Kind of a Slow Week

Hey guys! Great to hear from you, as always. Sounded like an exciting week over there. Can't wait to hear about Jayson's choir tour. I kind of miss choir tour, to be honest. And to Chicago... I kind of want to hear about how they got 200+ people to Chicago. That sounds crazy. And congrats to Kyla on the 9! Wahoo! You deserved it! I'll try and watch those videos if I can, but I this Cyber (internet cafe) I'm at really kind of sucks. I wanted to send more photos last week but the darn computer wouldn't let me. So if I'm not super stressed about sending photos this week, hopefully I'll be able to watch it. St. George sounded fun. I kind of miss that place. 

Haha and thanks Dad for the recipe, but funny story: fried rice was like the first thing that I thought of making this week too! It turned out pretty well. The soy sauce was a little expensive, and I forgot the sugar, but it was pretty good. I think Elder Inca liked it. He is from Peru, and they eat a lot of rice there. We'll be eating it a lot more I think. We've still got a lot of soy sauce. 

This week was... Kind of not that great. It was literally a slow week, like it says in the subject line. We were stuck without bikes this week, and that's kind of just a really big problem in this area. Our bikes get a free maintenance/tuneup or something under our warranty, so they've been there the whole week. But we are picking them up today. I didn't realize how much more I like bikes than walking. Plus it made it really difficult to visit any of our far away investigators (like Franco), especially since the 3 times we got a hold of members to drive us super far they all couldn't make it. So, we were stuck the little tiny part of Pocito centro. And we walked A LOT this week. And, we only had like 5 lessons this week. That part kind of stunk. We did a lot of finding new people this week though. We've got a lot of new potential investigators. And we also have 1 really good new investigator! That part was at least good. His name is Mario. He's like 53 and he lives with 2 of his special brothers. He has to take care of them and everything. He's got problems with drinking, but before we met him he was trying to stop. So we met him on like Thursday this week and had a lesson with him, which was really great. We committed him to reading the BoM and everything. And the surprising part is that he is actually reading! And he comprehends what he reads too! That really hasn't happened very much here I feel like. To me at least. And then he came to church with us on Sunday! Wahoo! That doesn't happen very much either! But this guy has got a lot of potential I think. We're going to be passing by a lot hopefully. 

So, general conference this week. I'm not really sure about all the details, but I'm pretty sure it's a live broadcast. Except we're in Argentina, so all the sessions start 3 hours later than in Utah. It's going to be broadcast to the Stake center, which is kind of really far away from our area, so I'm not sure what we're going to do after priesthood session on Saturday yet. That will end at 11ish. We'll see how it goes. 

That's really about it! Thanks for the letters! Talk to ya'll next week!

Elder Bingham

Reunion with Elder Stocks! We had zone conference a couple of weeks ago. 

Elder Inca was also a companion of Elder Stocks.

This is when we had to ride our bikes all the way to San Juan centro to get them fixed up. 

It was a really nice, super long bike ride. 

This is also from Zonda. It's called La Cabeza del Indio. 

You like how I'm picking its nose?

P-day last week! We went to this place called Zonda with a bunch of missionaries,

 and it's kind of a lot like Zions national park. I just really liked this picture. 

Um...Happy 6 Months!

Hey guys! Great to hear from you! Sounds like this week was a little bit more exciting for you guys. It seems like it's been awhile since I've gotten a letter with so much exciting news in it. Haha. But yeah, sounded like a fun week in Phoenix. I know you've probably left by now, but tell Taylor and Alyssa congrats for me. I did get their engagement announcement a couple months ago. And haha I saw that photo of the wedding and I also agree that Ashtyn looks like Jennifer Lawrence. And you guys get to go to St. George this week too! You guys are getting to enjoy all kinds of heat. I on the other hand, will be enjoying cool weather soon enough. It was the first day of fall last week here. Haha. 

So yep! A good week here! Really not a lot happened. We were pretty busy this week. This transfer we're working on cleaning out our Area Book. So that means we're going through and trying to find a bunch of old investigators and trying to see if they're worth teaching. It's kind of fun! We had some success with that this week. We found some new families to teach that way, and got like 9 new investigators this week. That was fun. And we found a couple brand new investigators too that way! We went looking for a family that had been investigating the church for awhile but for some reason the missionaries stopped visiting. So we went to look for them but they weren't there. But we weren't even sure if it was the right house. So we went and knocked on the next door to make sure and this young guy named Franco opened the door. He's like 20ish. He invited us in and we got talking and he actually had a lot of questions for us, like "what happens after we die?" and "why are there so many churches?" and stuff like that. Well us, being missionaries, just happened to have answers to those questions. And we taught probably the most spiritual Lesson 1 (The Restoration) I've ever taught in the mission. It was awesome. I think Franco has a lot of potential. The only weird thing was he had a hard time accepting our Book of Mormon because he didn't know if he really wanted to read it. I think he's a little scared that this could potentially change his life. We'll see what happened when we see him this week. 

But yeah, that was about it for this week. I celebrated my 6 months mark 2 days early yesterday, and burned one of my ties! HAHAHA! It kind of didn't really burn very well. But pictures to come. 

Oh and haha... We're also stuck without bikes for awhile. They're pretty new bikes, and under our warranty or something we get like a tune-up or maintenance or something. We had to ride clear the heck to San Juan centro this week on our bikes to drop them off. But today and tomorrow are holidays here, so everything's closed. We have to wait until Friday to pick them up. It's a little difficult to be stuck without bikes in an area so huge, but we'll manage. 

Oh and dad: about the pies. I probably would enjoy a pie recipe. Except we don't have gas in our pension, so our oven doesn't work. I wouldn't be able to cook one here. But I would also enjoy other recipes too! We don't have lunches with members here, so we have to make lunch like every day. 

That's about it though! Have a great week!

Elder Bingham

Sorry for the crappy quality guys but Happy 6 months!  And my computer is having serious problems loading pictures today, so I couldn't really send all the ones I wanted to. 

My Butt Hurts!

Hey guys! How's it all going? Glad to hear from you guys, once again. Enjoyed hearing about Pi Day. Unfortunately I don't know any pie recipes, so I couldn't really make pie here. Plus our new pension doesn't have gas for the stove. Plus I forgot it was Pi Day. So... Yep. I miss pie. Good job on the gymnastics routines Kyla! I don't really know much about gymnastics, but you deserve that 9. It stinks that they still didn't give it to you. Keep working hard. And I'm glad to hear that Jayson enjoyed preference, and that he's planning on going to Prom. That's good stuff right there. 

So, yeah. Good week here. This area's called Pocito. I'm not sure if I told you guys last week. Kind of a ironic subject line I realized, because Dad's subject line was "My legs hurt."  But here's the reason why: We have bikes! We ride them everywhere. This area is also super gigantic like my last one, and it is also a branch. Elder Inca says this area's like half of the zone of San Juan. So that's crazy. We share the area with two Hermanas, and that's our entire district. They've got a super small portion of the area that's got a ton of super awesome humble people there, from what I hear, and we've got everything else. It's fun. This is actually the first time in the mission I've been in a district with Hermanas. We at least have people to teach. We work a lot with less-actives here. We've got a few good investigators, but the majority of our work is less-actives. There's like 300 from what I hear, and we normally get about 30 at church every week. 

Elder Inca is pretty cool. He's got about 19 months in the mission. He works pretty hard, and we do get along pretty well. We get to make each other food a lot, because, unfortunately, we have like no lunches with members. But, I enjoy cooking. I made Philly Cheese Steaks! I actually made some on Monday for Elder Villatoro too, but they turned out really well. I think Grandpa Bingham would be proud. I only recently discovered that they have cream cheese here, so that would be the reason why. 

That's about it for this week, really. I still don't really know much about the people here that we normally teach, or anything like that. There's a lot of work to do here, which I'm excited for. Honestly this branch has got a lot of problems, but I'm glad I can be here to help. And plus a new gigantic super-active family just moved in to the branch this week, and they're super awesome. We're all excited to work with them. And plus just their family increased the number of people in church on Sundays by like 10ish. So, I'm excited to work here. I think it'll be a good next 6 weeks. 

Love you guys!

Elder Bingham

I FORGOT SOMETHING!

Just wanted to add a little bit to my letter this week. I just finished reading the Book of Mormon in spanish! Yesterday. It was probably my most favorite time reading the Book of Mormon. I know that the Lord has blessed me a lot for reading it, especially with the language. I don't have much problem with the language anymore. Or at least, it doesn't bother me much. I can usually mostly understand people, and speaking has gotten a lot easier as well. And, I can also say that I know with out a doubt that I know it's true. It was a super great experience reading it, and I learned a lot. 

And, I don't know if you guys realized, but I just started my girl mission this last week! Or at least, I come home in 18 months! I can't believe I'm already a quarter of the way done! 

Love you guys! You can add this email to my letter this week.

Elder Bingham

philly cheese steak! They were pretty good.

Me and Elder Inca! He's a little short, to be honest.

Hello Again!

Hey guys! How's it going? Haha I'm super glad we don't have daylight savings here... Sounds like you guys suffered a little bit. Sounds like Jayson had a good time at Preference part 1, so that's good. I kind of did that clothes pinning thing one time for a date, and it was pretty fun. I didn't get to haul a couch around Salem though, so there's a bonus for Jayson. Hopefully it's even better this week! 

So, kind of a normal week, for the most part. Not much happened. We got a couple new investigators, taught a couple old ones, and walked around a lot again. But things are looking better in this area. And we did get to end the week with a baptism! Yep, Marcela got baptized on Saturday. It was a really good service. I think half the people there were missionaries, but whatever. And even though I only taught her for a week and a half, I'm still going to count it as one of my baptisms, or I'm going to write her name as one of the people I baptized in my Preach my Gospel. Because I would be in that area still if it weren't for that weird special transfer. And plus it was the first baptism I've gone to in Argentina. So yeah.... 

To answer Dad's sudden interest in our lime tree: It's really not super hot here. I'm not sure how or why we have a lime tree. But, it is pretty nice. When I made that limeade I basically just dumped a bunch of lime juice, sugar, water, and dulce de leche in the blender until it tasted right. I don't have a clue if there's actually sweetened condensed milk here, but dulce de leche is basically the same thing. Unfortunately, I don't think I'm going to be able to enjoy these limes much longer, because....

I'M GETTING TRANSFERRED AGAIN! Yep, you heard me right. We got transfer calls last night and it looks like I'm going back to San Juan, the hottest place on Earth. I'm kind of not really sure how I'm ever supposed to be able to baptize people if I move to a new area every transfer. But, whatever. At least my new companion has been there for awhile, I think. We both aren't brand new to the area like me and Elder Villatoro. And I'm getting another Latin! His name is Elder Inca from Perú. This should be fun. It's alright though... I'm not too bummed that I'm leaving. I think we left this area better than we found it, and I didn't really have much time to get to know any of the members really well or anything. And we didn't have any super golden investigators yet or anything. But, I will miss the lime tree. Haha. 

That's about it for this week! Pictures to come of the baptism and stuff!

Elder Bingham

Well, both of these pics are basically of the same thing. But there ya go. There weren't a lot of options for baptism clothes, so Marcela had to wear this super gigantic dress thing. It looked kind of funny. But whatever.

Slightly Happier Week

Hey guys! I'm happy to report that this week was better than last week. And it sounds like your guys' week was good too. Thanks for the pic of the art mural, Kyla! That was pretty dope! I hope to see many awesome pics in the future of all your awesome artwork! And thank for the talk quotes Mom, they were pretty great. I might use them in some of our lessons with the young men in the coming weeks. (Did I mention we have to teach the young men on Sundays?) 

But yes, this week was better than last week. It was slightly chilly for a couple days again. I'll be glad when it stays this way. I started this week with an intercambio. I went to a different area with an Elder Alcalde from Columbia. That was nice. I didn't really have to worry about thinking of places to go to find people for a day. And he's pretty cool. I kind of forgot to get pics, so sorry about that. 

And thank you guys for the fasting and prayers! I'm glad to tell you guys that they worked! We got some killer references this week. I think I already told you guys we've been giving the members mormon.org cards. If not, well, we've been inviting the members to give a card to one person per week to invite them to hear our message. We've been doing that with like everyone, and it's working. One reference we got and contacted on like Tuesday. So like right after you guys fasted basically. This family seems pretty interested. I can't really remember their names at the moment, but we taught them all of lesson 1 and left them with a Book of Mormon. And right at the end of the lesson the guy's cuñada (sister-in-law) showed up and also seemed very interested. We weren't able to contact them again this week, but they seem pretty promising. And then we got another reference from a member on like Thursday of a family who had been listening to the missionaries before we got here, and they've had like a million lessons already. But we would've never found them if the members hadn't told us, because the addresses to people's houses are so crappy here. And we got another one yesterday that we're going to try and contact this week. So, we've got a few people now. Thanks so much for the fasting and prayers. 

That's really about it for this week! Glad to hear from you guys, and I can't wait to hear from you guys again next week!

Elder Bingham

I don't really have many new pics this week, so I'll send some old ones:

Plaza Independencia: Kind of the hot tourist spot here in Mendoza. 

We come here like every week for p-day. It's a neat place. 

A monkey escaped from the zoo! El Cerro de Gloria that we went to last week is like right next to the zoo,

 and we found this monkey! Elder Cubilla fed it a peach too from a stick. It was kind of funny. 

We ended the week last night with Brazilian Limeade! (I think) 

We have a lime tree in the back of our pension and I randomly remembered this recipe. 

It was pretty good.