Post-Christmas

Well you guys, It was good seeing you! Haha, what an awesome blessing. Well I don't really have anything to say today. We talked on Thursday and then Friday we watched our movies, had a lunch appointment, and did some missionary work. and then Saturday we visited a lady in the branch and talked with a big group of scouts. Haha that was pretty cool :)

   We also did quite a bit of finding. Lots of it. We will also do some more finding tonight! Yay! Haha it really isn't bad as long as you have a good attitude about it. If you're positive, people will stop. :) We actually met some pretty cool people in Pozzuoli yesterday. On of them invited us to their house next Sunday to have some fresh Spaghetti alla Ragù yum!!! 

   But yeah. That's about it. Today for P-day we went to the theater here in Napoli it's huge! It is by Via Toledo if you want to look it up. We got to stay and watch a little of the rehearsal for the nutcracker. They are opening tomorrow so it was pretty good :) Way cool! I really like that stuff. The arts are really awesome. So yeah. That's it! Thanks again for the great Christmas and for being such a great family! Haha keep it up and I'll talk to you next week :) Ciao!

   Love, Anziano Rigby   

Christmas!!

(Pictures of Napoli Specialized Training, originally from Pres. and Sis. Waddoups' blog)

Hey guys! 

   Wow, I can't belive that Christmas is in 3 days!!!  It is crazy that time flies so fast.  It seems like it was not that long ago when I was Skyping you for Mothers Day.  And here we are!

   This last week was good. We again did a lot of finding, but we are meeting some cool people who will hopefully turn into investigators.  Last night we went to Pozzuoli and did caroling.  It was good! Haha, it was way fun.

   So my plans to bring Christmas to a couple kids is still gonna happen I think, but it will not be with the ward. Nor at a hospital as I had hoped. :(  Instead we are going to take it to some of the people we have gotten to know here in Pozzuoli.  It should be good.  

   As far as the e-mail about being district leader, I don't know why that was sent to me now.  Or to you for that matter!  Haha, I'm not district leader right now.  I was in Pescara, but Anziano Turner is the DL here.  Haha, boh.  I don't know.

   Well, I am really excited to see you all!  I love you!  And yeah, 10 or 11 your time Christmas morning.  Boo-yaw Diggidy.  Till then!

   Love, Anziano Rigby

Christmas!

Hey!  Merry Christmas!

   Well, this week has been good.  I saw Anziano Jones off and I am excited for him.  He will do great. Anziano Pope is my new comp.  He is great!  He has lots of good ideas, he's hard working, he has a vision, and he loves the work.  

   This week we did a lot of finding.  In fact, that's pretty much all we did!  Haha, but we have gotten quite a bit of contacts and we are growing our pool of people to teach (hopefully).  We met these two really nice older ladies on the street while we were waiting for a bus. One of them knew the missionaries a ways back and the other had never heard of us.  We talked to them for a good half hour and they really liked us, and we really liked them.  At the end, they both wanted to hear more and the lady that had never heard of our church before invited us over to her house for lunch this next Sunday. She has 4 children and 7 grandchildren.  We're hoping that at least some of them are visiting because it will be right before Christmas.  I have a really good feeling about it.  I think something will come out of it. 

   Other than that, we are just looking for opportunities to serve and finding ways to spread Christmas Joy!  The world is too sad.  It needs some brightening up. :)  I really don't have anything else to say.... Haha, I'm really excited to see you all next week!  :)  I hope you are all doing well.  Keep up the good work! 

   Love, Anziano Rigby

Dicembre!!

Hey guys!

   Alright, well I don't have much time today.  We need to take a train here soon to Caserta to see La Reggia.  It is a big palace that was in the first Star Wars movie?  I don't know.  Either way, it should be petty cool :)

  This week has been pretty good?  Haha, pretty much all our investigators have vanished. They have either moved or lost interest.  So we have spent the entire week finding in the rain!  Haha, it was pretty cold, but it was good.  We met some cool people and hopefully they will become new investigators.

  We had transfer calls this week and Anziano Jones is leaving to Terni!  I'm really sad to see him go, but I'm sure he will love Terni.  He is a good missionary and a good guy.  Anziano Pope will be my new companion.  Haha, that will be fun!  I hear he is pretty energetic and on the ball so that will be good for me.  I need some "new missionary fire" right about now.  :P 

  So we have been talking about doing some type of service thing for Christmas, and we want to take toys and sing to kids in the hospital for Christmas!  It started out as just us as missionaries but now we are making it an activity for the ward.  It will be really cool if we can get them all to come!  I really hope that it all works out.  I just want to make a couple kids happy this year for Christmas.  I think we will also go around and carol a little bit.  Comunque, I am really excited for this Christmas.  It is crazy that it is already Christmas time again. ...where does the time go?  Oh well.  Haha 

   I love you guys!  Take care and I'll see you soon!  Love you!

   -Anziano Rigby

Dicembre!

Haha, and a picture of me. ...wait a sec,  I have glasses on.  Haha, sooo... I went to the optics place this week and got some glasses.  Mostly because I like to wear them once in a while, but while I was there they asked if I wanted my eyes checked for free. "Sure why not?"  It turns out I have astigmatism in one of my eyes…?  It's not bad though, just a little.  So yeah, now I have glasses.  Cool story, I know. :P

Alright there peeps,

   Well, this week has been alright.  Haha, we are doing a lot more finding these days.  A lot of our prior investigators either cannot meet with us or they don't respond.  It is not very easy to grow the investigator pool here and sometimes it can be frustrating coming home after a long day of finding and not having much to show for it.  And it is hard when people don't want to talk to you.  One thing I have learned on my mission is that rejection is inevitable, but failure is an option. We can't control what other people do, but we can control how we react.  If we stay positive we can achieve anything, but once we let ourselves become distressed or down it is really hard to do anything.  But God always loves us.  He is constantly with us and is proud of what we are doing.  And then there is Jesus Christ that knows exactly how we feel.  He too had people reject him.  He was spit on and even kicked out of his own home town.  His very friends and neighbors asked him to leave.  That would be pretty hard.  I know that he is watching us and he is anxiously engaged in helping us.

   We met with Francesco this week and it went well for the most part. He has a baptismal date for the 13th but it might need to be moved... he has some things to do before he can be baptized.  Also him and his family just moved and they are now pretty close to Castelamare.  He is definitely out of our area so we will need to pass him to the missionaries over in that area.

Alright! Well, this was us at the Thanksgiving dinner activity! Haha, one of us before the meal…and one of us after!  Haha, jk.  But, that's what it's supposed to look like.  ;)

Alright, this is a selfie of me with the poor turkey.  Haha, somehow I was chosen to cut the roast beast, so...woo-hoo!  Haha, trial through fire!

   

And then all my african friends!  They are all members of the branch here. :)

   Haha, yesterday when we got to church the President of the branch kindly approached me and asked me to give a talk in Sacrament meeting... Yayyyyy... so I spent the first hour of church prepping for that.  I decided to do it on Christ's role in our salvation, and what we need to do for our own salvation.  I kind of based it off of Helaman 14:15-19.  I think that was the reference... He talks about how Christ took upon himself the fall of Adam free of charge.  He has done that, and given us each a perfect body after the resurrection.  We don't have to work for that.  But our personal salvation very much depends on our choices here.  I think it went okay... It was pretty nerve-racking!

Other than that, not much happened.  We celebrated Thanksgiving last week really. This week we had a little party with English course to celebrate, but nothing else. Kennedy, a member from Ghana, invited us over to have some cake with him for his birthday.  It was awesome!  He is so nice and really a cool and funny guy.  I have really been blessed with where I have been able to serve.  I am excited for Christmas here.

Here we go, puttin' ornaments on the tree....

 

   I received the advent calender and the ornaments. Thank you so much! Haha, they are awesome! Anziano Jones got his too.  He says thank you :)

   Well, that's about it.  We are going to go crazy on finding this week.  It will be fun!  Haha, take care you guys.  I love you!

   -Anziano Rigby

Mission accomplished!

Alright, the tree is finished!  It looks nice if I do say so myself...? :)