Liebe Freunde, Liebe Familie.
Man oh man oh man. This weekend is our transfer calls......I REALLY DO NOT WANT TO LEAVE THIS GLORIOUS PLACE!!!!!!!!!!!! I have a very gut wrenching feeling that I will be and the lord has other things planned. Rumor has it that Elder Partridge will be receiving a companion that is also learning Arabic which will make it much easier on his part. There is a very slight chance that I will be able to stay. (I hope)
As from the subject title states. I have many blisters. They hurt. But currently one pair of shoes is completely destroyed and the other pair is an it's way to being utterly destroyed. In Neu Brandenburg they have to walk everywhere and it takes at least an hour to get to appointments and then an hour back. On top of that we have to do a ton of finding which was actually a very enjoyable experience. I had a great conversation with a man about the family and I think we talked for like 30 minutes. He's going on vacation for like a week but he said when he gets back maybe he'll contact the missionaries. Anyyyway. Lots and lots of walking. But I learned a lesson. My good friend Elder Hughes who is one of the most obedient/amazing missionaries I have met was talking about how when things get hard all we have to do is look at it in a different perspective. Yeah I did a lot of walking but nothing can compare to that of those people who sacrificed almost everything to come to a place where they could worship their God. Yeah I had a lot of blisters that may bleed but nothing compares to that of the one who bled from every pore so he could understand the pain we would go through as we sometimes walk in the blistering heat for many hours. My attitude completely changed and I found the work much more enjoyable.
But it was honestly a fantastic week. We visited a less active who is trying to prepare for the temple and she gave us this giant bowl filled with ice cream and strawberries and whipped cream and some chocolate shavings over the top. What a small tender mercy as that day was incredible warm. It didn't last very long because I scarffed that thing down in like five minutes but I was so grateful for that delectable treat.
Ten months out and this work is still my favorite kind of work to do. Sometimes it's hard to see the fruits of your labors but when you do the reward is far greater than I first imagined. I love each and every one of you. God be with you till we meet again.
Elder Riggs
The Lord is My shepherd.
Tuesday, June 28, 2016
YO - 6.20.2016
Liebe Freunde, Liebe Famile.
HELLOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO Everybody.
Wow last week marked the most stressful week of my mission in my entire mission life. And it hasn't quite ended yet tomorrow and the stress is gone. But we received a call that my comp will be in Frankfurt Oder for an entire week for his arabic class and I am currently chilling with the Neu B Elders and it's AWESOME!!!! I also got to chill with the super awesome Elder Mayer and my best friend Elder bennett for like four days last week. The Neu B elders are such great guys and I am super stoked to learn from them.
Last week Michael fell out.......And he didn't come to church. It was rough. Satan is really working his butt off on this guy so that means we need to work harder and bring him on back. In my personal study this morning I was reading Teaching Like the Savior and I decided that I really need to start calling Investigators and really letting them know more of my love for them. But I hope this is just a phase. Satan is smart but Jesus is smarter.
Yestarday was an amazing day. In part of the stress of preparing for the week I still had to write a talk and so I decided to just do the talk about what my lesson was for District meeting about obedience. Well my talk was all ready to go and I was just about to give it when for some reason it just felt off. Like I wasn't supposed to give the talk I had prepared. I got up there and simply said. I wrote a talk but I'm not going to give it. So I didn't even opened my I pad and just started to talk about whatever came to mind. I know that I talk about hope a lot in my emails but that's what I talked about on Sunday. The day before my talk I was kind of thinking about life and what a life would be like without the Gospel. It would be so hard. What is there to hope for? I asked Bennett what he would hope for and he said his family. But even then there exists and end. People die and their legacy lives on maybe for a few generations and then it goes away there. There would be an end to all things. The world would eventually die off and life in general would cease to exist. What would be the point of living? Thank goodness it is not this way. We are here simply to become just like the being who created us and the hope that we can have is so bountiful. It's times that are so hard when I lay in my bed and go. "You know what, eventually everything will work out, everything will be okay" Imagine a life where every mistake we made would be remembered and regrets wouldn't go away. It absolutely kills me when people either leave this glorious gospel or when they don't accept it. They are throwing away Hope. One of the most amazing gifts that God gives to us that boost us and help us to keep fighting the fight against sin.
TOMORROW! Is ZTM. I love meetings like this. It's just kind of a boos for the week and it helps me keep going as a missionary. Lo and behold I am giving a lesson on what else......Hope.
Anyway I am super excited for this week and in fact the rest of my mission. Love each and every one of you God be with you till we meet again.
The Lord is My Shepherd.
Elder Riggs.
HELLOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO Everybody.
Wow last week marked the most stressful week of my mission in my entire mission life. And it hasn't quite ended yet tomorrow and the stress is gone. But we received a call that my comp will be in Frankfurt Oder for an entire week for his arabic class and I am currently chilling with the Neu B Elders and it's AWESOME!!!! I also got to chill with the super awesome Elder Mayer and my best friend Elder bennett for like four days last week. The Neu B elders are such great guys and I am super stoked to learn from them.
Last week Michael fell out.......And he didn't come to church. It was rough. Satan is really working his butt off on this guy so that means we need to work harder and bring him on back. In my personal study this morning I was reading Teaching Like the Savior and I decided that I really need to start calling Investigators and really letting them know more of my love for them. But I hope this is just a phase. Satan is smart but Jesus is smarter.
Yestarday was an amazing day. In part of the stress of preparing for the week I still had to write a talk and so I decided to just do the talk about what my lesson was for District meeting about obedience. Well my talk was all ready to go and I was just about to give it when for some reason it just felt off. Like I wasn't supposed to give the talk I had prepared. I got up there and simply said. I wrote a talk but I'm not going to give it. So I didn't even opened my I pad and just started to talk about whatever came to mind. I know that I talk about hope a lot in my emails but that's what I talked about on Sunday. The day before my talk I was kind of thinking about life and what a life would be like without the Gospel. It would be so hard. What is there to hope for? I asked Bennett what he would hope for and he said his family. But even then there exists and end. People die and their legacy lives on maybe for a few generations and then it goes away there. There would be an end to all things. The world would eventually die off and life in general would cease to exist. What would be the point of living? Thank goodness it is not this way. We are here simply to become just like the being who created us and the hope that we can have is so bountiful. It's times that are so hard when I lay in my bed and go. "You know what, eventually everything will work out, everything will be okay" Imagine a life where every mistake we made would be remembered and regrets wouldn't go away. It absolutely kills me when people either leave this glorious gospel or when they don't accept it. They are throwing away Hope. One of the most amazing gifts that God gives to us that boost us and help us to keep fighting the fight against sin.
TOMORROW! Is ZTM. I love meetings like this. It's just kind of a boos for the week and it helps me keep going as a missionary. Lo and behold I am giving a lesson on what else......Hope.
Anyway I am super excited for this week and in fact the rest of my mission. Love each and every one of you God be with you till we meet again.
The Lord is My Shepherd.
Elder Riggs.
Walked, and walked and walked and walked - June 13, 2016
Liebe Freunde Liebe Familie.
Herroooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo Everybody. This week as usual was a busy awesome week. This program is beginning to light on foya. Elder Partridge and I are working as hard as we can so that when we come home we have the desire to go to bed as soon as possible. And I dont think Ive ever been more tired in my entire mission. Three weeks left of the transfer and I plan to make these count and leave my legacy here in the land of Hippies and woods. Eberswalde.
Miracle: We did a ton of walking this week. To raise the stakes a little my shoes are pretty much destroyed in the insides so walking in them feels like walking on rocks. We decided that we wanted to do a lot of less and inactive work here becase the missionaries before really didn't like this place so they kind of just gave up. It's time to make this place awesome again. Anyway our plan was to go visit two less actives that lived out in booney land. Wandlitz and Klosterfelde. There are pretty much no buses to take us places and I think in total that day we did about 6 hours of walking. In the blazing heat. Humid. Terrible shoes. Sticky sweat. No water. As we were walking to our next less active we were both praying in our hearts that someone would come and save the poor little Elders and literally like one minute later after my prayer I heard "ELDERS GET IN!!!!" I looked to the left and there was our angel. Tanya. One of the members saved us and drove us to our next appointment which was still like two miles away. Now that was cool but what was even more cool was hearing her part of the story on sunday for testimony meeting. She was driving home and was just about to get there when she felt like she needed to turn around and drive down this certain rode. Lo and behold we were somehow there at the exact time. That really made me think about how the spirit and prayer works together. It is key that we always have an open heart that invites the voice of the spirit to guide us. One day we may be called to save someone so to speak and if we are not ready, if we are not tuned into the spirit we could miss out on an amazing opportunity to first of all experience a miracle, and second of all to help our fellow brother or sister.
This week we unfortunately did not get to teach Michael. But we did help him try to find a cane for his mother so I enjoyed that very much. Being able to help our great friend Michael.
We did however do a lot of service. This week was exchanges so me and another Elder from Neu Brandenburg helped a member in her garden. He dug holes and I had the great job of cutting down trees with a saw. SO MUCH FUN!!!! And then we were fed which was a perfect cherry on top to a perfect day. Also, our friend Matthias bought some little baby ducks. SOOOOO we helped build a little duck pen/stable/cage/whatever they are called for ducks. ANNNDDDDDD his girlfriend Bianca (who we had heard hated the missionaries) came over and started talking to us....IN ENGLISH!!!!!!!! Man we are getting so many great blessings and now I really do not want to leave this place. Bianca really likes us now and hopefully one day her heart will be open to the spirit and she will take the decision to follow Jesus and his Gospel.
We have another insanely busy upcoming week. Exchanges again, I have to give a talk in sacrament meeting, more service, a lesson in district meeting that I still have to prepare, Micahel (YES!!!), Matthias and his little ducks, less active work, Lots of finding and any other spiritual leads we receive. I adore this work. Never want to leave Germany. And love each and every one of you.
Tciao.
The Lord is My Shepherd.
Herroooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo Everybody. This week as usual was a busy awesome week. This program is beginning to light on foya. Elder Partridge and I are working as hard as we can so that when we come home we have the desire to go to bed as soon as possible. And I dont think Ive ever been more tired in my entire mission. Three weeks left of the transfer and I plan to make these count and leave my legacy here in the land of Hippies and woods. Eberswalde.
Miracle: We did a ton of walking this week. To raise the stakes a little my shoes are pretty much destroyed in the insides so walking in them feels like walking on rocks. We decided that we wanted to do a lot of less and inactive work here becase the missionaries before really didn't like this place so they kind of just gave up. It's time to make this place awesome again. Anyway our plan was to go visit two less actives that lived out in booney land. Wandlitz and Klosterfelde. There are pretty much no buses to take us places and I think in total that day we did about 6 hours of walking. In the blazing heat. Humid. Terrible shoes. Sticky sweat. No water. As we were walking to our next less active we were both praying in our hearts that someone would come and save the poor little Elders and literally like one minute later after my prayer I heard "ELDERS GET IN!!!!" I looked to the left and there was our angel. Tanya. One of the members saved us and drove us to our next appointment which was still like two miles away. Now that was cool but what was even more cool was hearing her part of the story on sunday for testimony meeting. She was driving home and was just about to get there when she felt like she needed to turn around and drive down this certain rode. Lo and behold we were somehow there at the exact time. That really made me think about how the spirit and prayer works together. It is key that we always have an open heart that invites the voice of the spirit to guide us. One day we may be called to save someone so to speak and if we are not ready, if we are not tuned into the spirit we could miss out on an amazing opportunity to first of all experience a miracle, and second of all to help our fellow brother or sister.
This week we unfortunately did not get to teach Michael. But we did help him try to find a cane for his mother so I enjoyed that very much. Being able to help our great friend Michael.
We did however do a lot of service. This week was exchanges so me and another Elder from Neu Brandenburg helped a member in her garden. He dug holes and I had the great job of cutting down trees with a saw. SO MUCH FUN!!!! And then we were fed which was a perfect cherry on top to a perfect day. Also, our friend Matthias bought some little baby ducks. SOOOOO we helped build a little duck pen/stable/cage/whatever they are called for ducks. ANNNDDDDDD his girlfriend Bianca (who we had heard hated the missionaries) came over and started talking to us....IN ENGLISH!!!!!!!! Man we are getting so many great blessings and now I really do not want to leave this place. Bianca really likes us now and hopefully one day her heart will be open to the spirit and she will take the decision to follow Jesus and his Gospel.
We have another insanely busy upcoming week. Exchanges again, I have to give a talk in sacrament meeting, more service, a lesson in district meeting that I still have to prepare, Micahel (YES!!!), Matthias and his little ducks, less active work, Lots of finding and any other spiritual leads we receive. I adore this work. Never want to leave Germany. And love each and every one of you.
Tciao.
The Lord is My Shepherd.
Thursday, June 9, 2016
True Glory - June 6, 2016
Liebe Freunde Liebe Familie.
HELLOOOOOO!!!! Everybody. Again a great awesome spiritual fantastic missionary life week. First week of the transfer and I can already tell it's going to be an amazing transfer. Miracles will occur. Challenges will rise. But the work of the lord will continue on it's ever quickly progressing path. THIS ZONE IS AWESOME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Super hard. BUT AWSOME!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Okeedokey. Lets' Begin.
Yestarday we had the wonderful opportunity to have a District conference (Essentially a stake conference) but we all met together and watched this great session. It was a conference specifically for Western Europe and it's members. We heard great words of encouragement from some General Authorities and it really made me develop even a deeper love for the members here. I was born and raised in a place where every block there is a church building with at least three wards and each ward has at least one hundred members. The faith and testimonies that these members have are astounding. I have heard some of the best testimonies here from the members and that has really strengethened mine. One of the highlights of the meeting for me was when our District President got up and read this quote from Sir Francis Drake.
“There must be a beginning of any great matter, but the continuing unto the end until it be thoroughly finished yields the true glory.”
I thought about that. Every great cause has a beginning. For example this church started simply because a young boy had a question and look to what it's grown to. 15,634,199 members but the work is not yet done. There is still so much to do and I am so glad to be a part of it. What a fantastic gift that God has given us to have this life. I am a life lover and look for all of it's benefits and blessings but the thing that will have the most impact and depth is the end of this life when true glory comes living for eternity with our Heavenly Father.
In other news. On wedesday we taught Michael again. He has some questions about the gospel of Jesus Christ so we retaught that and focused mainly on repentance. It went very well and the spirit was definetly prominent in this lesson. I love giving my testimony on this subject. Repentance truly is an amazing force. The atonement is something that plays the biggest role in my life. It's hard to repent I'll be honest but just like the quote "The continuing unto the end until it be thoroughly finished yields the true glory." The hope that you see in an investigators eyes when you testify that the guilt and pain they have through sin can all be wiped away is a special experience that not many people have the opportunity of facing. Oh man I wish I could describe to you how it felt through this email but that would be impossible.
After our lesson Michael had asked me to give him a priesthood blessing. I didn't realize it then but I do now that must have took so much humility to ask for one. Michael isn't to the point when he can say the Gospel is true but he has faith that it is and asking me for a blessing was a direct result of his faith. I don't remember what I said during the blessing but I remember what he said. He felt as if all of the darkness and pain and burdens he was feeling in the moment had been lifted off of his shoulders and he felt so much joy. Well let the waterworks begin. After we had said goodbye they came. I tried sooooo hard to hold them in but thanks again to the Genes of the riggs family it's pretty much impossible to do that so yes I cried. I cried because I love this man so much and I feel the spirit and love in a new way I have never felt before. Feeling love is one thing. But showing love and receiving the love is indescribable.
Well those were the highlights or our week. I can't wait to see what this next transfer will yield. Sometimes as we work and talk to people it is so hard to see the benefits of what we do and that is where discouragment and trunkiness set in but it's in those beginnings where we know if we just keep going, if we push harder than we possibly can, true glory and peace is waiting for us at the end.
The Lord is My Shepherd.
HELLOOOOOO!!!! Everybody. Again a great awesome spiritual fantastic missionary life week. First week of the transfer and I can already tell it's going to be an amazing transfer. Miracles will occur. Challenges will rise. But the work of the lord will continue on it's ever quickly progressing path. THIS ZONE IS AWESOME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Super hard. BUT AWSOME!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Okeedokey. Lets' Begin.
Yestarday we had the wonderful opportunity to have a District conference (Essentially a stake conference) but we all met together and watched this great session. It was a conference specifically for Western Europe and it's members. We heard great words of encouragement from some General Authorities and it really made me develop even a deeper love for the members here. I was born and raised in a place where every block there is a church building with at least three wards and each ward has at least one hundred members. The faith and testimonies that these members have are astounding. I have heard some of the best testimonies here from the members and that has really strengethened mine. One of the highlights of the meeting for me was when our District President got up and read this quote from Sir Francis Drake.
“There must be a beginning of any great matter, but the continuing unto the end until it be thoroughly finished yields the true glory.”
I thought about that. Every great cause has a beginning. For example this church started simply because a young boy had a question and look to what it's grown to. 15,634,199 members but the work is not yet done. There is still so much to do and I am so glad to be a part of it. What a fantastic gift that God has given us to have this life. I am a life lover and look for all of it's benefits and blessings but the thing that will have the most impact and depth is the end of this life when true glory comes living for eternity with our Heavenly Father.
In other news. On wedesday we taught Michael again. He has some questions about the gospel of Jesus Christ so we retaught that and focused mainly on repentance. It went very well and the spirit was definetly prominent in this lesson. I love giving my testimony on this subject. Repentance truly is an amazing force. The atonement is something that plays the biggest role in my life. It's hard to repent I'll be honest but just like the quote "The continuing unto the end until it be thoroughly finished yields the true glory." The hope that you see in an investigators eyes when you testify that the guilt and pain they have through sin can all be wiped away is a special experience that not many people have the opportunity of facing. Oh man I wish I could describe to you how it felt through this email but that would be impossible.
After our lesson Michael had asked me to give him a priesthood blessing. I didn't realize it then but I do now that must have took so much humility to ask for one. Michael isn't to the point when he can say the Gospel is true but he has faith that it is and asking me for a blessing was a direct result of his faith. I don't remember what I said during the blessing but I remember what he said. He felt as if all of the darkness and pain and burdens he was feeling in the moment had been lifted off of his shoulders and he felt so much joy. Well let the waterworks begin. After we had said goodbye they came. I tried sooooo hard to hold them in but thanks again to the Genes of the riggs family it's pretty much impossible to do that so yes I cried. I cried because I love this man so much and I feel the spirit and love in a new way I have never felt before. Feeling love is one thing. But showing love and receiving the love is indescribable.
Well those were the highlights or our week. I can't wait to see what this next transfer will yield. Sometimes as we work and talk to people it is so hard to see the benefits of what we do and that is where discouragment and trunkiness set in but it's in those beginnings where we know if we just keep going, if we push harder than we possibly can, true glory and peace is waiting for us at the end.
The Lord is My Shepherd.
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