Monday, October 31, 2011

Happy Halloween

Family and Friends,

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

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

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

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

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

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

your missionary,
Elder Robert S Rigby (SACTM)

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

Monday, October 24, 2011

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.



Monday, October 17, 2011

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)

Monday, October 10, 2011

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.

Monday, October 3, 2011

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)