Ciao

Hey there!

   Wow, thanks for celebrating without me! Haha jk it's all good. I'm glad to hear you had fun. This past week has been awesome! Crazy, but awesome. I am in Rome 3. It kind of covers the south east side of Rome... from what I understand. And my companion is Anziano Bennett. He is way cool! We get along really well and we work hard. We live in a house with two other anziani. Anziano Robinson, and Sergent. It is seriously a blast. We have been teaching quite a few lessons. Right now we have two baptisms lined up and it is way cool! They are the coolest people. I am so excited for them! 

   Church on Sunday way good, I didn't understand very much, but I got the gist of it. And yes during sacrament meeting I had the opportunity to bear my testimony. It was SCARY but I got through it. It's really funny when they talk to me because I hardly understand anything because they talk so fast! but I am slowly getting better. 

   We live in an area with quite a few Filipinos and Africans so we speak a bit of English too.

   So today we went and saw the Colosseum, and the Spanish steps. It was crazy to think that those things were standing when Christ was on the earth.

   The work is really good right now. I am having a great time even though I don't understand much. Thank you so much for the E-mails, they really mean a lot. Go ahead and just send it to the office. it is safer that way (in the sense that I will get it for sure), and I am close to the office so I get it more often. Oh, and for packages, Always send them to the office Otherwise I won't get it. But Don't think that I need packages. I am completely content with what I have. Okay I have to run. 

Love you all! Tell everyone hi for me!

   -Anziano Rigby

Arrival in Rome!

Skyler arrived in Rome safely. They received 22 new missionaries! This is them standing on the steps of the Mission home. 

Elder Rigby with the mission president and his wife!

Their first Italian meal! 

The mission home was built in 1924 by the Italian dictator, Benito Mussolini for his niece. It was purchsed by the church 45 years ago and has been used as a Mission Home ever since. It's referred to as The Villa. 

It is tradition for the missionaries to hand their jackets on the railing while staying at the mission home.

The mission president's wife commented how it's a good thing they have 3 flights of stairs!

After dinner, the missionaries all waited to receive their "golden envelopes" telling them what area they would each be serving in first. 

Skyler opening his envelope!

While staying at the mission home, the missionaries took a walk to visit Aqua Sacra, meaning Sacred Water. 

The Work Moves On

Hello everybody!

    Thank you for the letters. They are so fun to read! I love to hear what you guys are doing. That is really interesting about the ship. I wonder who gets the coins... Its great to hear that the bow fits! Did it help with accuracy? It is so true, this gospel has power to heal. physically and spiritually. If people would only give it a chance they could see. From what I have heard, there are miracles happening in Italy right now.

   Oh! I don't know if you knew this, but in order for them to create the Rome Temple they had to have something for all Italians to benefit from. So in the basement of the visitors center they are building a huge family history center. Besides the one here in Salt Lake, It's supposed to be one of the biggest in the world! How cool is that!? I have come to realize Family history is SO important to this work. It makes me giddy just thinking about the affects this will have on the people of Italia.

 So I have some exciting news, we fly next Tuesday and we are able to make calls while in the airports sooo, I'm thinking I will call you guys during our layover in Dallas. Which is around 4:00 in the afternoon their time. Is that alright? Also, I will be having my hep A shot coming up soon. Which will set me back a bit on money, Can you just make sure there's enough in the account for that and baggage fees at the airport? They will reimburse for the baggage fees I just need to pay for it first. 

   This week has been pretty crazy, I am so nervous to go but I am really excited to go at the same time! I already know I won't be able to understand anything when I get over there so that will be fun. But I know I will get the hang of it. And as long as I am trying my best the Lord will help me. And as long as I keep a good attitude and just try to help people and really love the people, they will love me back.

   I think I have everything I need... and if I don't, I guess I'll just have to buy it in Italy! Haha But I'm pretty sure I have everything.  

 I like your dea of getting back on a little later to answer questions and what not. It's good to hear that everything is still going well. I have to admit, that little car will be missed. I had some kick to it. But once you get that mustang running well, it will be really sweet! Make sure to teach Porter how to do some of that stuff. He has the mind and smarts for it.

   Thank you for the package, it was and continues to be a wonderful source of yummy snacks! Haha, I think we will definitely be leaving some for the next group! I am so blessed to have such a loving family, every time I get frustrated or tired I think of all of you and my energy is restored. I have gained a profound respect for those missionaries that go out with their family not talking to them or disowning them. Often times I wish I could be that strong. And I am so glad for you support. So thank you. Thank you for the music. Haha I will pay you back for all of it when I get back.

   I am slowly getting better at teaching, very slowly, but it is progress none the less. It is hard to not plateau here. You constantly have to be pushing yourself.

   It's way cool that you said that dad, about the bookstore. Haha I'm actually writing this right across the hall from the old bookstore right now. During Language study I go in there and practice my verbs on the old glass counters with a dry erase marker. Crazy...

Alright, well I better get off If I'm gonna get back on.

   I love you all very much, I will talk to you later!

            Love Always, Anziano Rigby

Week 4

Ciao!

 

   This week has gone by so fast! Its kind of weird cause the days are long but the weeks are short. The weeks are all kind of the same here. Breakfast, class, lunch, class,....more class. haha but its all a good experience. I just can't wait to go to Italy! (even though my Italian is horrible) Today me, Elder Lindsay, Romano, and Kelly went to the BYU laundry to get some of our shirts thinned up a little. But apparently there's a new rule that they can't do it for missionaries. So we're just gonna have it done in Italy. I'm sorry I havn't sent pictures, these computers don't have SD slots and you have to send like 2 or 3 pics at a time so I'm just going to send the card home in a letter and then you can send it back. once I get to Italy I will send them over E-mail. I know this is short notice, but do you think you could find a passport holder? I completely forgot I was supposed to get one and I can't find any here...

   Thanks for the letters you have all sent, It sounds like you are all doing well! Its great to hear that grandpa is okay, I was praying for him all last week and this week. It sounds like the 4th of july was a blast and the family reunion went okay too! I have to say I was really jealous to hear about the pig. It sounded sooo delicious. Oh! Do you think I could get Kevin and Pauline's address? I realized I don't have it and I really want to send them a letter.

   July 4th was pretty good. Its was really weird because it didn't feel like the 4th AT ALL. I could remember all the things I used to do. The breakfasts, the parades, the fireworks, four-wheeling. what fun! Its was a little depressing I have to admit. That night, we had a devotional and watched 17 miracles. it was pretty good. But we didn't sing God Bless the USA which was a bummer. After that we watched the firework show. That was awesome! Ha, it was kind of funny, the next day we were sitting in class studying and this lady walks in and was like, "were you the ones that got on the roof last night!?" We were completely stunned and of course we didn't so we said no. Well she didn't believe us, so she started going off on us about when we have an urge to do something stupid to not follow that urge. She was pretty upset! I kind of felt bad for her because she seemed like she might have just gotten chewed out for it. Idk but it was also kind of funny.

   So yep.That's kind of the highlight of my week. We were not able to play Venirde Note Calcio this past week because there was a thunder storm so they closed the field. Personally I think it would have been really fun to play on a thunderstorm. Haha oh well.

   Do you think you could send me some pictures of you all shooting your bows? I would love to have those in my awesome picture book! And maybe one of me shooting my bow? Haha If you can find a good one that would be awesome.

   I am really kind of at a loss for what to say now, I guess I'll just start telling you random stuff. I have somewhat come to enjoy language study. Yesterday I sat at the chalk board for the entire hour and a half and practiced conjugating verbs in Italian. It helped me quite a bit. So there are different endings to words most are either ARE, ERE, or IRE. and then you have a set of endings for those words. so I run, you run, he runs, they run, so on and so forth. there are six different endings so I, You, He She You, We, they all, you all. Then you have tenses. Present tense, future, past, imperfect, and a few others. I think there are 14 tenses total but that's besides the point. the point is there are a lot! But once you start to understand the pattern to each tense its not so bad....until you get the irregular verbs. they don't really have a pattern. so that's fun! I am not the fastest to learn the language, but I am steadily getting better. Slow and steady wins the race right? Besides its not the language that converts people its the spirit. (And my handsome looks of course).

   Well I better get going I have some things I need to get done before the day is through. I love you all so much. Thank you for keeping me in the loop and for your prayers. I can feel the strength that comes from the prayers you guys back home. I am constantly praying for you and your well being. I love you Mom, I love you Dad, I love you Ashley, I love you Cody, I love you Porter, I love you Hailey! Stay safe, Have fun, Work hard, and Love the Lord. when you love the lord, everything follows suit.

 

           Love always, Anziano Rigby

Week 3

Hello from Utah!

   I am really sorry that you haven't been recieveing my e-mails. I promise you I write one every week. so if you don't get them, just dear elder me and I'll write you a letter.

Thank you so so much for the music. I got home yesterday from a devotional and there were three packages on my bed! I was so excited! One was from Heidi and Grandma and Grandpa Stoddard, One from Ashley and Cody, and then the one from you guys. Thank you Ashley and Cody, I was soo excited to see the contact book! and q-tips! haha (I forgot to bring some) and we will be sure to use the party horns and glowsticks tomorrow. :)

   Happy 4th of July by the way! Its really weird being in here at this time of year for me. I want to celebrate with fireworks and a parade! But oh well. We will however get to go to the feild and watch the byu firework show. From what I hear its pretty good, but I don't know if its as good as yours and the Webster's. ;)

   So I have to tell you, when I opened the box you sent and turned on the music, my whole district was basically gathered around. so we turned it on and the Mo Tab started to sing. There was a spirit that suddenly entered the room. One that I have not felt since I left. Oh how I have missed it so! As I pondered about this, I thought it strange that in such a place as the MTC where you are going to devotionals every week, teaching the gospel, and praying every hour I have not felt as I do by just listening to music. I realized just how close I can get to God through music. And just how much of an impact it can have. There is a reason why God has concorses of angels that sing without end. I'm not quite sure the exact reason quite yet but I do know it can change the mood in a room in a matter of seconds. Its funny, the feeling I got last night was different then just the spirit, it felt like an old friend.... does that make sense? I mean, I feel the spirit here but to me the spirit feels different through music. I really made me realize how much I need to utalize music in Italia. It has a power of healing and comfort I cannot give people any other way.

   This last sunday I watched a talk by Elder Bednar entitled, The Character of Christ. Hoooolyyy coowww. What an amazing talk! Unfortunatley you cannot watch it anywhere but the MTC because it was a devotional he came and did some time ago. He talks about how the Savior dealt with trials and hardship. When the natural man would turn in (meaning think of himself, or pity himself) Christ would turn OUT. He spoke of a woman who called him early one morning with an urgent plea. Three young women had been in a horrible car accident and were being transported to a hospital near president Bednar. (he was a stake pres at the time.) She needed to have him go and Identify the girls they knew onw was already dead but they did not know who she belonged to.. He said he would and was about to get off the phone when he heard someone else talking. This lady was talking on two phones at once and through the line he heard a nurse tell this lady, "I'm sorry, but the one who died is your daughter." Without hesitation, this mother turned to President Bednar and said. "we need to find out who the other girls are and notify their mothers as quickly as possible." He was shocked. That after recieving such news that her own daughter was dead, she was able to turn out and help others when anyone else would have cried in despair.

   He explained that through Christ we can do things we cannot otherwise do by ourselves. Through Christ we can learn to turn outward when the natural man turns inward. It was seriously a talked that has changed my outlook on how to serve. I highly reccommend looking for it online, If you can find it, it is and amazing read.

   This week has gone by so fast. I am starting to realize just how short two years can be.  We are teaching lessons pretty much everyday now. And I am slowly getting better at the language. I can understand more and more each day. One of our teachers told us "Italian is not a wall, it is not a block." Meaning Italian is not what brings people to the gospel, it is the spirit.

Anyway, I have to get off. I love you all so much! and I love to hear how you are all doing! Stay safe and always strive to keep the spirit. Love you!

 

    Love, Anziano Rigby