4.17.24 9:30pm
Just fried up a ham sandwich and filled my beer stein with orange juice. It's email time, baby.
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Hey all!
Lots of miracles this week. We've had a few new friends join us in church and they're totally awesome. Our other friends are doing great too and one of them has her baptism this weekend! More about her:
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This friend epitomizes "the elect of God." She is incredibly humble and has had the absolute craziest, most difficult life of just about anyone I've ever met, and yet she laughs in the Devil's face with ruthless optimism. I'll spare you the details, but the fact that she's still as indomitably cheerful as she is is a miracle all by itself.
This friend keeps commitments perfectly. When we met her, we only talked for a few minutes before leaving her with a Book of Mormon, seeing as how there was a five-squad-car drug bust (plus a SWAT team later, apparently) happening about twenty feet from us across the motel. Despite having impaired vision, impaired hearing, and utterly impoverished living conditions, she has watched listened to the entire Book of Mormon twice by now and has come to church every single week since we've met her in early March, and consistently amazes us with her Christlike charity to others despite her life being so incredibly hard.
One example of that last point: during her baptismal interview with at Sonic (unorthodox choice of location, I know) a random guy walked up to us smack in the middle of her interview and announced that the Spirit had put it upon him to sing us a Christian country song, so after he asked nicely, we told him we were happy to hear it (and it actually wasn't bad.) Once he finished, he thanked us and began to walk away, but he wasn't leaving without a Gospel message on this friend's watch. She called him back over, told us to give him a Book of Mormon, and invited him to church and to her baptism. He happily said yes to all three and joined her in church the next morning.
Thanks to this friend, our new buddy from Sonic, who turns out to be a total Bible wizard, dove head-first into the Book of Mormon and loves it so much he asked us to start meeting with both him and his wife this Friday.
We learn something absolutely wild about her life every single time we meet, but one thing is consistent: God has been preparing this lady for a long, long time.
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Well, that took most of the time I have tonight, but here's a few other fun things we did this week just for variety:
- gave a Book of Mormon to a lady who told us she felt the Spirit when she said a prayer that she'd get a super rare Pokémon card and then immediately pulled it from the next pack she opened. I don't know how much it was worth, but she showed me her collection and I recognized another card in her binder that sells for $700 
- got Bible-bashed by this crazy guy who I was thought was going to rob us but instead of the butterfly knife I was 100% convinced he had in his pocket, he just pulled out some car keys. Our conversation with him was so goofy though that it would be hilarious if I hadn't thought I was gonna get stabbed.
- went on a frog hunt crusade with Elder Ashcraft (see Google Photos 
)
)- a dude from the church across the street bought me ice cream at Chick-Fil-A when I didn't bring enough cash. Thanks, church neighbor dude.
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Thought:
I couldn't decide which of these three messages I wanted to write about, so I decided to just throw them all in and let the Spirit guide you to whichever you needed to hear most. Happy hunting!
1) Believing Christ: A Practical Approach to the Atonement by Stephen E. Robinson
We may believe in Jesus Christ as the Savior of the world, but do we believe Him when He says He can save us?
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2) Let Every Man Learn His Duty by Joseph B. Wirthlin
To paraphrase: "If you can't work your bank account, baptize the banker. If you can't find good groceries, baptize the grocer."
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3) “Be Still, and Know That I Am God” by David A. Bednar
"Every Sunday, if we will, we can be still and know that God is our Heavenly Father, we are His children, and Jesus Christ is our Savior."
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The Church is true! This stuff is the real deal. It may sound far-fetched, but take it from me: I would not last a month out here without the constant guiding, healing, directing, and strengthening power of my Savior, Jesus Christ. One way or another, every single good thing in my life leads right back to Him.
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Songs of the week:
"Holiday" by Vampire Weekend
"Bedouin Dress" by Fleet Foxes
The Book of Mormon: Another Testament of Jesus Christ: https://go.
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Love,
Elder Rigby
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