Kaselehl! Iah iremu?
Hope you're mao! This week got a little frosty but things are going well up here in Anderson. Here's some stuff that happened this week:
- My mom's birthday was on the 8th! One huge lesson I've learned on my mission is that wow, my parents are way better examples than I gave them credit for. I am so grateful for my mom and dad's incredible faith, wisdom, patience, generosity, and love throughout my whole life. Love you :)
- We were having a kind of bummy day for reasons I couldn't do justice explaining with the time I have (but rest assured, they were pretty funny in hindsight), but when we visited some church members out on their farm to pick up some water bottles, the grandma made us PB&J sandwiches (my favorite) and gave us a whole loaf of Grandma Sycamore's white gold straight from Utah. Thank goodness God made grandmas.
- We found an incinerated smart car. Neat
- Some dogs are nice, some are not nice.
- Main street Anderson, Missouri tells you a whole lot about the kind of folks that live here. We've got a bank, a barbershop, a trading card store, a diner, a donut shop, an island market, and a taxidermist. Throw in a Walmart a half an hour away and that there's 'bout all a feller needs 'round these parts.
- Speaking of island markets, I decided to dive full-send into the local Micronesian culture and bought a two-ply tapa mat after looking for a good one for months. Mat gang. I'm a certified floor-sleeper now.
- I pet a hairless cat for the first time in my whole life when we pulled up to the card shop and he was both the cutest and the ugliest thing I saw all day today. His name was Neebs
- We went out to lunch with my friend Madi's aunt completely by accident haha. It's a small world in the Church, ain't it.
- I forgot to write about it last Wednesday, but we had interviews with our mission president last week! The first part of my interview was mostly just a vent sesh (I love Elder Perry don't worry) and once I was done President Hathaway gave me some awesome counsel as per usual. Moral of the story? Before 1 Nephi 3:7 comes 1 Nephi 3:6. The choicest blessings await those who murmur not.
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Miracle of the week: our friend Matt came to church with his mom out of nowhere! His mom and sister are super good friends with the member family who lives next door and are both preparing to be baptized soon, but he never acted super interested and didn't tend to stick around for lessons, let alone join the family for church. But there he was! And that's just the beginning of the story.
Matt joined the other young men in class after the Sacrament Meeting ended and heard them all talking about going on a youth temple trip the next Tuesday. He asked about what the temple was and proceeded to be taught about God's Plan of Happiness for the entire rest of the hour. As soon as he heard that he could be baptized for his dad who passed away before having the chance to, he immediately decided this church was worth a real, hard look.
Matt decided to join the youth temple trip and stay in the waiting room while they did baptisms, so our bishop asked if we could tag along and teach him more about God's plan for him and his family while inside the temple. I mean, wow. Talk about an ideal first lesson with a friend. The Holy Spirit was there in force and he absolutely loved the things he learned. He said it made perfect sense to him and he was excited to learn more and build his relationship with the Savior!
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I'm out of time for a full thought today, but hopefully that story counts this time! If you're looking for new study material, try using the Come Follow Me–For Home and Church manuals. I don't know how to describe why I like them without sounding like an advertisement so let me just say they're free and they're awesome. Here's a link to the digital versions:
Song of the week: Once in Royal David’s City
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Merry Christmas!
Love, Elder Rigby
. I'm gonna be so for real, I've slept sooooo bad this last week haha. I was dead-set on toughing it out on the floor until I became a hardened mat-sleeper but after a full week of sore, groggy mornings I set my bed back up in shame. 
