Ughhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh
Fine I'll start writing it Tuesday night
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Hey all!
Happy Valentine's Day(?)
This week's been a good one. Elder Keller's an awesome companion and he's taught me a ton already. We've seen an abundance of tender mercies, all of which can be summarized into one line I've said at least ten times in the last few days:
"Dang. The Church is true."
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So here's some stuff we did!
- Found a ton of new people to teach by tracting 
- Put a few friends on date for baptism! Pray for Melanie, Nathan, Keshawn, and Alicia, please!
- Got stood up at a lesson with some teenagers at the park so we went basketball contacting and hooped for a little with some Hispanic dudes. They didn't want to come to church though 
- Gave a blessing to a guy in the hospital who isn't part of the Church, but specifically asked for us after he was healed by the last blessing he got from missionaries (see James 5:14-15.)
- Tried maté a couple of weeks ago. Overrated imo.
- Our young Marshallese friend Neinei got baptized on Thursday! She and her family are awesome. They even gave Elder Bigelow this cool Marshallese necklace/bolo tie made out of dried coconut leaves and seashells. We taught Neinei's older sister Melanie tonight too and she's awesome.
- Went with our district to these indoor batting cages owned by an inactive member who loves missionaries. He let us play for free for hours and even ordered us all pizza. P-day MVP.
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Fort Smith is the American Frontier's Gotham City. It's huge, gloomy, and absolutely ripe for some Gospel harvesting. What makes it extra real is the frontier legends like the original Lone Ranger (Bass Reeves) and the Hanging Judge (Charles Parker) lived here, and they even based all the True Grit movies in this here town. John Wayne starred in a Western about my mission area.
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Song of the Week: "Float On" by Modest Mouse
Cool BYU Devotional: "The Power of Your Words" by Craig Manning, Performance Psychology Consultant for BYU Athletics
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Thought: 2 Nephi 22:2 / Isaiah 12:2
"Behold, God is my salvation; I will trust, and not be afraid; for the Lord Jehovah is my strength and my song; he also has become my salvation."
Friday night ended with the departing testimonies of missionaries finishing their 18-24 months of service here, and this time around, the testimony of one Sister I'd served around named Sister Lebaron hit me especially hard. I didn't know her super well besides an ill-fated Christmas activity we ran at the Bentonville square, but what struck me was how she decided to listen to the Spirit and drop everything she planned to say for a simple thought on this scripture. I'll paraphrase as best as I can:
"My favorite name for Jesus Christ is 'my song.' When we sing, our lungs fill with air and that air becomes our song. When anxiety sets in and I feel like I'm drowning, I sing, and Christ is my air."
Every time the Atonement of Jesus Christ is illustrated as a source of relief, I feel the Spirit. Water in the desert, light in the darkness, air when we're drowning. Jesus Christ knows us intimately and feels our sorrows in a singularly, inimitably, utterly perfect way. He felt our pain for us because He loves us. This is one of the greatest truths of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
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I love you all! The Church is true. Hope you have a great week, and thanks for reading my emails.
- Elder Rigby
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| Elder Smythe |
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| Box of corn from some Marshallese people |
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| Cool hawks |
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| Goober |
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| Elder Keller and I after giving a blessing to a friend in the hospital |
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| Mission fleet at the batting cages |
More Photos: https://photos.app.goo.gl/
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