Good ole West Virginia -- April 13, 2015

Hello Everyone!

We had an awesome week! Things have been really busy, and that is great as a missionary. I love this time of year in my mission.  Spring is finally coming around and we are seeing so many cool things here in Princeton! 

So this last week we spent a good amount of time working with less active members of the church. There are some great people here that I love and are so fun to work with! 

One of the coolest less active lessons I have had this week was with a lady named Victoria Proffit! Victoria was a convert to the church then went through a divorce and got remarried to a man whose family is really against the church. Her husband’s side of the family is really hard on her for being a member. Our visits and lessons are usually outside on the porch because her husband doesn't want us in the house. The lessons we have had have really helped her regain and remember the testimony that she has. It’s always a great reminder to me that we should “Doubt our doubts before we doubt our Faith!” Hopefully we can get her back to church soon!  

We have been trying to get the members here more involved in missionary work. It has been interesting. It is so much easier to be a missionary when the members help out with the work. Your success almost doubles!  

So because of that, I got signed up to speak in sacrament yesterday. Speaking in meetings has become a natural thing for me.  It happens a lot as a missionary! I put together some thoughts I had on the way to church and talked about how we can be better member missionaries. I talked a lot about the use of social media and how it is a tool designed to help share the gospel. And also talked about the best way to become a member missionary is to first become a real member and letting others see your example. It was as good meeting! 

We are really trying to re-amp our area with new investigators and people to work with. Please keep us in your prayers to find people looking for truth! We are trying really hard to be guided to those that need the gospel!  

Well that's all I really have to say this week. I hope everyone is doing well and enjoying this great life! I love you all and Keep the Faith!! 

Elder Bingham

The pictures are: 

A fishing trip at our ward mission leader's house 

After church this last Sunday

Sister missionaries that went home last week

Easter -- April 8, 2015

Hello Everyone!

So I forgot to mention last week that this week is transfers week, that's why we are late to email this week. :) 

So I have to say, Easter in the Bible Belt is a big deal! It was an amazing experience to see how excited and dedicated people out here are to the Easter holiday! We heard of countless churches doing what they call “sunrise services” or even count down to Easter. In fact, there was even a live crucifixion scene with a real cross in one of these church’s parking lots! It was pretty touching to see how much these people admire our Savior for his suffering and his death. But one lesson I learned and one thing that was very visible was that they were forgetting the most important part of it all. That HE LIVES! 

As I went to conference I thought a lot about how we do things in the church compared to other churches. The thing that touched me the most is the fact that we not only celebrate the death and the suffering of Jesus Christ, but most importantly, we celebrate the fact that he was resurrected and he overcame death and sin, Overcoming the Fall, that we all had to do. We celebrate the good and the truth that he is here and he is still reaching out to every single one of God’s children. How could you celebrate Easter any better way than to watch and listen to his living Prophet and Apostles? How grateful I am for them and for the chance I had to watch General Conference on such a special day!  I loved all the sessions; there were some great talks. It was sad to see President Monson not doing very well, hopefully he stays healthy and we can hear more from him next conference!  

The last week was really not that exciting. The first week of the month as a Zone Leader is always really busy. We had to drive down to Charleston, WV, for some leadership council meetings. I loved them though! It is so great to learn from our mission president. He is so inspired! 

We then had to teach our zone everything we learned at those meetings. So that was a lot of planning and preparing for that. But it went well! It was a blast; it is so much fun to help other missionaries and be a part of this mission. 

So we now are going to cover two areas! We just adopted Bluefield, another big city next to ours. There were sister missionaries there, but we are losing a lot of them in our mission.  We are holding down the sister area until they can put in some more sister missionaries! 

It was fun though to do a lot of pass along lessons with them. We were able to meet the people they are working with and begin taking over and teaching them. I sure wish I could be as loving as sister missionaries are! They are great. But we are excited to see how all of this goes! 

So a cool story, there is a young family that we have been working with.  The Mom’s name is Courtney. We didn't see them for a few weeks and they invited us over for dinner and a lesson. We went over and Courtney told us that she had quit smoking all on her own! She said that all she could think about were her kids and she kept being prompted to quit, so she just stopped cold turkey and hasn't had a problem since! She has been clean for a few weeks! It is so cool to see how The Holy Ghost and The Lord works in people’s lives. She is now a lot closer to coming unto Christ!  

A funny story to end on, that I'm not proud of. . .  Elder Trujillo and I were walking down a few streets looking to talk to people. We were waiting at a cross walk and saw this man in the distance waving us down. We were so excited, we thought we were witnessing a miracle! This guy hurried and ran towards us and finally got to us and said "Wow do you boys look sexy today! I love it when a man dresses up all nice and fancy!" Yeah, the guy was gay. It was terrible--we didn't know what to do so we gave him a Mormon.org card and crossed the street as he continued to whistle at us. . . That does not happen every day! It was kind of funny, though. Haha  I had to remind myself that "every soul is precious in the sight of God." ;)  

We are looking forward to this week! We are finding new people to teach and have some great things planned. I love this work and love being a missionary! I love you all and thank you for all the support.

Keep the Faith! 

Elder Kaleb Bingham 

Countdown to General Conference -- March 30, 2015

Hello Everyone!

So this week was a crazy one! It really did have its ups and its downs. Elder Trujillo and I have had to change a lot of things! We are still trying to get used to all the extra responsibility we both have. But we are doing really well! We have enjoyed all the friendships we have made from being Zone Leaders. It’s been a cool experience to reach out and serve others and help missionaries see their full potential! And plus, I have learned sooo much from the missionaries that I am lucky enough to serve! 

So I went on exchanges to Richlands. It felt like I was going back home! I loved seeing some of the greatest people on this earth! It is actually a lot nicer place when everything gets greener! I almost didn't recognize it. But I was able to see Sam and Tuesday and Chad and Amber. Their families are doing so good, I love them! They are still learning and investigating the church. In fact, Sam and Tuesday tell people that they are already members of our church! It’s so great. I was so happy to go to my last area again. It’s amazing the relationships you build as a missionary! 

So as far as things go in Princeton-- We hit a pretty big wall lately. This last week was the toughest I have seen here! My companion and I just felt like we weren't getting anywhere and were not seeing as many miracles as we thought we could. This attitude went on all week until the weekend when we basically couldn't stand it anymore so we had some pretty big conversations on what we could do better. It was the greatest thing we have done. We humbled ourselves and prayed for help from the Lord then made plans to change our attitudes. It worked miracles! The night we did that we found two awesome people that are looking for something more in life, and three potential families throughout the weekend! It was a nice reminder of the scripture in D&C 4 "Ask and it shall be given unto you." Sometimes we just need to humble ourselves and ask God for direction because he will help us, in his time.  

As we were trying to find some new people to teach, we walked past a trailer park and my comp and I instantly had a prompting to go in it. We looked at each other, then looked at the park and kept walking away from it. . .  We wanted to go somewhere else. We got to where we wanted to go and had doors slammed in our face left and right. So we said, we need to go back to that trailer park. So we did. We got in it and the second door we knocked at, a lady let us in! And we had an awesome discussion. It was a miracle!  She wants to find a true church. It was too good to be true! But it was true! It was just an amazing blessing! We were excited about it. It taught us to listen to promptings. ;) 

Our friend Steve is doing great! He made it a goal to come to church to watch conference, rain or shine! We taught him the Plan of Salvation, and of course it was awesome! He was so excited to know what he needed to do to get into the celestial kingdom. It was cool. And the coolest part, he read Joseph Smith’s name in the pamphlet we were using and said "I know he is a prophet!" He is so great. Keep him in your prayers please! 

That’s all I really have to say! Thank you all for the love and the support! I love you all and miss you!

Keep The Faith!! 

Elder Kaleb Bingham 

I shook D. Todd Christofferson's hand!!! -- March 23, 2015

Hello Everyone!

So this week was like one of the best I have ever had! 

It was so awesome to hear from an Apostle! He was outstanding! We had a two hour meeting with Elder Christofferson and two other general authorities. It was so cool! Never have I felt the spirit so strong in my life!! 

Here are a couple things he talked about that was really neat: 

Someone asked him, What is the best way to have a really good scripture study? 

He answered back and said that it if so foolish to try to cover an amount of scriptures in one period of time, like trying to read the Book of Mormon in three months, or reading two chapters before I go to bed. He said that limits our revelation from our Heavenly Father. He then said the best scripture studies you will have will be when you spend just as much time praying as you do reading your scriptures and when you sacrifice time to read them. But never rush it. Really cool thought!  

He also told us that the most important decision we will ever make will be to put God first and get married in the temple. He talked about dating, and choosing the right person to marry. He told us if the person that we think we want to marry isn't willing to put the gospel absolutely first in their lives then they will not be the person we are supposed to marry! And then he added, but don't worry about that yet, stay focused on your missions! It was pretty funny! :) 

Other than the conference this week, Elder Trujillo and I did alright! We have been really looking hard for new people to teach. We have been taught a lot in the last couple of weeks that is really helping us find better prepared people. It’s exciting stuff! 

My main man, Steve, is still doing great!! We had a good lesson last week with him about the five points of the gospel: Faith, Repentance, Baptism, the Holy Ghost and Enduring to the End! We asked him if this was something he could use in his life and he said No.... I need that in my life! He keeps blowing me away; it’s almost too good to be true! Keep him in your prayers please. We need to get him to church!  

We had a fun time at our ward mission leader’s house last night. We go there every Sunday! They own a big farm in the mountains! It is so much fun going up there! Their names are the Millers and they know how to cook! They have the best and most southern meals at their place! It is the greatest! 

Well I'm looking forward in seeing what this week brings! I get to go back to my last area on exchanges this week--I'm excited to see how Dennis is doing! That is the advantage of being a Zone Leader. :) I love you all thanks for the prayers and the support!

Love,

Elder Bingham 

Here are some Pictures from this week! One at the Millers and the other is with the man, Elder Allen! :)