Another crazy week, just like
always. Transfers were this week. On Wednesday we went up to Provo to a chapel
just outside the MTC, and waited for few hours while Elder Herrington got
trained on how to train. It was a kinda awkward time for me, since I only knew
Elder Tucker out of the 30 other missionaries waiting for their companions.
They don't even bother trying to get to know me since they know I'll be leaving
soon. Elder Alex Hill (my cousin) had told me that his companion was getting
transferred, which made the time go by even slower as I was watching out for
him. After few hours of waiting, I spotted him! It was unreal. We embraced each
other, and then talked to each other the rest of the meeting. SO many things
are happening that I never thought would get to experience in Provo.
Elder Hill and I caught up but
eventually he found his companion and went off. Elder Herrington met his new trainee
and now he's off to Lindon, UT, which is north of Provo. Our zone was the last
to be called, so at the end we finally met up with Elder Stoker (the new member
of our 3-some with Elder Tucker). He's an awesome missionary! He's from
Spokane, and he actually knew Elder Hardy from the MTC. He came from an area in
the mission where he gave 50 lessons a week a few times, so he's pretty
dedicated to getting our numbers.
The ASL (American Sign
Language) calling for Elder Tucker is tough. The old ASL missionary went home,
so it's all on him now. It's a 30-60 minute drive to teach anyone needing ASL in
our area. We're still trying to figure out how that's going to work. We went to
a meeting with the bishop of the deaf ward, which was one of the coolest things
ever. The ward mission leader was there too, and they were both on top of
everything in their ward. They were more dedicated than any bishop or ward
mission leader I had ever seen before. We went and tried to visit some deaf people
with the ward mission leader after, but we couldn't catch any of them.
All three of us are sick right
now. I just gave Elder Stoker my cold, and Elder Tucker had the flu. He didn't
want to take a break at all. We were in a lesson with an investigator named
Amanda, teaching her about the Restoration, really trying to get the Spirit
there. She finally agreed to a baptismal date after months of trying. When the
lesson was over, as we were walking out, Elder Tucker bolted to the side of the
house and puked his guts out. Talk about dedicated. He said he felt ok most of
the lesson, and then at the very end when we were praying, it hit him hard and
he couldn't hold it back. But he stayed diligent through it, and we got to help
someone out because of it!
My language study got a whole
lot better this week! The day after we met Sister Lasson, the old ASL
missionary, she happened to run into a return missionary from Bulgaria, Brother
Maddox, whom I met when I was in the MTC. Somehow I got brought up, and she
gave him our number. He called me up and asked if he could skype so I could
have someone to talk to while I'm in Provo. We skyped the next day, and it felt
so good to speak Bulgarian again. Hopefully, it'll help me not to lose all of
what I learned in the MTC.
We had a marriage this week!
One of our investigators, David, got married to his live-in girlfriend, and
they have a kid together. We really had to put the pressure on them to get it
to happen. It was beautiful to see. David had an awesome experience getting the
Book of Mormon confirmed to be true to him through the Holy Ghost. He's the
most golden investigator we have. His baptism will be on Saturday, and you can
tell he (and we) cannot wait for it.
It's surreal that I leave Payson in less than two weeks. I
love the people here so much, and it feels like this is where I'll be serving.
I'm going to miss all the conveniences here, but there's work to be done in
Macedonia! December 3rd, I'll be there. I'm so excited.
Elder Rigby
Elder Rigby and Elder
Hill (my cousin) reunite!!
I really liked the
snow... for about 5 minutes. It's COLD in Utah.
