Title goes out to the real ones on this week. If you know you know.
Hey all!
I'm low on time but I wanted to at least send something out because my last email was filled with so much grungy missionary angst. In short, I'm alright! I know God loves me, so I'm here and I'm not planning on going anywhere.
This transfer has been humbling so far. I've found that I have a tendency to try to shoulder the whole burden of missionary work in this area all by myself. In an effort to surrender myself to the Spirit, I'm working on sharing that weight with my companion Elder Kemp and especially with the Savior. I've learned a lot and I know I'll develop a ton of life skills from this, but most importantly, I'm learning to more fully rely on the Spirit.
On that subject, two (slightly difficult to access) talks that I've absolutely loved listening to are:
1) "You ARE Receiving Revelation" by Loren Dalton
and
2) "Quit Worrying About It" by David A Bednar.
These two messages really changed my view of personal revelation and how exactly I can better listen to the Holy Spirit in my daily life. They're kinda tricky to find but a quick Google search might do the trick. If you're a missionary and don't have easy access to the internet but want to give one or both a listen, just email me and I'll send 'em over.
Besides that, here's some news from this week:
- Elder Kemp is seriously unfortunate when it comes to medical conditions. Somehow this guy is type-1 diabetic, Celiac, AND allergic to nuts. He accidentally ate a protein bar with peanuts in it this week and while his reaction wasn't too bad as we caught it fast, it totally took us out of commission for like two hours and gave him a stomachache for the rest if the day. Oof.
- Saw Jeep Guy again in a completely different but equally tricked out Jeep. Nice.
- Talked to a guy named Fred who goes to a church called The River whose brother, Jason, we used to teach. Somehow we've met Jason, his son, his wife, and now his brother all on separate occasions in different places. Small world.
- testified of the divine nature of families for probably the first time in my entire life. It was cool. We met with our good friend Jacob, a fellow Christian and brilliant intellectual, and he is pretty firm in his belief in the Trinity. After talking about temples, sealings, marriage, and living with an eternal mindset, I finally saw how the Spirit had orchestrated the whole conversation to lead to one idea: our belief in God is not in a divine Individual after the Trinitarian way, but of a divine Family that we have the potential to draw ever closer to throughout all the eternities. As disciples of Christ declared again and again at the start of this month: "salvation is an individual matter, but exaltation is a family matter."
- Went on exchanges on Tuesday with Elder Benson, one of my zone leaders. That guy is just so cool. He's a 23-month missionary on his very last transfer before he goes home and he's just a spiritual powerhouse. Plus, we get along so so well. We nerd out about the same stuff, like the same games, both have a kind of ADHD personality, and even both play the saxophone haha. From brownies and ice cream to Smash Bros, our interests just clicked instantly and it was just a blast getting to work with with such a faithful missionary who I got along with so well. We worked hard and had fun. Good times.
Thought (it's a long one:)
1) 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.
and
2) "Of Things That Matter Most" by Dieter F. Uchtdorf, a living modern-day Apostle who hails from Germany.
Elder Uchtdorf talks of tree rings relating to times of trial. In seasons of plenty, the tree has much more energy and resources to dedicate to growing and so that year would produce a thick ring. In seasons of drought, the tree uses what resources it has to simply stay alive.
Yesterday was a "survival" ring on my mission tree. I started off in a dark place and tried to white knuckle myself back to my normal level of missionary operation, but I felt anxious from the moment I woke up. I wanted to be a "good missionary," though, and apparently in my subconcious mind, "good missionaries" didn't stop to consider their mental health.
Well, sooner or later the dissonance between what I wanted to be doing and what I was capable of in reality aggravated the feelings of anxiety I had from this morning until I was just about ready to break down. I had a real "come to Jesus" moment where I reached out to my mom and just asked for help and we just talked. It helped.
Funnily enough, God always sends His servants to help me when I'm down because that very moment after I texted my mom, a family friend reached out to me out of nowhere. In addition to that, a sweet local service missionary with Down's Syndrome randomly sent me an encouraging message the same afternoon. These small acts of service from these kind disciples of Christ may have seemed trivial to them in the moment but the Spirit knew that they would make a world of difference to me.
Which leads us to my invitation for this week:
Pray for and immediately act on the next prompting you get to reach out to someone. If a name pops into your head out of nowhere, don't ignore it. In all reality, it's probably not just from your head. On the off chance it is just your head (it's not,) then congratulations, you have a chance to do something nice for someone. If it's a prompting of the Spirit, however, you may literally change someone's life.
As you act in faith on the promptings the Spirit quietly presents to you, God will trust you with more of them. Take any chance you get to be an instrument in His hands and your life will feel more whole. You will recognize the voice of the Comforter easier and see more opportunities to love and serve as the Savior would. Plus, it just feels nice.
Welp, hope yall are doing well! Song of the week is Smile by Weezer. Rivers Cuomo is king.
Catch ya later!
Love,
Elder Rigby
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