I miss being dry!

Well, as I told you last week, its really freaking hot here. I'm pretty sure I haven't been completely dry my entire time in Riberalta, because you always have a little bit of sweat somewhere. Or a whole lot of sweat everywhere. Usually the latter. But I'm getting used to it. Clouds are also really rare here, so the sun is brutal. Which means I'm getting really tan, which I guess is a good thing. But I've got those killer missionary tan lines going strong.

Well this week has been pretty cool, but also a little boring. Most of our days are spent walking a lot and dying of heat while looking for people to teach. We now have like 4 solid investigators. One of them, Johan, accepted a fecha bautismal! he was one of our adopted investigators, and he already has all the lessons, just wants a better testimony of the book of mormon. So we'll be reading the book of mormon with him in visits to prepare him for baptism on September 9th! We also found this old guy named Hernán thats super cool. But the work progresses slowly.

The other cool thing about Beni is people actually let you do service! We're going to be working with machetes a lot. We've done a few service projects in another area in our zone, mostly cleaning out wells and carpiando. I don't actually know how to say "carpiar" in English. But its basically cutting tall grass with a machete. And I enjoy it a lot. Good way to let off steam. And it makes you feel super tough with this weird sickle thing in the left hand and the machete in the right. When you think of the "poor south african village adventure" this is a lot of what we do for service. 

Well I think the best way I can describe Riberalta is with photos. So I'll send what I have. Also I cant think of what else to write and I'm running low on time so this will have to do. Love you all

Elder Bingham

in the plaza central last monday with some other elders

we finally tried asai, which is a fruit that apparantly only grows around this area of south america. And its really famous among missionaries for being freaking delicious. But you basically only eat it in smoothie form. Which is fine by me.

supposedly this lake (lago espejo) is cursed. And we can see it from the edge of our area. 

You would have to google the story.

mire elder un pollo! en la forma de un arbol!

for your weekly "random things we see every day in riberalta", heres somebody's 

pet monkey chained to a post by its tail.

The Wonders of Adoption

This email sent to you late because the internet and cell phone service shut down here for a while. and its still really slow. Thank you for your patience.

Well cambios came. And I'm a dad!!!! But I'm really only adopting.

So we got the phone calls Tuesday night, and I got send to open the area Forestal 2 in Riberalta! Which is a city in Beni, which is the really poor and really freaking hot district in Bolivia. I'm also training. But I'm just finishing training my new comp, which would be why I'm just adopting. His name is Elder Gonzales, and he's the first of probably lots of Peruvian comps. 

So I adopted a son, we divided the area of Forstal where two Elders already were, so we adopted the area. And we also adopted a baptism on the 19th that the other elders had, but he lives in what is now our area. So we assumed responsibility. He's this super old dude named Carlos, and I was glad to finish teaching him. He's really cool. I'll send some pics of the baptism.

So let me tell you about Riberalta. Its a really humble city. There's barely any cars, people take motorcycles everywhere. and we take mototaxis everywhere. The dirt everywhere is really red. The people are a lot more receptive from what i`ve seen so far. And its REALLY HOT. I'm dying. Its consistently like 35ish degrees and humid. and the sun is brutal. So I've started wearing a hat everywhere that's a little too small for my giant head. But it's also really styling. Also apparantly theres a machete gang that goes around in the nightime, so we have to be in our houses at 8 instead of 9. But don't worry mom, I'll be fine.

Elder Gonzales and I have spent our days so far getting lost trying to find houses, because neither of us know the area yet. But he's really cool. I would be completely lost without him, since luckily he's really good with directions. The first comp i've had who's younger than me (18 todavia), but I don't feel like I'm teaching too much. His other trainer was really good. I'm just his adopted father, we probably don't have the same special relationship yet. But we're having fun.

Basically in Riberalta a lot of things happen that make you say "well you don't see that every day". Except in Riberalta, you do see things like that every day. Like we went to the ward mission leaders house and his brother in law was cutting and cleaning an armadillo that he had killed with a machete. (sorry i forgot to take pics because I was kind of grossed out). Naked kids running around outside their houses. People still draw water from wells here (which is actually awesome). And i'm sure lots of other weird things that I can't think of right now. I've heard that at some point i'll probably eat monkey, turtle eggs, alligator, and maybe armadillo. It's going to be an adventure. I'll let you know in future emails about other weird things that will surely happen.

Well that's all for me, pray I don't die of heat.

Elder Bingham

(this came in as an answer to a question from his dad) Yes when you get transferred to Beni you have to fly there. Which also means we can only take one suitcase of 20 kilos, so I had to leave a lot of stuff in my other bag in Santa Cruz. Including my suit that I won't be wanting here (because its freaking hot), and my nicest ties that I don't want to ruin here. Because clothes get ruined here whether you like it or not. And google photos of the Riberalta airport. its really weird. 

I think I saw that river from a hill when we got lost in a mototaxi one time. trying to send that pic but it might not load. Supposedly theres also a cursed lake (lago espejo i think) that we can see from some hill in our area. Ill try to find it some day.

oh, i got my suit, and I love the ties. so I put them all on. Thanks mom!

Other things we've done and other places we've been. I'm too lazy to caption them all. 

"Somos mayores que la PIL"

"Somos mayores que la PIL" is something Elder Ferreira said this week. And I don't actually remember the context, but it was hilarious when he said it. PIL, by the way, is the big milk/juice company here in Bolivia. This subject is kind of lame, but I kind of committed to putting an Elder Ferreira quote there every week. So there you go. 

As it turns out, everyone thinks I look like superman "Elder Clark Kent" hasn't died yet. We have one member who lives across the street who says she was with her friend in the car when we walked past. She told her that we were the missionaries in her ward, and her friend said I look like Superman. And then a couple days later this same member was outside her house in the street with her cousin when we walked past. So talking to me, she asked her cousin "como quien parece?" or "who does he look like?". So she thought for a second, and then "Ohh! Superman!!". I guess its because of the glasses. And because I'm white. And all my muscles, I hope.

As far as Saul goes, we actually lost contact with him. I'm bummed out about it. And his little sister got baptized in her uncle's church that he started like two days after we started visiting him, and she wants like nothing to do with us now. Sadly, I don't think we'll be having a baptism this transfer. But hopefully we can find Saul and start teaching him again.

But early this week, we changed houses, in what I thought was going to be way better than our old house. But as it turns out, some things kind of suck. Like the tiny bathroom that always has water on the floor for some reason. And the doors that are really hard to open and close. And Peruvians tend not to flush their toilet paper and just leave it in the corner. But its still better than the old house. And sorry, mom, but I didn't take pictures. I'm kind of bad at that. I would say "next week" but I probably won't remember to take pictures this week either. I'll won't raise your expectations higher than they should be.

But this week went pretty well. We actually have investigators with fecha bautismal. we started re-teaching an older investigator named Viky, who has had a whole lot of problems with her ex husband and his sister. She wants to be baptized, but says she has some problems with repentance and forgiveness. She accepted a baptismal date, but definitely needs some prayers. I would appreciate help with that. Sadly, if she's baptized, it might not be while im in this area. We have transfers next Tuesday already, and I think I'll be leaving. Just a gut feeling, I actually have no idea. but we'll find out.

Well that's all for this week. Love you all!

Elder Bingham

PS: I officially completed 5 months in the mission. I feel old

My comp is a little crazy and he spray painted his tie. But it actually looks kind of cool

me with Golver (investigator on the left) and Fernando (member in the middle). And also I have no idea why my head looks so weird in this photo, don't ask

mateamos al planificar, y planificamos al matear

We were waiting for a member in a park so we decided to head to the swings for a little bit

A Despicable me 3 promotion has been on the boxes of Chocapic (the best cereal in Bolivia) that comes with a "foto clip". You're supposed to put your own picture here, but I decided Jesus would be better