Bednar Conference

Hello Y'all,

   Alright, so this week and a half has been a pretty crazy one!  Haha, we've been busy with work and finding, and just missionary life in general!  Haha, and then Sunday night we went to the Anziani's house in Taranto to sleep the night and then we were off Monday morning to Rome.  It took pretty much all day.  We were put in an old nun convent. Haha, so yeah, kind of interesting.  Funny if you ask me.  :)  I was reunited with my son (Mika).  It was a huge reunion...200 missionaries.

   Tuesday we had the conference, which was great!  There was Elder Bednar, Elder Texciera, Elder Allen, and all their wives. We really didn't talk of iPads that much, maybe for an hour.  The rest of it was pretty much a question session.  Some from Elder Bednar to us, and then from us to him. And not just about the iPad thing.  It was about everything and anything.  It was pretty awesome.  I learned a lot.  And I have a new drive to be even better than I am now.

   Other than that, I don't have much to say.  Haha, I'm sorry if I'm not writing much.  I'm just so tired, and there really isn't much new.  Missionary work is pretty much the same from day to day, and week to week. 

   I love you all and hope you are doing well.  It sounds like you are!  Take care!

   Love, Anziano Rigby

Statte

Hey guys!

   Alright, so we have been working hard here in Statte the past couple days. Anziano Puff (the missionary that I replaced here) did some awesome work here.  So we have a lot of stuff to do.  The branch members are way awesome, and way into missionary work which is cool.  I'm still trying to get my bearings on everything and what not, but   ( ? )      it's working.  We have a car here because the area is pretty spread out, and so that's fun.  Anziano Bates drives and I navigate.  But really I just act as the DJ   :)   Haha. 

   So, Yeah. Anziano Bates is from Arizona and he is awesome.  Way good at the language, smart, funny, haha and he does some pretty sick voice impersonations.  All in all, a great guy.  We get along well and that's cool.  We have a couple bap dates for May and we are pushing hard for those.  Moses from Nigeria, Mimmo who is an Italian, and... yeah, I can't think of anything else right now. 

   Statte is really cool.  It kind of reminds me of Idaho a little bit... it's pretty windy, there's a lot of farms and orchards. I t's beautiful. Overall, I'm doing good.  We are preparing to go up to Rome for the conference with Elder Bednar. ...Did I tell you about that?  Hahah, boh, well yeah.  He's coming to introduce iPads to the mission next Tuesday.  So we will be up there.  We will also be doing P-day on that Thursday instead of Monday.  So next week it's Thursday.  

   I love you all and hope you are having a good time.  Take care and we will talk next week.  

  Love you, ciao!!!

Last Transfer

  

Saying Goodbye

 

 

 Well, I am now going into my last transfer... What the... ?

  Haha, that's all I'm gonna say about that.  Next subject!

  This week was good.  It was full of....finding! We had a ton of lessons planned, and none of them went through!  Oh man.  It was always the morning of, they would call us to tell us they had something come up and they couldn't meet.  It was a little discouraging, but we were able to hit the streets and meet some cool people.

My African friends

  

  Oh, so I've been transferred to Statte!   It's outside Taranto.   My new comp is Anziano Bates.  I'll be follow-up training him.   I'm really excited to see what it's like there.  I've never been to Puglia before!  :) 

  Giordana, well, Lia, was not able to meet us either.  It was a slow week.  But we were tracting and we felt we should know this one Palazzo so we went in, and we came out with two return appointments!  Haha, it was pretty cool.  That doesn't happen very often! 

The Bonners

Cool pics from the church

   

   I do know that this gospel is true, and that God loves each one of us unconditionally.  He just wants us to be happy, and he is there waiting for us.  And as we heard in conference, he doesn't even ask us to make the walk alone.  But just that we turn around.  

  Alright, I love you guys!  Have a good week!  You are all the best people ever!!!   :)   Take care.

   

  Love, Anziano Rigby

Easter

Hello guys! 

   Alright, well Happy Easter!  Haha, I hope everybody had a fun time, and that you were all able to think about Christ's sacrifice a little bit more throughout the day.

Okay, well the first one I just think is funny!  Haha, I like the little Pucinello.  :) 

   I had a good week. It started out playing paintball! Woo-hoo!  Haha, it was way fun.  It was a nice little change up from what we normally do.  Then we went back to work. We did a bit of finding this week which was fun.  Haha, I am always grateful for the Lord's help in that aspect.  It's awesome to see the difference.  If you go out with a smile on your face and a goal to be happy and to say hi to everybody, then you are going to have a fun time.  If you go out grumpy, you're gonna be grumpy.  It's your choice. 

And then there is the undergound.  It was used as an aquaduct for the city
 so these caves were filled with water. 

  We taught Pietro on Wednesday and he committed to come to General Conference. But he didn't end up coming.  It was a little discouraging.  But we also met with Giordana. We taught her the Restoration, and we set a bap date with her for the 9th of May. Woo-hoo!  Haha, so that was cool. This next week we are supposed to meet with her at a member's home which should be really exciting!  :)

   Other than that, yesterday, because it was the day after Easter, we were supposed to do a deep clean on the apartment.  So we did that.  Today was our P-day.  We decided to go to the Napoli underground which was actually really cool!  Haha.  I took some pics that I'll send to you.  It's crazy the things that are under the city.  It's really funny because I've talked with old timers who talked about their younger days and how they would go down there with friends to play.  Crazy.

  

During WWII, the peolpe hid down there as protection from the bombs.
But I think a couple of them got through...

  So this week we receive our transfer calls!  Haha, my last one... Yikes!  I really don't know whether I'm staying or going.  I think it could go either way.  Anyway, we'll see.  :)

  Alright, well I love you!  Hope you are having a good day!  Ciao! 

   Love always, Anziano Rigby

Just hangin' around in some caves... :)

We needed to go through a really thin, really long tunnel. So they gave us candles :)

"P" stands for Paintball!!!

Hey Guys!

   Well, if you can't tell by the title of the E-mail, today for P-day we played paintball.  We found a field behind out house and so we organized it with Napoli so it was 4 against 4.  It was pretty sick.  I think we all had fun?  Haha.

 

   So this week, as far as the work, was a little slow.  BUT, we are doing stuff.  We are working on growing it again right now.  There are people out there that are waiting for us. We just need to find them.  :)

    I'm doing good.  Haha, there's really nothing to report.  Our work is continuing to go forward.

    We taught Pietro about the Word of wisdom, which went well.  He has committed to stop smoking and he is working on that.  We are going to talk about coming to church this week cause his soccer will end soon and then it will be important for him to come to church.

  

   It has been a little warmer this week which was really nice!  Haha, I always like this spring weather...

  Well, I love you all!  Haha, I hope you are having a good time there and that all is going well.  Keep your heads up and look for the miracles around you, cause they're there!  Take care.

   Love, Anziano Rigby  

Mar. 23, 2015

Hello guys!

   Wow, this week has been pretty crazy.  It's been busy with traveling and conferences, and finding! Woo-hoo!

   So this week we went to the mission tour in Roma on Friday.  Elder Tixieria and his wife came to talk with us. They talked about finding, and faith, and repentance, and diligence in everything (especially in listening to the spirit).

   As for the rest of the week, it was a little slower but we are working hard and we are slowly getting new investigators. We ended up dropping Francesco who wasn't willing to keep his commitments. But we were also able to make some new friendships and set the grounds for new investigators.  It's a little sad and frustrating dropping people, but you know, I feel we did our part. I know that we were able to set another bap date with him because you were all praying for it but, at the end of the day, the decision was left up to him to follow what we asked him to do and he just wouldn't do it. 

   We were not able to see Pietro this week due to a dislocated knee.  He was in physical therapy all week, but we saw him this morning and he is doing well. We taught the word of wisdom and he accepted it very well.  He smokes, but he wants to stop and we were able to set a goal with him to stop smoking.  He is looking forward to his baptism on the 18th of April, and so are we! We are role playing his lessons at home before we go over and it really does make a huge difference.  I am a firm believer of role playing.  I may not have been at the beginning of my mission, but I am now.

   We also met an inactive member this week named Sergio.  He seems to know that the Church is true, but he continues to break the commandments and then make excuses to why he is doing so.  It's a little weird, but we are just focusing on helping him find the fire again in his life.  I know it's there.

  I really don't have much else to say... oh!  Haha, there was a baptism this last week! Gianni Lucci, the other anziani's investigator, was baptized.  It was a good baptism and the spirit was there. This week there is the baptism of an 8-year-old that we're helping out with.  It is soo cool! I love to see baptisms happen!  We're trying to get all the members pumped up for this work right now.  It's slowly working.

   Okay, now I don't know what to write.  Haha, alright, well I love you guys!  I wish I could tell you how much I love you!  I wish I could give you a hug when you're feeling down, when you have a bad day, and when you're just tired.  I can't help but imagine it's the same for our dear Father in Heaven... I know he loves us dearly. 

  Well, have a good week and a good day.  Thanks for the e-mails!  I'll talk to you soon  :)  Ciao!

  Love always, Anziano Rigby 

March 9th

Hey Y'all! 

   Thanks for all the updates on what's going on in your lives.  iI know that God is watching over you and keeping you safe, but also helping you learn through experiences.  After all, isn't that what life is for?  :)

    So this week was really good.  We are seeing great miracles! We were able to set another baptismal date with Francesco. He is up and down, and we never are quite sure what to think about him. We went into the lesson expecting to do a drop lesson, and instead we came out with a date for his baptism. He needs to find some self-drive somewhere between now and then!  Haha, or else it's not gonna happen...It's really the basics that make the difference.  Reading, praying, going to church. Really, it's just having a sincere interest in what you're doing.  Haha.

   We had another lesson with an investigator named Sirio.  He's from Napoli and he is progressing well.  He wants to be baptized as well.  He is praying to know his date and we are going to talk to him tomorrow.

   We also got a new investigator this week.  Her name is Giordana.  She is from Pozzuoli and she first met the missionaries like 30 years ago.  She liked them a lot and wanted to get baptised but her husband at the time would not let her.  They are no longer together and she is quite interested.  I really think she will be baptized as well.  So as you can see, the miracles are present. We have the energy and the faith!  Now it's time to reap the rewards.  I'm praying that they can all feel the spirit and that we can do our part to help them come to Christ.

   Me and Anziano Pope are doing well together and we are becoming better teachers together.  Haha, he's a good missionary. 

   Other than that, I don't have much to say.  The district is doing well and I'm really excited to see the work that will be done this transfer!  Woo-Hoo!

   Haha, I love you guys and hope you are having fun!

Love, Anziano Skyler Rigby