Miracles happen everywhere! -- May 20, 2015

Hello Everyone! 

Wow I had some awesome things happen here in the last week and a half! 

So in my first area in Radford, I had an awesome man I was working with who was waiting for special permission to be baptized; his name was Marcus. Well, before he received permission, he had a really bad heart attack and went into a comma. I thought for sure that he would not live through it. He was still in a comma when I got transferred out of Radford. 

So this week I got a call telling me that Marcus had recovered and was staying in a rehab in the area I am covering now! I was so excited to get this news; we went up and I thought because of his medical problems and challenges he wouldn't remember me or much about the gospel. Boy was I wrong! He remembered me and he has retained so much about the gospel as well! We have had some great times and lessons, and the best part is that he received permission to go ahead and be baptized when his health will allow him!! I don't think I have ever received better news than this! It is such a blessing that I am able to work with him again and see how much progress he has made since I have seen and taught him. This was such a testimony to me that this is the Lord’s work!  

We had some great lessons with some members that are less active this week. It has been great because they have been coming back to church! It feels good when you have families you have been working with start to make some progress with coming back to the church. That was also one of my highlights! 

We had a fun younger family come to church with us for the first time last week! What a blessing that was. It is cool to see the spirit effect people. The wife of this family was crying after one of the talks in sacrament. They loved it so much, they stayed all three hours and the kids loved Primary! It was a blast, it felt so good. 

So I am not getting transferred anywhere. Elder Trujillo and I will be staying here for at least one more together. He goes home in six weeks, so I have to make sure he doesn't get too trunky! ;) 

It is starting to make me sad that I am coming up on my year mark. I really love being a missionary. I never thought I would enjoy serving this much. It is the best decision I have ever made. I love my purpose--To bring everyone to Jesus Christ. There is no greater person I could be employed under! 

I hope everyone has a great week! I love you all!

Keep the Faith! 

- Elder Kaleb Bingham

Skyping is the best! -- May 11, 2015

Mom!!

It  was so good to see you all yesterday!  I really enjoyed it--It was so much fun. I love doing that!!!

I can also see that it would be distracting to do that more than twice a year! But I'm grateful we are able to Skype!!! I love you all and that was really nice. O, I hope you had a good Mother's Day! 

So I'm not writing a big letter this week. I'm going to save some stuff for next week because we talked a lot yesterday. 

But I did have a cool experience this week. So, two weeks ago there was a less active member that had a seizure and he called us and asked for a blessing. So we went and gave him one at the hospital. He asked me to give it, so I did. It was a good blessing--very powerful. Well, the member got transferred to a different hospital and they couldn't find anything that was wrong with him. He even started feeling a ton better! It was really neat. Just a testimony on how powerful the priesthood is!  

So yeah, I could tell that Beth is going down hill. Poor girl, I hope she makes it until I get home.  I guess we will see. I always keep her in my prayers! 

So after thinking about what you could send me that I can't get out here, I came up with something! Your home-made cookies! I can't get them anywhere else! That's my request for the day. :) 

I love you so much Mom! I hope you have a good day at work--I guess we will be counting down to Christmas now--haha!  I love you!!!  

Eleven Months! -- May 4, 2015

Hello Everyone!

Well it blows my mind that I have hit 11 months!! Time is taking off too fast! But it’s also pretty exciting! I have a lot to accomplish before I come home! 

This week was a bad one. . . . I had to deal with a lot of stuff with other missionaries that were not fun--some of the stressful things about being a Zone Leader.  But there were some highlights to the week! 

So we had a missionary go home from our zone. We had to drive him to Charleston on Monday and stay the night down there for a training the next morning. So now I have two companions for the rest of the transfer! Elder Labrum is staying with us in our area, so now we cover like three counties and over 100 miles--it is crazy! But it is so much fun as well! It keeps things lively with two companions, I enjoy it! 

And speaking of my companions. . . They both got sick this week, so we couldn't get out and work for a few days! It was rough. I was so bored I actually deep cleaned our apartment. Talk about a fun week, right? We did manage to get a few lessons in on the weekend though! 

We went to see a less active member named Mary. She is a convert of like nine years. We ended up teaching her 14 year old daughter which was really cool! It was a great lesson. Mary needed a blessing so we taught the whole restoration and talked about the priesthood. Beth is so funny, we enjoyed the lesson and she wants to read the whole Book of Mormon. She said it will only take her a few days haha. So that is exciting,  we are going to focus on getting them to church this week.  Keep them in your prayers please! 

We had a good lesson with Sister Proffit on the power of the atonement and the fall of Adam and Eve. That is my favorite subject to teach on! I love the symbolism of the fall! It was a good lesson. I can tell she really appreciated our visits, so it is a good time. 

Lately I have really been feeling so much more charity for those I serve! I know God loves his children so much and wants them all to enjoy the blessings of the restored gospel and most importantly enjoying the blessings of making and keeping sacred covenants. I love being a missionary so much. To bring people to that kind of happiness is such a privilege that I will always be grateful for!  

I love you all and am so thankful for all the prayers and the support!

Keep the Faith!! 

Elder Kaleb Bingham

West Virginia is green again! -- April 27, 2015

Hello Everyone!

So this week was a fast one!  It’s finally green here again! It is very pretty--it seems to put everyone we talk too in a better mood. Thank goodness!!!  

One of the highlights I had this week was having our interviews with our Mission President. He is such a great man, he is so smart and knows everything, (I'm convinced!)  It was a great day to spend some time with the Salisbury's--they are so great!!  

I was lucky enough to be able to go back to Rich-lands this week, my last area. It was so much fun! It was so good to see some close friends. One of the highlights was going over and visiting with Chad and Amber! Their family is the greatest--I love them so much! It made me miss my own family and serving there! I'm always reminded whenever I am there how important the family is to God, and how grateful I am that my family is eternal. 

Our Mission President challenged us to teach twenty lessons in a work week. He wanted us to really learn how to plan effectively to accomplish this. So the whole week, we were kind of stressed to make sure to hit our goals and yesterday at the end of the night, we had taught twenty-one lessons!!  We were pretty excited that we were able to teach so much, but we are still going to try to teach even more next week!  

I guess we have been really busy teaching and working. My stories are not too exciting this week. All I can really say is that I am the luckiest missionary in the world! I love what I'm doing and the people I get to meet and work with. It seems like every once in a while someone I meet will tell me that the Lord will be blessing me the rest of my life for the service I am doing. But really, I think it is the other way around! I will always be in debt to the Lord for the experiences he blesses me with while I am out here.  I love this work! 

I hope everyone can really feel the love our Heavenly Father has for his children. I am feeling it more and more every day! It’s my testimony, that as you serve others, it brings you so much closer to God. 

Keep the Faith! 

- Elder Kaleb Bingham 
 

Guess who needs a letter???

Joggers all the rave in West Virginia--trying to fit in???

President and Sister Salisbury

Listen to the spirit -- April 20, 2015

Hello Everyone!

Wow, we have had such a great week here!  It was the best one Elder Trujillo and myself have had yet.  We had a blast and were able to teach a lot of lessons.  And we found some pretty sweet people to teach as well!

So last week we were in the library watching some stuff on Mormon.org and I was kind of looking around the room and I noticed a lady on a computer with her back facing me.  All I could really see was the back of her head and her monitor.  She was looking up videos of Jesus Christ on You Tube. I instantly had the prompting that I needed to share the church’s new video Because He Lives with her. So at first I kind of doubted the prompting and it kept coming back to me over and over, so I knew I had to do it. I pulled out a pass along card and put our number on it and planned to give it to her and show her the video as we left. As the time came, we were getting off the computer and I told Elder Trujillo I was going to go talk to someone. I walked over and trying not to be creepy just simply said "excuse me ma'm" and as she turned around, to my surprise, she was handicap. From what I could tell she had Down Syndrome to some extent. I was shocked and continued to tell her very simply about the video and she was happy to see me and talk to me. I gave her the card and she looked up the video and we left.  

As I went on with my day, I was really wondering why I had such a prompting for such a different kind of situation. I knew by what I felt that is what Heavenly Father wanted me to do, but it was an interesting experience to say the least.  

As the day went on, I started to realize why I had this experience in the library. That day we were led to find three new people to teach. Each person we found, we were prompted and specifically led too. We even drove past a house and I knew that we needed to go back and knock on their door and we did and we taught them! That day was filled with those kinds of miracles. 

It is a testimony of mine that Heavenly Father will test our obedience. If we listen and we yield to the voice of the Holy Ghost, HE WILL BLESS US! But first, sometimes, we have to prove to Him that we are willing to follow Him and LISTEN. What a cool experience it was though! This work is so true!! 

So we had an awesome turn out at church yesterday! We had a family we have been working with come for the first time! It was so much fun! They have three little girls and they all went to Primary and loved it! The mom also enjoyed Sunday School and Relief Society as well. It was such a success!! And when we went to pick them up they even turned down some Baptist church and told them they wanted to come to ours! It was so cool!  There was also a big pot luck after church. The church out west could take some notes on how to throw together a pot luck. . . They know how to do it right out here!!  

Things are looking a lot better for us here in Princeton! I am thankful for the prayers and all the support! I love my Savior, Jesus Christ, and am so thankful to be a part of his work. It has been such a life changing experience!  I love you all and Keep the Faith!! 

-Elder Kaleb Bingham

P.S. the Pictures were from a meeting we had this week with a stake president in Pembroke! :)