Mission Blog

 http://misionsantacruznorte.blogspot.com/2014_02_01_archive.html

Sunday Funday

July 14th, 2014

Dear Family and Friends, 

This week has been draining! but i am still alive and happy. I am not even going to go into detail with a whole lot, but i´ll just explain yesterday so you can get a feel of a typical Sunday (so much for being the day of rest haha)

First we called and texted less actives, investigators, etc many of whom told us "no se preocupe" that they would definitely be in church. then we went to Darlin´s house, the mom whose family we have been teaching, whose father is an alcoholic. The father left the family a week ago, with his things in tow, and since then it has been much easier to encourage the family that they can change. the mom accepted a baptism date, and promised the whole family would attend this Sunday, but when we showed up to take them to church they had all gone to the market, and then never showed up in the chapel. that was a big disappointment. 

After, a 2 hour long ward counsel, we went to another contacts home. she was sitting on a rock outside her home and started crying, telling us about how she had lost money in a taxi, approximately 100 dollars, 50 of which were hers and 50 her sisters. She was crying because she didnt know if she will be able to buy food for her family, and she was afraid to tell her sister. while we were trying to console her another family went through the gate, the father hit on me in front of his wife, which is fairly typical, and then another father and mother came out, the dad completely drunk and yelling at his wife and threating violence. the wife was crying and her little 5 year old daughter, who was holding another baby, was crying and too afraid to enter the home. we had to leave the situation. 

Next we went to one of our favorite less active families. We started out normal, sharing scriptures and testimony with the dad and mom and daughter, until we shared a quote from one of the conference talks about the basic things a family has to do to stay unified, prayer, scripture study, and family home evening. the mom started crying and said she new they werent doing all they can and that their family was suffering because of it, the dad told us he needed to confess something, and told us some bad bad problems in their family and started to yell and accuse the mom and daughter, who were both crying. it was so uncomfortable, and even when we tried to bear testimony or share something to help them, the father just talked over us and we finally had to leave, on the way out the mother whispered to me that their daughter wants to go on a mission, and the mom wants to attend church, but the father refuses to support. And this is a family sealed in the temple. 

Anyways, after all this, i REALLY needed my pday. haha but also, i can tell you we are still happy. We face and see a lot of negative things on our missions. We struggle trying to get people to understand the beauty and importance of the covenants they have made or could make. and it is a long, long, difficult process. But we know that through the atonement of jesus christ all will be healed and made right some day. we are trying hard to do our part in this process of healing right now, and we will continue doing so without becoming discouraged. I love my saviour, i love people, every people, and i love you guys! 

Hermana Bingham 

Pictures

July 7th, 2014

So the Darkness Shall Be Light

So last week was crazy, but mostly because we were doing all we could to find a new apartment. We have been looking for 2 months now, but it is hard to house search and proselyte at the same time. Finally, after it rained SUPER hard, it was unbearable in our house and the mission presidents wife came to visit us and told us we had to move no matter what haha. like water was leaking from the ceiling onto my companions bed and pillow, which in a matter of hours had mold. the walls have mold, our dressers have mold, and everything is that much more humid as a result. Everytime we tried to shower with hot water, our whole electricity was going out. and right now it is so cold some days and cold showers are like a polar dip haha. and finally one night we came home and 5 rats came running out of our kitchen. haha fun fun fun, but Hma Zambrano drove us around in her car (i couldnt barely believe i was sitting in a normal car! haha) for a solid day, bought us hamburgers (WHAT!) and we finally found a fourth floor apt that is new and awesome! i will send pics next week. The flemmy cough (gross, sorry) i have had for weeks magically disappeared this week, and i think it is thanks to the complete lack of mold in our new place haha. 

Besides that, we had emergency transfers because a couple of the hermanas are really sick and had to be brought in from outside areas. Sadly, Hma Mullisaca was transferred. That was a sad, sad day because she is my best friend i have made on my mission. However, the focus of our mission is to teach, not our friends, thus i was also grateful to get my new companion Hma Judd, a north american who has the same amount of time as me on my mission and actually we were in Bogota together too. It is hard because our spanish is the same, thus we cant progress as much language wise as we could have with latina companions, but we are both fluent enough to do absolutely everything just not 100% grammatically correct hahaha. 

This sunday we had our ward conference. it was happy and sad. every sunday like i said before is a psychological test haha, because so many people promise us they will come and then dont, even when we try to accompany from their homes or send members to pick them up. This sunday our investigator Delia did not come because she partied the night before, even though the week before she went to church, told us she loved it and always wanted to come, and had accepted a baptism date. However, we do have a baptism next week that we have been preparing for a while. Rafael is a 14 year old whose dad has been inactive for years, however the few priests we have in our ward befriended Rafael and have shown him an amazing example. We were hesitant to baptize him because young kids often are inactive very fast after their baptisms, but we followed the rules for our mission in order to have better chances of retaining him, we tried to reactivate his Dad (he refuses for now), we had him start his Duty to God, he has attended church for 2 months consecutively now, and we organized a plan of retention with the Young Mens leaders and our stake president. 

I LOVED our ward conference. our stake president is one of those little men who is 10 times more powerful than any physically big man. He understands his culture and the gospel and talks with the spirit, with love but with power. i just think he is such a prime of example of real priesthood power. He specifically talked to the men of our ward about not being "machista". He said, "sometimes i ask the men in my quorums what they have done recently to prove to their wives they should still love them (haha) and often they say to me oh! i helped her wash the clothes or i helped her cook some food. And then i think to myself How incredibly distorted we are in our way of thinking, We didnt marry washing machines, and we didnt marry Cooks. We married women who are our equals and we love them. If you think the role of your wife is to wash the clothes (remember here, washing clothes is a process that takes hours, a whole day almost if your family is big) you are wrong. Dont tell me you helped her wash the clothes one time. Go home and wash all the clothes, because it is your role too." and he talked more profoundly about how we do not stoop to our culture, we do not believe in being Machista. He said your wife is your equal companion, and that he was sad to know that their are still many men in the church treating their wives with condecension. It was such a good talk, especially after knowing myself many of the experiences of women here, in and out of the church.  

Also, i had a little boost of strength the other day. During my last transfer in Montero, my first time as senior companion, i had felt really sad because we didnt have a baptism, and barely any investigators progressing (i didnt realize then that this is pretty normal in this mission, our areas are pretty difficult) and i felt like it was my fault that i couldnt speak spanish well enough or i wasnt leading well enough etc. my mission president told me to trust in God and his timing and ways. In my last 2 weeks in Montero, we found a family. The parents werent married and the dad had a drinking problem, but we taught them about God as their HeavenlyFather and invited them to church, and to our surprise the whole family came to church with us my last Sunday and i was thrilled. We taught them the restoration, and they committed to me that they would pray about Joseph Smith. The last time we tried to pass by for an appointment before my transfer, we found the dad drunk and the mom had left the home angry. I was sad, but told my companion to please try to work with them, as well as some of the leaders in our ward, and i left a short letter for the family telling them i knew i didnt know them too well but to please continue listening to the lessons and going to church,  and that i knew it is true. 

Well now, almost 2 whole transfers later, my old companion in Montero told me that this family has accepted a marriage date and baptism date for the 12th of July! The parents and children. I then realized that a lot of us in this mission do not have many baptisms. One elder was in the ward i am presently in for almost 8 months of his mission and only had 2 converts, who are sisters. But it doesnt matter, because we are all working towards the same goal and for the same God, and sometimes we are the ones who light the spark or plant the seed, sometimes we have the wonderful privilege of seeing it grow strong, and sometimes we transfer just in time to see only the fruits or the baptism, but even then we will be part of this persons process as we reteach them as a recent convert. It doesnt matter - all that matters is that we were there in our time and tried hard to do the will of God, and eventually in the right time people will accept and be blessed. I told my mission president i was thankful for his advice and that i could see now that sometimes we just cant see what we can start if we dont lose hope and just try to share what we have. He told me if i wanted i can attend the baptism of this family in Montero. 

I want you all to know that i love being here, i love sharing a message of truth and hope, many people can not see past the blinders of the world in order to understand the immensity of what we are offering, and for many i really dont believe it is their fault, but i love a quote by TS Elliot that is kind of what it will be like for the minds and hearts of people who are now living in hopelessness, when they are first exposed to the glorious love of our Savior when all will be revealed - "So the darkness shall be the light, and the stillness the dancing" the burdens of sadness of numberless people will be lifted through the atonement, and they will see their true potential, a path of light instead of dead ends of obscurity. 

Love you all, 

Hermana Bingham 

From Bolivia to You

5/16/14

Dear Family and Friends, 

How are your summers? Actually, dont tell me because i´ll only be jealous haha. We are just livin under water here, rain rain and more rain and so so humid, entonces no puedo secar mis ropas y estoy llevando ropas humidas todos los dias, que, como dicen las viajitas, van a resfriarme hasta los huesos. I just really love the sun, but besides that I really like my area. it took some getting used to after almost 5 months in my first area, but i am enjoying the members and investigators here. The only thing is sometimes it is hard to stay positive and hopeful. We face a lot of discouragement, and Sundays are like a psychological emotional test, because 8 or 9 investigators promised you they would come to church and only 1 or 2 come (maybe). And everyone promises to read a page in the book of mormon or say a prayer, but then when we visit them they didnt do either, because they dont have time to pray, etc, etc. and its just impossible that they can gain testimonies if they never pray, read, or attend! it is SO hard to get people to keep commitments, and so so extremely hard to get in contact with people or visit them consecutively, because they culture here does not allow for a schedule or commitments. However, i am trying to trust more in God, be more humble and realize this is his work, not mine, and that without his strenght i can do nothing. i know he prepares ways for people, i just have to have more faith that there are ways in which some day our investigators will be baptized, I will tell you about our three investigators who all inevitably will be baptized, but each have one giant problem hindering them during my transfers here in Paraiso, so i dont know if i will see their baptisms :(. 

Gabriel is the man who i wrote about last time, who had his baptism date Saturday. I still have no idea exactly what happened, because he was so prepared. he found us in the chapel one sunday, we didnt find him. hes been investigating for years, he has a huge doctrinal knowledge, he´s read more of the BOM than many of the members of our ward, and he told us he had no fears and his goal was not only baptism, but the temple. Then, 2 days before his baptism, we couldnt contact him. he had never not answered his phone (which is a tiny miracle here) and had always anxiously awaited us at his house. but the two days before his baptism, and the day of his baptism, he didnt answer any of our calls. we waited in the chapel with some members to see if he would appear, and he never came. He didnt come to church either. We finally found him in his apartment this week, after calling him through a private number. He acted very strangely and told us that the only reason he wasnt being baptized is because he has a new shift at his work and he cant attend sacrament meeting now. We were so confused because before he had been testifying about the church and acting as though no earthly thing could change his commitment. We talked about sacrifice and the importance of the baptismal covenant and promised that the bishop would stop by to visit him, but now the bishop can get in contact with him either. 

Then there is Joel, the boyfriend of Jennifer whose family we recently reactivated. This family is amazing, and is not only active now, but acting as leaders in our ward. Joel is so ready to be baptized, he attends everysunday and every activity during the week, he bore his testimony in sacrament, is reading scriptures and praying with Jennifer every day in their home, and is an active and loving father to their baby. The only thing preventing his baptism is legal problems with their papers in order to get married. and these things can take a lot of time here. Thus i dont know if i will see his baptism but i really hope so. 

Raiza is the feminist. We had an amazing lesson with her about the restoration. She has been taught by 6 or 8 other missionaries, so she has somewhat of a background, but we asked her what her feelings were now. She told us that she feels more comfortable with me and hna mullisaca than ever before, because we can relate with her and she can be sincere with us about her doubts. she said that through our lesson about the priesthood, this doubt is practically not a problem for her anymore, and she knows joseph smith really saw God and that the church is true. We were like PERFECT we need to set a goal for your baptism. We were going to extend a date for the first week of july, but then she told us her personal goal was for the END OF THIS YEAR. We asked why she thought she needed to take so much time, and she opened up a little and told us she had some major sins or problems from her past (as basically a hippee drugee) that she needs to work out herself, but she didnt tell us any details, and she is always afraid she will fail after her baptism with keeping the commandments. but she wouldnt budge on that she needs to work things out for months apparently. We were disappointed because we just want her to understand that she can be clean through her baptism, and will have the help of the Holy Ghost to fend temptation after her baptism. but we have another lesson this week and are going to try to help her understand repentance better. but even so, if she needs till the end of the year, it is okay with me, as long as she can truly stay strong enough to get baptized. 

Besides this i have had some humbling experiences lately with some extremely impoverished families. There is the Galarza family, the mom and three daughters were baptized right before i got here, but now things are looking grim. they live in basically the ruined skeleton of a construction site or something, with tin as a roof, but it is completely open in the front. it always smells like human waste, and the floor is just rock. The mom has cancer, but no money to pay for treatment. the church was paying for a bit, and im not sure exactly what happened, but i think they werent using the money to pay for her treatments. but now the mom is so sick she cant even walk, and there are four little kids who are always alone, including a little handicapped girl. However, the members of our ward and the bishop are constantly visiting, and we visit often, and we called to have the elders and bishop give a priesthood blessing. it is a really sad situation all around, but the least we can all do is serve to bring a little light into their lives now through the gospel. 

There is another family of a man and woman named Henry and Darlin. The wife was an old investigator that we searched out. Her and her two daughters attended church two sundays ago and told us how their father is a drunk and they dont know what to do. they live in a tiny rock "apartment" and out front is just tons of trash and dirty chickens and dogs and such. We had a really beautiful experience with them yesterday. We were out front amongst the trash and chickens and mud, and miracle of all miracles, the dad and mom and daughters were all present for our lesson. we talked about love and change in the family. the wife kept trying to accuse the dad for all his drunkeness and saying that she had threatened to leave him again and again, and he was accusing her of losing their money through gambling, and the daughters just break my heart, the 17 year old is hardened by her life i think so she acts like none of it really matters, but the 13 year old kept saying again and again she just doesnt want to fight with her family anymore. we told them we needed to focus on the good things about each other, and had them all say things they like about their family, we explained the sacrifice of Christ, which allows us to change if we can turn towards him, and asked if they would all say a family prayer each night until we visit again wednesday. then to end, we asked if we could say a prayer with them right there in the mud and trash, on our knees. we all knelt and held hands, and the father, who is the drunk, said the prayer. i dont know if they can feel the same things as us yet, but it is experiences like these that just show how much people need the plan and pattern of god in their lives. i dont know if this family will progress, they are deep deep in problems, but we are going to try to do what we can and trust in god, that maybe we can make a difference, if they can feel even a little bit that god loves and accepts them, and that change is possible. 

thank you for all your support and prayers, i love you all

Hermana Bingham 

Sicky

6/2/14

Dear Family and Friends,

This week i got sick for the first time on my mission. my companions had the same thing, each of us about one day apart. it was horrible, like my whole entire body was aching, but luckily it wasnt dengue. so anyway our excitement level has been a little down this week, but i am slowly recuperating now haha. 

This week will be having the baptism of Gabriel. Its going to be so great, he is so ready. He was just one of those auto-baptisms that fell into our area by chance. He has been an investigator since 2010, has attended church and general conference, and when he finally was ready to baptize, he moved into our ward because of school. so we literally only had to help him integrate into our ward for 3 sundays, and review the missionary lessons that he basically already knows by heart. So, we werent really a part of his conversion process, but its a privilege to know him because his story of searching the truth for almost 4 years is so impressive, and now he is completely solid. unlike a lot of other converts who baptize within months, he really really understands that baptism is just the entrance and that his true goal is the temple. 

Besides Gabriel we are also working with an 18 year old name Mario. he is a QUADRUPLET!! haha there are only two sets of quadruplets in bolivia. i just want to baptize him and his 3 quadruplet sisters because it would be so different and cool haha but i think his conversion is going to take a long time. Mario and his sisters live in a house together without adult supervision, because like so many other parents here, their parents are in spain or argentina working and their kids just live on their own for years. But all mario does is go to university during the week and parties on the weekend. We almost dropped him because although he is very interested in the lessons and says it all makes perfect sense, he cant imagine his life without alcohol. but then he attended church two sundays in a row! we couldnt believe it. he said that he felt something different and real from the members, something he had never felt in catholic mass. like the people were genuinely interested in him and are sincerely trying to live good lives. obviously he felt the spirit of being at church. but the Word of Wisdom and Law of Chastity are huge hindrances for him so i dont know how much farther we will get with him. 

My favorite family, the Clavijo Family, was inactive for years, until two sisters before us found them while street contacting. they didnt even want to let the missionaries in, but i think because they were girls they let them in, and they ended up feeling the spirit again. this is a family whose dad was a high councilor, and him and his wife have four daughters. They were converted about 8 years ago and sealed in the  temple and everything, but fell away after some members did some unimaginably bad things, including that their oldest daughter was kidnapped by a returned missionary. however three companion sets have worked with them now, and i was able to be a part of something so cool. We had a family home evening with them and our bishop and his wife. we thought maybe the bishop would lead everything, but Bro Clavijo took control right away. he bore testimony and told us that as a family, they had made the decision together that they were all going to return. his wife was crying and also bore testimony, and two of his daughters as well. It was incredible. this was about 3 weeks ago, and since then they have attended every sunday, and activities during the week, accepted callings, and the dad went with his daughter to Cochabamba to do baptisms in the temple with the youth. yesterday he bore testimony in sacrament about this experience. and to our surprise, the boyfriend of the oldest daughter who we have been teaching and teaching, and who will be baptized as soon as their papers for marraige are cleared, also bore his testimony in sacrament. after the dad told us he didnt know what we had done in order to get Joel to bare his testimony in church, but that he wanted to thank us. 

We also met with Raiza again yesterday, the feminist socialist who has troubles with the priesthood. We used a terrific talk from the priesthood session of conference about the keys of the priesthood by dallin h. oaks that talks specifically about women, and how women use priesthood authority in all of their callings when they are set apart for these callings by a priesthood holder. We talked about how we have different responsibilities in order to have order and maximize the number of people blessed in the kingdom of God on earth, but how this in no way means we are unequal. then we shared my fave scrip about the priesthood in D&C 121. It clearly talks about how the spirit of God is literally offended if the priesthood is used for unrighteous dominion, for vanity or pride, etc, but that the only way it can be used correctly is with humility and love and to bless the lives of others and not to benefit the ego of the user. Raiza started to cry and marked the verses in her own triplet. She said that she has not been baptized because she could not understand why men like her uncle and father had the priesthood, but were often very very bad examples, but someone like her mother who had always been the faithful one, could not have this power of god. it just breaks my heart to hear things like this. its so true. there are so many mothers and wives here who are clinging to the gospel because they know it is true and are trying to help their broken families, but the husbands and fathers dont take things seriously and do things that hurt their wives and children. We bore testimony to Raiza that when a man is using his priesthood authority correctly he will not be a bad example, he will respect his wife and they will make all of their decisions together. he will understand that the power of god is not a dominating force to be used for the vanity of his ego but to enrich the lives of others when he as a possesor of this power increases in humility and personal worthiness in order to better serve. i used my own dad as an example in my testimony, because my father knows the worth of women, he relies on my mother as his equal, and he increases in humility and love every year. this is the manifestation of when priesthood power is used correctly, not brute dominion and authority over others. We told Raiza to reread those verses in D&C and to pray specifically about the priesthood, and that God could give her an assurance and security that no book or professor could give her. She told us she would and we will be meeting with her again this week to check her progress. We are praying that she will finally be able to accept the invitation to be baptized after all these years! 

Besides all of this, i had to give a talk in a multi zone conference this week haha. I was so nervous because i am the "youngest" missionary in the mission who is not from a spanish speaking country, as in no other north americans have come after me. so i was super nervous about my spanish. and president had asked me to speak on why we are on our missions, why we push forward, and why we complete our missions (because we have had about 3 girls go home early in the last 6 months, and a bunch of boys about 8 months ago). but everything went great, and i was able to clearly give my talk in spanish haha. 

love you all!

Cass

La Vida Loca

5/19/14

Family and Friends!

Its been a good week here in Paraiso. besides that we couldnt get into our apartment last night because the padlock got too rusted from the rain, so we were out on the street with the two rabid dogs who are always hanging around. this apartment is very interesting... like the electricity cuts out every day,  and every time it rains there are little parasites in the water in these sketch buckets my companion uses to clean her close, and im pretty sure we have mice, and we get eaten by mosquitos in the night. my other area was way poorer but we lived in a relatively "nice" apartment according to bolivian standards, and now we live in one of the richest parts of santa cruz and im living like i did in africa. pero pues asi es la vida... 

anyways the highlight of the week was meeting Raiza!! it was weird, like i met myself in an alternate dimension bolivian form. she has been an investigator for years, her whole family are members, and she openly admits she knows shell be baptized someday, but she just cant get her mind around some concepts of the church because she is a liberal feminist. luckily god put me and h. mullisaca (who would practically be a raging anti american socialist right now if it wasnt for the church, but now is just a really spiritual intellectual socialist and only slightly anti american haha) together, and we can relate perfectly with raiza. we are so ready to study so much in the scriptures and conference talks and to show her that we can have our intellectual passions and back equality but that the spirit ultimately teaches us absolute truth and testimony and that we can trust in God that his precepts are correct and bring perfect equality and happiness. 

i dont have much time, but we are going to meet with raiza again saturday so we´ll see how it goes! we have a few other awesome people too that i will write about later. but i am doing great here, feeling so much more comfortable with spanish, and learning so much from God and the people. love you all, you are all in my prayers. 

love hermana bingham