I'm Nineteen -- January 20, 2015

Hello Everyone, 

It has been such a fun week, one of the funnest ones that I have had in a while! :) Our week was full of surprises! 

Well transfers were fun, I got my new Greenie! He is awesome; his name is Elder Powell. He is from Boise, Idaho. He is very brave! He is fun to be serving with and showing and teaching him how to be a missionary!

Man, being with a new missionary really does remind you how much you have grown. Being on a mission, you learn so much from the scriptures and so much about the church and the gospel. Sometimes I think we forget how much we really know until we’re teaching someone else! I'm so grateful for the knowledge I have received from my Father in Heaven because it has truly transformed me and my testimony of this work.

Elder Powell had his first Restoration lesson last night. We picked up a new investigator that I found a couple weeks ago and she is awesome! We taught her the Restoration and it was so fun to watch Elder Powell, without any hesitation, recite to her the First Vision. Even though He didn't have it down perfectly, he still taught with a lot of authority and with the spirit and it was an awesome lesson! I was very excited about how it went.

I finally turned 19! It was neat to serve a good chunk of my mission as an eighteen year old! There are so many blessings that came from deciding to come out on a mission at a young age. I would have never traded that for anything!

So many people made my Birthday very special! 

First off the day before my Birthday my parents really surprised me! They arranged through Chad and Amber to have Pizza delivered to their house when we went over there to teach them! It was such a great surprise! I was able to see pictures of my awesome family, as well. That really made my day so special! I really do have the best mother in the world; I love Her so much! :) 

So at church, we had the normal block; I actually didn't speak or teach this Sunday! It was crazy. But the members surprised me right after priesthood meeting. One of the members had bought me a cake and they surprised me with it! It was so nice of them--I love how close you become to the members when you are serving in a branch!

Sunday night, Sam and Tuesday were so nice and cooked me a birthday dinner, with cake and all. :) It was so nice of them, I really got spoiled! I sure love all the people I am blessed enough to come out here and meet. They really do become your best friends!

The Lord really does bless his missionaries! :)

I want to thank everyone for all the birthday wishes and for all of the support. I have so many great people in my life that I am so grateful for!

Our mission has really been working hard on being unified in our love for Jesus Christ and His Restored Gospel. I have thought a lot about that and I believe as part of the hastening of the work every single member should ponder and think about how they could be more unified with our Savior.

The Hymn "Have I done any good" comes to mind a lot and it makes me reflect on what more we can do. There is so much to be done and not enough time to do it. We should all strive to think a lot less about "our mansions above" and ourselves and think more about what good we can do in our world today.  
  
I sure love you all and miss you all too! Remember to (Keep the Faith! 2 Tim 4:7)

- Elder Kaleb Bingham

 

Transfer Week -- January 14, 2015

Hello Everyone! 

Well it’s been a pretty normal week! Elder Blaine and I have been having a lot of fun! But we found out yesterday that he is getting transferred and going to Clarksburg, WV. :(  We have had some good times! We didn't even get into one slight argument. He is just so laid back! He has been the coolest companion I have had. I'm going to miss him!!! But we’re both young missionaries, maybe we will serve together again! 

So I got a phone call from my mission president yesterday! He is a funny guy, I sure love him. He called and asked me to be a trainer again! It completely threw me off guard! I was not expecting to train again so soon because I just got through training a missionary a transfer ago! But that's my exciting news! :) It will be a fun time! I'm not sure who he is yet, but I will find out when he gets here tomorrow! 

With all the transfer chaos we were still able to accomplish a lot! 

We did something fun last weekend. We decided to have a movie night! We transformed the primary room at the church. We set up a big projector with the big screen and we invited all the members and our friends and investigators. It was a good turn out! We watched 17 miracles and it was a blast! Everyone brought treats and popcorn and all that good stuff! Our investigators that came loved the movie! I think it is something we will do once a month from now on. :)

Our Mission has made a big push to work with inactive members and less-active members as well! So we have been visiting a lot of families. We still had two come to church last week, so that was a miracle! But we also had some nice visits with them. At first I had the attitude of calling them to repentance and coming back to church, but I learned fast that that didn’t get us anywhere. We have tried a different approach; we have really just tried to be their friends and bless their lives in any way we can. This HAS worked and it made me realize that it all comes back to love. The gospel is all about love and that's what Christ himself taught! We should all show lots of love and fellowship to those that are struggling to hold fast to the Iron Rod! Everyone needs a friend, that friendship is what will lead them back to conversion.

I would say that all of our investigators have been making very steady progress! It’s such a blessing and so much fun to help people change their lives! I love this work and am glad I am out here! Even though it has its downs, It’s a Blast! 

Hope everyone has a great week! I love you all. :) 

Keep the Faith!

- Elder Bingham

Happy New Year -- January 5, 2015

Happy New Year!!

Well my first New Year as a missionary was a success! Elder Blaine and I actually forgot it was New Year’s Eve until we looked at the calendar. Haha  It was fun, though, we spent New Year’s eve with our investigators (until our 9 pm curfew) and then went home and went to bed. :)

New Year’s Day was fun though.  We had a Zone meeting in Bluefield-- it was a couple hours away. We were trained on “How to re-activate members that are less-active, inactive or even active!” It’s a great push that our mission is making. Our goal is to become full-time teachers; always teaching and always finding through our teaching. It was a fun meeting! :)  

So this week someone backed into our mission car while we were in an appointment . . . did $1300 worth of damage to our back bumper! So that was not fun taking care of that. We spent almost a day filling out paper work online for the church. But all is well. The guy that hit our car was nice enough to come and tell us so he could fix it! Who knows, maybe we will get to teach him! That would be cool!

We had a neat experience with a less active and recent converted couple, Tina and Fonzie. We have been working with them for a few weeks and they told us that they have prayed and they want to set a goal to get sealed in the temple in the near future! We were excited they want us to help get them there!

It’s crazy how far away the temple is for these members. They are in the Washington DC temple district so they have to make an eight and a half hour trip one way to get there. And the sad part is that most of the strong active members go just as often as the active members back in Utah... It has made me realize and taught me that everyone in Utah needs to step up there "Temple Going Game!" It’s one thing I will never take advantage of again when I get home.

It was great to see Chad and Amber at church yesterday! Their family came to sacrament and Gospel Principles. :) We also had two less-active families show up again--so that was great!! 

The New Year is an exciting time! I can’t believe I will be home next year! It is crazy how fast  time is going by!  I gave one of my farewell talks on the story of Lott and his family out of the Old Testament.  It reminded me this week of the commandment Lott got from the Lord, "Don't look back." It still sticks with me and it has so much meaning. Each Day we have is a new beginning, through the Savior we can always improve and become better than we were before.

 I love you all and Wish Everyone a special New Year!!!

Keep the Faith!

-Elder Kaleb Bingham



Body pillows given to us for "cuddle season."

Christmas Week -- December 29, 2014

Hello Everyone,


Well Christmas went really well.  I think what I learned most from this Holiday was the actual meaning of Christmas. It was a very humbling Christmas being away from the family and loved ones, but I have never felt so close to the Savior! It was a special experience on Christmas to study and learn about everything Christ went through and remind myself the true meaning of why I'm out here and also why we celebrate Christmas. 

I was spoiled to get so many packages and fun things from everyone back home. I am so thankful for the support I have and what a blessing it is to have such an amazing family! :)

So after we called home we were invited to go to a dinner with a member named Jeremy Insedth. He made it really cool for us; he even bought us some presents and we were able to open presents! We also had a great dinner and we played some games after dinner that was really fun! :) I was very thankful for him and all the work he did for us to have a nice Christmas.

I guess after Christmas, it was pretty average. We went right back to work and teaching our investigators and less active members. :)

It was cool in church; We had a giant turn out! We had over 40 people there! It was awesome! There was a few people visiting, but we still got three inactive families to come back to church and we had two investigators there as well! :) 

I'm looking forward to this next week, please keep praying for our investigators We have been working with--The Prayers really do help!

I'm so grateful for this gospel. I talked in sacrament yesterday on the importance of the Restoration of the Gospel and about the articles of faith. It really made me realize how blessed we are for the restoration and for a loving Heavenly Father that will always reach out and talk to His children.

I love you all and hope you have an awesome week! :)

Keep the Faith,

Elder Kaleb Bingham

This is your average state road in VA! Haha you have to cross through a river and it's the only street in the holler! Our journey ended here:)

 Sketchy fire in a trailer park???

There was a cool abandoned cabin at the branch President's farm. We went there for lunch the day after Christmas. He has some big property in the middle of no where!

Elder Blaine and I (And a missionary photo bomber!)  :)

Christmas Miracles -- December 22, 2014

Hello Everyone,

Well Merry Christmas Everyone!! It’s such a great time of year to remember our Savior, Jesus Christ, and all He has done for us. We had a great program in church. I have loved hearing the Christmas Story out of the Bible.  It is such a reminder of our Heavenly Father’s humble and sincere love for all of His Children. What a blessing it is that we have a Father who loves us enough to give us his only perfect son, that through him, we might gain everlasting life.

Well last week was great! We taught over twenty one lessons in the last week, all too investigators! It was the most I have taught on my mission yet! They say they want all the missionaries to become full time teachers, and we got a taste of that this week!

Throughout the week we stayed very busy teaching a few of our investigators that have been progressing very well! We were able to meet up with Dennis again this week. He is such a great guy, I have never taught anyone that knows the New Testament in the Bible as well as he does. I guess you could say he has the normal concerns people have when they learn about our church, but as we teach, we know the only way to find truth is to ask God, as it says in James 1:5. We watched the longer Restoration dvd with Dennis and there was a great spirit there. I hope he gained as much of the spirit there as I did! 

We were able to see Chad and Amber a lot this week too. They are so great; some of my favorite people. They have a young, cute family and I want them to join the church so bad because I know how much the restored gospel has blessed my family. Last night we were over at their house and Amber took a picture of Me and Elder Blaine and sent it to our moms because she said, "It’s not fair that your moms can’t see you every week!" It was very nice of her. :) They’re doing great, though.  It was fun to teach them and share the Christmas story with them. :)

We went to the ward caroling activity on Saturday. Well, it was interesting! ha-ha It wasn't the best sounding choir I have ever heard, but it was still a good one! The Richland's Branch didn't do too bad. :) We went to a few nursing homes and some elderly less active member’s homes and caroled. It was a good time.

Something cool we do here--We do a book of Mormon class at the church every week on Tuesday for all the less actives and the members of the branch, and the investigators, of course. But we studied 2 Nephi 31 last week and had a great lesson on repentance. There was a nonmember named Chris there and he had so many great questions about baptism and repentance; it was a very powerful lesson. And we started teaching him, so it was a success!  

We are seeing many Christmas Miracles, but they are different then what I thought they would be. They have been small tender mercies from the Lord. It’s such a great time of year and what a spirit there is during the Christmas season. If you haven't felt it, then go feel it! It’s that simple! :)

I hope everyone has a Merry Christmas and can spend plenty of time returning the gift back to the Lord and our Savior Jesus Christ. 

Keep the Faith!

Elder Kaleb Bingham