December 28, 2015

Dearest family and friends,

I know what you all are thinking right now. I wasn't going to email you on my last p-day. Lucky for yous that's not the case, yesterday was just public holiday because of boxing day.

All I can really say this week is that I can't believe I have made it this far! I am so happy that I came on a mission. Thank you to everyone who has helped prepare me to be able to become a good missionary and for all the wonderful examples I have grown up around. You all have really made a difference in my life.

I will miss everyone in Australia so much! I have grown to love so many people here!! Life after my mission will be different, but I will never forget the lessons I have learned here in the last 18 months.

Real quick update on a couple things from our missionary work this week. First miracle, we found a lady named Mary from Mauricious who speaks French who Sister Teriipaia taught. (I tried to listen and figure out what they were talking about but it was pretty useless) And our other miracle this week was that Mona came to church!!!!! She really enjoyed herself and I know that she really needs the gospel in her life. I plan on keeping in touch with her after I get home and hopefully I will be able to hear about her getting baptized one day!

Christmas was really good. We visited the Toh's, the Akaiti's and a couple in Cranbourne ward that invited us over with the Cranbourne Sisters. It was relaxing and surrounded by people who I love.

Yesterday was a really exciting final p-day as well. Sister Valdes took us to the city to walk around and do some souvenir shopping. My favourite part about it was that we got to meet up with the Footscray Sisters (Sister Rhodes)!! It was so hard to say goodbye to her, but I know that I will be waiting on the other side to meet her when she gets home next year!

As a final testimony and witness of Jesus Christ I want to tell each of you that I know with all of my heart that the gospel is true! God loves us and knows us individually. He knows our needs and He wants to help us to return to live with Him again. We are engaged in the work of salvation, and it is the best work any of us could do. Keep going strong everyone and I will see each of you very soon!

Love yous heaps!

Sister Bingham

1. Christmas! :)

2. lego Christmas tree in Melbourne

3. Merry Christmas from Melbourne

4. p-day in the city!

5. I will miss President and Sister Valdes so much! They are the best stake president!

December 20, 2015

Dearest family and friends,

This week's been pretty fun, except not a whole lot has been going on with our missioary work. We had exchanges which went well. Sister Almond and I were able to see Puao and Trenyce which was nice because we hadn't seen them in ages.

Our missionary Christmas party was heaps of fun! I spent most of the time talking with Sister Rhodes. It was great to catch up with her again!! I also got to perform in the talent show, something I wasn't really expecting. Sister Tihoni (from Tahiti, serving in Cranbourne ward) taught me, Sister Teriipaia, and two other sisters a Tahitian dance that we performed on Friday. It was really fun and I was actually surprised how much I miss all that stuff!

Saturday morning we got a callout from President and Sister Maxwell advising us not to be out in the heat if it's over 35C. Well, it reached 40C (somewhere around 100F) so we weren't able to do any tracting that day. We kept trying to follow up with heaps of people and noone was home, so we eventually decided to go hang out at the ward Christmas party. We were really happy when we showed up and found out that Rhonda had come with her daughters and grandkids. After all the many people we invited, I'm just glad that at least one of them showed up!

Since this week is Christmas I decided to end with a quote I have on my planner this transfer from Thomas S. Monson.

"To catch the real meaning of the spirit of Christmas, we need only drop the last syllable and it becomes the Spirit of Christ"

Merry Christmas everyone!!!

Love yous heaps!

Sister Bingham

1. so dang hot!!!

2. she's my favourite! <3

3. the Christmas tree is looking nice this year!

December 13, 2015

Dearest family and friends,

Another week come and gone. It always goes by so quickly! Well, the sicknesses continued this week. On Tuesday I woke up in the middle of the night and in the morning with the worst sore throat and headache. I called Sister Maxwell in the morning to see what the best thing would be to do and she said to take Tylenol and rest. I still decided to go to zone meeting that day, which just made my headache worse, but it was still good. I also developed a small cold the past couple days, but it is on the mend which I am happy about.

We've also had another trial recently in terms of getting around. Our allotted K's (kilometers) for the month got reduced by 600, way too much for our big, spread out area. Sister Teriipaia and I spent a whole morning going and looking at bus schedules to try and figure out how we can make it all work out, but it isn't looking too good for us. We have decided to try and take bus/metro when we can, but those don't even get us to all of the suburbs that we cover so it will be hard, but we are just going to try our best.

We saw a couple of our investigators this week. Meaghan is doing well. She read from the Book of Mormon this time, and she even read the pamphlet we left her as well. We mostly talked about prayer with her because she had some questions about that.

We had a new investigator this week. Her name is Aura and she is from Mexico. She is pentecostal, but has friends who are members in another stake. We taught her the restoration and it went pretty well.

We also got permission this week to go to a member's house and watch the christmas devotional. I really enjoyed watching it and felt the Spirit a lot! I loved Elder Bednar's talk about Christ being the light, and then making the connection to all the christmas lights we see around during the christmas season. I hope that we will all remember Christ and the light that He can bring to our lives during this christmas season.

Love yous heaps!

Sister Bingham

1. language study at the park. :)

December 6, 2015

Dearest family and friends,

Well, it is the moment you have all been waiting for: my last and final transfer news... So my new companion is Sister Teriipaia, from Tahiti and I am follow-up training her! Fourth daughter, whoo hoo!! She has a heart of gold and is such a goof ball! I know we are going to have heaps of fun together this last transfer.

I got off to a rough start this week. Wednesday morning after I woke up I felt like I had an eyelash stuck in my eye. I ran to the bathroom and looked, but couldn't see anything. After flushing my eye out several times with water and contact solution and still nothing I decided to call Sister Maxwell. She predicted that I might have a case of conjunctivitis (pink eye) and guess what. I did! What a great way to start my last transfer, getting sick. I haven't been sick my entire mission until this week... I'm all goods now though, the doctor gave me some eye drops and it cleared right up.

Meaghan is doing well. We managed to catch up with her again this week. She didn't read the chapter we left her from the Book of Mormon yet, but she felt really bad and said that she would read it before our appointment this week.

On Saturday we tracted into a really nice lady, Aura, from Mexico. We talked with her for a long time at her door and then she invited us in and gave us orange juice. We taught her about the Book of Mormon and she was excited for us to bring her one in Spanish this week. She was a miracle!

On the other side of the spectrum, we met a lady this week that believes that she is Judas (like the one from the Bible that betrayed Jesus). Yeah... that was a bit of a different conversation but all goods!

Hope yous are doing well and enjoying the Christmas season! If you haven't already, make sure to look up the new Christmas message on christmas.mormon.org

Love yous heaps!

Sister Bingham

1. best p-day ever!!! President and Sister Valdes got permission to take us to the beach!!

2. AMM

3. kangaroos!!

4. transfer meeting

5. my new comp

November 29, 2015

Dearest family and friends,

Tomorrow is transfer day and Sister Rhodes is leaving me. I am so sad!!!!!!!! I will miss Sister Rhodes SO much! She has become my best friend over these past three months that we've been together. We've laughed together, we've cried together, we've had amazing joys, and devastating disappointments as well. I will miss all the good memories we've had, but I am moving forward into my last transfer with my head up. It hasn't been all that easy for me these last couple weeks stressing about everything going on here and things I have to worry about for when I get back, but I know that this last transfer will be great and that I will be able to finish strong! As Elder Pearson said, you sprint through the finish line, not to it.

We had a couple really cool miracles this week. First is Monica. She is a Hindu mum we tracted into a couple weeks ago and this week we were able to catch up with her with Shannen and teach her a lesson. It went really well and she seems really open to learning so far.

Our other miracle was Rebecca. She converted a few years ago and lately has had a hard time coming to church. A couple weeks ago we were able to finally meet her and this week we went by and taught her the restoration lesson again. Then yesterday she came to church! It was great and she was so happy to be back!

I know that missionary work can be so rewarding, but it can also be so exhausting and disappointing. As I've been having a harder time these past couple weeks I've noticed how 'conveniently' miracles are placed in my path right when I need them to lift me up again. Heavenly Father is aware of us and our needs. He might not always relieve us of our trials straightaway, but He will give us the strength and upliftment that we need to keep on going!

Love yous heaps!

Sister Bingham

1. best burger in the world!

2. said goodbye to one of the families in our ward yesterday. Still got heaps on the list for today!

November 22, 2015

Dearest family and friends,

Another week come and gone. It always goes by so fast!! Well, this week we had a lot of changes to our teaching pool. Quite a few investigators and potentials dropped, and some new ones picked up as well. We also had a few other good things happen for us, like taking out two of the recently returned missionaries in our ward and teaching five less active lessons. It's been busy for sure!

One of the new investigators we picked up this week was Meaghan. I know, it is still weird for me too to teach someone with my name. She's really great though! We met her tracting last week. She got in a really bad car accident a few months ago and pretty much only sits at home and goes to physio now until she gets better. She is Christian and really misses going to church so she was really happy to talk to us. We taught her the Restoration yesterday and she was really open and wanted to learn. One of the things I have noticed in my many months being out, and that was emphasized to me this week, is the importance of the people we teach to being open and having a willing heart. It is a complete 180 experience trying to teach someone who just wants to prove you wrong and convince you of all the reasons why they are right as opposed to teaching someone who is willing to learn and act on the things that they receive. If we have a sincere heart and are actually looking for answers, God will be much more willing to give us those answers, we just have to want it first.

I hope yous enjoy your week and spending time with family for the Thanksgiving holiday. I don't think I'll be able to celebrate with yous so make sure to eat some pie for me!

Love you heaps!

Sister Bingham

November 15, 2015

Dearest family and friends,

Sadly, this week has not been too exciting. Tuesday and Wednesday were both slow days for us, everyone kept cancelling on us! But all goods, we never lose hope!

Thursday we had zone conference. As always, it was heaps of fun and full of the spirit. Sister Rhodes and I gave a mean as training as well so that was fun!

Friday we took Sister Rhodes to the doctor because she hadn't been feeling well for about a week or so. Then we spent the next two days letting her rest and recover.

The one lesson we did get to teach this week was Rhonda, and it was really good! She kept her commitment to read the Book of Mormon every day, and she even read more than one chapter a day. Her long friend in the church, Sister Jenkins, came with us and it was great! I know and can feel that she will come back to church someday. I just hope that day is soon.

I will leave yous this week with my ponderizing scripture for this week. It has taught me a lot about charity.

"And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge; and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing."

-1 Corinthians 13:2

Love yous heaps!

Sister Bingham

November 8, 2015

Dearest family and friends,

It's been a busy week in Lynbrook. We've had a few really great miracles!

First miracle is Teiria (pronounced taedia). She is a 17-year-old girl and was referred to us by one of the members in our ward. On Monday night we went to stop by and meet her and seriously she is cool as! She is really fun and really interested in learning about the church. Her boyfriend is a member and she says that he doesn't really know how to answer all her questions (typical teenagers haha) so we taught her a bit that night and shared our testimonies with her and then made another appointment to teach her Wednesday. On Wednesday she came to the stake president's house with her boyfriend and we taught a lesson to her with Shannen, the stake president's daughter who just got back from her mission. We showed her the Restoration video and it was really great! The spirit was really strong and we were able to help her understand much more. It was funny at one point when she made a comment that we basically summarized two years of her questioning her boyfriend in 20 minutes. Teiria was supposed to come to church as well, but she ended up being out of town so we will have to try next week! But so far things are looking great with her!

We were also able to get a couple more members to come to lessons with us this week. It was the most we've had since I've been here in Lynbrook and we have a few lessons this week that members have agreed to come to with us. The work is really moving forward right now! It's so exciting!

Last update for the week. We found out yesterday that Sister Santos is getting transferred to a different area this week. It's sad to see her go so soon, but I know that President Maxwell is inspired and that she is needed elsewhere at the moment.

Love yous heaps!

Sister Bingham

1. I love to see the temple

2. me and Sister Rhodes <3

November 1, 2015

Dearest family and friends,

Our week was pretty eventful. On Monday evening we had a FHE with President and Sister Maxwell and all the Sisters on the east side. It was heaps of fun and we had a couple trainings that I felt like were just for me and my companions!

We also got to see President and Sister Maxwell again for zone interviews this week. It was exactly what I needed at the time because President Maxwell is so patient and understanding. I had been getting pretty stressed slowly through the week, but after talking with him I felt much better.

Last exciting thing from this week, we had exchanges! Sister Rhodes and I got to go to Dandenong with Sister Wairepo for the day. It was so much fun and so stress free! Exchanges are inspired, they always bring miracles!

Last thing I wanted to share this week is the scripture that I have been "ponderizing".

"Therefore, dearly beloved [sisters], let us cheerfully do all things that lie in our power; and then may we stand still, with the utmost assurance, to see the salvation of God, and for his arm to be revealed." - Doctrine and Covenants 123:17

As I have been reflecting on this scripture throughout the week I have grown in my testimony that we can only control the things that we do, the things that we put in. We cannot control others agency, but we can control our own. Our job is to try our hardest, to do our best, and then we must wait for God to make up the difference. I know the church is true and that I am doing God's work right now.

I love yous heaps!

Sister Bingham

1. FHE with President and Sister Maxwell

2. our stake president cooked "completos" for Sister Rhodes' birthday

3. happy halloween/ exchanges with Sister Wairepo

October 25, 2015

Dearest family and friends,

Well, we had transfers this week. Sister Rhodes and I are now with Sister Santos, a Sister from the Philippines! She is now my third Filipina companion. She is great and has an amazing testimony and conversion story.

A quote I wanted to share for this week is one from Neal A. Maxwell:

"God as a loving Father, will stretch our souls at times. The soul is like a violin string: It makes music only when it is stretched."

I also wanted to share about my testimony of the priesthood. I received a blessing this week and I can honestly say it was one of the most powerful blessings I have ever been given. The words that were spoken were exactly what I needed to hear and I know they were straight from my Heavenly Father. It was so specific for me and gave me so much counsel I will need these remaining couple of months in Australia. God loves us and knows us perfectly. The priesthood is real.

Love yous heaps!

Sister Bingham

1. I got to say goodbye to Sister Lee at transfer meeting. Can't believe she is already finished and back in Korea!

2. the new district

October 18, 2015

Dearest family and friends,

Another transfer has come to an end. Which means one thing. Transfer news!! Sister Rhodes and I are happy because we are staying together another transfer. AND we will be picking up another companion tomorrow. I'm pretty excited to be in another trio, should be heaps of fun!

Now for all the updates from this week.

We had to drop Trenyce's baptismal date for now. Her mum felt like it was too rushed and that she isn't ready. In my opinion though if anyone waits until they are truly ready to get baptized they will wait their entire life. But we will continue to visit them and help Trenyce to continue to learn until she does eventually get baptized.

We still had good success this week still, though. We went one day to try to see an investigator who has been dodging us the whole transfer. We decided that this was the last time we would stop by and then we would drop her. When we knocked on the door her step daughter Tiffany answered the door. She was really keen so we started teaching her instead. We taught her the restoration, plan of salvation, and the first two principles of the gospel of Jesus Christ by the end of the week. We also set a baptismal date for her for November 28 and she came to church on Sunday. Miracles!!

Last fun experience from this week. So apparently in Cranbourne every year they have a big event where HEAPS of men with motorcycles drive down to Phillip Island and watch some race thing there. But before they drive down they have a massive public event. So of course all us missionaries close by decided to go and check it out and do some GQ-ing in the process. We did and it was actually quite a lot of fun. Sister Rhodes even talked to this one guy for almost 30 minutes and he called us that night saying that he might come to church on Sunday, but unfortunately he didn't make it.

Well, that's all for this week. Hope yous are enjoying yourselves and have a great week!

Love,

Sister Bingham

1. people here really go all out for halloween...

2. Cranbourne GP event

October 11, 2015

Dearest family and friends,

The weeks keep going by way too fast! This week was full of really high ups, and a few lows as well, but that is the normal life of a missionary!

We had exchanges this week, and of course it brought miracles! I always learn so much on exchanges and feel so uplifted.

Tish is doing pretty well. We finished teaching her the plan of salvation this week and had another good lesson with her.

We managed to catch up with Elisa again and shared the Book of Mormon story about Abinadi. It really helped her to have a greater desire and motivation to read from the Book of Mormon.

Nana isn't progressing the best at the moment. During our lesson this week we figured out that she doesn't even really know why we come and teach her, so we are going to try and start back at square one with her.

Trenyce is looking really good. We taught her the ten commandments this week and committed her to come to church with a member who will pick her up. We figured this would be the best solution for her to come to church short term and she agreed. Her mum has already taken her shopping and found a baptism dress for her so that is also a good sign. :)

A couple new investigators we found this week were Erik and Twabitha. Erik is an Indo-Fijian man who has been in Australia for a few months. He is Hindu, but genuinely is looking for more peace and happiness in his life. Twabitha is from Sudan and is Christian. I found her with Sister Hatch on exchanges looking for a former investigator and we went back with a returned missionary in our ward a couple days later to teach her the restoration. She was really excited to read the Book of Mormon.

The highlight of this week was, of course, getting to watch general conference. I especially enjoyed the two shout outs for Australia! The one about the sharks definitely fulfils the American view of what Australia is like, haha! I loved all the talks that were given and the inspiration received by each person who had the opportunity to speak. I know that we are led by a prophet of God and that Jesus Christ leads and guides the church today through revelation. I look forward to re-listening to all the talks in the coming months and continuing to apply them into my life.

Love yous heaps!

Sister Bingham

1. Sister Rhodes and I bought expensive as Dr. Pepper because we couldn't resist... It tasted like home!

October 4, 2015

Dearest family and friends,

This week has been pretty alright, not anything too exciting but we keep doing everything that we can to help everyone here.

Jemma dropped us... It was really sad and the first time I can think of that I actually cried when an investigator dropped me. I was just most sad that she is going through a really hard time in her life right now and I know that the gospel is exactly what she needs to help get her through, but she just can't see that at the moment.

We set a baptism date with Trenyce for October 31, but now we just have to figure out how to get her to church since her parents are less active.

We taught Vin again this week. We answered a couple more of his questions about Jesus Christ and read about the nativity in the New Testament. It's really cool to see such a young kid from a non-Christian background so interested in learning about Jesus Christ!

We taught Tish as well. She is doing pretty good. We had a really great lesson with her about our purpose here on earth. She said that she always felt like her purpose was to suffer, but we did our best to follow the Spirit and help her see that she is a unique daughter of God who loves her and has given her trials to make her stronger and to help her rely more on Him.

Sister Rhodes and I had a really great experience on Saturday. We were in one of the suburbs that we cover for almost the whole day and NOTHING was happening. We tracted, we tried to follow up with new contacts, we tried to visit less active members from our ward list, and nothing was coming from it all. Eventually we were ready to give up and move on to another suburb before dinner to try some more new contacts when Sister Rhodes noticed the name of a less active couple on our ward list that we had overlooked before. So we decided to go there and then leave. When we drove up the couple was sitting in their garage talking. We walked up and started talking to them and they said that it was interesting we had just showed up because they were just talking about how they needed to go to church the next day. We sat down and had an amazing lesson with them. The Spirit was really strong and they were sharing their experiences about how they miss the Spirit that they feel when they come to church. Unfortunately they didn't come to church yesterday, but we plan to go back and help them again to want to come.

That's all for this week.

Love yous heaps!

Sister Bingham

1. I forgot to send this one a couple weeks back. This is at our stake president's house. Dad, I thought you might want to adapt it for Bradley who is old enough to date now. ;)

September 27, 2015

Talofa lava friends and family!

This week has been great! We've been so flat out it's crazy, but it's great to be busy as a missionary!

Jemma is still doing pretty good. We stopped by this week and taught her and one of her daughters about faith. Last we heard a couple days ago it had almost been a week since she last smoked, which is really great progress!

We picked up a few new investigators this week as well. One is Tish, an Aussie lady Sister Rhodes and her last comp tracted into. She grew up Catholic, but thinks that church is really boring and also told us that she doesn't necessarily agree with everything the Bible says. Another one is Vin, a nine year old Sri Lankan boy. We tracted into their house and his mum answered the door. They are Hindu so she wasn't really interested, but Vin really wants to learn more about Jesus Christ so his mum told us we could come in and teach him. Another new investigator this week is Elisa. She is an Aussie lady who the Sisters tracted into almost a year ago. Her sister recently joined the church as well, but she told us that she doesn't really want to go anymore which is sad. Elisa is lovely though and really wants to learn more about the Bible and the Book of Mormon. Our last new investigator this week is Trinice. On Tuesday night one of our appointments fell through so we went over to their house with the stake president's daughter who had gotten home from her mission in Sydney the same day. Trinice is from a less active Samoan family and is the oldest of the four kids. She is nine now and really wants to be baptized, but the parents haven't gotten around to it yet because they don't have a strong desire to go to our ward. Luckily her mum is willing to let us teach her and hopefully prepare her for baptism soon.

Last cool thing that happened this week. So one of the families in our ward called us up on Friday wanting us to come over for dinner on Saturday with them and their non-member neighbors who were getting ready to move soon. Everything ended up working out with our scheduling, so we went over for dinner and to share a message with the family and their neighbors. We were stressing out before because we didn't know what to share, but we ended up getting to share a good message about prophets and general conference. I know it was a good seed that we were able to plant and I really hope that they watch general conference. I am grateful for a living prophet on the earth today and I know that Heavenly Father continues to lead and guide the church.

Love yous!

Sister Bingham

1. We got permission to go to Felicity's baptism in Glenroy on Saturday!! So exciting!

September 20, 2015

Dear family and friends,

This week has had some interesting ups and downs. We had some really busy days, and some really slow days, but overall it hasn't been too bad.

For starters, we saw Jemma and taught her about the Holy Ghost. We really want to help her to be able to recognize and follow the Holy Ghost so she can have a stronger desire to quit smoking and to commit herself more to the gospel. We realized during her lesson, however, that we are going to have to go back to basics and teach everything a lot more simply.

The most interesting thing that happened this week was with a couple we met tracting last week. They are born again Christians and had invited us in to explain a little to them (mostly so they could explain their beliefs to us) but we went back on Tuesday and had a really great lesson with them. They were polite and nice and listened as we taught them about the restoration of the gospel through Joseph Smith. The spirit was really strong and we KNOW they felt it too. Then they had their go at trying to convince us why the Bible is the only word of God. After our lesson they still had heaps of questions for us about the Book of Mormon so they invited us to come back again on Thursday. We left them a commitment to read 2 Nephi 31-33 and then went back and taught about the gospel of Jesus Christ. This lesson was exactly the opposite of the one on Tuesday. We taught them and I could see in them as we were teaching that they were just listening to find fault. By the end they looked at the five steps that we had laid out for them (faith in Jesus Christ, repentance, baptism, receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost, and enduring to the end) and commented that they agreed with all of it except the fact that we didn't have a salvation prayer. They then proceeded to try to Bible bash with us and adamently come back to one scripture that they were so hung up on. Then they decided to completely turn on us and say things like the Book of Mormon is not true, Joseph Smith is not a prophet, our church is not true, etc etc. I got so frustrated and couldn't believe the difference in their attitudes. Not only that, but I was so frustrated because they weren't even listening to what we were saying anymore. They had made up their mind that we were wrong without even giving it a chance or a second thought. They were attacking everything that I hold dear to me and I couldn't handle it anymore. All I could do was bear one of the most powerful testimonies I have ever given in my life and then leave.

I know that the Book of Mormon is true! I know that Joseph Smith is a prophet of God! And I know that anyone who shuts the door before truly listening to us and honestly considering Moroni's promise is missing out on a multitude of blessings. The church is true, there is no doubt in my mind because I have pondered about the Book of Mormon myself and I know that God continues to affirm me that it is true.

Love yous!

Sister Bingham

September 13, 2015

Dear family and friends,

Talofa lava from Lynbrook! That's right... my sixth and hopefully final area is on the East side!! And it is mostly a Polynesian ward. I am loving it here on the east side so far. We get to do a lot of tracting (which I love) and we actually get the chance to speak a little about the gospel with many people. My new companion is so amazing!! Her name is Sister Rhodes and she is from Brigham City, Utah. She has been on her mission for one transfer SO that means that I am follow up training her! So exciting to have another daughter!! It's so crazy to me that she is my third American companion since being in Australia, the last two being my first transfer. She is so great and WAY ahead where I ever was my second transfer.

So a couple exciting things have happened this week. We have been so busy that I haven't even had time to unpack. We taught a Tongan investigator, Nana, this week. She has started reading the Book of Mormon and really likes it, but for whatever reason we couldn't get her to commit to a baptismal date yet. She kept saying that maybe after she finishes reading the entire Bible and Book of Mormon then she will think about it. Lol. But hopefully we will be able to help her see that she doesn't need to have a perfect knowledge before she gets baptized, just the faith and commitment to follow Jesus Christ.

We also taught an investigator Jemma this week. She has recently cut down on coffee, but still struggles with smoking. We taught her a lesson on the ten commandments this week and she was supposed to come to church, but she got busy.

I've been doing great recently. I feel like with this change of weather, I have also become a bit more sunny and bright myself. One thing I have started to do recently is to hold a Book of Mormon in my hand as I go tracting. I have always kept one in my bag, but I have noticed in the past few weeks as I have been doing this that it is easier to bring up the topic of the Book of Mormon and the restoration with people, and I have been able to give out more Books of Mormon. This in turn makes me more happy because it gives me the hope that these people will be able to enjoy the peace and blessings from the gospel that I have been able to enjoy in my own life. I love the Book of Mormon so much. I know that it is the true word of God and that it brings me closer to my Savior than by any other means.

I love all of you heaps!

Sister Bingham

1. me and my new comp today (at sand volleyball for zone p-day)

September 6, 2015

Dear family and friends,

First off, happy Australian father's day dad!! Hope you eat some cake or something from me to celebrate!

Crazy stuff happening this week... We FINALLY got a progressing investigator this week... Peta! We saw her and taught the gospel of Jesus Christ and then she accepted a baptismal date for September 26 and then she came to church! (just sacrament meeting, but that's okay because it was a really powerful testimony meeting)

Now the sad news for the week. Sister Zhang and I are both getting transfered out of Devonport. :( I am so sad that I have to leave after only one transfer, but I feel so blessed and grateful that I have had the opportunity to come back here to my home!! My heart will always be in Tasmania!

I have learned so much this last transfer, especially about patience and perserverance. We had quite a few days where we struggled to find productive things to do, but I learned to just keep moving and to be patient for the blessings to come. And they did! Finally during the last week of this transfer we were able to help Peta begin to progress again which is amazing! I can't wait to hear about how she does in the future.

Lucky me I received a bit of transfer news before transfer meeting tomorrow. I will be with an American Sister and I will be follow-up training!! Whoo hoo! Super excited to have another daughter! I hope it all goes well! Take care and I'll update yous more next week!

 

Love yous heaps!

Sister Bingham

 

1. tracting by the beach in Shearwater

2. guess who made spaghetti with kangaroo meatballs!

August 30, 2015

Dear family and friends,

Not too exciting of a week, but still a few updates on everyone here...

We taught a former investigator, Peta, this week and it went really well. She told us her experiences of reading the Book of Mormon and how she is starting to gain a testimony of it. She also said that she feels like she needs to be baptized, which we are really excited for, but not getting our hopes up yet because she has had dates before and dropped them really suddenly. She was going to come to church this Sunday as well, but ended up getting sick so she couldn't make it.

Melissa and Skye are good as well. They are a super lovely family and I'm really excited to start teaching them. We saw them this week on Tuesday and it went well. Mostly Melissa just asked us heaps of questions about our missionary work and what it's like haha. But this week we will dive right in to more teaching.

We also were able to follow up with a potential investigator, Diana, this week. She and her husband are from the Philippines and she is Roman Catholic. She gets visits from the JWs too and was hesitant to let us come back at first because she doesn't want to get too confused, but when we visited with her she asked us heaps of questions about our church and our beliefs about the plan of salvation. Then she would tell us what the JWs taught her and what she believes in her church. By the end of our visit with her she had come to the conclusion that our church is much more similar to hers than the JWs, which is very true!

We followed up with Pam as well this week. She had already started to read the Book of Mormon and asked us a couple questions about the resurrection, etc. so she is doing well so far keeping her commitments.

We didn't have very much else this week going on. Just still trying to get investigators to church and progressing more. We did have one funny story following up with potentials. We went back to this man, Paul, and he let us in to talk to him, but then before we walked in he looked at us and said, "But don't ever come back after this again" haha! We had a good chat, but he was pretty set in his ways. (typical Aussie, Catholic, doesn't go to church, believes as long as you keep the commandments and do good things that you can go to heaven)

That's all for this week. Hope yous have a good one!

 

Love yous heaps!

Sister Bingham

 

1. last p-day at the caves

2. DANGER

3. Cradle Mountain has snow!!

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...

August 16, 2015

Dear family and friends,

G'day!! It's been a great, busy week. We started off last Monday going to Hobart for zone p-day on Monday and zone meeting on Tuesday. For p-day we did all the fun stuff I did last year when I was here, Mt. Wellington and the Cadbury factory. It was great to see the snow again and to buy heaps of chocolate. :)

After p-day was over we went down to GLEN HUON for the night!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It was so crazy to see my favorite place in the world again!! We went and had dinner with Enid Woolley, dessert with Bishop Jury and his family (minus Amber and Conner who are both on their missions now) and Brock and Rae Watson, then the next morning we had breakfast with our favorite neighbor Lisa Watson. It was so amazing to be back! It seriously felt like it had only been last week that I was last there! I can't wait to go back again for the next zone meeting!

Zone meeting was pretty alright. The most important part of it though was that we FINALLY got our car!!! Whoo hoo!!!!! So we drove that all the way back to Devonport with us.

Wednesday we got to watch a special meeting from Melbourne at our chapel. Apparently some people had organized a Time Out for Women in Sydney, so Brad Willcox and David Archuleta came and visited our mission before they went home! It was really fun to get to watch it! David Archuleta sang Be Still My Soul and Glorious and talked about Alma 37:6-7 (by small and simple means are great things brought to pass) and then shared a story from his mission about how he was on the bus one day and felt prompted to talk to this girl. After the third prompting he finally went over and started talking to her. About thirty seconds later he had to get off the bus and he awkwardly handed her an invitation to a ysa activity. Later he found out that she had gone to the activity and was being taught by the missionaries. Later he found out that she had gotten baptized and her sister was taking the lessons. Later he got transferred back into the same stake and saw her at an activity. She was preparing to serve a mission, but was putting it off at the moment because she was waiting for her family to be able to get sealed in the temple. Now she is serving a mission in Colombia. Pretty legit stuff! That scripture is so true! Then Brad Willcox talked about the House of Israel and how it is our job as missionaries to gather the house of Israel in preparation for the second coming of Jesus Christ. It was really cool! He is a great public speaker.

After all our great meetings we have been focusing on trying to get around to more members homes. It is really great to be more mobile again. That's about all for this week. Hope yous have a safe, warm week.

Love yous heaps!

Sister Bingham

1. Mt. Wellington with the Launceston sisters

2. Cadbury factory

3. at the Jury's :)

4. watching the meeting with David Archuleta!!