Week 92 - Miami, Oklahoma

Hey all!

I'm short on time today so I'll be more brief this week. I'm determined to email every single week until my mission ends, though. Only missed a couple weeks so far 

  Marvin's doing awesome! Since we've met him last Monday, he's come to three lessons, two scripture studies, church, and a baptismal service out in Joplin. Who says 80-year-olds can't change? Marvin is all about learning and is determined to be reunited with his wife in the next life. His last big hurdle besides a couple of cups of coffee (yup, the rumors are true - we avoid coffee and all other addictive and/or destructive substances in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. If you're curious about why, feel free to ask me!) is gaining a witness that the Lord truly has restored His kingdom to the earth again preparatory to the Second Coming. 

  

  Lucky for him and for all of us, this Saturday and Sunday is the Church's semiannual General Conference! A common question our friends have when we tell them we believe in modern prophets is, "Well...what do they say?" Throughout this special conference, we get to find out. 

  Lots of coffee talk this week. Our 96-year-old friend Hazel (my little sister Hazel turned 18 this week by the way ) had immediately decided to drop coffee for a week when we first taught her the Word of Wisdom, but...uh...it kinda backfired. She's so old now that her system physically can't handle caffeine withdrawals and she was super ill all weekend, so her doctor told her if she doesn't want to actually die she had to keep drinking coffee. One morning and five cups later, she was pretty much back to normal. Guess she gets a doctor's note on this one 

 Our friend Richard, the lost recent convert from Idaho who we went to a Chinese buffet with a few weeks ago, has come to church every single week since then! He's become buddies with the two other members we ate lunch with that day and they hang out all the time. He describes their group as "basically those two grumpy old Muppets who make fun of Kermit from the audience." He's a lot nicer than he gives himself credit for, though. 

  Goodness gracious, they really are making a Minecraft movie. I'll miss it in theaters, but at least I can buy the Minecraft movie collectible meal at McDonald's. Worth. 

Song of the week: "Spies" by Coldplay

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

 

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 Our mission president, President Hathaway, has a vision vision that this mission is capable of baptizing and confirming hundreds of souls each month. And, for the first time in mission history, we broke the one-hundred mark with 108 baptisms in the month of March! Now, we didn't end up having any convert baptisms this month, but we worked hard and saw miraculous success in other ways. Besides, a win for one is a win for us all. Sharing the restored gospel is the ultimate team sport. Check it: 

But I do not joy in my own success alone, but my joy is more full because of the success of my brethren, who have been up to the land of Nephi. Behold, they have labored exceedingly, and have brought forth much fruit; and how great shall be their reward! Now, when I think of the success of these my brethren my soul is carried away, even to the separation of it from the body, as it were, so great is my joy.

- Alma 29:14-16

  So go share the good news! Millions of the elect of God are waiting to hear it and the Lord is "hastening His work." I promise you that inviting others to "come and see" is worth it. If every single one of you reading this email prayerfully invites as many friends and family members as the Lord will put into our hearts and only one person out of all those we invited comes to know that Jesus Christ's kingdom is back and it's back for good, then we will all have collectively helped bring a child of God to the path back home to Him. Wouldn't that be amazing?

Love,

Elder Oliver Rigby

Week 76 - Andersen, Missouri

 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.

~

 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! 

~

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:

https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/come-follow-me?lang=eng

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

Song of the week: Once in Royal David’s City

https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/media/music/songs/once-in-royal-davids-city-mohlman?lang=eng

~

Merry Christmas! 

Love, Elder Rigby

Week 53: We're all mad here - Pierce City, Missouri

Happy Independence Day! 

Phew, long week. I'll probably keep my email shorter this time around.

Note: the above statement is false.

♤ Our new mission leaders are way cool and wasted no time jumping right into the action. President Hathaway and his whole family were all in a freak accident where two separate stray tires totaled both of their cars on the way to the mission field, and, miraculously, no one was injured besides some minor injuries to President Hathaway. In almost every other stray tire collision there is an extremely high fatality rate. Miracles right off the bat, huh? These guys are the real deal.

◇ Went on exchange to Stockton, Missouri, met a few polygamists living on "the ranch." The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints holds that marriage between one man and one woman is ordained of God (Jacob 2:23-30,) so that was pretty wild to me. As soon as we crossed the boundary into their community the Spirit felt way weird and the vibes were not good, but hey, at least they gave us free ice cream. 

♧ After wrapping up our exchange with the Stockton Elders, we pulled up to Trek and pulled handcarts with the youth for a few hours! This was my first time at Trek and it was pretty sweet to be a pioneer for a day 

♡ MLC again! It's always fun, but this time around was extra special seeing as how it was the Hathaways' first leadership council. President and Sister Hathaway are miracle-minded spiritual giants with strong family bonds and the kind of attitude that makes me feel like they're my new surrogate parents. I'd sustain them no matter what, but after that meeting yesterday, they have my trust too.

~

Song of the week: "Master, the Tempest is Raging" from the 2023 Church Music Festival. Way good.

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

Friends to pray for (please:)

- Norma and her family

- Tilor and his family

- The missionaries of the Monett Zone!

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Thought: The Gift of Remembrance

Doctrine and Covenants 6:22-23:

"Verily, verily, I say unto you, if you desire a further witness, cast your mind upon the night that you cried unto me in your heart, that you might know concerning the truth of these things.

"Did I not speak peace to your mind concerning the matter? What greater witness can you have than from God?"

 Simply put, I was in the feels two days ago. You've got better things to do than read about my problems so all I'll say is that the whole week felt like one long string of "just one of those days." You get the idea. 

 Upon praying and asking my Father in Heaven for something, anything, I received a clear prompting to open my journal to an entry from exactly one year ago. I won't share everything I read, but one line stuck out to me in particular:

"...When I truly listen to the Spirit, I know that God has seen down these roads with perfect clarity and that He would have me serve his people right where He called me."

 The gift of remembrance is precious. We all have times in our life when we do not feel the Holy Spirit. Knowing that, our Savior offers us this gift so that we may hold to our past experiences with Him as to a life preserver in deep water. 

Here are some ways to magnify it:

- Journaling

- Expressing gratitude vocally

- Learning from past mistakes

- Testifying of personal converting experiences

 Jesus Christ lives! His Church is alive and well. I invite you to magnify the gift of remembrance by making good habits of these four actions. I promise from personal experience that as you faithfully magnify this gift from God, you will always have a reservoir of His living water to see you through the spiritual droughts of life.

Love, 

Elder Rigby