WEDDING!!! Wut Wut

WAHOOOOO!!!!! Wedding! I'm so happy! I was really sad I couldn't be there, but you know. I'm a little far away right now. I was waiting like the whole week for the photos and stuff. By the way, could you send a wedding pic of the whole family? I'd imagine you took one, right? Like if you've got anything with all the Binghams and Ashcrofts in front of the temple or something. I wanted to go print one. All the other photos were really great too. I enjoyed the video of Amaya zip-lining... She would do something like that. Hahaha. I'm glad the wedding turned out alright, and the soft-serve ice cream machine. That sounded really fun. Anyway... Don't really know what else to comment about that. Looked really fun. Congratulations Amaya and Charlie! Have fun in California! Anyway, sounds like you guys had a great week over there. Wish I could've been there. 

So... This week was alright. Unfortunately, we were without our bikes for the whole week. And we still are. That photo I sent of Elder Ransom's bike tire getting robbed? Yeah... The mission still hasn't sent us money to go buy a new tire yet. It made for a very difficult week. We could hardly visit any of our families that we're teaching right now, cause they all live really far away. So, this week was spent knocking A LOT of doors. That was basically all we did, really. Not that that's a bad thing. I actually quite enjoyed this week. And we had success too! We found a lot of potential investigators that we're going to go back and contact this week. And we were even guided by the spirit to finding an less-active family that we didn't even know existed! It was kind of cool. I wouldn't go back and do this week again, but it turned out really well. I really hope we get our bike tire this week. My feet hurt. I don't enjoy walking very much anymore, after being on a bike for so long. 

On the fun side, on Saturday I went and donated blood! That might've been the most exciting part of this week. I felt completely fine afterwards, so you don't have to go worrying over me. Elder Ransom almost passed out on the bus ride back... haha. But we got to take a nice ciesta afterwards. Anyway... Don't really know what else to say about that. 

So, I think you're week was probably more exciting than mine. Hopefully this week is better, but send me more pics! I want them. Have a great week!

Elder Bingham

Milagros!

Hey people! How was your week? That's CRAZY that Amaya's getting married this week! BLAH! Good luck with everything... At least I don't have to be there for that drama. I liked the cardboard cutout.... But is there anyway you could make a better looking tie? You were right. It's pretty ugly. How did George Bush ever wear that as president? Anyway... Oh! And Happy Father's day! Wahoo! For some reason Argentina celebrates Father's day on the same day as the US but they have their Mother's day in October. So since I don't get to skype you guys for father's day, we decided to party instead. We made a nice lunch yesterday. Pictures to come. Haha. I think you'll enjoy. 

So... bueno. This week was actually a lot like last week. But better! Cause we had some end of week miracles. Tuesday we had zone conference that took up the whole day, more family history training, and a baptism! Surprise! Actually not our baptism, but the Hermanas'. But we share the rama with them, so we were helping the whole day. And I actually had the opportunity to baptize their investigator! Her name's Karina. She's kind of scary looking.. She's got really BIG eyes. And she's a little big, honestly. It was a little difficult lifting her out of the water. But it was a great experience! We spent like the whole day getting everything ready, doing stuff like cleaning up the chapel, figuring out how the drain works for the baptismal font, and stuff like that. We never did figure out how to use the drain by the way, so we had to drain the whole thing with buckets. That took about an extra hour after the baptism. It was actually really fun. I have pictures of that too. 

And then Sunday was cool too! I'll make another paragraph for this. So we really had like no lessons this week again (I think 2 in total... It was rough), and yesterday we went out to work without like any citas. We were just planning on knocking doors and stuff. And we had to walk REALLY far too, because funny story: One of Elder Ransom's bike tires got robbed! Like really! Just one tire! I'm still having trouble comprehending why someone would only rob one bike wheel. We had them locked behind our fence in front of our pension, and someone during the night decided to pull the bike up to the fence, unscrew the front wheel off of his bike, and slide it through the bars. Kind of stupid. But now we're without bikes. Anyway... ya fue. So walk for like 40 minutes out to some neighborhood and knock a door. Nobody answers. We're about to walk away and then this car pulls up to the house. Super awkward right? We're like "Oh... I think that's them." And we go talk to them. We're like "Is this your house?" And they're like "Yep!" And we're like "Oh, well, we're missionaries." And then they're like "Oh cool! Hang on a sec we'll go open the door." And then they did. And now we have 5 new investigators. They had all sorts of questions and everything, they were really fun to talk to, and even made us hot chocolate! So... Milagro? I think yes. We'll see what happens this week. 

Anyway, this letter's getting long. Hope you all have a fantastic week, free of stress, full of exciting stuff like a wedding! Good luck Amaya and Charlie! I'm super excited for you guys. Have a great week!

Elder Bingham

Bautismo! Here ya go. I believe I basically told you everything about it in the letter already.

Happy father's day! ¿Le gusta?

This is after we got finished emptying out the baptismal font... We got really wet. And I enjoyed this picture a lot.

I think there's a snake in the rama... I found this in my bag the other day. I'm a little scared. 

The aftermath of the bike robbery. I'm still confused as to why someone would only want to steal one bike wheel. 

Lots of meetings and stuff

Hey family! Glad you guys enjoyed your week. It's weird to think it's summer over there, and I'm here freezing my butt off. Alright, not really. It's only cold in the mornings and at night, and then it's so hot in the middle of the day that I have to take off all of the extra layers I put on that morning. I don't like San Juan winter. I'm kind of jealous of all the boating/vacation/summer pics. I enjoyed the story of Dad getting a good nosebleed from Andrea Findlay's foot... HAHA. Why is it that the ward is just now starting to do ridiculously fun scout camps/girls camps like this? I would have loved to go Lake Powell for my scout camp. Whatever... ya fue. Anyway, try to go boating more this summer. I think we went like what, 2 or 3 times last summer? So, disfruten su verano. I, on the other hand, will be here. Riding a bike. It's cool. 

So yeah... This week was very full of things that weren't actually teaching people. I think I've had a week like this before that I've told you about. Last Monday was p-day, obviously, and we all got together as a zone and had an asado, played soccer, and played a giant game of Signs. I have to admit... Both times I've played it here it's been a lot more fun than when we try it sometimes at Ashcroft reunions. Speaking of which, when and where is that this year? Anyway, Wednesday was zone meeting, and since we live so far away that went from like the whole morning to 4ish. Friday we went to San Juan centro again to get a familysearch training thing from the genius Hermana missionary that's over there in the stake center. We have to do that this Friday too. And then Saturday we came to centro again in the evening for the adult session of stake conference, and stayed the night with the zone leaders so that we could get there on time on Sunday morning for the general session. Elder Jorge Romeu from the seventy (not sure if he's from the actual seventy or if he's an area seventy) came and spoke about that worldwide leadership training thing that Dad told me about, which is bascially improving our Sabbath Day worship. (Fun fact: Elder Jorge Romeu is from San Juan!) So we finally got all that information that Dad told me about like a month ago. It was interesting, and I'm excited to see what happens in Pocito when we start implementing this stuff. But, there ya go. I kind of felt like there wasn't much time to work this week. Plus we have zone conference this week too, so this week is almost going to be just as busy. But, lots of great things learned this week at least. I'm looking forward to applying some of these things in the weeks to come. 

Love you all! I will be talking to you next week......... Probably............

Elder Bingham

I didn't take a lot of pictures this week. This is when I went with Elder Inca to say goodbye to Hermana Analia, who's our chef! She cooks lunch like every day for us. She's the coolest. 

This also took up a big chunk of time one day this week... Trying to fix the bike. We found out Elder Ransom's back wheel had somehow bent so the brake was rubbing reallly bad. I basically did everything myself, as you can probably see with the dirty hands. I'm going to be a bike genius when I get home.

Crazy week?

Hey guys! You guys had a crazy week too? Well, I don't think my week was quite as crazy as yours, but close enough. I like how Mom and Dad usually have close to the same subject lines in their emails. It's happened a lot actually. That was like a picture overload though! I liked them a lot! My older sister looks freaking BEAUTIFUL in her bridal dress! Oh, and Charlie looks great too :) I kind of forgot that was coming up so soon... Wasn't exactly expecting those pics already. And then everything else that went on this week too, like the temple dedication/cultural celebration, (I did find Jayson in that picture Mom, he kind of has a classic Jayson face haha) the other wedding (CONGRATS BRANDON AND KATY! WAHOO!), and the pics from the funeral were great too. I was sad I couldn't be there for all of those things, and I get the feeling I'm going to be saying the same thing once Amaya and Charlie finally get married. But you know, I get to enjoy all the crazy stuff about Argentina, and you guys don't, so haha. 

Alright, this week wasn't THAT crazy. Just a new comp and everything that comes with that. Se llama Elder Ransom, as I already told you guys. He's from California, has about 15 months in the mission, and he's an interesting character. I was partially right about what I said last week about him being a little bit weird, but hey. The mission makes us all weird I guess. He likes to sing stuff a lot, he always has movie quotes and song lyrics in his head, and sings anything from hymns to High School Musical (seriously) to I guess what we'd call normal songs. And he talks a lot. Sometimes I'm not really sure exactly how to respond to the stuff he says. But we have fun. It's a nice change having a gringo in the pension, I'm speaking a lot of Spanglish. Like A LOT. I need to stop or my Spanish is going to get worse... Haha. And plus, not exactly sure why, and it's not completely true for everyone, it seems like gringos work harder. With Latins sometimes you don't as much, but this week I've had all the motivation to go and work my butt off. I've really noticed that I'm actually a lot happier when I do, even though I'm exhausted all the time. But yeah, it's a nice change. 

Not to mention that there's also two new Hermanas here in Pocito, so this week I've basically been giving a tour of the whole place to Elder Ransom and the Hermanas. I kind of like it! Maybe I'll be a tour guide some day. The Hermanas are cool at least, and really fun. We've now got Hermana Workman from Ogden, Utah training Hermana Gonzalez from Lima, Perú. It's been a good week. We've been working our tails off, and like I said last week, we should be having a baptism this transfer for sure. So I'm excited. 

Alright, so my week wasn't that crazy. You guys topped me on that one. I hope this week is a little more tranquilo for you guys. Have a great week!

Elder Bingham 

last pic of the old Pocito district... going to miss these guys.

Comp reunion! Elder Clarke and Elder Villatoro came to San Juan this transfer! Got to see them at the terminal. Unfortunately they're in the other zone, but I get to see them in zone conference and stuff. Plus Elder Clarke is going to where I started the mission, Caucete! I was so happy for him.

San Juan just got crazy

Hey family! ¿Cómo andan? We had a great week here... Sorry to hear that things over there weren't entirely super happy let's say. I'll be honest, the news of Grandpa Sherm did just put a damper on my day. A big one. That whole thing was kind of unexpected. But you know, I think I'll be fine. At least over email I can't get choked up or anything in front of you guys. But he's in a better place now, with his wife too. Grandma is in my prayers. I'm really sad I can't be there for the funeral. Send me the news next week, por favor. Anyway... Happy Anniversary Mom and Dad! Thanks for that bit of news, I did enjoy that bit about Mom trying her hardest to hit every mud puddle on the 4-wheelers. 

We did have a good week here. Really good, I should say. I'd call 4 lessons with members and 4 new investigators an improvement. Things are looking up here. Not a lot of details really as far as that goes, just that we got transfer calls last night. And EVERYONE in the zone is leaving me! Basically. At least my whole district and a lot of other good friends I've got in the zone. They're leaving me alone in Pocito... My new comp is Elder Ransom. And we've got an Hermana that's training coming to Pocito too. I'll be honest... I hope I like this Elder Ransom. I met him once in Mendoza and he seemed to me REALLY weird. He's kind of got a weird face too... Like the face just makes you think he's a weird guy. I'm trying not to judge. Don't judge me for judging please. At least he's norteamericano.. That'll be a nice change. We're actually joining our district with another one this transfer, so no changes as far as liderazgo here. But this transfer should be really good. I think we're going to have a baptism this transfer. We've been in the process of reactivating this familia Bravo these last few transfers and they've got a 9 year old daughter Eloisa (that makes her count as an investigator) that wants to get baptized. And they want her to get baptized. We've been working hard with them, and the Branch President says that he doesn't want Eloisa to get baptized until the parents are reactive. Well just recently, both parents have received callings, so this transfer we should be able to put a baptismal date finally for Eloisa and get her dunked! Yeah! And the Hermanas should be having a baptism too. So this transfer should be good. I just hope I don't have a weird comp. 

That's about it! Thanks for the letters and thanks for the news... Grandma is in my prayers. I think I should be fine here. Have a great week!

Elder Bingham

San Juan

San Juan

San Juan

san juan selfie! I just really loved this pic. We found this tower thing with a nice view of san juan

bowling! We did this for p-day this week and last week... Really ghetto but it was super fun. all the pins are attached to strings and yeah... I won though!