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