Elder Jayson Bingham : 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.