So my P-Day is now on Mondays,
and that's why I didn't get to send a letter out last week. And Dear Elder is
mostly an MTC thing, you can still use it to write me, but I think it costs
money now, so I would just stick with my email at richard.rigby@myldsmail.net
Another crazy week! So in the
MTC, my whole district left before me, and it was just Elder Park and I from
our group. It was weird having everyone be gone, but I just focused on working hard
with everything with my last days before I hit the field. Elder Park left on
Sunday since he got cleared, so I was with the Elder Chingas, the new
Macedonian. Tuesday came and I had to say goodbye to everyone, which was sad,
but I was really excited to get out into the field. 10 weeks in the MTC, was a
good time, but it was time to go. The Assistants in the Provo mission picked me
up where I was met and interviewed by the President McCune. He is a very stern
and determined guy, that definitely seems like he knows what he's doing.
After, we took a picture, and I
got picked up by my new companions, Elder Tucker and Elder Herrington. I have
two since I came out in the middle of a transfer, so they just stuck me with
them. They are both awesome though. They're really fun to be around, and also
work work, which is all I can ask for. I'd say we get along really well,
although it's only been a week. I'm loving being with them though. They took me
to our apartment in Payson, and then we headed out to our dinner appointment.
We get fed dinner every night of the week here, which is awesome. Immediately
after we went to our appointments, who all cancelled on us, so then we visited
others until our coordination meeting.
Coordination is everything. We
have two stakes that we cover, and the members do all the finding for us. One
of our main objectives is to get to know the members to then we can get
referrals from them. So far it's been working great; we've got 4 with a
baptismal date right now.
The next day was exchanges, so
Elder Herrington and I went with Elder Pereria after our district training
meeting. It was weird since I hadn't even been out there for 24 hours. We
taught some lessons in the afternoon, and I got to teach my first real lesson
ever! It was with a less active man named Clent. As you can guess, a lot of the
work in this mission is with less active members. We slept at Elder Pereria's
apartment, and then did some more service in the morning. The exchange ended.
Again, it was a crazy few days, haha.
That night, we taught a boy. It
was the first lesson with him, and we found him by a member telling us that he
wants to be baptized. I'm pretty sure that stuff only happens in Utah. I got to
ask him if he wanted to be baptized, to which he eagerly said yes. It's
amazing. Another example is we got a call from our district leader about a boy
he taught who couldn't get baptized before because of their parents, but now he
can. I still can't believe stuff like that just pops up.
In an effort to know the
members better, we went to two wards on Sunday, and we spoke in both of them.
The bishops didn't know we were coming, and they both already had a lot of
speakers, so it ended up in one ward I was the 7th speaker. It's become a lot
easier to give talks with all the studying and the greater purpose I have now.
Then we taught in Priest's quorum, and then more missionary lessons. It was a
busy day.
Something really weird for me is they let us use Facebook to
talk to people and post uplifting messages. I didn't want to use it for a while,
but I decided to give it a shot and it's been pretty sweet. I remember thinking
I wish I could have talked to people back home while I was in the MTC, and now
I can!
I gotta say, I've been loving
being out here. It took a little bit of adjusting because it's on the opposite
mission spectrum as Macedonia, but I'm getting it. It's amazing to me to see
how much we've been able help people already since I've gotten here. My
testimony is strengthened every day after seeing the light of Christ reaching
people. I know how much it has blessed my life, and all I wish to do now is
bring that to other people.
-Elder Rigby
Here is my new district and, below, my new companions, Elders Tucker and Herrington:
