August 23, 2015

Dearest family and friends,

This week has had its good amount of ups and downs, but mostly ups which is good!

We started out last Monday by going on an adventure with the Launceston Sisters to find some cool caves and bush walks. It was fun, but we couldn't go inside of the cave we found because there was a stream in between us and the cave. :/

That night our STL's came up from Glen Huon and spent the night with us. Tuesday after district meeting we started our exchanges. I was with Sister Bennett for the day. We had a lot of fun and saw a few miracles, too. First, we contacted a potential investigator, Diana and set a return appointment with her. Next, we went to see Melissa (family we met tracting last week). She was home when we got there, but she had forgotten that we were coming and was rushing out the door. We got to talk to her for a bit and set up another return appointment and we also found out that she is keeping her commitments! She read the Family Proclamation we left with her and she said that she loved it! Then Sister Bennett asked her if there was anyone she knew who might be interested in our message and she gave us the address to her sister who happened to live in the suburb we were planning on visiting next. When we were walking back to our car I saw a less active member, Sister Redl, walking her dog. We waved and said hello and then went over to talk with her. Then we ended up walking with her back to her house and sharing a message with her. Then we went to contact Melissa's sister. We met her and she was really nice, but she couldn't give us a specific time we could come back. After that we went to go contact a referral from a member. We knocked on what we thought was the right house. We started talking to this lady and she invited us in. Then I asked her name and she said Kate. I got confused because it was not the name we were looking for, but I decided to just go with it. We ended up teaching her the entire Plan of Salvation right there. So cool!

After all our miracles from exchanges the week started to die down again. We basically did heaps of trying to contact less actives and potentials who weren't home. Then Diana and Kate cancelled our appointments. I was starting to get a little discouraged by Saturday and REALLY wanted to just take a break, get some ice cream, and relax for an hour. But something in the back of my mind kept telling me to just keep moving, so I did.

On Sunday after church Sister Zhang and I went tracting. The first house we went to we met a really nice lady. We started talking and eventually I handed her a Restoration pamphlet to read. When Sister Zhang started explaining about the Book of Mormon I decided to pull one out to show her. She looked at my homemade Cheez-It case and made a comment about it. That triggered a whole conversation when I found out that she is from St. Louis and grew up Baptist. When her parents passed away she started to lose touch with God. The more I listened to her, the deeper concern and sincere love I started to feel for her. By the end of the conversation I found out her name, Pam, the same name as my mother. I know it was not a coincidence that I met her, and I am confident that all my diligence and hard work throughout the week payed off when I met her. Heavenly Father is so good to us missionaries. He knows how we feel and He knows exactly what we need to lift our spirits and cheer us up. The church is true!

 

Love yous heaps!

Sister Bingham

 

p.s. sorry no pics today, I forgot my cord...