The fire hose- Brewster

Dear friends and family,

This week was like drinking from a fire hose-in a good way! I loved having zone conference and then the world wide missionary broadcast the very next day!

I learned so many things but above all I learned so much about desire. Going away from zone conference I honestly came away with one big question "what do I want?" This week after some pretty deep thinking I came away with...I want to be happy with my family now and forever! How I do that is the real question,  but I have God  so I'm not worried! I know I need to become better to be the brother, son, husband, and Father my family needs/will need but I know as well that becoming is a process. We learned about this process so much in the broadcast! This process is called The Gospel of Jesus Christ. Elder Bednar emphasized how the Gospel isn't a series of check marks of 1.faith 2.repentance 3.baptism and receiving the holy ghost 4. enduring to the end it is a pathway where we must believe in him, rely on him, follow him and press forward with him. It's such a beautiful thing because we never have to be alone! The Gospel isn't really about making us clean it's about making us more! 

I'm so excited to become more as I continue to understand more and more about the Gospel of Jesus Christ! I've also been enjoying my studies of Mormon in the Book of Mormon to Ether! Men of great faith! I'm sure Mormon would have loved to be a missionary in Bridgeport-his service was of great love for his lost friends and a very sad one. 

Elder Najarian my roomate and district leader said something that was really inspired after a few minutes of me practicing my door approaches in spanish during language study with him. He is a great leader. I look up to him a ton. He told me...You Elder Rigby are the kindest person I know!...but I feel that you are so focused on becoming something you don't notice who you are now! I want to see that Rugby player come out-these hispanics can take it... he sounded just like my mom telling me that she wanted to see that look" in my eye before I jumped out of the car for my little league game. I tried to bring that "Rugby player" Elder Rigby out Sunday still kind but also very strong, confident, and lovingly bold and it worked great! The people could've used their agency a little better but Elder Nelson and I had some great moments on several porches testifying of Christ!

Sadly, with the transfers coming up, Elder Nelson is leaving for Yakima and this has caused him a lot of sadness. I've been trying to figure out why but he hasn't really opened up to me. His mission has been very hard. Every area he has gone to has had little success and this has weighed down on his spirit causing him to be pretty sad, and now with our area finally sprucing up after 3 transfers of hard work by him and him having to leave...he is a little upset. He's worked so hard and getting to this point of some baptisms coming up and 5 investigators coming to church yesterday it is hard to leave. I'll try to cheer him up!

Okay now with the good stuff!

Robert

He had 2 great lessons with him this week! The first one we had was with one of our member friends brother Dunham(an arizona cowboy like man who works at a fish hatchery) about how God commands us to become perfect. We tried to help Robert realize, while learning quite a bit ourselves, that God is pushy! He wants us to quit some of the bad things we do and do everything perfect because he wants us to become more! We can receive his help if we ask for it through prayer! It was nice to have an older guy to relate to him. We are fully recovered from his harsh feelings toward us last week about us "pushing him too hard to quit"

We next had a lesson later in the week about the tree of Life! A story Robert has read and brought up time after time so we decided to read it with him. He loved it and we did too! He really seemed to understand that in order to feel God's love we have to hold onto the word of God! He seems pretty dedicated as he continues to study! 

He also had a great time in church despite the recent flare up of a tooth infection. His jaw was a little visibly swollen-poor guy hopefully his neighbor will be able to get him some health insurance this week

Judith and her Boys Bryan and Alex

We only had one lesson this week because we were not able to find a member for our second lesson. We read the Book of Mormon with them(1 nephi 1) trying to spark an interest in the Book of Mormon. Bryan the 13 year old still hasn't doven into the book! A little frustrating when you ask him what he did for fun that day and he saids I read the Bible. However we will help them love the Book of Mormon this week! Good news though! They all came to church! Judith, Bryan, Alex, and Judith's little 9 month girl! the Branch was really kind to them! A recent convert named teresa-the only spanish sister was really kind to her! I reeeeally hope she enjoyed it and will bring her family back! I try to communicate with them-listen and understand and voice my feelings but it's hard! I have faith though! God has helped me so much with the language and with Elder Garcia-a native from Guatemala- that inability to fully communicate will subside! A true blessing.

Ric

We had a TREMENDOUS week with Ric! We saw so much progress! We had 2 lessons with him this week! The first one was more to help him fully understand the Restoration-the guy loves to talk so it's hard to get all the points in- we finally voiced what was slowing his progression-He didn't understand why it's important for him to personally know that Joseph Smith was a prophet. To be honest this kind of made me think too! Why is it so important that Joseph Smith is a prophet? I know but do I understand in my heart? later that night I understood it in my heart-it's because without God restoring the Church through the Prophet Joseph Smith we cannot receive ordinances vital to salvation.

The next lesson we taught was on the plan of salvation. We helped him understand that in order to be able to access Jesus' atonement we have to be baptized(we talked about authority but he still hasn't gotten it quite yet! He absolutely loved all the scriptures we shared from the Book of Mormon about the plan he said it really enlightened him. He was also very happy when Elder Nelson shared that through Joseph Smith God has given us the ability to do baptisms for those who have passed on to the spirit world. Ric came to church for 2 hours because he dog was in the car. We will go back and help him understand we have to be baptized by authority for the baptism to be full.

Super excited for Elder Garcia! 3rd native companion! So excited to better my Spanish! I really got to get him speaking Spanish it's hard so far none of my native companions have! I believe his coming to Bridgeport to be my companion is an answer to my prayer to help me learn this language so I can really get to know, understand, and help the Spanish speaking people here come to Christ

Thank you Grandma Rigby so much for your letter I loved it so much and the Plan of salvation board will be sooo helpful! i love you so much i wish I had some more time to write but just please know that made my day! I love your card! I loved the gift and the money was very helpful! Thank you and I hope you're feeling Better! 

If I have some time I'll write a letter in case I skipped something! I'm so proud of all of you and Emma and mom thank you so much for the valentine gift! 

I need to focus on having more fun i struggle with that I'll be honest!

Love,

Elder Rigby