Week 26: Sushi Haus - Bentonville, Arkansas

 Das Sushi war großartig. 

Well, Christmas has come and gone and it was...different. I was a little lonely being away from my family for the holidays for the first time in my life, but at the same time, this Christmas has been the most Christ-centered Christmas in my life, and knowing that makes the sacrifice worth it this year.

I'm low on time yet again so this one won't be as polished, but I haven't written much about the random stuff that happens to us Arkansas missionaries lately, so I might just dump some bullet points from my phone journal and get back to packing. 

Speaking of packing...transfer calls came in this morning! Sure enough, I'm not long for Bentonville, y'all. 

I don't know how to build up suspense on an email without way too much fluffy writing so I'll just cut to the chase:

Bentonville First Ward, District Leader. Companion: Elder Kemp

                                     I

                                    V

Fort Smith First Ward, Zone Leader.

Companion: Elder Bigelow

But that's not all, folks. The Fort Smith First Ward also covers a young single adult congregation and the two areas are shared jointly between we Elders and the Fort Smith STLs (sister missionaries in leadership roles.) In addition, the other Zone Leader isn't even in my companionship; he's over the Spanish congregation with a trainee to boot. 

In short, I'll be in a new area with a new companion doing a new kind of missionary work in a new leadership role in the downtown of both the biggest and southernmost city in our mission's part of Arkansas. 

Those Legos I got for Christmas are going to work wonders as stress relief. 

~

Jokes aside, I'm grateful God has trusted me with this increased responsibility and I'm grateful for the opportunity to learn and grow from this time. Plus, I've already met my new companion, Elder Bigelow, before, and he seemed pretty cool. I was roommates with his last companion for a bit, and man, I love that guy. And the other Zone Leader in Fort Smith, Elder Smythe, is known throughout the mission for being faithful, genuine, and extremely hardworking. I'm going to learn a whole lot from them in the coming months. 

~

Stuff from the last two weeks:

Taco Bell Doordash fiasco and the triumphant return of the Double-Decker Taco

Elder Kemp tracting in the rain on crutches (see Google Photos)

Actually productive morning: woke up and ran around the block, showered and got ready, played piano for 20 minutes, opened my Lego advent calendar, made some breakfast, planned District Council, and did some personal study with my new PMG manual 

Gave out free hot cocoa at the Bentonville Square with some ward members

I have like a year's worth of candy

Ate five tostadas at the Juarezes. Worth

Remember Jim, the hotel mogul living in Spain who referred himself after he singlehandedly taught himself 90% of the key doctrines of the Church? Well, he immediately got hit by a drunk driver driving from the airport to his new house the night he got here. No joke. He's alive and should recover, but Satan knew he couldn't shake this guy so he just sent a straight-up hitman to take him out. Naturally, his baptism had to get delayed, but he'll get there eventually. 

"If you wanna make God laugh, tell him your plan."

~~~~~~~~~

Dad got hit and run by a car immediately after he and our dog Charlie got stalked by a coyote through a farm field. Once again, no joke. Very fortunately, they got off much easier than Jim and neither of them were injured when at least one of them probably should have been seriously injured or killed. I'm not really sure how to process that one so I'll just leave it as is. 

Joined a game at the Bentonville Library chess club to try and strike up a conversation but unfortunately, I got absolutely smoked. No Book of Mormons were handed out in the five minutes before I was checkmated, unfortunately. 

Found an Action Bible in a thrift store. The Old Testament makes a great comic book story.

Ondré: Driving to a random building in an apartment complex with no objective led to us getting a second chance with a guy we had shied away from trying to teach the first time we met him. 100% actual miracle in my book. God is a God of second chances. 

Someone sent me Studio Ghibli legos AHHHHHH (update: it was my parents. They are awesome)

Talked to a guy we used to teach and he taught us the difference between a psychopath and a sociopath. Good to know. 

I wanna build a missionary tree fort in the woods on pday if I'm ever transferred to the boonies. I'll leave my mark on this mission somehow. 

Baked a ton of cookies on Christmas Eve. First batch was meh, second batch was 

"My dear brothers and sisters, the joy we feel has little to do with the circumstances of our lives and everything to do with the focus of our lives." - Russell M. Nelson, President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

The Cronins' Christmas family tradition: singing at least one verse of all the Christmas hymns in the hymnbook. It made me happy. 

T-bone steak, Christmas hymns, and surprise presents at the Cronins' for Christmas Eve dinner. They bought us UofA merch and cool new ties cause they're awesome. These are the same folks who baked me a birthday cake too. 

Christmas morning call with my family was nice. 

Christmas dinner with the whole Bayles family. Equally awesome as the Cronins.

First snow on my mission 12/27/23

Lotsa piano practice on pday

Got sushi with the Bentonville STLs and two of their recent converts at Sushi House earlier tonight. Check it out if you're ever in Bentonville. It was so good that I bought a Sushi House t-shirt.

~

Song of the week: Banana Pancakes by Jack Johnson. It's a good rainy day song. 

~

I wish it wasn't 11:09pm so I could actually take some time to write a fully developed spiritual thought, but it is. By the way, if anyone has advice for time management, specifically procrastination, it would be very much appreciated. I kinda need some help with that. 

Either way, I don't want to send out an email about being a missionary without trying to use this letter as a missionary opportunity, so as for a thought, I would hearken back to the fact that every time I read the Book of Mormon and learn more about the life and teachings of my Savior, Jesus Christ, and His servants, I feel better. 

Christmas morning was great this year, but the foreboding no-man's-land of Christmas afternoon after visiting with the other missionaries at lunch and before going to the Bayleses for dinner had me pretty down in the dumps. I hadn't put on the armor of God (i.e. hadn't read the scriptures; see Ephesians 6:11-17) and I could acutely feel my spiritual vulnerability. So, after District Council ended and the rest of the missionaries left, I asked my companion if we could do a quick companion study. He said yes, and we read Alma chapter 34, where Amulek teaches of the eternal plan of salvation through repentance and faith on the Savior. My testimony today is that doing so made me feel better. I felt closer to God and strengthened in my weakness, and I knew that somewhere inside me, a hole that I hadn't noticed until that moment had been filled in with the love of God. 

If you'd like to read or listen to the chapter we read, here's a link:

https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/scriptures/bofm/alma/34?lang=eng

~

Welp, gotta go pack. Hope you're all doing well and Happy New Year!

Elder Rigby

My new address will be:

2700 Tulsa St, Apartment 3, Fort Smith, AR 72901

Ghibli legos

Nether portal

Pwuken

Pohnpeian Book of Mormon

Exchange pic feat. double decker taco

Lunch

Sushi House

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

Week 25 - Bentonville, Arkansas

Merry Christmas!

It's a good time of year to be a missionary. It's pretty nice that the biggest holiday of the year in America just happens to be specifically dedicated to celebrating Jesus Christ, ain't it. Good stuff.

 

The last few weeks we've gotten to focus a lot more on bringing the Christ back into Christmas through community events, church meetings, music, and, of course, teaching our friends about the Book of Mormon. Three Christmas stories I like in the Book of Mormon are Helaman 14 (a prophet named Samuel testifies of a night with no darkness and a new star the night Christ is born,) Alma 7 (Christ will be born of Mary in Jerusalem and take on the afflictions of His people,) and 1 Nephi 11 (Nephi is shown in a vision the birth, life, ministry, and death/resurrection of Christ.) Plus, Isaiah 53 in the Old Testament and Matthew 1-2 and Luke 1-2 in the New Testament are always classics.

Elder Kemp and I are working on unity, still, but we both love God, and God is the greatest unifier. Training a new missionary is probably going to help my parenting skills down the road, and that's a much-needed tender mercy.

I've been talking a lot about college and career stuff with ward members I've gotten to know during my time here. and learned a lot more about the direction I'd like to take too. It helps when I can start with the end goal: I just walk up to the people in the ward who live a lifestyle I like and ask them what they did to get there so I can try getting there myself.

Two professional role models of mine here in Bentonville First Ward, Brother Bayles and Brother Nick Van Slooten, both majored in Mandarin Chinese before going to BYU's Marriott School of Business, with Nick double-majoring in Business Strategy and Brother Bayles going straight for an MBA. They both set good examples not only of combining that which they're passionate about and that which will provide for their families, but also of faithful disciples of Christ who prioritize their devotion to God and family higher than any worldly status. People like them help me gain valuable insight on what I want to do with my own life and work, and I never would have met them if I hadn't been called to right where I am now. 

But college comes later! Right now, I'm a missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. The time to accomplish my labors with the Lord is now. 

~

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

Song of the week: "Child in a Manger" from the 2022 Church Music Festival. 

~

I could write about what's on my mind for pages, but when it comes to giving a spiritual thought about Christmas, I'd rather just let the word of God do the talking. This is one of my favorite passages from the Book of Mormon. It's a longer passage than I normally quote, but if you have time, please read this. To me, it perfectly illustrates the the divine mission of the One whose birth we now celebrate: our Savior, Jesus Christ. 

Mosiah 3:5-13:

5 For behold, the time cometh, and is not far distant, that with power, the Lord Omnipotent who reigneth, who was, and is from all eternity to all eternity, shall come down from heaven among the children of men, and shall dwell in a tabernacle of clay, and shall go forth amongst men, working mighty miracles, such as healing the sick, raising the dead, causing the lame to walk, the blind to receive their sight, and the deaf to hear, and curing all manner of diseases. 

6 And he shall cast out devils, or the evil spirits which dwell in the hearts of the children of men. 

7 And lo, he shall suffer temptations, and pain of body, hunger, thirst, and fatigue, even more than man can suffer, except it be unto death; for behold, blood cometh from every pore, so great shall be his anguish for the wickedness and the abominations of his people. 

8 And he shall be called Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the Father of heaven and earth, the Creator of all things from the beginning; and his mother shall be called Mary. 

9 And lo, he cometh unto his own, that salvation might come unto the children of men even through faith on his name; and even after all this they shall consider him a man, and say that he hath a devil, and shall scourge him, and shall crucify him. 

10 And he shall rise the third day from the dead; and behold, he standeth to judge the world; and behold, all these things are done that a righteous judgment might come upon the children of men. 

11 For behold, and also his blood atoneth for the sins of those who have fallen by the transgression of Adam, who have died not knowing the will of God concerning them, or who have ignorantly sinned. 

12 But wo, wo unto him who knoweth that he rebelleth against God! For salvation cometh to none such except it be through repentance and faith on the Lord Jesus Christ. 

13 And the Lord God hath sent his holy prophets among all the children of men, to declare these things to every kindred, nation, and tongue, that thereby whosoever should believe that Christ should come, the same might receive remission of their sins, and rejoice with exceedingly great joy, even as though he had already come among them.

The Book of Mormon: https://go.churchofjesuschrist.org/bookofmormonapp

Elder Rigby

Week 24: Jim - Bentonville, Arkansas

 Hey all!

Thanks for bearing with me after no email last week. This transfer I've kinda just crashed as soon as I've gotten home, and as a result I've been more inconsistent with journaling and writing/responding to emails. Beyond that, though, I want to start setting a better example of obedience for my district. I figure one way I can better align my will with the Lord's standards is by actually sending out my emails on time from here on out. So, while Thursday morning is an improvement from before, I'm going to do my best to send my next one out by Wednesday. 

 But! Updates! These last two transfers with have taught me a lot about myself as I've served with Elder Kemp. I've started to see my pride show in many more ways than I expected it would, but in these moments of weakness, the Lord has helped me to grow my patience, let go of frustration, and learn the simple value of choosing my battles. Most of all, He has helped me see that I want to start thinking less about myself and more about others. Sometimes I spend so much of my time and energy on introspection that I wonder in if I'm missing chances to serve those around me. I want to renew my focus to adopt the character of Christ, which is to turn outward in love and service when the natural man would instinctively turn inward in selfishness and self-pity. Turn that mirror into a window, y'know. We'll get there. 

~

JIM:

An enigma. A dynamo. A legend.

Simply put, Jim is the most explosively elect online referral we have ever been blessed to teach thus far. 

The Sunday before last, we got a notification of a new online referral from the Church website. We sent an introductory text to which our friend promptly responded and requested a phone call. I'll paraphrase:

"Hi, Jim! This is the missionaries, Elder Rigby and Elder Kemp. We saw you put in a request to meet with us, so let's talk! How can we help you?"

"Well, my friend's a recent convert to the Church and he showed me this app called Gospel Library which I've been studying for the last six months. He said to fill out that form once I got my answer and I did, so I want to get baptized now. When can we do that?"

*buffering*

"...That's great! Can we swing by sometime to get to talk more about it? We're free 2:00 pm and 4:00 pm today."

"Well, I'm living in Spain right now and I'm settling my hotels before I retire to Arkansas, but let's meet both of those times over WhatsApp."

He then proceeded to teach 90% of the Plan of Salvation lesson right out of our mouths over the course of two hours of pure Gospel fire later that day. 

Unfortunately for Elder Kemp and I, Jim is in another companionship's teaching area the next town over, but Jim will be getting baptized seven days from today. Once he sells his hotel chain to the Marriotts and his new home gets finished being built, the second counselor in the Tokyo, Japan Temple presidency will be flying out to Arkansas to baptize him just because they're good buddies. 

Surreal. Just surreal.

~

Here's some stuff that's happened over the last two weeks:

- Brought a few friends to our ward Christmas party a couple of weeks ago. It finally feels like Christmas. "That's a nice feeling, isn't it."

- Check out the footnotes in President Nelson's talks sometime. He leaves some pretty cool bits of commentary there. 

- Brother Bowie, a young married guy in our ward, just moved into town to start work as the Bentonville temple's head groundskeeper. His full-time job is just to chill outside the temple and trim bushes, blow leaves, and plan next year's flowerbeds in his free time. I want a job like that. 

- Nerded out over a star Star Wars board game with Brother Bird, our ward mission leader. He dressed up in a full costume of Director Krennic for Halloween and could probably go toe-to-toe for Star Wars knowledge with my cousin London, so he's pretty legit. 

- Being a missionary means you can knock a random person's door in the dark and they'll open the door and spill their intimate life story with you 30 seconds after you met them.

- More pickleball. There is no escape.

- Finally bought UofA (Arkansas, not Arizona) merch. Woo pig. 

- Got a lil' Christmas tree from mom, plus a cool Nativity print to bring some holiday cheer to our room. The Lego Harry Potter advent calendar, albeit less Christ-centered than a Nativity, is a definite bonus. 

~~~WEEK 2~~~

- Saw a Toyota Hilux 

- Powered through some text contacting and then handed out a ton of flyers at the square. Might have found a family to bring to church?

- 50 degrees and cloudy at 8:00am. Feels like morning on the river today.

- Donnie: a cheery Hawaiian cowboy from Idaho. He looks like he wouldn't hurt a fly, but this guy worked as an undercover narcotics officer in Hawaii before becoming a personal bodyguard for President Hinckley and President Monson. He knows what's up when it's going down.

- A prompting to sit with a random guy at our church's community Christmas concert led to us being able to give a Priesthood blessing to him after he told us he'd been struggling with clinical depression. Guidance from the Spirit is cool. 

- Jim's doing just swell. Apparently he intends to be heavily involved with missionary work after he's baptized and wants to feed the entire Arkansas Bentonville Mission Christmas dinner.  The Sisters who are teaching him had to explain that unfortunately, gathering 200-odd missionaries would be a logistical nightmare, but it's the thought that counts. Besides that, this week they went over all of the commandments required for baptism and he already knew and was on board with every single one. I kid you not, this guy's tithing is singlehandedly going to fund a temple.

- A young dad in our ward, Brother Flake, used to live on Lindsay and Pecos, my exact cross-streets in Gilbert! He grew up on 144th street while we lived for a few years on 140th. For those of my family and friends who know our old neighborhood, he even knows Tomás and the Bowmans. 

- Elder McKee makes impressively realistic TIE fighter noises. 

- Beef sheet. See Google Photos. 

- ARMADILLO. Likewise. 

- free museum postcard / asked me to write a Haiku / no stamp needed? Deal

- Checked out some graveyards on pday. I'm not edgy, they're just kinda cool

- Lost my favorite P-day clothes last week. Rest in peace gray half-sleeve, green sweater, and whatever kinda yoga-y harem-y loose pants I wore before I realized a few days later that they went poof. 

- Downside of a minuscule attention span: I jump from song to song so quickly when practicing piano that hardly any of them are performance-ready.

- Upside of a miniscule attention span: at least my sight-reading's gotten way better.

- Opossum. No photo evidence for this one, you'll just have to trust me. 

~

Mosiah 11-18: Abinadi and Alma. 

I let myself get caught up in a toxic question sometimes:

"Why have I not baptized as many people as my other friends have yet?"

I think one answer can be found in Abinadi and Alma. 

Alma baptized thousands after his conversion and he and his sons led mission after mission to spread the ancient Church of Jesus Christ among all the people of Nephi. 

Abinadi, a prophet and martyr, had one known convert throughout his entire recorded ministry: the once-wicked-priest Alma. 

Was Alma a more successful missionary than Abinadi? 

Not at all.

Preach My Gospel, the inspired missionary handbook to end all inspired missionary handbooks, tells the reader in its first chapter that "success as a missionary is determined primarily by your desire and commitment to find, teach, baptize, and confirm converts and to help them become faithful disciples of Christ and members of His Church."

Both prophets lived and breathed desire and commitment to gather the Lord's people into one fold and one Shepherd, and both stood as powerful witnesses of the sublime truths of the Good News of Jesus Christ. Both were successful missionaries because both did all they could to follow the Savior at all times, in things, in all places, and at any price.

Abinadi is one of my favorite prophets because he epitomizes integrity. He would not back down from the truth and he was willing to die to prove that point. His quantitative results may have been seemingly insignificant, but his efforts were never unbeknownst to the Lord. Thanks to Abinadi, a soul was saved in the kingdom of God. And, thanks to that one person whose heart he helped the Lord change, thousands upon thousands were brought to know the goodness of God. 

D&C 4:3-4:

"3 Therefore, if ye have desires to serve God ye are called to the work; 

"4 For behold the field is white already to harvest; and lo, he that thrusteth in his sickle with his might, the same layeth up in store that he perisheth not, but bringeth salvation to his soul."

~

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

~

Good Jazz: "Street Fighter Mas" and "Clair De Lune" both by Kamasi Washington. 

Good Soundtrack: "Fantasia (for Nausicaä)" by Joe Hisaishi from one of my top favorite movies. I'm working on learning this on the piano right now.

Good Christmas: "In the Bleak Midwinter" by the Tabernacle Choir (as arranged by Gustav Holst.) 

The final verse of this hymn poses a question: "what can I give Him?" My invitation to you all this week is to listen to "In the Bleak Midwinter" and find what you can give to the Lord this Christmas season. It'll brighten more days than you might expect.

And on that note, I'll call it for this week. Good luck with finals to my family and friends in school and Merry Christmas to all!

Elder Rigby

Week 23: The Pressure Is On - Bentonville, Arkansas

I am sick. 

Not fun. 

Ah, c'est la vie.

Hey all!

 Despite my head cold, the work goes on. This transfer's been weird so far  but we're working hard and the adjustment's been alright. I like having a specific objective to prepare for with District Council almost every week. It helps me have a lot more direction in my personal scripture study every day when I've got a specific topic to prepare a lesson on. This week's topic was the Law of Obedience and why obeying the Lord is so key to us "standing in the river of God's love."

 I've been feeling under a lot of pressure lately, which is always a mixed bag. Being a new District Leader and training Elder Kemp leaves me absolutely trashed almost every night, so actually journaling and exercise, two tried and true stress relievers, have been far and few between. However, I've found I perform a whole lot better when I have more responsibilities anyways, so I guess it's a good thing in the long run. I should be fine as long as I don't spontaneously combust one day. 

 What's got me particularly worked up right now is that in just about an hour, I'll be playing the piano in a big meeting of over 50 missionaries and our mission leaders called Zone Conference. It's the kind of thing where I feel like I'd have it down with more time, but with only a week of practice for 30 minutes a day and a jammed finger from basketball yesterday, I'm pretty nervous. The Sister that's putting this all together was cool with just finding someone else, but I decided this is something I really wanted to do. 

 I've never played an accompaniment before and I just started to get back into piano this summer before I came out, but I kind of look at this whole experience as a chance to take the opportunity God is giving me to improve my musical skills. I want to be better at the piano; very much so. So, God, being the loving Heavenly Father that He is, is giving me a chance to get better at it right here and now. Simple as that. There's a lot of parallells in this opportunity He gave me with the opportunity to serve a mission, but for the sake of time I won't go into that this time. 

Update: well, I took too long writing this and Zone Conference is actually already over now. I thought I bombed it pretty badly, but people still told me I did a great job anyways, so at least I was in good company. This whole experience reminded me strongly of a talk called "Christlike Poise" by Elder Mark A. Bragg. 

https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/general-conference/2023/04/31bragg?lang=eng

~

色んなイベント:

- Brain go fast need exercise. My mind is always going and sometimes when I don't work myself enough both physically and mentally, my frontal lobe just doesn't turn off at night. Some days I just have trouble sleeping regardless. My brain is like a garbage disposal that won't turn off: if I'm not constantly feeding it some big idea to process, it gargles angrily at me until I throw it something new. 

*Pause in the conversation at Thanksgiving dinner* "I can't read books" - Elder Kemp

- I keep thinking about my cousins' cabin in Greer. That place is the spot. Shoutout to the Steeles for letting us hang out up there all the time. 

- Talked about a book series I loved as a kid, Heroes of Olympus, for the first time in years in a rush of nostalgia with Elder Klingler. Elder Klingler's legendary. "Man, I just wanna be obedient." 

Elder Taylor: suffice to say he loves video games. He's 100% completed both of the last two Legend of Zelda games that have come out, so those of you who know what that means you know he's legit. Apparently he's an insanely hardworking missionary, too, but I don't see much of him much, as he and Elder McKee are banished to Grove, Oklahoma, the purgatory of the Bentonville Zone. 

- Interviewed someone for baptism for the first time. A nice lady named Heather that the Centerton sister missionaries are teaching is getting baptized tomorrow, and the first thing she said when we met on Monday is that I look like Ryan Gosling's brother. Bonus points for Heather.

- Piano ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

- Elder Kemp's alarm at 6:00 am every morning is the entire "Honey, where's my super-suit?" scene from The Incredibles.

~

Thought: 1 Nephi 1:20.

"...the tender mercies of the Lord are over all those whom he hath chosen, because of their faith, to make them mighty even unto the power of deliverance."

 I had another hard week. Well, none of them are easy, but this last week was particularly depressing. I'm working hard but struggling with sleep, energy, and motivation, and, for no particular reason I can remember, last Friday was just one of those days. 

 

 Well, I was sitting in a training meeting for Elder Kemp at a particular low and I just thought, "Man, I really need to know that God loves me right now." So, I said a prayer and decided I'd endure for the moment to see what happened as I put my trust in the Lord. After a few minutes of not feeling anything in particular, I checked my phone and...huh. Would you look at that. A random text out of the blue from Garrett.

"'There’s surely somewhere a lowly place in earth’s harvest fields so wide where I may labor through life’s short day for Jesus the crucified' 

Hymn #270"

 I don't think he knew that "I'll Go Where You Want Me to Go," Hymn #270, was my favorite hymn. I don't think he knew it's what I listened to on some of my lowest days nor that that particular verse was my favorite, either. 

 My friend received a spiritual prompting to reach out and he listened to it. Thanks to him, I received my answer from the Lord. It's funny how often my answers come from the inspired actions of other people. 

 

 I talked with my parents a couple of days ago and my mom mentioned a talk that was given this past Sunday by someone in our home congregation whom I know really well. She asked the question, "What percent of surety do you need in order to act on a prompting? Twenty percent? Thirty percent? Ninety percent? How much confirmation do you need before you act on an impression?"

 I've thought a lot about how many times I've randomly had a friend's name pop into my head and haven't done anything about it. I realize now that I want to lower that threshold for acting on spiritual promptings. I want to become the kind of person who is in-tune enough with the Holy Spirit to give the kind of inspired support that my friend gave me last week.

~

 Songs of the week are "See You Soon" by Coldplay and "Luv(sic)" by Nujabes. Give 'em a listen for me, they're good.

 My album isn't working for some reason so there's nothing new in the way of photos, but, as always, here's the link: https://photos.app.goo.gl/2sk1refRidSszyYk7

That's all for this week, folks. Merry Christmas!

Elder Rigby