Weeks 30 and 31 - Fort Smith, Arkansas

"Have you rebuked your sickness yet?"

- Elder Smythe

Hey all!

I was debating whether or not I should bait you with funny stories before blindsiding you with teenage crack theology but I'm late so I figure I'll just play my cards straight this week.

~

Claudia: Well...things took a turn for the worse when the doctors found out she had a disease that had gone untreated for a long time and she never came out of her coma. After a departing blessing and a few days in hospice, our dear friend Claudia headed off to paradise three weeks to the day after she was baptized into the Good Shepherd's fold.

God's plan, the Plan of Redemption, Salvation, and Happiness, gives a cool perspective on life and death. I heard in a devotional this week that this life is only one act in the great play of existence. No matter what happens in Act II, everything always works out in Act III—every time. No exceptions. 

1 Corinthians 15 in the New Testament is a great place to start if you'd like to learn more about what happens after we die:

https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/scriptures/nt/1-cor/15?lang=eng

40-day Fast: try one sometime, they're cool. Don't go forty days without eating food, but I'd invite you to make a change in your life and tracking it for forty days and hold yourself accountable to it. By the time it's over, odds are you've formed a new good habit. My "fast" this time is writing in my journal every night and so far I'm at twenty-eight entries. It's hard to find the やる気 to yet started sometimes, but Elder Whetten makes a good accountability buddy. 

MLC: Elder Smythe and I packed up our bags on Monday and made the beautiful 90-minute drive up to Bentonville for our monthly in-person Mission Leadership Council Tuesday. We listened to an awesome talk called "The Mortal Messiah" by Jack Christensen in the car, then met up with our buddies Elder Cebollero and Elder Atuaia (my trainer and one of our old roommates) for a birthday dinner with some members Elder Smythe knew from home before sleeping over at the APs' apartment. 

MLC itself was awesome. After presenting our goals for the Fort Smith Zone to the rest of the council, we had like four hours of workshops and inspired teaching from the APs and our mission leaders, President and Sister Collins. Big themes of this month were leading with principles rather than rules, helping our friends see what step is next for them in God's plan, and leaving our nets to take up our cross with Christ every single day (Matthew 4:20, Galatians 2:20.) 

Rounding it all off was my piano accompaniment of #193 "I Stand All Amazed" for our closing hymn. I'd played it through just fine at lunch, but alas, performance anxiety makes jazz out of the most classical of concertos. After ten sublimely awkward seconds of abstract noise from my fumbling fingers, I stopped, cracked a joke to my audience of literally every single mission leader in the Arkansas Bentonville Mission, and proceeded to play the rest of the hymn with just my right hand. Nothing wrong with a little extra dose of humility. 

~

Songs of the week: 

1) "Smile" by Weezer.

2) "Theme from 'The Law of the Harvest'"  from the New Testament Seminary Video Soundtrack. One half safari adventure, one half Super Mario.

~

Pensamientos espirituales:

"Fourth Floor, Last Door" by Elder Dieter F. Uchtdorf (October 2016 General Conference)

"A Robe, a Ring, and a Fatted Calf" by Elder Jeffrey R. Holland (BYU Devotional)

Acts 5 : https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/scriptures/nt/acts/5?lang=eng

Galatians 2:20:

"I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me."

Love you all. Talk to you next week!

Elder Rigby

Golf ball

Elder Whetten

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

Week 12: The Plot Thickens - Bentonville, Arkansas

Hey all!

This episode, an Elder gets shuffled, I pray for a mailbox, and our best friend goes AWOL. Buckle up, it's a long ride today.

Quick News:

Real talk, last week was hard. We gave it our all every day and found exactly 0 people. However, Elder Cebellero and I grew a lot closer as a companionship as a result. The Lord saw fit to humble us through this time and once we finally got that in our heads, we were able to become more unified as companions. Plus, He blessed us with three new friends for our efforts this week: Sofia, Eduardo, and Fernando! I'll give an update on how their lessons go next week. 

- The Bentonville, Arkansas temple is getting dedicated this Sunday! I just barely missed the open house so I can't wait to finally see inside. For anyone who's wondering what in the world a temple is for, check out this cool tour of the Rome, Italy temple: https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__m.youtube.com_watch-3Fv-3DdhWgPwEQQ98&d=DwMFAg&c=z0adcvxXWKG6LAMN6dVEqb0UviF1pXyDevTjy_jKVOk&r=N3V4p6LL0bE9YbknWrlp1I7jdVR1DT8UEsxCpy3W2Yc&m=TwFtBAeh0O_Si72RY9u2GU3U0NTBSULx5fYbG9uwj7YMjNVwuEfWsQSZZ5vkoJZ5&s=Wwnp6elMBJ9Bx0mrrUC8nEUz2agJQfjKvClP6CXn6Lk&e=

Sorry for the long YouTube link, my phone's weird. 

- tragedy strikes: a missionary in our zone went home last night and Elder McKee's being emergency reassigned to the Grove, Oklahoma area :( . I'm losing a homedog all too soon. On the bright side, a new missionary returning to the field is going to be joining us and Elder Atuaia's going to train him this time around, so the boys'll back to full strength soon enough. 

- Harrison went completely off the grid out of nowhere. These last few weeks have been awesome with him but then he canceled a lesson with us on Friday saying a ton of stuff came up at work and he had to stay and fix it and we've heard nothing from him since then. From what we've seen through his window it honestly seems like he hasn't been home much, if at all, in the last few days. Tricky stuff.

 But so it goes. The adversary's making an extra effort on him as it always does when a friend is preparing for baptism but we won't give up on him that easy. 

WEEK IN REVIEW

THURSDAY 

Zone Conference (a big meeting with our mission leaders teaching various workshops.) We talked about how to leave home blessings, keeping Jesus Christ as the center of God's Plan of Happiness/Salvation, and a cool proclamation titled The Living Christ. 

- 5 hours of sleep = not good. 

Mental self-evaluation: Kinda grumpy; discouraged; jealous of the more experienced missionaries around me. But y'know what, I felt the Spirit a lot at Zone Conference today and that was cool. 

- prayed over the postal service at a mailbox with a guy named Jacob. He really loved the postal service. 

- Atuaia and McKee picked up a Burger King delivery quest from a random person who got someone else's Doordash. Mission failed unfortunately. 

FRIDAY

- Exchanges with Elder Klingler, day 2: today was an exercise in navigating my own area without someone else who knew it better. Definitely a day in the growth zone. Elder Klingler's cool though. 

- gave my first home blessing ever to Jill and Ken Ehret (the guy who told us to buy land a month or so ago.) They're such a good family. We may have some differences but these people have real charity and that goes a long way. 

SATURDAY

- Woke up in a mini faith crisis. I felt a little better now after prayer, scripture study, "Lord I Believe" by Elder Holland, and time. As I went to bed, I looked back on my day happy and satisfied and ready to work more tomorrow. I had some serious angelic help today. 

- flashback to Campo Craft. If you know you know.

- Picnic in the park with the Grosses for dinner. Good times. 

- Found a fully functioning roomba that Elder McKee had been using as a pillow. Now the apartment has a pet. 

SUNDAY 

- mailbox Jacob showed up to church to return the Book of Mormon we gave him and then leave because "the the mail came late therefore this church must not be true," among other interesting reasons, and promptly went home. He was an odd enough bird from the start to make me think he was probably being genuine. Kinda surreal. 

- Ate some raw tuna like a champ. 

- Sofia and Thomas: she's a Chilean Facebook referral taught as a kid who's really interested in the Book of Mormon and he's a fellow Christian who totally Bible-bashed us but in the oh-so-kindest of ways. Keep going, Sofia! Go pray about it, Thomas. 

- Elder Ceb gave me a hug today. Huh. That doesn't happen very often. It was pretty nice. 

- Accidentally interrupted a Marshallese church service in this random house we knocked on. Whoops. 

- met four returned missionaries in one home, all of them now inactive in the church. Dang. You think you'll be invincible once you get home from spreading the Gospel for two years but we're commanded to endure to the end for a reason. Pretty sobering. 

MONDAY

- picked up a stick bug. Now I really feel like Newt Scamander. 

- Brother McKinney is so cool. He's a firefighter and a (relatively) recently returned missionary from the Fresno mission who's an ace at coming out to tract with us. 

- Got the cops called on us for "aggressively trying to open the front door multiple times" and like four police Chevies just kinda spawned into the hood. They said hi, told us we were all good, mentioned it might rain soon, and sent us on our way.

TUESDAY

- finally found someone: Eduardo!

- The B2 Sisters picked up a raccoon. No context really. People just have interesting pets sometimes. 

- Dinner with a young couple, the Heltons: she owns almost the same Victrola record player as me, has good taste in jazz and makes fantastic sausage and tortellini soup. He served his mission in Mesa, built a PC, had an old gameboy color, and likes brockhampton and Childish Gambino. I've found my people. 

- Second find: Fernando!

- Talked about U.S. Embassy stuff with Elder Powell. He's from an expat family who was born in Finland and lived in Japan, Kuwait, and a few other countries. Sick. Plus, his dad had Elder Powell give me his email and told me to hit him up after my mission for some networking connections. Double sick. 

- our carpets got replaced this week so the other Elders decided to use this chance to relocate the entire gym setup to the living room. Our interior design has my inner Animal Crossing fan in crisis. 

 This week's aspect of charity to focus on: Longsuffering. 

- Star Wars nerd fest with Elder McKee. I get so few chances to nerd out with people while on my mission. Boy, that was satisfying. 

WEDNESDAY 

- Brother Agard: a member walked over, and gave us 20 bucks like 30 seconds after we found out we didn't have any money for food this week. 

- Knocked in a trio with Elder Ceb and Elder Atuaia. Blessed two homes tonight baybee

- also got cussed out for the first time but that's less important. 

Thought:

1) Moroni 7:45-48 in context. 

Here, a prophet speaks on charity to the few faithful Christians left standing. The Nephite civilization is collapsing once and for all and the wicked are actively hunting him down and yet he still teaches to love and forgive as Christ would. 

2) A lesson from my dad on expectations:

Excitement: anticipation of a good thing happening. 

Fear: anticipation of a bad thing happening. 

 Enthusiasm: walking with God no matter what's coming. 

"Living outside the 'now' is just painful. Don't miss out on being with the Supreme Creator. If you're with God on your birthday, it could be your best birthday ever."

Fair enough. I want to be an enthusiastic missionary because I want to find joy in the present.

Well, that's about it for this week. I'm trying to work hard and stay diligent, although I still need to work on my bedtime. I've gotta plan my pdays better haha. 

фотография:

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

Love you all!

Elder Rigby

Weeks Seven and Eight: Polka Dot Lanterns - Bentonville, Arkansas

Hey all! Sorry I missed last week, I had a busy day and got so wrapped up in responding to personal emails that I totally pushed off my weekly one. I'll also be moving apartments for most of the day today so I decided to just combine the two. This one's extra long to make up for that so skim if you want haha.

—

First off, Luis got baptized! The service was awesome. Over forty people showed up including his family and everything went very smoothly. One of our speakers, Brother Hogge, the one and only papaya man, pulled up and whipped out a talk entirely in Spanish out of nowhere. After he set the tone, a couple of other speakers also added testimonies in Spanish to their English talks so I guess we were just led to pick the people who could connect with the Guerrero family the best. Luis' family is all from Mexico so seeing the church members here able to share why their son and their brother Luis was here doing what he was doing in a language his family understood better was super cool.

But the work goes on! Now that Luis has officially joined the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints it's up to the congregation to take him in and help him keep moving forward. We'll check up on him still but we'll be focusing our efforts on finding new friends that the Lord has prepared to hear the Good News. Next up is a younger boy named Korey. His older sister got baptized a couple of months ago and he's excited to learn and full of questions. We've taught him all the basic lessons and he's been coming to church, so if everything goes well, he'll be baptized too this Saturday! Other than him, our friend Harrison came to church for the first time yesterday! We've had some great lessons with him the last few weeks and he seemed to enjoy church a lot. He fit in so well that a lot of people thought he was just visiting from another ward haha. 

Our area's been blessed with lots of success thanks to my diligent trainer and our fantastic missionary-minded ward. Feels like I'm kinda just along for the ride on this one haha. The Lord's the one putting people in our path and my trainer's the one helping me learn how to find them. I want to continue emulating Elder Ceb's good work ethic after we eventually go our separate ways. 

—

じゃ、次はニュースだ！Onto the news! 今週、やったことは...

- Visited an art museum called Crystal Bridges and it was sick. It's this huge, sprawling complex in the middle of the woods that's super new, super nice, and super duper free. Plus, the art was actually cool. I'm an art appreciator in general but there's definitely good art and bad art. This, for the most part, was good art. I can't wait to go back sometime. Note for anyone who's been to the Phoenix Art Museum - they had an exhibit a lot like the room with all the mirrors and hanging lights in the dark only with polka-dot lanterns instead. It was fun.

- Got my Chick-Fil-A paid for by random church members twice in one week, bringing my "free meals at Chick-fil-A" count to three in one month of being in the field. Not bad. Not bad at all.

- Channeled my inner Wilderperson by eating a Cadbury flake bar. It was "majestical."

- Found out that Elder Ceb and I are moving! We'll be sharing an apartment with Elders Esera and Atuaia starting next week. Some stuff we found when clearing out this time around: three-year-old jambalaya mix, a drone, eight Nerf guns, a Bentonville-themed Monopoly bootleg, and a massive blowgun with a suspicious lack of blowdarts. I still gotta get that picture with Elder Jim Carey before I leave though...

—

面白い方々:

- Lois: a nice elderly organist for the Lutheran church we met just outside our apartment. She was walking her son's one-eyed Pyrenees(?) named Loki that had been shaved to look like a lil' fluffy white lion. An interesting combo for sure. 

- Kratos: the second self-professed Norse Pagan we've met in the last few weeks. I didn't get his name but he looked like a viking so I named him after one from a game I like. 

- Brother Suggetts: a local member originally from Canada and one of my generous Chick-fil-A sponsors. He joined the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints a year or two out of high school and then served a mission just a year later. Respect. One of his kids also shared a name with my little sister Marin so that was fun. 

- Gemini Man: an enigma. One dude answered the door at two different houses in the same neighborhood. Either this guy is living a double life one street away or the Matrix is reusing assets. 

—

Philosophy Corner:

Some days are good, some days are bad, but all of them end eventually. 

I woke up on Tuesday and I just wasn't feeling it. I was tired and homesick and not wanting to go knock doors and, to make everything even more fun, our golden find of the week, Nick, did a complete 180 on us out of nowhere. Long story short,  this guy went from calling us Sunday night asking to meet with us, come to church, and get baptized to getting super aggressive on Tuesday and calling us liars because we told him our church wasn't just about money. Not fun. Stuff like this has made me feel frustrated and inadequate, especially when friends I've been so hopeful about fall through. But yknow what? The day's over now. I'll learn. We did our best I'm satisfied with that. No matter how completely amazing or how absolutely miserable my day is, it eventually ends, and I'm satisfied when I give my all in the service of God. That's something that keeps me going out here. 

 All y'all discouraged missionaries having a bad day or a bad week or a bad transfer, try to look at it in retrospect. Spend the days in a way that you'll be happy about when they're over. The Lord will help you get through each moment and before you know it that's one more day done. 

—

Thought: 

John 13: 34-35.

On Thursday, we met a younger guy at the town square named Daniel. He was open to hearing our message so we gave him a quick rundown of the unique things about our faith and the Book of Mormon. He was attentive, polite, and well-spoken and it quickly became apparent that he was a Christian already well-versed in the Bible. We got into some cool theological discussions and after a while of talking with Daniel we found out he was actually a seminarian studying to become a Catholic priest. This guy knew who we were from the start and invited us to share with him anyway, then taught us how to become better disciples without ever trying to bash, condemn, or persuade us away from our own faith. I could say a lot more about him and all that we talked about but suffice to say he was a good example of a true disciple and he taught me more about following Jesus Christ. Bona fide cool dude. 

—

Songs of the week:

"A Cloud of Witnesses" by the Tabernacle Choir at Temple Square. It's a roughly twenty-minute full symphonic/choral telling of the earthly ministry of Jesus Christ and it's gotta be one of the coolest pieces of church music I've heard. If you've got a while to listen to it then check it out sometime.

"I'll Go Where You Want Me to Go." 

A hymn that expresses a mindset I want to put into my own mission: true joy isn't determined by where you serve. Needless to say, I listen to this a lot haha. 

"Death and All His Friends" by Coldplay. Just because I don't listen to normal music right now doesn't mean it doesn't get stuck in my head :P

—

Love you all! Thanks for the support and the prayers! They seriously help keep me going. 

- Elder Rigby

P.S. my next P-Day is next Wednesday so it'll be a looooong week haha. Talk to you then!

—

写真:

Luis at his baptism! Super nice guy and a nerd along my wavelength. 

The one and only polka dot lantern room. 

a close-up of one of my favorite paintings I saw at the museum.
Apparently it's supposed to be an airport. 

a bridge at Crystal Bridges. Not crystal unfortunately. 

 nice