October 13, 2013
Maayong gabii!
Well, I got transferred to Maasin City! It's in Leyte, 9 hours south of my old area and it's on the other side of my mission. It's the second to farthest south area in my mission. My companion is Sister Anderson, I'm follow up training her, and she is super nice! I love her! I am also trying to learn Cebuano. That's a fun adventure. I kind of feel new again because I don't know what anyone is saying to me anymore. I forgot how um fun that is...
Maasin means salty city! So I'm like in the salt lake of the Philippines! haha It's beautiful! It's on an ocean, and we live up a mountain. Our area is really just city, but we live 5 minutes away from the ocean. This is probably my most beautiful area by far!
On the way here I lost my wallet, but it got miraculously found with all the money and cards still in it. That was probably one of the greatest miracles! Sister Stoehr also got transferred! They temporary closed my last area because there aren't enough missionaries in my mission anymore. They had to open a lot of areas the last few transfers but they had to close like 5 of them this last transfer. It's good that there are still sisters in Calbayog though.
Miracle #2: Half of our investigators/ most of the people we street contact speak Waray Waray! yay! it's really great!! Our lessons with them are good because I know what's going on! I need to Learn Cebuano really fast because my companion is only on her third transfer in the field so she doesn't really know the language either. Prayers are welcome!
My favorite part of Conference was the talk by Elder Vinson in the last session. He told a story about a little boy who was building a race car track and couldn't move a large rock. He pushed with all his might, and it wouldn't budge. Then his dad came out and said, "You need to use all your might."
The little boy said, "I did. I can't get it to move."
"No you didn't," said the father, "I haven't helped you yet."
They then both moved the rock with ease.
I think I like this little story so much because Sometimes I think I can just do everything myself. I think I can get 50 bazillion baptisms and find oober prepared people and work super super hard every single day and work all these miracles all by myself. But in reality, I'm just a 20 year old girl from America who can't speak Cebuano. Our real strength, especially mine, comes from God. I think this transfer will be really good for me because it's going to really help me rely more on my Father in Heaven, and less on myself.
Conference was soooooooooooo good! It was so inspiring and so spiritual. I'm so happy to have the blessing of a living day prophet that talks with God and gives us direction in our lives. It really is one of the greatest blessings we have. God loves us SO much that he want us to have His guidance and hear His words.
So, I was thinking, I help a lot of people come closer to Christ in the Philippines, but I really want to help all of you, who are my loved ones, come closer to Christ as well. I want to start doing some "weekly challenges" for all of you. Of course, I can't force anyone to do them, but I promise that if you do these challenges, you will have the spirit more abundantly in your life, and you will feel the Love of God for you.
Ready? Here it is. WEEKLY CHALLENGE #`1: Someone in Conference said, "Conference is a lot more valuable after conference is over." So, my challenge to all of you is to watch, read, or listen to one conference talk a week, and apply at least 1 thing you learned to your everyday life. Simple? yes. Ready.... GO! hahah
I love all of you so much! Thank you so much for all of your prayers and support. I hope this e-mail finds all of you happy and well
Love forever,
Sister Bingham
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