The Field is White -- September 14, 2015

Hello Everyone,

Well the best thing ever happened this week! The Robertson Family's kids got baptized and I was able to go back to Pembroke for it! It was so nice to go back. I love that family so much! I was so excited to see them and it felt good that they were pretty excited to see me as well. They really wanted me to be there for it, so we made it happen, thanks to a very nice member in my area named Chris that drove us up to Pembroke! 

The Baptism was great! Autumn, the daughter of the family, was super nervous and Lee, my favorite kid in the world was so excited. He was bouncing off the walls. They asked me to give a talk (which I didn't know about until they pretty much announced it.) But it was fun, I enjoyed that. Then my old companion, Elder Wilkinson, baptized them. He has been working with them for six months. But it was super funny. When Lee was baptized, as soon as he came up out of the water he yelled "I feel great!" He then proceeded to run out of the font with excitement. Haha It was so funny! Autumn enjoyed it as well, she was a lot happier after the baptism.

I have loved working with their family. They have changed my life! I found more of myself as I was able to help them get reactivated and back to church and help get the kids baptized. I found so much joy when I heard them talking about how they want to get to the temple and get sealed. That is what it is all about! The Gospel of Jesus Christ really does bless the family; it is what holds the family together. It really is the foundation on which we stand. (Heleman 5:12)

It was hard to leave the baptism but I felt so good in my heart about it. Lee, the son, even invited me to "stay a while." He said I can live in his guest room and still be a missionary in Pembroke, it was cute. Oh how I love the Robertson Family! J

But back in Roanoke, things have been going pretty good!

We taught a sweet lesson with our Albanian family. The lesson was on baptism. It was fun and super simple. The hard part was that I felt the spirit so strong in the lesson and I know the family did as well. I tried to commit them to being baptized using very simple wording. The Mother of the family said that they are already washed from their sins and had a harder time accepting it. But the girls really want to be baptized! We all knelt down and prayed together. I had both the girls say a prayer and in the younger girls prayer she said, "God please help me feel what you felt like when you got baptized" and the 17 year old said "help me prepare so I can get baptized." It was awesome! Please pray for them and especially the Mom that she will allow it. I am praying it will happen!

I love Roanoke! There are so many great people to be found all over! We are getting bikes fixed so hopefully we can start biking some days and leave our minivan that we drive at home! 

Thank you all for the prayers and all the help. I love you all--have a great week and Keep the Faith!

- Elder Kaleb Bingham

P.S. pictures from this week’s baptism!

"I Feel Great!"  He is the cutest!!!

September Baptisms -- September 8, 2015

Hello Everyone,

Well it was a great week to start off September! One of the girls we have been teaching got baptized on Saturday. It was a giant success. Her name is Rorri Vogel. She is 11 years old and we recently got her family back to church and starting to get back into activity. It was a good day! She loved it and it was very fitting. We had been working hard with her family to come back. They are a great family--we love them!

One thing that was also cool about the baptism is that we got our Albanian family there as well!  They are taking the discussions at a slower pace because Christianity is kind of a new thing to them. So they didn't really know what baptism was, but they came anyway and really loved it! The 17 year old girl after, the service, asked me if I was baptized. I told her I was when I was a kid. She then asked me if I felt that good after I got baptized like the girl did. I love seeing the spirit work on people!

They also came to church on Sunday! It was a fast and testimony meeting, which unfortunately, it turned into story time this week. We were biting our finger nails. . . but it is okay! We had an outstanding Gospel Principals lesson about the God head! It was an amazing lesson. We had like over 10 nonmembers there between all of the missionaries. Zurah, the Mom of the Albanian family told us after the class that she, "felt the power in the lesson and it took away the pain from her heart." When she said that, it really hit home for Elder Millard and me. 

So we took advantage of fast Sunday this week. Elder Millard and I decided to fast together for a specific miracle. We fasted to find a new family we can teach that will benefit the ward. As we went to church, we noticed a couple we had never seen before, so we went and introduced ourselves. We had some small talk and then found out that the man was a returning member that has been inactive for years and his fiancé is not a member but felt like she should come to church with him. It was awesome! We exchanged info and he called us that night to set up an appointment for us to come over. God really does answer prayers.

Elder Wilkinson called me on Sunday (my last companion.) He told me that Debbie got baptized and it went great. He said the whole room was in tears. I was super happy to hear that she did it!

The blessings of a mission are incredible. The less you think of yourself, the more blessings you see. I'm so glad I am here and I'm so thankful for my Savior, Jesus Christ, who made all of this possible!

I love you all--have an awesome week! Keep the faith!

-Elder Kaleb Bingham

My area is famous -- August 31, 2015

Hello Everyone,

Well guess it is no surprise that my Roanoke area made worldwide news this week. It was very sad about the shooting! It is super crazy; a member showed us the news clip. It was very sad. The people here are talking all about it. We have had many conversations about the shooting and it has actually given us some pretty sweet opportunities to teach. But it is very sad about the people that were killed. I have seen multiple cars with RIP and the people’s names painted on their back windows. What is crazy is that my companion, Elder Millard, was on an exchange and he was only a few miles away from where it happened. Crazy stuff! We have been keeping their families in our prayers!

It was definitely a week! It was a harder one, but there were some great things!

Last week I talked about an older Catholic couple. We have been teaching, and they are still doing great! Ray, the man, is outstanding. He has been doing some serious reading in the Book of Mormon and we have had the best discussions. They are so humble! Most older people I meet on the mission are pretty stuck in their ways, but this couple, you can tell, is looking to be healed spiritually. Keep them in your prayers please! 

We are now teaching a family from Albania! Well at least most of the family. They actually reached out to us and called the church. It has been super fun! The mother’s name is Zuhra and she has three daughters 11, 17 and 23 that we are also teaching. We have to teach super simply because the mom has a hard time understanding English sometimes. The daughters were all raised over here in the states, so they are very fluent in English. They have a Muslim background; we wouldn't be able to teach them if they had intentions of leaving the states, but they are not. We had a simple lesson yesterday. A member helped us teach it. We just taught them how to pray. It was so simple but so special! They loved it, so much fun. They are also teaching Elder Millard and I their language--they speak Albanian! So far, we can say Hi, how are you doing and have a good night, see you soon. We are making progress. :)

I just love being a missionary! Lately I have just felt an overall sense of love for everyone here. I don't think I have ever been so in-tune with the spirit, I love this feeling! The thought of not being a missionary and not being set apart scares me! I don't want this to ever end. But in the meantime, there is no better feeling then bringing souls unto Christ! I love it. Keep the faith!

Elder Lance Kaleb Bingham

P.S. The pictures are of a P-day hike. It was fun--we were on the edge of the world! A place called McAfee's Knob.

2nd Week in Roanoke -- August 24, 2015

Hello Everyone,

Roanoke just keeps getting better and better! It has been a good week. I have never met and talked to so many people in my life! We are just finding people everywhere! It has been really different; I'm not used to all the people still, but it is a blast. I will just summarize some of the great experiences we had here!

So we were tracting earlier this week and we knocked on one door and a lady answered and told us she knew who we were. So we were like, “Okay, how do you know us?” And she told us she was actually a member of the church and was inactive. She told us she had not heard from anyone from the church in 8 solid years. We were the first to make any kind of contact with her in that long. It was sad to hear. But then she expressed to us, in a lot of tears, how badly she missed the church and how she really wants to come back. She just doesn't know how. It was such a sincere desire to come back to our Savior. I'm so grateful we found her and made that contact. It was a blessing. It brought me to think about Moroni 6 where it talks about remembering everyone that enters into the gate. It also reminded me that we are all converts in the Lord’s eyes, heading on the same path home. I hope we are constantly reaching out to our Brothers and Sisters, especially the ones we are responsible for.

We had one more great find this week! We found a great nineteen year old girl that is a single mother with a two year old son. She is living with her parents and she was super open to talk with us. (Before you judge me, we brought a member with us to teach her.) But she is so elect! She understood the restoration almost perfectly. It was cool to see our message help her. She expressed to us that all the Christian people she knows keep telling her that she may be going to hell because she had a baby outside of wedlock. How crushing and discouraging that must be? Those churches are completely false. We taught her that no matter what she has done, if she repents and changes through the gospel, she will indeed be forgiven. That is the blessing of the Atonement. I'm looking forward to our lesson this week!

We are teaching an older Catholic couple here. They are good friends with the members of the ward and have been getting the lessons for a while. We were talking about baptism and they told us that babies need to be baptized when they are born to get rid of Adam’s sin. The thought of that theory made me so sad. I shared an experience with them that my Aunt had when one of her babies was born premature. Through my tears, I was able to express that children and babies do not have the need to be baptized because they are indeed alive in Christ. I expressed that my aunt and my family was able to get through the loss of our cousin because of the knowledge we gained out of the Book of Mormon in (Moroni 8.)  Children and all of God’s children have no need in being baptized until they are at the age of accountability. At the end of the lesson, the older man that we were teaching told me, "I always knew that that Catholic belief was false." It was one of the most powerful lessons I have had in a while. I was grateful for the knowledge I had gained out of my personal study to know what was contained in Moroni 8 to help the people I was teaching.  It is my testimony that I know this church is indeed true because of these precious and simple truths that other churches do not have.

It has been a great week. My companion is a fire ball! I love Elder Millard we took some pictures during lunch in our apartment. I will send them. Keep the Faith--I love you all!

- Elder Kaleb Bingham