Week 74 - Andersen, Missouri

Kaselehlie irail! ????

Welcome to Anderson, Missouri! This here ward includes the towns of Anderson, Noel, Goodman, and Pineville– plus a whooole lot of the boonies. And fun fact about southwest Missouri: there are an insane amount of Pacific Islanders here, especially folks from Micronesia. Pohnpei, Pingalap, Chuuk, the Marshall Islands - we got 'em all. Plus, this little corner of the Lord's vineyard can be gorgeous as all get out. Add a small-town diner, a few trailer parks, and the good, humble, (usually) God-fearing folks of "Missourah" and you've got yourself a real great place to be a missionary. 

~

Fun news from this week:

- My friend Mike from back in Monett chose to be baptized and confirmed a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints! He's so cool. He wore a Speed Racer tie to church almost every Sunday I was there. 

- Elder Perry and I totally forgot about the departing testimony call and missed a ton of my close friends' last testimonies in the mission field. ????? Guess that'll happen when you live in a fallen world. Oh well, I'll see 'em in Heaven. 

~

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

To my friends in Fayetteville: I took way too many photos last Thursday night to text them all out individually so I made a new album just for you guys :) https://photos.app.goo.gl/y5XkDthj5h5WBj6j9

Song of the week: Hymn #97 "Lead, Kindly Light" 

~ 

Thought: Thanksgiving

Psalm 95:1-2:

"O come, let us sing unto the Lord: let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation.

 "Let us come before his presence with thanksgiving, and make a joyful noise unto him with psalms."

Sacred music is one of my absolute favorite ways to show my gratitude, love, and devotion to God. This will be my last Thanksgiving on my mission, so this year I'm choosing to focus my gratitude to the Lord on how He blessed us with the priceless gift of prophets on the earth to lead us and guide us today, beginning with the Prophet Joseph Smith. I am so grateful that the Lord chose to bring His Gospel back, and I am grateful to the man who, though imperfect just as the rest of us are, did a dang good job at listening to the Savior. 

Hymn #19 "We Thank Thee, O God, For a Prophet":

We thank thee, O God, for a prophet 

To guide us in these latter days. 

We thank thee for sending the gospel 

To lighten our minds with its rays. 

We thank thee for every blessing 

Bestowed by thy bounteous hand. 

We feel it a pleasure to serve thee 

And love to obey thy command.

If the idea of a living prophet of God sounds interesting to you and you're wondering who this Joseph Smith guy is and/or why we talk so much about him, his personal account of his experience of searching for the truth is well worth a read:

Joseph Smith—History

https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/scriptures/pgp/js-h/1?lang=eng

~

If you know anyone else who wants a lil' inspiration in their inbox, then send me their email address and I'll throw it on the list!

Love you all! I'm grateful for your support, your prayers, and your love. Happy Thanksgiving!

Elder Rigby

Week 73 - Fayetteville, Arkansas

 Wow, I totally didn't finish one of my thoughts last week. That random tangent about a keyboard with a song bank that I wrote about in my previous email was supposed to lead somewhere but that thought's gone now so oh well. 

~

November 20th, 2024

Hey everyone! 

Closing time here at the UofA. Transfer news came today and I'll be heading up to Anderson, Missouri with Elder Perry this Friday! Boy, this is bittersweet. I've had a lot of ups and downs in Fayetteville but I really think it's been my favorite area I've served in so far. It's gonna be weird going from a city of 100,000+ to a few scattered towns of under 2,000 each but the Lord has need of me there and I'm ready for some miracles.

 There are too many of you to shout out individually, but to all my friends in Fayetteville, you've changed my life. Thank you. 

Woo pig forever! 

My new address is 506 Tracy St, Anderson, MO 64831

~

Some fun stuff from this week:

- Happy six months to my last comp Elder Foster! Ya done good, son. 

- We exchanged with the Marshallese Elders up in Springdale for a day and I got to work with the Marshallese people with Elder Condie! It was a super cool experience. They're so fun and they have so much love. We did a stop smoking workshop with one couple and found another girl who wants to come along to church with Elder Wasden and his new companion down in Fayetteville! 

 

- Experienced a new dimension of spicy suffering after downing ⅔ of a can of ghost pepper chili cause it was the only food I brought to Springdale. Just...Just don't do what I did. Don't even buy it. It ain't worth it 

- There are 100% definitely house elves in the institute building. We were alone in the church tonight with both doors locked and left for an hour and when we got back somehow there were five new bottles of Gatorade and a 12-pack of soda that I'm certain weren't there when we left. +

~

Here's my Google Photos album: https://photos.app.goo.gl/2sk1refRidSszyYk7

Cool speech: https://speeches.byu.edu/talks/j-ty-hopkins/lessons-on-endurance/

~

Thought: Revelation 3:19-21

 As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten: be zealous therefore, and repent.

Taking correction is hard. I've had a couple of moments this week where I felt really chastised and had to fight to keep my pride at bay. From my experience, the urge to snap back a defensive retort, justify my actions, and deny my weaknesses was oh so tempting, but this time, the Spirit brought a scripture to my mind and it gave me pause. 

 I took out my phone, looked it up, and found Revelation 3:19 to be what the Spirit put into my mind. What's more, the next two verses contained an interesting promise from the Lord Himself:

 Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me. 

 To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with my Father in his throne.

 We know from 2 Nephi 26:24 in the Book of Mormon that the Lord does nothing unintentionally. So, to my understanding, the Lord seems to link receiving chastisement well and repenting humbly with receiving Him into one's heart. As we see in Mosiah 3:19, those who "put off the natural man" by doing so are promised to become "[saints] through the atonement of Christ the Lord". To me, it all seemed to boil down to one question that came into my mind:

When I am faced with the choice between my pride and my Savior, which will I choose?

Isaiah 57:15:

For thus saith the high and lofty One that inhabiteth eternity, whose name is Holy; I dwell in the high and holy place, with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite ones.

Love, 

Elder Rigby

Week 72 - Fayetteville Arkansas

Hey everyone! 

I had an awkward twenty minutes of free time before P-day started and I could go back to sleep this morning so I figured I'd knock my email out early this time.

Me and Elder Wasden are literally just Timon and Pumba from The Lion King. I don't really know how else to describe it, so yeah, we're living it up. The work's going great and we had a lot of friends join us for church this week! Plus, both Elder Wasden and I were asked to speak in church this Sunday so it was perfect timing! I didn't think to record it but in short I based it off of the talk "It’s True, Isn’t It? Then What Else Matters?" by Elder Neil L. Andersen and talked about four things that matter most to me:

1) Jesus Christ was resurrected. 

2) The Two Great Commandments are the ultimate recipe for joy and spiritual survival. 

3) The beauty of God's creations are evidence that He is real and He loves us.

4) The Gospel of Jesus Christ was restored.

Here's that message from Elder Andersen:

https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/general-conference/2007/04/its-true-isn-t-it-then-what-else-matters?lang=eng

~

Other fun stuff that happened this week:

- Met a missionary who served in the Fayetteville YSA 33 years ago! 

- My old mission buddy Davy McKee is getting married to his longtime girlfriend next month! Bro can't wait until I get home smh >:(

- Elder Wasden's first name is Carter and I called him Carson nine times in one day on Sunday 

- A member tossed me a water bottle after church on Sunday and I tried to land it on my head and it totally exploded all over me right smack in the middle of the chapel  So much of being a missionary is just learning how to be in the most stupidly embarrassing situations 24/7 and just taking it like a champ haha. 

- One of my best pals is serving his mission in Peru right now and a past missionary companion of his pulled up to one of our YSA activities last week! What are the chances haha. It's a real small world in the Church, isn't it.

- My roommate Elder Thomsen found out one of the three keyboards in our apartment has a preprogrammed song bank

~

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

Song of the week: "Blue Ain't Your Color" by Keith Urban

Scripture of the week: Isaiah 58:3-12 - the true law of the fast

~

Love you all! So does God. 

- Elder Rigby

Week 71 - Fayetteville, Arkansas

*two fishes

Awkward typo when you teach out of the scriptures all day long 

Hey all!

Another week, another round of lessons learned, another short email.

 Nothing like tornadoes in November to give you writing material for your weekly email. We had *six* lessons to walk around the temple with our friends one at a time during a game night up in Bentonville but seeing as how there was a funnel cloud directly over UArk campus they decided to postpone the activity and the lessons until next week. Dang 'nadoes. 

Elder and Sister Bednar, global leaders of our church, gave amazing messages at a devotional broadcast for young adults on Sunday night! I've said it before, but they're pretty special to us here in Arkansas because Elder Bednar used to be a business professor at the college I'm serving at right now! Their message is very specifically focused on technology, the power of human agency, and the God-given opportunity to work and grow for ourselves. It's awesome.

 https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/media/broadcasts/nov-worldwide-devotional-for-young-adults?lang=eng&mode=watch

 I love Ring Pops. Just thought you should know

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

Quote of the week: "My area of Arkansas is fancy Arkansas." - Elder Thomsen

Scripture of the week: 2 Samuel 24:24

"...Nay; but I will surely buy it of thee at a price: neither will I offer burnt offerings unto the Lord my God of that which doth cost me nothing."

Please, reach out whenever you feel like it! I'm happy to hear from ya and I'll do my best to respond when I can. Love you all!

Elder Rigby