Monday, January 31, 2011

Dunkin Accomplished


Dear Family and my Most Dear Friends,

Its been a decent week. :) January is definitely gone, wow. Time sure does fly by when one just works and applies diligence to it. Thats all we've been doing since New years. Its been fun and joyful :) Missionary work truly does bring happiness as long as you do what your supposed to. figures. the Lord knew that, and came up with this great plan for us. A plan that we could all experience as we live through life and apply the Saviors atonement into our lives so that we can one day return to our heavenly home.... that was our lesson in gospel principles class on Sunday with our 6 investigators and 2 Recent Converts. i Taught the class it was good.

The whole week we just basically focused on making sure Bro Hola was ready to be baptized which he was. :) SO yes the baptism happened on Saturday at the river. I had the opportunity to baptize him. :) it was my first experience to baptize someone. People said i did a good job and that it was fast haha. Down and up! They had never seen someone baptize someone so fast before haha. i was like well thats how its supposed to be done isn't it! haha i quite didn't know what to think. but its all good. Bro Hola went all the way under and came back up a new person. thats all that counts. I felt a very peaceful feeling after, the Spirit is definitely strong at a baptism. On Sunday we confirmed him, my companion did it. It was a very wonderful confirmation. and again the Spirit was really strong in the circle of the Priesthood brethren, 4 missionaries and president O'Dell. it was awesome....We also had a very good turn out to church, every chair was filled in Sacrament meeting. so had a very good turn out haha. and that was our assignment from President Probst, to Fill the chapel, like we have the past 2 buildings. each building being bigger than the last :) so hopefully one day we will get to have a chapel built here. it would be a really wonderful thing to happen.

Our other investigators are doing really well. we have 3 baptismal dates set. and a few others that have committed to baptism but no date set, mainly cause we haven't seen them since they committed to it. they are scarce it seems like. so i don't know if they are really serious or not. Maybe this week will determine that....This week is transfers. we now have it on Wednesday not Thursday cause of the new schedule in the MTCs so i will know tomorrow if i will going or staying, i hope i stay. so much is happening here. its fantastic! Siphokaze is doing great, she is pretty much ready for her baptism next week, Feb 12. She has really good support from her sister in law, Sister Ntombiyake. We keep telling her that if she has any questions that she needs to go to her sister in law haha. helps strengthen her testimony and help her learn more. Nontombe is doing really good too. she came to church yesterday for the first time and loved it. she has good support from her friend Siphokaze who i just spoke about so they came together. she had read 6 chapters in the book of Mormon in 2 days. we were quite shocked haha. no one reads that much of the Book Of Mormon in 2 days. She really wants to learn. We taught her half of the Plan of Salvation yesterday afternoon, had to go kinda slow on explaining things, she has a difficult time understanding things sometimes so we have to make sure we explain it very very clearly or she doesn't understand, and she won't get anywhere. She even has a dictionary to help her when she doesn't understand some words in the BofM. crazy stuff eh? haha

and of course i can't forget Zoleka. She is also doing good. she is getting baptized one the 15 Feb. she has been coming to church and has been reading and praying mostly everyday. she still has a few things to learn, but we have time so no rush. Her sister Zukiswa is also doing well, hasn't been coming to church since she works on Sundays. but she will be able to come to her Sisters Baptism so that'll be wonderful :)

Well i'm about out of time, its really expensive at this cafe. So i have to end right on time or they start charging me more and more per min. Pretty lame if you ask me but i don't make up the prices. so i'll deal with it....

I know this is the true gospel of Jesus Christ and that it was restored through the prophet Joseph Smith. I know the Book of Mormon is another testament of Jesus Christ and that if we read it daily we will draw closer to our Father in Heaven. I love you guys! i know prayer is very important as well. Have a good week!

Your Missionary,
Elder Robert S Rigby (SACTM)

ps the township is called Location.

Tuesday, January 25, 2011

Fantastic and Fine

Dear Family and Friends,

Yebbo gogo! :) how is everybody doing? I'm doing great! no complaints really haha surprise, surprise. It was a good week, we found a few more people to teach, referrals from investigators and finding, (tracting). We got a referral from Siphokaze, her friend Nontombe. she is a 20yr old who stays alone and volunteers at the school teaching. Shes a good lady. really willing to learn more about Christ. we had a good lesson with her on the importance of following Christ once we found her house haha its sometimes a struggle to find the addresses to these people since there are no street names or house numbers half of the time. its insane, drive over there, then back over there ask a few people, they say oh back over there and then we get there and no one knows the person and so forth. its fun fun not! haha.

We had President and sister Probst attend church with us this past sunday. they make a stop once every transfer to the mission branches. the 2 in Namibia are the busy ones so they are there a lot. It was nice to have them in the services. Good experience for me and the members and the 7 investigators! yes i said that correctly haha 7 investigators came to church!!!! :) it was fantastic. the Funde family came (4) and then Siphokaze and Tata Hola and Zoleka made it. we were very happy hehe. and they all enjoyed it.

So we will be having a baptism this saturday! :) tata Hola is ready! very exciting. He is happy and excited as well, his family aren't ready yet but hopefully once he is a member he can help improve his wife and children to progress better. so that will be the 29th Jan and then Siphokaze will be getting baptized on the 12 of February and then Zoleka will be getting baptized the next week on the 19th of February. they are all excited and are progressing towards it. The Funde family on the other hand do not have date but we hope to give them one soon. they came to church and they said they will come again next week so that was really great. the father is a police officer and the mother is a school teacher. their children Zanele is going to school in Alice which is 45 ks outside of king williams town and then their son Luqolo is 14 and in grade 8 he likes rugby and cricket. very wonderful father led family. hope to baptize them! I HOPE to be here when that happens. Elder and Sister O'Dell hope that i am here for a while more as well. they say Lebala and I are doing really good together and that President needs to let us stay together for at least one more transfer. I hope so too. Working hard and smart! :)

On Tuesday night we had a training district meeting with President and Sister Probst. We talked about the importance of getting our investigators to pray in the lesson so they can get the role of prayer and understand what it is. Pres did a demonstration for us and then we got to do role plays to practice. it was fun. Even we missionaries are learning more as we go. I love mission!

the people here stay in homes made out of bricks and mordor and yes some stay in tin made shacks. some are made out of mud and sticks as well. but the government is now trying to get rid of all the shacks so they are building 2 bedroom and a bathroom homes for them. free of charge as far as i know. they aren't that great of homes but they are definitely better than a tin shack that for sure! We didn't get a big storm that i know of. just rain. so it wasn't bad at all.

Elder and Sister O'Dell are Elwood and Linda O'Dell. they don't have a number or anything at the moment but i can give you Sister O'Dells email address... they would love to see you when they get home and when you come up to see Erin. yo! thats crazy how she is going to be home in May wow haha time flies.

so the missionary standing next to me with the O'Dells is Elder Lebala yes he is very tall. haha and the other 2 are Elder Moorcroft and Elder Bangerter. Elder Moorcroft is a funny one who always does weird faces and poses for pictures. that just him haha. we had 2 members with us for Christmas from George where the O'Dells served before they came here to Port Alfred they are Charles and George. cool guys they are in the middle. 2 black guys. Bangerter is standing by me and then lebala is on the right. (*pictures from last week) yes i'm getting enough rest well at least i'm trying to...i'm still struggling with getting up in the moring elder Lebala is up at 6:30. i should just tell him to encourage me to get up. But with 4 missionaries and only one shower someone has to wait. so its usually me. I really admire all of the members in the branch no one in specific really. its so small i'm in good touch with all of them.

Well i love you all! :) hope you all have a tremendous week and enjoy every minute of it :)
Your Son and Missionary,
Elder Robert S Rigby (SACTM)

Ps email was down yesterday so thats why i'm emailing today.


Monday, January 17, 2011

Kushooushu


Elder Rigby, Elder Lebala, Sister and Elder O'Dell

Elder Bangerter, Elder Rigby, Charles, George, Elder Moorcroft, Elder Lebala

Dear Family and Friends,

Hey snowy land hehe having fun yet?? haha i am! its nice and hot! oh my goodness. never been so hot in my life. Kushooushu as in Xhosa hehe very hot. and of course i am bringing a Xhosa Book of Mormon home with me haha. Maybe an Afrikaans one too. We had a very good week with seeing our investigators most of them anyway haha. Some just missed out on the wonderful message that we share with people about following Christ. where the elect ones sit and listen and really enjoy what we have to share. We extended 2 more baptismal dates to Zukiswa and Zoleka Hons. they are sisters. Zoleka is married and has a little girl. she just recently got married actually. her daughter is a naughty one that one yo haha she always comes into the lesson and starts hitting everyone and then we tell her to stop and she talks back of course. little stinker. her mother is progressing really well she didn't make it to church yesterday tho. she had an incident that needed to be taken care of as she was walking out the door to come to church. her younger brother was going through her purse and took all her money and what what so an argument burst out and so she wasn't in the mood to come after that. shes good now tho thank goodness. Zukiswa on the other hand isn't progressing as much. she works on Sundays and she can't get off so she can only make it to church once a month for that Sunday that she is off. only gets one a month. She works at the mall in a billabong and quicksilver shop.

The people here in port Alfred don't really work too much. they are always job hunting it seems like. and then when they do find one its only for a short time. mostly painting or building. not a whole lot of jobs in south Africa. so the conditions that they stay in are shacks or really small homes with 2 rooms. and the bathrooms are outside like an outhouse. yes, i have had stewed intestines. when i was in Mdantsane. haven't had it since really haven't seen it since i left there. I talked to Elder Davenport yesterday haha we had a call from one of the people in his area, yeah don't know how they got our number mixed up with the elders there. he is doing good it was nice to talk to a home boy haha. he can speak Xhosa fluently now. i can't haha. don't really know what my problem is. the culture here is the Xhosa culture they are civilized people. they do lots of things really. the boys going to the bush is the most culture thing I've seen. they also believe in ancestors and healings or you can call them Somgomas. not the coolest thing in the world quite scary actually. they do weird things. not sure what exactly they do but its weird.

Our other investigators with Baptismal dates are doing well. we had to drop a few of the dates to some cause they are not progressing all of the sudden. so we have 5 dates that will hopefully make it. Brother Hola is doing really well he has now "quit" smoking :) we asked him how he was doing with that yesterday when we went to see him and he said i've quit haha it was great. He will be having his interview this weekend and then the 29th of jan is the day! he is so excited :) i am too first one that i have really taught and will be getting baptized while i am still here. His son Khanyi is going back to school this week in PE so we gave the missionaries there his details and hopefully things will continue for him.

Siphokaze on the other hand scared us yesterday when she didn't hold her appointment on Saturday and didn't come to church. she is expecting her 3rd child and isn't married. yeah thats what the ladies do here in south africa they don't get married they just want to have children and not be married. i don't get it. With her, she isn't what we thought. she has a history and is now going back into it or so her Sister in law told us yesterday. so i hope things will not turn out to be what they are seeming.

Milton is not progressing at all. he doesn't keep his appointments and he has a bad habit of drinking and talking a lot when we are there. we tried to tell him to stop but then he left for PE on Friday. not sure when he is coming back. so he at this point is not getting baptized anytime soon. He is a tailor. works there out of his little home. has a wife who also likes to drink and is always drunk when we come. so its interesting. pray for them i guess/.

Well my time is about up. So I love you all and am so grateful to have your love and support :) i hope things continue to go well back home. well love you guys!

YOUR MISSIONARY,
Elder Robert S Rigby (SACTM)

Monday, January 10, 2011

Progress

Dear Family and friends,

Hey everybody! :) how ya all doing? I'm doing great and loving missionary work! :) we had a really good week actually haha surprise surprise guess thats what happens when one focuses on the work and his companion is right there with you enjoying it too :) SO more about elder Lebala :) he is from Botswana and he is 25 years old. been a member since August of 2008. he is also the only member of his family. He said that the missionaries ruined his life and made him a good guy haha he is so funny i love working with him and he and i are having good times working in the township together. Yes transfers was on the 17 Dec. the next transfers are 3 February. so long time still this transfer is 7 weeks since last transfer was only 5 because of Christmas.

We have 7 baptismal dates set. :) great news! haha we have the Hola family. Tata and Khanyi are really progressing and they have made it to church 2 weeks in a row now :) they are scheduled to be baptized on the 29th Jan. the mother and other son haven't been coming to church and we really haven't seen them much. the mother is 6 months pregnant so that is putting a barrier on things we think. Tata has a smoking habit so its been a challenge for him to quit i'm not sure if he has managed to stop all completely yet he got it down to one a day compared to 6 a day which is a big change and its helped him a lot. now he just needs to get rid of it completely to get baptized. he is really excited for it and wants his family to be apart of it too. mom doesn't speak much english so its a challenge, luckily my comp can hear a bit of Xhosa better than i can haha. shes been reading the Book of Mormon tho :) and loves it. so thats the hola family.

Siphokazi is a wonderful lady that we met this past week at sister Ntombiyakes place. she is her sister in law from cape town. She is golden just like Ntombiyake was haha. she already wants to be a member of the church. the first lesson was a piece of cake with frosting on top really haha. she accepted to be baptized before she goes back to cape town, in fact she lives in my old area haha in meadowridge! :) i had fun talking to her about whereabouts she lived and everything. so when she gets baptized we will just send her records there to the meadowridge ward :) she has been reading the pamphlets we gave her and then yesterday she came to church and enjoyed it, didn't stay for the last hour, not exactly sure why, she said something about her children tired or something. We gave her an English and Xhosa Book of Mormon and she committed to read. i bore my testimony of the Book of Mormon and how it has blessed my life and i told her part of my conversion story and the Spirit once again came over me and filled the room. as i was looking into her eyes i could tell that we understood what we shared and that it was true..... we are going back on tuesday.

We also have brother Milton. he is a funny older man in his 50s he likes to drink tho haha so when we go there, most of the time he isn't sober. and he tries to sit and listen always likes us coming and says that we are good people and that we should always come and teach him cause we are men of God. So at this point he is supposed to get baptized on the 22 but its not going to happen, he hasn't made it to church and he hasn't stopped drinking, of course we really haven't gotten into detail about the Word of Wisdom yet so gotta do that before much happens.

Victor is a nice man we met 2 weeks ago. he is in his 30s not sure if he is married. he has a little boy tho so hopefully he is. we have only met with him once and gave him a commitment to be baptized but we haven't seen him since. we called him on saturday for an appointment and he told us he was busy watching the soccer match and that he would call us later. he never did. So we think he is running away from us. don't know if we scared him or what. are we really that scary or what?? haha. He had met missionaries before in an area where there wasn't a church. it was back in 2007 he said. the branch here in Port Alfred only started in 2008 when president Probst came. It started with 8 members and now we have close to 40. not every one of them come to church every week though so lots of less actives if we can ever find them. it a struggle to find homes in the township. houses aren't numbered and streets aren't named so we ask around and see if people know other people haha and where they stay.

SO things are really good :) i love it things have picked up and work is going. Sister O'Dell asked me yesterday if i liked working out in the township with elder Lebala and i said oh yes. she then mentioned that she has seen a change in me and that i look a lot happier :) i thought that was nice and its true. they have just a few more months left. they go home in April.

the branch has primary kids and yes we do baptize them. we baptized Mheli Nteyi back in November. right now we don't have any more that are old enough. really don't work with them too much. I'm in a mission branch i know i've told you that before haha.

Yes elder Heydenrych and elder Moorcroft have an african accent. its cool. a lot like sister Dell who you spoke to on Christmas. glad that Elder Opolot wrote you :) and his father passed away. he is doing great he got transfered to PE.

we had that training in east london on thursday and we basically went over the importance of the Holy Ghost in conversion and that we need the spirit to teach Heavenly Fathers children. we had fun doing role plays and learning how to be better missionaries.

Well i love you all and am very grateful for all that you do to support me and the work of the lord. i hope and pray everything is going well back home and that you all are studying and praying everyday. don't let the Lord down, He loves all of you and cares about you and wants his children to be happy. I know He loves me and that His spirit is definitely with his son and your son. i feel of His love and comfort everyday. :) have a great week!

Love your missionary,
Elder Robert S Rigby (SACTM)

Monday, January 3, 2011

Let the New Year Begin

Dear Me Family and Friends,

Hallo to the cold part of the world! haha sucks for you! :) i'm enjoying some nice warm weather mixed with rain. yeah its rained this past week. I had a very enjoyable week actually. We had 4 investigators at church yesterday and we extended 2 more baptismal dates this past week. unfortunately those 2 potentials didn't make it to church yesterday. Zukiswa and her sister Zoleka came to church as well as Tata Hola and his son Khanyi. it was a wonderful fast and testimony meeting. the spirit was there as the members bore their short but sweet testimonies of the church and the new year even. Its crazy that its now 2011! where did 2010 go?? haha i had lots of fun with the O'Dells on Friday evening and then again on Saturday. We played card games and enjoyed each others company and then on Saturday Elder O'Dell took us golfing. it rained but it was still fun haha. I think i'm gunna try golf when i get home haha its actually a pretty fun sport if you get the hang of it. :) We didn't work on Friday evening or all of Saturday. those are the only times of the entire year where we aren't allowed to work. It was fun tho, with the O'Dells. :)

Wednesday was the not so good day this past week. all of our appointments fell through and nothing happened. i should be used to those kind of days, i've had so many of them but it still isn't fun when people aren't there when they say they will be or we can't find anyone home to share this wonderful message with. but oh well.

I love serving the lord! :) and yes, when i serve i feel like i want to do it more and more :) its such a wonderful thing to be a part of. In my spare time, when i do have cause most days we are in the area as much as possible, i either make me some nice food or just relax and enjoy the 4 man boarding. its so fun to be with Elder Moorcroft and Elder Bangerter and My companion Elder Lebala haha. we enjoy talking and laughing with one another and telling each others success stories :) it was a tuff week but ended off with a bang. :) can't get much better than having investigators actually show up to church. if everyone of our investigators would come to church they will become converted. that's how it works. most of them read and pray they just haven't come to church.

This coming Thursday we are traveling to East London for training again. Excited to see how the STATS went in the mission for the holiday season. last year it was an improvement. so i wonder if this year will be the same or better. hopefully better! :)

Testimonies are the powerful converter to the Gospel. Investigators borrow the missionaries testimonies until they can get one of they're own. I'm so grateful for my testimony that i have of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. I Know My Savior lives and that He loves me, i know that my father in Heaven loves me and knows me personally. I feel of His love and comfort everyday and it keeps me going in this work. I am doing it for HIM and for me. The things i have learned so far will be with me for the rest of my life. I know its by Christ we get back to our Heavenly Father and that we can return to Him if we do our part here on earth. I know the Book of Mormon is truly another Testament of Jesus Christ and that it'll bring us closer to Him if we read it and abide by its precepts that it teaches. So all of you should read from it daily! :)

Well i love you! have a wonderful week in the cold! hehe :)

Your Missionary,
Elder Robert S Rigby (SACTM)