Monday, December 12, 2011

Time flew!

Dear Family and Friends,

Hey! Well its my last pday in PE. next week i fly to cape town and spend the day and night with President and elder Bagenzi and Elder Andri. I'm pretty excited. I haven't received my flight itinerary yet, i just called the office about that and they are sending it. so i'll know soon. haha i do know that i'm going to the temple on tuesday next week during my big layover in joburg and then i fly out that night. I'm really excited to go to the temple, been two years. that just sounds weird, its been 2 YEARS... time flew by like a rocket. i don't know what to do other than just continue to work hard this last week, i know i have to. We are going to George and Knysna for exchanges so lots of work. and we get back on saturday and we have reservations for Admires restaurant haha its a nice all you can eat buffet. so that will be my farewell dinner with the district. :)

I got my new suit last week monday, its very nice. or so i'm told haha. and zone conference was amazing, my last one, i cried.... and when we were bearing testimonies, President got up when it was my turn and stood next to me and just looked me in my eyes and i lost it, the Spirit was so comforting. He told the elders that i've been a good missionary and that we are gunna miss him... It feels so wonderful and comforting to know that my mission president is pleased with my work ethics as a missionary. so i bore my last testimony in zone conference and i know my Savior lives and that God loves us. the conference was focused on the Savior of course and we had singing of hymns and training on teaching that God is our loving Heavenly Father. and we had a small gift exchange. and the food of course was amazing haha. i love Christmas time.

Wednesday i went on exchanges with Elder Ncube in Lorraine. we had a good day. did some service of wrapping presents at the mall in the morning, that was fun haha. then went to wimpy for lunch and spent the rest of the day working with less actives and members and we did some finding in the evening with no success, granted it was for only 30 mins. every door was closed on us or they wouldn't open the door. wanted nothing to do with us. but i liked Elder Ncubes attitude as we were tracting, he calls it lifting and he always laughed at the fact that the people didn't want to listen to us, he taught me something. they have agency and they aren't afraid to use it. they don't know what they are missing out on but we go and try and do our best to inform them. we can't help if they don't want to listen. we "just smile and wave" smile and wave boys. :) haha.

The rest of this week we have done service as usual :) i love doing service. we helped our elders quorum pres lay some bricks to build a wall and we did some service for a non member friend of Michelle in Blue water bay that was in desperate need of her yard cleaned up. we had fun doing that. and we've been working with some less actives too. we saw roderick on saturday evening. he said he would come to church but didn't pitch. don't know why. he says that his sundays are usually busy with helping people in his community and that people always come to him for help. so he is being Christ like he just needs to come to church for 3 hours and partake of the sacrament and then he can go and serve people after church. We also saw the Goosen family last night, we've cut their grass a few times and now its grown back real quick. but they are doing great they wanted to come to church yesterday but over slept so they have a goal to come next week. we will do service again for them soon.

on our investigator side Noxolo is doing awesome! we were going to walk with her to church yesterday morning and we go and walk with her to the chimuties and then she was able to get a ride with them so we didn't walk very far :) haha i must say i was excited to walk to church with her tho. she has been reading like crazy and feels that this is what she has been looking for! So she loved church and she made good friends with Wendy. So thats good she has great support. she leaves town this coming friday so the elders will see her when she gets back in January.

Tolla is not progressing like we thought he was. he didn't come to church again. and he now knows that he doesn't' want to marry Susan so now they need to separate so he can get baptized. the only reason they are living together is because its financially better. so i hope and pray that things will get better for him. hes a nice guy.

we don't have any other investigators that we've seen this past week. its low i know but we manage to stay busy with visiting less active members and active members and getting them excited about missionary work. We had lunch with the parkers yesterday and it was really good. rice and curry and then a really rich caramel desert with biskets. i was really full when we left haha. sis parker was always asking us if we were full or if we wanted more and that there was plenty. yo, they can feed missionaries haha. i love that family.

Well i don't know if i'll email next week, probably not but who knows. i fly to cape town monday morning so i don't know what exactly i am going to do there. I'm excited to see all of you next week! :) I'm stressing about my talks that i have to give. i'm giving one on sunday here my last sunday in SA and then Bishop sent me my subject for when i speak at home. on the 1st of Jan. SO i have plenty of time to think about it but i'm still worried... oh well i'll buck up and do a good job i hope. but i love you all and hope you have a wonderful week! i'll see you next week! :)

your dieing missionary,
Elder Robert S Rigby (SACTM)

Monday, December 5, 2011

Love the Work

Dear Family and Friends,

Goeie More! (good morning) :) I had a great week. My comp and i have been trying to work hard. We have been working really close with our members and been giving them nice papered family mission plans to set goals and help them do missionary work. its great fun. the parker family filled it out right there with us it was awesome haha. and then we have continued to work on finding more people to teach. we did some tracting on tuesday and found a few to go back and follow up on. we had exchanges on friday with the APs and elder chatora and i went back to one home and we were able to sit down and teach Sinazo and Kuhle. both students. leaving back home in a few weeks. but will be back. we just started out with asking them about their beliefs and so forth and then they made the comment of us being "saved" so we discussed the term of being saved for a while and then came to a conclusion. We are still running the race to get to our Heavenly Father and we haven't crossed the finished line yet. so we can't say that we are saved. they agreed. after a while of discussing it. then we introduced the restoration and gave them the pamphlet to read and set up a time to come back. we felt good about Sinazo, she really has good potential to progress. kuhle on the other hand is a bit timid and doesn't care too much. but we'll see how she turns out. it felt good to teach a lesson like that. so in all i enjoyed my exchange with elder chatora and we were also able to teach Noxolo our baptismal date. she is a power house haha. very excited about learning the gospel, she didn't make it to church yesterday tho, confusion with getting a hold of a member to walk with to church and so she didn't come. but we went there after church to say hello and see how she is doing. she appreciated us coming and checking on her. she's been reading the Book of Mormon like crazy. its so cool to see her excitement.

we didn't have any investigators at church yesterday. it was a very powerful fast and testimony meeting. i even went up and bore my testimony. i felt impressed to and it was my last fast and testimony meeting in SA. the people here are so awesome i don't know what else to say. they really love the missionaries and the work we do. i love them so much and its so cool to see how the gospel has influenced their homes and the Spirit is present. We did a lot of service this past week for some members. we helped the furies move some old flooring out of a bathroom and then we helped the Verbasts move on saturday morning and then helped Bro Sweiglar move some stuff into the crawl space. in the rain haha yes its been raining a lot lately.

Michelle is doing awesome. she came yesterday and then we were able to visit her and her husband Andy on thursday again. we just went over the plan of salvation for her and andy just listened and shared a few things on it. it was nice, they even fed us :) yo this past week i swear every day we got fed something from someone haha. Luthando fed us lunch on tuesday and wednesday. out of the goodness of his heart. he was leaving to go back home to queenstown on thursday so we wanted to be good to us and say goodbye to me since he won't be back before i leave. Yo i'll miss him haha. but back to michelle we went there yesterday and the parker family came with us. we had a really nice visit with michelle and the parker family really helped fellowship. it was a good afternoon.

after that we checked on a man we met while doing service last week at bro mikes place. Chris, and his family, they stay in blue water bay as well. they are 7th day Adventist as we came to know yesterday. the wife, oprah really wanted to tell us that we were wrong for worshipping on sunday and not the so called saturday as their "sabbath" she was just telling us that the Bible says, the Bible say this and this.... we just listened and then before it got too upwary we calmed it down and said a prayer to invite the Spirit and then the only thing that came to my mind to answer her question on why we worship on sunday, is the fact that the short answer is a boy walked into a grove of trees looking for answers. thats all that came to me. and really thats the only reason why we do worship on sunday. we believe in continued revelation! God and Jesus Christ Live and they speak through our modern day prophets! we believe in the restoration of the gospel! that sums up everything. in time we left them a copy of the Book of Mormon for them to read and pray. they said they would. they would be a awesome family to bring into the gospel.

well that sums up the gooder week i had! :) we have zone conference this thursday. i'm excited for that. i am working hard everyone :) i can't just sit around in the flat all day that would drive me insane haha. i love talking with people and sharing my testimony with them about the Savior. i can't deny that He lives and loves us and wants whats best for us. I really love missionary work! :)

and yes its starting to feel like december, Christmas decorations have been up for a while now and more and more are coming up! still no snow as i would love haha 2 weeks and i'll be in it haha.

Well i love you all and pray that the Lord will be with you. i love my Savior and this work that i am still called to do. i can't give up :) still people to come to know of the truth! i love you have a great week!

your Son, brother, and friend,
Elder Robert S Rigby (SACTM)

Monday, November 28, 2011

Service, Service, and more Service

Dear Family and Friends,

hallo! :) it was a slow week but we managed to teach some people and visit some less active members and oh we did lots of service this week. i've never done so much service in one area my entire mission haha. i love it! makes me miss the good ole work back home! surprise i know. tuseday we helped the furrie family moved some furniture back into their home, they had a big flood back in june and july so everything was washed out in the yard. so big renovations are happening there. always service for us to do there haha. the the on saturday we showed up to get some post from the Lorraine elders while they were doing service at their bishops house and we pull up and they are busy cutting down a tree, and they desperately needed help haha so Elder Rogers and I, in our whites haha, got down and helped them cut down a tree, with a little hatchet and a hand saw. we really could have used dads chain saw that day haha would have been down in 2 seconds ok maybe 30 seconds haha. give it time to cut through. :) but it was hard work i must say, i was sweating big time afterward. then after lunch we went and helped Bro Mike with his yard in the location. we first cut his grass with bro meyers weed eater and then we moved some dirt that was piling up near his fence and was pushing it over. and fix his step that goes into his house. did some really good work this past week, service wise anyway. i enjoyed it :)

with missionary work as i said its been slow.... people are leaving for holiday, mostly students. So all our fellowshippers are headed out this week if not already gone. but its ok i'm only here for a few more weeks. i'm going to miss this ward. the people here love the missionaries too much. Elder rogers and i have really gotten their trust. to top it off i'm singing with bishop and sis meyer and 2 other sisters for a musical for sacrament meeting on the 11 DEC. i'm really excited for that. we practiced yesterday after church for a little bit and the music is so pretty, i'm singing bass, bishop is singing the tenor and then sis meyer is soprano and then the other 2 sisters are singing the alto part. it sounds so pretty when we get all the parts together. i love singing haha. last night when we came back to our flat we had some time, so i said to my comp, elder i feel like singing. haha he said ok then lets sing. haha we even borrow the meyers keyboard and we were singing the hymns haha. i love the hymns. :) the meyers came out and was like elder rigby, what did you eat or drink today that made you want to sing to much haha. i just laughed and said well i love singing. they enjoyed it as well.

on our investigator side, we really only have one progressing. Noxolo. she is doing awesome. we taught her on thursday and then she surprised us yesterday by coming to church! she said she was gunna try to come but then on saturday she cancelled her appointment because she was going to alice to visit some friends. so we didn't think she was going to be here to come to church but she did. i hope she enjoyed it, we had our primary program yesterday. it was funny haha it reminded me of when i was in primary. there were about 20 kids on the stand. they did a really good job. more little talks then actually singing. but it was good! the first one i've seen in Africa! :) the church is true! haha But back to Noxolo. she has read 8 chapters of the Book of Mormon in 5 days we were amazed by that. she told us that she really wants to find out what the book is about haha. she wants to be baptized but wants to be ready so she still has a date for January. i hope she makes it and i think she will. she's facing opposition from her family but thats always one barrier with the gospel it seems like. i pray that her familys hearts will be softened and will accept the gospel in the future.

Erin dropped us this past week. she told her mom that she doesn't want to get baptized and that she wants to live her life when shes 18 she wants to drink and party are so forth. which is understandable for a 15 yr old whose dad isn't the best example. but she has awesome support from her mom. Michelle came to church yesterday and then we went there later in the afternoon, erin wasn't home of course but her (michelles) husband Andy joined us this week! :) we were so happy haha. we just started to watch The Testaments, DVDs are a good way to get people interested. i think he liked it so far. we only watched half of it and then left it with them to finish. so there is progression in that home! Elder Rogers and i are very happy with whats happening there with them. well except for erin. but she is young and needs time to figure out what is important in her life.

we have the Christmas program for zone conference, there is going to be lots of singing involved from all the elders in the zone. its on the 8 dec. for our zone, its going to be a big gathering of missionaries. our zone will be combined with Kwa Nobuhle and then the cape town zones will be combined as well as NAM and then the east london and MD ad Queenstown zones will be combined. so big gatherings haha.

Well i love you all and hope you continue to have a good week! i love this work. i love my Savior. looking forward to seeing you all soon. i still am working, don't worry. haha. have a good one everybody!

YOUR MISSIONARY,
Elder Robert S Rigby (SACTM)

Monday, November 21, 2011

Missionary Moments

Dear Family and Friends,

Well i surely enjoyed the Addo elephant park today. We left this morning and then got back about an hour ago. it was fun, saw lots of elephants! and some zebras and Kudoo and birds and hoping to see a lion with no luck. oh well. i'll have to come back in the future to see one in Africa :) all 8 of us, and the Laprays went. Had fun taking pictures and having big elephants right next to the car. :) its a very big park could've easily stayed longer but we needed to get back.

we had another good week working on our less actives. we even went to PEC on thrusday evening and bishop asked us if we were happy doing that and we of course said yes and then he said "well good! thats what we need to be doing at the present time to strengthen this ward" So bishop was very pleased with our work and also encouraged us to continue working on finding more people to teach as well, need to balance the teaching pool and working with less actives. Sunday was a really good attendance. we had close to 90 people in sacrament meeting. many less actives came, and some students who we thought would come didn't so it could've been even higher. The Goosen family made it and said that they would be here next week as well, i hope i'm still here to see that happen, since it is transfer week. we'll find out later tonight. Sis Spear also came. one of our home teaching families. and many others, oh it was a good sunday. we had a wonderful lunch with the Parkers family and they invited us for Christmas eve. i won't be there haha. but i am kinda disappointed. i'll miss out. but i am so super duper excited to be home with my FAMILY this Christmas. We didn't get to meet with Michelle and Erin yesterday. they cancelled on us after church. they stayed for all 3 hours this week and i think they enjoyed it. Tolla also made it to church yesterday. our dry member haha. he has been coming to church since February in Lorraine ward but then moved into our boundaries so he came to our ward. good guy, needs to get married or either separate from his girlfriend so he can get baptized. reads and prays everyday. so i don't know what the problem is. we did see him on wednesday evening. met his girlfriend, Susan. very nice lady also afrikaans. we hope to focus on teaching her.

I was supposed to ordain teboho to the Aronic priesthood yesterday but he didn't come to church. he is doing good just busy with his exams so he is studying alot.

hmmm, what else happened this week....just visited a lot of less actives and hope to see them at church soon. Bishop has an idea of having the leadership in priesthood go out on every other thursday and visit less actives. so we will also be a part of that, i'll go with some brother and then elder rogers will go with another brother and do double work! :) this ward is awesome the people are great and we had an awesome missionary fireside last night with 30 attendance which was alright. we planned it up with our ward mission leader and had some speakers on family history work and how a member influenced them to join the church and how being a good neighbor can have a big effect on missionary work. elder rogers and i sang our mission song with it combined to called to serve. they liked it haha. then we watched "by small and simple things." it was a gooder fireside. hopefully it had a deep effect on getting the members to do missionary work.

well that was the sum of my week. it was good! I ENJOYED IT. oh we even did some tracting this past week, with little success, we did meet a crazy jewish guy tho. haha and a JW that has a Book of Mormon and knows all about the church and so forth. sigh. the Lord will prepare those. thats all i can say, just got to find them. I love this work. I am so grateful for my family and my friends that have been awesome examples to me. i'm grateful for my testimony that i have to share with the people of SA and the people i will come in contact with when i get home. I have loved these 2 years and have no regrets. i am grateful for the gospel in my life and the teachings i have learned to help me become a better son and servant of my Heavenly Father. i am grateful for a loving father in heaven who knows whats going on in my life and who is always there to talk to and seek guidance from. and many other things i am grateful for! :) have a good week every body! i love you!

Your missionary,
Elder Robert S Rigby (SACTM)










Monday, November 14, 2011

Exchanges

Dear Family and Friends,

hey Everybody! :) my week was good! we went to Knysna and george for exchanges. it was awesome i really enjoyed being with the elders that side and getting to teach with Elder Brereton, from Lewiston Idaho and i also got to go with Elder Larrabee from Utah. had 2 good days with them. they have awesome areas and really cool people to teach. President was there on saturday to do training for elder browning and elder simpson who are fairly new missionaries. so we got to join in on the training. it was a good review of the doctrine of Christ and the importance of the area book and so forth. it was fun. and then pres took us out to nandos for lunch! :) really cool! its so pretty there in those 2 towns. i hope, if i stay in PE, that i will get to go one more time before i travel onward to my life back home. So yeah! it was fun!

Tuesday was basically the only day that we had in our area this past week and then of course yesterday after church. so on tuesday we did lots of less active work. we first did some service for the furrie family. we chipped out some concrete using a pick axe so we could get out their jukoozi. it was hard work. my hands are still sore from it but i enjoyed doing that kind of work for a change. then the afternoon we saw sis spear, we home teach her, she is an older woman, very nice, but less active. they have a special 40yr old son that talks alot. but its kinda funny to tell you the truth. but we shared our message at the park nearby their home. it was nice out in the fresh air. Then later we saw Nanga, been trying to teach her friends but have never been able to meet with them. they are busy with exams. she has many friends that she wants us to teach which is awesome. she just gave us another one last night. we saw an investigator that moved from the lorraine elders area. tolla. he is a really nice guy. afrikaans. in his 40s not baptized yet due to cohabitating. so we hope to get that all figured out asap. Then that evening we saw bro upward. he and his wife just need to come to church. they have the desire but haven't acted on it yet, we don't know if they are really serious about it or what. I hope the spirit touches them and they will come.

Wednesday we saw another less active bro Kaiso. from bostwana. he's a really nice guy, studied law. and now doing his masters. we just shared a spiritual thought with him. then we had correlation with our ward mission leader bro Stewart Chaberlian and then we headed out to Knysna! 3 hour drive but its a beautiful drive on the garden route! i attached some pictures of our trip. The largest bungee jump in the world! again no one was jumping when we stopped by but its ok. still pretty cool to see the bridge and the big canyon. then spent the next 3 days on exchanges and had a blast!

Saturday we came back and and then Sunday, yesterday we went to church. had 3 investigators there. the ward couple came! :) and Erin came with her mom but they both only stayed for sacrament meeting. its a start! i hope they enjoyed it. we went to Erins after church like we always do, and she hadn't read anything from the Book of Mormon so we read alma 34 with them and explained about earth life and the atonement. good lesson. We also saw a new investigator, Noxolo. she is on fire, very smart. she read the restoration pamphlet and basically told us what she read we were shocked. haha so we explained more in detail and she committed to be baptized in January. ;) it was cool so see how the Spirit had touched her this past week and as we sat there with her. she prayed at the end of the lesson and it wasn't a normal investigator prayer that i've heard before, she really wanted to know if Joseph Smith was a prophet and if the Book of Mormon is true and if this is the path that God wants her to follow. it was awesome! :) We really had a good day yesterday.

thats basically the week of elder rigby and elder rogers! haha Dorothy moved so we don't see her anymore. we are going to do some finding this week i think, our teaching pool is kinda shaky at the moment. need more people to teach!

that zl picture was taken in front of the Rhodes memorial in cape town. pretty cool eh? :)

well i love you all and hope you all have a fabulous week in idaho! i'm excited for the snow! haha :) loves you all

your missionary,
Elder Robert S Rigby (SACTM)




Monday, November 7, 2011

ZL Council

hey Everybody!

Well i had a good week in SACTM. its getting hot in SA again surprise surprise haha. I'm excited to come home to snow and go snow boarding again haha... i really enjoyed zl council from Monday till Wednesday. we had some good training from President and The assistants. lots on the Book of Mormon and how sometimes we take it for granted and don't use it like we should. We also had training on working with our Stake and ward leaders and helping them do missionary work and how we need to gain their trust for them to give us referrals and people to teach. then we also had training on how to conduct baptismal interviews. It was really good. I thoroughly enjoyed it. President Wood is serious when he needs to be and conducts the work as it needs to be but his personality is so humorous and he spent time with us during lunch and dinner and while we were waiting on wednesday for our flights back to our areas he played ping pong with us. I think he and sis Wood love spending time with us and interacting with us. it was a blast. but i must say by Wednesday i was tired of sitting all day in meetings. So i was really excited to get back to the area and go and visit people.

So we got back on Wednesday and went to the area that evening we Prince and Jabulani, Bro Rodericks brothers and had a good lesson with them on faith and improving their spiritual welfare. and gave them a baptismal date for the 18 of dec. Then we saw Tebaho our R.C. he is doing really well he even came out fellowshipping with us yesterday after church and he enjoyed it. he bore a really nice testimony of reading the scriptures at Michelles and Erins. That was a good lesson. Michelle came to sacrament meeting yesterday! :) i was so happy to see her. and she felt comfortable and said that next week she's gunna try to stay all 3 hours. So thats exciting for them! Erin wasn't "up for the challenge" as her mom told us so hopefully we'll see Erin soon at church. yesterday with them we read 2 Nephi with them to help Erin with her reading of her Book of Mormon and also help answer questions about the plan of salvation. it was a good lesson.

We've done a lot of less active work this past few days. We saw Gram and his investigator roommate Cornelius. we introduced the Book of Mormon to him with Gram there and it was good. He accepted it and didn't have any problems with it, he is willing to read it and find out if its true and said he would do so. we were quite happy at the end. We have also seen sis Nanga. she is doing good. she is originally from Mthatha but is here for school. we had a nice little chat with her we are trying to teach her friends but they didn't pitch up for the appointment so we just visited with nanga and shared a spiritual thought and so forth. We also saw bro Upward. he is from zimbabwe and was baptized last year and hasn't come to Church in a year so horrible retention on him, Elder Whiting and I saw him and his family on friday on exchanges and he showed desire to come to church but hasn't made it yet, he says that sunday mornings things always come up that he as to attend to and can't make it. Dorothy doesn't want us to visit her anymore, i thought we were going so good for a while but then Elder Rogers called to set up an appointment with her and she told us she doesn't want us to come and that she wants to still come to church at time and find out if its true. i think she has some influence from the people that she stays with. Sis Chiniso, Upwards wife, doesn't like us and told us all these bad things about how upward doesn't want us to come and how dorothy doesn't want us to come and how their Son Chum doesn't want us to come so i think she just has some bad influence from Chiniso. Dorothy came to church yesterday but left after sacrament meeting.

I went on exchanges with Elder Acton in Cleary Estate. it was an ok day. we couldn't do much cause it was Sky Fox day and i guess thats pretty dangerous at times with people lighting tires on fire and then swinging them over their heads and then fire crackers going off all day and so forth and its not good for missionaries to be out walking in that so we spent most of the day at a members house. so i think we are going to do another exchange next week so we can have a good work day in their area. i enjoyed being with Elder Acton tho, he is from Washington. has a gaming business at home that his dad is running while he is gone. he's been out just over a year. nice guy.

Church yesterday was really nice. had a powerful fast and testimony meeting. Then gospel principles class was also nice. it was on the law of chastity. and then priesthood was on home teaching and what we can do to improve it and how we do it. went around the room and everyone stood up and introduced themselves so everyone can get to know people better so we can become more unified in the ward. Then the rest of the day was also wonderful. had a wonderful DA at the butlers and then went and saw Michelle and Erin and then saw a widowed lady in the ward sis Fuller and then saw the Sweigglar family and had a nice little game of go fish with Talissa and her mom Talissa is turning 8 in dec and is going to be baptized by her dad that has recently come back to church and is now one of the counselers in the elders quorum presidency. so thats pretty cool.

Well that was basically the week on my side. we were cut short in the area cause of zone leader council but i think we made up for it. I feel good about our area and the work we do. especially with less actives. and then this week we are headed to knysna and george for exchanges so again the work in our area with be put on hold. we really don't have any progressing investigators that i'm worried about. We've been working on strengthening the members. Well i love you all and hope you have a wonderful week! Enjoy it! :)

your missonary,
Elder Robert S Rigby (SACTM)

ps i love you


Monday, October 31, 2011

Happy Halloween

Family and Friends,

Greetings family and most dear friends from south africa. Currently i am in cape town for a few days for zone leader council. we flew in this morning and will have the remainder of pday here with the other zls and APs. We had a really good week in PE ward. we have done a lot of less active work this past week and are feeling some success in the work. Bro Roderick came to church yesterday and he brought his 2 brothers with him so that was cool. they enjoyed it even tho they left after sacrament meeting. Roderick said that his brothers are investigators and that they need to be baptized. so we are excited to teach them. Bro Prince and bro Jabulani (which means happy in shauna) prince has been to church before and has investigated but never got baptized so it'll be good to baptize him and his brother. Dorothy didn't make it to church yesterday. we went there afterward and she explained to us that she isn't ready to make the big commitment to be baptized so its gunna be some time before she gets baptized. i don't know if we scared her or what but her baptism date is no more at the current moment. Still wants us to come and help her understand the gospel so thats a plus.

Michelle and Erin are doing good. we saw them yesterday afternoon. Michelle bought a dress on saturday telling us that she is preparing to come back to church. so we were very surprised to hear that for her, we were planning on giving her a goal for december to come back to church, due to her work and situation. Erin hadn't read anything from the Book of Mormon, she is more focused on her studies at the moment. so we told her with the help of a very powerful fellowshipper, Luthando, that if she reads her scriptures for at least 10 min everyday she'll do better in her studies. it was a really good lesson, we watched the restoration dvd to kinda review it with her and it helped a lot. so we will be expecting them to come to church very soon. we are excited for them. they even gave us tea and a really good cup cake :)

Well we dropped Kwabeana and Awwal. they just aren't committed to reading or praying about the Book of Mormon and keep coming up with stupid questions that won't help them gain their salvation, they are being stubborn. we also dropped another student we were teaching Winford ada freddy. he doesn't believe he needs the Book of Mormon, he says the Bible is sufficient for him so we told him to keep reading his Bible and maybe one day he'll think other wise. i think we were a bit harsh on them but we had to be bold. not gunna waste our time or their time if they won't find out for themselves.

We also saw Gram Brown yesterday, a less active member that was baptized last year. he was very welcoming to us, i think its because we had luthando with us and he is his home teacher and good friend. Grams roommate also joined us. was very willing to learn more about the Book of Mormon and we even gave him a copy. Afrikaans guy original from pretoria but grew up in PE. we even set up a return appointment for them both. gram works at a tire making place and he was telling us that he made the record for the most tires made in a single shift. it was like 380 thats a lot for one shift i think. it was good to visit with them, they like their computer games and movies. kinda nerdy a bit not too bad tho haha. cool guys tho

had exchanges with the lorraine elders i stayed and elder bryers from Australia came to be with me. we had a good day. did some service for a less active family, we mowed their lawn in the front of their house and the grass was like a foot tall in some areas. it was intense, we borrowed bro meyers weed eater and got the job done! and the Goosens really appreciated what we did for them. then the rest of the day we were in the area attempting to visit people. most of our appointments fell through but its ok. we are used to that. We saw the sontsongas that evening and had a wonderful visit. Sibo was in a really good mood and i didn't know what to do about that haha she was really happy and was fascinated by everything that we were telling her. especially me telling her i live on a farm and have over 300 cows and so forth. she was amazed. i have never seen her in such a good mood before. and then siya was there too and he promised to come to church but didn't pitch up so i don't know what went down there. they both promised to come and didn't. personally i think that 8:00 church is too early for people here. transport doesn't come around until later. so i don't know what to do with them.

but that was the week i guess. things are happening in PE i hope or at least i can now see a change in peoples lives. We went to bro Gerbers funeral on friday. it was a good service. gotta loves LDS funerals, short and sweet! haha. Well i hope you all have a fantastic week back in Idaho and i will continue to do the work of the Lord and bring souls unto Christ, even if i just plant a lot of seeds :) I love you all and miss you. Excited to finish. loves

your missionary,
Elder Robert S Rigby (SACTM)

ps got my Halloween card. thanks! :) Oh and HAPPY HALLOWEEN! tell brady to get lots of goodies for me :) hehe