proud dad moments

Well transfers happened, and what do you know, I left my area again! It was kind of weird/sad being in Guabira for such a short time, but I'm really excited for my transfer now! I headed back to Beni! I'm now working in the city of Trinidad, in the area Central 2. I've also adopted another son! (I'm finishing the training of another Elder). His name is Elder Reynolds, and he's my 4th companion from Idaho! And my second from Pocatello, Idaho. I don't know why I always get stuck with the elders from Idaho, but it's alright, they're pretty cool people.

Trinidad is the coolest! the people are really humble and receptive, and it's the only city in Beni that has a stake instead of a district, which means there's lots of members and strong wards. I love it! We already have 8 investigators with a baptismal date, but the only problem is that all 8 of them have to get married before they can get baptized. Oh, Bolivia, when will you learn the law of chastity? I'm also really enjoying training, except it's kind of stressing me out a little bit having to take most of the decisions in an area I don't know too well and trying to teach my son spanish. His spanish has got a long way to go. The poor guy has studied every other language except spanish. He knows a lot of Russian, and a little bit of french, german, czech, polish and I think a few other European languages. He really wanted to go to Russia on his mission. But he's happy to be here and he really loves the people. I've been inspired by his faith and testimony, and we'll work hard together.

Also remember my first son, Elder Gonzales? From way back when I get to Riberalta? He's my District leader now! Its kind of weird, but I'm proud of my son. Hopefully I can go on an intercambio with him sometime.

I also live in the same house as the zone leaders, and one of those Zone leaders is Elder Samuels! Remember him? He's from Payson and we were in choir together in high school. And we're both dying at the same time. It should be a pretty trunky finish to my mission. We'll see.

But I'm excited for these last 12 weeks! Should be the coolest time of my mission

Love you guys!

Elder Bingham

Back in Guabirá, Junior finally hunted the little bird he was trying to kill with his slingshot!
He cooked it up for us. It didn't taste that bad actually.

Back with Elder Samuels! SHHS represent!

We have a beautiful mango tree in our backyard and I love it.
I eat a mango every morning for breakfast and sometimes one at night.

Elder Bingham starts his training

So this I'm starting my training! I say that because I'm entering the last 12 weeks of my mission. As most of you know, the first twelve weeks of a missionary's experience is his training. As I'm now in my last 12 weeks, the joke here is that I'm in my training to go home. Qué trunky. The mission is flying by.

But this week was packed! On Tuesday we had interviews with President Cabezas and I got a little bit of huasca (a slang here in the mission for strong reproof, you know, the kind that hurts a little). But it was good because it made me realize a lot of things I need to improve on to finish up my mission strong.

Thursday we had a multi-zone conference, which meant our zone had to rent out a mini bus to drive us all to Santa Cruz, which is about an hour away. I hate driving places in the mission. I get so bored. But then the conference we had was super cool so it was worth the drive. They also gave us giant bacon cheese hamburgers for lunch and it was delicious. And then I slept for most of the drive back to Montero. It's nice when you can get away with taking a nap in the mission.

Then on Saturday we had a baptism! It's about time too. Fernando Escobar got baptized. He's been an investigator for a couple years now but he finally decided to repent and be baptized! To be honest, I'm not really sure what made him finally decide to be baptized, but elay, he did it! When I got to this area he was basically preparing for baptism already so I'm not too sure how he was before. But we had a nice baptismal service and a couple of investigators came to see it, including Maria Esther, the teenage girl we started teaching last week. Maria Esther has been going to all the activities with the young women and she already wants to be baptized! This girl is one of the most prepared people I've met in my mission, her along with her sister in law Rosa. So I have high hopes for this next transfer if I stay here in Guabirá, we should get in a few baptisms.

Sorry no pics of dead armadillos this week. But wilderness explorer Elder Bingham is always on the lookout for more wildlife.

Love you guys!

Elder Bingham

 Spanish laffy taffy joke:

 ¿Quien vive aqui? 

muuuuuuucha gente

family home evening with the Montero Pimentel family! A less active/part member family we're teaching

Fernando's baptism

a normal, boring, missionary email (¿sorry?)

This week I don't actually have any snarky remarks or weird stories. It was just a pretty good week. Sorry if this doesn't end up like your typical Elder Bingham email. I do have some cool pics though with the (domestic) wildlife of the jungle that is Bolivia!

So this week started off with a really fun intercambio on Wednesday with Elder Millis. You might remember him, he was in my district in Riberalta. I was his DL when he left the womb. A member named Franklin came with us all day and we had some pretty solid lessons, including a lesson with this lady named Alicia who committed to a baptismal date! She says she feels like the book of mormon is true because a few years ago she had some crazy dream, and then when she started reading the Book of Mormon, she read what she saw in her dream a few years ago! Cool right? She's great. She just cant come to church sometimes because she has some health problems. Hopefully that works out.

We also found a few more investigators who are super prepared! That same day at night we had a lesson with Rosa, the lady we met last Friday that already came to church once (I think I mentioned that last week), and her sister in law was also there this time, and we had a pretty good lesson. Her name is Maria Esther. And then this Sunday they both came to church! Maria Esther participated in the young women's class and she loved it! She is really interested and participates super well in the lessons. I'm pretty excited to keep teaching them. They should get baptized maybe next transfer.

I'm feeling a little too lazy right now to try and think of what else happened this week, so I hope that satisfied you all. Enjoy some pics of wilderness explorer 

Elder Bingham with the wildlife.

Birds!

 Puppies!

Dead armadillo! (armadillo is a delicacy here, hopefully someone cooks us one sometime. i'm down to try it)

Kevin! He turned 15 the other day. We had churrasco and cake for lunch.

Everything happens to Elder Bingham

This week everything happened to me I swear. the first part of our week was kind of rough but then we overcame the adversity and had a solid second half of the week. But all the things that happened are kind of funny now looking back on it.

Tuesday I had an intercambio with Elder Williams, a new missionary from Arizona, but this time, I stayed here in Guabira, which meant we got a little lost. Basically the entire afternoon we were wandering around in this really far out part of our area, in the hot sun, with lots of mosquitos, from like 3-6. We were trying to find people to teach but it didn't go too well. But then from 6-9 we had a few solid lessons and we got back home to enjoy a nice mango (oh yeah its mango season now) and a glass of cupuazú, my favorite fruit juice in the world.

Wednesday is when all the crap happened. First, I accidentally shut my hand in the gate of our house and my finger hurt for a while. Then I think some tiny little birds pooped on my shirt, there were some little brown spots that came out of nowhere and smelled really bad. Then a different bird either peed or pooped on my arm (i'm not to sure which, it was too yellow to be poop but too thick to be pee). Later that day I got bit by a thousand more mosquitos and at the end of the day I almost passed out during a lesson. Not even sure why it happened, maybe I was dehydrated, or maybe from all the mosquito bites, but then after that I had a recurring headache for a couple days.

Friday was Todos Santos, which is basically the equivalent of day of the dead in Mexico or memorial day in the States. This made it really hard to teach people that day because everyone was either having a party with all their family and didn't want to listen, or they were in the cemetery leaving candles and stuff. But despite all that we had a few decent lessons. But then at the end of the day we went to visit two 16 and 17 year old siblings, but when we got there, their aunt received us and said that those two had moved to Santa Cruz. Also that they weren't siblings... they were a couple!! Those two were lying to us the whole time. Its no wonder they were asking law of chastity related questions. Elder Tuares and I laughed about that for a while. Super crap.

But don't worry it was actually a good week! Saturday we started our fast and the Lord immediately rewarded us with a super prepared lady named Maria, and then on Sunday we had 5 investigators come to church, including one young mother we had just barely found on Friday! Miracles do happen! Even when crap happens the rest of the week haha

But don't worry I'm happy. Mom

Elder Bingham

I only have one photo to show this week. Elder Tuares with someone's pet monkey