn taught me how to ride haha ;) I fell in the dirt and flew over fences many times, but he and I clicked. I got him and he got me...even though he pretended he didn't sometimes. Jerk ;P We had so much fun and I absolutely ADORED him and LOVED his personality. He was so darn cute with his little whinny and silly crow hops. I showed him 4-H for a couple years, first year at age 4, and then started showing Goose I think when he was around age 4 or 5 as well. We actually foaled Goose out. We bought his dam when she was pregnant with him. My 10 year old self was SO EXCITED to have a foal. I was already putting dibs on him ;) My Mom primarily broke him out, and then I got on him and started teaching him leads, leg pressure, neck reining, patterns, and what not. He and I did fairly well and won a belt buckle and a few other things and competed at the state fair. He has such a sweet, submissive, willing personality. We did parades, horseback riding lessons for kids around the community, jumping, gaming, and sprinted around the fields during hay baling time. Even got him to jump a few bales ;) It was the good life...filled with good times and awesome memories! My favorite time of year was towards the end of track season, because that was when summer was so close you could almost taste it! And that meant riding and training for some horse showin'. It was finally time to pull out the tack, grease it up, and polish up those bits and spurs, and fetch the boots. That was where it was at for me. That was me.
So, why in the world would we sell Goose? With the plan to go on a mission and just being away from home for 3 years, Goose wasn't getting the attention that he needed. He deserved a good home where he could be pampered and ridden everyday by some new little aspiring cowboy or cowgirl munchkins ;). I wanted some little girl to love him and ride him just as much as I did when I was growing up. So, the plan was to sell Goose at the end of May which would give me time to put 30 days on him and grease up those rusty hinges. After all, he hasn't really been worked and ridden the past three years since I have been away at BYU with the exception of me randomly pulling him out of the pasture when I come home on break. ;)
And lets be honest, I wanted time to spend with him before I had to say see you later. So granted, I was happy with the three weeks I was going to get with him. I knew it was going to be hard, but I thought I would be okay after preparing for it for a few weeks. However, after a week with him, we get a phone call from a woman who heard that we had a big nice gelding for sale...haha, yeah. So much for those three weeks. The woman's name who called was Darcy. She was looking for a nice show gelding for her two young kids that could also be a good riding horse for her husband. I told her that Goose definitely could be a match. They came down last weekend and I had him looking really good. He was all cleaned up and had received his gentleman's haircut. Maybe that is why he acted like such a gentleman. I saddled him up and rode him around for them. Then they got on him and fell in love with him...which I wasn't surprised about at all...I mean, how can you NOT fall in love with the giant teddy bear??! The kids were ecstatic about him. They asked if they could take him for a week and put him on trial before they made a final decision.
On Monday, I got this email from...Goose. How stinkin' cute is that?! I got it around 10 PM and I ran into my Mom's room while my parents were getting ready for bed and read it to them...I was smiling the whole time I was reading it. I mean, who can say they got an email from their horse?? I CAN!
Hi Mom!
Just wanted to check in with you and let you know all is fine. I had a nice trailer ride last night to Elma.....a bit long, but I made it. When we got here, I found a nice stall with hay and water.....room service at its finest. In the morning, I got put out on a nice little paddock, although I have to admit, the grass here isn’t nearly as green as your house! It was a beautiful foggy morning. I met a delightful little boy called Tucker....he has “the magic” whistle and I just couldn’t help myself from running to greet him, I think he and I will be fast friends. I have yet to meet the other horses here on the farm, but they seem pretty mellow, just like me! After the family returned from church, they loaded me and the other horse up and we went to a friend’s arena. It was a great place and I was very relaxed. I got quite a work out today while we were there. Vince [Darcy's husband] rode, Nichole [trainer] rode (you met her last night), that cute little Grace [Darcy's daughter] rode and so did Darcy. Wow, I have a lot of work to do around here teaching them to ride correctly, but they learned my “buttons” quickly and even though I had different riders, you know me, I put my head down and did my work to the best of my abilities! We got back to the farm and I went back to the paddock, but this time, I got to meet my paddock neighbor! We sniffed over the fence buy my tummy rumbled and I went right back to munching (my favorite past time). I am now quietly tucked back into my stall for the night so thought I would say goodnight and sleep tight. I will be heading to bed as soon as I finish my hay......I think they have another busy day planned for me tomorrow.
Talk to you soon,
Your Goose! :0)
Well, last night, not even a week later, they called and said they have made their decision and they want him...which I KNEW was going to happen unless he bucked someone off or did something that he simply would not do. So, its a done deal. I am horseless. Hopefully, in a few years, after I settle somewhere, that won't be the case anymore ;) I feel like I lost my identity....ha. But all is good. I have only cried a couple times ;) I am just so tickled he went to such a good home. So, goodbye Goose. It's been real. I'll never forget you, bud. You have a special place in my heart <3
Last Month HOME
April 25, 2012
Alright, so my last semester at BYU before the mission ended last week and that already feels like it was weeks ago...I realized that my next finals week will be in TWO YEARS. Holy camoley. Hopefully by then, I really will be two years wiser and smarter so I can slay those tests ;)
The drive home was nice. Drove from beautiful sunny Utah to the usual cloudy, overcast, and rainy but gorgeously green Washington. It is so pretty here! I really need to work on my farmer's tan though so the sun better make an appearance sooner or later...;)
So, I won't lie. These past two months have been challenging. I tend to have a hard time allowing change to happen. I wish that things could just stay the same and keep going on without ending...because ending usually is associated with goodbyes and heartaches. However, I know this is unrealistic. There is nothing more consistent than change, right? Change is inevitable so why not embrace it and enjoy it! Life is a series of chapter books. When one chapter ends, you turn the page and go on to the next. Some transitions are easier than others. I see the chapters as smaller changes and turns in our lives. What is hard is when you finish a book in the series and need to move on to the next. Have you ever finished a book and felt a little crushed inside that you're actually finished with it?? That a part of you just died and went out when you read that last sentence and shut the book?? How can it really be over? Maybe that is a little extreme, but that is how I feel sometimes when I am done with a fabulous book! Part of me wishes I had gone a little slower and enjoyed it more. Another part of me just wants to sit there and reminisce about it...however, there is nothing like that excitement you feel when you hear there is another book! A continuation! And you learn that it's not over! That there is more to the story...more experiences and trials and happy moments to enjoy! Well...I feel like I have just finished a book in my series of life. I feel a little crushed inside that I have to let go and say goodbye to that part of my life. I am now stuck in that in between book stage where I just want to keep holding on to that old book that I just finished. I won't start that next book till I enter the MTC on June 6th and I have a feeling it is going to be the craziest book thus far ;) But you know what? What a fabulous thing it is to have a series of books that is endless! There is no ending to our series of life. Sure, we will have some hard chapters and challenging chapters but that chapter will soon end and a new one will begin! Time never stands still; it must steadily march on, and with the marching come the changes. So, my take home message. Enjoy today. Enjoy the now no matter how hard it may be. Enjoy the bluesy days because they don't last long. The ancient Roman philosopher Horace admonished, “Whatever hour God has blessed you with, take it with grateful hand, nor postpone your joys from year to year, so that in whatever place you have been, you may say that you have lived happily.”
Heavenly Father's plan is called the plan of happiness for a reason. He wants us to be happy :) Someday, when I am an old crinkled lady, I want someone to look at me and see smiley wrinkles on my face, not frowny ones and for them to think, "she must have lived a happy life".
There is no tomorrow to remember if we don’t do something today. Have faith and courage to move forward and know that Heavenly Father is looking out for you.
The church is true my friends!
Alright, so my last semester at BYU before the mission ended last week and that already feels like it was weeks ago...I realized that my next finals week will be in TWO YEARS. Holy camoley. Hopefully by then, I really will be two years wiser and smarter so I can slay those tests ;)
The drive home was nice. Drove from beautiful sunny Utah to the usual cloudy, overcast, and rainy but gorgeously green Washington. It is so pretty here! I really need to work on my farmer's tan though so the sun better make an appearance sooner or later...;)
So, I won't lie. These past two months have been challenging. I tend to have a hard time allowing change to happen. I wish that things could just stay the same and keep going on without ending...because ending usually is associated with goodbyes and heartaches. However, I know this is unrealistic. There is nothing more consistent than change, right? Change is inevitable so why not embrace it and enjoy it! Life is a series of chapter books. When one chapter ends, you turn the page and go on to the next. Some transitions are easier than others. I see the chapters as smaller changes and turns in our lives. What is hard is when you finish a book in the series and need to move on to the next. Have you ever finished a book and felt a little crushed inside that you're actually finished with it?? That a part of you just died and went out when you read that last sentence and shut the book?? How can it really be over? Maybe that is a little extreme, but that is how I feel sometimes when I am done with a fabulous book! Part of me wishes I had gone a little slower and enjoyed it more. Another part of me just wants to sit there and reminisce about it...however, there is nothing like that excitement you feel when you hear there is another book! A continuation! And you learn that it's not over! That there is more to the story...more experiences and trials and happy moments to enjoy! Well...I feel like I have just finished a book in my series of life. I feel a little crushed inside that I have to let go and say goodbye to that part of my life. I am now stuck in that in between book stage where I just want to keep holding on to that old book that I just finished. I won't start that next book till I enter the MTC on June 6th and I have a feeling it is going to be the craziest book thus far ;) But you know what? What a fabulous thing it is to have a series of books that is endless! There is no ending to our series of life. Sure, we will have some hard chapters and challenging chapters but that chapter will soon end and a new one will begin! Time never stands still; it must steadily march on, and with the marching come the changes. So, my take home message. Enjoy today. Enjoy the now no matter how hard it may be. Enjoy the bluesy days because they don't last long. The ancient Roman philosopher Horace admonished, “Whatever hour God has blessed you with, take it with grateful hand, nor postpone your joys from year to year, so that in whatever place you have been, you may say that you have lived happily.”
Heavenly Father's plan is called the plan of happiness for a reason. He wants us to be happy :) Someday, when I am an old crinkled lady, I want someone to look at me and see smiley wrinkles on my face, not frowny ones and for them to think, "she must have lived a happy life".
There is no tomorrow to remember if we don’t do something today. Have faith and courage to move forward and know that Heavenly Father is looking out for you.
The church is true my friends!
Roommate Photo-shoot 4/22/12
I love all these girls so much!! This photo shoot marked the last time we would be together for awhile so it was bittersweet but oh my goodness, it was a blast. We had such a fun year together and I will miss them more than a fat kid loves chocolate cake! ;)
MISSION CALL OPENING!
Okay, so that day was probably one of the most exciting days of my life coupled with bouts of hysteria and slight anxiety attacks...I had just gotten my wisdom teeth out four days before so I like to blame my sporadic behavior for that day on that (when in reality, me and my wisdom toothless mouth were just fine). I don't really know if there was any point in me going to class that day because I didn't listen. At all. All I could think about was 6 o'clock which was the ETA of my mission call.
Luckily for my sanity, I had a dear friend, Jessica Fisher, who was getting her mission call at exactly the same time as me so...instead of hyperventilating by myself most of the day, I would find Jessica and we would sit and hyperventilate together. It was quite nice and comforting to know I had someone to spaz out with. Really. Quite the blessing.
Anyway, a member of our Bishopric works at Church Headquarters and was given permission to hand deliver our calls to us that night rather than us waiting on the mail system for the next two days. How cool is that?! Elder Holland told him to tell us congratulations and good luck. My oh my, talk about awesome!
So, amid the chaotic spaz attacks and brownie/treat making marathon for all our anticipated guests, Brother Colemere knocks on our door at approximately 7pm. When we opened the door and saw him and his wife standing there with smiles on their faces, I think we about fainted. Brother Colemere just stood there with his hand behind his back. I think he was enjoying holding our sanity by a thread.
I don't think I can express the feelings that came over me when he brought his hand forward and revealed those two large white envelopes. I will admit though, tears came to my eyes and I could barely get a word out. Brother Colemere had us sit on the couch for fear of us falling over, and told us the story of him talking to Elder Nelson, Elder Christofferson, and Elder Holland about snagging our calls early. He then handed our calls over and we thanked him and gave him a hug. We love that man. Thank you BROTHER COLEMERE!
As soon as we had our calls in our hands, things went crazy. The rest of our guests arrived and we rushed to set up our skype accounts with family back home. And so, having said that, here is the CALL OPENING!
Luckily for my sanity, I had a dear friend, Jessica Fisher, who was getting her mission call at exactly the same time as me so...instead of hyperventilating by myself most of the day, I would find Jessica and we would sit and hyperventilate together. It was quite nice and comforting to know I had someone to spaz out with. Really. Quite the blessing.
Anyway, a member of our Bishopric works at Church Headquarters and was given permission to hand deliver our calls to us that night rather than us waiting on the mail system for the next two days. How cool is that?! Elder Holland told him to tell us congratulations and good luck. My oh my, talk about awesome!
So, amid the chaotic spaz attacks and brownie/treat making marathon for all our anticipated guests, Brother Colemere knocks on our door at approximately 7pm. When we opened the door and saw him and his wife standing there with smiles on their faces, I think we about fainted. Brother Colemere just stood there with his hand behind his back. I think he was enjoying holding our sanity by a thread.
I don't think I can express the feelings that came over me when he brought his hand forward and revealed those two large white envelopes. I will admit though, tears came to my eyes and I could barely get a word out. Brother Colemere had us sit on the couch for fear of us falling over, and told us the story of him talking to Elder Nelson, Elder Christofferson, and Elder Holland about snagging our calls early. He then handed our calls over and we thanked him and gave him a hug. We love that man. Thank you BROTHER COLEMERE!
As soon as we had our calls in our hands, things went crazy. The rest of our guests arrived and we rushed to set up our skype accounts with family back home. And so, having said that, here is the CALL OPENING!
So, I will admit that once I read that I was going to the Utah Salt Lake City South Mission, I was a tad bit disappointed...BUT, it was VERY short lived! As I reread my call and said those words again during the second opening, I received a quiet but firm confirmation of comfort and peace that the Lord needs me to serve among the people of Utah...and I have been SO VERY excited and ecstatic since! It has been a very happy time for me :) And the excitement just keeps on building with every passing day...I don't know what I would do if I had to wait 5 months from the time I opened my call to the day when I reported like Shay had to. I would probably go stir crazy. Jessica was called to serve in the Utah Salt Lake City Temple Square mission, english speaking. How awesome is that?! We have been side by side during this whole process and then we get called to practically neighboring missions! I was laughing SO HARD and then crying because I was so happy. Can you say, bi-polar? She reports two weeks after I do to the Missionary Training Center.
Haha, but I have been sharing the news of my mission call with EVERYONE. Even at the gym today, I shared the exciting news with some recruiters...it is so FUN. Who knew that talking to random strangers could be so fun?! People are actually really nice...FYI.
So...here starts the final 3 months of pre-mission life and deciding what I want to do with my remaining time has been quite a struggle, not going to lie. I am already decision impaired sometimes. It's a disorder I suffer with :P But rest assured, I have at least decided to take a chill pill and have fun. I am a strong believer of smiling. Try it. If you are feeling irritated, angry, sad, stressed, or whatever just pause...take a deep breath...think happy thoughts...and smile. The world always looks brighter behind a smile. And plus, in Matthew 14:27, the Savior said to "...be of good cheer." Someday, when I am an old crazy woman, I want to have smiley wrinkles, not frowny wrinkles. I want people to look at me and think, 'She must have lived a happy life'. And I know that if I serve Heavenly Father's children and put him and his gospel before everything else, I WILL be happy. The mission is just the beginning of a life full of love and service.
Haha, but I have been sharing the news of my mission call with EVERYONE. Even at the gym today, I shared the exciting news with some recruiters...it is so FUN. Who knew that talking to random strangers could be so fun?! People are actually really nice...FYI.
So...here starts the final 3 months of pre-mission life and deciding what I want to do with my remaining time has been quite a struggle, not going to lie. I am already decision impaired sometimes. It's a disorder I suffer with :P But rest assured, I have at least decided to take a chill pill and have fun. I am a strong believer of smiling. Try it. If you are feeling irritated, angry, sad, stressed, or whatever just pause...take a deep breath...think happy thoughts...and smile. The world always looks brighter behind a smile. And plus, in Matthew 14:27, the Savior said to "...be of good cheer." Someday, when I am an old crazy woman, I want to have smiley wrinkles, not frowny wrinkles. I want people to look at me and think, 'She must have lived a happy life'. And I know that if I serve Heavenly Father's children and put him and his gospel before everything else, I WILL be happy. The mission is just the beginning of a life full of love and service.
Utah Salt Lake City South Mission
5/2012-12/2013
Okay, so here are the future sister missionaries. It was such a wonderful blessing to have my dear wonderful crazy gorgeous soul sister Elise Nelson at our mission call opening. I hadn't seen her since last August since she went home to California but the timing worked out just right that she was able to make it over to be there with us. She reported to the MTC the next day, beginning her missionary adventure preparing to teach the people of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
So, the picture up top is a little misleading. We appear composed, collected, and put together. Well, I am here to tell you that this picture is the correct representation of what was really going on inside of us. Yep. It was fun. :)