Week 104: 終 - Atlanta International Airport

 Hey all!

Well, here we are. Two whole years. 

I'm writing this from the Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport just over an hour before boarding my second and final flight on my way home. All the goodbyes have been bittersweet, but as one sister missionary I'm friends with shared in her final testimony, how blessed I am to have something so hard to say goodbye to. 

 I decided for my last email, I'd share a letter I wrote to one of my closest friends a week or two ago. It's a doozy, but the Holy Spirit told me to, so here goes:

~~~

Elder ________, 

 Man, Pilot G2 .38 pens are just the best. Anyways, dang. This is probably the last letter I'll write you on my mission. Insane. I seriously thought I'd flame out a long time before this, but by the grace of God I think I'm actually going to finish the whole two years. 

 It's pretty humbling to think how absolutely nowhere I would be without my Savior, Jesus Christ. I'd be cooked. But the truth is, I'm not cooked and I am somewhere, because He's real. That's the biggest lesson I've learned from my study of the scriptures lately: "If the Book of Mormon is true, then God is actually, completely real." It's funny, you'd think a guy in my situation would come to that conclusion a long time ago–it's a little out of order, isn't it. But that's honestly what I've been thinking about more than anything else. 

 Growing up in such a faithful family and such a religious environment, I never really let myself spend time pondering that question because the existence of God was just a given. I was much more concerned with how in the heck I was supposed to follow all these commandments, make my parents proud, and somehow make things "even" with a Savior I could never even come close to repaying–not to mention all the battles for worthiness we teenage guys so often fight on our own without reaching out for help. Elder Bednar puts it best: "I just wanted to be a good boy." In reality, though, my repentance was often a lot closer to what Elder Renlund once called "miserable behavior modification."

So with all that on my gospel agenda, I never really got around to those dark questions lurking in the back of my mind: "What if this is all a lie? What if he's just a fairy tale, and one day I'll die and realize, 'Oh, I guess I was wrong'? Or, scariest of all, what if, even if He is real, He's not the One I thought I knew?" Those questioned stayed in a box that I didn't dare open all the way. I'll tell you what, though: they eat away at a guy sometimes.

 So here we are now. This transfer has been the best one of my whole mission. I love my companion, I love our area, I love the friends we're teaching; business is booming. The doctrine of Christ–faith in the Lord and His atoning sacrifice, repentance, baptism by the proper authority, receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost by the laying on of hands, and enduring to the end–has become ingrained in me in ways it never has before. Baptism and confirmation especially. But of all the miracles we've seen this transfer, the greatest was when I received this impression from the Holy Ghost: "If the Book of Mormon is true, God is real and He is exactly who He says He is."

"And I, [Oliver], knew that God could not lie; wherefore...my faith began to be unshaken in the Lord." (Enos 1:7, 11)

Can you imagine the relief an answer like that would bring? 

______, I finally got it after twenty years of life in His Church and twenty-three months of service in His vineyard: the Book of Mormon: Another Testament of Jesus Christ is, against all odds, actually true. Not just something I think is true or something I want to be true, but an objective fact of reality. It just is. 

You need to find out for yourself how it feels for God to reveal that to you. It's not something I can describe. It comes "line upon line, precept upon precept," day after day after day. Every day, you and I have to wake up and regain all over again our testimony that God is our Heavenly Father, we are His children, and Jesus Christ is our Savior. Hearing, pondering, and testifying of these three eternal truths for seven hundred and twenty-five days and counting has carved them in my soul like a river carves a canyon. I look back from the rim now and it takes my breath away. 

Yep, He's real alright. He really is. 

Love, 

Elder Rigby

~~~

Moroni 7:31-32:

 And the office of their ministry is to call men unto repentance, and to fulfil and to do the work of the covenants of the Father, which he hath made unto the children of men, to prepare the way among the children of men, by declaring the word of Christ unto the chosen vessels of the Lord, that they may bear testimony of him.

 And by so doing, the Lord God prepareth the way that the residue of men may have faith in Christ, that the Holy Ghost may have place in their hearts, according to the power thereof; and after this manner bringeth to pass the Father, the covenants which he hath made unto the children of men.

Week 103: Seven Days - Miami, Oklahoma

 Hey all!

 It's a real pretty day out today as I'm writing this email from a Frisbee golf park in northeastern Oklahoma. It's really starting to sink in now that my mission is really almost over. I can't really describe how it feels to write that—just lots of emotions all tangled up and mixed together. What I do know, though, is it's time to leave it all out on the field and go home with no regrets.

 As far as news goes this week, the work has been fantastic. We had the most friends join us for church of any week I've served in Miami, we had a blast going on exchanges (switching missionary companions) for a day with the Carl Junction/Pittsburg Elders, and we set a new personal best of my whole mission for lessons we taught with members participating. Life is good. It's not without its difficulties and its setbacks, but it's good. 

~

Storytime:

 We taught our friends Brent and Shelby about temples this week, but due to a commitment to another friend, we had to leave them and the member hosting the lesson right after we turned on a video tour of the temple. We called to check in with Brent the next morning, and he and his wife shared that they didn't understand why the temple wasn't open to the general public if it was such a special place to connect with God. Wouldn't we want everyone to go there? (If you want to know how we answered them, let me know and I'll send you our notes!)

 Shelby unfortunately had to be at work, but Brent, being as awesome as he is, was down to make some time to meet with us and talk about it in-person once. Elder Fichtner (my exchange companion for the day) and I studied together to prepare an answer, and when we met (with Marvin along too ), he found a lot more peace with his question. What stuck out to me most, though, was that he told us we were the first church in his whole life that ever was okay with him asking them hard questions. Every other church he'd been in had kicked him out and/or stopped inviting him back to their services when he'd ask where they got their beliefs from or how they could know if the Bible was 100% true or if it was messed with so much over the course of history, so he was afraid that when he asked us about temples we'd kick him out too. 

 In the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, we welcome and encourage all sincere questions asked with faith in Jesus Christ. When a friend asks us a question about something they don't understand, it makes me happy because that means they're actually pondering the things they've learned deeply. Jesus Christ welcomed questioners like Brent and Shelby during His mortal ministry, and so do we. This is because the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is true. We have nothing to hide. In fact, the more we can help them find inspired answers to their questions and gain knowledge of the doctrine of Christ, the more their faith in Christ and His restored gospel will grow. What's more, they'll be that much more likely to follow His example by being baptized and confirmed by one holding the proper priesthood authority of God. As one general authority once put it, "True doctrine, understood, changes behavior."

TL:DR Brent and Shelby are cool and asking questions with faith in God is good. 

~

Hymn #251

Behold! A royal army, 

With banner, sword, and shield, 

Is marching forth to conquer 

On life’s great battlefield. 

Its ranks are filled with soldiers, 

United, bold, and strong, 

Who follow their Commander 

And sing their joyful song: 

Victory, victory, 

Thru him that redeemed us! 

Victory, victory, 

Thru Jesus Christ, our Lord! 

Victory, victory, victory, 

Thru Jesus Christ, our Lord!

https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/manual/hymns/behold-a-royal-army?lang=eng

Song of the week: "I Bet My Life" by Imagine Dragons

Photo album: https://photos.app.goo.gl/2sk1refRidSszyYk7

My mission email (oliver.rigby@missionary.org) is going to be deactivated soon after I get home, so if you want to stay in touch, send me your contact info! My personal email is owrigby@gmail.com.

103 emails down, one to go! See yall next week. 

Love,

Elder Rigby

Week 102 - Miami, Oklahoma

 Hey all!

I woke up this morning like "holy cow I have two weeks left what just happened" so I guess now it's really go time. Lots more cool miracles here in Miami this week, as tends to be the case when you're in an awesome area with an awesome mission companion. It reminded me of a line from one of President Jeffrey R. Holland's messages from two years ago: "I cannot speak fully of that experience here, but I can say that part of what I received was an admonition to return to my ministry with more urgency, more consecration, more focus on the Savior, more faith in His word."

First up, a miracle: Rhonda decided she's going to be baptized and confirmed! She's clicked so well with the members here in the Miami Ward and is especially tight with a new convert who recently went through the temple for the first time. We felt inspired to study the doctrine of Christ in 2 Nephi 31 and had her read verse 13:

"Wherefore, my beloved brethren, I know that if ye shall follow the Son, with full purpose of heart, acting no hypocrisy and no deception before God, but with real intent, repenting of your sins, witnessing unto the Father that ye are willing to take upon you the name of Christ, by baptism—yea, by following your Lord and your Savior down into the water, according to his word, behold, then shall ye receive the Holy Ghost; yea, then cometh the baptism of fire and of the Holy Ghost; and then can ye speak with the tongue of angels, and shout praises unto the Holy One of Israel."

After reading the verse herself, Rhonda told us she "really felt that one" and that she was definitely feeling that "baptism of fire". She then declared she thought the Book of Mormon really was a continuation of God's teachings in the Bible, and it came to us to ask her, "Why would we invite you to be baptized and confirmed again if the Book of Mormon is true?" She thought for a moment and responded, "...Because this is the true church of Jesus Christ! Because this church has authority!"

Bingo!

~

In other news...

Our other friend Zeke is going to pray and talk with his family about being baptized on two Sundays from now, the 22nd!

Father's Day is coming up! Make sure to tell your dad you love him. Dads need love too!

We both spoke in church on Sunday! Probably the last time I'll get to do that as a missionary. Weird. Lots of lasts lately.

We had dinner with Marvin again later that evening and he fed us some real good steaks again. I tried to make a joke and asked him how long he thinks it'd take him to eat a whole cow, and he thought for a moment and said, "Well, usually about seven months for a calf with my wife and two kids." ...Forgot people 100% actually do that out here. Farmers are so hardcore.

Song of the week: "Rolling On" by the Murlocs. Definitely put this one in an email before but it's been stuck in my head all week.

Photos: https://photos.app.goo.gl/2sk1refRidSszyYk7

Love y'all! To all my other missionaries and everybody else enduring to the end, finish strong!

Elder Rigby

Week 101 - Miami, Oklahoma

 Hey all!

This week we found a new friend who's going to join the Church! We were out visiting people in our records who used to be taught because I couldn't walk around knocking doors all day on my ankle (it's a lot better now thanks to prayers and an ankle brace) and we decided to knock the three closest doors to one of them who didn't answer when Rhonda came to the door. She said she used to go to a ward in Minnesota and would love to try church again here. We were able to introduce her to a member just four hours later and they hit it off right off the bat, with that member offering a ride and inviting her to do family history after church the next day. Rhonda said she planned to be baptized in Minnesota but wasn't able to because her husband didn't want her to, but now they're not together anymore. Our member told her she might need to be a member to make a full familysearch account but she said, "No worries, I'm planning on joining anyway." You love to hear it 

This was a huge tender mercy for Elder Eilander and I because we'd just lost one of our closest, and coolest friends the night before. We'd been meeting with him for months and his work schedule was finally cooling down enough that he was able to come to church, plus he had gotten an answer about the Book of Mormon and decided that if he was going to make a covenant with God and join the Church, he wanted to be prepared to keep it for his whole life. We decided to go over the questions we interview our friends with when they decide to be baptized and confirmed, and unfortunately one of them triggered some bad PTSD from his law enforcement career and he ended up giving us his Book of Mormon back and asking us to leave. We were pretty torn up about it, especially since I'd been meeting with him for months, but being able to meet Ronda showed us yet again that the Lord will always compensate us for the unfairness of life when we are faithful to Him.

We had tons of other cool stuff happen this week like a church tour with a mom and her son miraculously working out way better than we could have planned it (and we totally forgot to plan it whatsoever whoops, God just made it happen) and an awesome exchange where I got to serve with my good friend Elder Hammer in Pittsburg, Kansas for the day, but I'm kinda wiped out. Three weeks to the finish!

Love, Elder Rigby 

Week 100: One in Three - Miami, Oklahoma

 Four Sundays left...

Hey all!

Well, first things first, I totally wrecked my ankle playing volleyball today haha. It's not broken and I'm not coming home early, but unfortunately I can't do normal missionary work on it right now. Prayers would be appreciated, thanks 

Life's been pretty wild in general this week. Four of our most promising friends—our miracle family from the farmer's market and a cool guy who was on date for baptism next month—all decided they weren't quite ready to live the word of wisdom and decided to stop meeting with us. We're on good terms with all of them still, though, and the lady we first talked to at the market asked if they could keep their copies of the Book of Mormon because they would join as a family or not at all but she was still really interested in studying it! They'll come around all in due time. 

On the bright side, some super cool friends of ours who were taking a little to warm up started coming through this week! 

Please pray for:

- Matthew

- Zeke

- Brent and Shelby (especially Shelby, she's having a difficult recovery right now)

- Andy

- Cindy, Ray, and Tim

~~~~~~~~~~

One awesome sermon I heard this week that I couldn't wait to share with you is called "Choice and Commitment" by Elder D. Todd Christofferson of the Twelve. He had some great insights on becoming better at making decisions and at choosing to follow the Savior, Jesus Christ. Here's a link:

https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/broadcasts/worldwide-devotional-for-young-adults/2020/01/12christofferson?lang=eng

~~~~~~~~~~

(Forgive my formatting these next few paragraphs, I ran out of time haha)

If you're between the ages of 13 and 35, please check out this article about the power of inviting friends to seminary and institute! I'm so pumped that the Lord inspired leaders in the Church with an initiative like this. Check out this excerpt from the article:

https://newsroom.churchofjesuschrist.org/article/youth-young-adults-asked-to-invite-a-friend-to-seminary-institute

Right now, over 800,000 youth and young adults around the world are enrolled in seminary or institute. Even better—more than 60,000 of them are friends not of our faith! And here’s the amazing part: One in three of these friends chooses baptism—often because they feel a real sense of belonging, peace, and community as they grow closer to Jesus Christ.

Elder Ronald A. Rasband reminded us in the April 2025 general conference:

“They are a mighty battalion, gaining strength from each other as they learn of Jesus Christ, follow, and testify of Him as the Son of God.”

The Church just launched the Invite a Friend to seminary or institute initiative—and it's all about simple invitations that open big doors. Here’s how you can join in.

As you feel prompted by the Spirit:

• Think about inviting your friends or contacts to join seminary or institute.
• Encourage members in your area to do the same.

In seminary and institute, your friends will find a place to feel the Spirit, learn about Jesus Christ, and develop lasting relationships.

One of my good friends from Fayetteville joined the church because of the seminary program. This is for real. Imagine if out of all the people you ever invited to seminary or institute, only one of them came to know and accept the truths our loving Father in Heaven so desperately wanted them to know. 

So says the Lord in Doctrine and Covenants section 18:

13 And how great is his joy in the soul that repenteth!

14 Wherefore, you are called to cry repentance unto this people.

15 And if it so be that you should labor all your days in crying repentance unto this people, and bring, save it be one soul unto me, how great shall be your joy with him in the kingdom of my Father!

16 And now, if your joy will be great with one soul that you have brought unto me into the kingdom of my Father, how great will be your joy if you should bring many souls unto me!

Love y'all! See you at home soon.

Elder Rigby

Week 99: Victory Lap - Miami, Oklahoma

 "I'm T16, going on 17"

Hey all!

Greetings from my seventeenth transfer in the mission field! I was sooooooo close to not writing an email today, but I can't stop now when I'm this close to the end. The work has been going so well here in Miami lately, and Elder Eilander and I are best buds already, so this week has been an absolute blast. We have multiple families we're working with who are progressing on the path of discipleship amazingly and have seen miracle after miracle while working with them.

Whenever you're able, I'd appreciate it if you could please pray for:

- Cindy, Ray, and Tim

- Brent and his wife (haven't met her yet but she's having surgery tomorrow so she needs extra prayers )

- Nestor and Yoly

- Jason

- Robert

Here are some miracles from among the folks we've been teaching:

1) A lady we met at a farmer's market told us her adult son had just begun his journey with God and asked us to help teach and baptize him! He, his mother, and his stepfather all came to church last Sunday and absolutely loved it. They're familiar with the church and happened to be longtime family friends with a sister in the congregation we felt inspired to bring out with us to their first lesson! We'd never had her on a single lesson in the past, but the Lord told us to give her a call and that we did. Didn't take long for us to figure out why when we got to the lesson 

2) We were stuck in the rain with nothing to do after all our plans fell through, so we prayed to the Lord for guidance and He impressed us with this thought: "What would you do right now if it weren't raining?" I HATE getting wet in the rain, so in that kind of weather we almost always go visit friends who we're teaching or who have been taught before. In the sun, though, we knock them doors like there's no tomorrow. So, knock doors we did. Elder Eilander picked a street that felt good to him, and despite it having been one I'd knocked twice before in a massive area with plenty of neighbors to find people in, we decided to go there again. After some time knocking in the rain, we met a friend whose coworker is a member of the Church and has told him a little about the Gospel! 

 This is a big deal! Because an ordinary member of the Church decided to share his faith in Christ with a friend, that friend was prepared to receive us. You can give that same help to the missionaries in your home area by loving, sharing, and inviting others to come unto Christ. 

This is what the Savior has to say on the subject in 3 Nephi 18 of the Book of Mormon:

...For unto such shall ye continue to minister; for ye know not but what they will return and repent, and come unto me with full purpose of heart, and I shall heal them; and ye shall be the means of bringing salvation unto them.

3) Felt prompted to talk to a guy in Walmart while we were shopping and we've since taught him three lessons! He came to a study class last night and the members decided to switch the plan up and spend the whole time telling him their individual conversion stories of being led to the Lord's fold.

4) The bishop of our congregation just reached out to us about a member family with a young son who the family would like to have the missionaries teach! Luckily enough, we're the missionaries haha. 

5) My dear friend Michelle from Fort Smith, the first friend I was ever able to personally baptize, just reached out to me tonight after I hadn't heard any news from or about her in months! She's doing great :)

~

Alma 28:14 (BofM):

And thus we see the great call of diligence of men to labor in the vineyards of the Lord; and thus we see the great reason of sorrow, and also of rejoicing—sorrow because of death and destruction among men, and joy because of the light of Christ unto life.

Jesus is real and His Church is alive! He loves you so much—really and truly.

Love,

Elder Rigby

p.s. Don't try to get a cactus cutting bare-handed

Week 98: Sprint to the Finish - Miami, Oklahoma

 "If I find another tick on me tonight I'm gonna squeal"

~

Hey all!

I have so much I want to share from this week but I managed my time in true Rigby style and have all of six minutes to write today. Whoops 

Last transfer of my mission! I'll be staying in Miami, OK for my last six weeks, which I'm happy about. Elder Larson will be leaving to be a Zone leader down in Bentonville  and my new companion is Elder Eilender, one of my friends from way back in Fort Smith!

I want Bahama Buck's

Got a tick for the first time ever and freaked out. So close to a tickless mission 

Our friend named Kevin didn't realize we were "Mormons" during our first two visits and it blew him away when he realized but then we showed him how the Book of Mormon directly taught what he believed the Bible was trying to say and now he's cool with us lol

Made some burger bombs with Elder Larson  

Found a TON of new people to teach

Saved a hummingbird that got trapped in a screened-in porch and oh my gosh it was so tiny. Also held a lil prairie kingsnake (danger noodle) videos on Google Photos

Went to the temple with three of our recent converts! Marvin was able to personally baptize another of the recent converts who acted as proxy for his wife who passed away two years ago. If I had time, I would write a massive paragraph about our trip and how awesome it was, but for now suffice to say it was really, really special. If you're curious and want to hear more, just ask me about the temple and baptisms for the dead!

Remade my resume and applied for a bunch of college jobs in Provo. Making a new resume was actually way fun...but maybe I just miss school haha. Speaking of school, if you're going to BYU Provo in the fall then email me if you want my class schedule! It'd be fun to try and get in the same classes as some of my pals. 

Song of the week: "Let 'Em In" by Paul McCartney & Wings. Walmart radio has some gems sometimes. 

Photos: https://photos.app.goo.gl/2sk1refRidSszyYk7

~

Spiritual thought: Ruth 1:16-17

 And Ruth said, Entreat me not to leave thee, or to return from following after thee: for whither thou goest, I will go; and where thou lodgest, I will lodge: thy people shall be my people, and thy God my God: 

 Where thou diest, will I die, and there will I be buried: the Lord do so to me, and more also, if ought but death part thee and me.

Say something like that to your mom sometime. She deserves it. 

Love, Elder Rigby