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)

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)

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)

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)

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)

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

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

I'll Be Home for Christmas

Family and Friends,

Hey! Its been good this past week in PE. We're having a problem with investigators coming to church tho, they say they come but don't pitch up. and we don't know why, some keep coming up with excuses. I'm getting tired of that. but i look back and i was once like that so they have their agency and they aren't afraid to use it thats for sure. I love church now, my testimony has truly strengthened in that area. church is where i feel the spirit the most and am so grateful to be able to partake of the sacrament every week, to remember my savior and renew my covenants with Him. it really is true! :) Dorothy came to church and our gospel principles class was kinda small. we had a few RC there and of course myself and my comp. Bro stewart taught the class, on family relationships. it was good, read the Family Proclamation to the world and discussed why the family is so important in Gods plan. good class, then priesthood was combined with the sisters of the society. it was on keeping the sabbath day holy from elder L. Tom Perry from last april conference. Bro Ken Furrie taught the lesson. it was very good. talked about do we live the gospel 7 days or do we just come to church on sunday and then go home and continue to do what we want? something to think about.

Dorothy is doing ok. she missed her last appointment on saturday. so we didn't get the chance to teach her the rest of the plan of salvation. we started in the beginning of the week and her understanding is going well, i think we'll push and make it on the 12 NOV for her baptism. she has been reading the Book of Mormon and praying. so things are going well with her, or at least i hope they are.

we've been teaching a lot of students at the university. kwabena and his roomate Awwal. (owl is how you pronounce it) they are interesting men of understanding. our lesson this past week have been focus on getting them to read the Book of Mormon. Kwabena is kinda atheist and Awwal is just there. we left them to read the intro of the book and the testimonies and then came back on friday and Kwabena said he read it but just read for the sake of reading. so then we read 1 Nephi 1 with them to get them started. Awwal had read up to chapter 6 so it was a review for him. they were referrals from Luthando who stays in the same residence. so Awwal had already started reading. but didn't really read to find out if it was true, casting it out by his unbelief. so we explained and then they realized that they need to read it to find out if it is true and we promised that they would feel something if they read. i hope they will progress and come to church next week. the problem is transport a lot of the time or they always have some other stuff to do on Sunday since they don't have class. sabbath day breakers! ha

Twiza and his friend Mondla are doing good. they had done research on the plan of salvation, and then we turned to the Book of Mormon to help them understand where we are coming from with our doctrines. Luthando was with us and bore a very powerful testimony of the plan and of the Book of Mormon. we are making headway with them i think, even tho they are 7th day Adventist. so that will be a challenge to address.

Michelle and Erin are doing good, the white part member family we started teaching last week. they had read the intro and testimonies together, we saw them yesterday and taught the restoration. Erin is young and just listens mostly she really doesn't have questions its just her learning and finding out if its true. they pray together, her and her mom, but she hadn't prayed by herself. so we also taught her about prayer and committed her to pray by herself. she said if her mom reminded her that she would. The father didn't join us again, was sleeping. but they are good.

we've also done some less active work this past week. We've met with Roderick. from Zim. he was baptized in 2004 and his wife passed away in 2008 and since then its been tuff for him to look out for himself. he's a wonderful man, has his own jungle gym business. he expressed his desire to go to the temple and be sealed to his wife... he's dating again and is planning on getting married next year...and wanted to know what he needed to do to get there. so we talked about keeping the commandments and coming to church. he didn't come yesterday but he said he would come next week. i really think that this guy is going to come back.

but those are the highlights of the week here in PE ward. WE had interviews and training with president last night. i enjoyed talking to pres about my release date and the plan is that i WILL be home for Christmas! :) more details will come when i find out more and the office will email things to you. looking at the 20th of dec for me to fly out. so i'll be home for dads bday too i'll be jet lagged but hey i'll be there. i love you all and pray that your doing well. The Lord loves us and wants us to be happy :) the restored gospel brings happiness as we live by the teachings and principles in it. i love this work i love my savior. Have a good week everyone!

your missionary,
Elder Robert S Rigby (SACTM)

ps the photos are from kragga kamma game park and then thats this transfers district. elder bryers, me, elder Rogers and elder Ncube.

Gooder Week!

Family and Friends,

hey everyone! well this past week was a gooder one in PE. we have worked hard and have some good lessons with our investigators and Recent Converts. I have a new companion now, Elder Rogers, yes he's "my next col-e-gan" haha its awesome . he's from seattle washington. been out on mission for 17 months so just a bit younger than me. He is a hard worker and likes to enjoy while doing it. so him and i get a long great, well so far anyways, only been together for a few days so we'll see how the transfer goes. we are really excited bout it and have some good potentials that could progress if they come to church and keep their commitments. Elder Bagenzi left on wednesday to East London. So then elder Rogers got here the same time elder bagenzi left. then we had a few more elders coming in from cape town later in the day so we went to the Laprays and had some breakfast while we waited and then went and got them and then went to our areas. so transfer day was smooth and had no problems. I'm excited for this area and ready to work hard and smart to continue the work here in the PE ward.

We watched conference this weekend, it was really good. got to watch all 5 sessions too. the music was great the talks were great. i especially liked how the main focus or should i say many of the talks were on missionary work and calling those to serve. so, prepare now. you'll love mission and you need a testimony and the desire to serve and most importantly the attribute of love. love for those you will serve and for those you will teach. I love mission, so take advice from me and prepare now. read your scriptures, especially the Book of Mormon everyday. gain a testimony now, don't wait. gain it now. :) Many of the other talks were wonderful. i loved Pres Monson's big "hello" to everyone. he has such a wonderful sense of humor.

Our investigators are doing well, we had some good ones this past week. Dorothy made it to 3 of the sessions of conference. and i'm pretty sure she enjoyed them. We taught her about the Book of Mormon this past week and the restoration. we need to get her reading it to gain a testimony. she isn't so shy anymore, she has opened up now and has shared questions and her feelings about what we have already shared with her. so she is doing well. we had to push her baptism to 13 nov since we haven't taught her any of the commandments yet and still have to teach her the plan of salvation. but she's fine with that. no rush. she understood.

we got a referral from another member the other day, Michelle and Erin Pangel, a mother and daughter. the mother is a long term member but is very inactive and then Erin is 15 and doesn't know much about the church or about God. We met them yesterday afternoon, they stay in Bluewater bay. a very nice area, white family. The husband didn't join us, but we hope to get him involved in the future. its a wonderful family. They wanted missionaries to come and teach them, specifically Erin, bout the gospel and bout the church. we started with the basics yesterday since she doesn't know anything, she doesn't come from a Christan background, never really went to church, her friends don't go so its going to be a bit of a challenge to teach her but her mother will help and that'll be ok. we are excited for them. they stay quite far from the chapel so it might be a challenge for them to get to church. didn't sound like erin really wanted to go to church, but i hope that changes.

we saw Muntinta this past week a few times, he is awesome, he has a really good memory of things that we have taught. we went over the importance of obedience and that he needed to be baptized by the correct authority since that is his concern. we got him to commit to setting a goal to be ready by the 27 Nov. and if he feels that its not right by that time then we can move it. he didn't come to church like he promised he would. so i don't know what happened there. his roommate prosper joined us on Thursday evening and he also committed to be ready for baptism on the 27 Nov. and committed to read the Book of Mormon to help them gain a testimony. they are sweet guys ready for the restored gospel they just need to come to church and continue to progress.

We saw the Ward family again! saw them on friday evening and had a good lesson with them on the restoration. Sis Ward concluded at the end that this was all new to her and that she would definitely pray bout this and they were excited to find out more about it, we gave them the Church's website to go check out so i hope that helps. bro ward was the same way. they are very active in their church but they are willing to make changes i think when the come to know that this is true. Sis ward also realized that there are so many churches and the authority is very important and was asking herself if her pastor had authority. so good things happening with them we hope. i really don't want to loose this family, even tho we are still in the beginning stages of teaching them.

Well pdays are going to be enjoyable or at least i hope. elder rogers likes pdays, like me so its going to be a good transfer. ready for it. i love this work. i love my savior and i know He lives and loves us. i know the church is true and is the ONLY true church upon the face of the earth. I know God loves all of us and wants us to return and live with him. we had a lesson last night with Kwabena about the importance of Book of Mormon and the lesson basically went that they are still wondering why the gospel of Jesus Christ. what makes it so great. we gave them a copy of the Book of Mormon and we left our testimonies. elder rogers gave a profound testimony of the Book of Mormon and Kwabena didn't get the point at first cause he was still saying "but" questions. so i hope they felt something last night and that they read the Book of Mormon like they said the would. I know its TRUE! i love you all! in the name of Jesus Christ Amen.

have a great week!
your son, brother, and friend,
Elder Robert S Rigby (SATCM)

Serving and Teaching

Dear Family and Friends,

So this past week was probably the best week i've had this whole transfer, we taught many lessons with a member present. Thats improvement for this area, its really been struggling. but i think its gotten better because Andrew isn't working anymore so he comes with us almost every day hehe. he is 19 and has been a member for 5 years, he is originally from Durban. been less active for a while but he is coming back now as my comp and i have befriended him and have gotten him to come fellowshipping with us. he enjoys it and its good prep for him if he wants to serve a mission. which he should, it would really help a lot.

We teach our investigators commit but they don't show up to church. we only had Dorothy come yesterday. She is doing ok. we don't see her as often as we would like since she stays with non members now. well she still stays with her uncle Phillip who is a member but is less active cause of work. so Dorothy went with phillip and they are staying with the Mudapakati family which is a part member family too. we have been teaching Chiniso for a while now but she is too busy to come to church as she does hair for people on weekends for extra money. her husband is a less active. and he is off somewhere working i guess. But she has enjoyed us coming and reading with her from the Book Of Mormon. She doesn't find the time to read it on her own so we have been reading with her and teach using what we read. so that had been good for her.

Dorothy is progressing. She is really good friends now with Andrew. So good support there and from the Chimebe family as well. we finished up teaching her the gospel of Jesus Christ last week so we are going to get into the restoration and Book of Mormon this coming week and hopefully won't have any problems.

We have been teaching a guy, tyler. he is 21 and is 7th day Adventist. he was very interested in the plan of salvation and now really wowed by the Book of Mormon and what it has to say about the Savior. we saw him yesterday after church and read the intro from the Book of Mormon and had a nice discussion on introducing it and so forth. he committed to read it. Luthando came with us yesterday, he served in Joburg from 2007-2009. very power full RM. wants us to help him bring all his friends that he stays with into the gospel haha. we are working on a few. but no big success yet with any.

I'm excited for conference next weekend. we'll be watching all 5 sessions :) i've heard many wonderful things about it. we'll be combining with the lorraine ward since we share the same building. so sat will be at 10 and 2 and 6 and then sun it will be at 10 and 2. pretty excited. had a good DA yesterday at the Chimutis. they are a wonderful family from Zim. we had pop and then ice cream for desert and that made it all good haha. it was really hot yesterday and even today its hotter! YO! i am going to freeze when i come back to Idaho haha. as i type there is sweat coming down my forehead.... really hot today the sun is scorching! i think we are going to go to a game reserve today for pday.i hope the animals will be out and bout to see them. Kagga Kamma game reserve.

we did some service on saturday for the Meyers, we painted the outside of our flat haha. it was fun. did it as a district so we had the lorraine elders come help. what i can give as advice for your lesson mom, and i'm no pro by all means.. just make sure you prepare out of love and teach from the heart by the Spirit. God knows these children, He knows what they need to hear, we just have to be in tune with the Spirit so we can know His will, i know its not easy, i still struggle with that. but it takes work and effort.

well the work will continue to go forth as we as members of the church seek out to those that are in need of the truth, which is everyone! I pray everyday that the spirit will guide me to those that HE has prepared and to guide me in the lessons with them. I love the Gospel, had an experience this past week where we got to go visit a old aged member who is on his death bed. his home teacher called us and told us that we should go and see them since he wasn't available. we got there and found bishop and bro and sis Furrie there. The old man, Bro Gerber, bore probably one of the most heart felt testimonies of the gospel that i have ever heard in my life. Bishop then gave him a blessing and we left. it was a very powerful blessing. i want to reach that point where i can say that i had a successful and happy life. thats why we are here, to prepare to meet our Heavenly Father. Bro Gerber wasn't scared to die, he said he wanted to go home, that touched my heart. all of us want to return home to our father in heaven who loves us so much! i know that! i know he lives! In the name of Jesus Christ. amen

have a good week everyone! i love you!

Your Missionary,
Elder Robert S Rigby (SACTM)

ps transfers is this week, yo they go by so fast now. as zone leader i will know tonight what is happening, i won't go anywhere probably. but yeah. Zone and district leaders conduct baptism interviews. the only time bishop conducts interviews is for children that are 8 and their parents are members. Missionaries conduct convert baptism interviews. i've done quite a few. requires the Spirit.

Travels

Family and Friends,

Hi! :) so this past week was a lot of fun, i really enjoyed traveling to Knysna and George for exchanges, while we were there we did 2 baptism interviews that we didn't know about so we got back a bit late on saturday evening. but it was good. in Knysna I went with Elder Rako, he is from Madagascar and is a hilarious missionary. he is the district leader there in the 2 man district his companion, Elder Brereton is from Lewisville Idaho so up north of us. way north tho. he went with my companion. i enjoyed the day with Elder Rako. we taught a few people and they serve in a nice little town next to the ocean, township and town town. so they have a mix of everything in their area, we met with a white guy, Bosei, Afrikaans dude. i'm pretty sure he likes drugs and smokes marijuana. he was a little high when we saw him. anyway i guess he's going through a lot in his young life and just separated from his wife who also likes partying and so forth and they have a little boy about 3 or 4 yrs old cute kid. but he wants to change his life so the elders have been meeting with him for some time now. it was interesting to see someone so messed up in his life and didn't care about it and now he does care cause a son came into his life. Interesting how a kid can change a persons view of things, i'll guess i'll know about that in the future... but yeah. We had district meeting with them on thursday and it was really good, Elder Rako did a good job with the Christlike attributes from PMG. the church there is growing and they are on fire, i guess they have past stake presidents and a temple president living there so they have powerful priesthood there to help the branch. its a mission branch.

So then thursday evening about 8:00 we headed to george,about an hour drive. we arrived just after 9:00 Stayed with Elder Nkutha from Joburg and Elder Mupivire from Zimbabwe. I went with Elder Mupivire, the junior companion. we had an ok day. went to the 6man district meeting and then had lunch and went to their area. They are working the township there, thembelethu. and then the other 2 companionships are working in town and the colored area. I enjoyed being with elder Mupivire too, he is a very interactive person with a funny personality. we are actually teaching his cousin here in our area in PE. We didn't have a fellowshipper for the day so we didn't get to teach that much, and we need a fellowshipper when we teach them, for safety of course. But we shared spiritual thoughts and set return appointments for them. we focused on visiting members too, and help encourage them to do missionary work as well. We finished about 9. went back to the boarding and waited for the other guys to come back. then we changed companionships and went and stayed with Elder Musangu from DRC and Elder Howard from Utah. and had companionship study with them saturday morning. it was good. and then did a interview for Elder Nkutha and Elder Mupivire and then headed back to knysna to do an interview for them too. and had lunch at wimpy and did a bit of site seeing and then headed home around 4:00. got home around 7:00. my companion and i stopped at tshipkama bridge and took a picture there at the worlds longest bungee jump. i'll attach that.

Saturday evening, after we got back we went to a members daughters birthday party, of the lorraine ward. i'm in the PE ward. same district tho so thats why we were invited. had sloppy joes, the taylors and then the new couple, the Ven Sickles, were there as well. had a nice evening and then took reports from the other 2 district leaders in pe. and prepared for the sabbath day. and went to bed, i was really tired haha.

Sunday went to church and hardly anyone was there, bishop wasn't even there. but it was a wonderful fast and testimony meeting. i think almost everyone bore their testimony. didn't have any investigators there. it was raining so i'm blaming it on that haha. but then the rest of the day it was still raining and all of our appointments fell through except for one that evening with Twiza and his friend Mondla. we taught them about the plan of salvation and they are having a hard time understanding our beliefs. they showed us this video clip of some paster in USA that was talking about where we go after we die, and for the most part he was sharing truth about the spirit world. so i must say that not all churches are preaching false doctrines haha they just don't have the fullness. so we shared our testimonies and they invited us back to share more about the subject, but my comp and i were discussing this morning in comp study bout them and how they are just wanting to prove us wrong because twiza said he wanted to study up more on it. so we think he is not ready to learn, so we'll see what happens with them. had a good discussing tho. had a good lunch with the parkens family yesterday afternoon, and while we were waiting for the food to be done conference came on, saturdays afternoon session, they have the BYU channel on their dish, so i got to hear the beginning of Elder Bednar's talk. sounds good! i'm excited for the rest of it. really excited about the temples in Africa.

So in our area not much happened this week since we were gone but we are ready to work this week to make up for it, we have the whole week to ourselves :) hehe. found some new young blood on tuesday morning, referrals from Sibosiso, a member. so were excited to continue to teach people about the restored gospel of Jesus Christ. I love this work I love my Savior. I know its true, i wouldn't be here if it wasn't. I know GOD lives and LOVES us in the name of Jesus Christ amen.

I love you all have a good week. I'm glad you enjoyed the pictures, so why not take pictures! :) memories! Well i love you guys!

Elder Robert S Rigby (SACTM)

Exchanges

Family and Friends,

Hello! How are ya?! I'm doing good, week has again been slow but its getting better or so we hope. We had 2 exchanges with the district leaders this past week. I stayed in our area on wednesday and Elder Mamaia came to be with me and then his companion, Elder Opolot stayed in his area and my comp, Elder Bagenzi went with him in Cleary Estate, a colored area. the day was good, just did some more follow ups and went through the ward list a bit. then on saturday we had exchanges with Lorraine, Elder Ncube and Elder Bryers. I went to be with Elder Ncube in his area, their area is a white area and very difficult, i think its worse than ours. We follow up most of the day on potentials and then later in the day we did some tracting. yo, i haven't done that for a while haha it was a good hour of having a few doors not open and people telling us to go away haha. all you can do is laugh at the fact that they really don't know what they are missing out on. We did get to go into one home, a colored family that are old apostalics. so very staunch in their faith, but they were very willing to have the us come back and share the message. So i enjoyed both days with a different companion. its good to be with them and see how they work and even how i can help them become better. i'm still learning myself.

So the week in our area as i said was slow, but we met with a wonderful Zimbabwe family yesterday afternoon. Innocent and his wife charity and then his sister and a cousin. so four of them. we found them through another missionary in george who is related to them, so he gave us innocents number and we called and got his address and went to go see him. great potential family. they had many questions about what we do as missionaries and whats so different about us than other churches. they were even wondering why they can't call Elder Mupivire, their cousin in george, and communicate with him. they said we were kinda crazy to not call home every week. We told them that it would distract us and we wouldn't be focused on the work if we did that. So it was interesting to chat with them. We just shared a spiritual thought and set a return appointment for next week. many questions.

Doroth came to church yesterday, the 16yr old part member family. She is now opening up and not being so shy. i think that our fellowshipper, Sibosiso, has helped with that. we had FHE with them last night and made it a lesson about baptism. was very nice then we played, or tried to play a few games as what FHE is all about. so we are basically going very slow with her so she understands everything and so forth. Its been an enjoyable time to teach her so far, still in the teaching stages and understanding is getting better.

Last monday we met with the ward family. they are coloreds and are very active in their church, some christian church, there are so many here i cant remember the exact name. anyways. we just got their feel of the gospel and talked a bit about following Christ and faith and repentance. its a family of four, father, mother and then their son and daughter who are in their 20s. they just go to church cause they have to. I wrote a letter last week about them with my SD card. So that should be coming soon. we are seeing them again tonight and plan to teach the restoration as they were wondering why so many churches, i pray that the Spirit will guide that lesson and we won't loose this family, they would make awesome members.

I'm doing good tho, no problems. my nose has finally cleared up and i have been sleeping pretty well the past few nights. this week starting wednesday we are headed to knysna and george for exchanges, we'll be back on saturday afternoon. its four hour drive there. but i hear its very pretty that side. so i will be sure to take lots of photos. :) well i love you guys! i miss you :) but i am good and enjoying mission. I love the people of SA and i love my Heavenly Father and His son Jesus Christ. I pray that the Lord will continue to bless the people here and soften their hearts so we may be able to teach them and bring them unto Christ. I know its true! have a good week everyone! loves

your Missionary,
Elder Robert S Rigby (SACTM)

Be the right companion

Dear Family and Close Friends,

greetings! :) PE is just a windy infested place now with rain and wind storms. The storm last night was pretty intense. it sure rocked the flat and the homes we were in as we were meeting with people. It was cold i might say, i've never been cold in SA but eish it was cold last night. not exactly sure how cold it was ok it wasn't cold it was just the wind and rain making it not pleasant. It was a good week though, we found a few more people to teach as we were looking through the formers. the problem we face is that they can only see us maybe once a week if that at the moment. Too busy with their school work at NMMU. but at least they are still interested with the gospel.

I'm really enjoying being with Elder Bagenzi again. We are the best of friends and its making the work quite fun and enjoyable. He's teaching me well on how to be a zone leader and all that jazz. On Thursday we had our zone conference with Kwa Nobuhle zone combined. Elder Renlund came from the area presidency to tour the mission. he is a really nice guy and knows how the church functions thats for sure. the whole conference was on the focus of companionship unity. If we don't have unity the Spirit is withheld from us and we shall not teach. if we aren't united then the work with cease. They talked bout how everything that we say and do is how we represent the Lord and His church. People observe in ways that you wouldn't think would be possible. so we must be unified as one. i'm so thankful that i've been able to get along with all my companions and that i've been able to adapt to each of them with their different personalities. what a blessing! don't look for the right companion, be the right companion. and that has always and will always stay with me. WE had a really good lunch afterward. Bake potatoes and chicken and good stuff that the Laprays and the Taylors made. I really enjoyed that meal haha.

I had a really nice spiritual experience on saturday evening. we were meeting with a less active family, the Sontsongas. They consist of the mother and 2 children that are members, Sibo and Siya. Sibo is 24 and and studying law and then Sibo is 22 and he is a sports fanatic. loves soccer and rugby. well all 3 of them don't come to church and have been struggling in the home as a family. not much love in the family and Sibo loves partying and has a problem with it. So she was out till 6am and then on her way home she got mugged, they took her bag and lost her cards and ID and many other things, so she came home and phoned the cops and what what then wouldn't go out of the house. So we had scheduled to have FHE with them on Saturday night since mondays are some times hectic for them. We got there, Luthando was with us a RM nice guy and then she told us the story and so she realized that something was wrong in her life and that it needed to be fixed. We ended up speaking about the Atonement and how it can take away the pain that she is feeling at the moment and how only the Lord can help her, if she humbles herself and repents. She understands that she is an addict to partying and that its not good. Her mom was busy in the kitchen but heard all of the conversation we were having. its a great family and they know whats right and whats wrong. so what made it special is that as we were discussing about the Atonement, I was sharing my testimony of Christ and how He can heal us from all pains, sicknesses and temptations of every kind as it says in Alma 7:11-13. the Spirit just came over me and comforted me and i sure hope that it made an impact on Sibo. I know that Christ is the only way to forgiveness!! I know He has suffered for all of us and knows how to overcome it because He has experienced it and knows what it feels like. I love my Savior!

I just wanted to share that, that my testimony has really strengthened since i've been out here. I know that God loves me! I know i'm here because He wants me to be. and i want to be. I love this gospel with all my heart. I know I have become converted to the gospel even more than before as i have done the work of my Heavenly Father. God wants us to be happy, and the joy comes from helping others feel happy. :)

the rest of the week was good, we taught with power and authority and hopefully we made a difference in peoples lives for the better. We are teaching a part member family, the Chimabe family, Dorth is not a member so we are teaching her, she is 16 and wants to be baptized, but she is very shy and doesn't express herself to easily. we talked about the godhead and faith. She understood and committed to a date of the 30 Oct 2011. So we will be seeing her twice a week. mondays and thursdays. the family is a bit less active, they stay in the location and walk to church, takes about 45min. imagine that. so it'll be good to meet with the whole family. They are originally from zim and found the church there and then moved here to work. good family tho, came to church last week but not yesterday.

church yesterday was ok, not very many people showed up. we didn't have any investigators there...:( Mondli promised to come but said it in a not so sure way so we don't know what happened there. he is a student doing law. and is very involved in the student council. so he is busy campaigning at the moment and also writing exams. so its been hectic for him. he is a nice guy, a friend of Luthando. we have been busy teaching him the plan of salvation this past week as we met with him. He had many questions about the fall and well mainly everything about the lesson. it was a really good lesson. he agreed with everything. But back to church. Sacrament meeting the topic was on the Holy Ghost my comp and i help with the sacrament almost every week, lack of priesthood in the ward. Elders was really low today. bishop was asking where everyone was. don't know what happened to everyone this week. We have a really good ward mission leader Bro Stuart, served in Joburg from 2007-2009. he's originally from east london. here going to school. we are busy planning a missionary fireside to get the members excited about missionary work its kind of a problem here. as is everywhere i've served it seems like. hmm i think the Lord is trying to tell me something, maybe to get the members excited or what. ?? So we are planning that, still in the idea stage. any suggestions??

Well that was the week, it will go forward as i work diligently and with the Spirit we shall bring sheep into his fold. again i love this work, i love my Savior. I love my family and the support you give, thank you so much! :) Have a great week everyone! Remember who you are and what you stand for! loves

your missionary,
Elder Robert S Rigby (SACTM)

Oh picts- Elder Rako from Madacasgar never served with him but he and Elder Brereton are in Knysna and came up for the conference, and Elder Lebala my old companion.

Un Jani?

Dear family and Friends,

Supele! i'm good been working. the area is really slow and not producing much fruit at the moment. we did lots of finding this past week, potentials and then the formers and no one is interested. We had exchanges on Wednesday with the APs. it was good i enjoyed it. Elder bagenzi and i are really good friends now. and serving together is making it wonderful. the ward is really nice, good members are here. we are doing lots of less active work, we were going through the ward list and found 3 priesthood holders that are around our age that haven't been to church in the longest time. We saw one on Sunday, Luthando, he hasn't been to church in 3 years. he joined in 2008 and then went to the bush and hasn't been back since. he expressed his desire to come back and have things like they were before. he realizes something is missing in his life and wants it back. So hopefully we will start to come back. we invited him to the ward activity this coming saturday, he said he'd come. the theme for it is Who wants to be a Celestial Heir? catchy eh? haha. We also saw Sibusiso, or Andrew. He is originally from Mpungalana branch in durban. He has been here in PE for almost a year and we were walking in the location and he stopped us and introduced himself as a member from durban and that he wanted to come to church. he came on Sunday, was late but he came and then had to leave just as priesthood was starting to go back to work. he is a hair dresser. does designs and what what. good guy. we saw him after church too. he was headed to the shop after work.

The exchanges was nice, we did lots of looking through the potentials and formers from the area book and had no success. disappointing but its life of mission some weeks. So one experience on that day Elder Tshikare and i walk up to a big house of a potential and i ring the intercom and then a lady answers and i ask for the person who we were looking for and then the lady said that they weren't there, so then i introduced ourselves and then asked the lady what her name was and then she stuttered trying to get out of answering the question and said, um um i'm not going to talk to you right now. People are rude sometimes you know that! and i despise intercoms!! i would rather speak to them in their face than over a speaker, but oh well so we moved on. the work of the Lord can be hard some days...but still have to be positive and get through it. :)

I enjoy being a Zone lord for the most part. its good to have the learning experience and learn more patience with the elders in the zone. elder bagenzi is really good at that so i'm learning from the best haha. PE is a nice city on the coast with a big harbor where VW cars are shipped out. so we drive by the harbor and see all the cars in a big group. there is a lot!! haha i have never seen so many cars in one place at a time. all new!

We had a good sunday yesterday, had one investigator come to church. Mondli. he is xhosa and is a student at NMMU, studying law. Haven't met with him yet since i've been here cause of exams and what not. but he came to church with a member also studying at NMMU, Luthando, different one than up above. he served a mission in Joburg from 2007-2009 good guy very funny. always teasing me that i'm elder rigby and i like to play frisbe haha. he's an interesting character. hes the ward clerk. We had a nice DA last night with the Meyers. the family that we stay behind. had some nice chow main stuff or whatever it was. they are coloreds, can't remember if i told you that last week or not hehe. and then she made us Milk tart. i will get the recipe from her for you mom its really good and easy to make. she lets us use her washing machine to do our laundry and they feed us often or so i'm told. i offered to pay her to use her machine but she declined and said that your prayers are far more important than anything that we can pay her. James 5:16. I was touched by that, such powerful testimony of a sweet sister and mother to a wonderful family. and to see how much she loves the gospel is amazing and can strengthen ones own testimony.

I love my Savior Jesus Christ and i know He loves and cares for us. I know i am put in this position to not only teach the people here but also to teach me. Mission does much more than anyone can every imagine. i love this work. i love this gospel. i love my family. I love the scriptures and am so happy we have them to teach us the plan of our heavenly father. Zone conference is this week. Pres Renlund is touring the mission so that'll be cool to have a general authority join us. the transfer focus is Unity. Comp unity, unit unity, mission unity. brings us closer together to move the work forward. I know its true! i know I am a child of GOD in the name of Jesus Christ amen.

your son, brother and missionary,
Elder Robert S Rigby (SACTM)

ps got my package! thank you for the goodies and for the supplies! hehe love you guys!

Transfer News

Dear Family and Friends,

Molo!! haha nice mom i'm good! or should i say indepele! :) hehe Well i'm no longer in the wonderful part of milnerton i'm now in port elizabeth as a zone leader! i still don't know what to think about that... haha and to top if off even more i'm with Elder Bagenzi, my old MTC companion haha its awesome! we are so enjoying it and loving being together again. and Elder Tshikare is the new assistant to the president and they are here with us now for a few days. WE go on exchanges on wednesday with them, i don't even know the area at all, and then they go with Kwa Nobuhle tomorrow so yeah they stayed with us last night then they will come back to us tomorrow evening. and then won't leave till thursday morning. fun stuff being a zone leader. there are lots of responsibility to do. but its alright. I'll get to go to George and Knysna for exchanges and they are the prettiest places to be on mission and i'm hoping while i'm there for a few days i'll be able to get a Book of Mormon covered in skin. there is a guy there that does it. :) we'll see what happens.

So traveling on my bday wasn't the coolest thing to do for a bday party haha. but i flew from cape town to port elizabeth at 2:45 and its a bout an hour flight so i didn't get here till 4:00 and when i saw my comp i just gave him a big hug and oh it was nice to see again. :) I've never served in PE before mom so i don't know where you got that idea, this is my first time being in PE. I do not know anyone here haha i'm so lost haha. I served in cape town and east london so i know how to get to places but here its all new territory for me. its interesting! but its nice. The soccer stadium is pretty close to our boarding thats cool haha. we stay behind members in a flat. its a lot more quiet than Milnerton was so i have been sleeping much better the past few nights. its an ok place. shower stinks but its better than nothin. and the members we stay behind are really kind to us and always make sure we are ok. they are a coloured family. Sis meyers brought us ice cream last night it was awesome haha.

so my area is PE central. is mostly a white area with coloreds and we even have a township, walmer township. We have a few members that stay there. It's an old ward, most of the people there are old and have been in the ward for a long time, but very friendly. our teaching pool on the other hand is really low and we need to pick it up this transfer. we have maybe 5 investigators and i haven't met them yet. they are all busy with studying at NMMU that we haven't been able to meet them yet. hope to this week.

Pres Wood called me on Monday evening to give me the news and he first says that he is calling to comfort the afflicted and to afflict the comforted haha i just laughed. he then asked me if i would accept the assignment as Zone leader in port elizabeth. i of course said yes, but i was kinda shocked. i wasn't expecting to go zone leader. but the Lord works in many ways that one does not understand sometimes. I hope i can do a good job and be an example to my elders in my zone. My comp and i are zone leaders together so we do everything together. I like that part. :) lots easier when we put our ideas together and come up with a plan. :)

I'm going to miss milnerton but i know i am needed here in Port Elizabeth. its a windy city but good people here to teach the restored gospel to. We have a mission tour this transfer with pres Renlund from the area presidency. that should be really fun. thats next week. Well i love you all and thank you for all that you do :) i am so grateful to be a missionary and to be serving my Heavenly Father and His son Jesus Christ. I know this gospel is true i know families are eternal and can be together forever through the temple, i loved your testimony mom... thank you. I love you. I also can't wait to stand in the temple with my family and see all our loved ones again in the next life. church is true book is blue! have a great week.

Your son, brother and missionary,
Elder Robert S Rigby (SACTM)

ps haven't gotten package yet elder Naylor in the office told me it came in tho so i'll hopefully get it this week. :) love you!

Baptisms!

Dear Family and Friends,

Hey guys! it was an alright week, taught people from the bottom of my heart and did the Lord's work! :) what better can you get! haha Had our baptism of Jacob and Phumla yesterday! :) yeah man! haha they were pretty excited when they got into the water. Brother Freddy baptized them it was his first time baptising someone so he needed a little training haha. it was really nice tho, they were smiling all day and it was a spiritual experience for them both and for the people that were there, had a better turn out this time than we did for the mbambus. so yeah! great stuff, sis Lotter was surprised to see so many baptisms in 2 months, she said were having a baptism every month, you guys are doing a really good job. it felt good to hear someone say that to me, knowing that i am making a difference in the ward and that i'm helping it and not diminishing it. Bishop of course thanked us for our hard work. i love bishop taim, hes a good bishop, always on top of things. and very supportive of the missionaries. never had a bishop in any of my areas where he has been so friendly and supportive to the elders. I love this ward a lot.

so that was the highlight of the week i guess haha a baptism is always wonderful and highlightful! HEHE On monday we went to the zls boarding and played tennis, it was fun. not sure what were going to do today tho... hmmm....but after that we went to Laura dollmans and had FHE with her and Kimberly. cathy dollman lauras mother is out of the house for a while staying with a friend so we just met with Laura and Kimberly. it was a nice evening.

tuesday- we saw Nomsa, RC, she had a family crisis back home in zimbabwe so we went there to cheer her up a bit. haha i always seem to cheer people up, ok it depends on if i'm happy and cheerful and smiling. but i do a good job at it i think. We also met with Meshack, he is a golden! haha he reads what we give him and he came to church yesterday i think he enjoyed it. We've been seeing him 3 times a week well this past week anyway. He only has been in south africa for a few weeks so he is still new to the area and doesn't know his way around very good but he managed to find the church which was awesome! we have him a baptismal date for the 30 of Oct this past week and doing really good with it.were excited for him. We also saw taylor, he is doing alright, he had 2 deaths in his family so this past week he was busy with funerals and what what. we went there last night and met with him and we got talking and he is currently working 27-7 he doesn't have anytime for himself. i don't understand how someone can work so much and still have the energy to go about what hes doing. he said last night that he needs to slow down and calm himself. he as a very nice paying job, he works with property and he is only 26 years old. i was shocked to hear that a 26yr old is that wealthy. he bought his first property when he was 18 and the cost of that building tripled in a year so he sold it and got lots off of that. and now he owns 4 apartments that he rents out and also does his daytime job from 8-4:30, which alone pays him quite well. so he is doing very well for himself. but he really needs to slow down, he hadn't slept in a few days. he works with a lot of American clients so he has appointments with them at 10 in the evening because of the time change and so forth. wow... haha. busy man.

we found out that anele, who had a baptism date for the end of sept is in jail now. ha. so we can't do anything till he comes out. he was caught with meth in his pocket. So his mother told us that he was in jail and that court is today and going to settle all of that and so forth. he seemed so sincere when we saw him on wednesday to change his life and now he is in prison.... shame is all i can say. its quite amazing to see what drugs can do to someone isn't it? hmm..

Eugene is awesome haha we saw him on wednesday and saturday. we taught him the 10 commandments and the sabbath day and then went over the plan of salvation with him on saturday. he is just awesome haha came to church yesterday and his brother Tyrone came with him too. so that was cool. hes inviting his family to take part of the restored gospel. thats how the world is going to know about the restored gospel is through family and friends introducing them to the message and then to the missionaries. thats the only way. referrals is key or member missionary work.

We went to a part less active family on wednesday evening. the Thom family. The mother and 3 kids come sis thom is the young womens pres, but her husband doesn't claim to be a member anymore. i think its because he is a fly fisher by profession and well sundays are good days to go fishing, hes been to the states a few times, been to Idaho! for fishing. haha hes a really nice guy tho, has his own fly shop by his house and they fed us some nice stir fry. ate it with chop sticks haha. but i asked him why he doesn't to church he basically shut me right up by saying that he has nothing to say about it. so its not his time i guess.

We went to the Mthembus on thursday evening for a DA. we had chicken and rice and beans and garlic bread. it was yummy. but funny thing. have you ever had dessert first?? I have haha we had ice cream with a really good cake of some sort. haha we ate it first cause the other food, the dinner wasn't quite done yet and we were a little pushed on time so Sis Jackie brought out the dessert first haha. it was interesting. but nice. i always enjoy being in that home. such wonderful people.

I went on exchanges with elder pearson in bellville on friday. it was a good day. they have a some really good investigators. i enjoyed it with him. he is a funny elder and really cool to serve with.

Saturday was a really nice day, had a few appointments fall through but the day in general was nice, as as i said we saw Eugene and Meshack and Jacob and Phumla. We also met with John. He is doing good. he is the friend of peter from burundie. he hadn't read much from the Book of Mormon. he was busy with work. he struggles with english, so i ordered a Swahili Book of Mormon for him and he was really happy when i gave it to him. we taught him about prayer and scripture study. and got him to pray in english before we left too! :) he wasn't going to but we were patient and persistent and well it happened and it was a really good prayer too. then we visited the Welo family. they are orignialy from DRC, members. bro Welo is very successful in his security business and sis welo works at pick n pay. so she works a lot on sundays. but they have a strong testimony. wonderful family. I love visiting members and getting to know them and to hear their testimonies. its such a pleasure to do that and get close to all of them and feel of their love for the gospel and even for me as a missionary.

Sunday was a good day. Had 6 investigators as church. is was a big gospel principles class. i taught the class, it was on the Lord's law of health. good participation from the class. for sacrament meeting I shared my testimony and my favorite scriptures, funny story bout that. I walked in the chapel and bishop comes up and asks me when transfers was, i told him that its this coming wednesday. so he said that well you've been here a while so you might leave us so would you share your testimony and a spiritual thought. i just thought...wow...haha so i did. and then sis jackie Lotter gave a talk from the liahona about how the Spirit is here with us and that we are not alone. and then Peirt Mayburg gave a talk on how we can avoid temptations. very nice. then we had the baptism. for lunch we went to the pattersons. they fed us chicken curry and pumpkin and veggies and then had custard and cake. very nice i was very full when i walked out of their home. they all made fun of me cause i ate too much. haha haven't been that full in a long time. it was a good feeling to have even if it was uncomfortable for a min. haha. then we went and saw peter. he is doing ok. i hope we finally addressed his concern about the sabbath day. he didn't seem too pleased when we were done. but i don't know, the Spirit needs to work in him and convert him. he is a 7th day adventist so it has been a struggle to get him to realize that sunday is the day we go to church and worship. I know that if he prays the Lord will let him know, but i think there is unbelief there with peter and he won't ask in faith. we'll see what happens.

Well that was the week for you! haha i hope it was eventful. I know that the Lord loves us and if we do our part of the work of this wonderful plan we will have our will come into his will and we will receive happiness. Christ is the mediator between us and returning to our Heavenly Father. I love you all and hope things continue to go well back home. love you guys! church is true book is blue and you can know it too!

your missionary,
Elder Robert S Rigby (SACTM)

Testimony Touches

dear Family and Friends,

:) hiya! hehe well its been a good week. we have worked hard but smart in the vineyard of milnerton. we've gotten some more rain this past week. it rained all day yesterday so church attendance wasn't the best. but we still had a good turn out of members and we had 3 investigators there. Jacob and Phumla and then Eugene. So that was all for us. so many commit to come but then don't show up. We followed up yesterday afternoon on a few of them, Monica and Shadrik said they didn't know where our number was or the church address so they couldn't call if they got lost so they didn't even bother leaving their home. so it was a shame for them. gave them a copy of the Book of Mormon to start reading until we go again on tuesday evening. nice congo people. really don't have that much of a religious background so we basically had to start from the very beginning about God and Jesus Christ and what our duty is. and how we are so important to them and following the Savior. Good potential.

well first of all we have a 3rd companion again. Elder Nkala from Zimbabwe. He just came down from Nam on thursday evening. His visa expired as well as the other 2 missionaries that were up there, yes there were only 3 elders up in nam where there are supposed to be 10. the Namibian government isn't approving our visas and not extending them. so no missionaries are up there now. :( its very sad. 2 awesome mission branches and no missionaries to help. so i guess as elder Nkala told me that they have called a few branch missionaries to be full time to continue to teach the investigators that the elders were progressing with. but its still not "full time" its a shame that Satan uses anything he can get his hands on to make the work of our father be in the pits. but we can also look at it this way, what does the Lord have in mind for the missionaries in sactm?? maybe there is another plan in store for the ones that were called up there but haven't made it.

On the other side of things! Jacob and Phumla passed their interview on saturday!! YAY!!! haha i'm so happy for them. 2 more baptisms coming up next sunday! haha. they were/are really excited. you should have seen the smile on phumlas face when she was done with the interview. so good for them! I also did 3 other interviews in the district on saturday. 2 for the bellville elders and then 1 for panaroama, ZLs. all passed so there are gunna be lots of baptisms in the district next sunday. i actually think i'm doing 2 more on exchanges tomorrow in bellville.

Eugene is doing really good! he came to church yesterday as i stated earlier. He is just so committed to his baptism date that he wants nothing to get in the way of it. we taught him the law of chastity and the word of wisdom this past week. we came to know that he also smokes so its gunna be another battle for him to quit smoking. he smokes like 4-5 a day. so its not too bad but then he told us that since he has been doing the training at work he didn't have the chance to go out and have a smoke so it'll be a bit easier for him to quit. we told him that prayer and continuing reading the scriptures is his best source of help. so i don't think he will have a problem. Pray for him.

Taylor didn't make it to church yesterday, he had a death in the family yesterday morning so he was tied up with that. he really wanted to come though. we gave him a baptismal date for the 16 October. he is a really nice guy who met the missionaries when he was in London. he met with a few times, read the Book of Mormon and went to church. On friday night we watched the restoration dvd to review the restoration with him, since he had already heard it in London. So he remembered everything and KNOWS its true! :) i was shocked haha a golden investigator. he feels that he has done some bad things in his life and wants to change. he definitely wants to get baptized. so we'll work with him closely. single guy 26 lives in an apartment with another guy. he really isn't involved in the lessons yet. but taylor does volunteer counseling for ex- drug addicts. which is pretty cool. he helps a bunch of people ages 19-25. and does that basically 24-7 and then also works monday- friday as something, oh i can't remember. sorry. haha. anyway we are really excited about taylor. We met him as we were driving down the street in Maitland and then all of the sudden he waves us down, so we stop and roll my window down to talk to him and he asks us if were from the church and then we saw our name tags and knew we were and then he told us he met us in london and so forth. pretty cool tho. If we hadn't been in that place at that time we probably wouldn't have found him.

thats basically the main people that we saw this past week. it was a gooder week. lots of appointments and good people to teach and share the gospel with. yesterday at church sacrament meeting was nice, had a the Mthembus baby blessing, then elder Nkala shared his testimony and then the man that gave the blessing shared his testimony and then bishop shared a few things on lifting others up and helping them out of tuff situations. and then we had a high council man speak on home teaching. it was good. Gospel principles was on service and then priesthood was on the law of chastity taught by bro Mayburg. he does a really good job at teaching priesthood. they were even on time yesterday :) i really had a fun time out at their place last week. i liked your comment mom. its definitely true in my case haha i love the country!...

I love you all and am so grateful for you love and support to me and even the people i teach. I love this work and i know it brings happiness to those who share their testimonies with others. I know God loves us and wants us to be happy. I know i am where i need to be. these people need Elder Rigby, my testimony. we had a lesson yesterday that ended up in an almost bible bash with Justin and Nelly. they don't believe that we existed in the pre mortal life and that God and Jesus are the same being so we used scriptures to explain but in the end the just didn't want to be wrong. So i ended the almost bash with saying that we came here to share what we know to be true and that God sent us here, that we didn't come here to argue or bible bash. but to lift you higher than you already are. and i shared my testimony of the Godhead and of the restoration and then we left with a prayer. So i know that my testimony is what touches the hearts of others. I KNOW its True!! i cannot deny it. In the name of Jesus Christ, our Saviour and Redeemer, Amen.

love your son, brother and missionary,
Elder Robert S Rigby (SACTM)