April 21, 2014
Dear everyone!
Maupay nga Easter!
I had the greatest week ever! It flew by so fast! I had a
great birthday, too! This week we went on exchanges with the Allen sisters, so
we weren't in my area for my birthday. That's ok, because the Allen sisters
really made it special. We did Zumba in the kitchen for exercise (with some
funky style hymns ha ), a lunch with the zone at a cool hipster restaurant
(well, as hipster as you can get in the Philippines), and then ice cream for
dinner! It was great! I want to share some cool things that happened while we
were tracting.I was with Sister Smith and we went finding for the last hour of the day. We passed by a very large house, and started talking to some teenage girls in the front yard. We asked if we could meet their parents. Then this huge guy comes to the door (huge, scary, tattoos, with a cig) and asks us what we want. We tell him that we are missionaries and he smiled real big and asked us to come in! Then we talked with him for a minute and found out that he knew a lot of people that are Mormon, and that his 4th grade teacher gave him a Book of Mormon when he was in 4th grade because he had a question about heaven. He said he never read it, and didn't keep the book, but he wanted another one. Luckily, we had one on us. He asked when we could come back, and told us to visit the rest of his family in the city. It was crazy! The whole time in the back of my head I was like, "Is this guy for real?" People usually don't accept us that quickly.
When we left brother Ricky's house, we were walking on
clouds. In my head I was like, "Who’s a servant of the Lord? THIS birthday
girl!! yeah!! Go missionary work!!!" Then we walked past a huge huge
house. Sister Smith said, "That's the mayor's house!!" We looked at
each other and both said, “Lets do it!" so we rang the doorbell. The house
help came out and told us to go to the other gate at the back of the house. She
met us there, and then told us to just, "go on up!" the stairs to the
pool room ... so we did! When we got there, the mayor of Allen was drinking
with some of his friends. We asked if there were any service projects that
needed to be done because there is a big service day coming up, and he told us
the options. He asked for our number, so we handed him a pamphlet with the
number on it. He looked at the front of it and then asked if we could come back
next week and tell him about our church. We told him, "Why yes! We
definitely can!" So we scheduled an appointment. Then he said,
"Sisters! I have a lot of friends that would like to hear your message,
too!"
BIRTHDAY MIRACLE!! It wasn't in my area... but that's
ok! I was teaching Sister Regina yesterday and we were talking about the purpose of life and the spirit world, because she had a lot of questions about where all the people that died in Tacloban went. She stopped me mid sentence and said, "OH! I get it now sister Bingham! I have a lot of faith in Jesus Christ, but because I don't act on it, it's basically useless! Thank you so much for explaining that!" Then we talked about getting her marriage papers started so she can get married and baptized in May. Super great!
The Palo family all came to church again yesterday!!!
Actually we had 8 people come! It's an Easter miracle! The Palo family is on
their way to get baptized on May 17th.
Easter sacrament meeting was really cool. Me and the other missionaries sang, "That Easter
Morn," and me and my companion gave talks. At the beginning of my talk,
there was a brown out, so the microphone and the lights turned off. Even though
it was kind of dark (it was raining so it was dark outside too) and the
microphone was off (not a problem, I'm a loud person) the spirit was so strong.
The ward was just listening to me. Usually, it's loud and not a lot of people pay
attention to the speakers. But, they did yesterday. I got to testify/yell of
the resurrection of Jesus Christ. It was the most powerful talk I've ever given
in my life. Right as I ended, the electricity returned. It was really cool. It
reminded me how simple the gospel is. We don't need fancy anything to feel the
spirit. Just talking about truth.
I'm so happy that because of the crucifixion and
resurrection of our Savior, we can have hope to be resurrected with perfect,
celestial bodies. Free from the pain of this mortal frame now. We can be called
forth to arise on resurrection morning knowing that we are worthy to enter his
kingdom. "for we will be like him." I know that this is true. And if
we do our best, and we dedicate more time to our father in Heaven than we do to
the world, it is possible to become perfect--Slowly but surely.
In the sacred name of Jesus Christ, Amen.
Love,
Sister Bingham
Weekly challenge: Share your testimony about Jesus Christ
with 4 people this week. :)
Birthday and Exchanges!
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