Cristian´s Baptism!!‏

Hola Family and Friends!

I have a lot of exciting news from this week! The biggest.. is that Cristian was baptized! Hermana Clements and I taught him for awhile, then for different reasons we passed him to Elders Nielsen and Hendricks of this area, who were perfect for him! He has such a strong testimony, and at the beginning he claimed not to even believe in God. He is great. And is now sharing the gospel with others too! His mom is set to be baptized the end of May. I am very happy for him!

After the baptism (which we do in the stake center right next to the temple), we took Karen and her kids on a ´´temple tour´´. There is a really cool way with statues, etc to talk about the temple here. After, Karen told us how she loved coming to the baptism and knows ´´she is next´´. I think I say this every week, but I love their family. We also started teaching David, the 8 year old, and Alison, who is 6. David always talks about how he wants to be baptized too. So cute.

Other big news... Madrid Spain Mission is officially an iPad mission! It has been a rumor for quite some time, but it is official now. ALL of the missionaries of the mission, even those on the islands, are coming to the Madrid temple square May 7th for training. I am not positive if we actually get them that day or details, but it is happening. It will be a huge blessing. It is amazing how much technology helps with missionary work and the church in general.

On Thursday, my bday, we had an apointment with our 93 (almost 94) year old investigator. The ward member who gave us her reference was there too and made me a cake and sweet rice. It was a fun little celebration. And all the missionaries tried to surprise me and sang to me that night when we were all there. Also, Cristian (the one who just was baptized), gave me a present. And was so excited about it. haha. It was a great day.

We had a really great district meeting this week. Our district leader asked our mission leader, Andy, to share a quick thought with us. Andy showed a YouTube video of this women motivational speaker - I think it was called the invisible woman. She basically talked about how she did all this work and was also super busy, but never appreciated. Then her friend went on a trip and brought her a present of book about lots of old, awesome Cathedrals and a note thanking her for all the things she does, even if they are unnoticed. This motivational speaker talked about how the artists and builders of these Cathedrals most often were unkown. They had sacrificed years and years of their lives to build the great Cathedrals, yet were never recognized. Andy related it to missionary work and how a lot of things we do go unnoticed, but that is okay. Even the little things we do are super important. We ourselves may not see the result of our work, but it is making a difference. He said it way better than I just summarized, but that is the idea.

For pday today we went to Segovia. No time for the pics this week, but next.

I love you all so much! Hope you have a fantastic week!

Love,

Hermana Bingham

1. Hermana Clements and I at this restaurant with 100 different mini sandwiches, it is fun to chose randomly and be surprised :)

2. Me with Alisva and Maria Antonia on my birthday

3. me, Hermana Clements, Andy (mission leader), Cristian

4. me, Hermana Clements, Andy (mission leader), Cristian, Elder Nielsen, Elder Hendricks

Week 13 - Miracles!‏

Hola Family and Friends!

Thanks for all the birthday wishes, I am sure I will have a great birthday this week!

This week was one of the best so far. Hermana Clements and I saw miracles daily. We had tons of street lessons, all of which do not always turn into investigators, but we did find some awesome new people that I am excited to continue teaching. My favorite moment of my mission so far happened this week. We finally were able to meet with Karen, who was going to be baptized a few weeks back. We met her and her two kids (6 and 8) at the park. The kids played while we talked to her. We had an amazing discussion and talked about some of her fears. We reset her baptismal date and talked about teaching her kids the lessons at the same time as we teach her so her 8 year old son can be baptized with her. He even said that he wants to be baptized - they love church and the ward FHE. After the lesson we decided to sing a hymn together. Her kids ran and sang with us, it was precious, all crammed on the same bench in the middle of a park singing. Then her 6 year old daughter said the prayer. I definitely had tears in my eyes. They are an amazing family. Karen knows the gospel is what they need.

Last Sunday in church a lady also asked Hermana Clements if she was the missionary that sings, which she is. So we went and visited this old (93) year old lady, Hermana Clements sang, we shared a message, and this lady sang for us. She was an opera singer, and had quite the voice, especially for a 93-year -old. She was on this Spain singing show a few years ago too. She is pretty awesome and super sweet. We are going to start visiting her weekly.

We also met with Maria in the pueblo. She is doing amazing. She is super busy so struggled reading the BOM before, but we send her one scripture a day to read and it works perfect for her. She loves it and is super cute and marks the scriptures. She expressed how this is something she really wants. She came to church yesterday. The ward is great and definitely made her feel loved and welcomed.

I think that is all the updates for this week. It has been fantastic. I have loved being able to really recognize the help of the Lord as we help others come unto Christ.

My district leader, Elder Bohne, also gave us all a talk to read by Tad R. Callister about becoming a consecrated missionary. It was just what I needed. I know the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints is the restored church of Jesus Christ. I know the He is always there to help us when we are doing the things in our life that we should be. I know that I cannot be perfect now, but that I can progress each day and become a little better because of the Atonement.

I hope you all have a fantastic week! Love you!

Love,

Hermana Bingham

Also, sorry I failed this week and took no photos. Next week I will have some, promise.

Week 12 - End of my first transfer in the field!‏

Dear Family and Friends!

Well I have officially ended my first transfer in the mission field! Crazy! I keep getting the question of how I feel.. and it is kinda like another birthday or something, I feel pretty much the same. ha. But I have reflected on where I am now compared to when I entered the MTC and it is miraculous how much I have been able to learn, adjust, love the people, etc in such a short time. Day to day it is sometimes hard to see the progress, but looking back I have no doubt that the Lord has helped me. I am extremely grateful.  

So today was transfer day. Everyone in my area stayed except for Hermana Ross. I am super sad she left! We actually all ¨knew¨ Elder Bohne was leaving because he was traing a new Elder to take his place in the office. But it turnes out he is staying and opening a new companionship in this area and training. So we now have 10 missionaries just in the Alcobendas ward. Crazy. And awesome. There is a lot of work to be done here.

Unfortunately, I had a cold this week and then passed it to Hermana Clements, but I think we are both on the getting well end. It is just tiring to be sick and go all day long. I definitely had no issues sleeping well this week. :) This week Hermana Clements and I had a lot of time to find new people to teach. We have already seen answers to our fasts and prayers. We taught a new man, Venancio. We aslo had a lesson set up with Claudia, we could not get ahold of her to confirm but had her address as well so just went. We were not expecting much, if she was even home (I know I need to work on having a little more faith), but Claudia and her awesome 18 year old daughter Vanesa were home and we had a great lesson with them. They are hard to get ahold of, but great when we can meet so hopefully just stopping by continues to work.

Karen, the lady who was going to get baptized 2 weeks ago, randomly showed up to our ward FHE activity that she used to always come to. After almost two weeks of trying to get ahold of her, it was so great to see her and her kids. We have a lesson with her this week. We are praying for inspiration as to what she needs.

Our old investigator, Cristian, that the elders are teaching now, invited us to his mom´s house to talk with her. It was a cool experience and awesome that Cristian is ready to be sharing the gospel with others.

Nancy and Roger are doing well. They are still progressing. The issue is still church attendance because of their work schedules. We had a pretty straight forward lesson with them about it and they committed to talk to their bosses. Tonight we will find out how that went. As soon as they are able to figure out a way to make it to church they will be ready for baptism.

One neat thing I studied this week started with me studying confidence and humility.  I realized that the word confianza in Spanish means both confidence and trust. So then I started studying trust and faith too and found this awesome connection between confidence, humility, trust, and faith. I know that as I come to have more faith in the Lord and trust in Him and His plan, I can be more confident and learn to really rely on Him.

I hope you are all doing well! Love you all!

Hermana Bingham

1. someone informed me I really did not include the picture of all the sisters from last pday, so here it is!

2. Me and Eusebio - the cutest old man we visit. He is less active because he is in a nursing home and cannot attend church, but is so sweet.

Week 11

Hello Family and Friends!

First off, thanks to my family for the birthday package! I may have opened it already.. I did not want to wait. Sorry. Loved it though, love you all! 

Well another week in the mission field has passed. Hermana Clements and I have had a rough time keeping our investigators and finding new ones, so that has been our focus this week. We did a lot of contacting. It wasn´t easy, but we saw little miracles. For instance, one day we had 15 minutes before medio dia so decided to go hard and set a goal of receiving 2 new contacts. We said a prayer, stopped EVERYONE in our path, and received 3! Wahoo! God loves us. We still have not been able to meet with Karen, but hopefully this week. One of our investigators, Cristian, we had to pass to the Elders to teach. It was super sad, but he is doing great and really increasing his faith. We are even meeting with his mom this week, which is a good sign since he is ready to share what he is learning. He is doing great. Nancy and Roger are still doing well, but struggling a little with comittment so we are moving their baptismal date back a bit. Maria is still awesome, her faith is really increasing. She lives far out in the pueblo so we only have time once a week to take the bus to see her, but she is learning and loving it. We met two new awesome people on the street this week that we have lessons set up for this week, so hopefully that goes well too! We are teaching a man from Palestine. It is super hard because he has basically no Christian background and speaks little english so we basically explain every single word very simply. But it is cool to think about the gospel terms on such a basic level. He is super interested in learning more about our religion, it is pretty cool. And I can now saw hello, thank you, and goodbye in Arabic. haha

Now for a few fun things I have done in the past week. Last Monday for pday all the missionaries of the ward went to lunch with Toni, a YSA member of the ward. He is super cool and it was really fun. We went to this pretty famous restaurant and ate all Spaniard food - ´tortillas´ (really like this thick potatoe cheesy things), ribs, pigs ears, squid, octopus, etc. I am not even a seafood person, but it was all good. I ate it all.

This weekend was great with general conference! Before I talk about it, funny comment. General is spanish is general - just pronounced differently - and great is genial. For a few days I kept saying, in Spanish, great conference instead of general conference. I mean, conference is great too so it kinda worked. haha. Anyway, I watched the womens, saturday morning, and saturday afternoon in English. They had another room in the church playing it in English for the missionaries. wahoo. Then I watched Sunday morning in Spanish and will have to read Sunday evening because of the time difference. Conference in the mission field is so different, but great. I learned alot to apply to my life now and had some insight on to help our investigators as well.

I got to eat at President and Hermana Jacksons house for Easter - being in the mission home area is the best! I am sure going to miss it when I have to leave. It was great to see them and eat amazing American food.

Another perk of living in the mission home area - sometimes the mission president comes with you on pday activities, like today. We went to this little pueblo way up in the mountains. We were going to do a little hiking as well, but did not have time. But President and Sister Jackson, the Chappels (senior office couple), and the 9 missionaries from Alcobendas all went. Super fun pday.

This week has been a great week of improvement for me. Following some zone and personal goals, leading lessons, being on the phone a  lot more, and being more confident with myself have all really helped. This past week I have really noticed how much I have learned (both Spanish and spiritually) in a short time. I am very grateful for the opportunity to serve a mission.

Also, on a random note, I keep forgetting to tell you this, but my companion is an awesome singer and has a song on iTunes. You should go look it up. It´s called Arise, by Rylee Haviland Clement.

Love you all so much!

Hermana Bingham

pics:

1. our bishop gave us kindle eggs with princesses inside

2. lunch with Toni

3. some of the weird, but good, food I ate

4. the beautiful Easter table at the Jacksons (sorry I did not take one with people in it..)

5. delicious food with Nancy and Roger

7. pretty view from today

8. the cool pueblo

9. the sisters! (This photo did not make it with Hilary's email.  Hopefully she will send it next week.) 

Week 10

Hello Family and Friends!

This past week I had many experiences that helped me grow and realize some areas I need to work on. It was a challenging week, with some really amazing moments in there too. Two of our investigators want to learn/practice English too. Hermana Clements and I realized they do not have a testimony of the Restoration - of Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon. So we went back to the basics and taught the first lesson of this in Spanish and English. I never realized how hard it is to think in both languages, translating is hard, but it was a great practice. Wednesday we had district meeting. President Jackson, his wife, and daughter that just got off her mission, were all there too. We had a wonderful discussion of the Atonement and how we can understand it better and how we can help our investigators understand it and apply it in their lives.

Thursday to Friday I went on intercambios to Alcala - another area of Madrid. I was with Hermana Bennet for the day. She was super nice. It was a little strange jumping into an area I know nothing about, but I made the best of it and learned from it. When I returned to Alcobendas Friday, Hermana Clements informed me that they had not had contact with Karen, our investigator who was supposed to be baptized Saturday. By that evening we found out she would not be able to make it to her baptism on Saturday. It was really hard news to come back to, but we have faith that we will be able to continue to meet with her and help her feel prepared in the future.

Last night all the missionaries in the Madrid area went to a devotional by Brad Wilcox - BYU professor and in charge of the foreign exchange program here. It was all in Spanish and I understood the just of it, wahoo! He talked about the family of Israel. I learned a lot, it was super interesting. Way too much to put here, but someday I can explain it all.

This week we loss a few investigators due to different reasons. And with the Karen situation, it made for a rough week. But I was reading the New Testament this morning about the life of Jesus and his apostles. I read a chapter where He performs miracles, then right after, his disciples have doubt and fear and are not understanding of the miracles Christ performed. I applied it to my own life and realized that there are miracles, no matter how small, in my life everyday and I need to recognize them, appreciate them, and be grateful for them. One miracle is Saturday, although we did not have a baptism, Hermana Clements and I ended up with hours of contacting time and got so many numbers of potential new investigators. The Lord is blessing us. I am so excited for general conference next weekend and Easter. I know that Christ lives. I am so grateful for the knowlege I have of Christ and His Gospel and the opportunity I have to share it.

I love you all! Thank you for all your emails and letters, it is great to hear from you.

Love,

Hermana Bingham

pics:

1. Hermana Clements and I enjoying the rain

2. Kebab - Turkish sandwiches they have everywhere here. You watch them heat the outside of this HUGE

chunk of meat then shave it off. The meat is a little sketch, but it tastes amazing.

3. Hermana Bennett and I during intercambios in Alcala

4. Isabela - an awesome girl (baptized a monthish ago) I taught during intercambios then randomly ran into her while in Madrid last night

Week 9 - A Month in Alcobendas!‏

Dear Family and Friends,

As of tomorrow, I will have been in the field for a full month. So crazy. This week had it´s ups and downs, as always. It was super rainy and freezing all week which made our contacting times a little rough, the streets were pretty empty. But that is okay, we survived. I was very grateful that I decided to actually bring a pair of rainboots, they were handy this week.

Investigators:

Karen - baptism this Saturday! She is so awesome and active in the ward already. Her and her two kids come to the activities and love it. At FHE Friday she brought delicious empeñadas (I have no idea if that is spelled right). We had a great lesson with her and she is on board and excited for her baptism. I love her so much and am super happy for her.

Magy - We unfortunately have to move her baptism back to April because she was super sick this week so we were not able to meet with her much. She is still doing great and on board, just will not be prepared by this Saturday. Next month though!

Nancy and Roger - Also doing well. They are always receptive to our lessons. They have been doing well at reading and praying. The only concern with them is work schedules and being able to go to church, so we are working on that.

Maria - New investigator with baptismal date. She has two adorable little boys. She came to church yesterday. Her baptism will be a little further out because she lives in a pueblo so Hermana clements and I are only able to go to her house once a week. But she is awesome and prepared.

Other investigators are doing well too. I think one of my most interesting lessons this week was with a man from Palestine. He spoke little English but we were able to talk about God´s love for us and families and prayer. He was actually really interested in finding out more about Christianity, he had no background with it. He is a really cool guy and although we have many differences culturally, teaching him is a great experience. I realized how much I often take for granted the circumstances I was born into and the blessing of being raised with the gospel in my life.

I also had a cool experience in English class this week. I only had two of my regulars there (normally 3) that are both Catholic. One of them brought questions we could go through and answer to practice our English. One question was ´´What is the most valuable thing you have?´´ We interpretered it both money wise and sentimental. It lead to a great discussion with them about the gospel. Most of class was filled with that, I loved it.

Elder Bohne in district meeting made a comment that ¨It doesn´t matter.´´ He was referring to the fact that we may not speak perfectly, or know everything, or be able to answer every question perfectly, but it doesn´t matter. As missionaries we are set apart to represent Christ and help others come closer to Him.

We also had an awesome ward activity on Saturday. The missionaries (mostly Hermana Pavez) were in charge. Hermana Pavez chose the theme of Lehi´s vision of the tree of life. We set the whole church up into the vision. We had an iron rod - string -  that everyone was blind folded and lead throughout the church. Those who did not ever let go were led to the tree of life and those who did let go at some point were led to the great and spacious building. We then got together and talked about the experiences everyone had and symbolism. It turned out really well, even better than I thought it would. The Alcobendas ward is awesome.

1. Karen´s adorable daughter had fun with my hand

 2. Karen´s son gave me a diploma.. still not sure for what but I loved it

3. Our beautiful tree of life.. not bad for a bunch of missionaries with limited supplies

4. The church turned into a maze for the iron rod

5. Hermana Clements and I and the tree of life

Week 8 - March 16, 2015

Dear Family and Friends, 

First of all, I need to tell my little sister Maegan Happy Birthday! She is currently serving in the Melbourne Australia Mission and doing great. Love and miss her tons!! Hope you had an awesome birthday Maegan and enjoy no longer being a teenager!

Next, I had a MUCH harder start to my week, but it is all good. There were a few amazing moments that made up for the hard moments. All week long we had appointment fall through. We only taught about half as many lessons as the previous week. But that did mean Hermana Clements and I had time to do lots of contacting! I´ll be honest, not my favorite thing, but H Clements is the best at it so I have a great example to follow and learn from.

We received a reference of a lady, Maria, who lives in the pueblos. In all other areas of Madrid, all missionaries take the buses to the pueblos for lessons when needed. But we have the AP´s and office elders with cars so usually they drive out there. But we were encouraged to have sisters teach this lady, so H. Clements and I took it. The pueblos are awesome. There are actual houses with backyards! And they are in the country more. It is pretty. We were given the not most clear directions, so ended up going a little (ok 30 min) further than we needed too. So that was unfortunate, but it happens. We made it to Maria´s house and she is awesome! I am excited to teach her.

As far as lessons go - we had one with Nancy and Roger. They did AWESOME with their commitments to read and pray. We discussed the chapter in the BOM they read and they had great insight and it was wonderful. They are so great. Nancy came to church and loved it. Unfortunately, we did not know but Roger works as a life guard during this season, every Sunday, so we are trying to work through that obstacle now. But Nancy is still on track for baptism april 11. When we went to our second lesson with Magy, she had been reading the BOM - even marked it up and had great questions - and praying. She was very receptive of the next lesson we taught as well. She unfortunately got called into work Sunday so did not come to church, but that is totally an obstacle we can work through. She loves the things we teach her and I love our lessons with her. Karen and her 2 kids came to church. They already have friends there which is awesome. They are also doing great. They come to the ward FHE every Friday. She even asked if she could bring a treat to the one this week. She is the sweetest. Her faith is continuing to grow and it is great to see how the things we teach touch her life. That is all our investigators with a date. We have many others that are struggling with one thing or another, but they are also all great and I love them all!

The other two Hermanas in our area had a baptism for their investigator, Angel, Saturday. It was at in the stake center by the MTC. Karen (investigator) and her 2 kids came, it was a great experience for them and I think they really enjoyed it. The baptism was beautiful and Angel is such an amazing man, he was already helping us in lessons and I know will be a great benefit to the Alcobendas ward. After the baptism, I ran into two of the teachers from the MTC that I love - that was super fun to talk to them for a bit!

As far as the Spanish goes, I have a story from yesterday to help explain. Andy, the ward mission leader, was teaching gospel essentials. The lesson was on the gifts of the Spirit. A few minutes into his lesson he explains that he is going to call on the missionaries to explain the gifts of the spirit as we go through them. The first one was the gift on tongues. He turns to me and says Hermana Bingham, will you please explain the role of the gift of tongues in your life. Way to put me on the spot. So I struggled my way through explaining what it is and how important it is in my life now and I know it is real - I can always speak Spanish way better when I am teaching about the gospel or bearing my testimony. He said thanks then asked if everyone understood everything I said. A few brave souls raised their hands. then he asked who understood the just of what I was saying and everyone mumbled yes and shook their head. haha. So basically, I am far from speaking well but I can at least normally fumble my way through conversations - about the gospel at least. Normal day to day tasks are still a ways to come. I do love the spanish language and learning it though. It is coming along slowly.

We had lunch at a recent convert´s house yesterday. She wanted us to teach her how to make cookies after. We had given her the list of ingredients. But Latins, love them, but they cook very different than us and do not really follow recipes like we do. In fact, measuring cups are not even a thing here as far as I know. So she did not have all the ingredients. We tried anyway. When we had to leave there was a cookie fiasco. She turned it into the delicious dessert bread thing - bizcocho - and gave us some later than night. I have no idea how she did it, but it was great. I was impressed. We need to make really American cookies sometime though and prove we actually can.

Last thing for this week quickly. I read an article by Boyd K. Packer in the April 2015 Liahona about the Atonement. He shared, ´´As mortals, we may not, indeed cannot, understand fully HOW the Savior fulfilled His atoning sacrifice. But for now the HOW is not as important as the WHY of His suffering.´´ I really liked this. The Atonement is hard to fully comprehend. But what is important is that we know Christ suffered for us so that we do not have to suffer the price of our sins because HE LOVES US. I know this is true.

I love you all!

Hermana Bingham

pic - Hermana Clements and I - definitely took it right now bc I took no others all week. and I made a goal to try to send one every week. I will come up with something more exciting for next week!