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. ;)