aguayo and intercambios

So this week was filled with beautiful ties, intercambios, and a baptism! Not from my area but a baptism nonetheless. I'll let the pics do most of the talking, I have lots of them this week.

So Elder Kerr bought a whole bunch of aguayo (no idea how to spell that), which is this cool fabric they use a lot in bolivia, and he paid a member to make ties out of them. and then sold them for 24 bs a pop to everyone in the zone. I bought three and they are awesome. Keep a look out in the pics.

also this week I did an intercambio with my buddy Elder Sauceda, one of our ZL's, and one with my little bro Elder Carlson in my area.

Sorry to be boring but I'm just gonna send some captions with the pics and call that my email for the week. Enjoy!

Distrito de Elder Bingham #7

Little bro Carlson and I

everyones favorite assistant Elder Marispini is dying this week. RIP

the elders in the zone with our aguayo ties

my favorite 12 year old brandon. He got baptized this week.

"I'M COLD THATS WHY" - E' Sauceda

when you can't stop knocking doors because you want to share the gospel so bad

E' Carlson and I discovered that if we walk for 10 minutes out the back of my area on this jungle path we get to a river!! It was super cool

more from the hidden river

E' Sauceda and I found a nice sign in his area. I think it really brings out my personality

Model area

So you know how in the Missionary Handbook it says that a district leader's area should be a model for the other areas in his district? Me and Elder Buhler took that statement to another level this week. Let me explain.

We have a family we found about a month ago that we're teaching, and they have a daughter who is a model for a living. That was actually her excuse for why she couldn't read the book of mormon. Something like "I'm a model, so I couldn't read your book. I was too busy with people taking my picture all the time." Then this week on Tuesday, we started teaching another girl who just so happens to be a model! Her and her boyfriend that is. The other thing about model investigators is they tend to like to greet men with a kiss on the cheek, which is custom here but is definitely a no-go for missionaries. But sometimes it's unavoidable.  

On Thursday we were in model #1's house teaching her family, she wasn't there. But towards the end of the lesson, we heard some ruckus by the door. I turned around, and all of a sudden, 5 or 6 beautiful women walked through the door.  I'm assuming that they were model #1's friends. All of them said "buenas noches!" and then came in one by one trying to shake our hands. Our model investigator knew that we aren't allowed to greet with a kiss, but a few of them didn't hear her trying to tell them that. Luckily Elder Buhler was positioned closer to them than I was, he ended up getting two or three kisses, but then by the time those girls got to me they realized we weren't going for it and just shook my hand like normal. But then one of them decided to go all the way around the table to get to me and I ended up getting a kiss too.  It was an extremely uncomfortable experience, but at the same time a really funny one. I hope you all enjoyed it.

So there's your funny story for the week. The rest of the week was fairly uneventful. But it was a good one, we found some solid investigators that definitely have baptism potential. More updates next week. Here have some photos!

Love you all

Elder Bingham

pic 1: how a really tall man looks on the wheel hump seat in a tiny Bolivian bus

pics 2-3: it got really windy and cold yesterday. So windy that it RIPPED THIS TREE OUT OF THE GROUD. Free roadblocks.

pic 4: the gringo trap-house's collection of soda cans. I made a temple out of it. Can you see the similarity??

how a really tall man looks on the wheel hump seat in a tiny Bolivian bus

it got really windy and cold yesterday. So windy that it RIPPED THIS TREE OUT OF THE GROUND. Free roadblocks.

the gringo trap-house's collection of soda cans. I made a temple out of it. Can you see the similarity??

dunkin heads and dodging snakes

Hey fam, glad you all enjoyed the reunion, low key I'm super jealous and that sounds like it was a ton of fun. Next year I'll be there and we'll take the gold for volleyball 2 years in a row for sure! Also I'll probably kick the old man off his throne in badminton. We'll see.

Update: still have like 10 cans of Dr Pepper Cherry. Still fetching delicious.

So this week was actually great!! After 5 transfers in my area, I thought I had basically tried everything in every part of our area. But then I remembered that there's a couple parts where we have barely even contacted people. So this week we went over to San Silvestre, which is a smallish neighborhood in our area. Turns out, the place is a freaking gold mine!! We got like 8 new investigators over there this week and three more in a barrio close by. So if you ever get bored of your area, just work in a different part of it for a while and you'll be fine! Lesson learned.

Funny story from this week. On Friday during a lesson some private number called us. I answered it and they asked for Elder Buhler. I told the guy we were busy, and we called them after the lesson. Turns out, his snake from his last area somehow got his number and is trying to talk to him!! She started asking him the direction of our chapel and what time the reunion is at. Buhler told her the direction before we realized she was going to try and come visit him in church on Sunday, so we decided it was better not to tell her what time its at. Buhler told her she should probably just go to Los Angeles ward where she belongs.

Then later that day we had Yanira's baptism! This was our second baptism in a row where the investigator has asked Elder Buhler to baptize AND confirm her. Buhler's just a natural charmer. We've been making fun of him a bit for it because we all know he's a consecrated missionary and doesn't flirt with girls, but they just seem to like him anyway. Yanira's actually a super solid convert, she has a lot of faith! She has told us that she has got in fights with her family about getting baptized and that they are completely opposed, but she wanted to do it anyway! Pretty sure she still hasn't told her family that she got baptized, so I'm a little worried about that. But she'll be fine. She would be a great missionary. Also during the baptism, Buhler's snake started calling me again!!! I just kept hanging up on her, since it is definitely not permitted to talk to young women who life outside your area. We called the Elder who is in her area now and told him to tell her not to do that anymore. So she hasn't called, but today she emailed Elder Buhler!!! GAH! Women!! Don't worry he'll be fine though. He's a strong lad.

Elder Bingham

pics 1-3: our ward's August 6th activity! August 6th is Bolivian independence day for all you uneducated gringos. They 

the ugliest dog you have ever seen...

... and the most majestic goat you have ever seen!! A circus opened up in our area and they have this beast outside.

Yanira's baptism!!

bustin out the good ol' stop-water

This week was different for sure. Many adventures happened. Little proselyting success happened. But it was still fun.

First off this week we ended up doing a three day long favor for the health secretary Elder Barrott. Theres an elder from El Salvador named Elder Cevallos who was in Trinidad. Elder Cevallos was in my first ever district as district leader, but then he went home at the end of that transfer for knee problems. He recently came back to the mission, but he tripped on a root or something in Trinidad and is now having knee pains again. So they had to fly him down to Santa Cruz to go to the specialist, and Barrott asked us if he could hang out with me and Buhler for a few days. Which was fine, but it meant we had to take a couple trips to the Foianini (the big fancy clinic here), which means like 45 minutes in micro going there and coming back. So we wasted a lot of proselyting time doing that this week, but it was still fun.

On Friday it we had to go to the Foianini in the morning, but we also had to stop by Bits n cream, which is an awesome ice cream place here. "Why did you have to go?" you might ask. It's because every Friday in their store, EVERYTHING only costs 15 BOLIVIANOS. Like you can get the most expensive ice cream there for only 15. It's lit. Only problem was that a member was going to invite us sopa de mani for lunch right after, but Elder Bingham isn't patient enough to hold his ice cream in the micro until we get home to put it in the freezer. So I ended up eating a whole apple pie ice cream cup right before having to eat a big bowl of sopa de mani, which is like the most filling soup there is. We walked home very slowly after that. I just about threw up. #worthit  Also later that day we had to eat cake and cuñape because it was Elder Medina's birthday. I feel fat

Then on Saturday it RAINED. All. Freaking. Day. It was the craziest rain I've ever seen. It was raining from Saturday at like 5 in the morning until Sunday at like 4 in the afternoon. We tried proselyting Saturday for a little while but it wasn't worth it. I got soaked, my shoes were filled with water, and the streets were flooded. And I don't have rain boots. So I'm pretty sure most of our mission ended up hanging out in their houses on Saturday. Proselyting would honestly just be a waste of time in weather like that. Cambas do nothing when it's cold and they do not want to come to the door. Oh well. Sunday ended up being a pretty solid day since the rain let up and it wasn't windy. Sunday was also when I discovered my love for umbrellas. I mostly just like how you say umbrella in spanish, "paraguas" or literally "stop-water". Literal Spanish is hilarious. I lost my nice umbrella early in my mission (sorry mom), so I ended up buying a crappy one for 25 bs. But the thing I love about it is how it has a hook on the end and its nice and long to poke things with. I ended up just playing with my umbrella in the street all day on Sunday. Scaring dogs opening it and stuff. Using it as a cane and limping around because my legs were sore. etc. It was a good time.

Don't judge me. I swear I'm not that childish. I just love stop-waters.

Elder Bingham

pics 1-5: we had to go to the offices this week, but none of the office elders were there when we came. So I ended up putting creative sticky notes on their desks. And I thought it was hilarious. But you guys probably won't get it.