Transfers!

Bowling on P-day

Hey Guys!

   Haha, alright, well we had transfer calls and I am being transferred to Pozzuoli!  Woohoo!  Haha, my new companion will be Anziano Jones.  No, not my companion in the MTC.  This Anziano Jones is pretty new to the mission.  I am way, way excited.  I hear he is way cool.  Haha, I also know that he is a really good cellist?  Haha, he plays the cello really well.  Like, professional, so yeah.  That will be sick!  Haha  :)

   Well, this week I did a ton of stuff.  I learned how to solve a Rubik's Cube, I did ricerca (finding?) in the rain, I taught some awesome lessons, and I ate Fufu. And when I say Fufu I mean cow flesh and cow intestines...  :)  Good stuff.  Haha!

   So this week was pretty rainy.  It rained and rained and rained!  By the end of it all, it was pretty cold. We were bundled up in scarves and jackets.  Not many people wanted to talk because it was cold but, hey, that's fine  :)

   We were able to meet with Tyson again this week and we taught him about the Word of Wisdom. We had a lengthy discussion about it, but at the end he committed to stop drinking wine.  He doesn't smoke or anything, so that's good.  He is really good and wants to follow Christ.  Haha, but before that he made us Fufu.  Oh boy, that was an experience!  So I'll send pictures, but basically you have the Fufu which is just a flour mixed with water, and then you have the soup. We got to his house and he pulled out this soup which he had prepared the day before, and he started heating it up.  It started to smell not too great in the house and so I went over to see what was cooking.  Bad idea.  Haha, my stomach started turning just looking at it.  We sat down, and he gave us a bowl of soup and our Fufu. You then take a bit of Fufu in your hand and dip it in the soup (which is very slimy) and you eat it. The chunks of cow were pretty nasty.  Haha, I only ate a couple pieces.  If I ate any more I was going to throw up.  But thanks to some imagination and a lot of praying, we made it out alive.  :)

  

 We also met with a man named Mike.  He is also from Nigeria.  We met him on the street during a scampi (exchanges) and he is a friend of another investigator. We met him and talked about the restoration.  It was a great lesson.  The spirit was very strong, and we were able to point it out and bear strong testimony of the truthfulness of the gospel.  Mike also bore testimony of the Savior which was amazing.  It was very strong and you could feel his conviction.

   We went to go find some other Africans this week and got to their apartment building, but they didn't answer so we went inside and started searching for their door.  We got to the second floor where there was a door with gospel stickers on the front. "Cleansed in the Blood of Jesus," "2012 our year of Victory," "When the Lord is with you, who can stand against you?" Yep, found it.  We ring and no one answers.  Again. ....there's voices.  Nothing. We stood there for 5 minutes knocking.  I guess they didn't want visitors.  So we left a restoration pamphlet taped to their door.  We walk out of the complex and there they are out on the porch.  "....Hi there."  Whoa, wait a sec, that's not the Africans we know? "We left you something to read if you are interested…?  It's on your door.  Bye!"  Hahahaha, they weren't very happy.  Oops.  Hey, who knows.  Maybe they will get baptized?

   Well, it's been a good time here in Pescara.  Tons of stuff has happened and it feels like yesterday that I got here.  I love this work and I love the mission! 

   I love you guys and hope you are doing well.  Take care and I will talk to you next week!  Ciao!

   Love, Anziano Rigby

Cool graffiti

October ZC

Hey Y'all,

  Well, it's been a crazy week full of travel, and fun.

   So first we had Zone Conference.  I really enjoyed the Zone Conference, and the addestramenti (trainings).  It is so important to know how to teach and how to become better.   It is one of the most important things to learn in missionary work, in my opinion.  And that's what we talked about!  And it is really cool because that is one of my goals for this transfer - to become a better teacher.

   After we came back from the conference, we had a full day of lessons on Thursday and we fixed two baptismal dates.  It was really cool.  It showed the importance of what we had just learned. 

   One is named Tyson.  He's from Nigeria and he is a friend of a member.  We met him on the bus a couple weeks ago and he came to church last week, and then we taught him this week. He is really cool, and really humble.

   The other is Named Giovanna. She has known the church for a long time and has been off and on. We fixed a date with her, but she needs to commit a little more before she is ready to be baptized. We are working with her on that.

   We usually do some finding or gesso (chalk drawing) Sunday nights.  On the sheet for gesso we can put anything.  Once we put down a question about things that make us happy in life, another time we put a tree and names for genealogy, and this last time we drew a timeline with the names of prophets and what not.  It doesn't really matter what you put, it's just to get people to stop.  Haha, so yeah.  

   This Saturday we get our transfer calls and I think I'm out of here.  Who knows where I'll go?

   Today for P-day we're going Bowling again.  It was too fun and relaxing!  Haha.

 

   Well, I love you guys and hope you're doing well  :)  Talk to you later! 

   Love, Anziano Rigby

Rome East Zone Conference

(Some pictures from Pres. and Sis. Waddoups' blog)

Rome East Zone

Elder Rigby singing 'Glorious' from the movie 'Meet The Mormons.'

Pre-Zone Conference

Elder Rigby spending the night at the Mission Home the day before Zone Conference

General Conference

Hey there :) 

   Wow, it's been a crazy weird week.  Not in a bad way, just different, and long.  So first off, I got to do my Permesso di soggiorno this week so I'm not illegal.  And then we did a scampi (split) in Ascoli which was really good.  We did some good work and learned a few things. 

   Here in Pescara we are having a hard time getting appointments with our investigators. We are searching for more and we may need to drop a few.  They just don't have the desire to push and do the things they need to like coming to church, reading, meeting with us.  It is a little bit of a let down when they say no and give us an excuse…

   So right now we are doing some hard-core finding!  We also are meeting with members this week to start up the new ward mission plan! We are going to get all of the members to make a list of their friends, and then pray over it and over each name to see who they can invite to come to an activity, or to meet the missionaries, or to do a family home evening together. 

Doing gesso in the piazza.

   I really enjoyed general conference this last week. It was so good! I received answers to my questions and I know what I can do to be better.  It is amazing how we can receive personal answers to personal questions.  And as was taught over the weekend, "Spiritual questions call for Spiritual answers." What a true statement!  As a missionary I can witness that that is true. We cannot look at the things of God through physical eyes; it doesn't work. Nor can we expect to receive an answer to our spiritual questions if we are not putting enough time into them, or if we don't first act on the direction we receive.  To receive a testimony of the Book Of Mormon, we need to READ it and put the principles that it teaches us into practice.

   Right now I am listening to the Sunday afternoon session as I write to you.  The speaker is talking about receiving the blessings that we are given in our Patriarchal Blessing.  He asks if we are constantly working towards the blessings we are promised.  It is really good.  It's true.  I need to focus on that more.  It's not something that I have been doing.

Anziano Mika is a little tall for the Italian way of life...

   That's pretty much it.  Haha, If you haven't already, I invite you all to pick something you learned from conference and make a plan to implement it in your life.  You will see the blessings flow forth more freely in your life, you will feel the spirit more in your life, and you will gain a stronger testimony that this is the church of Jesus Christ.  I bear witness that it is.

   I hope you all have a good week.  I love you!

   Love Always, Anziano Rigby