Busy Happy Week

Family and friends,

This week was crazy. In a good way. We ran from one thing to the next
all week. Made the week fly by. Wednesday we had a zone meeting with
all the missionaries from Madrid. I love meetings with big groups of
missionaries and our mission president, I always learn a ton. After,
Hermana Pack and the Larsens (senior missionary couple) prepared a
thanksgiving dinner for all of us. Tons of food, I don't know how they
did it. It was delicious. Thursday Hermana Maza had the privilege to
be the escort of her mom in the temple. Her mom recently completed one
year as a member and President Pack gave her permission to go. Which
meant I got to go as well. It was great to get an extra trip to the
temple and meet Hermana Maza's mom. It was a little weird to be with
family of a missionary, but a great experience. Thursday a family from
the ward, the Guzmans, also made a thanksgiving dinner for us. Even
though Thanksgiving is not a holiday here, it was great to be able to
celebrate it with people. The members are so great and take good care
of us! On Friday we had a ward activity and watched Meet the Mormons.
We had a few investigators come that loved it. It's an awesome movie
to introduce some things about our church. On Saturday we went to
teach three kids that we are teaching. They forgot and were having a
going away party for a friend who was moving to Chile. They just
invited all their friends to listen to our message as well. Somehow we
got about 10 kids to listen to us attentively. It was a fun lesson. 

Gerbert and Yonathon are still progressing well. We are all getting
excited for Gerbert's baptism in a few weeks. Also, Hermana Maza and I
were in a picture taking mood this week, so enjoy the millions of
photos. Mostly of food. No, I'm not going hungry. 

Love you all! Hope you enjoyed your Thanksgiving!

Love, 

Hermana Bingham 

Thanksgiving meal at zone conference

Food

I love Hermana Maza!

Temple with Hermana Maza's mom

Attempt at panoramic at the Guzmans

Fufu with Rosa (recent convert). You eat it with your hands.

Ecuadorian food with Gizella (investigator). and her sister Eliana (member).

A bunch of the kids we taught

African food with Yonathon (investigator). and Diana (member).

Eber and Marie Carmen (members) are leaving to Ecuador for awhile and not sure if we will be here when they return.  Love them so much!

Food with Bishop Palma and his wife Marie Fe

Visit from Elder Christiansen and Elder Dyches‏

Family and Friends, 

It's been a great week. Another week that I've felt so blessed.
Gerbert and Yonathon (found out this week his name is spelt with a Y
not a J) are progressing great and preparing for their baptisms. We've
met with Gerbert almost every day this week. I am really grateful for
the ward and support they are giving them. Yesterday Yonathon said, "I
like church. Normally I would just sit at home and watch movies on
Sunday. Church is way better." I'm excited and grateful for their
progress. The kids that we are teaching are loving the lessons as
well. We taught The Plan of Salvation and I thought we would teach
pretty simple but kids minds are curious and we ended up answering a
lot of questions. I loved it. Every day I am loving the work and the
people here more and more. 

We also has a fireside because two members of the Seventy were here on
Thursday. It was a wonderful experience. We had a meeting first with
only missionaries and later all the wards in Madrid were invited. I
learned a lot and had a lot to ponder after the meetings. Looking at
my notes I had written a ton of questions. Here are a few. Those who
spoke were Elder Christiansen, Sister Christiansen, Elder Dyches,
Sister Dyches, President Pack, and Hermana Pack. 

Questions from fireside:
-What would my response be when I see the Savior? 

-Do I know who I am? What my divine identity is?
-Am I making the small decisions daily that will lead to what my
eternal goals are? 

-When have I seen the empowering power of Christ in my life? 

-Am I asking in prayer to see His hand in my life? To learn more
through personal experiences about the Atonement? 

-Do I know how to not just teach about the Atonement but apply it and
teach how to apply it? 

-Am I putting into action the things I know to be true? (I shouldn't
just know something, but know/feel/and do it!) 

-What can I do between now and Christmas to become more closer to
Christ? What can I offer Him? How can I become more like Him? 

-What will I do now to strengthen my testimony and become more
committed to the gospel of Jesus Christ so that I can have a
multigenerational, strong, happy family in the church (like Alma in
Book of Mormon)? 

-What is the importance of the temple to me? Why do I "love to see
(and enter) the temple"?

It was a wonderful spirit-filled day. 

I challenge you all to ponder
these questions as well. Thanks for all the love and support. Hope you
all enjoy Thanksgiving this week! I wanted to make a few pies so
searched in multiple stores during pday today for pie pans... They
don't exist and couldn't even find anything to use as a substitute.
Sad. But it's all good. You'll have to eat some pie for me! :) Love
you all! 

Love, 

Hermana Bingham 

My companion was lucky enough to get a photo with Elder and Sister Christiansen. 

Herman's of barrio 8 with the girls of the Tellez Family

I love being a missionary‏

Dear family and friends,




This week was an amazing week to be a missionary. I love looking back
and seeing the importance of pushing through the hard times or weeks
then see the miracles and blessings in abundance after the trial. One
of our investigators, Leo, has been an investigator my entire time
here in Barrio 8. We've really struggled with a few things in his
teachings. Tuesday we were teaching him and a lady from barrio 6
walked by us - only because she had something bothering her in her eye
so she was going to use the bathroom in the church before going in to
the temple. She saw us, knows Leo as well, and thought 'do I stay and
help or go fix my eye?'. She stayed. And was a huge help. After we
talked about what we each felt we could do to help Leo, and we were
all on the same page. I love the Spirit. She also had some references
of people in our area to pass by. Later that day we had time so we
passed by one family. We didn't know a whole lot, just they had been
to English class a long time ago. We had to take the bus pretty far,
took awhile to find, the light in the building wasn't working and was
a little sketch, but we made it. Turns out the grandma of these kids
is a member of our ward. The kids are 8,10, and 11 and precious. They
just wanted to read the Book of Mormon even though they knew nothing.
So we explained it and read some and gave them each a copy. A few days
later we went back and they had read quite a bit. They had a friend
over and we're sharing everything they had learned with her. One of
the girls said, "if you want to know if the book is true, you have to
read from right HERE. the beginning". I love teaching kids, they have
lots of faith and just say what they think. 


We also met with our investigator Jonathan. He has no religious
background so the teaching has been little by little. He didn't know
much about Jesus at all, never heard words like atonement, faith,
baptism. I've loved teaching him though because he has real desire to
learn and know. This week he accepted to be baptized. January 9th.
Seems forever away. Next year. But will come fast and is perfect for
him. Gerbert also accepted to be baptized the 19th of December. We had
a few investigators and some of the less actives we've been working
with at church yesterday and it made my day. It's been a great, busy
week full of miracles. These were just some highlights. I'm so
grateful to be a missionary and be a really small part of the Lord's
work. 


Love you all! Hope it's been a great week! 
Love, 
Hermana Bingham 
I met Hermana Koivisto this week. She knew me because my blog is her
mom's favorite. Haha. So this photo is for Hermana Koivisto's mom. :) 


We went to Parque Europa today.  There's a bunch of mini versions of famous places around Europe.  The truth is I enjoyed the beautiful green grass, trees, and nature probably more than the sites.  But it was cool.












No I don't really get to knock on dramatic doors like this.





We made it to Paris!

Sickness... But we continue to be blessed‏

Friends and Family,

This week was a week of health trials, but as always was still full of
blessings and miracles. Last Sunday I had major jaw pain that lasted
about 4 days, and is finally feeling almost back to normal (maybe
TMJ... We don't know for sure). This weekend all 6 missionaries
serving in my ward had upset stomachs and fevers- flu. I'm the only
one that hasn't actually thrown up out of the 6... Knock on wood.
Being sick as a missionary is not fun. Thankfully it hasn't affect our
work too much. 

As missionaries we are always asking people if they know anyone that
could benefit from the message we share with them. This week we found
three new, awesome people this way. One is Gisella, the sister of a
member. She's received all the lessons before and already has a
testimony of the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon and Joseph Smith.
The other is Mildrey, the friend of a member who just moved here. We
had a great lesson with her and she's excited to learn more. The other
is Juan Carlos, the friend of our investigator Jonathon. Juan Carlos
came to church (Jonathon invited him) and wants to learn more. He
actually lives in another ward so other missionaries are going to
teach him. He's really awesome and prepared. I'm excited to hear about
his progress. 

This week was also transfers, but nothing too new. All the Hermanas in
barrio 8 are staying! Elder Lattronico is going home and Elder
Wiltbank will train. I'm really happy to get to be companions with
Hermana Maza again! We are going to have a great transfer. Hope you
all have a great week! Love you all!

Love, 

Hermana Bingham 

I love Spain.

Happy Halloween‏

Family and Friends!

Another great week here in Madrid. One of the highlights was a lesson
we had with a man, David, from Ecuador. The week before on pday we
walked into a store to buy new watches, yes mine broke sadly. David
was working and looking at our chappas so we talked with him and he
knows some about the church. Our lesson with him this week went really
well- he has sincere great questions and is excited to read the Book
of Mormon. Another great moment was walking into the piso of one of
our other investigators, Jonathan, and he was halfway through a
session of general conference. He had also read a pamphlet was gave
him about the plan of salvation and had written down questions he had
throughout studying it. I love investigators like that. We also have a
few less active families that we are working hard with, and two of
their kids (from different families) were at church yesterday. :) 

Sorry this email is really short but I've had a good week and love all
that I'm doing. Oh, one of my favorite things is all the new friends I
get to make in the process of sharing the gospel, and I got to see a
bunch of my friends from the Alcobendas ward on Saturday because they
had to come to our building for the font. It was amazing see them!
Hope you've all had a wonderful week! Love you! 

Love, 

Hermana Bingham 

Don't let the sun rays fool you. We were FREEZING!

The district

We carved pumpkins! From what I could tell about half of Spain celebrates Halloween and the other half no.