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

The rains came down and the muds came up

It rained EVERY DAY this week. There were a few days that it rained a lot and other days when it rained for like 10 or 15 minutes, but it still rained every day. And in my area, that means there's a lot of muddy streets. The worst part was that every time after it rained, the sun came out strong and made everything really hot and humid and then the mosquitos came out full force. I've actually gotten really good at killing mosquitos. We're at a constant war. But they normally win honestly. I hate mosquitos with a perfect hate.

But this week wasn't super eventful other than that. I did have an intercambio with the Zone Leaders. I went to the area Estacion with Elder Hunt from Arizona. He's super chill. His area is basically the center of Montero, which feels about like my area in Belen. Brought me some memories. But I had some fun with Elder Hunt and some decent lessons. 

On Friday we did a zone activity where we gave out some cold maracuya juice so we could contact people for the whole zone. That was pretty fun and we talked to some nice people.

Sunday was special because it was the first time this transfer where we've had investigators come to church this transfer! Sad, I know.  But we're teaching this less active family called the Familia Montero Pimentel, and they have a 10 year old and 8 year old who haven't been baptized yet. They're a really cool family and the reactivation process is going pretty well, they stayed in church for 2 hours, but they still feel a little uncomfortable there since they haven't been in so long. But the goal is that we can get the dad ordained to the priesthood so he can baptize his kids on the 24th of November!

Thats about it for this week. Love you guys!

Elder Bingham

in our area we found a palm tree growing inside of another tree. Like what the heck

Elder Miller's cow head bottle he bought. It feels really weird staring into its eyes when you drink

 a member somehow got an ostrich egg. Its gigantic. 

I like Prophets

So the highlight of this week was that we got two South America exclusive sessions of general conference since President Nelson is taking a tour through the South America Northwest area. Today he should be headed to Chile to dedicate the new temple. This week my testimony was strengthened by like 1000% that Russell M Nelson is a prophet of God. Let me tell you a little bit of what went down. The rest of the week wasn't too exciting honestly.

So Saturday there was a devotional for just the missionaries of the South America Northwest area that was held in Lima. We watched it in the stake center in Montero. Present were Elder Falabella, the area president, Elder Gary E Stevensen of the 12, and President Nelson, all with their wives. They all took turns giving messages, but I most enjoyed President Nelson's message. He basically just gave a 25 minute summary of all of Christ's ministry in 3 Nephi, explaining us the importance of every chapter from 11 to 30. I got super learned. He talked about things I had never even thought about before, like how America is the land of Joseph's inheritance because he didn't get any in the holy land, and how many times Christ mentioned the word "repentance" in all of 3 Nephi. Someday I hope to know as much doctrine as that guy.

Then on Sunday President Nelson traveled to Bolivia with the same crew! There was a special broadcast just for everyone in Bolivia that was held in La Paz. And it was even cooler. There was a decent choir that they kept calling the "Bolivia Tabernacle Choir". Sister Nelson gave a message where she basically just told everyone stories about President Nelson receiving revelation as a prophet, which was pretty dope. And then President Nelson got up. He first asked all the Primary children to stand up and sing "Soy un hijo de Dios" for him and it was really tender. The love you saw in his face looked about like what I imagine the Savior's face was like when he was blessing the children. And then he started giving his message. It started out pretty normal, but then he was like "con su permiso, quisiera dirigirles in Español". And then he GAVE THE REST OF HIS TALK IN SPANISH. Granted, he had a really thick American accent and he read it off of a paper, but it was still awesome. It sounded just like a new missionary coming into the mission in Bolivia but the spirit was turned on 100% so you could understand everything just fine. 

President Nelson is a pretty cool guy.

Elder Bingham

the giant sugar factory in our area from a distance

Elder Tuares and I with Kevin, our pension's son who's super cool and who always greets us with "suh dude"

 giant snail we found in intercambio friday

This morning it rained like CRAZY and our whole house got flooded.
We were moving water for like 2 hours.
This is just the back

Elder Bingham gets back with his ex

Don't worry it isn't what it sounds like.

So after 8 months, Elder Bingham was finally blessed with a transfer!! And it definetly wasn't what I was expecting. I am now in the area Guabira, which is a little town in the middle of nowhere close to the city of Montero, which is a smaller city in the department of Santa Cruz. Basically, I'm really far away from most of the rest of the mission that isn't in Beni. And my companion... Elder Tuares! You might remember I was with him for one transfer a while back in Belen. I'm back with my ex comp. Its a party. I'm also no longer District leader, but thats fine. Elder Tuares and I get along really well and we're working hard, I'm happy to be with the guy again. This could potentialy be my last area in the mission, so good thing its super cool.

So Guabira is a little town known for its giant sugar factory thats always burning sugar cane. If you're close to the factory you have to deal with the constant odor of the burning cane, which is a pretty nasty smell. Like all the men work in the sugar factory during sugar season, seems like it pays pretty well. But other than that Guabira is a lot of humble farm land. There's some parts of our area where theres only houses like every 100 meters and a bunch of grass and cows in between. Its pretty wild. My area almost couldn't be any more different from Belen. On Saturday Elder Tuares and I got super lost looking for the house of this contact we did the other day and we were just wandering around for like 40 minutes in the middle of nowhere looking for the place. And when we finally got there she wasn't home! It was pretty fun though. I'll send a video I took if I can.

But that same day we had a super faith building experience! We have been praying like all week to be able to find a family to teach. A mom, a dad, and kids. And then right after we escaped from all the jungle farmland, our prayers were answered! We started contacting after our cita fell through, and at the first house we went to, a nice guy named Julio and his wife (and they are actually married, halleluia!!) let us talk to them for a bit! they have three kids and one of them is of baptizeable age! They are really interested and I'm excited to teach them in the future. The people in Guabira are really humble and receptive, and I think we should have a lot of success here. Wish me luck! Or just pray for me, that works better than luck-wishing.

Elder Bingham

The members are going to jinx me super hard

Well, this was quite possibly the last week I'll have in Barrio Belen. Or it could not be. You know, going a 7th transfer in one area wouldn't be that ridiculous. (jk yeah it would) I feel like there's like a 95 percent chance that I leave my area, but you know, I haven't had the best luck in the past. But the members here are honestly setting me up for failure. I'll explain in a second.

This week the most eventful thing that happened was general conference (duh). We didn't manage to get any investigators to come, but at least one of them watched it in their house with some members, so that works out fine. But what can I say about conference that you don't already know? I liked it a lot. I felt very inspired and I felt the spirit abundantly. 2 hour church will be dope. Also one of the Singers in the tabernacle choir looks like Benedict Cumberbatch.

So this week from the members around here I heard a lot of jokes about the upcoming transfers. Most of them telling me I'm just going to stay here until I die. Like I haven't heard those jokes for like 2 transfers already. Most of them just seem to be mourning my probable departure. But I feel like they might be jinxing me and I'm getting super anxious for the transfers. Yesterday all the YSA of the ward invited us to dinner, I guess as a send-off for me. I had to give a little thank you speech and one last "hasta la vista, baby" in my terminator voice. It was kind of sad honestly. If I do end up leaving this transfer, I'll be excited but also I little sad. I've put a lot of work into this area and I love the ward members here. These have honestly been the best times of my mission so far. But whatever happens, I'll be glad to keep serving as a missionary. Wish me luck

Elder Bingham

me and Elder Anderson rode to general conference in the trunk of a member's car yesterday. The open trunk. It was scary

We went to a crossfit place for a pday activity last monday. This was the bathroom that I thought was pretty funny.
Also I'm really out of shape

... and then we went to TGI Friday's as a zone right after. Cajun shrimp and chicken pasta.

a funny sign on some camba's door. nice people

district #5 in Belen, district #8 in total as a District leader. Proud of my district

the zone