Old geezers and mangos

Well this week has been filled with old geezers and mangos, as the title describes. So in other words, its been a weird week.

Well as far as old geezers go, we've been focusing a lot in finding people to teach this week. Mostly because Elder Quintana really likes contacting everyone. Which is great, but he almost does it in excess. Like makes us late for appointments sometimes. But we've ended up teaching a few old geezers who don't really understand what we're talking about. Also most of them cant see good enough to read the book of mormon if we give them one, which makes it kind of hard for them to progress. Also Elder quintana is really intelligent, which means he likes to teach everything he knows with complicated scriptures and like lots of details about the history of different churches and the apostasy and stuff. But I think thats because he hasn't adjusted to Riberalta yet. Where the people really don't get stuff like that. Here you have to teach in the simplest way possible or they will have no idea what you're talking about. Also we've ran into a lot of people who kind of just want to bash with us this week. So I learned a lot about using the book of mormon to respond to objections. As missionaries, we don't have to respond to every question or objection they have. I've learned this week that that just leads to more objections or more contention. Also longer, less spiritual visits. So this week I've been trying to improve, and teach (like in district meetings) about that. Cause sometimes people have a lot of apostasy built up that just needs to be destroyed by the book of mormon. So I highly reccomend reading it if you havent done that yet. Its a good book.

Also, its freaking mango season in Riberalta. Theres mango trees all over the freaking place here, and all the fruit is starting to get ripe now. We went and did a service saturday digging some holes (and I felt like a manly man swinging that pickaxe around. Also my back hurt because I'm a large man trying inside a relatively small hole digging), and the family we helped gave us a whole bunch of mangos to eat in return. And they're freaking delicious. So we just constantly have mangos in the house to snack on. I bet you're jealous.

Well, that would be all from this week. Once again I haven't taken too many pictures, sorry. But I think I have a few. We'll see. 

Love you all! Try not to be too sad that you don't have fresh mangos growing all over your city!

Elder Bingham

also from the las pday this last transfer with elder Gonzales at "el mirador" which is basically just a place where you get a really cool view of the river

pic from last transfer with a cool family in our branch. also where we eat lunch

it was raining really hard one day. looked up at the sky and it was basically clear. Bolivia

Gringos invade Riberalta

Well, I think I'm probably setting a record. I now have my 6th companion in 6 transfers in the mission. Including the MTC. My son grew up really fast and he moved out already.  Elder Gonzales got transferred to Santa Cruz for some reason, and I'm staying here in Riberalta with my new companion, Elder Quintana. He's this Peruvian kid who looks like he's about 16, but he's really like 3 months older than I am. Also I'm district leader again. So I just decided that I'm going to have a different companion with some kind of assignment every transfer of my mission. But I guess that's what President Cabezas wants me to do. Or the Lord, I guess. So I'm fine with it. I just hope one day I can have a comp for at least two transfers. Cause I have yet to have that best friend mission companion that I stay with for a couple transfers and then i also my best friend at home. But some day.

But transfers were really eventful. Three people are training new missionaries in our zone. And all three are new gringos. Over half of our zone is gringos now. And also, all the new guys that came are as tall or taller than me. So I don't really feel that special anymore. On the bad side, we kind of suck at playing soccer now. almost all our best soccer players in the zone got transfered. But ni modo.

So General conferece happened. And I was suprised to find out that I could watch it in english. They had one room sectioned off in the church with a tv transmitting in english for all the greenies in our zone. But unfortuately, it was really hot in that room. The only room with air conditioning in the church is the chapel, but that's where they transmitted it in spanish. So I ended up going with that for the rest of the sessions anyway. But of course, I got the most out of the first session. Elder Holland's talk helped me out a ton as usuall, when he talked about imperfections and stuff. Cause normally I feel like my missionary abilities are like slightly above sub par. Or, I guess I feel like I'm a good missionary, but not a great one. But that talk helped me out a lot when I listened to it, but I've already forgotten most of it. I'll go over the few notes I wrote down. I'm looking forward to having all the talks in english in about a month when we get the liahona.

I did hear about Elder Hales' death, we were able to watch every session. That was kind of a bummer, but Elder Anderson's mini tribute to him was amazing. I felt the spirit a lot there.

But the mission work goes about like normal here. I'm happy, its really hot, and we're progressing in our area little by little. I'll let you know how that goes next week, I think we should have a great week of teaching.

Love you all. Glad to hear that all these freaking hurricanes and shooting and fires and stuff aren't really getting too close to home. But for real like what's going on over there? I just keep hearing about how our country is getting destroyed. Those areas will be in my prayers.

Elder Bingham

Missionary Moto Washing Squad

Well this week was fun. And it wasn't that bad for proselyting either. We actually did really good, just splitting our numbers up in two areas. But lots of spiritual experiences and I learned a ton!

We also did about a thousand intercambios this week. Tuesday Elder Selinger came to Riberalta/forestal 2 with Elder Wadsworth and I. Which when you have three gringos together it usually involves talking about home a lot in english and you get a little trunky. But it was good. 

Wednesday I had and intercambio with Elder Marispini (one of the zone leaders) in his area thats freaking filled with golden investigators. We had one contact in the night that invited us in after I flawlessly asked them if they had ever thought about their purpose in life and then we had like the most perfect lesson I've had in the mission. They accepted everything we said, said they were looking for the right church to get baptized in, that they wanted to get married, and that they've been trying to stop drinking and stuff. And then accepted a baptismal date. I'm kind of jealous that I don't get to teach them. But I learned a lot that day because Elder Marispini is a stud of a missionary. But I was happy to learn a little from a more experienced missionary and then apply it in my area.

Thursday I had two intercambios and worked in three different areas, but thats a long story that I don't feel like explaining.

Saturday we had our activity from the subject line, washing motos for free. we used the footsal court in the church , and then went out in the street and yelled at people to come get their moto washed for free. Which I enjoyed a lot. Then they would drive in, we would take their moto, and while we washed it, they sat down to talk with other missionaries so they could contact them and give us new people to teach! It was really fun, and really successful. We were there for 3 or 4 hours, and I cant even remember how many motos I washed. And I got my neck burned really bad, but ni modo. So this next week (if I don't get transfered) we should have lots of references to contact, I'm excited about it.

Also this morning we went to help someone clean out/deepen their well. I got down in there and dug out some really hard clay and got really dirty. But the problem was I'm kind of a big dude in a kind of small space, and it was kind of hard to dig without bending my back a lot. Which kind of hurt. But it was worth it. Every man likes to dig a hole.

But I think that's about it for this week. Next week will be a new transfer. So possibly new comp, new area, etc. We'll see how that goes.

Love you all!

Elder Bingham

beach volleyball squad last pday

the zone leaders bought asai for the last district meeting and it was freaking delicious as always

the best zone in the world

view of Rio Beni from a tower in Elder Wadsworth's area

lavada de motos!

I get married in crocs

Well after waiting literally half an hour I the internet finally loaded and I can write a letter. so here goes trying to explain my weird subject line.

So the past few weeks ive had a really bad ingrown toenail. Again. Don't really know how it got there this time. But it was hurting bad enough that i finally got the guts to go to the really sketchy clinic here to get it taken out. So the nurse just stuck a needle with the numbing agent right in there and it hurt like crap. and then cut the toenail out. Had like a centimeter of toenail growing inward. it sucked. But then she told me I couldn't use closed toed shoes for 15 days. so i had to go and buy some crocs to wear proselyting. So for just a few days, because my toe already feels fine, I was wearing crocs everywhere. Because i'm a styling missionary.

And then I got married! or in other words, we're now working in a trio. Elder Wadsworth, one of the other gringos in this zone, has a comp who was really sick. so he had to go to Santa Cruz to heal up because the medcare here sucks. So we went ot live i his house. i say i got married because he's now helping me raise my son Elder Gonzales. but he's the wife in this relationship because two husbands is a sin. So now we're working with him in two areas and having a lot of fun. the other great thing is that his house has freaking air conditioning and its amazing.  The downside to this is that we can't work 100% in either area. We've barely done anything in my area this week cause we were mostly working in the other area. But we had a few really good visits in both areas, and this week we should be spending a little more time in Forestal.

Think that's all for this week. mulit-zone conference and interviews with president happened, but i can't remember too many details. And I'm about out of time here. But love you all!!

Elder Bingham

Multi zone conference in Riberalta

us sucking some pineapple. "chupando la piña" is a phrase in the mission that basically means "making out". So we found this quite funny. Also Elder Selinger (the gringo in the back) hit his one year mark and I think he might be thinking about girls at home. If you zoom in on his face

So I asked Elder Selinger to take a photo of me crouching down so you can see my styling shoes but it accidentally turned into the most attractive photo of me that's ever been taken. Enjoy, ladies

our happy little trio, yo, E' Gonzales, and E' Wadsworth

E' Bingham helps kill a Chileano

This week was really awesome. But not because we accomplished anything in my area. Cause we basically did nothing. But that's because Elder Gonzales and I had to go to Trinidad to do immigrations and stuff. And if you're in Beni, Trinidad is the only city you can do that stuff in, so you have to fly down to Trinidad for a few days if you're still relatively new. So we took a trip to a different area from wednesday to saturday and it was awesome.

The thing I was most excited about going to Trinidad was that my good buddy Elder Bastias is there. I lived with him my second transfer and he's one of my favorite people in the mission. He's from Chile, you might remember some photos I have with him. But sadly, he's dying this transfer. So I was lucky enough to be able to go proselyting with him and help to kill him a little bit. Also I went with my good buddy Elder Buhler from my group, (yes, we made plenty of Ferris Buhler's day off references, don't worry), so I had a fantastic time. 

Wednesday night when we got there I went proselyting with Elder Bastias while his companion was in the hospital. He had been stressing out a ton trying to plan a wedding for some investigators, so we walked around a ton trying to help out with that, and I was glad to give moral support even though I have no idea how wedding papers and stuff work. Thursday morning was the only time we had to do anything for immigrations, just waiting in the government building for things to happen for a couple hours. But the rest of the time was spent basically proselyting like normal while we waited for our flight on Saturday.  But I'm kind of jealous of trinidad. Seriously they just have pure golden investigators. Its like the District. Elder Bastias has 2 weddings and 5 baptisms planned for the rest of this transfer, and I don't think the other areas are that much different. Also Trinidad is just a really cool city. And really wealthy in some parts. Also less hot than Riberalta, which sounds nice. But I've got a gut feeling that I'll probably get transfered over there some time before I complete one year in the mission. But thats probably just my brain wanting to go there because its really cool. But I learned a lot from Elder Bastias and had a great time because he's hilarious. Also Elder Buhler. I'll send some photos of them, but like an idiot I didn't actually take photos of the city.

But next week should be exciting too, we've got a mulit-zone conference and interviews with president coming up, so look forward to some spiritual huazcas.

Love you all, thanks for the letters and support!

Elder Bingham

me with elder Buhler and Bastias in the district meeting

If I could describe the personality of Elder Buhler with one photo, it would be this one

I found peanut butter in Trinidad and it made me really happy so I took this disgusting picture.

Right before I left Elder Bastias to die and go back to Riberalta. I'll miss the guy when he goes home. But he's planning on going to Utah to study, so if everything goes as he plans, I should be able to hang out with him again.

Te odio Elder

So I have the grand pleasure of living with Elder Cerna, this chubby peruvian who's super hilarious. Last week he started hanging up the phone after talking with other missionaries, then pretend like he was still talking, and say "oh, y elder Bingham dice que te odie". or "Elder Bingham says he hates you". But I had no idea that he had already hung up, so I started telling other missionaries that elder Cerna hates them. And thats kind of the joke now. We just all tell each other that we hate one another. Like all good representatives of jesus christ. Elder Cerna also likes to say things like "i want to stab you" or "suffocate you while you sleep", which makes it extra hilarious since he's learning english. But don't worry we actually all love each other.

As far as proselyting goes, this week has been really frustrating. We basically spent all our time looking for new investigators, since we don't really have too many, with little success. We've found a few really good ones. One of them is named Emar, this 15 year old kid who lives with our branch mission leader. He's really shy but really interested, so we should make some progress there. We found one investigator last week named Hernán, taught one lesson, and then he came to church last Sunday! so we got super excited, but then we couldn`t find him at a good time the next few days. So we called him and he basically told us "no pueden visitarme todos los dias" and hung up. So we're kind of scared to go back there if he's really mad at us for some reason. But we`re still working hard, but satan is kind of working hard too. He has the upper hand for now with some of these people, but we've still got some juice left. and the priesthood. So we should be good. Little by little you make progress in the mission, even in the hard times.

So recently I was feeling really frustrated about all this and felt like I'm kind of failing at my job, both training and opening the area. But this morning I found an answer to my prayers. Elder Cerna was messing around writing random things in my agenda like usual, so I was just expecting some laughs. But when I looked at what he wrote, he left a scripture on a sticky note that was just what I needed. Hebrews 10: 35, 36, and 39.

35 Cast not away therefore your confidence, which hath great recompense of reward.

36 For ye have need of patience, that, after ye have done the will of God, 

ye might receive the promise.

39 But we are not of them who draw back unto perdition;but of them that believe to the 

 saving of the soul.

 I don't know why he felt inspired to leave that scripture, but I'm extremely grateful. In our hard times or when we feel like we're not doing enough, we cant lose confidence. Just have patience and do the will of good, and then we will receive the promised blessings. Becuase we're not the type to draw back or turn back.

Thats the spiritual thought I'll leave with you guys this week. New favorite scripture. But I know the gospel is true, and I'm happy to be here sharing it, even when times our hard. 

Love you all!!

Elder Bingham

I found a bird and put it on my shoulder with a corny smile. I'm not sure which one looks closest to the photo Amaya and Bryce took, so you can take your pick. But you should send me a photo with those three put together.

 this is me with elder Gonzales in the airport day one of this transfer, but I just stole this photo from him now.

Our pensionista for lunch has fishes.

 Elder Cerna likes to send things like this from our cell phone to other missionaries and we have to explain later 

For some reason there was 2400 extra pesos in my bank account so I had to take it out and give it to the zone leaders. But I enjoyed holding a whole bunch of money at least

I miss being dry!

Well, as I told you last week, its really freaking hot here. I'm pretty sure I haven't been completely dry my entire time in Riberalta, because you always have a little bit of sweat somewhere. Or a whole lot of sweat everywhere. Usually the latter. But I'm getting used to it. Clouds are also really rare here, so the sun is brutal. Which means I'm getting really tan, which I guess is a good thing. But I've got those killer missionary tan lines going strong.

Well this week has been pretty cool, but also a little boring. Most of our days are spent walking a lot and dying of heat while looking for people to teach. We now have like 4 solid investigators. One of them, Johan, accepted a fecha bautismal! he was one of our adopted investigators, and he already has all the lessons, just wants a better testimony of the book of mormon. So we'll be reading the book of mormon with him in visits to prepare him for baptism on September 9th! We also found this old guy named Hernán thats super cool. But the work progresses slowly.

The other cool thing about Beni is people actually let you do service! We're going to be working with machetes a lot. We've done a few service projects in another area in our zone, mostly cleaning out wells and carpiando. I don't actually know how to say "carpiar" in English. But its basically cutting tall grass with a machete. And I enjoy it a lot. Good way to let off steam. And it makes you feel super tough with this weird sickle thing in the left hand and the machete in the right. When you think of the "poor south african village adventure" this is a lot of what we do for service. 

Well I think the best way I can describe Riberalta is with photos. So I'll send what I have. Also I cant think of what else to write and I'm running low on time so this will have to do. Love you all

Elder Bingham

in the plaza central last monday with some other elders

we finally tried asai, which is a fruit that apparantly only grows around this area of south america. And its really famous among missionaries for being freaking delicious. But you basically only eat it in smoothie form. Which is fine by me.

supposedly this lake (lago espejo) is cursed. And we can see it from the edge of our area. 

You would have to google the story.

mire elder un pollo! en la forma de un arbol!

for your weekly "random things we see every day in riberalta", heres somebody's 

pet monkey chained to a post by its tail.