Fa la la la la, la la la freaking la

Everyone here in Trinidad is getting in the Christmas spirit! Mostly us missionaries. So Elder Reynolds and I decided to deck our halls. But we don't have holly, so we settled for paper snowflakes and the two paper Christmas trees that we have taped to the wall, one from my fam and one from Elder Allen's fam. "Fa la la la la, la la la freaking la", as Elder Reynolds so nicely put it.

Merry Christmas Eve everyone! To sum up our week, we did some contacting, some teaching, found some awesome new investigators, got rained on, got really muddy, and felt the spirit! I also gave a bomb talk in the special Christmas sacrament meeting. I think I almost made some people cry. Maybe. 

But not too much else went on this week. Tonight we're going to sing Christmas hymns in the plaza and have some good dinner, and then tomorrow I'll call home. See you guys soon! Have a Merry freaking Christmas!

Elder Bingham

 last monday we ate lagarto a la piedra. Aligator cooked on a red hot rock. It was fetching delicious.
and it only cost 35 bolivianos (about 5 dollars)

wilderness explorer Elder Bingham spots some wild chanchos! They must be having a blast in all the mud here in trinidad

our christmas decorations

Everything happens to Elder Bingham, part 2

This week was pretty wacky. Let me give you a quick summary of some of the funny/unfortunate things that happened to me.

1: I accidentally left my umbrella hanging on the back of a mototaxi while I was taking out money to pay him and he took off with it

2: We got trapped in an investigator's house for like 3 hours waiting for rain to pass

3: I got bit in the hand by a parrot. Multiple times

4: I almost fell flat on my back slipping around in the mud. About 5 times.

5: I totally forgot to bring a change of clothes to our baptism and was forced to wear damp stuff coming out of the font. Might have chaffed a little.

6: I accidentally got the key stuck in the door of our house and we were locked out. The zone leaders were forced to kick in the door boards so we could get inside.

But hey we also did some really cool stuff this week! On Saturday we went to a children's hospital as a zone to sing christmas songs to all the sick kids and contact some people. Elder Allen also gave away a bunch of cheap plastic toys that he got in a package. There were many cute kids and we had a blast. Christmas spirit woop woop

Then later on Saturday Adan Soliz got married and baptized! He's an investigator we've been working with for a while but he's super converted to the gospel. He's come to church every week for months now but he just hasn't been able to get married until now. So we showed up to their wedding looking super handsome. I was wearing my fat Santa Claus tie that I still had on from the Christmas activity and both of our shoes were super muddy from trudging around in the mud in our area. But it's okay nobody judged us probably. But then Saturday night Adan got dunked! I had the pleasure of baptizing him and we had a really spiritual baptismal service.

But I think I'll let the pics tell the rest of the story. love you guys

Elder Bingham 

we went to a lagoon last Monday. Beni is cool

This is as close as I could justify getting to swimming. Shout out to Elder Yocom with his perfect photobomb

companionship unity at its finest

I was going to take a selfie with the zone but Elder Reynolds decided to put up his umbrella. The guy's a little camera shy

Adan's wedding!

Capybaras!!!!

Adan's baptism! and a Christmas tree!

Counts as a wilderness explorer pic, even though its just a statue of a horse

a wild Michael Jackson on a throwback pepsi bottle!

Wilderness explorer Elder Bingham spots a crane in flight!! We had to throw a rock at it to get it to fly but it worked out

found this nativity in the children's hospital and for some reason it has two Baby Jesus'. Catholics

Elder Bingham goes on house arrest

So this week was an interesting one. Lots of miracles happened! Well, like one miracle at least. But it was an awesome miracle so it basically counts for lots of them. 

Wednesday I had an intercambio with Elder Cahua from San Diego. He's a stud in his third transfer in the mission and he was really excited to escape from the moist, mosquito infested house of his area in Paititi. Elder Reynolds was really bummed out that he had to go over there. Especially since nobody there speaks english, they're all latinos in that house. But Elder Cahua enjoyed his stay in our beautiful house with air conditioning where we sleep at (we also live in a gated community, it makes me feel super rich. I love our house), and we had a solid day proselyting. His shoes got really muddy though because he didn't have rain boots.

Then that night the zone leaders gave us a little surprise. Thursday there were going to be lots of protests and we weren't going to be able to leave the house all day. Which meant the intercambio with Elder Cahua was extended another day. Elder Cahua was super happy about it because our house is a party, but Elder Reynolds died a little inside. Back at our house we spent all day cooking up lunch, playing with Elder Allen's nerf hoop, studying the scriptures, burning old garments that were in the house for some reason, and watching the biography of President Monson's life. I quite enjoyed it, even though we missed out on a day of proselyting.

But then after that we were a little worried about our area since it was Friday already and we had only found 1 new investigator so far. Saturday we spent most of the day contacting to catch up on that but only ended up finding three. Granted, they were three solid people, but we got home tired and a little disappointed that things didn't go better. But we don't stop there! On Sunday we got back to it but we planned a little better and ended up visiting some people we had contacted earlier. As a result, we found 9 new investigators on Sunday!!! We found two different families of 5 people and they were both super solid! One of them was especially cool, their name is the Bolling family. We just followed an impression to go to some 16 year old kid we contacted a week ago to see if his family would be around. When we yelled at their door (knocking isn't really a thing in Beni), a little girl peeked her head out and said "¡pasen!". We didn't really believe her at first, it was too easy. But then she said "pasen" again and we went on in to meet the one of the friendliest, most receptive families I've met in my whole mission. They had talked with the missionaries before in one of their parents' house so they were eager to learn more. Christmas miracles everybody!

Wish us luck, we have a marriage and a baptism this week, and we're stressing out trying to get another couple married so they can get baptized next week. Pray for Freddy and Bertha please! They're the best and need to get married so they can get their sins washed away and stuff.

Elder Bingham

the most hilarious bad english translation I've ever seen

A cool little lagoon out the back of our area. Elder Reynolds refused to turn his head for the selfie,
but Alvaro (the member accompanying us) was a good sport

"Christmas Dinner"

Hey Merry Christmas everyone! It's basically the Christmas season right? But we also basically celebrated thanksgiving this week so I'm kind of torn.

This week President came to visit Beni! He also came accompanied by the assistants and Hermana Cabezas. We were all super excited since they said Wednesday night we were going to go to a restaurant for a special "Christmas Dinner", even though it was only November 28th. They wouldn't be in Beni anytime soon so they decided to celebrate christmas with us right now. But then Tuesday morning the assistants called and said they wasn't going to be any Christmas dinner and that we were just going to have a special lunch on Thursday when we had our zone conference. "President Cabezas did us dirty" as Elder Yocom put it. So we didn't get dinner, but we did have churrasco (Bolivan steak basically, they grill big chunks of meat and serve it with cheesy rice and fried yuca. Its really fetching delicious) for lunch on Thursday. I basically counted that as a late Thanksgiving dinner instead of a Christmas dinner.  Sister Cabezas also gave us all Santa hats and fruitcake! The fruitcake was nasty but I ate it anyway. Why do people like that stuff?

The assistants also stayed in our house for the two days they were here since we have bunk beds and some extra space. They're both really chill. One of them is named Elder Angulo, and he was here in Central 2 for six months earlier in his mission, so he gave us some handy advice about the area and got really excited when he found out his converts are still going to church. He got me a lot more excited about my area and it went great.

Saturday we participated in the worldwide day of service for December 1st! our ward got together and cut all the really tall grass outside of a children's hospital here. Cutting grass doesn't sound like something it should take a whole ward to do, but there was a lot of it, and here in Trinidad, we didn't have any working weed whackers. So we all went to town with machetes and little shovels. I was going ham with the machete and hermana Paico was all like "Elder Bingham is Indiana Jones". Which is true. 

Then the rest of Saturday it RAINED. Really hard. All of the streets in our area got flooded and it was useless trying to proselyte, so we ended up just staying in the house from like 4:30 until the end of the day. Now all the streets in our area are really muddy and we go out in boots sí o sí.

But thats about all that went down this week. Thanks for the emails and the package! Love you guys!

Service outside the hospital! I finally got to wear one of those yellow vests

The flooded street outside our pension. This one didn't even have that much water compared to the rest.
Flooding is a bad problem here in Trinidad

here's the package mom! the sour patch watermelons not included in this pic because
I ate them all immediately after opening the package. Don't judge me

Wilderness explorer Elder Bingham spots a capybara (I think that's its name) chilling in the swampy jungle

Wilderness explorer Elder Bingham spots a snake in the canal! I pushed a tiny frog in front of its mouth
but it didn't even try to eat it. I was disappointed.

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.