Week 38 (Cauayan)

Maayong aga sa inyo!

This week was kinda crazy but in a good way. I learned a lot. I think the biggest thing I learned this week is despite my weaknesses and faults, Christ really is at the helm of His work and if I'm trying my best, He will accept it and help me out. Sometimes I feel alone and it's difficult but if I press forward then something amazingly crazy happens.

For instance, we went out finding one morning and all I had for an idea was to go to a young girl who was baptized a earlier this year who I met once and try to meet her family. So we went off into the maze of houses and got lost and started asking directions. Eventually we found the young girl who was baptized and found out most of her older siblings are also baptized so we taught them and invited them back to church and met her father who is not a member. But crazy thing the uncle of the father is a member I knew in Binalbagan! Small world. He said we could come back and teach them next time :) 

Another time we were in a place called Mambugsay. We started on the path to our investigators house but then I felt like we should try and find the house of someone I met last week who had met the missionaries before and remembered he pointed in the direction of his house. So we started off the path according to my memory and ended up walking across this super muddy field and our shoes were sticking in the ground and we had trouble walking and we felt like carabao (buffalo) because our shoes were so heavy from the mud. We were cracking up laughing and kept going. We eventually made it to a house and it was the house of the man I met last time. His two sons (twins, 20 years old) helped us clean our shoes and we washed our feet then we sat and talked with them and some other of their family members and taught them how families can be together forever. Their great grandma (87 years old) came and sat in the lesson. She has Alzheimer's and is usually shouting profanity but when she came and joined us she was quiet and listened and I watched her carefully hold the Lesson 1 pamphlet and stare at Christ and then flip through and look at the pictures of families. She even tried to sing Ako Anak sang Dios (I am a Child of God) with us. Favorite lesson of the week for me. It wasn't hard for me to talk or explain or understand what they were saying. I know the Spirit was helping me do what I needed to do. 

Also that same day, we were at the siomai shakehouse we love so much (food) and my companion was using their bathroom and this girl about 17 years old asked if we were Mormons. I said yes....we are. She told me she wants to enter the Mormon church. I was so shook I had trouble figuring out what to say but I managed to ask some questions like if she had friends who were Mormon or why she wanted to join. She had met elders before but hadn't been taught and she just felt like she needs to learn about the Church and that it was the right place to be.

Funny thing that happened: I taught my companion how to do the Footloose dance that we always do at stake dances. We live next to the plaza and they have Zumba everynight and their music is super loud. They were playing Footloose....

Sorry this is so long but Joepel and GL were baptized. Their older sister (19 was baptized in March) then in May their sister (JM) was baptized. Joepel is 14 and GL is 9, both are pretty quiet but they are smart. They both shared testimony after their baptism which shocked us cause we figured they wouldn't want to cause of shyness. But they did and the Spirit was strong. We are working on helping the rest of their family (they are 10 siblings) come into the church. Their mom wants to come to church but she always has work and struggles cause she has two 2 year olds she is watching over. Working on it. It was great and lots of members attended and so they felt super welcome.

We also went with some members ministering yesterday afternoon to some less active members and it was great. I encourage you all to look for ways you can minister to members and especially less actives to help them come back to Christ so they can more fully receive all the blessings He has in store for them. I love you all so much and am so grateful for your prayers and thoughts on my behalf. Never lose hope or faith in Christ no matter how dark times may seem. He is always there waiting for you

Sister Bingham








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