Dear Family and Friends,
Hey! Its a sunny day today compared to the cloudy/foggy days we have had this past week. Sat and Sun were very foggy. Couldn't even see table mountain at all. crazy stuff. I'm enjoying being next the the ocean :) even if it is the Atlantic and we have a nice coldish breeze come every day. its all good it reminds me of home haha. The view of table mountain is really nice, on days that you can see it clearly of course. Pres told me that everyone wants to come here to milnerton just because of the view :) so i'm special i guess. Had interviews with pres on wednesday it was very nice to talk to him. we talked a bit about Elder Zulu and what i've learned and how i felt and so forth, then he also asked a question, When was the last time you went to the temple. i said 16 months ago. he then said well it takes an hour and a half to go through a session so, take that time at least once every month and take your self to the temple Sitting and thinking about the whole session and pondering about it he told us we could literally see ourselves checking in at the desk and then walking in and putting our temple clothes on and so forth. i thought that was cool, but its going to be very difficult for me to do that, i get bored just sitting at my desk thinking for that long. so i'll have to work on that. Pres and Sis Probst are preparing to go home. its been 3 years. Sister Probst was talking to us while each others comps were in with pres and she was saying how she hasn't seen grandchildren yet and that she is really excited for it. I would be too haha. but i don't know what i would do without the Probsts :)
We had good teaching opportunities as always this week. We've been visiting less active members this past week as well as our investigators. On Monday we had a very wonderful FHE with the Mthembu family. just a family of 3. The Husband, Martin is originally from Lepompo and served his mission here in cape town. So now he lives here with his wife jacky and they have a little girl about 2 years and expecting another in 2 months. SO exciting for them. Bro martin is less active but he knows everything is true, i think he just has a problem with past offense or has leadership problems. that seems to be the case everywhere in cape town. members don't like the bishop or don't like someone in leadership so they get offended and go less active. its stupid! we are supposed to sustain our leaders. he is a wonderful guy and has a great family we had a wonderful evening with them. i gave the lesson, it was about using the Book of Mormon in answering questions that we get from non members. they came up with questions that they have gotten like, are we Christians? and what is this Bible that you use? so i challenged them to find a reference using the Book of Mormon :) it was fun. they came up with some good ones. they also fed us :) oh it was yummy rice and curry. i need to learn to make that so i can make it at home.
Tuesday and Wednesday we had a few appointments and then visited members to build relationships and get them to do missionary work. We saw Tientus a few times this week. He is doing really good, at church every sunday. We finally got him a french Book of Mormon and when i gave it to him he just smiled and said oh! he was happy. We also taught him about following the prophet and being obedient to our Heavenly Father. We watched a talk by Pres Monson from April 2010 conference, "He is risen" its a really good one. then on friday we taught him about prayer and scripture study now that he has his copy to read and he can understand. he had a question about what we learned in gospel principles class last week, we spoke about covenants. he really didn't understand on sunday but then we explained to him better in his home and he understood. he just needs to continue to read and pray and get the answer to his prayers on our message and then he will be ready to be baptized on 12 june.
We've started teaching a new lady named Caroline. She is originally from Transky in the eastern cape. xhosa lady. She has been going through some tuff times i guess and she asked us if we gave counseling, we asked what type of counseling and then she replied, marriage. of course we said no but then said that we knew someone who is just perfect for that. Christ and the Bishop. :) so we talked about the Atonement and then came back on Friday and taught her the Gospel of Jesus Christ. she accepted the invitation to be baptized we even gave her a date of 10 july So i hope things go well for her and that she makes it to church next week. She is married and has 2 children a boy about 6 and then a baby girl. the husband really wasn't interested when we were there.
We visited Vicky this week. managed to see her on Tuesday and Thursday evening. she is doing better, didn't run away from us this past week haha. she didn't read, but she prays every day. We followed up on that and then decided that we should just start from the beginning and we watched the restoration dvd and then read with her from the Book of Mormon. She has a daughter, 18 yrs, doing her Matric this year. and her exams were this past week, she wanted us to give her a blessing that she would pass. So i gave the blessing and well the Spirit just kind of took the words out of my mouth. i really don't remember what i said but i remember the feeling and the comfort which i had and i sure hope Lauren felt it. it was nice. Vicky is one of those investigators who promises to come to church and then doesn't show. yes mom i know i was the same way haha. i have been to church every sunday the past 16 months. so i think i learned my lesson. i love church.
Jacob and pumla are doing good. they haven't made it to church yet either. they have a date for the 26 june but they need to make it to church. jacob is from Burundi and Pumla is from East London, i think. not sure how they met haha. a great couple, they actually stay with members that are less active that come from Zim. haven't gotten the surname of the family yet. still learning themselves haha. but they are progressing.
Bro Kitchings, a less active, has been for 8 years out of the 16 he has been a member. He just recently got divorced and is left with the 4 kids. I feel really sorry for him and wish things will get better for him. he is a great guy, knows everything is true but admits that he hasn't been to church for a very long time. don't know why yet. i think its because he doesn't have very much support from his family. his wife is a member but just left him because she decided that partying was better than raising a family. the oldest is 18 and the youngest is 4. so i really feel for Bro Sean. and to top it off his home just flooded last week and the ceiling was literally on the floor so hes been busy getting his house back in order as well. he is a plumber and loves baseball he and 2 of his sons started up a league here in cape town. i thought that was pretty cool. base ball really isn't big here. just starting. its all cricket and soccer and rugby.
Well that was pretty much the week, it was a good one i think. taught the people of south africa the gospel and built relationships with members. Oh bro Piert Mayburg, the guy who lived in Idaho for 6 years, he was a builder there and now he is a farmer and also a builder. he drives 150ks everyday to get to work. and then back. so 300 ks everyday. thats alot of fuel. but they also come to church every sunday. its cool. They are a great family. i want to visit his farm but we aren't allowed cause its too far. :( oh well.
well i love you guys! i hope everything is good and well :) express my love to everyone for me back in idaho
your missionary,
Elder Robert S Rigby SACTM
PS haven't sent the sd card yet kind of forgot my bad.
Monday, May 16, 2011
Monday, May 9, 2011
Good to Talk to You!
Dear family and Friends,
WOW! :) i so enjoyed the phone call yesterday. it was so nice to talk to everyone and i'm so glad that everyone is doing good and well. Yes i thanked sister Dollman for letting me use her phone. she said it was a pleasure. :) She is such a wonderful woman who basically is a mother to missionaries. it is great. yesterday wasn't the best day of missionary work. all of our appointments fell through so we had lunch at sis Dollmans and then just kinda hung out till phone calls. yes we were there longer than we should've been but its ok. had a nice afternoon with them. Church was really good. i gave a talk as i mentioned and then we had 4 investigators at church too :) so that is always a plus. they all enjoyed it as well. In gospel principles class a brother taught which i haven't had in a long time haha one of the missionaries has had to teach in my past areas. so it was good to just sit and interact with the visitors and RCs good discussion on the Lords covenant people. we are that because we promise with GOD that we will keep things in the agreement He makes with us and the portion we get in return in blessings. Priesthood was about tithing and offerings. Bro Petier mayburg taught the class. he is the farmer i spoke about last night. he and his wife lived in preston for 6 years and then they moved back to south africa where he farms winter wheat all dry farms. and have some sheep and a really big pig too or so i'm told haha. so i thought that was cool. his wife is American her family lives in Idaho so thats why they lived there i guess. as i was talking to him he mentioned that they miss Idaho, its quiet and wonderful. i just smiled.
The week was good. we had some good teaching opportunities with our investigators and they are slowly progressing. with the 6 people that have baptism dates 3 of them were there yesterday. Tientus, Tatanda and Rein. Tientus is from Congo. he is a good guy who struggles with english a bit but we are able to communicate with him and teach him. he comes to church every week. but his understanding is slow, mainly because of the language barrier. going to get him a french Book of Mormon to read so it'll be easier for him to understand.
Tatanda is from Zimbabwe. he is 26 and has been in south africa for 4 years i think he knows a lot about Christian philosophy and the Bible. ha so its kinda interesting to teach him sometimes, he brings up interesting questions that my companion and i are like uh we don't know about that haha so i guess we need to study harder for him. He has come to church for 2 times now. he works for a restaurant and also studies different things at the same time. he loves languages, he can speak English, Shuna, Spanish, and is learning Greek and French. i was surprised haha. thats intense to know those languages all at once. so a very intelligent dude haha
Sister Rein is also from Congo. She is the girlfriend of bro Sebastian who is a member. she really struggles with English so Sebastian has to translate everything for her into french. so as of now we will be teaching her english cause she has been taught pretty much everything so now its just making sure she understands the gospel. she is excited to learn and wants to be baptized so her and sebestian can get sealed in the temple at the end of the year. Sebestian is our ward mission leader, he moved so now its difficult to have correlation and things, he now lives in the bellville boundaries but still plans to attend milnerton cause of his calling.
So it was a good week. we have some other investigators that really aren't progressing too much. Anele who is originally from Mdantsane, he and his mother stay here in Phoneix. haven't made it to church yet but are reading the Book of Mormon. We saw him saturday evening and he is really excited to know more. he just needs to make the effort to come to church. he is 20. We are also trying to teach another lady from Zimbabwe, Lorrain, she is 19 and stays with sister Nomsa who is a recent convert. she seems to always make the commitment to church and then at the last minute she has excuses why she can't come. so as my comp says she is a joker haha. they just say yes to please us and then don't do. so i don't know how much more this is going to go on.
I love the ward. the members are awesome. :) we visited some this past week. the mthembu family. Bro Martin is less active but his wife, jackie is active and is in the presidency of the sisters of the society :) they have a little girl who will be turning 3. they are a wonderful family. martin served his mission here in the SACTM and here he found his wife :) haha. he is originally from Limpopo. we are having FHE with them tonight, we are excited. we have lots of less actives that the ward wants us to visit so we will be focusing more on that this next week if we can find them home.
the district members are Elders Naylor and Pearson in Bellville. and then Elders Anderson and Bradshaw in Panarama ward they are the ZLs. its a good district. i will send my SD card home this week there are over 800 pictures on it haha so enjoy and yes i got a new camera from GAME. its a L22 Nikon 12mega pics so i hope its a good one. very similar to my old one.
Well i love you all and hope you all have a Fantabulous week and enjoy the weather :) i know the Lord loves us and wants us to be happy we must do our part to make it happen. loves
your missionary,
Elder Robert S Rigby (SACTM)
WOW! :) i so enjoyed the phone call yesterday. it was so nice to talk to everyone and i'm so glad that everyone is doing good and well. Yes i thanked sister Dollman for letting me use her phone. she said it was a pleasure. :) She is such a wonderful woman who basically is a mother to missionaries. it is great. yesterday wasn't the best day of missionary work. all of our appointments fell through so we had lunch at sis Dollmans and then just kinda hung out till phone calls. yes we were there longer than we should've been but its ok. had a nice afternoon with them. Church was really good. i gave a talk as i mentioned and then we had 4 investigators at church too :) so that is always a plus. they all enjoyed it as well. In gospel principles class a brother taught which i haven't had in a long time haha one of the missionaries has had to teach in my past areas. so it was good to just sit and interact with the visitors and RCs good discussion on the Lords covenant people. we are that because we promise with GOD that we will keep things in the agreement He makes with us and the portion we get in return in blessings. Priesthood was about tithing and offerings. Bro Petier mayburg taught the class. he is the farmer i spoke about last night. he and his wife lived in preston for 6 years and then they moved back to south africa where he farms winter wheat all dry farms. and have some sheep and a really big pig too or so i'm told haha. so i thought that was cool. his wife is American her family lives in Idaho so thats why they lived there i guess. as i was talking to him he mentioned that they miss Idaho, its quiet and wonderful. i just smiled.
The week was good. we had some good teaching opportunities with our investigators and they are slowly progressing. with the 6 people that have baptism dates 3 of them were there yesterday. Tientus, Tatanda and Rein. Tientus is from Congo. he is a good guy who struggles with english a bit but we are able to communicate with him and teach him. he comes to church every week. but his understanding is slow, mainly because of the language barrier. going to get him a french Book of Mormon to read so it'll be easier for him to understand.
Tatanda is from Zimbabwe. he is 26 and has been in south africa for 4 years i think he knows a lot about Christian philosophy and the Bible. ha so its kinda interesting to teach him sometimes, he brings up interesting questions that my companion and i are like uh we don't know about that haha so i guess we need to study harder for him. He has come to church for 2 times now. he works for a restaurant and also studies different things at the same time. he loves languages, he can speak English, Shuna, Spanish, and is learning Greek and French. i was surprised haha. thats intense to know those languages all at once. so a very intelligent dude haha
Sister Rein is also from Congo. She is the girlfriend of bro Sebastian who is a member. she really struggles with English so Sebastian has to translate everything for her into french. so as of now we will be teaching her english cause she has been taught pretty much everything so now its just making sure she understands the gospel. she is excited to learn and wants to be baptized so her and sebestian can get sealed in the temple at the end of the year. Sebestian is our ward mission leader, he moved so now its difficult to have correlation and things, he now lives in the bellville boundaries but still plans to attend milnerton cause of his calling.
So it was a good week. we have some other investigators that really aren't progressing too much. Anele who is originally from Mdantsane, he and his mother stay here in Phoneix. haven't made it to church yet but are reading the Book of Mormon. We saw him saturday evening and he is really excited to know more. he just needs to make the effort to come to church. he is 20. We are also trying to teach another lady from Zimbabwe, Lorrain, she is 19 and stays with sister Nomsa who is a recent convert. she seems to always make the commitment to church and then at the last minute she has excuses why she can't come. so as my comp says she is a joker haha. they just say yes to please us and then don't do. so i don't know how much more this is going to go on.
I love the ward. the members are awesome. :) we visited some this past week. the mthembu family. Bro Martin is less active but his wife, jackie is active and is in the presidency of the sisters of the society :) they have a little girl who will be turning 3. they are a wonderful family. martin served his mission here in the SACTM and here he found his wife :) haha. he is originally from Limpopo. we are having FHE with them tonight, we are excited. we have lots of less actives that the ward wants us to visit so we will be focusing more on that this next week if we can find them home.
the district members are Elders Naylor and Pearson in Bellville. and then Elders Anderson and Bradshaw in Panarama ward they are the ZLs. its a good district. i will send my SD card home this week there are over 800 pictures on it haha so enjoy and yes i got a new camera from GAME. its a L22 Nikon 12mega pics so i hope its a good one. very similar to my old one.
Well i love you all and hope you all have a Fantabulous week and enjoy the weather :) i know the Lord loves us and wants us to be happy we must do our part to make it happen. loves
your missionary,
Elder Robert S Rigby (SACTM)
Monday, May 2, 2011
New Month -- New Area
Dear Family and Friends,
hey everyone :) Milnerton is a really nice area with lots of Foreigners, mostly Zimbabweans and Congo, and a few from Malawi. Its a really good place. most of our investigators are foreigners haha. they come down to south africa to work and get away from the horrible government of their country. So the area is great i love it. need to find more people to teach tho, don't have very many. The ward is very nice as well, it is functioning! :) we have a very wonderful bishopric and auxiliary leaders. in elders quorum yesterday we broke into 3 groups, yes its nice to have priesthood, and discussed missionary work. one group was on preaching the gospel, which i was in of course, one group was perfecting the saints and the other was redeeming the dead. so it was good to know that the ward is excited about missionary work and that they are working on it. the chapel is very nice as well its a bit different than normal but its still a chapel :)
My companion as i said last week is Elder Mukula, from Kenya. He is really short haha i didn't expect that at all cause normally Kenyans are tall. but in his case he is short. He has been a member for almost 2 years. so he is still learning but aren't we all learning. He is really excited to work with me and get things done. I guess he didn't get along too well with his last companion so he is excited to work with me. the work is kinda slow but we have a few investigators that are getting close to baptism. We just had a Recent Convert get baptized 3 weeks ago, sis Nomsa she is powerful haha. she is from Zim from the same town as Elder Mantinto was from so the know the same language. Indebele. its very similar to Xhosa and Zulu. She stays with a few more Zimbabweans that we are trying to teach as well so hopefully the whole house hold will me members in the future.
We are teaching a few people from Congo. Bro Tientus and Sis Rein. they both struggle with english so its sometimes difficult to teach them and have them understand what we are saying. So french translators are needed haha and french copies of the Book of Mormon. They both came to church yesterday. Tientus stays with a bunch of other Congo guys and has this little room that he stays in. he is excited to be baptized. He speaks French but can also speak Swahili as does my companion, Elder Mukula can explain in swahili if needed. which helps. Sis Rein is a girl friend of a member brother Sebastian. She hardly speaks english but comes to church every sunday. so bro Sebastian has to explain to her in french a lot. she is getting baptized on the 22 may. so we hope.
We have good members that take care of the missionaries :) so i am well taken care of here hehe. The dollman family. they are the best ever haha. Sis Dollman does our laundry for us and feeds us often. the family have been members for a very long time. since the 80s so they are fabulous. they love the missionaries and one of their grandchildren, Kimberly who stays with her granny and mother loves playing with the elders haha. it reminds me of Brady. she is 6 so just a year older than Brady. but yo she loves to play. Sis dolllman unfortunately has back pain that is unbearable we went there on wednesday and then on friday she had just come back from the hospital and then she went again sat and yesterday. i hope she gets better. shes such a sweet lady.
another member family that i met yesterday at church are the Beajies. they are originally from the states :) and they joined the church in Idaho falls Idaho haha. oh did my ears perk up when i heard that haha. bro beajies work is in the nuclear business. so he worked out at arco for a while then has been moved around a lot. and then 4 years ago they came to south africa and they love it here. they are an older couple. all of their children still live in the states they actually just came back from visiting them on holiday.
So in other words i am excited about this area and the people are wonderful. there is still lots of work to be done and i have the duty of looking out for 6 missionaries in the district. President told me on wednesday that that is one of the reasons i'm here, to look out for my fellow missionaries. i don't know exactly why but yeah. the district consist of the 2 elders in Bellville and the 2 zone leaders in panarama ward. Elder Naylor and Elder Pearson in Bellville and then Elder Anderson and Elder Bradshaw in Panarama its a good district. I think we are going to go play pool today at N1 City mall. we aren't allowed to go to centry City :( i'm not happy but oh well. another reason to come back in the future haha :)
Well i love you all and i'm really excited to call home next sunday. have a good week everyone i love you!
YOUR MISSIONARY,
Elder Robert S Rigby (sactm)
hey everyone :) Milnerton is a really nice area with lots of Foreigners, mostly Zimbabweans and Congo, and a few from Malawi. Its a really good place. most of our investigators are foreigners haha. they come down to south africa to work and get away from the horrible government of their country. So the area is great i love it. need to find more people to teach tho, don't have very many. The ward is very nice as well, it is functioning! :) we have a very wonderful bishopric and auxiliary leaders. in elders quorum yesterday we broke into 3 groups, yes its nice to have priesthood, and discussed missionary work. one group was on preaching the gospel, which i was in of course, one group was perfecting the saints and the other was redeeming the dead. so it was good to know that the ward is excited about missionary work and that they are working on it. the chapel is very nice as well its a bit different than normal but its still a chapel :)
My companion as i said last week is Elder Mukula, from Kenya. He is really short haha i didn't expect that at all cause normally Kenyans are tall. but in his case he is short. He has been a member for almost 2 years. so he is still learning but aren't we all learning. He is really excited to work with me and get things done. I guess he didn't get along too well with his last companion so he is excited to work with me. the work is kinda slow but we have a few investigators that are getting close to baptism. We just had a Recent Convert get baptized 3 weeks ago, sis Nomsa she is powerful haha. she is from Zim from the same town as Elder Mantinto was from so the know the same language. Indebele. its very similar to Xhosa and Zulu. She stays with a few more Zimbabweans that we are trying to teach as well so hopefully the whole house hold will me members in the future.
We are teaching a few people from Congo. Bro Tientus and Sis Rein. they both struggle with english so its sometimes difficult to teach them and have them understand what we are saying. So french translators are needed haha and french copies of the Book of Mormon. They both came to church yesterday. Tientus stays with a bunch of other Congo guys and has this little room that he stays in. he is excited to be baptized. He speaks French but can also speak Swahili as does my companion, Elder Mukula can explain in swahili if needed. which helps. Sis Rein is a girl friend of a member brother Sebastian. She hardly speaks english but comes to church every sunday. so bro Sebastian has to explain to her in french a lot. she is getting baptized on the 22 may. so we hope.
We have good members that take care of the missionaries :) so i am well taken care of here hehe. The dollman family. they are the best ever haha. Sis Dollman does our laundry for us and feeds us often. the family have been members for a very long time. since the 80s so they are fabulous. they love the missionaries and one of their grandchildren, Kimberly who stays with her granny and mother loves playing with the elders haha. it reminds me of Brady. she is 6 so just a year older than Brady. but yo she loves to play. Sis dolllman unfortunately has back pain that is unbearable we went there on wednesday and then on friday she had just come back from the hospital and then she went again sat and yesterday. i hope she gets better. shes such a sweet lady.
another member family that i met yesterday at church are the Beajies. they are originally from the states :) and they joined the church in Idaho falls Idaho haha. oh did my ears perk up when i heard that haha. bro beajies work is in the nuclear business. so he worked out at arco for a while then has been moved around a lot. and then 4 years ago they came to south africa and they love it here. they are an older couple. all of their children still live in the states they actually just came back from visiting them on holiday.
So in other words i am excited about this area and the people are wonderful. there is still lots of work to be done and i have the duty of looking out for 6 missionaries in the district. President told me on wednesday that that is one of the reasons i'm here, to look out for my fellow missionaries. i don't know exactly why but yeah. the district consist of the 2 elders in Bellville and the 2 zone leaders in panarama ward. Elder Naylor and Elder Pearson in Bellville and then Elder Anderson and Elder Bradshaw in Panarama its a good district. I think we are going to go play pool today at N1 City mall. we aren't allowed to go to centry City :( i'm not happy but oh well. another reason to come back in the future haha :)
Well i love you all and i'm really excited to call home next sunday. have a good week everyone i love you!
YOUR MISSIONARY,
Elder Robert S Rigby (sactm)
Monday, April 25, 2011
Happy Easter
ps attached is bro malinga when we baptised him in march
Dear Family and Close Friends,
Hey! So easter is a really really really big thing in the country of south africa wow! especially the entire easter weekend. everyone celebrates easter in south africa! oh my sick shops are closed and its chaos! good friday is especially busy and hectic! everyone was askin us if we had church on friday and sat haha interesting people. :) Everybody has holiday from friday till tuesday. so we are lucky to be able to email today haha. everyone is closed. so yes, they celebrate easter haha. People were asking my comp and i if we had church on friday and saturday. of course we told them that no we don't we just have it on Sunday, the day where Christ rose again. they were all shocked that we didn't have services all 3 days. It was interesting. its the time where everyone goes to church, which is a good thing to remember Christ but 3 days in a row?! thats just too much for me haha. So our easter sabbath was alright, not too many members came to church which isn't new in mitchells plain. things aren't just going well at all. We had one speaker, bro Trevor Hartzenburg and we spoke on the atonement from Elder Holland's talk. i don't know why pres gordon didn't have someone else as well speak instead of just having one talk for 25 min! yo it was long. but anyway it was nice. in SS the teacher bro Tiara also did the light turn off thingy haha we were all very confused at first but then he explained and it got better haha and made sense. It was raining all day long yesterday so proselyting wasn't very good either. we did manage to see 2 investigators in the afternoon. Bro Mngomezulu and Sis Okonkwo. both are doing good.
Bro Mngomezulu is a powerful guy who is ready for baptism. he just has a few weeks left of coming to church and a few more things to be taught and everything will go well! Its always enjoyable to teach him and have him progress haha. :) We taught him yesterday about the atonement and having faith in Christ. it was really nice. especially since we are celebrating Christs Atonement and resurrection.
with sis Okonkwo we just read with her from the Book Of Mormon. She hadn't read anything since we last saw her last week. this is the family thats from nigeria. The father hasn't been around for 3 weeks cause he went back to Nigeria for a funeral of his father. so we've just been trying to meet with his wife. we read the fist 2 chapters of 1 nephi just to help her get started.
THe rest of the week was kinda ... appointments didn't hold as usual and people aren't serious. We even did some more tracting. for about an hour and a half. wasn't very effective tho... i don't know how to make tracting effective. cause no matter what i do we don't get invited into very many homes. like maybe 1 or 2 out of the 50. any advice? haha
So i woke up this morning and about 7:00 we got an unexpected call from the Assistants. They surprised me with transfer news! :) so i now know whats happening haha. I am getting transferred to the cape north zone so not too far away to an area called Milnerton. I think its a mix of blacks, coloreds and whites. its a ward so i hope things are working a lot better than here in mitchells plain. I didn't realize it as my time to leave already. I wasn't expecting it at all haha. i have mixed feelings about leaving. so my new companion will be elder Mukula from Kenya, he is in Elder Mantintos group. thats all i know haha. will find out more when i meet him on wednesday. I'll be the district leader there of a 6 man district, zone leaders included so they won't be there all the time so mostly a 4 man district meetings. i hope i'm ready for it. So i won't be here to find out who the new branch president is and all that here in mitchells plain. Elder Mantinto will be so i'll have to follow up with him in the future. :)
last night we four missionaries watched the priesthood session of conference. wow it was really focused on missionary work and preparing to serve the lord. I liked Elder Andersons talk and President Monson's haha. he has such great humor. :) all the talks were good.
Thank you for the support mom and family :) i couldn't do it without all of you. I can't think of anything else off the top of my head. haha.
Well i love you guys and am grateful to be a missionary of my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. I know that He lives and that He loves me. I know i am where i need to be and that i am going where the Lord needs me hehe. I know the Lord will provide a way as long as i do my part in the bargain.
love your son, brother and friend,
Elder Robert S Rigby. (SACTM)
Hey! So easter is a really really really big thing in the country of south africa wow! especially the entire easter weekend. everyone celebrates easter in south africa! oh my sick shops are closed and its chaos! good friday is especially busy and hectic! everyone was askin us if we had church on friday and sat haha interesting people. :) Everybody has holiday from friday till tuesday. so we are lucky to be able to email today haha. everyone is closed. so yes, they celebrate easter haha. People were asking my comp and i if we had church on friday and saturday. of course we told them that no we don't we just have it on Sunday, the day where Christ rose again. they were all shocked that we didn't have services all 3 days. It was interesting. its the time where everyone goes to church, which is a good thing to remember Christ but 3 days in a row?! thats just too much for me haha. So our easter sabbath was alright, not too many members came to church which isn't new in mitchells plain. things aren't just going well at all. We had one speaker, bro Trevor Hartzenburg and we spoke on the atonement from Elder Holland's talk. i don't know why pres gordon didn't have someone else as well speak instead of just having one talk for 25 min! yo it was long. but anyway it was nice. in SS the teacher bro Tiara also did the light turn off thingy haha we were all very confused at first but then he explained and it got better haha and made sense. It was raining all day long yesterday so proselyting wasn't very good either. we did manage to see 2 investigators in the afternoon. Bro Mngomezulu and Sis Okonkwo. both are doing good.
Bro Mngomezulu is a powerful guy who is ready for baptism. he just has a few weeks left of coming to church and a few more things to be taught and everything will go well! Its always enjoyable to teach him and have him progress haha. :) We taught him yesterday about the atonement and having faith in Christ. it was really nice. especially since we are celebrating Christs Atonement and resurrection.
with sis Okonkwo we just read with her from the Book Of Mormon. She hadn't read anything since we last saw her last week. this is the family thats from nigeria. The father hasn't been around for 3 weeks cause he went back to Nigeria for a funeral of his father. so we've just been trying to meet with his wife. we read the fist 2 chapters of 1 nephi just to help her get started.
THe rest of the week was kinda ... appointments didn't hold as usual and people aren't serious. We even did some more tracting. for about an hour and a half. wasn't very effective tho... i don't know how to make tracting effective. cause no matter what i do we don't get invited into very many homes. like maybe 1 or 2 out of the 50. any advice? haha
So i woke up this morning and about 7:00 we got an unexpected call from the Assistants. They surprised me with transfer news! :) so i now know whats happening haha. I am getting transferred to the cape north zone so not too far away to an area called Milnerton. I think its a mix of blacks, coloreds and whites. its a ward so i hope things are working a lot better than here in mitchells plain. I didn't realize it as my time to leave already. I wasn't expecting it at all haha. i have mixed feelings about leaving. so my new companion will be elder Mukula from Kenya, he is in Elder Mantintos group. thats all i know haha. will find out more when i meet him on wednesday. I'll be the district leader there of a 6 man district, zone leaders included so they won't be there all the time so mostly a 4 man district meetings. i hope i'm ready for it. So i won't be here to find out who the new branch president is and all that here in mitchells plain. Elder Mantinto will be so i'll have to follow up with him in the future. :)
last night we four missionaries watched the priesthood session of conference. wow it was really focused on missionary work and preparing to serve the lord. I liked Elder Andersons talk and President Monson's haha. he has such great humor. :) all the talks were good.
Thank you for the support mom and family :) i couldn't do it without all of you. I can't think of anything else off the top of my head. haha.
Well i love you guys and am grateful to be a missionary of my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. I know that He lives and that He loves me. I know i am where i need to be and that i am going where the Lord needs me hehe. I know the Lord will provide a way as long as i do my part in the bargain.
love your son, brother and friend,
Elder Robert S Rigby. (SACTM)
Monday, April 18, 2011
Blue Skies Again
Family and Friends,
Hallo! :) How is everybody in the cold and wet Idaho? haha sucks for all of you who have to deal with that! i am enjoying the sun and the cooler days. its getting kinda chilly at night when the sun goes down, oh krista i loved your best two years quote haha we haven't been having rain just sun and wind. Had a big smoke overcast the other day, saturday after conference. i guess the mountain bottom weed burning went out of control and homes were burned over in somerset west. so it was a brownish sky this weekend. its cleared up now. "blue skies are shining on me, nothing but blue birds all day long" do you know that song dad? its a barbershop song. the week was alright we were really bold with a few of our investigators and asked them what they expected from us and what not. Rose, just basically couldn't answer us and said that we could come if appointments fall through, so i guess she basically just wanted us to come have bible study with her. We then were bold and said that is not why we were there and told her our purpose as missionaries. it was fun haha. my companion and i are tired of all these not serious investigators so this week we focused on telling them our purpose and everything. Rose then said ok well i'm comfortable where i am fellowshipping but i would like to know more.
Bro Burger on the other hand was not so nice. we have seen him 3 or 4 times and he still doesn't accept the Book of Mormon as Scripture. he doesn't believe that the Priesthood was lost and says that we are going to waste his time. so we did everything we could with him so he still has the Book of Mormon and said that he would still read and pray about it. Its dumb to think that most of our investigators are looking for "signs" to their answers, but little do they know that the Spirit doesn't always work that way. We of course explain to them but i really don't think they understand. its irritating!
Speaking of Conference :) YO! i loved it haha. Especially President Monson's talk on temples. i miss the temple. I also enjoyed Elder Scotts talk on eternal families. it was sweet to see him speak about his dear wife and family. the words of " dad, i love you, your my best friend" struck my heart :) the wonderful comforter was definitely there with me. that was the most spiritual experience of the week. I also thought Elder Henry B Eyring's talk was good too about the Teton Dam and how one couple lost their own home because they were helping others and then when they found that out they went to the bishop and said what do you want us to do. touching experiences. :) didn't get the chance to watch the priesthood session yet. i think the branch wants to make a priesthood activity out of it later in the month i'm not sure. i'm disappointed that we didn't watch it when we were supposed to. but oh well i read it if i don't get to watch it.
We had a really nice experience with Andre Abrahams on wednesday. He asked us what makes us different from all the other churches. SO we explained about the lack of authority in all the other churches and went back to the restoration. we also watched Elder Packers talk from April conference 2010. it was fabulous. he really understood how the authority was brought back and how we now have it in the church and most importantly it presides in the family he really liked how Elder Packer focused on the family. He is progressing. hasn't made it to church yet tho..:(
Well the mountain that the picture of me is table mountain. thats when we climbed it last transfer. cool huh? :) i liked it too. yes i was contemplating hehe. great spot to do so :) Well i love you all and hope things start to dry out soon so dad and russ can get the crops in. when are you branding the calves?
Well loves to ya all!
Elder Robert S Rigby (SACTM)
Hallo! :) How is everybody in the cold and wet Idaho? haha sucks for all of you who have to deal with that! i am enjoying the sun and the cooler days. its getting kinda chilly at night when the sun goes down, oh krista i loved your best two years quote haha we haven't been having rain just sun and wind. Had a big smoke overcast the other day, saturday after conference. i guess the mountain bottom weed burning went out of control and homes were burned over in somerset west. so it was a brownish sky this weekend. its cleared up now. "blue skies are shining on me, nothing but blue birds all day long" do you know that song dad? its a barbershop song. the week was alright we were really bold with a few of our investigators and asked them what they expected from us and what not. Rose, just basically couldn't answer us and said that we could come if appointments fall through, so i guess she basically just wanted us to come have bible study with her. We then were bold and said that is not why we were there and told her our purpose as missionaries. it was fun haha. my companion and i are tired of all these not serious investigators so this week we focused on telling them our purpose and everything. Rose then said ok well i'm comfortable where i am fellowshipping but i would like to know more.
Bro Burger on the other hand was not so nice. we have seen him 3 or 4 times and he still doesn't accept the Book of Mormon as Scripture. he doesn't believe that the Priesthood was lost and says that we are going to waste his time. so we did everything we could with him so he still has the Book of Mormon and said that he would still read and pray about it. Its dumb to think that most of our investigators are looking for "signs" to their answers, but little do they know that the Spirit doesn't always work that way. We of course explain to them but i really don't think they understand. its irritating!
Speaking of Conference :) YO! i loved it haha. Especially President Monson's talk on temples. i miss the temple. I also enjoyed Elder Scotts talk on eternal families. it was sweet to see him speak about his dear wife and family. the words of " dad, i love you, your my best friend" struck my heart :) the wonderful comforter was definitely there with me. that was the most spiritual experience of the week. I also thought Elder Henry B Eyring's talk was good too about the Teton Dam and how one couple lost their own home because they were helping others and then when they found that out they went to the bishop and said what do you want us to do. touching experiences. :) didn't get the chance to watch the priesthood session yet. i think the branch wants to make a priesthood activity out of it later in the month i'm not sure. i'm disappointed that we didn't watch it when we were supposed to. but oh well i read it if i don't get to watch it.
We had a really nice experience with Andre Abrahams on wednesday. He asked us what makes us different from all the other churches. SO we explained about the lack of authority in all the other churches and went back to the restoration. we also watched Elder Packers talk from April conference 2010. it was fabulous. he really understood how the authority was brought back and how we now have it in the church and most importantly it presides in the family he really liked how Elder Packer focused on the family. He is progressing. hasn't made it to church yet tho..:(
Well the mountain that the picture of me is table mountain. thats when we climbed it last transfer. cool huh? :) i liked it too. yes i was contemplating hehe. great spot to do so :) Well i love you all and hope things start to dry out soon so dad and russ can get the crops in. when are you branding the calves?
Well loves to ya all!
Elder Robert S Rigby (SACTM)
Monday, April 11, 2011
Learning Process
Dear Family and Friends,
hey everyone! I'm doing good and it was a better week than last week, even tho we still didn't have very many teaching appointments. Its the ups and downs of missionary life thats all i can say. about details, there isn't much to detail about. we don't teach much cause people aren't ready to see us or they don't want to see us. So the 3or 4 investigators that we do have are the Mngomezulus, Abrahams, Mrs Stoffles and Ivan Mabela, who is leaving to Joburg for the next 3 weeks so he won't be around. Its tuff guys, it really is. My companion and i have never struggled to find people to teach like this. Its a learning process i guess.
Bro Mngomezulu and his family are doing really well. Stephen came to church yesterday and enjoyed it but then i asked him where his family was and he said that they were home cause they were tired and lazy. so its not just me who was lazy and tired back home sometimes haha. we moved his baptismal date to the 22 may. give him plenty of more time to get converted and know what he needs to know and start coming to church more often. we always have fun teaching his family. they always have stories from the day or week and they want to share it with us. Stephen is also sharing with his friends and work colleagues about what he is learning. so hes doing missionary work himself :) so thats good.
The Abrahams family is doing ok. still haven't made it to church. we only meet with the father now Andrew. because of the busy schedule the rest of the family has. So we have taught him about the plan of salvation and he had remembered what the past missionaries have taught about that in the past. so that was a plus. He always has lots of questions, questions like why did the Savior pray on the mountain. yeah, its the kind of questions that really aren't that important but they do have answers. we asked president probst on friday about that after we had the opportunity to teach Pres and Sister Probst. and he said that in the olden days it meant that it was the only place where he could get alone in a quiet place and feel close to God so that was a good enough answer for me. So with the teaching with Pres and Sis Probst, yes we taught them as investigators, for more training. the original plan was to have the Probsts come with us to a teaching appointment but our appointment fell through at the last minute so we taught them instead and they played one of our investigators. it was nice and a really good learning experience haha. its kinda of nerve racking when you have the Probsts there. but they played our investigator Dudley. he was born a Muslim but isn't active in that religion. so they played him and we had to teach them just like it was a normal teaching appointment we focused on prayer and getting him to pray. at the end of the lesson they gave us feedback on what we did good and what we could improve on so we took some good things from that.
Sis Stoffles is a non married women with 3 kids. her boyfriend, been living together for 6 years, works out at sea for months at a time so we haven't met him. but she is a Anglican and we have taught her the restoration and the Gospel of Jesus Christ. really haven't gotten further yet because lately her appointments haven't been keeping. she still wants to learn and have us come teach her, so its just a matter of doing so.
THe funniest thing that happened this past week was on Saturday when my companion and i were going to do some tracting. and before we were implementing the colored accent into our voices haha and so the entire day we were talking with each other like the coloreds talk haha it as fun. and we just meet lots of interesting people that are nice but don't want us to teach them. People always ask us where we are from and how countries are and what what. interesting questions. we met a Muslim chick that is now 3 years Christan and well she is what you call the happy clappy religion haha. very enthusiastic and everything. it was interesting to sit with her and try to share with her our message. she kept wanting to preach to us. haha.
SO yeah the week was interesting thats really all i can say. church was good. had only one investigator at church on our side and then the other elders had 1 as well so we did have our gospel principles class, we spoke about the Atonement. it was nice.
i cant really remember a specific moment where i felt the spirit direct me or anything. at church during priesthood we were talking about charity and and the principle of love came up and a brother mentioned somethin about how kids don't know what is wrong or right and then when we tell them that it is bad and they get sad they will come back to you in a few minutes. it reminded me of Brady back home when i was working on the swather one day and he was there "helping" me and i told him no that he is going to get hurt and i scared him and he went off behind the tire and started to sob. i felt so bad and then i picked him up and gave him a hug and said i was sorry. i miss my family. i miss you guys. i've been missin home a lot, i don't know why. i guess its because i really didn't know how good i have it till now i'm away from home. I love you!!!
I know this gospel is true and thats its the work of the Lord to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man. they are our fellow brothers and sisters and we all need to reach out to them and help them feel of our Savior's love. I love the people of south africa even tho we meet some who do not like us and don't care. I love my companion elder mantinto and am so grateful to have him here to help me with the work, i couldn't do it without him. i love my investigators, and my recent coverts, like bro malinga. we spent some time yesterday at their place and visited with them and then of course they fed us hehe. i love them. i love this Gospel and i know my Savior lives and that my Heavenly Father loves me. I know we have a living Prophet who leads and guides us under the direction of our Father in Heaven and his Son Jesus Christ. I know families can be together forever through the wonderful power of the Priesthood. I had the opportunity to give bro Mngomezulu a blessing of comfort this past week. he has been struggling with work and he wanted a blessing to help him. so thats when i felt the Spirit direct me to say the things i needed to say. The church is true the book is blue :)
LOVE YOU ALL
your missionary,
elder Robert S Rigby SACTM
hey everyone! I'm doing good and it was a better week than last week, even tho we still didn't have very many teaching appointments. Its the ups and downs of missionary life thats all i can say. about details, there isn't much to detail about. we don't teach much cause people aren't ready to see us or they don't want to see us. So the 3or 4 investigators that we do have are the Mngomezulus, Abrahams, Mrs Stoffles and Ivan Mabela, who is leaving to Joburg for the next 3 weeks so he won't be around. Its tuff guys, it really is. My companion and i have never struggled to find people to teach like this. Its a learning process i guess.
Bro Mngomezulu and his family are doing really well. Stephen came to church yesterday and enjoyed it but then i asked him where his family was and he said that they were home cause they were tired and lazy. so its not just me who was lazy and tired back home sometimes haha. we moved his baptismal date to the 22 may. give him plenty of more time to get converted and know what he needs to know and start coming to church more often. we always have fun teaching his family. they always have stories from the day or week and they want to share it with us. Stephen is also sharing with his friends and work colleagues about what he is learning. so hes doing missionary work himself :) so thats good.
The Abrahams family is doing ok. still haven't made it to church. we only meet with the father now Andrew. because of the busy schedule the rest of the family has. So we have taught him about the plan of salvation and he had remembered what the past missionaries have taught about that in the past. so that was a plus. He always has lots of questions, questions like why did the Savior pray on the mountain. yeah, its the kind of questions that really aren't that important but they do have answers. we asked president probst on friday about that after we had the opportunity to teach Pres and Sister Probst. and he said that in the olden days it meant that it was the only place where he could get alone in a quiet place and feel close to God so that was a good enough answer for me. So with the teaching with Pres and Sis Probst, yes we taught them as investigators, for more training. the original plan was to have the Probsts come with us to a teaching appointment but our appointment fell through at the last minute so we taught them instead and they played one of our investigators. it was nice and a really good learning experience haha. its kinda of nerve racking when you have the Probsts there. but they played our investigator Dudley. he was born a Muslim but isn't active in that religion. so they played him and we had to teach them just like it was a normal teaching appointment we focused on prayer and getting him to pray. at the end of the lesson they gave us feedback on what we did good and what we could improve on so we took some good things from that.
Sis Stoffles is a non married women with 3 kids. her boyfriend, been living together for 6 years, works out at sea for months at a time so we haven't met him. but she is a Anglican and we have taught her the restoration and the Gospel of Jesus Christ. really haven't gotten further yet because lately her appointments haven't been keeping. she still wants to learn and have us come teach her, so its just a matter of doing so.
THe funniest thing that happened this past week was on Saturday when my companion and i were going to do some tracting. and before we were implementing the colored accent into our voices haha and so the entire day we were talking with each other like the coloreds talk haha it as fun. and we just meet lots of interesting people that are nice but don't want us to teach them. People always ask us where we are from and how countries are and what what. interesting questions. we met a Muslim chick that is now 3 years Christan and well she is what you call the happy clappy religion haha. very enthusiastic and everything. it was interesting to sit with her and try to share with her our message. she kept wanting to preach to us. haha.
SO yeah the week was interesting thats really all i can say. church was good. had only one investigator at church on our side and then the other elders had 1 as well so we did have our gospel principles class, we spoke about the Atonement. it was nice.
i cant really remember a specific moment where i felt the spirit direct me or anything. at church during priesthood we were talking about charity and and the principle of love came up and a brother mentioned somethin about how kids don't know what is wrong or right and then when we tell them that it is bad and they get sad they will come back to you in a few minutes. it reminded me of Brady back home when i was working on the swather one day and he was there "helping" me and i told him no that he is going to get hurt and i scared him and he went off behind the tire and started to sob. i felt so bad and then i picked him up and gave him a hug and said i was sorry. i miss my family. i miss you guys. i've been missin home a lot, i don't know why. i guess its because i really didn't know how good i have it till now i'm away from home. I love you!!!
I know this gospel is true and thats its the work of the Lord to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man. they are our fellow brothers and sisters and we all need to reach out to them and help them feel of our Savior's love. I love the people of south africa even tho we meet some who do not like us and don't care. I love my companion elder mantinto and am so grateful to have him here to help me with the work, i couldn't do it without him. i love my investigators, and my recent coverts, like bro malinga. we spent some time yesterday at their place and visited with them and then of course they fed us hehe. i love them. i love this Gospel and i know my Savior lives and that my Heavenly Father loves me. I know we have a living Prophet who leads and guides us under the direction of our Father in Heaven and his Son Jesus Christ. I know families can be together forever through the wonderful power of the Priesthood. I had the opportunity to give bro Mngomezulu a blessing of comfort this past week. he has been struggling with work and he wanted a blessing to help him. so thats when i felt the Spirit direct me to say the things i needed to say. The church is true the book is blue :)
LOVE YOU ALL
your missionary,
elder Robert S Rigby SACTM
Monday, April 4, 2011
Hiya!
Dear Family and Friends,
Hiya! :) How ya all doing back in Idaho? sounds like its finally becoming spring there after a very long winter haha. The weather here has been sunny and nice. was a bit chilly the other day but then when we came back for lunch i had to change into a short sleeved shirt haha. don't like sleeves too much. So winter is coming, starting to cool down. my comp is always complaining how he is cold and i am still fine haha i enjoy the cooler weather lol. makes it feel somewhat like home haha. still no snow but its alright.
So the week was really challenging. It wasn't the best week thats for sure. we have appointments set up or plans to go see these people and then we get there and they are not home or they come up with reasons why they can't sit with us and have us share the message we have. so it wasn't fun this week. My comp and i were quite bored trying to figure out what to do cause we couldn't tract cause it wasn't the best time for it and we even looked up potential names in the area book. luckily we did manage to find a few people home and got return appointments. most of them didn't remember who the missionaries were and didn't know us. So it was basically like finding anyways. It was tuff.
But Bro Mngomezulu is doing well. we did see him and his family a few times this past week. he is still very excited to be baptized. its gunna have to be pushed back, he hasn't been making it to church and there is still a lot we need to teach him. We taught him about the word of wisdom and the law of chastity. he doesn't have any problems with it and was willing to strive to live both commandments. He is a funny guy he always has things to tell us about work and about people that he knows. He works shifts and so he has to work night shift and well lets just say he really doesn't like it haha. of course i wouldn't like working from 11:00pm to 8:00 in the morning. so he was really tired when we saw him and he was telling us that he needs to change with somebody else so he doesn't have to work at night. He really has the desire to come to church but his working schedule is getting in the way of that!
We didn't get the chance to meet with our RC bro malinga this week. he had a busy week at work, the navy. getting ready for the navy festival this past weekend. so he was there at work all week. didn't make it to church either. speaking of church it was as really nice fast and testimony meeting. members bore their testimonies and the spirit was just wonderful. i felt like i wanted to cry. i love that feeling. its a pity that we didn't have any investigators there. Then we had gospel principles class on the life of the savior, i taught. the other elders had investigators there so we did have the class. then priesthood was also nice, had a good lesson on the priesthood.
I did get the letter with my pictures of my pickup and what what. thank you! haven't really shown it people yet haha except my comp and the other 2 up stairs. they thought it was cool. liked the fact of all the snow on the ground. all i know about my release date is that its on the 4 january 2012. don't know if that will change with the new mission pres or not. we'll see in the future.
WEll i love you all i hope you have a good week love your missionary,
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