People of America,
Hello! I'm so happy to be e-mailing you this fine sunny day in Filly. Actually, there is a slight tropical sea breeze which makes the palm trees look absolutely beautiful as they sway. And It has been sort of rainy this week, which is really nice because it gives us a break from the extreme heat which is the norm. We just got a sweeeeet new apartment right off the beach, so When I'm brushing my teeth or writing in my journal, I can stare off into the Ocean and think about life, which I love! ........ hahahahahahaha sorry. I'm probably only escaping the extreme polar wasteland once in my life... so... have to take advantage of it, right?? Don't worry, summer always comes way later than you wish it would... but it always comes...hang in there!
This week has been the coolest/weirdest week in my mission! Maybe not... But it was cool! We had like no investigators in our new boundary area so we have done a lot of tracting this week! One day, it was raining like crazy and we were just walking around. We pretended like we didn't have umbrellas so people would let us into their house! Ok, only my companion pretended... I actually didn't have one. This tactic was SUPER effective! We met this lady who lived in Ogden for 16 years! Crazy, right?! Her name is Hazel, and she used to live in Riverdale. She was like, "Yeah, I liked Ogden... but... too many Mormons there. I've never actually talked to the missionaries, so you should come back!" It was amazing! And we found this family who is SUPER ready for the Gospel. They were taught by missionaries like ten years ago, but the missionaries only went to their house like 2 times. But they are a super cute family and I can tell that cool things are going to happen there!
A bummer is that Sister Intanes moved two hours away because she got a new job in a restaurant. The good thing is that she has Sundays off so she can go to church in her new ward. Brother Intanes is at home, taking care of the kids. He also came with us to some lessons yesterday. He is sooooo cool! He is such a cool example of how the gospel can change people. During a lesson he shared that before the missionaries came he was doing marijuana and drinking and smoking and all sorts of other stuff. He bore testimony of how Christ changed him. It was cool! So cool!
I also witnessed the saddest thing of my entire mission this week. There is a man in our area who used to be a district president (stake president). He is Filipino (obviously) and he took out his endowments in the Jordan River Temple. His family was sealed in the Salt Lake Temple, and he is a high priest. Now, he's a pastor for the Calvary church. His congregation has 15 members. He asked that his name be removed from the records. He said that he wrote a letter to the first presidency 5 years ago resigning from, "the church of latter day saints..." but it was never acted upon.
All of his sons are returned missionaries. The youngest one, returned early because he had a mental breakdown on his mission. This was about 6 years ago. Now, his son has manic bipolar disorder and lives at home.
We went to his house with the senior couple in our area, the Halls. Elder Hall is a counselor in the district presidency and needed to talk to him about making sure he understood what it means to get his name removed from the records. I wanted to know where he lived so we could visit him later on, so they came with us. We shared a scripture with him. He told us that he doesn't believe the Book of Mormon is true anymore. He still interestingly has his copy though.
All we could really do was bear our testimonies. I personally felt like I have never spoken more powerfully in my life. I testified that the church was true, that Christ lives and loves us, that he has a plan for us that brings true happiness, and that I loved him because he is my brother. When I told this poor man that I loved him, I meant it. I felt soooo much brotherly love for this man I had never before met. My hear ached for him because of the weight his actions will have on his eternal destination. My spirit hurt when he said that the Book of Mormon wasn't true. I felt the hate he had and expressed for us. After I told him I loved him, He told me I was a liar, and that all Mormons were liars. He said when his son had his mental breakdown, no one visited him. No one cared.
He went inside after our lesson to get something and while he was inside, his son came up to us and started saying things like, "I still believe in the Book of Mormon, I want to go to church, my dad won't let me, I need to get out of here..." Stuff like that.
I cried a little when we were headed back to our apartment. I don't think the plan of salvation has ever been so real to me before. I'm so sad that this man, because of some offence, has thrown away his salvation.
I'm not judging this man. I'm not judging these members. I've no right to really judge the situation because I don't know all the facts and I wasn't there.... and most importantly, I'm not Christ. I'm just the missionary. But I learned so much from this experience! And I'm really grateful for this experience. I learned that Satan really will use anything that he has against us. He really does use our weaknesses to destroy our spirituality. And about an hour or so before this happened, my companion said something to me that "offended" me a little bit. My feelings got a little hurt and I started thinking about it too much and became a little annoyed. After we left this man's house, I had a thought like, hmmm, I bet this is how all this started for this man, too.
All of our actions have eternal consequences. I repented that night for the anger I had against my cute companion. I know that the atonement is real, and I know that there are few situations in life that we can actually control. One of them is our reactions. Another one of them is our capacity to love our neighbors. I learned that I need to be quicker to forgive, after all, this world is filled with imperfect people who are stumbling along, trying to get to the celestial kingdom, just like the rest of us. The sad thing is that some people don't even know where they are going, or that they even have a really cool place to go!
One of my resolutions is to Love everyone, more than I do now. If I really loved these people, I would feel this same sadness over everyone that rejects the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
I love all of you, and I hope that you have a great week! I'm so so so grateful for the lessons I'm learning on my mission. When I left, I never thought that I would actually need the Philippines way way way more than they needed me.
Pag-amping,
Sister Bingham
Happy New Year!
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