Caitlin's Chronicles (Sister Bingham in the Philippines)

Maayong aga !!!! Thank you for all the birthday wishes! This was definitely one of the best birthdays I've had :) Yesterday at church, Seny May and Rosalinda received the gift of the Holy Ghost. I can testify to you all that the gift of the Holy Ghost is the best gift I received and I am grateful for the guidance and protection of the Holy Ghost in my life. One of our investigators who came to church told us she loved it so much she wants to come every week! She told us her husband was going to come, he had gotten ready and everything, but last minute got called to work. But he'll come next week! I'm so so happy for all of them! We also taught temple prep class which has grown in attendance since I first got here. There were two brothers and one couple who were supposed to go to the temple this week but there was a problem somewhere and they got rescheduled to August. Elder and Sister Willis came with us as we went to their homes and had to break the news. I was a littl...

Maayong aga sa inyo tanan! Kamusta kamo? (Good morning to you all! How are you?) This week was a lot of experiences on a lot of emotional levels....Here's a few We had two baptismal candidates interviewed on Friday. One was baptized on Sunday after church and will be confirmed next Sunday and the other will be baptized this Saturday. Sister Rosalinda was baptized yesterday and we were so happy that she was finally able to join the church like her family has. Her husband and 3 of her 6 children are members. She comes to church often and the members assumed she was already baptized. We discovered she hadn't yet been baptized so we continued to visit her and prepare her for baptism. She was really grateful to be baptized the way Christ was baptized. She expressed concern that she was already baptized and maybe she couldn't be baptized again. I shared with her the story in Acts where people had been baptized in John's name but were rebaptized in Christ's name since ...

Maayong udto sa inyo tanan! Brother Victor, Brother Bernard, and Brother Kenneth (our branch mission leader) left to work in Manila this week and we were sad about it but glad they have a new adventure ahead of them. They stopped by our house for a Book of Mormon before they left and we took some pictures. On Sunday, Elder Willis and a brother from the branch came with us to an inactive member's home to give her a priesthood blessing. This sister was baptized in Inayawan when she was 9 and then moved to Cauayan and fell inactive. She has a husband and has 5 kids. We continually invite her to come back to church and she always says "I'll try but I don't know". She has had a sickness for multiple years and the medicine and doctor visits have done nothing to help her. The Spirit was strong in their humble home as Elder Willis blessed her to be healed and to have the strength to raise her children and to know her needs and health are important to Heavenly Father. ...

Maayong udto! Lots happened and I never have as much time as I want to but here are some highlights: Sister Jenifer was baptized yesterday! She was the girl weeks ago who approached me and asked if we were Mormons and expressed a desire to learn and become a member of our church. She has a really busy work schedule so we struggled to find times where she was available and for her to attend church. But she put Christ first and asked for permission to leave work in order to go to church. There were so many trials and things we had to overcome and things she had to overcome so that her baptism could go through but through our faith and diligence and the help of the Spirit, it all worked out! My testimony of prayer and fasting has grown tremendously! Funny story: Sunday morning we walked out of the house then Sister Nanlabi realized she left the key in the house. Thing is that key is how we unlock the gate to our house so we were trapped between the house and our gate.....We panicked...

Maayong Aga!!!!!! So yesterday was a really great day full of miracles and we were so thankful and felt such amazing love and spirit for the people of Cauayan Branch.  I'll start with the biggest thing that shook us all. One of our investigators (Latif, 20 years old) came to church for the first time and my companion was sitting next to him (I was up at the piano) and he turned to her and asked if anyone could go up and she said yes and he asked if he could. My startled companion asked what he would say (being a little nervous). He just said about how we are teaching him and the Book of Mormon so she said yes and he went up. I, unaware of this conversation, saw him stand and walk to the front and was so amazed and I admit a little afraid. He spoke about how his new friends, Sister Bingham and Sister Nanlabi, have been teaching him the past 3 weeks about the Mormon church and Joseph Smith and about the Book of Mormon. He read the paragraph we read to him " We invite all men...