Elder Oliver Rigby: June 2023

Monday, June 19, 2023

Week One: broccoli state of mind - Home MTC, Gilbert Arizona

Hey everyone! Elder Rigby here. Apologies for the slightly late email but week one is officially complete! I'm a missionary now so yeah! that's cool.

Being trained online this week has been wild. On one hand it's great because in between lessons and workshops I can be with my family, walk my dog, or watch a family movie or two. On the other hand, seven days of sitting in a room filled with all the games and books and music I've decided to set aside is driving me up the wall so I can't wait to just get moving.

As far as the actual classes go I honestly don't even know what to write about because my days felt both extremely busy and extremely chill so I guess I'll just use an analogy. Imagine eating literally only veggies every meal for an entire week and that pretty much sums it up. Spiritual greens for spiritual gains herbivore style.

The idea of being away from my family, my friends, and my main man Charlie is going to become a reality super soon and that's kinda freaky but hey, I know this is the next step for me. Yeah I'm leaving some big parts of my life on the altar and y'all know how much I wanna be chilling with the missionaries heading to Japan right now but God wants me right where He called me. I trust his judgement way more than my own, so y'know what? May as well roll with it.

Other than that I:

- ran into like four college buddies during zoom workshops

- found out one of my teachers is actually my second cousin Meghan lol

- got Coconut Mall'ed by the MTC leaders

- saw a funny picture of Elder Harris

Scripture of the week:

Mosiah 4:27 - And see that all these things are done in wisdom and order; for it is not requisite that a man should run faster than he has strength. And again, it is expedient that he should be diligent, that thereby he might win the prize; therefore, all things must be done in order.

My teacher Brother Sorensen shared this scripture with me when he noticed I was was having a rough time in class one day. He taught me that there are times when you want to give your all but you don't have your all to give and that's okay. God gets you perfectly and loves you simply no matter the complexitiesof your trials. I'm really grateful for that. Through this week though I've felt so many little nudges and promptings that remind me that while there's no growth in the comfort zone God will never abandon me when I fall short.

Love you guys! Go do something crazy to remind yourself that you exist. Get that adrenaline going. It's refreshing. Just don't break the law.

- Elder Rigby