Caitlin's Chronicles (Sister Bingham in the Philippines)

EKSAYTED GID AKO Next Wednesday, my district will fly out of Provo, to LA, to Hong Kong, then finally to Manilla. We will arrive in Manila on Nov 3rd, 11:10am. I think that's about Nov 2 9:10pm Oregon time? I will definitely be sad to leave my amazing teachers and the friends I have made here. I love them and they will always be close to my heart. But I know that I will love the Filipinos in Bacolod even more (although right now it seems crazy to have so much love to give). This is our last P day in Provo and I don't know when you'll hear from me next but remember that I love you! Sister Clarke and I celebrated Mumu Monday (see pictures) where we wore Mumus all day. I got some weird side glances and some genuine compliments and it was fantastic. Then of course was Twinning Tuesday and can you guess? The color was red. Then the temple pictures are from this morning. Probably our final temple trip for the next 2 years/18 months. I absolutely LOVE the jumping picture. Elde...

Maayong Hapon! Two weeks left before they send us out! I'm a little nervous, but way more excited to serve God's children in Bacolod! We've gotten to know our new zone a bit better over the last week and I LOVE THEM. On Saturday, we had a zone game of sand volleyball during exercise in the evening. Unfortunately, it grew very cold and the sand was covered in shade. Our feet were freezing cold but that didn't stop our fun! There are 21 missionaries in our zone so we were playing on two courts but for the last few minutes we all played on one court and just tried to keep the ball in the air.  After we went back to our rooms showered and got ready, we had a zone testimony meeting. I can't explain to you the feeling I felt there. Many of the new sisters and elders said that they felt like we were a family already, despite it having been only 3 days! I'm so glad we were able to bond through volleyball and then be comfortable with each other to share the thought...

Kamusta!!!! These weeks are just flying by! Yesterday, our ENTIRE zone (aka our ENTIRE branch) left for the Philippines, except for us. It was sad to see them go but I'm so excited for them too! Yesterday after they left, we got two new districts in our zone. They both are speaking Cebuano so we are still the only district speaking Ilonggo. Kaupod ko (my companion) and I were assigned to be Sister Training Leaders. That basically means we are to help the new missionaries adjust and if they have any concerns or questions they can ask us. We met them last night and hopefully they don't think we're too crazy. I'm super excited that I get to serve and love them!  I'm also honored to have received the "Quietest Memer Award" from Elder Baldwin and Elder Yancey this past week. At the end of Sunday Devotional while we were transitioning to watching church films, I took everyone's watch and put it on. So I had eight watches (see picture) for the rest of...

Kamusta kamo? I hope everyone is maayo-gid! This past week was even better than the first week! We spend so much time with our district that we have become very close. We trust each other which allows us to share openly our thoughts in class and the Holy Ghost is always present. The strongest moment was just yesterday in class. We made a list of questions we had; they were all very different from each other. Then we began reading Alma 24 in Ilonggo while also looking at the English and we talked about the story of the Anti-Nephi-Lehis. For those of you unfamiliar with this story the Anti-Nephi-Lehis were part of the Lamanites. They were angry, ferocious, and wild. Then a missionary by the name of Ammon came along and because of his compassion, humility, faith and the Holy Ghost, the hearts of these people were opened and they were converted unto Jesus Christ. They buried their weapons  (and changed their name to Anti-Nephi-Lehis) as a covenant to God that they had become a change...