Week 103: Seven Days - Miami, Oklahoma

 Hey all!

 It's a real pretty day out today as I'm writing this email from a Frisbee golf park in northeastern Oklahoma. It's really starting to sink in now that my mission is really almost over. I can't really describe how it feels to write that—just lots of emotions all tangled up and mixed together. What I do know, though, is it's time to leave it all out on the field and go home with no regrets.

 As far as news goes this week, the work has been fantastic. We had the most friends join us for church of any week I've served in Miami, we had a blast going on exchanges (switching missionary companions) for a day with the Carl Junction/Pittsburg Elders, and we set a new personal best of my whole mission for lessons we taught with members participating. Life is good. It's not without its difficulties and its setbacks, but it's good. 

~

Storytime:

 We taught our friends Brent and Shelby about temples this week, but due to a commitment to another friend, we had to leave them and the member hosting the lesson right after we turned on a video tour of the temple. We called to check in with Brent the next morning, and he and his wife shared that they didn't understand why the temple wasn't open to the general public if it was such a special place to connect with God. Wouldn't we want everyone to go there? (If you want to know how we answered them, let me know and I'll send you our notes!)

 Shelby unfortunately had to be at work, but Brent, being as awesome as he is, was down to make some time to meet with us and talk about it in-person once. Elder Fichtner (my exchange companion for the day) and I studied together to prepare an answer, and when we met (with Marvin along too ), he found a lot more peace with his question. What stuck out to me most, though, was that he told us we were the first church in his whole life that ever was okay with him asking them hard questions. Every other church he'd been in had kicked him out and/or stopped inviting him back to their services when he'd ask where they got their beliefs from or how they could know if the Bible was 100% true or if it was messed with so much over the course of history, so he was afraid that when he asked us about temples we'd kick him out too. 

 In the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, we welcome and encourage all sincere questions asked with faith in Jesus Christ. When a friend asks us a question about something they don't understand, it makes me happy because that means they're actually pondering the things they've learned deeply. Jesus Christ welcomed questioners like Brent and Shelby during His mortal ministry, and so do we. This is because the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is true. We have nothing to hide. In fact, the more we can help them find inspired answers to their questions and gain knowledge of the doctrine of Christ, the more their faith in Christ and His restored gospel will grow. What's more, they'll be that much more likely to follow His example by being baptized and confirmed by one holding the proper priesthood authority of God. As one general authority once put it, "True doctrine, understood, changes behavior."

TL:DR Brent and Shelby are cool and asking questions with faith in God is good. 

~

Hymn #251

Behold! A royal army, 

With banner, sword, and shield, 

Is marching forth to conquer 

On life’s great battlefield. 

Its ranks are filled with soldiers, 

United, bold, and strong, 

Who follow their Commander 

And sing their joyful song: 

Victory, victory, 

Thru him that redeemed us! 

Victory, victory, 

Thru Jesus Christ, our Lord! 

Victory, victory, victory, 

Thru Jesus Christ, our Lord!

https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/manual/hymns/behold-a-royal-army?lang=eng

Song of the week: "I Bet My Life" by Imagine Dragons

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

My mission email (oliver.rigby@missionary.org) is going to be deactivated soon after I get home, so if you want to stay in touch, send me your contact info! My personal email is owrigby@gmail.com.

103 emails down, one to go! See yall next week. 

Love,

Elder Rigby

Week 102 - Miami, Oklahoma

 Hey all!

I woke up this morning like "holy cow I have two weeks left what just happened" so I guess now it's really go time. Lots more cool miracles here in Miami this week, as tends to be the case when you're in an awesome area with an awesome mission companion. It reminded me of a line from one of President Jeffrey R. Holland's messages from two years ago: "I cannot speak fully of that experience here, but I can say that part of what I received was an admonition to return to my ministry with more urgency, more consecration, more focus on the Savior, more faith in His word."

First up, a miracle: Rhonda decided she's going to be baptized and confirmed! She's clicked so well with the members here in the Miami Ward and is especially tight with a new convert who recently went through the temple for the first time. We felt inspired to study the doctrine of Christ in 2 Nephi 31 and had her read verse 13:

"Wherefore, my beloved brethren, I know that if ye shall follow the Son, with full purpose of heart, acting no hypocrisy and no deception before God, but with real intent, repenting of your sins, witnessing unto the Father that ye are willing to take upon you the name of Christ, by baptism—yea, by following your Lord and your Savior down into the water, according to his word, behold, then shall ye receive the Holy Ghost; yea, then cometh the baptism of fire and of the Holy Ghost; and then can ye speak with the tongue of angels, and shout praises unto the Holy One of Israel."

After reading the verse herself, Rhonda told us she "really felt that one" and that she was definitely feeling that "baptism of fire". She then declared she thought the Book of Mormon really was a continuation of God's teachings in the Bible, and it came to us to ask her, "Why would we invite you to be baptized and confirmed again if the Book of Mormon is true?" She thought for a moment and responded, "...Because this is the true church of Jesus Christ! Because this church has authority!"

Bingo!

~

In other news...

Our other friend Zeke is going to pray and talk with his family about being baptized on two Sundays from now, the 22nd!

Father's Day is coming up! Make sure to tell your dad you love him. Dads need love too!

We both spoke in church on Sunday! Probably the last time I'll get to do that as a missionary. Weird. Lots of lasts lately.

We had dinner with Marvin again later that evening and he fed us some real good steaks again. I tried to make a joke and asked him how long he thinks it'd take him to eat a whole cow, and he thought for a moment and said, "Well, usually about seven months for a calf with my wife and two kids." ...Forgot people 100% actually do that out here. Farmers are so hardcore.

Song of the week: "Rolling On" by the Murlocs. Definitely put this one in an email before but it's been stuck in my head all week.

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

Love y'all! To all my other missionaries and everybody else enduring to the end, finish strong!

Elder Rigby

Week 101 - Miami, Oklahoma

 Hey all!

This week we found a new friend who's going to join the Church! We were out visiting people in our records who used to be taught because I couldn't walk around knocking doors all day on my ankle (it's a lot better now thanks to prayers and an ankle brace) and we decided to knock the three closest doors to one of them who didn't answer when Rhonda came to the door. She said she used to go to a ward in Minnesota and would love to try church again here. We were able to introduce her to a member just four hours later and they hit it off right off the bat, with that member offering a ride and inviting her to do family history after church the next day. Rhonda said she planned to be baptized in Minnesota but wasn't able to because her husband didn't want her to, but now they're not together anymore. Our member told her she might need to be a member to make a full familysearch account but she said, "No worries, I'm planning on joining anyway." You love to hear it 

This was a huge tender mercy for Elder Eilander and I because we'd just lost one of our closest, and coolest friends the night before. We'd been meeting with him for months and his work schedule was finally cooling down enough that he was able to come to church, plus he had gotten an answer about the Book of Mormon and decided that if he was going to make a covenant with God and join the Church, he wanted to be prepared to keep it for his whole life. We decided to go over the questions we interview our friends with when they decide to be baptized and confirmed, and unfortunately one of them triggered some bad PTSD from his law enforcement career and he ended up giving us his Book of Mormon back and asking us to leave. We were pretty torn up about it, especially since I'd been meeting with him for months, but being able to meet Ronda showed us yet again that the Lord will always compensate us for the unfairness of life when we are faithful to Him.

We had tons of other cool stuff happen this week like a church tour with a mom and her son miraculously working out way better than we could have planned it (and we totally forgot to plan it whatsoever whoops, God just made it happen) and an awesome exchange where I got to serve with my good friend Elder Hammer in Pittsburg, Kansas for the day, but I'm kinda wiped out. Three weeks to the finish!

Love, Elder Rigby