Talking about Jesus -- September 15, 2014

Hello Everyone,

What a week it has been! I’m not sick anymore which is good. It was hard to tell Elder Kleiman goodbye and help him pack for leaving home! We had a lot of fun before he left. It was hard killing off a missionary but I think I have had the best experiences so far with Elder Kleiman. I look up to him a lot--He was a great trainer and an even better friend. 

The night before he went, we got invited to a college Christian group that has a service every Wednesday night. We went thinking that it would be a calm little church service, but little did we know that it turned into a Christian Rock concert! It was a blast; there was a full on band and it was a good time. Elder Kleiman and I got very Protestant--dancing and singing and all! Haha It was a great way to end the transfer! 

I dropped Kleiman off at the transfer train at like 6:30 in the morning on Thursday, and then spent the day in Blacksburg (where Virginia Tech is) with my District leader and his companion. It was fun; we did a lot of walking because they didn't have a car. 

Around five, later that day, I was able to pick up Elder Williams! My Boy! Hahaha He is awesome! He is also 18 and just graduated from High school. He is from Grantsville, Utah. We have a lot in common and he is very teachable and already so prepared to be out here! I don’t even have to train him, he is already pre trained! He is a great kid and I love him! 

I have been keeping us very busy! We taught ten lessons together last week and we picked up three new investigators.  We started teaching a college girl named Liz Scott. It was a great lesson, She came up to us and wanted to talk about Jesus. Haha That’s what she said! I think she wanted to meet with us to try to prove us wrong but as soon as we started teaching her the Restoration her mindset changed quickly. It was a very Spiritual lesson and you could see the spirit working on her. We were able to get her to commit to reading the Book of Mormon and pray about it so we are excited to meet with her again.  

I saw one of the nastiest things in my life this week. We were mowing Mrs. Maguire’s lawn like we normally do (The old crazy lady we pulled out of the ditch.) And she was telling us how her cat had gone missing for over a week. Well after about ten minutes, I was pushing the lawn mower and saw Elder Kleiman had found the cat and was just staring at it. So I walked over to grab it and take it to Mrs. Maguire and as soon as I saw it, I realized why it had gone missing. We think that some kind of animal attacked it... It had a big bite out of its stomach and the maggots and other bugs had been eating it for a while now! It was disgusting--It looked like something out of the walking dead! And it was still alive and moving around! It was so gross! And we had no idea what to do! So we didn't do anything. Haha We were so disgusted. We told Mrs. Miguire that her cat came home and we left.... I guess we will see what happened to it this week! It was Nasty! I guess that was the weirdest part of my week. Haha 

Training has been really good so far! I have been trying to find some more families to teach. I have a goal that I want to have two more baptisms before I leave Radford. Elder Williams and I prayed that we would find a promising family to teach and we were going throughout our day and nothing really was happening so I decided we would take a break and go to the store and buy groceries. So we went in and we were in the cereal section of the store, taking our time to decide what kind of cereal to buy when a very nice mom with a baby walked by us, I started to talk to her and pulled the "Were Just 18 year olds and just moved away from home" card on her. It worked! It turns out she has more kids and she lives in Radford and invited us over to her house sometime to visit with her husband and her family! It was a huge blessing and a great way to exercise our faith.  

Seeing Elder Williams come in and me training him really opened my eyes and made me realize how much I have progressed in the gospel. I know I'm learning things that I would have never learned if it wasn't for me being on a mission and serving the Lord. I love being a Missionary. I can finally say that I'm happy and loving this. I thank everyone for the prayers and all the support.  I love you all and hope everyone has a great week. 

 Keep the Faith, 

-Elder Bingham

So Kaleb wrote to his grandma Caryl and told her that he is usually “A Fisher of men, but on P-days, he is a Fisher of fish!”  Haha  (I’m glad he still has time to do something that he loves every once in a while!)

Temporary Happiness -- September 10, 2014

Hello Everyone,

Well my second transfer is complete! I have to say this one was a lot funner then the last. I am really going to miss Elder Kleiman. He has taught me so much and we have had a lot of fun and will always have some good memories. I don't think we argued once in the last six weeks which is pretty impressive! It has been hard killing him off because It’s hard to think about home. But it made me realize how lucky I am to be a missionary!  

We have been sick this last week. It has not been fun being sick my first time away from home. It’s so hard because we want to go out and work but we don't want to make our investigators sick because then it will slow down the work. But we still managed to have a few lessons with some people when we were feeling up to it and over all still had a pretty good week. 

We went to the members, the Morgans, house this week for a bonfire. Bro. Morgan is an awesome guy!  He is a vet and he is the person that cuts our hair. He is actually really good at it (not as good as Makayla! ;) But we had a huge fire and we had a lot of our investigators there which was really fun and very productive for them!  

The biggest thing I learned from this last transfer is, to rely on the Gospel to bring us true happiness. I have always kept myself busy with hobbies all my life that have made me happy. Since I came on a mission, I never realized that those hobbies and activities that brought me happiness were only making me temporarily happy. When you give up everything and give your life to the Lord, that is when you learn to rely on the gospel to bring you a kind of happiness that you cannot find anywhere else.  

So.... I got a call from my mission President this last week with some big news. He asked me to be a trainer!! I am really nervous though. I just finished my own training last week and now I'm turning around and training a brand new missionary.. It’s a lot of pressure, but I hope I can pull it off. President told me he wants me to train him to have the same characteristics that I have because he wants more missionaries that are ready to work hard. I thought that was really cool! We will see how it goes, I guess! Pray for me so I don't mess this kid up! 

Thank you all for all the awesome support I enjoyed getting my packages this week they made me extra happy! I love you all and hope everyone the best! 

Keep The Faith, 

Elder Kaleb Bingham

First Baptism -- September 2, 2014

Hello Everyone,

Well what a great week it has been! On Saturday, we were able to Baptize Elias. We some how pulled through and it was able to happen! My Companion baptized him and he asked me to confirm him, which I did on Sunday. Elias and his wife have three kids and they are all members, as I watched them come into the church the morning of his Baptism, I could see a Light and a big excitement in their faces. It really hit me that morning that I could see the difference it was making to his family. You could see the happiness and the joy that the family had that came from Elias' decision to be baptized; I don't know why I was lucky enough to work with such an elect and prepared man and be able to see him get baptized, but it definitely made me realize why I am here. I will always remember his face when he came out of the water. He was glowing and looked so happy and relieved. 

When I was able to confirm Him on Sunday, I was super nervous. I fasted on Sunday to get help so I could have the spirit there to guide me. It was a great experience; I have never felt the spirit stronger than I did when I told him, "Receive the Holy Ghost." I could feel the comfort and the love Heavenly Father had for Elias and I could feel The Holy Ghost overwhelm him. 

Elder Kleiman and I worked very hard for this baptism and I’m grateful he was able to baptize one more person before he goes home next week. I’m so thankful for Elias and I’m so excited to see him progress in the gospel. His Family is one step closer to being eternal and I know that in a year or two, they will get sealed in the temple. I’m so glad I was able to be a part of this miracle. 

We have probably been having too much fun as missionaries! Elder Kleiman and I are always having a great time. I'm upset that he is going home next week; I really wish that we could have had one more transfer together! We taught a very powerful lesson at the college yesterday to one of our new investigators! Her name is Maya; she is awesome! She found us and told us she wanted to learn about what we believed in. We taught her about the restoration and she liked it a lot. She was really interested. She told us that when she finds out a church is true that is when she will get baptized into that church... So basically we are excited to see her get baptized into our church. ;)  Please Pray for her! We are excited to see what happens. 

I have decided I like teaching and talking to college kids the best because they’re so much nicer than other people and it is cool teaching people my age! Well, I'm grateful for all the prayers and all of the support from my friends and family. I love you all and hope everyone the best! 

Keep the Faith, 

-Elder Kaleb Bingham  

Opposition in All Things -- August 25, 2014

Hello Everyone,

Well this last week was a scary one! We had a lot of things go wrong and so many of our investigators went through some serious trials and challenges. I will tell you about some of them and what happened. 

Eric Thompson, is one of our promising investigators.  He and his wife were preparing to get baptized in the next month. Eric rides a moped or motor scooter (the one that I helped him fix.) He was driving on the highway and got hit by a teenager texting, going 65 mph, he was only going 45mph. Thank goodness he was wearing a helmet and he lived, but he broke 7 discs in his back and has spinal trauma. It was so hard to hear this! We went and gave him a blessing. It was the most spiritual blessing I have ever given. Luckily he can still walk and is home now, but will have to be bedridden for the next 4 months. So I guess you could say that Heavenly Father has a different plan for him than we did. 

Elias Crispin--He is still on track to get baptized this Saturday!!! But he went through a really hard time this last week. He thought he found his wife cheating on him. . . They got into a big fight, (on the night of his Baptismal Interview) and he thought he was going to leave her and the family and move away. This happened just an hour before he was supposed to be interviewed. Thank goodness we talked him into staying and him and his wife talked it through and found out it was just a big misunderstanding. He called us the next day and we got him interviewed for baptism and he passed!  

Marcus Cunningham—he got a call from his family and they told him that if he continued to go to the Mormon Church they were going to disown him and never talk to him again. Marcus is going through Hell.  I have never seen anyone with as many huge trials as this man. He told his family that there is nothing that will stop him from joining Christ’s church. It was a miracle to see how strong his faith has been. 

Well these were the major hard things we faced this week, and what I learned from them is that there is always opposition in all things. Satan will do anything to stop us from becoming like our Savior. As long as we have faith and endurance in Jesus Christ, we can get through anything. 

On a brighter note, the college started back up in Radford! It has been fun--we helped over 50 kids move into their apartments and it was crazy. We wore service clothes all day Friday and just helped people. Later Friday evening, Elder Klieman and I were just walking around campus and found a big crowd and an announcer. All the new Freshman were taking their class picture!  A lady walked up to us and gave us Radford University shirts and told us to hurry and get in “our” class picture! Hahaha So we did! We put the shirts on and got on the front row of the picture and just smiled really big.  ;)  It was so funny! Haha :) 

Early this week, we helped repaint a Lutheran church! We found someone that works at their church and we told them we do all kinds of free service, so they called us and asked us to come help paint! We did and it was fun! The workers were there and blasting country music, I felt like I was back at work, working my job back home! It was awesome! They were pretty impressed by us and all the help we provided them with. 

Well I’m very excited for my first baptism on Saturday!  I can't wait to send you all pictures from it! Thank you for all of the support and all the prayers! I love you all and miss you all--have a good week!!

-Elder Kaleb Bingham

Tortoise!!!

Rain Finally Stopped! -- August 18, 2014

Hello Everyone!

Well this week has been very good! The rain finally stopped and we were able to get some work done. It seems like the rain puts everybody in a terrible mood and nobody wants to talk for some reason when it rains. :(  But luckily the weather was good most of the week. 

We had zone conference on Tuesday and it was a great one! President Salisbury is such an awesome guy; he is so smart and full of wisdom and the spirit! There were three zones there and he called on me to give an unexpected spiritual thought for everyone. Of course I had nothing planned because I wasn't expecting to have to do that, so it was very unexpected but I did it and just followed the spirit and it turned out very good actually! (I talked about our Savior and the plan of salvation.) We learned about the spirit of revelation and we watched the “Patterns of Light” Mormon message from Elder Bednar. I would highly recommend watching them if you have not already! 

Exciting News!! I have my first baptism on the 30th!!!! One of my investigators, Elias Crispin, will be getting baptized that morning. Elias is from a part member family, his wife and kids are all members but he never cared to be part of the church. I have been working with him since I have gotten here and have seen his complete change of heart. He told me yesterday that when he reads the Book of Mormon and studies the gospel it feels like his heart is on fire. I thought that was really neat. It has been great to see him change and to see how the gospel has changed him. Please pray for him that he will continue to progress and make his baptism! :) 

I have one more investigator named Marcus Cunningham, we are waiting to get approval from the quorm of the twelve to be able to baptize him. He has some past issues that had to be overseen by the apostles. But Marcus is awesome, he has such strong faith in Jesus Christ and he has really used the atonement to change his life.  He has a really rough back ground and missionaries have been working with him for two years almost. And finally he is almost ready to get baptized! Once we get the word back that we can baptize him, we will do it as soon as possible. So pray that he can get baptized soon. :) 

This week we did tons of service helping tons of college kids move in to their apartments. We have found a lot of potential investigators by doing this, we walk round the college housing apartments and just offer people help to moving in and they never turn us down. ;) Plus it is an awesome work out! It has been a fun and good finding tool! 

We also volunteered at a car show on Saturday and helped work it, it was a blast!  We met a lot of people and had a good time.  I will send some pictures!  

Well I love you all and want to thank everyone for all the encouragement and prayers, Please pray for us to find people that are elect and prepared to receive the gospel! Hope everyone has a great week and a safe one! Love you! Keep-the-Faith!

-Elder Kaleb Bingham. 

Many Miracles -- August 11, 2014

Hello Everyone!

The last two weeks have been so good!!! Elder Kleiman and I have had some major success! He is such a good missionary and I'm learning a lot from him! We have 6 people on date to be baptized within the next two months, we have found 8 new investigators in the last two weeks, and we had 5 of those investigators at church yesterday!  Things are going a lot better and we have been very blessed to have seen so many miracles! 

So some cool experiences that happened this last week, our next door neighbor passed away.  He was 94 years old. He lived with his wife that is still alive and the last couple of weeks they were expecting him to pass away. We had been over there a few times--we shared a really powerful message with them a couple weeks ago so they were pretty familiar with us. When Mr. Krigiler passed away, his sons came and talked to us for a while and we offered to help them with anything they needed. They needed help with the dinner after the funeral service for the family and friends, so they ordered a bunch of food and we went and picked it all up (400 dollars worth) and set up the dinner for them. It took all day and we got everything ready for them so they didn't have to worry about it. When they got there, we served all the family and met A LOT of awesome people. It was so fun and so good to help, they were very grateful for us and our church. 

Every week we volunteer at a clothing bank in Radford and this last week we meet a lady named Christina.  We talked to her about what we do as missionaries and why we were there. She offered us to come over to her house for dinner with her and her husband. So we did last night and it was awesome! They’re a younger married couple and so ELECT; we had a really good lesson after we had dinner with them and it was the strongest lesson I have had on my mission so far, the spirit was the strongest I have ever felt it and Christina and Nick were almost in tears because they were feeling it so strongly. It was awesome!  I could really feel something different about them that felt really promising and assuring. So please keep them in your prayers that they will stay interested in our message. :) 

I’m so thankful for this gospel and I'm so excited to keep seeing all of these miracles.  I love you all, have a good week! 

Keep The Faith,

-Elder Kaleb Bingham

Being Exactly Obedient -- August 4, 2014

Hello Everyone!

Well I got a new companion! His name is Elder Kleiman. He is so awesome! He is from Utah and he played on BYU’s rugby team! He actually played with Aaron on his same team! He only has like 5 weeks left on his mission though, so I'm killing him off. But on the bright side, president called me and told me that he gave me Elder Kleiman because he is one of the top leaders and missionaries in our mission and he wants him to train me to become a leader.  He wants younger missionaries learning to become good leaders.  So I thought that was pretty cool! We get along really well and have a lot of fun; we have a lot in common and our personalities are very similar so we teach very well together.  We have already seen a ton of success in this past week. I'm very glad he is my companion! 

The college is going to be starting back up soon in Radford. I'm so excited for all the students to come back! Hopefully we can start teaching younger people! We have picked up a few younger families this last week.  We found a lady named Tasha Smith, she works at the gas station by our house, and we taught her and her husband and got them on date to be baptized on Aug. 30th!!  On top of that, they came to church yesterday and loved it! They said that they felt something different about our church that they really liked! It was so great to hear that! They also have a 5 year old girl and a baby boy. I have been very excited about them! 

We have a lot of other investigators we picked up this last week that were excited for! I have really good feelings about the next couple weeks.  I think we will see a lot more success and hopefully some baptisms! 

One of the bigger things I have learned this week is obedience. It is very hard to be an exactly obedient missionary. What I realized is that we shouldn't be obedient just because we are commanded to, we should be obedient because we love God and we trust in him. The only way God can give us blessings and help in this life is if we are obedient to his commandments and we are obedient because we love him. God knows us all and loves us all and he is always mindful of what we are going through, our trials and our challenges.  He is even mindful of our temptations.   All he wants for us is to be happy and to find joy in this life and return back to him. When we are obedient to God and we love him and want to follow him, he will bless us and take care of us. I'm so grateful for this gospel and everything that comes with it.  I'm very grateful for all of my family and loved ones.  I love getting all the support that I do, it’s very comforting. I hope everyone has a great week! I love you all and I will see everyone soon!

Keep the faith! 

-Elder Kaleb Bingham