We sort of did it!

Well this week has been really interesting and extremely stressful. First off, Elder Moreno finally came Monday night, so I have a comp now! A comp that doesn't know the area or the people, so I have to take charge with that. But Elder Moreno is super cool. He's from Honduras, tiene 6 meses en la misión, y tiene 23 años. He's a convert of about two years, so he's able to share some pretty awesome testimonies about his conversion with people. Almost makes me jealous that I'm not a convert.  For the first part of the week he was basically dying from the cold. He came in from Beni, which is ridiculously hot, and when you go to Beni, you can only take one bag. So he didn't have his other bags with winter stuff for a few days, so I let him borrow my gloves and hat and jacket and sweater and whatever else he wanted. It's kind of hilarious how much these South Americans bundle up in the "winter" here. Like it gets cold, I need a jacket or sweater or whatever, but I can always handle it way better than them. I love the cold. Makes me feel tough. Anyway, he has his other bag now, and plus it got hot again the last few days. Miss you winter.

This Wednesday we had interviews with Presidente Cabezas. Which involved going to the offices for a while, watching mormon messages and stuff while waiting, and then having the 10 minute interview. We were there for about 4 hours. But it was still fun. Plus we got KFC for free for lunch. In my interview, Presidente basically told me I need to do better. I'm not doing bad, but I need to do better. He asked to see my study journal, which I've used basically not at all, so I need to improve in that. And then he asked me how we're doing in my area with the 20 encuentras every day. I only learned about this recently. Basically presidente wants us to make 20 encuentras (or contacts I think) every day. An encuentra involves talking with someone who isn't already an investigator or member and setting a time to return and talk some more. Which getting 20 of those in every day is pretty much impossible. We've been trying really hard this week to contact and find new investigators, but this area is really hard for that. But, I guess we need to try harder. Cause we're running out of solid investigators. Lots of contacting will be happening this week I think.

As far as highlights this week go, I can really only think of the baptism of Yolanda y Raul. And not Maria (GAH). Maria is super ready for baptism, but she wasn't able to make it to the baptismal interview this week. And she really wants the support of her parents for baptism, but she says they think she hasn't been investigating long enough or something. They don't think she's sure about her decision. We know she's ready, (she's already in Moroni in the Book of Mormon. Freaking Moroni. Almost finished.) and she really wants to be baptized soon, but her parents aren't sure. So we're going to talk to them tomorrow and get that sorted out. And maybe start teaching them as new investigators. Sería chevre. 

Getting Yolanda and Raul baptized was equally as stressful, except we actually got it done. We had to visit them like every day this week to get all the lessons in and an interview done. But unfortunately, there usually isn't a man in the house when we go to teach her, so we had to look for a member every day to come with us. Which is the worst. because all the men are always working when we need them to accompany us.  But with some prayers, some luck, and some gift of the Holy Ghost, we were able to find someone every day, get the entrevistas in, and get them baptized! I'm really excited for them. They'll be leaving to Spain this week, but hopefully we can get them in contact with some missionaries there. they'll be great members.

Thats about all for this week. Love you guys

Elder Bingham

BTW, I'm not sure why we can't eat pig. Its a mission rule. Also cant eat strawberry or lettuce. Something with them could potentially be unsafe if not prepared right. It's for safety.

Elder Moreno and I pre-baptism. I baptized Yolanda and he Baptized Raul.

All the people that came. Raul and Yolanda in the middle.

The best looking elders in Santa Cruz