Saturday, October 18, 2014

Grateful for this church -- October 13, 2014

Hey Everyone,

This week was a pretty good one! It had its ups and downs but for the most part it was great! We found some awesome investigators and we have seen some great progress in the investigators that we have! It has been such a blessing! 

Last P-day we went bowling with a bunch of other missionaries from our zone. It was a blast!  We have a fun bowling alley on the Radford Campus that we go too. I think my favorite part of it was the music that they play there.  Haha Music is one of the biggest things I miss! But the cool thing is that it will all be there when I get home! 

We were walking around campus one night this week and Elder Williams and I were talking about something pointless when we heard a girl yell behind us, "Hey are you guys Mormons?" It blew us away! We turned around and said Yes of course! And she then told us that she had met with the missionaries before she moved to school and that her boyfriend’s family were all members of the church. We talked with her for a while, then set up an appointment to meet up and teach her. We met with her twice last week and she is great. Her name is Shawna. We kind of went through some of the lessons to see how much she knew and the end result of everything was that she told us she wanted to get baptized but she just doesn't know when she wants to! We asked her if she knew that Joesph Smith was a prophet and she said, “Yes, I know He saw what he saw.” She also told us that she knew that the church is true. She is solid! I hope when we meet with her this week that we will be able to put her on date to be baptized! I will keep everyone posted on how it goes! :) 

Also this week we got a random phone call from a lady that wanted us to come visit her. We went over and it turns out she is a member that is really less active. Her name is Alecia Vaught. She is awesome, She has two little boys that she wants to get baptized and a husband who is not a member and she hopes that he will become interested as well. It’s a normal family which is great and kind of rare. Haha We were pretty excited! They came to church yesterday and the ward was really welcoming to them. The scary thing was that it was Fast and Testimony Meeting. Testimony meetings are the scariest thing as a missionary! They are great and all but some people... You always get the random weird people that go up and cry hysterically or tell pointless stories about their pets or try to relate the gospel to awkward topics. Haha For nonmembers that visit church for the first time, it is quiet the sight! I don't think I have ever prayed so hard outside of a testimony meeting. Haha But what do you do? Luckily, yesterday’s wasn't so bad--it actually went very well! And the Vaught Family loved it so all was good:) It was a true blessing to find such awesome people to teach. 

I love this church and I love the gospel. I have never known the joy that the truth of this church has until I came on this mission. This last week a guy invited us to come to a Sunday School Bible study at a Baptist church. I have actually done this a lot, at least 5 to 6 times on my mission.  People invite us all the time to attend different church events. This one was a little different. We walked in late (on purpose) to get some extra attention. The whole congregation turned and looked at us. . .  It’s quiet the sight to see Mormon missionaries walk into a Baptist church. Haha We sat down and listened to this pastor. The topic they were speaking on was the trinity. I hate the idea of the trinity that Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ and the Holy Ghost are one person. But the conclusion of this preacher’s rant was that if we don't believe in the trinity we are not saved and dammed to hell. It was so wrong, in so many ways from the truth. I had to bite my tongue the whole time. After the meeting, an older man came up to me and told us that he was glad that we came to test our faith. We started smiling when he said that! We couldn't believe someone could actually believe that to be the truth! After a minute or so, we pointed out in the Bible how his preacher was wrong. Of course we did it in a respectful way. But it really does show me that we are the only church that has the fullness of Jesus Christ's gospel. All these other churches run in circles for gain and they rely on the wisdom of man instead of the wisdom of God.  We should all be grateful for this church because without it we would be so terribly lost.  I love you all and hope you have a great week! :)  

Keep the Faith, 

-Elder Bingham

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