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."
~
~
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
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