Workin with the ladies

 Don't take that the wrong way please. I just seems like this week we have taught like 90 percent women for some reason. That almost never happens. But its been going pretty well.

All of that started out when I gave a baptismal interview on Tuesday to one of Elder Carlson's investigators. At the end of it, I asked her who she wants to baptize her, and she asked me if I could do it! Like what the heck? I barely even know her. So on Wednesday I baptized one of the three converts from Belen 2. It was kind of weird.

But then the rest of the week we've gotten a few solid references and prepared investigators. All of them women. One was a 13 year old girl who went to the baptism on Wednesday with her cousins who are members, and she really wants to learn about the gospel. Started teaching her.  On Monday we started teaching a college age girl named Yanira who has been going to church for a while but her schedule just opened up enough for us to teach her. She already feels like the BOM is the word of god and has already read up to 1 nefi 18! And then yesterday we put a fecha bautismal on a single mom who moved in with a member recently and wants to change her life.  What can i say, the ladies just seem to love hearing the Gospel from Bingham and Buhler. Dream team.

I think that's all for this week though. Have some pics. love you all!!

Elder Bingham

his giant building under construction in our area. And the painters just sitting on planks. Bolivia

Goat selfie!!

we took a short cut crossing this canal in our area. check that one of the Belen bucket list

"I never thought I would have to sanitize just one hand"

Life's an adventure here in Belen with Elder Buhler. I think my subject line each week will probably just end up being something funny Elder Buhler said. Enjoy.

So last Monday we were playing soccer and apparently Elder Buhler fell on his hand pretty bad, it was hurting him the rest of the day, but we didn't think much of it. But then on Tuesday his had was swollen like when you inflate a rubber glove. So we decided we should probably get it checked out. Turns out, he fractured a bone in his hand!! It was kind of funny because it didn't actually hurt him that bad and we were not expecting a break. But now he's rocking that hand cast and literally everyone we meet has to ask him "¿que se hizo?" and he has to explain "me caí mal sobre estos dos dedos y rompió este hueso acá". Sunday in church he was just saying that like a broken record every time a member shook his hand and we found it hilarious.  The poor guy is typing his emails with one hand how.  It's been fun. Now weird things happen like where he can only put hand sanitizer on one hand. hence the subject line. 

But as far as proselyting goes, this week was pretty normal. We had some solid lessons and a couple investigators in church, but I can't think of anything too exciting to write about. But Belen is progressing little by little and Im happy! Everything's good around here.

talk to you all next week.

Elder Bingham

The only pictures from this week is where we went for breakfast this morning. DONUT SHAKE

You literally just get a combo where they put a donut on top of your milkshake for 18 bs and its awesome. I was way too happy about it. Might steal that idea and put it on a food truck when I get home 

broken hand thumbs up

BUHLER!!!

So transfers happened again. And they were definitely not what I expected.  I'm staying another transfer in Belen! This will be my 4th transfer here. I was a little bummed to hear that at first, since I've already been here a while, but then I found out who my comp is. Elder BUHLER! Yes, like Ferris Buhler. Elder Buhler is one of the gringos from my group and we've been good friends for a while now. He's a really funny guy. We're having a ton of fun already. Elder Carlson also got his new comp after Elder Winger died and a guy named Elder Sauceda-Leon came into the house. He's a Mexican from Arizona. So right now in our house we are living with 6 missionaries from the United States. Which is basically unheard of in this mission. It's kind of hilarious. But don't worry, we're still getting work done. 

Elder Buhler and I have had a few cool appointments this week, and I feel like we're working a lot more effectively than I did last transfer with my other comp. And yesterday was one of the funnest proselyting days I've had in a while. This week, there was a group of Americans in church. It was weird. A whole bunch of young men and women came down for a humanitarian EFY and they went to church with us. Poor guys didn't understand anything that was going on. But then their leaders decided it would be cool to have them divide up into groups that afternoon and go visit people with us! So Buhler and I left with one of their instructors that spoke Spanish, and then 2 young women and young one man to go visit a recent convert. They were pretty cool, they just had no idea what we were talking about. But we actually had a really spiritual lesson with Patty, the convert. I think they felt the spirit at least.

Later that day we had a really cool lesson with a couple named Roberto and Patricia. We found them a couple weeks ago, and in this return appointment they were even cooler. We started off the lesson listening to them complain about the catholic church a lot and how it just wants to make money off of baptisms and stuff. Then they told us how they want to know more about the book of mormon, we read it with them, and they accepted a baptismal invitation! They're an awesome family, they have 3 kids that are really interested too.

I just realized I suck at telling proselyting stories. I'm sorry, I swear the mission is actually really cool. I'm way better at telling about weird things that happen in Bolivia. But sadly, I don't have any of those either. I hope you're all happy. At least I have good photos this week!

Elder Bingham

there's cool graffiti in Belen

I was really proud of my agenda decorating for this transfer

Elder BUHLER

totally knocked on this door and scored a new investigator. True story. His name is Wilfredo and he's super cool

us with all the Americans on their EFY trip!

Elder Bingham longs for sweat

This week I had a hard time deciding what my subject line would be. I was debating between the one I chose, "Elder Bingham bundles up", "Elder Bingham tries being a hobo", "Elder Bingham feels like an eskimo", "Elder Bingham switches teams" (but not in THAT way. chill. Im still straight), and "Elder Bingham is FREAKING COLD". I hope the rest of this email can explain those sentences a little better. If you want further clarification, shoot me an email.

So this Friday the dreaded south winds came in. Here they just call the short little attack of winter the "sur". I don't know why. But HOLY CRAP it has been cold. This may seem weird coming from someone in Bolivia who normally complains about the heat, but thats just how its going right now. The humidity and the cold winds just make it painful. I always thought I would be looking forward to the cold front here, but now I'm really missing the heat. I'm worried I'm going to die coming back to Utah in the middle of February. Saturday was the worst day. It was actually one of the crappier days in my mission all around. But we're still hanging in there. 

Saturday, to explain a little more, we had an appointment every hour from 2 until 8. The agenda was full. But the bad part was that it just barely got cold. So we bundled up good in the morning. Not even kidding, I put on two pairs of socks, two pairs of pants, a sweater, a thick coat on over that, and then I was rocking a hat and gloves. And it was STILL cold. And then we went proselyting. Literally every appointment and every plan b we had that day fell through. And then to top it off, at the end of the day we went to our appointment, and some guy came to the door, say us, said "NO HAY NADIE", and slammed the door. Ouch. That day there was not a single person who let us in their house to teach them. We were just in the streets the whole day. Had a few pretty lousy contacts too. But hey such is the mission some times. Sunday was slightly less cold and today the sun came out again. So we're good now.

In other news, Elder Winger is dying this week. Be sure to mourn his passing.  But Elder Bingham still has some life left in him. And hey, we have transfers tomorrow! so we'll see what happens. Wish me luck! Enjoy summer!

Elder Bingham

We made pizza at a member's house!

one morning we all just bundled up excessively because it was way too cold.

and then Elder Morocho hopped in a sleeping bag outside