Grateful for this church -- October 13, 2014

Hey Everyone,

This week was a pretty good one! It had its ups and downs but for the most part it was great! We found some awesome investigators and we have seen some great progress in the investigators that we have! It has been such a blessing! 

Last P-day we went bowling with a bunch of other missionaries from our zone. It was a blast!  We have a fun bowling alley on the Radford Campus that we go too. I think my favorite part of it was the music that they play there.  Haha Music is one of the biggest things I miss! But the cool thing is that it will all be there when I get home! 

We were walking around campus one night this week and Elder Williams and I were talking about something pointless when we heard a girl yell behind us, "Hey are you guys Mormons?" It blew us away! We turned around and said Yes of course! And she then told us that she had met with the missionaries before she moved to school and that her boyfriend’s family were all members of the church. We talked with her for a while, then set up an appointment to meet up and teach her. We met with her twice last week and she is great. Her name is Shawna. We kind of went through some of the lessons to see how much she knew and the end result of everything was that she told us she wanted to get baptized but she just doesn't know when she wants to! We asked her if she knew that Joesph Smith was a prophet and she said, “Yes, I know He saw what he saw.” She also told us that she knew that the church is true. She is solid! I hope when we meet with her this week that we will be able to put her on date to be baptized! I will keep everyone posted on how it goes! :) 

Also this week we got a random phone call from a lady that wanted us to come visit her. We went over and it turns out she is a member that is really less active. Her name is Alecia Vaught. She is awesome, She has two little boys that she wants to get baptized and a husband who is not a member and she hopes that he will become interested as well. It’s a normal family which is great and kind of rare. Haha We were pretty excited! They came to church yesterday and the ward was really welcoming to them. The scary thing was that it was Fast and Testimony Meeting. Testimony meetings are the scariest thing as a missionary! They are great and all but some people... You always get the random weird people that go up and cry hysterically or tell pointless stories about their pets or try to relate the gospel to awkward topics. Haha For nonmembers that visit church for the first time, it is quiet the sight! I don't think I have ever prayed so hard outside of a testimony meeting. Haha But what do you do? Luckily, yesterday’s wasn't so bad--it actually went very well! And the Vaught Family loved it so all was good:) It was a true blessing to find such awesome people to teach. 

I love this church and I love the gospel. I have never known the joy that the truth of this church has until I came on this mission. This last week a guy invited us to come to a Sunday School Bible study at a Baptist church. I have actually done this a lot, at least 5 to 6 times on my mission.  People invite us all the time to attend different church events. This one was a little different. We walked in late (on purpose) to get some extra attention. The whole congregation turned and looked at us. . .  It’s quiet the sight to see Mormon missionaries walk into a Baptist church. Haha We sat down and listened to this pastor. The topic they were speaking on was the trinity. I hate the idea of the trinity that Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ and the Holy Ghost are one person. But the conclusion of this preacher’s rant was that if we don't believe in the trinity we are not saved and dammed to hell. It was so wrong, in so many ways from the truth. I had to bite my tongue the whole time. After the meeting, an older man came up to me and told us that he was glad that we came to test our faith. We started smiling when he said that! We couldn't believe someone could actually believe that to be the truth! After a minute or so, we pointed out in the Bible how his preacher was wrong. Of course we did it in a respectful way. But it really does show me that we are the only church that has the fullness of Jesus Christ's gospel. All these other churches run in circles for gain and they rely on the wisdom of man instead of the wisdom of God.  We should all be grateful for this church because without it we would be so terribly lost.  I love you all and hope you have a great week! :)  

Keep the Faith, 

-Elder Bingham

Who am I? -- October 6, 2014

Hello Everyone,

Wow this last week flew by!! We had a lot of ups and downs, but we also had a lot of cool experiences as well! 

We are finally moving in to our new place today! It took them all week to clean the carpets and all that. . . so we had to spend a lot of time de junking our apartment and deciding what we wanted to take with us! It’s surprising how much junk Elders acquire over the years. Haha We found Ensign Magazines from the 80's! I was hoping we would find like a really old original copy of the Book of Mormon, but it didn't happen. ;) Haha But all is well; our new apartment is really cool! It’s so big! It’s a house and I think President is going to move two more Elders in with us next transfer so that should be fun! I did get my package and letter from dad, so don't worry.  I don't think I lost any mail--I hope! 

We have been spending more and more time on the Radford campus lately, for some reason that’s where we have been finding all of our new investigators.  And I am fine with that because I love teaching people my age.  It’s a blast!  

We had a very interesting lesson with a guy named Andre, We found him while walking around the campus and he looked really depressed so we decided to ITL him. He apparently was diagnosed with epilepsy when he was 14 years old. He is not talkative at all and you can tell he does not like life. Surprising enough, he was willing to meet up with us. We meet with him and we attempted to teach the restoration. We got through it and I knew that what we were teaching him wasn't what he needed. So I bore my testimony to him and told him how much God loves him and cares about him. Elder Williams did the same and we talked about the Godhead and why we are here. He didn't say much the whole time but when we were about to leave we asked him if he had any questions for us and he asked us, "What does the still small voice feel like?"  It was a golden question! We explained it to him and taught him how he could feel it for himself.  I hope we can meet with him again and I pray that we can help him come closer to heavenly Father. 

I think I am starting to really find my strengths as a missionary. I absolutely hate knocking on doors and tracting. We have a good system that Elder Williams and I have come up with. We have decided to not knock doors and focus on finding people when they are out of their homes and in more casual places. We spend a lot of time walking around parks and grocery stores and of course the college campus. They give us pass along cards to give to people--they usually have pictures of the Savior on them or pictures of temples. That’s usually how we open up conversations with people. We call it ITL'ing it stands for invite to learn. It’s really fun.  I used to be scared to start talking to random people but now I don't really have any hesitation! It’s a real treat to see my own testimony open up people’s eyes. Just a simple brief testimony of the restored Gospel can do wonders—it’s incredible. The Light of Christ is a real thing! And as a missionary, I have seen it in so many of God’s children that are coming closer and closer to the truth. I would say ITL’s are my favorite part of this work for that reason, to see “Pure Light” overcome darkness in people’s lives. 

We were able to watch all of conference including the priesthood session! It was so great! How lucky are we to have the restored church of Jesus Christ and have living Prophets and Apostles?! I have never enjoyed Conference so much in my life. To missionaries I guess it’s like watching the super Bowl haha! But really I learned soooo much in those two days. I took over 40 pages of notes from all of the talks.... After it was all over I thought to myself, Who am I??? I used to never even care about conference and sadly enough I never paid much attention.  It showed me that I really am changing in a good way! I loved all of the talks! I think my favorite one was the last talk by Elder Bednar. He really gave an amazing one about why we do so much missionary work. I loved how he said "To all nonmembers of the church, We as a church challenge you to bring all the truth you have and put it up against our gospel to try to prove it wrong." How true is it though? We do have the complete truth and I also loved how Elder Cook said "The Restoration of the Gospel completely shattered the myth that God no longer speaks to his children!" That was a really cool quote for me, I loved that one! 

I love this church and everything about it. I have really started to develop a true testimony of this gospel and I would never have been able to do it if it weren't for the hard times and trials that I have been through on this mission. I know our Savior Lives and that Heavenly Father knows us all by name and loves us. I know Joseph Smith was the first Prophet of the Restoration and He did the work his father needed him to do. I love this church and this Gospel and I would challenge everyone to really ponder the things we believe and in absolute faith Pray to have a complete conversion of our Savior’s church. I love you all and thank everyone for all the support and helping me get where I am at today.

Keep the Faith,

-Elder Kaleb Bingham. 

A grandmother's influence -- September 29, 2014

Hello Everyone,

This week was a great one! It was long and we worked hard but it was also very rewarding! We had a few really powerful lessons that strengthened my testimony and felt really good to teach.

On Monday last week, after preparation day was over, we got a call from one of our investigators named Jesse Huffman. We have been working with Jesse for a long time, ever since I got here. He has been battling cancer for the last year and I’m pretty sure he isn't going to last much longer. It’s sad to see but, it’s also really cool to see because even though he hasn't been able to get baptized yet, he has so much faith in the Lord and He has read the Book of Mormon and he knows it’s the truth. We were able to go give him a blessing in the hospital that night and you could feel the spirit so strongly with him. It’s comforting to see someone with so much hope and endurance. I don't know what will happen to him from here, but what I do know is that Heavenly Father loves him and He has much in store for him in this next life. Watching Him has made me so grateful for the Plan of Salvation. This gospel is amazing! 

After we left the hospital, one of our college investigators called us and told us she wanted to know more about what God has planned for her in this life. Her name is Liz Scott. We were able to meet up with her that night and she broke down and told us all of her life story. She has come from a rough back ground.  Her parents were drug abusers and she has been in and out of foster homes. She now is a Christian and is strong in the Baptist faith. When we meet with her, she worked us over with questions. But luckily the spirit was so strong we had no problem answering them! At the end of our lesson we invited her to be baptized and she accepted the invite! So hopefully now she will put in the effort and live all the commitments!  

We found a new investigator this week! This girl named Trendy came up to us on campus and she has a really cool story! She is from Africa  and moved to America with her family when she was really young. Her Grandma was a Mormon and took her to church with her for years when she was growing up. When she was eight or nine she wanted to get baptized but her parents told her that she had to wait until she was a little older. So a couple years passed, but her Grandma died of cancer. It was really hard for her, before she died, her grandma told her to keep going to our church. So Trendy did. She kept going to our church with a family she was close to until she was about 10 or 11. Her parents one morning told her that she needed to go to their Methodist church. She went and she met with the preacher and talked to him. This Preacher took her into his office and he freaked her out. He told her all of these lies about the Mormon church and basically showed her all of this terrible anti-Mormon videos to scare her out of continuing to go to the LDS church. So she was so scared that she completely stopped going to our church. Which is very sad... but she found us and told us she has realized that what she saw and the things they told her were not true. She wanted us to come re-teach her everything that she has forgotten. We had a great lesson with her about the restoration and the coolest part was that you could almost feel her grandma’s influence there. We have some high hopes for her and are really excited!  

We had a specialized training with President Salisbury last week! It was a really good one we learned a lot about how the spirit affects our missionary work and what we can do to improve our success and see more baptisms. He surprised us at the end and showed us the new church movie that will be coming out in theaters in a couple weeks called Meet The Mormons! It was a great movie and I would encourage everyone to go.  It had us all in tears. Haha

Well all is still going well here in Radford. We will be moving apartments tomorrow or Wednesday! Our new address is..... 

916 2nd Street Radford, VA 24141  

I hope everyone has an awesome week! Pray for our investigators so we can get some of them hopefully baptized soon! I love you all! Keep the faith! 

-Elder Kaleb Bingham. 

Trying to prove us wrong -- September 22, 2014

Hey Everyone!

This week was a long one! We had a challenging week for sure but it ended in a really rewarding way! 

We started the week off good.  We had a fun p-day; we went fishing and went and ate at Taco Bell. Unfortunately, we didn't catch any fish last week but it still felt great to just be fishing and throwing a line out there! We usually go and walk through part of the river where we catch the fish, but this time we stayed on the shore.  I love the New River, it’s the big river that surrounds Radford. It’s beautiful and one day I will come back and get to hopefully float it like all the people here do! 

We picked up two new investigators this last week. The first one we picked up is Lois Marsh.  She is a nice lady and is very Methodist. She is older but still has a lot of potential! We taught her the Restoration and she really enjoyed it. It’s hard for people to understand sometimes that we needed to have the restoration so we could have the priesthood back to the earth. But it was a great lesson and we committed her to be baptized on Oct 25th! We were pretty excited for that. 

The other investigator we picked up is Shyann. We are teaching her boyfriend.  They are both in high school but they ask some good deep questions and are excited to learn! We had a good lesson with her and with Josh, her boyfriend. Hopefully we can get them on date for baptism soon!  

We are teaching a young man, well a kid my age. haha He is going to school at RU and he is the son of a Lutheran Pastor. I found him and we have been working with him.  I think He let us teach him so he could try to prove us wrong. But amazingly enough, we were able to teach him the Restoration and we came back and watched the Joseph Smith movie with him. He said that his church always told lies about Joseph Smith growing up and all these years, he had a misconception of who he is and what he did. It was an incredible lesson and we put him on date to be baptized in the end of October. I hope he can hold in there; it’s going to be hard for his family to accept the fact he is taking lessons from Mormon missionaries and preparing for baptism. One thing I have learned is that if it’s meant to be, the Lord will always prepare a way for someone to follow Him.  

Well I took my boy Elder Williams tracting.  He hated it! Haha We went out two different days and knocked on doors. It was disappointing because we couldn't find anyone that is interested. We have been trying very hard to find a good solid normal family to teach and baptize and we have been praying for it, but so far we haven't found them.  In our area, we have a college and a family community.  It’s a fun mix. It is so easy to talk to kids in college and find ones that are interested. We have been very blessed to find a lot of people from RU. The only sad part is that the closest YSA ward is in Blacksburg where Virginia Tech is. It’s about 30 minutes away. So Hopefully we can start getting them to the family ward!  

We are going to have to move apartments this week. We share a house with a terrible family that lives in the basement. The house we live in is not meant to house two different families. The people we live with are not married and have two kids who have both been kicked out of school and the parents are not allowed on any school campuses in Radford. But the worst part is that we complained to the land lord about them and they got upset at us for it, so they have been spreading a lot of rumors to the ward members that they know saying we throw parties and all this bad stuff. So President Salisbury is coming down today to take us house shopping.  I will let you know if our address changes.  

Well that's just about all of the exciting stuff that has been going on here! I appreciate all of the support and encouragement. We have seen many miracles and are very excited to see what this next week brings us.  I love you all!  Keep the Faith!!

-Elder Kaleb Bingham 

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