Week 56: Perspective - Pierce City, Missouri

 Hey everyone!

Another week! This email's coming out a little late for various reasons, so sorry about that. 

Here's three highlights and one long story:

1) Norma chose to be baptized and confirmed a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints! She's amazing and the wonderful members of the Pierce City Branch have been there for her every step of the way. Now we're teaching her 21-year-old son Freddy!

2) Remember our friend who came to our church open house last week? Well, we had a lesson with her and a member family where we built a campfire and roasted s'mores on her little dairy farm in the country and it was just great. Good times.

3) Transfers! Guys, it's a crazy one. This time around, I'll be heading from out in the Missouri countryside straight to the Fayetteville YSA (young single adult congregation) to finish Elder Foster's training! I'm uber-super-duper excited. This is gonna be a complete 180 from the kind of missionary work I've done before and I'm gonna be 110% out of my comfort zone. Also, the Fayetteville YSA is the student ward for the University of Arkansas, the college where where Elder David A. Bednar taught as a business professor! 

GO HOGS 

My new address is 1072 S Sports Fan Dr Apartment 102, Fayetteville, AR 72701.

Songs of the week:

"Meadowlarks" by Fleet Foxes

"Sunflower" by Vampire Weekend

Quote of the week: "Satan don't kick no dead dogs."

~

Okay. if you're low on time, feel free to stop here. I won't feel bad if you don't want to read an epistle this week. But, if you've got the time and you want to know what's really been on my mind lately, read on. 

~

Storytime:

Among others, two especially interesting things happened in the last two weeks. 

 First, a first-world tragedy. I went on exchanges with an Elder and past roommate who I used to really not get along with. Although we've since reconciled, I was really dreading this exchange and I just knew it was gonna be soooo awkward the whole way through. Fortunately, though, it turned out I was wrong. Reconnecting with him was actually an awesome opportunity to rebuild some bridges and we had a great day together. 

 Here's the kicker, though: as soon as we started talking about stuff back home, this dude totally spoiled my favorite TV show. 

 Man, I loved that series. Before my mission, I watched every episode multiple times, read every weekly comic release like clockwork, and feasted on every McDonald's promotional dipping sauce they dared to put on the menu. I was a supernerd, and some of you who know me well know that I absolutely cannot stand spoilers one bit. So, when one offhanded comment led to one fell swoop of horrifying realization, a small piece of my dweeb heart went up in flames.

"Wow, Elder Rigby, dramatic much?"

Yup. 

...

Onto exhibit number two! I share this with permission.

About two weeks ago, my sister Hazel went up to visit a friend's cabin in northern Arizona. In order to get there she would need to drive part of the three-hour trop along a precarious canyon road by herself, but she felt confident that she could make the trip alright. Hazel made it to the cabin and had a great time there for a few days, then hopped in the Jeep and started back home.

The first leg of the drive was pretty uneventful from what I heard, but when she reached the Salt River Canyon again, something was different. Although she felt no fear driving this road, she received a clear, strong impression that she needed to stop, turn the car around, and drive back to the cabin right that instant. So, though she was probably a little confused and a little embarrassed to see her friends again after she'd already left once, she listened and obeyed.

 Upon reaching the canyon again, this time in a convoy with her friends, the reason for her prompting became starkly clear: a massive collision had occured. Multiple cars, multiple semi trucks, multiple fatalities—just down the road from where she was told to stop, turn the car around, and drive back to the cabin. 

 

 My little sister has made promises with God and she lives them to the fullest. That day, the faithfulness and devotion with which she had walked the path of Christian discipleship enabled her to receive critically important spiritual guidance from He who is our loving Father in Heaven.

...

So, what do these two things have to do with each other?

By itself, the first experience was petty suffering. Nothing more, nothing less. It really did stink to have my favorite TV show spoiled, but God let it happen for a reason and that's that. 

 The second experience, though...the Lord used the second experience to grant me the gift of perspective. Through these two events, He taught with clarity what really really matters and what really doesn't. I consider it one of the great blessings of my mission that Christ chose to protect my sister rather than protecting my television. 

Romans 8:28:

"And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose."

Love,

Elder Rigby

Norma's Baptism

Week 55 - Pierce City, Missouri

Hey everyone!

Breaking the routine this week. Here are some miracles right off the bat:

1) Our homeless friend from the park a few weeks ago had completely dropped off the face of the earth after the our one miraculous encounter with her, but guess what? She just moved in with one of our recent converts! What's more, one of our members we went out with the day before got a random prompting to talk to this dude working on a weed whacker and we found out when we met her again that he's her boyfriend!

2) The sister missionaries who used to serve here told us to try again with a friend we dropped a few weeks ago so we visited her and the timing was totally perfect! She was going through some big trials and knew she needed to come back to God again. We reconnected and taught an awesome lesson and just like that she was back on track! 

 She then agreed to pull up to our church tour thirty minutes later as our "special guest speaker" and proceeded to bear a powerful witness to the other friends we were teaching that she knew that God's love was present in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints after the one and only time she attended, but the Spirit told her it was time to come back. 

3) I had just the worst night with my mental a couple of nights ago and I woke up the next morning feeling just as miserable. I had an exchange that day and absolutely dreaded having to spending a whole day helping a younger missionary build his confidence when my own was at rock-bottom, but I said a prayer and did my best to prepare for the day. 

 "But behold...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" (1 Nephi 1:20.)

 My deliverance came in the form of the missionary I went on exchanges with. He is humble, ambitious, and blessed with just the biggest heart ever. He is so kind. Plus, we're nerds of a feather. We instantly clicked and my time with him was just the kind of connection I needed to get back on my feet and keep on moving forward.

A question that gets more fun the more you ask it:

"What are the chances?"

~

Okay, now the goofy stuff:

- A kid from a part-member family gave me a bunch of Pokémon stuff the very next day after I decided not to quit buying them. The Poké-devil ain't letting me off that easy. 

- Got to drive one of my dream cars, a brand new 2024 Toyota Rav4 hybrid 

- Pet a cow. I love Missouri

- Taught mission prep with the sister missionaries and even more youth showed up this time! They're amazing and teaching them is a blast. 

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

~

Thought: "The Virtue of Kindness" by Elder Joseph B. Wirthlin

https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/general-conference/2005/04/the-virtue-of-kindness?lang=eng

I couldn't say it better myself, so I'll just borrow Elder Wirthlin's words today:

One way you can measure your value in the kingdom of God is to ask, “How well am I doing in helping others reach their potential? Do I support others in the Church, or do I criticize them?” 

If you are criticizing others, you are weakening the Church. If you are building others, you are building the kingdom of God. As Heavenly Father is kind, we also should be kind to others.

“But,” you ask, “what if people are rude?”

Love them. 

“If they are obnoxious?” 

Love them. 

“But what if they offend? Surely I must do something then?” 

Love them. 

“Wayward?” 

The answer is the same. Be kind. Love them. 

Why? In the scriptures Jude taught, “And of some have compassion, making a difference.”

Love,

Elder Rigby

p.s. https://drive.google.com/file/d/1tz8iuq9At6PlzZvqIaZng47_Tojq4nQn/view?usp=drivesdk

Week 54 - Pierce City, Missouri

 "Dang, I didn't know Mormons were actually cool."

- guy we found last week

~

Hey all!

This week was a lot better. Thanks for the prayers as always! They work.

 Things are looking up in our area right now as we've found a bunch of cool new friends, taught some good lessons, and reaffirmed another friend's baptismal date for the 20th! Elder Handley really is an awesome companion to have. We have very complimentary skills, so we build up and strengthen each other's weaknesses well. 

 The Fourth of July was pretty sweet here! Let me tell ya, they go all out in the boonies on the Fourth. We heard fireworks every night for at least five days. On Independence Day itself we had an awesome dinner with some elderly members deep in the boonies and they showed us their equatorial guineas (weird dino chickens,) beehives, and soon-to-be-occupied bat cages in exchange for us pouring some diesel into their tractor for them. After that, we headed into town and wandered the streets looking for people lighting off mortars in their yard so we could invite them to come to a church tour. 

 We saw too many miracles to count this week, but one theme I saw throughout is that we always just happened to be show up at exactly the right time that our friends were best prepared to receive the Savior's message. I'll recap a few really quick:

♤ We felt prompted to go stand in line at a food truck at a community concert even though we weren't hungry and the family in front of us happened to be members who bought us food and the family behind us happened to be super good friends with some other members we know in Pierce City! What's more, the next day one of the senior missionaries told us to go visit a lady at this antique shop (that happened to be 500 feet away when he called) and she turned out to be the mom of the same family we met at the food truck the night before! Promptings from the Spirit are funny like that. 

♡ The Spirit told us to knock some of our current friends' houses even though we knew they probably weren't home and their adult son answered. We talked for a bit and he ended up coming to our chapel tour that same day, then came to church with his mom on Sunday, and now he's praying about baptism!

♧ A dude just randomly showed up to church last week and we totally missed him because there were a bunch of unfamiliar faces due to both a baby blessing happening and a returned missionary giving a talk in Sacrament Meeting. A member noticed him just chilling there though, so we were ready this week. He's a recovering addict who's almost done with rehab and looking to strengthen his faith and His grandpa's RLDS so he figured he'd try the Book of Mormon. There's no RLDS churches for at least an hour, though, so he decided to just come to ours 

~

Click here for a video of the dino chickens: 

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

Song of the week: "Mansard Roof" by Vampire Weekend

Cool video of the Bonner Family's conversion story:

https://www.byupathway.edu/speech/coming-to-know-christ-personally-through-gospel-music

Friends to pray for (please:)

- Norma, Freddy, and their family

- Anthony and Adriana

- Wade

- Brysten

- Kent

- The missionaries of the Monett Zone! We've set a goal of five baptisms this month and know that your faith and prayers will help us.

Who/what should I pray for this week? Let me know and I'll do it!

~

Thought: Mormon 5:17-18

 "They were once a delightsome people, and they had Christ for their shepherd; yea, they were led even by God the Father.

 

 "But now, behold, they are led about by Satan, even as chaff is driven before the wind, or as a vessel is tossed about upon the waves, without sail or anchor, or without anything wherewith to steer her; and even as she is, so are they."

These verses may be a little gloomy, but Mormon (the guy the Book of Mormon is named after) uses a powerful analogy here to illustrate the invaluable blessings that come simply from following the Good Shepherd. 

Elder Dale G. Renlund expounds upon Mormon's analogy of the sailing vessel in his BYU Speech "Constructing Spiritual Stability:"

"Without Christ, we are driven like a vessel tossed about upon the waves. We have no power because we have no sail. We have no stability, especially in times of storm, because we have no anchor. We have no direction or purpose because we don’t have anything with which to steer."

When we faithfully and prayerfully give Him our heartfelt all, Jesus Christ will bless us with power, stability, direction, and purpose. He is our shepherd and our captain! Do everything you can put yourself in a place where you can hear His voice, then listen to Him and do as He says. He will guide you through troubled waters.

Love,

Elder Rigby

Week 53: We're all mad here - Pierce City, Missouri

Happy Independence Day! 

Phew, long week. I'll probably keep my email shorter this time around.

Note: the above statement is false.

♤ Our new mission leaders are way cool and wasted no time jumping right into the action. President Hathaway and his whole family were all in a freak accident where two separate stray tires totaled both of their cars on the way to the mission field, and, miraculously, no one was injured besides some minor injuries to President Hathaway. In almost every other stray tire collision there is an extremely high fatality rate. Miracles right off the bat, huh? These guys are the real deal.

◇ Went on exchange to Stockton, Missouri, met a few polygamists living on "the ranch." The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints holds that marriage between one man and one woman is ordained of God (Jacob 2:23-30,) so that was pretty wild to me. As soon as we crossed the boundary into their community the Spirit felt way weird and the vibes were not good, but hey, at least they gave us free ice cream. 

♧ After wrapping up our exchange with the Stockton Elders, we pulled up to Trek and pulled handcarts with the youth for a few hours! This was my first time at Trek and it was pretty sweet to be a pioneer for a day 

♡ MLC again! It's always fun, but this time around was extra special seeing as how it was the Hathaways' first leadership council. President and Sister Hathaway are miracle-minded spiritual giants with strong family bonds and the kind of attitude that makes me feel like they're my new surrogate parents. I'd sustain them no matter what, but after that meeting yesterday, they have my trust too.

~

Song of the week: "Master, the Tempest is Raging" from the 2023 Church Music Festival. Way good.

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

Friends to pray for (please:)

- Norma and her family

- Tilor and his family

- The missionaries of the Monett Zone!

~

Thought: The Gift of Remembrance

Doctrine and Covenants 6:22-23:

"Verily, verily, I say unto you, if you desire a further witness, cast your mind upon the night that you cried unto me in your heart, that you might know concerning the truth of these things.

"Did I not speak peace to your mind concerning the matter? What greater witness can you have than from God?"

 Simply put, I was in the feels two days ago. You've got better things to do than read about my problems so all I'll say is that the whole week felt like one long string of "just one of those days." You get the idea. 

 Upon praying and asking my Father in Heaven for something, anything, I received a clear prompting to open my journal to an entry from exactly one year ago. I won't share everything I read, but one line stuck out to me in particular:

"...When I truly listen to the Spirit, I know that God has seen down these roads with perfect clarity and that He would have me serve his people right where He called me."

 The gift of remembrance is precious. We all have times in our life when we do not feel the Holy Spirit. Knowing that, our Savior offers us this gift so that we may hold to our past experiences with Him as to a life preserver in deep water. 

Here are some ways to magnify it:

- Journaling

- Expressing gratitude vocally

- Learning from past mistakes

- Testifying of personal converting experiences

 Jesus Christ lives! His Church is alive and well. I invite you to magnify the gift of remembrance by making good habits of these four actions. I promise from personal experience that as you faithfully magnify this gift from God, you will always have a reservoir of His living water to see you through the spiritual droughts of life.

Love, 

Elder Rigby