Elder Jayson Bingham : Suffer the children to come to me

This week we had a surprise baptism! Maybe you'll remember from a few weeks ago when I mentioned that we started teaching a kid named Andres. A few appointments had fallen through with him so we thought we were just going to have to baptize him the next transfer. But once when we visited him this week, he still seemed really excited for his baptism on the 29th. He had already gone to church a couple times, so we just thought "why don't we just go over the baptismal interview questions with him?" Tried that out, and as it turns out, the kid knows his stuff pretty well! We felt like he was ready, so we made the arrangements and got him baptized this Saturday along with another kid that was getting baptized from Belen 2. Baptisms of little kids are sometimes a little too easy. But I also had the oportunity to confirm Andres on Sunday, which was a cool experience. Always refreshing to perform a saving ordinance.

Another highlight from this week was an intercambio with Elder Anderson in his area. Thinking about it, I'm pretty sure thats the first time in my whole mission where I've proselyted with a fellow Utahn. (is that really a word?) We basically had nothing the whole day until 8:00, but then from 8 to 9 we ended up having two lessons and three new investigators! It was pretty cool. We also had a really spiritual experience visiting a member. Elder Kam had the idea at the beginning of the transfer of looking at the ward directory and putting a reminder in the phone when it was a member's birthday so we could send them a nice little text. I didn't think much of it at first, but the morning of an intercambio we got a reminder that it was a member's bday that lived in Belen 2, so I figured I could take advantage and stop by in person to visit her. When we were close by Elder Anderson and I gave her a little visit and wished her happy birthday. She let us in for a little bit to visit, and when Elder Anderson asked her "¿como está?" she responded with "un poco triste elder", and then just opened up to us. She started telling us about a lot of rough problems she was having with her family at the moment and we were able to bring her some comfort with a couple scriptures and a priesthood blessing. It felt really nice to do that service for someone. And then she also invited us dinner. Go ministering!!

Elder Bingham