The Bingham6 Missionaries: 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