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 29: Cabin Fever - Fort Smith, Arkansas

*Note: I ran out of time to send this last P-day and had food poisoning yesterday and the night before that so I'm way behind on everything, sorry! Stay tuned for this week's email.

Hey all!

I'm making myself start this Tuesday (01/16) night because while something about writing it the very last second helps me dial in and focus, it definitely doesn't help my sleep schedule. 

~

...aaaaand that's pretty much all I wrote on Tuesday night. 

Well, looks like this week's email's gonna be pretty short.

This week, we got snowed in, our most recent convert went to the ICU, I bought some shoes with Elder McKee, and everyone took a trip back to the Bentonville Temple. 

~

Incarceration: a snowstorm shut down all the roads for two days here and our mission doesn't do any social media work so we literally did nothing. It was weird. Having free time to study, write, draw, and practice music was fun for a little, but it also felt pretty purposeless. Despite the difficulties of missionary work, I feel most fulfilled when I just put myself in the Lord’s hands and take the chances he gives to be involved in His miracles. 

Claudia: a nice lady who was baptized just two days before I got to Fort Smith. She hit her head last week and had to get ambulanced to the hospital...where they then found out that her kidneys were failing. Her situation is really unsteady right now and she's not often conscious, so prayers for her would be greatly appreciated. We're not really sure how this is all going to turn out, but no matter what happens, she's on the right path. 

Mena: them boys. Remember Elder McKee, the Wisconsonian cranberry farmer built like an Avatar? Well, he came down to the Fort Smith Zone with me too. He's serving in Mena, Oklahoma with his trainee, Elder Whetten, who's equally fun to be around. We spent the temple trip chatting it up in the van with them and then finished P-day with them with a trip to Dick's and Best Buy. I bought some new running shoes with the help of Elder McKee while Elder Bigelow and Elder Whetten went to buy a projector for a Bible/Book of Mormon video movie night. 

Side note for added flavor: Elder McKee's latest farm life stories included one, getting attacked by African killer bees while driving a tractor (this happened miltiple times,) and two, drive-by paintballing bears to get them away from the cranberries.

Temple Trip: always my favorite part of the week. I called my little sister Hazel in-between some McDonald's breakfast and the van ride up to Bentonville, then shot the breeze in the back of the bus with the other Elders. The temple itself was awesome as always. I felt comforted, protected, and revitalized by the time I was able to spend in service to the Savior. One of my takeaways this week was how much I feel the Holy Spirit when I see the beauty of Earth. Nature builds my faith in God.

~

Songs of the week: 

- "The Kids Don't Stand a Chance" by Vampire Weekend

~

Thought: Moroni 9:6

"And now, my beloved son, notwithstanding their hardness, let us labor diligently; for if we should cease to labor, we should be brought under condemnation; for we have a labor to perform whilst in this tabernacle of clay, that we may conquer the enemy of all righteousness, and rest our souls in the kingdom of God."

Everyone in our zone knows that Elder Smythe is probably the hardest worker of all of us. I've been trying to figure out what makes him so different than the rest of us when he seems to have similar source of motivation to the other missionaries. What makes him so much more driven, then? 

Here are some of his answers I got while on exchange:

○ What makes a 'visionary' missionary?

"One of the biggest reasons we're here is to learn self-mastery and discipline from Jesus Christ. What sets casual and visionary missionaries apart is consistency in these things."

○ Serving in Fort Smith, Arkansas of all places:

"Serve like you're three hours from where Jesus Christ will return in His Second Coming. We're building up the kingdom of God on Earth no matter where we're called to serve."

○ What keeps you going?

"You were saved specifically for today because you proved to God through faith, diligence, and valor that He could trust you. Prove Him right again."

~

"He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose." - Jim Elliot

Lots of Love,

Elder Rigby

Jacob

Elder Bigelow made me a crunchwrap supreme

Snow day art project

Not Arizona

Cool brass rubbings from Westminster Abbey

Pupusas done gave me food poisoning

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