Spring Break!!!!

Hellooooooo!

   Man that pie looks good!!!  You better enjoy every bite of that sucker!  

   Hahaha, this week has been great!  Me and Burnham have been working our tails off and we are starting to see the effects from it.  We got 2 new investigators this week and they accepted a soft baptisimal invite.  Now we need to give them a date and get them in the water!  Haha!  As far as the transfer calls, we're both staying in Palermo!  Woo hoo!  I'm honestly sooo excited for this transfer.  It is going to be amazing!

   So this week we met with Grace and Samuel, and did somewhat of a drop lesson.  It was sad but it had to be done.  On the bright side, we met a man on the street named Ernest.  He's from Ghana!  He is awesome.  So we were able to meet with him this week and we taught him the Restoration.  He is so humble!  We taught him, and at the end we asked him if he would be baptized when he gained a testimony of its truthfullness and he said "yes."  He said, "If this is what God wants me to do, then yes. I want to follow God's Prophet."  So we want to give him a date for the 26th of April.  It should be AWESOME.

   Other than that, I don't have much.  I'm sorry this is so short.  We have a lot to do today and we don't have a lot of time.  Next week I will do better, I promise.

   I love you! 

   Love always, Anziano Rigby

   Hey everyone!  Haha, alright, well this is gonna be pretty short cause I don't have much time, but Palermo is awesome!  I love this place!  This week we had a conference with Elder Kearon of the Seventy.  He is so cool!  And you can see and feel that he is an inspired man.  He talked about what we can do to be better finders and better teachers.  It was inspiring and humbling because there are so many things that I need to improve on! 

   As far as work, none of our investigators could meet with us this week which was a little frustrating, but it gave us a chance to find some more people to teach! We really need to enlarge our teaching pool because right now it's pretty small.

   Right now I am really working on becoming better at teaching. Yeah, I can teach, but I know that I'm not near the best that I could be.  And it is so important to be able to teach well.  So even though it hurts sometimes to hear what you can do better, it is really a good way to know how to improve (as long as you can be humble), haha!

   Today we went to Mondello and we played volleyball!  It was great!  We went with Salvo, John, and the other Anziani.  As we were playing, there was a group of guys walking on the sand.  Some of them came over and asked if they could play with us, so of course we said yes!  It was awesome!  Haha, at first they didn't know we spoke Italian so it was kind of funny, but then they figured it out and they thought it was awesome that we learned Italian so fast.  After that, we became good freinds.  

   We were also able to help some guys pull their boat up on the sand!  Haha, it was cool to feel the spirit of service!  And at the end we were able to have a good quality Gospel conversation with them all (6-8 Ragazzi {editing note - young men/youth} ). Who says you can't do missionary work on P-day!?

     Alright, well, I gotta go but I love you all!  Have a great day and I will talk to you next week!

     Love Always, Anziano Rigby  

Hey y'all!

   Yeehaw, its been a fast week!  Not a ton has happened since we last talked, but I am doing well.  We are working hard and trying to find investigators. We did, in fact, find a couple!  We decided to pass F________ to the Sisters and see if it changes anything.  We also have a couple new investigators: Enzo and Francis.

   Enzo is about 50.  He attends our English course and he always is talking to us about what we do, and we gave him a Book of Mormon a little while back.  And I was finally able to pin him down after English course so we had a lesson about the plan of God for us.  It went well.  The spirit was present and we are meeting with him again this week.

   Francis is also around 50 and he is from Ghana. We met him on the street and we were able to set up an appointment. We met with him yesterday and taught him the Restoration.  At the end, we invited him to be baptized and he said if he received a confirmation that this is what God wants him to do, then yes.

   We have also been meeting with a lot of members to try and get them going on Missionary work, and to get to know them better.  I think it's been going well.  I think it's really helping the trust between the members and us.

   As far as how we are talking with people, it's really effective when we ask them what makes them happy in life or what they do to come closer to God, or English course.  People here are usually pretty free to talk.  There are always those who don't want to listen, but that's alright. 

   Hmm, Haha, other than that, I don't know what to say.  We're just doing the Lord's work!

   On Thursday we will be in Catania for a conference with an Area Seventy, Elder Kearon.  We'll see how it goes!  I love you guys!  Hope you're doing well!  Ciao! 

   Love Always, Anziano Rigby  

Is it snowing?

Elder Rigby and his companion, Elder Burnham, at the Palermo Zone Conference.
(All pictures in today's post were originally posted on Pres. and Sis. Waddoup's blog.)

Hello everyone! 

   Haha, I am sorry that you guys are getting sick. :(  That's no fun.  No fun at all.  On the bright side, it sounds like you guys are getting better and it also sounds like there are some exciting things coming for you as far as Missionary work!  Haha, it's kind of funny you mention Janice Kapp Perry because when I was in the MTC she came and talked to us, and she and her husband sang that same song to us!!! Hahaha.  I got a kick out of it.

   Talking about missionary work, we had a baptism this week!  WooHoo!  Susy got baptized!  It was pretty awesome. We are working really hard to get the work really pumping here in Palermo. It is starting to take off!!!  Partly For one, we have Anziano Kasper and Prete here. They are the zone leaders here.  And they are awesome! They are amazing missionaries.  I am loving living in the same house as them because I am learning so much!  This last week we had, as a district, 11 investigators in church!  Booya diggady.  Haha.  And then we had Zone conference this last week and it was awesome.  They talked about finding and how you can make it effective.  Anziano Kasper is a legend in the mission for street finding.  He is magic.  So they taught us kind of this method for finding and then had us all go out for ten minutes and do some finding.  Then we came back. They asked how many companionships recieved a phone number, and every single person raised their hand.  Everyone got a number!  It was crazy!  Haha, it was pretty dang cool.

    And then the next day me and Burnham went out for a couple hours and we got 5.  We are becoming better, and we are trying harder, and the Lord is starting to bless us.  It is really cool. :)

Singing the Mission Song as a Zone, Elder Rigby on the left.

Two companions studying hard and having fun.

   This past week was a little discouraging as far as numbers. But we were busy the entire week. We had quite a bit of lessons with members this week. We are trying to help them become Member Missionaries! So we are going over and talking about how we can invite our freinds, and inviting them or challenging them to pray for and search for who they are supposed to share the gospel with, and then we challenged them to act! This next week we are hoping to start folloing up a little bit on their progress. 

   As far as our finding efforts, they are becoming better. After the conferece, they very next day we went out and had 8 QGC's and we got 5 numbers! Almost every person we spoke with was interested and wanted to learn more. It was a real reminder of how we need to talk with EVERYONE and finding CAN be productive when you are listening to the spirit. And when you are worthy to recieve it. I liked what they said during the conference about how the Lord wont give us anything that we don't deserve. We need to be worthy. That means being obedient, trying our hardest, and being ready to teach. 

   This week, as far as investigators, has been pretty sad.  F________ is not doing well and wasn't able to meet with us this week, a long with Samuel. We are really working on finding new investigators. We have a couple people in English course that we want to start teaching.  So we will see how that plays out.  And the Bishop is starting to trust us a little more and that is good.  Hopefully we can grow this trust more as time goes on and as we show him that we are working hard and our vision is to help him grow his ward.  But it all takes time and effort.  Slowly we're getting him to open up.

Surprise!  Valentines from the Primary kids in Idaho.

   The work here is good and hard.  But I wouldn't have it anyother way.  I really love the people here. They are amazing. And they are so nice! You just need to show them that you are interested in them, and you are not just here to teach them a lesson. And then they open up and you become best friends in 5 minutes.  I am really learning to love the people and it has been a huge blessing.

   Well, I love you guys!  Thank you for all you do.  Keep being awesome members and don't be afraid to share the Gospel with friends, neighbors, people at the supermarket, anyone!  haha  I love you all! Talk to you later!

   Love always, Anziano Rigby

Cannoli

Anziano Rigby and his companion, Anziano Burnham

Hey y'all!

   Haha, this week has been long!  Mamma Mia.  Probably because we did a LOT of finding, haha, but it is necessary sometimes. But if you really want to find people, you need to learn how to work with members! :)  It is all about member referrals.  I really liked what you said about cake, because its true! You have to test it to know if it's ready and if it's not then you stick it back in and let it bake a little more!   (editor's note: he is referring to an analogy I shared with him that a member of our local mission presidency gave at Stake Conference regarding investigators - when we bake a cake we put it in the oven for an amount of time, then pull it out and test it with a toothpick to see if it is done.  If it is not done, we don't just give up on the cake and throw it away; we put it back in the oven for a few minutes and then test it again.  It is the same way with investigators - we invite them to listen to the Gospel message, be baptized, etc., and if they decline we should not give up on them.  Instead we should wait awhile and then invite again.)  Haha, and like one one apostle said, "if you invite with love, it will never be taken as offensive."

"Me in an apron, haha. We had an American breakfast for dinner one day for English course, haha.  It was awesome. We made french toast, hashed browns, and bacon!"

"Some of our students making the bacon."

  So this week has been pretty good. Our numbers were not that great, but I think that we have learned a lot and are becoming better at teaching and finding. We are starting to work with the Ward members more.  As a district goal, we are trying to meet with every member this month and invite them to do something - like invite someone to FHE (family home evening) or church, for example.  And then we want to follow up and see how we can help them because, like everyone has said, referrals are where it's at!  haha.  Not only that, but we want to help the Ward become missionary-minded!  We just put together a plan with the Bishopbric to organize the less active work here in the ward.  Hopefully it will work out well.

   F________ is still having a hard time. We met with her on Saturday and she is giving a lot of excuses for why she isn't doing the things she knows she needs to like coming to church, reading the scriptures, and praying everyday.  We are still teaching her, but we told her that it is up to her to act.  It is a little frustrating to watch her just throw this opportunity away.

   Samuel is still metting with us, but we were not able to meet him this last week because he has been at the hospital a lot for his broken leg.  So we have been trying to find new people to teach and it has not been so succesful.  The skill of finding succesfully has been, and continues to be, a learning curve. It is not easy to get people to stop, let alone listen to what you have to say.  It takes a lot of listening to the Spirit, and a lot of patience.

"This Is a little activity our ward had; it was for Carnival.
It's kind of like Halloween. All the kids dress up. :)"

John

   I am so glad you got my letter!  Haha, I need to send them more often.  I was starting to wonder if it was lost in the mail 'cause I put it in a while ago, haha.

   So this week, yesterday in fact, we went to a member's house - the Madonia Family.  We went there for lunch, to break our fast, and it was delicious!  And then at the end, Sorella Madonia said she was going to make Cannoli for dessert so I asked if she could teach me!  So yesterday I learned how to make Cannoli and then we ate them.  Oh... my... goodness, they were amazing.  I love them.  :)  haha

   Thank you for all you guys do for me, it really means a lot.  I am glad that you're all doing well.  Get well, Hailey!  haha (Everyone here is getting sick as well.)  Keep being awesome, and I will talk to you all soon! 

   Love Always, Anziano Rigby