Far Far Away in Catarman Zone‏--March 30, 2014

March 30, 2014

Hello everyone!

This week has been very eventful! I got transferred! To the other end of the mission! It took a whole day to travel here. It was cool though, because we stopped in one of my old areas and I got to see some members! 

Catarman speaks their own version of Waray Waray with lots of Tagalog.... So... No one understands me again. If Tacloban mission is anything, it's humbling. Haha  I understand what people say to me, but I can't really communicate back because all my brain wants to do is speak Cebuano. 

My new companion is Sister Campbell. She's great! I'm super excited to work with her! We are from the same batch! I'm happy to be serving in Catarman! The members we've already worked with are great! 

I don't have a ton of time left, but I just want to share a quick story: 

 

The other day, me and my companion went on splits with members so we could get to know our area faster. I went to this member's house and we shared a lesson. It was great. She opened up to us how she had lost one of her children last year, and that it had been really tough for her. I just expressed how much I loved her, and how much Heavenly Father loves her. Then I accidentally left my flashlight at her house. The next day, she returned it at church. Later, one of the elders came up to me and told me that this was the first time she had come to church since before the typhoon. 

It was amazing to me just what showing someone a little love can do. I know this story isn't super remarkable or anything, but to me it is. I've been thinking so much about ways I can develop more charity and love for everyone around me, and I ran into a super great scripture!

D&C 112:11- I know thy heart, and have heard thy prayers concerning thy brethren. Be not partial towards them in love above many others, but let thy love be for them as for thyself; and let thy love abound unto all men, and unto all who love my name.

I absolutely love this. This scripture has a hidden commandment in it. Did you see it? We are to not be partial towards "them" in love. I think that "them" are the people we are having the hardest time loving right now. Whether it be people with different morals than us, people who have for some reason or another chosen to distance themselves from the church, people who annoy us, people who we feel awkward around, and even those people we would rather avoid. We're commanded to love all of them. In fact, we are to have "abounding love" for these people. All anyone really needs is love.

I'm super excited for General Conference! It's fun to teach investigators about prophets and then be able to invite them to come watch the prophet speak! Cool! 

As always, I'm so thankful for all of you, and all of your prayers.... If you want, you can pray that I can pick up Tagalog super quick! Haha! 

Much love,

 

Sister Bingham

Rocks and Boulders -- March 23, 2014

March 23, 2014

Hello Everyone,

 

This week had a weird hidden theme..... Rocks! I'll explain...

It all started when we went on exchanges with the Sogod Sisters. We got there in the late afternoon, and we went straight to a CSP (community service project) with all the missionaries in that area. They were helping a family build a super large wall...made of boulders. During the last typhoon, their house flooded because they live next to a river, so we were helping them build a wall by walking down to the river, loading up a makeshift rice sack/bamboo pole basket, and then making a wall out of it. The elders moved the huge rocks, and we brought the rocks to fill it in. It was a lot of work, but it was amazing to me how high the wall got in such little time--with all of us doing our part.

The next morning, we had a group companionship study, and one sister shared a story that she found in a Liahona. I want to share it because it changed my view on missionary work. (note. not an exact translation to English... more of just a general idea.. Oh! This is a fictional story...)

There once was a man who woke up one morning to find a giant boulder outside of his house. He was thinking about how weird that was when suddenly he had a vision. And angel appeared to him and told him that his task was to push this boulder with his might. So, wanting to be obedient (who wouldn't?!) day by day he went out in the morning and pushed with his might. And day by day, to his dismay, the boulder never moved. Not even a little bit. One day, he started getting discouraged. He thought, "I have been pushing this thing for how many days now?! This is ridiculous. I'm not making a difference. This is useless. I should just hire someone to move the rock for me!" 

As he took a rest to ponder the situation, he fell asleep and had a dream. Jesus Christ appeared to the man and said, "My son, I didn't command you to move the boulder. I commanded you to push it with your might. And now look at yourself. Your muscles are a lot better, you're really tan, and your strength and endurance has increased. You are more patient now than you were before you started the task. Remember, it's your job to do your best, and it's MY job to move the boulder."

This really hit me, especially because lately, I have been feeling like I don't do a lot of good. I have been feeling like my area isn't really progressing, and that So much time is wasted in traveling, and I have been feeling like I'm not super diligent lately. I was thinking to myself, "These people will never get baptized, because we are never in our area!" 

But, from this story, I learned that we, as people, do not perform miracles. Heavenly Father does. We as people are nothing. We alone don't really do that much good. But the real miracle of a mission, and in life in general, is that It's not up to us to do miraculous things. We do everything we can. We push the boulder with our might. We let God change us through keeping his commandments and sharing his gospel with the people that we know, and then HE provides the miracles. 

Being an STL is so different than what I'm used to, But I've also learned from Nephi's example this week in my personal study. It is in Chapter 16 where Nephi breaks his bow, and it's really hard for the clan to get food. Even though everyone is complaining about how hard it is, and how hungry they are, Nephi never does! He makes a new bow, and then he asks Heavenly Father where he needs to go to get food, and then he goes. So for us, when we have problems, we need to Fix what we can, ask the Lord for help, and then Follow his instructions. 

I realized that I can do simple things while I'm on exchanges to help my investigators progress even though we aren't in Maasin, like calling them, or texting them, or having members visit them. The ridiculous thing is that these things are so simple! So simple that I didn't realize that I needed to do them. haha It's funny how simple the solutions we stumble upon are when we take a second to ask Heavenly Father for help.

We have some awesome investigators, the Visto Family, who committed to a baptismal date yesterday! And later we are going to have a huge FHE with them with people in the ward so they will want to come to church. It's literally a miracle. All because we decided to work a little bit harder. :) 

I had some great exchanges this week! I got to be companions with Sister Sorronda, and Sister Schaap (for the third time on my mission! yay!) Me and Sister Schaap had a miracle day. We just went finding all day long, and found some super prepared people! We had 17 new investigators, all families, and we talked to 32 people. It was really great! It's cool to see how well we work together. I think that is a life lesson in itself. That unity really does just take patience and time. 

We got to attend the baptism of a boy that I unofficially adopted. His name is Anthony. He is 14, and he is the provider of his family. Sometimes he comes to my area because his uncle lives here. But, he reads the Book of Mormon every single day, and even though his life is hard, he is one of the happiest people I've ever met. I'm so happy that he has the gospel in his life now! 

This week is transfer week! So weird! I feel like March never even happened. Time is flying way to fast.

I'm so thankful for all the support and love and prayers that come my way from America. I know I literally say that every week, but I really do mean it!

I know that this church is true, and when we do our best, sometimes we don't see the results. But, most of the time, we need to be obedient so Heavenly Father can change us into what He needs us to be. 

Weekly Challenge: pick one or two commandments that you're struggling with. Whether it be family scripture study, sharing the gospel, paying tithing, or having more charity, and make a specific goal to do better this week. Then pretend you're Nephi and just do it! :)

Love,

 

Sister Bingham

 

Exchanges!

 

Baptism!

 

Families!

 

My camera does a split frame thing... so... we put people's faces together hahaha

This is Me and Sister S.

 

 

Unconditional Love--March 16, 2014

March 16, 2014

Dear Everyone,

This week has been really great! We worked a few days in our area, and we found the coolest family ever!

It is the Visto family. The father was a pioneer in the branch here, but has been inactive for quite a few years. He has 6 children. They are all mostly in their early 20s. They're such an awesome family! We found them on accident. We got a referral from a lady in our ward that lives in the same area for a different part member family. When we went down there to look for them, Brother Visto approached us and we taught their family there. It wasn't until the closing prayer that we realized it wasn't the family we thought it was. It was funny! But they are super great! They didn't come to church yesterday, be we are confident they will come this week. We have the branch involved and some people set up to make some visits to them while we are away this week. We are visiting them again later today. In our last lesson, they committed to baptism! Yay!

Another awesome investigator we have right now is brother Jenson. He committed to baptism last night! That is Sister Cindy's (who has been inactive for a long time's) husband. We had the best lesson about Joseph Smith last night than I've ever had on my mission! He had so many questions and we had the best discussion about why authority is important and how our answers really should come straight from God, and not just other people's opinions.

We went on some great exchanges in Hinungan this week. I met this cute old lady. Her name is Sister Itom. The only reason she's inactive now is because she can't walk anymore. I went in thinking that we were going to teach her a lesson, but she's definitely the one that taught us a lesson. In her prayer, she thanked Heavenly Father for sending me to her. My heart was so touched. And as we finished the lesson, she offered us a snack. She fed us Milo (it's like hot chocolate) and some bread. After we got done eating. I put her food back in her cupboard. She yelled at me not to do it, but I did anyway. As I opened her cupboard, I realized that all the food she had in her house was in my arms. I was almost so overwhelmed with this Woman's unconditional love for me, someone she didn't know, that I almost started crying on the spot. This woman showed me how I need to show my love for other people. I love this woman, and I hope I will get to see her again. 

On Saturday, a couple got married in our branch, and I got asked to be the speaker. I thought it was weird that they would ask me...because I'm not married. hahaha I ended up talking about things that I learned from my companions. It was probably the most awkward talk I have given in my life. It was funny because I tried really hard to do it all in Basaya, even though I didn't know a lot of the terminology for marriage things. Then, the speaker after me, a Filipino, just did his in English.... haha because they speak English at special occasions. Whoops! 

We had Zone Training Meeting this week, and we gave training about diligence and the consequences if we aren't diligent. It was really intense. I found a really great quote from President Monson though, "If you've found that you have been complacent about the work, there is no better time to start than today to change." 

Sorry, this e-mail isn't super spiritual today. I'm in the middle of a ton of little Filipino boys playing video games and yelling profanities... It's a little hard to focus on the spirit... 

I'm just really grateful for the atonement. I'm really grateful for the opportunities that we have everyday to improve, repent, and try harder the next day.

Have a great week! I'm so grateful for all of your support!!

Love,

 

Sister Bingham

Weekly Challenge: Don't be stingy with your love this week.

So Beautiful--I keep saying that!

 

Crazy shirts they found!

 

More FHE games!

 



 

 The Wedding she spoke at.

 

 

 

The B.O.M. is the Bomb--March 9, 2014

March 9, 2014

Maayong odto tanan!

This week was exciting! We are moved into our apartment, we didn't go on exchanges so we worked the whole week in our area, we have some baptismal dates, and life is beautiful!

We have a baptism coming up the first week of May, her name is Christine! She is the daughter of a member. She has 3 kids. One of her kids, Loriann has hydrocephalis and her head is humongous. Like seriously, her head weighs 20 pounds and she's 5. It's sad, but she said that she wants to get baptized so that her family can be together forever. She just had a baby, too. She said, "I'm so happy you're teaching my relatives! I love how true this gospel is!" (We are also teaching some of their cousins that live in a different neighborhood.) She's super cute! We're trying to start teaching her husband as well!

There was an inactive member, Cindy, who started coming back to church! She got baptized before she got married, and was super active. Then she married a non-member and he didn't let her come to church, so she has been inactive for about 8 years. Recently, she was in the hospital with a thyroid problem and I guess it was serious because she said she thought she was going to die. So, her husband has let her come back to church. It was sooooo great! She shared her testimony in sacrament meeting about how even though she couldn't come to church, she still read the Book of Mormon, and that kept her testimony strong.

We visited her at her house this week, and her husband was there and started asking us some questions, so now he's one of our 16 new investigators of the week! Woo! He seems really sensitive to the spirit, and the reason he didn't want her to go to church was that so they could be unified... So... Now they will really be unified as he starts learning about the gospel.

In Relief Society, we had a lesson about the Book of Mormon. It was spiritual! And Awesome for our investigators that were there. But, basically all the members just shared their testimonies of the Book of Mormon. It was cool.

A couple days ago, we had a lesson with a recent convert, Rubelyn, and she is having a hard time with the Book of Mormon. She really loves the bible, but doesn't really have a strong testimony that the Book of Mormon is real. She told us that she's going to read it cover to cover so that she can stand up in sacrament and say that it's true, too. I'm excited for her! That lesson was sooooooo spiritual! I'm so happy that we have the Book of Mormon. So many people here that we talk to tell us they don't need the Book of Mormon because they have the bible already. But, I really have a testimony that EVERYONE needs the Book of Mormon.

A missionary in this mission told me that she saw a sign outside a church not of our faith that said, "Don't read the Book of Mormon! That's how they get you!" So true! Hahahahahaha

We dropped by a member's house last night, who is the only active lady in her family. She wouldn't let us in her house, but as we were talking outside of her house, she shared with us that before church that morning she had some thoughts like,"I should just go back to Catholics, at least we would be together there.... It's too hard to go to church by myself today. I should just stay home"

And as we were talking, she confessed to us that even though she went on a mission, she has never read the whole Book of Mormon cover to cover before! She said that when people talk about Ammon or Helaman or Moroni in church, she doesn't really know what they are talking about. And she said that she didn't want to share her testimony in Relief Society today because she was embarrassed about not having read it before, even though she has been a member for more than 20 years now. She said, "But, if I was going to say that if every member read the whole Book of Mormon, no one would fall away from the church. And then I decided to take my own advice and start reading it again."

This week has been so focused on the Book of Mormon. It's really important. I love that we all have the opportunity to further our knowledge about the Book of Mormon every day! Like it says in Doctrine and Covenants, "it is impossible for a man to be saved in ignorance."

Weekly Challenge:

STUDY the Book of Mormon for at least a half hour every day this week! :)

Love you all! Thanks for all the support! Have a great week!

Love,

Sister Bingham

 

 

Zone Activity

 

Go Sister Woodruff!

 

Shirt is from Aaron--FYI!  (Yes, we have confirmed

that he is easily entertained!)  Hahaha

 

FHE with members--So they were playing games and if you

lost, you got a black mark on your face!  Fun times!

 

More Scenery Pictures--Maasin!

 

Greetings from Biliran‏--March 3, 2014

March 3, 2014

Dear Everyone,

This week was really busy! And really cool. We went on some exchanges with the sisters assigned in Biliran. Biliran is a small island on the top west side of Leyte... and we are on the southern tip of Leyte... so... that meant that there was a lot of traveling involved. It was about an 8 hour trip one way. And most of you reading this aren't familiar with the Philippines roadways, so the best way I can describe it is like being on an Indiana Jones ride for 8 hours.

We went through Ormoc on the way down. It is still really destroyed, but a lot better than it was a couple months ago! We met a guy at the terminal selling pirated DVDs. He came up to us and just started asking us questions about the, "Mormon Bible." After our conversation, he really wanted to go to our church that Sunday and read a Book of Mormon for himself. There aren't missionaries in Ormoc yet, but I can't wait until there are so we can refer him to them!

Biliran Island is probably one of the most beautiful places I've been in my life. Even tough it's like destroyed, it's still sooooooooooooo pretty! It's crazy! I bet that's how God feels about us and how he sees us. Even though we aren't perfect, he still loves us, and He sees the positives in us always. Even if we can't see them. 

My first exchanges was with a sweet sister named Sister Mier. She is Filipina, and 28 years old. She has only been a member for just over 3 years now. Her conversion story is sooooooo cool! So, I want to share it with you! 

She was working in Hong Kong one year, and another Filipina girl that she worked with and didn't know really well but who always smiled and waved at her invited her to go to church one Sunday. Not knowing anything about the church, she decided to go. At church, there was a sub, so they showed the Joseph Smith movie. She said that when she watched that movie, she knew that Joseph Smith really did See Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ. After that, all she could think about was the church, she took the lessons, and got baptized about 2 months later. Then her branch president called her into his office after 6 months and asked her to go on a mission. He funded most of it, and now here she is! 

I think that's such a cool story because of how simple it is. An acquaintance invited her to church. And then she watched the Joseph Smith movie. We were talking about how she is eternally grateful for her friend who did simple missionary work, because of the blessings she is enjoying now, and the experiences she is having. She said that she can't imagine how sad she would still be and how unfulfilling her life would still be if her friend didn't just invite her to church. I think that it's easy for me to forget how simple missionary work is. It's really easy to do missionary work when you're a full time missionary. They give you a name tag that is the perfect excuse to talk to strangers. But, it's super cool that the Lord doesn't ask a ton from us. He only asks us to love the lost people he puts into our lives, so that we can do simple things like invite them to church, and tell them we love them, or show them the Joseph Smith movie, or tell them that we know God loves them and has a plan for them and ask if they would want to meet the missionaries and listen to what they have to say. Simple things bring to pass so many great things!!

I met a cute lady when I was working with Sister Mier! She lives right on the beach. Before, there were a ton of trees in front of their house.  A lot of trees fell on their house, and it's still not fixed yet, so their floor has a lot of holes (their house is on stilts), and half of their roof is still gone because they can't afford to fix it yet. But, as we were sitting on her porch, sharing a thought, and looking at the amazingly beautiful ocean where she lives, she said," Before the bagio, I had all these trees in front of my house, and I couldn't really see the ocean. But now, I have this super beautiful view of something I never really noticed before."

I was thinking about how that applies to our lives sometimes. Sometimes, we think we are going through this horrible tragedy, but really, our trials help us see a better view of our lives and our purposes here. 

We get to work in our area all week this week! So that should be fun! I'm super excited! And there were also elders added into our area, so it got split again. That takes off a lot of stress, not being responsible for a whole city's salvation... just half now.. hahaha 

I love you all and I'm so happy to have all of your support! Thanks for your prayers. And thank you for taking time out of your busy lives to e-mail me and send me letters! You're the best!

Weekly challenge: Invite someone to church this week! :) 

Love,

 

Sister Bingham

Hastening the Work!--February 23, 2014

February 23, 2014

Maayong buntag tanan!

This week has been super exciting because my brother got his mission call!! I'm so proud of him!!! Charleston, West Virginia, is going to be a super lucky place!!

This week in the Philippines was pretty cool! We only went on exchanges for 1 day, so we got to work a lot in our area. We went on exchanges with the Matalom sisters. It was super cool! Matalom is a group. Their attendance is usually 24 people. They are working on getting a meetinghouse. I really loved my time there. We met a little boy filling up buckets of water at a well, so we helped him carry the water home. Then, we met his mom. At first, his mom really didn't want to listen to us. She basically pretended like we weren't there, but after a few minutes, we convinced her to let us come back the next morning. She didn't let me hug her before we left.

When we went back the next morning, we shared about how Heavenly Father loves her, and how to pray, and who to pray to, and a little bit about prophets, and we told her that her family could have an opportunity to be together forever. She started crying, a lot. We didn't even share about Joseph Smith yet, but she was so happy about just learning how to pray. She told us that she felt like our message was true, and that we were really sent from God. At the end of the lesson, she hugged me first! That like never happens! Hahaha But, I was soooo happy that I got a chance to teach this sweet sister. 

We were doing evaluations after the exchanges, and the sister I was with told me that what I shared with her during exchanges was exactly what she needed, and it was like I could read her mind. I can't express enough how much I love the times when I follow the spirit and someone tells me that that's what they needed. I love being an STL! It's been a little weird to adjust too, because we don't like work in our area, but I'm so happy that I have this chance to serve in a different capacity than I thought I would.

We met such a cool investigator!! His name is Loloy. He was walking his dog as we were walking to church, and he told us that he was really interested in our message. We finished teaching him the first lesson last night, and he said that he would read the entire Book of Mormon! And that what we taught him makes complete sense. It was such a cool lesson! I feel like he will be baptized. He will help the branch here a lot!

The coolest thing about the week, though, was at our missionary member correlation meeting. It was sooooo great! We told the members that we were only going to be in our area on Sunday this week, and we needed them to visit the people we are trying to get to church (investigators and inactive members) And they all signed up to visit one of the people on our list. They gave us a specific day they would go so we could remind them and follow up with them. And in our relief society meeting the sisters asked us who needed help. We told them about a few people, and they talked about how they were going to help these sisters get back to church! I'm so happy! The members are all starting to see how important they are in this work. Especially now since we don't really work in Maasin that much. It's super cool! Everyone is starting to get really excited about missionary work! 

I'm so happy for missionary work, and I'm so grateful that we all have the opportunity to help our brethren. I gave a spiritual thought in relief society. I was thinking about reasons why members might be hesitant to share the gospel. But, I realized that missionary work isn't hard. It's just giving people what they need, Lots of love. These people just need our attention, some of our time, and a little of our love to find the gospel and stay in the gospel. 

Weekly Challenge: Think of someone who didn't come to church last week, and send them a text or give them a call and tell them that you love them and missed them at church.

Thanks for all the support and prayers!! Natural disaster free for 2 weeks now! Woo!

Gugma,

 

Sister Bingham

The Southern Tip of Southern Leyte--February 17, 2014‏

February 17, 2014

Maayong Hapon Tanan!

This week has been really great! Of course not as exciting as a flash flood or anything... but it was probably one of the best Valentine's Day I've ever had.

The mission home moved back to Tacloban, and our new apartment isn't done getting fixed yet, so... we now live in the Maasin mission home! We have an oven, aircon, hot water and a washing machine! It's like a Christmas miracle! We will only be here until our apartment gets done, which should only be a few more days, but it's super great! President and Sister Andaya left all the food in the fridge and baking supplies there for us to use. So sweet! Literally, I made chocolate chip cookies last night. First time in a year! It was sooooo good! I like am afraid to touch anything because it is so nice.

We did a CSP this week! Cleaning out the flooded apartment. It was fun! Took like 4 hours, but it's finally clean. The Elders in my district are super nice for being willing to help us! We did the service project for the owners of the apartment so they wouldn't have to clean it out. Hopefully we can start teaching them this week! I love them so much!

As the Tacloban mission is re-opening, more and more sisters are coming, which means more and more exchanges! yay! We now go on exchanges with 11 or 12 companionships. So, we are super busy!

On Valentine's Day, we were on exchanges with the Hilangos sisters. I was with Sister Delfin, from Guam. They opened an area, and their area is pretty bukid with no members there. So, we went finding! yay! Haha It was super cool! We went to a neighborhood that is literally in the middle of nowhere, in between some rice fields. I just want to share something cute that happened. We were on our way back to the city, and we walked by a school with a ton of flowers in the front. Sister Delfin picked one and was like, "Hey! I just remembered! It's Valentines Day! Happy Valentines Day!" And then she gave it to me. Then she picked one for herself. We were talking and laughing about how weird holidays are on the mission because they just feel like normal days. As we were discussing this, I saw a cute little old nanay sitting on her porch. I felt prompted to give her my flower, so I said, "Nanay! Happy Valentines Day!"

As we walked towards her, I realized that she was blind. We started talking to her, and then we started sharing a message with her. We just shared with her how much Heavenly Father loves her. I put the flower in her hand before we started sharing. She said, "Oh! a flower! " She asked me what color it was, and what it looked like and stuff. It was a really really pretty bright pink, and it looked really cool with the beautiful sunset and rice fields behind the lady's house.

As we were sharing with her, we found out that she has cataracts, and that she lost her sight just a few years ago. When I started talking about how the Lord knows her situation, and how much he loves her, I felt this intense love for this sweet little lady. It really showed me how much our Father in Heaven really does love us.

After the closing prayer, we got down the street a little ways, and met her son. He told us that she had been widowed for over 25 years. I was really happy that I followed the spirit and got to make her Valentine's Day a little bit better.

Today, we, as a zone, went to the beach! The southern most tip of southern Leyte. It was sooooooo beautiful! I have never seen that clean of ocean water in my life, and the water was sooooo clear and blue. I was amazed at God's creations. I was so blown away by how perfect and beautiful this little corner of a random island in the Philippines is. Me and some of the sisters wandered down the shore a little ways away from the rest of the group to find cool shells. We met some fishermen on the way! The way they catch fish is they go out deep, and they drop in stalks of bamboo that sink to the bottom. When the fish swim inside the small openings at the top, they go into the different like chambers of the bamboo and, they can't figure out how to swim out, so they get caught. Kind of like the monkey-with-the-fist-in-the-cage thing. It's really interesting.

We started talking to him about the gospel, and he was just talking about how cool members of the church are. He said that we seemed like we were really close to God, and not confused about life, like he was. We told him about how his cute little family could be together forever, and he told us the missionaries could come to his house anytime they wanted to.

The other day at church, as the last hour was getting out, two young women walked into the church and started asking us questions. Me and my companion gave them a church tour and explained about Joseph Smith, baptism, sacrament, and the atonement. They asked ridiculously awesome questions, and they really really really wanted Book of Mormons. When we were talking about baptism, one girl was like, "So, after my baptism, how many times can I get baptized for my family that has died?" She basically asked us when she could get baptized after our church tour. It was sooooo amazing!

None of these people actually live in our area, but it's super cool that I can travel all over the place and meet these people that are prepared for the gospel. Even if I can't teach them, and probably will never see them again, it's cool that the Lord gave them a way to get the missionaries to their houses. I always talk to as many people as I can on buses, mostly because I get bored, but more importantly because it's not a coincidence that those people are stuck sitting next to a missionary for 1- 6 hours with no where to run. hahaha Me and my companion have started not sitting together so that we can talk to more people.

Well, thanks so much for all of your prayers and all of your encouraging e-mails! They help me so much! It's so nice to know that so many people are praying for me, and so many people are rooting for my success! I love being a missionary! And I love all the things I'm learning from being an STL, especially from all the sisters. I become a better missionary after every exchange I go on.

Thanks for your love!

Love,

 

Sister Bingham

The cute girls with the church tour.

 

Happy Valentine's Day!

 

 Zone Activity--Southern Tip of Southern Leyte--So Beautiful!

 

 Sister Woodfuff & Sister Bingham

 

 With Sister Sousa!

 

Sister Schaap & Sister Bingham!

 

Sister Sousa & Sister Bingham!

 

Caves!

 

 

The Maasin Zone!

 

 Simply Beautiful!

 

The Fishermen!

 

 

 

Tacloban after Typoon Haiyan/Yolanda -- February 9, 2014

Isn't our church amazing?!?  I'm grateful that we have the resources and inspiration to be able to help the Filipinos rebuild their homes and at the same time, give them skills that will help them for the rest of their lives and better their income.  It is a testimony builder for me, that is for sure!  Bonus--Hillary is in this clip.  Can you find her?--she is at 2:08



 

The Tacloban Mission Home

 

 Random Pictures of Tacloban!

 

Hillary:  "Actually Tacloban is a lot better than I would expect it to be. And the tents are like better houses for most people than what they were living in before the typhoon."