The Bingham6 Missionaries: Sweet Cultivation -- June 8, 2014

Sweet Cultivation – June 8, 2014

June 8, 2014

Happy June everyone!

Last week was so so great! As a mission, we went to Tacloban and did a community service project at McArthur park! It was soooooooo fun! And I got reminded what sunburn feels like... a Filipina sister asked me if I had leprosy. It was a pretty unfortunate sunburn. But, luckily, someone transferred and left their big bottle of Aloe Vera in the fridge, so all is well.

I learned a really important lesson during our CSP. I call it the doctirne of Cultivation. Our zone was given a section of the park to work on. It happened to be the section with all the bushes! yay! But the instructions for our section were: pick up trash, pull weeds, and cultivate plants. I had no idea what "cultivating plants," was supposed to mean. So, me and my companion started attacking a bush. We hedge clipped it, pulled out some crazy deep rooted weeds, and the works. Then President Andaya came over and said, "Wow, it looks good Sister. But, you forgot to cultivate!" Then he took his little baby garden rake and showed us how to "cultivate."

So, we finished turning up the soil and all that and moved on to the next bush. In the whole two hours we were at the park, we only got 4 bushes down. But, as silly as it sounds, I can't express the satisfaction of how those bushes look now. I even lined the dirt on the bottom with rocks that were serving no other purposes. They looked sooooooooooo good! It's funny because it's not like they would be good enough to go in the gardening magazine of the most beautiful bushes or anything, but it was so much better than how we found it.

I feel that this is what our merciful father in heaven feels about us. He puts so much work into our spiritual development, our charachteral development, and even though we aren't perfect, He is just happy that we are so much better than how we started.

On our way to Tacloban, we picked up some missionaries from Calbayog, my second area. I found out that Kylah Eyano got baptized!! Me and Sister Schaap started teaching her about a year ago! She is 15 now, but it was the coolest feeling to know that someone I had prayed so much about and cried over, and loved with my whole soul finally got baptized! It made me happy the entire week!! I can't even express the joy that comes from missionary work. Even if we think we don't do much, the little that we do can turn into something amazing.

I know that the scripture says that we will have so much joy in the kingdom of our father with those that we helped bring the gospel to is true. I know that we are all missionaries, and just because I won't have a name tag in a few weeks, doesn't mean my responsibility to share the gospel decreases. I know that sharing this wonderful gospel is something that will change us.

We went on member splits yesterday. I was with a sister named Ever Mae. She had come up to us at church and asked us if she could work with us. While we were on splits, she told me that she had been fasting since the day before so she could share the gospel powerfully. She did so well! She's preparing for a mission. And she wants to work with us every day. I love her! And I love her enthusiasm for sharing the gospel. When she has nothing to do, she asks to work with us or studies PMG (Preach My Gospel). She's the best! And as she's worked with us more and more, I can really see the difference in our lessons. She is so much more comfortable with sharing her testimony and teaching parts of the lessons. I know that we can all be like Ever Mae. At first, she wouldn't really speak during the lessons because she was so nervous, but now she doesn't want to stop sharing the gospel.

I know this church is true, and all members are missionaries. If we aren't good at sharing the gospel now, all we have to do is cultivate our desires to share the gospel until it becomes a natural part of us.

In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.

Love,

Sister Bingham

Weekly challenge: Make a list of 3 people you know who aren't members and pray to know which one needs the gospel. If we pray and ask, Heavenly Father will tell us how we can serve. :)

MLC -- (Mission Leader Council)

I'm totally making that up-- I don't know what MLC stands for! Haha

But it is all the Zone Leaders and Sister Training Leaders