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 28: Down South - Fort Smith, Arkansas

 Hey all!

Back at it again. Fort Smith is, as I've said before, the real deal. It's just so "Arkansas." Something interesting about this place is that even though it's super ghetto, the city doesn't feel particular dangerous. A *lot* of people here are super poor, but most of them are pretty chill and almost everyone loves Jesus in some Southern way, shape, or form. It's nice. 

Another fun thing about Fort Smith: there are a ton of stray dogs and cats that just hang out everywhere. Some of the big dogs make me nervous, but most of the strays here are down to just hang out and follow you around for a bit if you pet them. It's really endearing, actually. But don't pet the scary ones. 

~

We just got off the phone with our buddy Aaron, so I'm not starting this until late and I've gotta get to bed soon. I usually end up taking more time than I plan to on my spiritual thoughts, so tonight I'll go a little lighter on what happened this week and just take stuff straight from my journal entries:

Thursday: slashed our "people we're teaching" pool in half during our weekly planning session, spent hours tracting in the beautiful weather, and taught our ward mission leader's foster son Jacob in their beautiful home full of musical instruments. 

Friday: learned "Wet Hands" from Minecraft from memory, visited our hospitalized soldier friend Robert again before he got transferred to Savannah, and knocked a super sketchy neighborhood (including one house with a bullet hole in the front window )

Saturday: successfully cracked four eggs in a row at breakfast (new personal best,) got a full Southern Bible sermon from a guy named Walter, and played my first hymn in front of an audience, "Silent Night," as a special request from a little girl being baptized by the sister missionaries in our ward. 

Sunday: our brotha Bobby showed up to church and he was awesome. He has real Gospel soul. My mental was all over the place that afternoon, but I felt better after we decided to venture across the border to Oklahoma and knock doors there cod the evening. Being "out" is usually good for my head. 

Monday: tracted all day in the rain and found four people to teach in one apartment complex, befriended a stray dog (see photos,) coddled the tamagotchi my buddy Elder Anderson sent me from back home, and made some blueberry jam from the eleven cartons of blueberries a Marshallese family gave our roommates.

Tuesday: mañana es P-day. Elder Bigelow and I really just endured today. Most of our lessons fell through, but we still got to some hear cool stories from Brother Fair, the member who accompanied us to two of those ill-fated lessons. You'd never guess that unassuming old man was an Army Force Ranger and an undercover customs agent back in the day. Besides that, we taught Jacob again, this time about temples and families. I'm starting to really love that kid. 

Wednesday: worked on my Legos with Elder Bigelow, bought some frozen dinners and ramune at Walmart, played ultimate frisbee at the church, and practiced a ton of piano yet again. Went out to eat for at least the fifth time this week (I do not feel good,) then got a call from Aaron where he basically just taught himself the answer to all his questions he had for us. 

~

"Can I get a copy of the Book of Mormon and come to church? I want to see if I feel the Spirit when I try it for myself."

"It seems like we should really be more united as Christians, but we're not because of all these denominations. It's like someone's trying to mislead us."

"I read two more Book of Mormon chapters after the one you gave me, and it seems like you believe we can only be saved in and through Jesus Christ. I agree with that."

- Aaron

I love this guy. 

~

Song of the week: "Feathers" by Early Eyes

~

Teaching Jacob last night reminded me of a goal God inspired me to make last year, one that played a major factor in me being on a mission today. When I was at BYU last year, my grandparents served in the Provo temple just across the campus every Thursday afternoon. Going into my second semester, I decided I wanted to see my Grandma and Grandpa in the House of the Lord every single week, so I did my very best to make it every single week. No matter my spiritual, emotional, mental, or physical state, I strived to always be worthy to enter that holy house, be near my family, and serve my Savior come Thursday. I want to testify that doing so changed my life. 

I do not know all the answers. I have unresolved questions that I'm still working on. Some things in life I just don't get.

But!

Three things I do know:

1) Jesus Christ and His Atonement are real. 

2) The Book of Mormon is the word of God. 

3) My life got better when I started visiting Grandpa and Grandma in the temple. 

Faith would be useless if we had all the answers. 

God, however, in His matchless love and mercy, will always give us enough to get by. 

Moroni 7:48:

"Wherefore, my beloved brethren, pray unto the Father with all the energy of heart, that ye may be filled with this love, which he hath bestowed upon all who are true followers of his Son, Jesus Christ; that ye may become the sons of God; that when he shall appear we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is; that we may have this hope; that we may be purified even as he is pure. Amen."

My invitation to my friends who are members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints: go to the temple every week. If you don't have a recommend, prayerfully make a goal with the Lord to get one. You will come to know the Savior as you serve there. 

My invitation for my friends who aren't members, but still read this far and may be wondering what in the world I'm going on about: watch this cool tour of one of our temples in Rome, Italy: https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/media/video/2019-01-1000-two-apostles-lead-a-virtual-tour-of-the-rome-italy-temple?lang=eng 

~

Well, that all turned out to be pretty long anyways. Whoops. Well, hopefully this email did its job and brightened your day a little. Love you all!

Elder Rigby

The Martins' awesome music room

Cool bullet hole. Thanks Fort Smith

Dinner

Vile imposter

Oklahoma Day

Shoutout Äldste Calder

Greetings from Oklahoma

Hello beautiful

Got crabs

Elder Uchtdorf

Stay tuned for next week's email

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

Week 26: Sushi Haus - Bentonville, Arkansas

 Das Sushi war großartig. 

Well, Christmas has come and gone and it was...different. I was a little lonely being away from my family for the holidays for the first time in my life, but at the same time, this Christmas has been the most Christ-centered Christmas in my life, and knowing that makes the sacrifice worth it this year.

I'm low on time yet again so this one won't be as polished, but I haven't written much about the random stuff that happens to us Arkansas missionaries lately, so I might just dump some bullet points from my phone journal and get back to packing. 

Speaking of packing...transfer calls came in this morning! Sure enough, I'm not long for Bentonville, y'all. 

I don't know how to build up suspense on an email without way too much fluffy writing so I'll just cut to the chase:

Bentonville First Ward, District Leader. Companion: Elder Kemp

                                     I

                                    V

Fort Smith First Ward, Zone Leader.

Companion: Elder Bigelow

But that's not all, folks. The Fort Smith First Ward also covers a young single adult congregation and the two areas are shared jointly between we Elders and the Fort Smith STLs (sister missionaries in leadership roles.) In addition, the other Zone Leader isn't even in my companionship; he's over the Spanish congregation with a trainee to boot. 

In short, I'll be in a new area with a new companion doing a new kind of missionary work in a new leadership role in the downtown of both the biggest and southernmost city in our mission's part of Arkansas. 

Those Legos I got for Christmas are going to work wonders as stress relief. 

~

Jokes aside, I'm grateful God has trusted me with this increased responsibility and I'm grateful for the opportunity to learn and grow from this time. Plus, I've already met my new companion, Elder Bigelow, before, and he seemed pretty cool. I was roommates with his last companion for a bit, and man, I love that guy. And the other Zone Leader in Fort Smith, Elder Smythe, is known throughout the mission for being faithful, genuine, and extremely hardworking. I'm going to learn a whole lot from them in the coming months. 

~

Stuff from the last two weeks:

Taco Bell Doordash fiasco and the triumphant return of the Double-Decker Taco

Elder Kemp tracting in the rain on crutches (see Google Photos)

Actually productive morning: woke up and ran around the block, showered and got ready, played piano for 20 minutes, opened my Lego advent calendar, made some breakfast, planned District Council, and did some personal study with my new PMG manual 

Gave out free hot cocoa at the Bentonville Square with some ward members

I have like a year's worth of candy

Ate five tostadas at the Juarezes. Worth

Remember Jim, the hotel mogul living in Spain who referred himself after he singlehandedly taught himself 90% of the key doctrines of the Church? Well, he immediately got hit by a drunk driver driving from the airport to his new house the night he got here. No joke. He's alive and should recover, but Satan knew he couldn't shake this guy so he just sent a straight-up hitman to take him out. Naturally, his baptism had to get delayed, but he'll get there eventually. 

"If you wanna make God laugh, tell him your plan."

~~~~~~~~~

Dad got hit and run by a car immediately after he and our dog Charlie got stalked by a coyote through a farm field. Once again, no joke. Very fortunately, they got off much easier than Jim and neither of them were injured when at least one of them probably should have been seriously injured or killed. I'm not really sure how to process that one so I'll just leave it as is. 

Joined a game at the Bentonville Library chess club to try and strike up a conversation but unfortunately, I got absolutely smoked. No Book of Mormons were handed out in the five minutes before I was checkmated, unfortunately. 

Found an Action Bible in a thrift store. The Old Testament makes a great comic book story.

Ondré: Driving to a random building in an apartment complex with no objective led to us getting a second chance with a guy we had shied away from trying to teach the first time we met him. 100% actual miracle in my book. God is a God of second chances. 

Someone sent me Studio Ghibli legos AHHHHHH (update: it was my parents. They are awesome)

Talked to a guy we used to teach and he taught us the difference between a psychopath and a sociopath. Good to know. 

I wanna build a missionary tree fort in the woods on pday if I'm ever transferred to the boonies. I'll leave my mark on this mission somehow. 

Baked a ton of cookies on Christmas Eve. First batch was meh, second batch was 

"My dear brothers and sisters, the joy we feel has little to do with the circumstances of our lives and everything to do with the focus of our lives." - Russell M. Nelson, President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

The Cronins' Christmas family tradition: singing at least one verse of all the Christmas hymns in the hymnbook. It made me happy. 

T-bone steak, Christmas hymns, and surprise presents at the Cronins' for Christmas Eve dinner. They bought us UofA merch and cool new ties cause they're awesome. These are the same folks who baked me a birthday cake too. 

Christmas morning call with my family was nice. 

Christmas dinner with the whole Bayles family. Equally awesome as the Cronins.

First snow on my mission 12/27/23

Lotsa piano practice on pday

Got sushi with the Bentonville STLs and two of their recent converts at Sushi House earlier tonight. Check it out if you're ever in Bentonville. It was so good that I bought a Sushi House t-shirt.

~

Song of the week: Banana Pancakes by Jack Johnson. It's a good rainy day song. 

~

I wish it wasn't 11:09pm so I could actually take some time to write a fully developed spiritual thought, but it is. By the way, if anyone has advice for time management, specifically procrastination, it would be very much appreciated. I kinda need some help with that. 

Either way, I don't want to send out an email about being a missionary without trying to use this letter as a missionary opportunity, so as for a thought, I would hearken back to the fact that every time I read the Book of Mormon and learn more about the life and teachings of my Savior, Jesus Christ, and His servants, I feel better. 

Christmas morning was great this year, but the foreboding no-man's-land of Christmas afternoon after visiting with the other missionaries at lunch and before going to the Bayleses for dinner had me pretty down in the dumps. I hadn't put on the armor of God (i.e. hadn't read the scriptures; see Ephesians 6:11-17) and I could acutely feel my spiritual vulnerability. So, after District Council ended and the rest of the missionaries left, I asked my companion if we could do a quick companion study. He said yes, and we read Alma chapter 34, where Amulek teaches of the eternal plan of salvation through repentance and faith on the Savior. My testimony today is that doing so made me feel better. I felt closer to God and strengthened in my weakness, and I knew that somewhere inside me, a hole that I hadn't noticed until that moment had been filled in with the love of God. 

If you'd like to read or listen to the chapter we read, here's a link:

https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/scriptures/bofm/alma/34?lang=eng

~

Welp, gotta go pack. Hope you're all doing well and Happy New Year!

Elder Rigby

My new address will be:

2700 Tulsa St, Apartment 3, Fort Smith, AR 72901

Ghibli legos

Nether portal

Pwuken

Pohnpeian Book of Mormon

Exchange pic feat. double decker taco

Lunch

Sushi House

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