Elder Oliver Rigby: Week 27: Tracting Heaven

It just got so real.

Hey all!

Well, it's been six months and I've finally arrived in the real Arkansas. Fort Smith is a city to be reckoned with. I'm short-ish on time or I would go in do visceral detail, but suffice to say it reminds me of an oversized frontier settlement with lots of drugs and lots of Jesus. Super humble, super fruitful, and suuuuuuper ghetto... this area is the missionary equivalent of free-play mode. The Fort Smith First Ward boundary alone contains four companionships of missionaries, two English and two Spanish, including both Zone Leader companionships and the STLs. We have yet to bump into other missionaries while out on patrol yet, but the proximity is pretty fun.

I miss Bentonville a lot more than I thought I would. The fantastic members, the home-cooked meals every night, the convenient distance of virtually everything and everyone, the general niceness of the whole place, and, of course, the Bentonville Temple, were all something special. That said, I can't wait to learn and grow from my time with Elder Bigelow, Elder Smythe, and all the other folks down here.

The Fort Smith missionaries are, in a word, tough. It may be more rough around the edges down here, but they're full of faith and they work hard.

Elder Bigelow: a physics-defying perpetual motion machine of spiritual momentum. This guy has infinite faith as long as you keep him from getting hangry. Having to rein my companion in is a much better problem to have than having to drag my companion along, though. Plus, we have a lot more in common than I have with my past companions, so while my social battery drains fast with him some days and we don't always see eye-to-eye on how to approach the work, I'm very much looking forward to getting to see miracles with him this transfer.

Elder Smythe: the de facto captain of the Fort Smith Zone. Call it Fort Smythe. This guy's a powerhouse who's served longer than all three of the other missionaries in our zone leadership combined. With the weird split companionships for the Zone Leaders here, it kind of feels like I'm in a part-time ZL apprenticeship to him. Elder Bigelow and I serve together for 90% of the time and the other 10% consists of Elder Smythe showing me the ropes of planning zone calls, MLC meetings, exchanges, and the other vaguely bureaucratic responsibilities of the calling.

P-day continues to be a nice eye in the storm. I think Tuesdays might be my favorite, though, because something about looking forward to P-day is honestly more invigorating than the prep time itself. But today was pretty nice. We started off with a slow morning, then bartered for provisions at the local saloon (Walmart) and hit the trail for the church. We played volleyball and basketball and shot the breeze with the zone for a while until I snuck off to go play the piano for an hour or two and call my family. Then, I rounded off the day by starting my Spirited Away lego set with Elder Moon, a missionary in my zone who serves up north a ways. After P-day ended, the highlight of our evening was being able to give a priesthood blessing to our friend Robert, a soldier in the Army and a recent convert to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints of about a year who had gotten in a serious car crash.

Thought: Mormon 9.

Moroni is one of my favorite prophets. According to my religion professor last year, he's generally a more timid author. He seems to prefer to quote other prophets and often expresses feelings of inadequacy as an author and prophet (see Mormon 9:31 and Ether 12,) but other times he boldly and powerfully testifies of the divinity of our Savior, Jesus Christ. In Mormon 9, Moroni offers a direct rebuttal to two groups: one, those do not believe in Christ, and two, believers who have lost their faith in modern miracles. He also throws in a summary of the entire Plan of Salvation in verses 11-14 just for kicks.

I'd been struggling with feeling like I have enough faith to see miracles in my own life, particularly the miracle of seeing conversion in another evidenced by the sacred covenant of baptism, but through this chapter, God gave me a revelatory answer to a question I didn't even realize I had. As He so often loves to do, Heavenly Father uses the sacred words of the holy scriptures as means whereby he can answer our prayers with a voice clear as day.

If you have a question, take it to God and read the Book of Mormon for yourself. Say a prayer, then read until your answer comes. I promise you it will happen as you act in faith. I offer no timetable, as that comes down to the Lord's own will, but I can promise in the words of Christ Himself that "[He] will not leave you comfortless. [He] will come to you." (John 14:18)

Want a place to start? Read Moroni's advice for seeing miracles in modern life here: https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/scriptures/bofm/morm/9?lang=eng

To all my friends and family who I've been horribly inconsistent at writing back to, thanks for being patient with me and thank you so much for writing in the first place. Your outreach reminds me that God loves me, and that means the world to me.

Song of the week: "Belle" by Jack Johnson.

That's all for this week! I love you all a whole lot.

Take care and Happy New Year!

Elder Rigby