Monday, September 27, 2010

Hello from the Beautiful Land of South Africa




Elder Rigby and Elder Diphala

Hey Everyone!!

Molo! :) How is everyone doing? I'm doing alright! no complaints as far as i know of hehe. Mission is good for the most part. Glad to hear the grain is finally getting harvested. :) hear its spud harvest, thats crazy how time is flying by yo! feels like its still march or something. I'm getting old on mission haha. fun stuff tho haha. So its been an alright week not much has happening on this side. Still the same old same old. Comp is "dying" strong which is good i thought he would be trunky by now but he's not haha. i asked him why and he said its probably cause he is still in his same country and not too far from home. which makes since but he is very happy to see his family and to go home. Hes gunna miss mission tho, its been implanted in his brain for 2 years and now it comes to an end all of the sudden. But it really doesn't cause every member is a missionary and now his mother and father are investigating the church. I told him to go home and harvest them haha. he agreed :) what a marvelous blessing it is to be a missionary and have the blessings come to our families back home. So have you guys seen any blessings come since I've been absent? The Lord does bless our lives as we strive to live the principles of the gospel.

This week we had 2 investigators at church! YAY! haha Abongile and Siviwe. its was wonderful to see Siviwe there. He has come in the past years but he hasn't been able to since he started school and now works on weekends to help him with transport to school during the week. but since school is out for 2 weeks he was able to work during the week and now can come on Sunday for 2 weeks. its good. I asked him afterward how he liked it and he said it reminded him of old times. he wants to be baptized. but hes schedule just makes it hectic for him to come to church regularly... Abongile always enjoys church haha. Her mother is still the same. although she did sit on in the lesson on Wednesday evening. She asked some good questions but still doesn't accept it. after we left i guess she said some pretty intense things to Abongile. Like, that she thinks we are just trying to get membership and that our church is foney. i was kinda shocked when Abongile told me at church yesterday. So i told her to not give up and let the Lord soften her heart and prepare her. Told her to continue to read, pray and come to church. She is very sad that she can't get baptized yet. I'm sad! but nothing we can really do till she is approved by her mother. or till she is 21. which is a long time from now

We had another baptism for Cwaytia on Saturday! another person i started teaching in NU-15. so my work did not go to shame haha. it was combined with ward 2 they had 2 sisters getting baptized it was a nice service. We had a really good Sunday attendance yesterday. Lots of people came it was awesome! the less active families are starting to show up again. :) made me very happy. This ward needs families to come back and improve the ward. So things are happening in the ward, finally! I had a nice chat with our presiding Elder. Bro Kuviwe Mahlangabeza. He also sees the things starting to happen. home teaching is very important and visiting teaching. thats what takes care of the members. Lots of times people go less active cause they don't have their home teachers come to visit and so they feel neglected. but its starting to get better. and getting a good Bishop will make things even more better. So i hope Pres Bell is finding a suitable Bishop and will him soon.

Well i love you all and miss you. I hope you have a good week and i hope things get better with harvest. Hows everyone else? I know the church is true. i know my Father in Heaven loves me and i know that Christ is my Savior and that he lives and loves us. I'm so grateful for the love and comfort i feel from the Holy Ghost in my life as i serve my Father. I'm grateful to be a missionary in this beautiful land of South Africa. Its where i need to be :)

LOVE YOU GUYS
Your missionary,
Elder Robert S Rigby (CTM)

Tuesday, September 21, 2010

The World is Different

Dear My dearest Family and Friends,

Hey! How's it that side of the world? sounds like its been raining, well its been raining here too! all of last night actually with some thunder storms even. pretty cool. Haven't been sleeping the best lately i don't really know why but i do what i can do. My week was ok. not the busiest week i've had on mission but it still had some good lessons with people. I miss you guys... But i'm indeed very grateful to be in South Africa where i need to be at the time i need to be here. I read through my patriartical blessing the other night and it mentioned that i would be able to bring converts into the church reactivate those that are lost. i have now seen the success of it coming true. i really haven't had any converts get baptized yet but i have brought people back into full activity. an older gentlemen, Bro. Gontsana, has now come to church the past 3 weeks. i'm so happy. he is the nicest old man haha. very happy to be a member and loves the missionaries visiting him. I'm glad i'm here! :) maybe it was me who needed to visit these less actives and share my testimony with them to bring them back i don't know. I just keep going back to my blessing. We've been working with 3 other families as well. the Mandla family, the Kulashe family and the Jozi family. all 3 know the church is true but for some strange reason they won't come to church. Bro Kulashe was in the elders quorum presidency when he was active 2 years ago. i don't know what happened. Its been nice to visit them, he likes farming haha very South African rural area farming tho haha the "old fashion way" as i would call it dad haha. oxen and a plow haha. i find it very amazing haha. i still like my tractors! oh i see them here and there. Massey Ferguson and ford tractors. haha my comp and the other elders tell me to calm down when i see the tractors lol i don't get too excited but do go "oh look at that!" lol silly me i know, typical farm boy. No John Deere or CAT or anything else. not a whole lot of them this side where i am anyway. i hear that the drive between Cape Town and George is where all the farms are. Mostly dry farms. starting to get into the irrigation systems (pivots) not too many i haven't seen them yet. the world is different haha.

We had good lessons with Abongile and Kamva this week. Mostly teaching Kamva and reviewing for Abongiles sake. She needs to get baptized!! haha. We had a baptism for Sinazo Mazeleni on saturday. she is now being taught my the NU-15 elders, Elder Maseko and Elder Andrimitantsoa. it was nice. wasn't very organized but she was dunked so thats what matters most haha. confirmed her yesterday. they'll be having another baptism this coming saturday for Cwaytia and another candidate Whimpy. Exciting for them! i planted seeds with Sinazo and Cwaytia. haha so i feel good about that.

We also had good lessons with Mbasa and Sekhi. they didn't come to church again yesterday. i guess they were tied up at there grandmas place. Mbasa has been struggling with reading. so yesterday we asked him if he had any questions about anything and he asked about covenants. So we talked about that stuff and used Mosiah 18:8-9 with him. he struggling with everything i think. i hope things turn out for the better with him. His bro, Sekhi is doing better, he had been reading the Bible but he needs to read the BofM. So hopefully that will have changed. he wasn't there last night so i hope he will be there next lesson.

Others just didn't hold and it was a struggle the entire week it seemed like. People just aren't committed and seems like they want to learn but don't want to make the time. I don't get it!? People are weird. Samora ran from us when he saw us drive up to his house on Saturday. crazy smoker deadlock dude. haha

My comp goes home next week Thursday. the 30th of sept. He is ready to go home haha. Still going strong but he needs to go home. i'm excited to get a new companion. I might train.... but not sure. there are 21 new missionaries coming in. so lots of elders will be training. Going to be a very young mission come January. Well my time is running out. i hope this is enough details... Oh we had zone conference on Thursday. it was really good. it basically was another day of the training on the new stuff. focus was getting people to come to church. it was good. got some new ideas on how to get people to church. that is the biggest problem in our area. not fun.

I love you all and miss you. I hope you have a good week and i'll talk to you next week! Peace out!

Your Missionary,
Elder Robert S Rigby CTM

Monday, September 13, 2010

The Gospel is True!

Hey Everybody!

Molo! :) how is it back in Idaho?? raining i see. that sucks. hasn't rained too much lately here. We need the rain so bad this side its so dry. so tell it to come this side haha. Yes i would love a small picture of the prophet and Christ to carry around with me in my white bible or wallet that'd be great! :) Its been another interesting week. people just don't commit to church. the only people who do come is Abongile. she is the only one who is there every sunday if she can. Her mom is still hard hearted. but getting there we hope! Abongile is now going to ask her dad if he can talk to her mom about it so maybe that will help convince her! :) (her parents are divorced) her dad doesn't have a problem with her getting baptized. So yeah. We are also trying to teach her nephew kamva. He is only 9 but he is very interested. his mother, Abongiles sister is fine with him getting baptized he is even counting down the days to it haha i thought that was cool. its very special to be baptized by the correct authority.

We finally got to see Mbasa and Sekhi. they are doing good. still didn't come to church yesterday. We saw Sekhi on the street yesterday after church and so i asked him what happened with him and his bro in coming to church. He told me that he had overslept and by the time he got ready Mbasa was already gone. and said that he was going to church. He didn't show up. so he lied to his mom and brother. don't know what/where Mbasa went all i know is that he didn't come to church. So we are seeing them again on tuesday so i'll find out then. We had some really good lessons with them this past week. The Spirit was so strong in 2 of those lessons. felt as if i was going to shed some tears. I love this gospel. it really is true. as long as we do our part in following the Christ we will be blessed and have joy. After we had closed the lesson i asked Sekhi how he felt he told me he felt warm inside and i could tell. Mbasa is having struggles recognizing the Spirit. He says he feels like smiling. which can very well be his answer. as it says in Galatians 5:22-23. but yeah. Sekhi is coming along great. Mbasa not so much. still is very busy with his studies and friends. I'm worried about him, i don't know why i'm so into these investigators the way i am with Mbasa and Sekhi and not with the others that we teach. its weird. Elder Maseko asked me why i was stressing out about them so much and it got me thinking. I told him its cause i can connect with them well i guess.

We had exchanges in the district on wednesday and friday so Elder Andirmistantsoa was with me on wednesday and then Elder Maseko was with me on friday. both had a good time together. Elder Andri is still learning haha made me think back when i was green haha i've come a long ways since then. in only 8 months too! Crazy! Time flies thats all i can say!

This new way of teaching really works. we gave 4 more people baptismal dates :) now the question is are all of them going to hold to that date or not. so hope and pray. I like the new stuff its very Christ orientated. Focused on Christ. :) Missionaries job to invite others unto Christ! Does the family have a Preach My Gospel in the home?? If not get one and have family home evenings on the principles in it. OKAY? good! haha

Have Zone conference this week on thursday. More counsel and learning from our dear Pres Probst. Hes awesome thats all i can say. My comp is not trunky. surprisingly haha he is going home in 2 and a half weeks and he is still strong. which i commemorate him on that haha. i want to die strong. He sent stuff home today so he can fit everything in his suitcase haha.

Stake president here in East london came to our ward yesterday to interview all the Melchizedek Priesthood brethren to find a Bishop since we don't have one for 3 months now yeah not good. low on active priesthood brethren. its not cool so i hope the interviews went good and that Pres Bell found a bishop.

Well i don't know what else to say other than i love you and miss you all. I hope you have a fabulous week and all do what you need to do :) I finally got my package!! :) i freakin love it haha thank you family! I love the goodies and supplies :) so thanks again. Well love you!!

your Elder in South Africa,
Elder Robert S Rigby (CTM)

Monday, September 6, 2010

Greetings!

MOLO! How is everyone? Sounds like your all doing very well. which is wonderful! :) i'm doing alright as well. i love Pdays haha emails are my favorite thing about the day. :) I still haven't gotten my package i'm so hoping i'll get it friday. It takes longer to get to me cause i'm not in cape town. i'm 3 hours away (flying) in East london. So the office gets it and then they have to ship it to me so another couple of days. so friday it should be here! My birthday was blah... wasn't that great. Birthdays suck on mission as everyone else says haha. which is so true just a normal day on mission. we worked hard. had some good lessons though. Surprise. haha. Taught Nomandla. She is a 28yr old single parent. with one ADHD. yeah doesn't like to sit still and likes to do random stuff. her brother has it as well and is 16. He won't take meds for it so he is, well a interesting one haha. he likes the fact that i'm from America and living in "South Africa, the mother land" i thought it was funny. he really isn't interested in the gospel but hes very friendly. now back to Nomandla, we taught her the first part of the plan of salvation and after we were done she like, is that it? I thought it would keep going. haha We told her that we would share more next time. So she is very interested and hopefully prepared. We also taught Siviwe that evening. We finished the plan of salvation and he understood everything. we had an another appointment with on friday but he wasn't there so we haven't seen him for a week now. Hope he is alright.

Wednesday and Thursday we had our 2 day training with president about the "new curriculum" there is a new way that we first start teaching and how we go about doing it. it was good training. We practiced, roll plays, and it really works on investigators surprise surprise! The brethren know what they are talking about, well the Lord knows. I enjoyed being with other missionaries and with the senior couples and Pres. We had fun. We now invite them to follow the Savior by following his example and being baptized by the correct authority. and give them a date if they agree, on the first lesson. This new stuff sifts out the ones who aren't prepared and it helps us let them know that we are serious and don't mess around. So in general it goes back to our purpose of inviting others to come unto Christ. :) MISSIONARY WORK then in the afternoon we went to the area and tried the new stuff and well it was a challenge at first and we can see how it works now. Its pretty cool.

We gave Abongile and her nephew a baptismal date for the 25 of September. We are still praying that her mother will agree and let her be baptized. Kamva, the nephew, is now taking the lessons and he came with Abongile to church yesterday. and he enjoyed primary, since he is 9yrs old. So continue to pray for them and we will do our best to help them. the mother agreed to sit on the next lesson so i hope this is the Lord doing His work. :)

now another lesson we had with an investigator, Ndibonga. haha She was very surprised that we asked her to be baptized and to pray about it. she didn't like it at all. so she isn't prepared to receive it yet. but we tried. If they won't first agree to follow the Savior then we don't want to waste our time with them if they won't progress. so yeah.

We did see Mbasa and his bro Sekhi. They haven't been reading and their prayers aren't as good as we thought so that night we discussed the importance of reading the BofM and praying for confirmation. it was nice to see the look on their faces after the Spirit had gone through them. Mbasa knows its true just is not acting on it. Sekhi is still learning so we really didn't be harsh on him as much. they didn't come to church yesterday. guess their mom didn't stay at home saturday night so they didn't get transport money to go. or so Sekhi told us yesterday afternoon when we passed him on the street.

I was on exchanges with Elder Kehler (ZL) on Friday. Yo, i had so much fun haha he is so funny and we worked hard and applied the new stuff and got people to commit to baptism and pray at the end of the lesson in english. it was great! had a gooder day.

sat all of our appointments fell through and we didn't have a fellowshipper with us so it wasn't a very good day. i don't like it when that happens. weekends aren't fun on mission cause no one wants to see missionaries. they are either drunk or want to party with their friends. which makes sense. Had a good sabbath yesterday tho. had 3 member present lessons and had a really good DA. haha i was so grateful for it since i had been fasting. We ate at the Mhaklangebezas. it was very good. and they even bought cake for us since it was my birthday on Tuesday so it made up for the not so fun tuesday. haha. I love members!

Well overall it was a good week and we are now going to attempt to walk more in the area. We need to. To save on Ks and to see more people! and exercise haha. i've changed thats all i can say haha little chubbier than i was back home haha pictures will testify of that i'm sure. I love you all and miss you guys! hope you have a wonderful week and read and pray!

Church is true Book is Blue!

Your Missionary,
Elder Robert S Rigby (CTM)