January 26, 2015

Dear Family and Friends,

What a crazy week! We have been so busy this transfer with various activities! Last week we had interviews with President Maxwell and Golden review for Sister Tuhod in Wantirna. Yesterday we had a really fun sister's p-day at the Werribee mansion and today we went there again for zone meeting. Tomorrow we will travel to Wantirna again to go to the temple and then we will have exchanges after. So much traveling but it is great! I am most excited for the temple! I love it there because it is so peaceful and easy to feel the spirit there.

This week was pretty exciting because Mary's mum finally came back from England so we set a new baptismal date with her for February 7.

We also got a referral this week for a less active member named Leila who lives in a small town about 11 K's outside of Melton. We went and visited her on Sunday and she told us that when she ran into the Elders in Sunshine she decided that she is ready to start going back to church. She recently separated from her partner and is working on settling custody of her kids. She told us that she was basically homeless for a few months until she finally decided to pray to Heavenly Father and ask Him to help her find a house and He did! She also just started a new job so everything is starting to work out for her. Heavenly Father answers prayers, all we have to do is ask Him.

I taught my first ever lesson to a Muslim lady and her daughter with Sister Tuhod on Sunday. Melbourne is really SO multi-cultural!

Last thing from this week, I gave a talk in sacrament meeting on Sunday. Despite the fact that I should be pro at talking in front of people now I was still a little nervous. I kept telling Sister Tuhod leading up to it that I wish they would've just asked me the day of and i would've whipped up something on the spot, but I also know that inspiration flows more readily if you are prepared so I am glad that I was given time to prepare for it.

Melton is still great and I am really enjoying the work here. I am hoping that when we get transfer calls in a couple weeks now that I will be able to stay here a little longer. There is still so much more work to be done here that I want to be a part of. I know this gospel is true!

Love ya heaps!

Sister Bingham

1. Australia cake for Australia Day

 

2. Sister Tuhod and I at the rose garden

3. the Werribee mansion

4. the bus back to the train station took us to the beach! :)

5. beach selfie

January 18, 2015

Dear family and friends,

First off, Happy birthday to my wonderful mother!!! I hope you have an exciting day!

Second, shout out to my sister Hilary who is leaving on her mission this week, headed for Madrid, Spain!!! You are going to make an amazing missionary and I can't wait to exchange awesome missionary stories with you! See you on Christmas over skype!

Third, this week was SO amazing! Elder and Sister Pearson did a mission tour and visited each of us. They gave amazing advice to us and it was so inspiring! One thing I learned from them is that master planning is a Godly characteristic that we should all do our best to embrace and develop. Heavenly Father has a goal for each one of us "to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man". Another thing I learned is that obedience feeds faith. When our faith is getting low, the best thing for us to do to counteract it and build our faith is to be exactly obedient and nourish our souls with scripture study and prayer. They gave us heaps of other great advice, I wish I could write it all down for yous.

Sister Tuhod and I are continuing to do our best to work hard and stay busy here in Melton. We are doing well and the time is going by really fast for both of us.

I hope yous have a great week! I won't be able to email next Monday because of public holiday (Australia Day), but I will talk to you on Tuesday most likely.

Love you heaps,

Sister Bingham

1. I made tacos! :D

January 11, 2015

Dearest Family and Friends,

Sorry this letter will probably be pretty short, but we didn't have a super eventful week. Sister Tuhod an I have been keeping busy trying to get ahold of investigators and build our teaching pool while also visiting lots of members and recent converts. The ward is doing really well right now and there is heaps of potential for growth at the moment, so we will be working real hard to keep our escalator effect going. :)

The weather here has been really bipolar. Earlier in the week it got hot as and then the other half of the week it was cold and rainy for a few days in a row. There was one day when we tracted in the rain for two hours. It was definitely a nice relief from the 40 degree heat we had earlier.

We have a busy month planned for the rest of January with heaps of events that will be happening. This week we will go to a multi-zone conference where Elder Pearson, the area Seventy will speak to us. AND we found out this week that Elder Bednar is coming to our mission in February!!!!!!!!!! I am SO stoked! I really hope I don't get transferred somewhere far away so that I can go to that!

I hope you all have a wonderful week and enjoy the nice weather back home! Remember that I love yous and that the church is true!

Love ya heaps!

Sister Bingham

1. Sorry this is sorta the only picture I took this week, but it's a good quote :)

Better Late Than Never (Received January 7, 2015)

Hi  Bingham family,

We are doing a clean up and found these photos and a letter and we are not sure that it was ever sent to you.

Enjoy :-)

Cheers
Sister Horne
Australia Melbourne Mission

AUSTRALIA MELBOURNE MISSION

76 Cathies Lane, Wantirna South 3152

VICTORIA, AUSTRALIA

16 July 2014

Dear Bingham Family,

We are delighted to welcome your daughter, Sister Maegan Bingham, to the Australia

Melbourne Mission.

 It was exciting to greet her at the airport as she arrived in this

beautiful part of the world. It will be a great experience for Sister Bingham to begin to

immediately share the gospel with others. Your daughter has a sincere desire to teach

the message of the restored gospel. We consider it a privilege to be part of this great

experience with her.

Sister Ricks and Sister Stoker have been selected as your daughter's first companion

and they have been assigned to labour in Glen Huon Area. Sister Ricks & Sister Stoker

have very qualified to provide the initial missionary foundation that will contribute to your

daughter's success.

The receipt of encouraging, positive letters/e-mails from home each week is an extremely

important element in her success. We urge you to be faithful in this privilege. Best

mail service will be obtained by sending all mail to your daughter in care of the Australia

Melbourne Mission, 76 Cathies Lane, Wantirna South, Victoria 3152. We will see that it is

quickly delivered to the proper location.

As you are aware, missionaries follow certain strict guidelines that help them succeed as

a representative of the Lord Jesus Christ. I would like to highlight those areas where you,

your family and her friends can help her succeed.

1) Telephone calls between a missionary and family or friends almost always distract

and keep a missionary from serving effectively. We ask that you not call her . If there is

an emergency, please contact me or one of the office staff in my absence. We will relay

messages and support as quickly as we can make contact and in a way that will be as

helpful as possible. She will call home on Christmas and Mother's Day.

2) Visiting missionaries in the field by friends or relatives can be a real temptation for

those on extensive trips to Melbourne, but is also very disruptive to the missionary and to

the Lord's work here. We ask your help in this also. If a special need arises requiring an

exception to the policies, please contact me.

3) When sending packages from home, please do not send CDs, books, clothing or

other material that detract from the work. She has all the study material needed to be

successful. Mormon Tabernacle Choir music and General Conference/Ensign CDs make

wonderful gifts. Please don't send items that distract in any way. If you have a question,

please send me an e-mail.

We hope that you enjoy the enclosed photograph of Sister Bingham taken with Sister

Maxwell and myself after she arrived in Melbourne.

We already feel a great love for your

daughter and appreciate all you are doing to assist her. Thanks for preparing her for this

missionary experience.

Sincerely,

Cory H. Maxwell, President

Australia Melbourne Mission

cmaxwell@ldschurch.org

Enc

January 4, 2015

Dearest Family and Friends,

This week has honestly been probably the best week of my mission! (See attatchment below) On Tuesday I went to transfer meeting with Sister Lee and who else would I find there than my mum, Sister Maughan. Her time in Tas has come to and end which is really sad, but I was so excited to see her again! Then, to my surprise, at the end of transfer meeting, Sister Ricks showed up with her parents! They came down to tour her mission for a week and they decided to stop by transfer meeting to say hi to everyone on their way passing through! Such a tender mercy to have ALL three of my mums with me at the same time! I never thought that would ever happen!

Well I am sure you are all wondering who my amazing new companion is. Her name is Sister Tuhod and she is from the Philippines! She is doing really great adjusting to missionary life so far and I am really excited to be with her for the next transfer!

Other than that not a whole lot happened this week besides us trying to survive in the hot as weather! The other day it got up to about 40 degrees (about 105 F) when we were tracting... No bueno! But we are surviving it so far!

I hope you all have an amazing week and work diligently to achieve your new year's resolutions. Don't ever forget how merciful the Lord is to each one of us and how much He loves us. The gospel is true!

Love ya heaps!

Sister Bingham

1. My favourite pic in the world! :)

2. Sister Ricks and I

3. Sister Tuhod and I

December 28, 2014

Dearest Family and Friends,

It was a crazy week for us this week! We had a great Christmas though and ate heaps of food!

On Christmas Eve we had exchanges with the STL's. Sister Stoker and Sister Lee were in Melton for the day and the biggest miracle happened! They picked a street to tract together and at the very first door they knocked they met a girl named Tina who Sister Stoker met months ago when she was in Deer Park. She is keen as and we have an appointment with her for this week. Exchanges bring miracles!!!!!!!!!!

On Christmas day we had breakfast, lunch, and dinner all at member's homes. I'm pretty sure I went into a food coma the second I got home that night.

I got to skype my family and see them for the first time in six months. It was really fun and good to know that nothing's really changed at home haha!

This week we got a new investigator named Miranda. She has a few problems that she struggles with (depression, diabetes) but she told us that she really wants to get baptised so God can help her through her trials. She picked her batismal date for Valentine's day. It's great to see her faith!

We had the easiest less active member visit ever this week! We were going through the ward list and decided to see a member who's name we didn't recognize. When we stopped by the very first thing she said was "What time is church at? Ten o'clock still?" To which Sister Lee and I confirmed and she responded "Great! I'm coming this Sunday, it's about time I went back to church!" And she did!

I think the last news for this week is transfer news! So Sister Lee's time in Melton is coming to a close after a long six months for her. But I am staying AND President Maxwell asked me if I would train a new missionary this transfer!!!!!!!!!!!! I'm still SO nervous, but I am also really excited to have my first daughter! Whoo hoo!

Happy New Year everyone and always remember that the Church is true!

Love ya heaps!

Sister Bingham

1. Christmas lunch at the De Rozario's

2. Pavlova and Trifle eating contest with Elder Waith on Christmas (we tied)

3. The Melton missionaries after dinner ready for our food comas

December 21, 2014

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!!!
MERRY CHRISTMAS ALL! This week has been pretty good for us! We had our ward christmas party on Saturday and it was pretty fun even though two of our investigators showed up.

We did heaps of service earlier this week. We got to do some gardening and some sanding/painting. The gardening has inspired me to do some weeding at our flat soon.

We had some good miracles this week. There was one day this week when Sister Lee and I were tracting an we met a girl named Tarra. We had a really good talk with her and towards the end I gave her a Restoration pamphlet. She looked at it and said "I've been waiting for someone to give me something like this" so then I gave her a Book of Mormon and she said the exact same thing! I really hope to see her again soon, but if not I still know that we were instruments in the Lord's hands in preparing her to come unto Christ.

Next miracle: This week we tracted one side of a street and the next day Sister Lee and I both felt like we should go back and tract the other side. When we did we met a Tongan mother, Anette, from New Zealand. Her family is Methodist but she has cousins who are members of our church. She invited us back to teach her more so we're pretty stoked. I'm most excited that it will be SO easy to find a fellowship for her since basically over half our ward is Polynesian!

One other cool thing from this week: Sister Lee and I taught an Indian lady who is from the Sikh religion. It was pretty sweet, but I had absolutely no idea how to go about the lesson since I basically know nothing about her religion haha!

Crazy that Christmas is already upon us, and the last week of my fourth transfer. I hope we will all remember to take some time this week to enjoy the lovely people we have around us and to reflect on the birth of our Saviour Jesus Christ. If you haven't watched the He is the Gift video on christmas.mormon.org DO IT! I love you all and wish you a happy, warm, merry christmas!

Love ya heaps!

Sister Bingham

1. tracting in the rain!

2. ward christmas party

3. the Melton missionaries!