It was delicious.
Buckle up y'all, it's a long one. I'll put the photos at the top for yall who aren't heavy readers:
Hey all!
The work goes on! I'm adjusting to leading the area and Elder Kemp's learning more and more as we just put ourselves out there and work. Our ward's hosting a chili cookoff and trunk-or-treat this Saturday so we've been contacting inactive members and new friends like nobody's business. Hopefully, someone we've talked with will make it there and remember that the Church actually isn't so bad. I'll let you know how it goes next email.
β Quick Updates:
- Stopped teaching Brycen, our friend on date for baptism, as he simply would not keep commitments. Nice guy though. He'll get there someday.
- Put our friend Jennifer on date for November 25th! She didn't show up to oue AR meeting tonight but she's got a lot on her plate so we'll work with her.
- Went through the ward roster with the Elders' Quorum president, President Blair, to make a list of all the inactive/struggling families we could try to find through. Our current strategy is focusing on specific struggling members and knocking their neighborhoods in-between visits.
- The ward really likes us here and we really like them too. Allen Ranch will always be my homedawgs but Bentonville First makes a great home away from home.
β The People of Bentonville:
- Visited our elderly friend Sherri and talked Bible talk with her. She gave us some prayer cloths and a pocket cross she made herself. She's one of my absolute favorite people to visit and I think it might be because she reminds me of Grandma Rigby :')
- Shot the breeze with Officer Kenny, a nice policeman who pulled up and made small talk with us. He was born in Malaysia, moved to San Francisco, went to college in France, and joined the police force just out of civic duty. Certified cool human.
- Sat outside an inactive member's house waiting on our ride for so long that a police officer (not Kenny unfortunately) pulled up and asked if we were good. The other Elders aren't always very good about driving us home on time...but hey, we all have our weaknesses.
- Got absolutely confounded by the first Japanese speaker I've met in the four months I've been on a mission. More on that later.
β Culinary Adventures:
- Biked to Harrison's on a prompting after our plans fell through and went out to ice cream with him. He's a nice guy even if he doesn't want to join the Church right now.
- Scarfed down sushi in a dignified manner at a fancy sushiya with the Fitzgeralds and Brother Trudo, a cool young dad in our ward. I mentioned I liked Castle in the Sky while we were getting to know each other and just like that, Pandora's Box went flying open. Noah went off about anime out of nowhere and asked us some questions that caught me so off-guard that I couldn't keep myself from laughing, which immediately made me feel bad. Noah's a super cool dude, I just was totally not expecting to see this side of him. We learned Brother Trudo plays Legend of Zelda and is watching One Piece with his wife too, so that just automatically makes him a chad.
- Brought Luis a burger from Braum's after he staple-gunned his hand at work and didn't wanna go to the hospital. We're not doctors, so we served how we could I guess 
- Ate breakfast with some senior missionaries at the USA Cafe. It was beautifully patriotic, from the wall of Presidents to the WWII propaganda to the Guns n' Roses and Journey blasting over the speakers. Even my food tasted like freedom. I rate it 
out of 10.
out of 10.- Smashed a delicious dinner at the Keoghs: garlic/applewood pork chops, a rainbow of baked veggies and squash, ice cream for dessert, and a great spiritual thought to boot. 10/10
- (Two weeks ago) nibbled some dubious leg meat at the Mendiolas' when we celebrated Serleen's birthday with her Islander friends from Pohnpei. There are a TON of Pohnpeians here. Like, we literally have the highest population of Micronesian people outside of Micronesia and they all just chill in the Ozarks because we wrecked some of their islands with nuclear testing so we let them immigrate here for free.
- Prayed to find a meal because we didn't have one planned tonight and lo and behold, we accidentally visited a totally active couple, the Williams, who kindly offered us dog food. To be fair, they feed their two Great Danes cooked rice and beans and broccoli, so it was really good dog food.
β Random Stuff:
- The chapel in the dark is a serious vibe.
- Saw a guy we met at an addiction recovery class play a fantastic piano solo after everyone left. Hearing someone who struggled with so much pain and anguish throughout his life playing something so hauntingly beautiful with such complete devotion had me way shook. Another certified cool human.
- Completely rearranged our apartment and I love it now. I have my own corner with my bed, my desk, my closet, and my bathroom all in one area. I didn't realize until we finished moving that this is the first time in my whole mission I actually feel like I have personal space again. Three cheers for real-life Animal Crossing.
- Played a five-minute round of Dungeons and Dragons with Snoop Dogg. Yup. Facebook Messenger's got a DnD-themed Snoop Dogg AI now. That's the Metaverse for ya.
- Donned my wet helmet and rode 20+ miles on my kid-sized Specialized bike this misty October afternoon. What a day. With the visibility being as low as it was, today felt like we were playing on low rendering distance in Minecraft.
β Storytime:
When we knock doors, we look for anything, ANYTHING, to start a conversation on and when this lady answered the door it happened to be her work uniform for a ramen shop. I was like "hey that's cool, you work at a ramen shop? I actually speak a little bit of Japanese" just kind of expecting to make a fun little connection before moving on to our message. Instead, she responded with γγΈγΌγγγγγ§οΌγand my brain simply blew a fuse. I hadn't heard actual Japanese come out of someone's mouth in like six months and was just flabbergasted that someone in the state of Arkansas actually spoke it. Needless to say, my recovery from that revelation was far from smooth and after a long moment where I was supposed to likewise respond in Japanese turned into an awkward silence, she marked me down as your average Duilingo using anime fan and moved on to say in Emglish that she wasn't interested. We'll get 'em next time 
οΈ
οΈβ Spiritual Thought:
"Be 100% Responsible" by Lynn G. Robbins
and
"Beware of Pride" by Ezra Taft Benson
In "Be 100% Responsible," Elder Robbins uses Dantes from the Count of Monte Cristo as a fitting example of anger being a form of negative devotion: as Dantes devotes his newfound freedom and wealth to his selfish desire for the proximate justice of revenge, he abandons the ultimate justice of God and sinks to the same level depravity of the men who took him from Mércèdes in the first place. While the reader initially cheers on the wonderfully devious Count of Monte Cristo, they eventually realize that he has abandoned that which he loves in pursuit of that which he hates.
This week I've been working on patience and humility with a missionary in our apartment that I don't get along with very well. I struggle to see why he acts the way he does but, well, I've also realized that I don't want to let my frustration over our differences consume the limited time and energy I have to love and serve God and His precious children.
I don't want to be the kind of person who wastes his life away being angry with others. Anger, and just about every sin in my opinion, comes from pride. Pride leads us to think we know better than God, and that is simply wrong.
Now, this commentary comes from a 19-year old kid in Arkansas, so take that for what it's worth. If you want to hear from someone who actually knows what they're talking about, listen to those talks up above or, better yet, read the words of our Savior, Jesus Christ. Learn who He was and is personally and you will someday reach a point where you "...have no more disposition to do evil, but to do good continually" (Mosiah 5:2.)
Elder Rigby
P.S. you made it to the bottom! Thanks for reading all this mess. Have a wonderful day, you wonderful person, you.
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