MERRY CHRISTMAS!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!

This week was super hectic and awesome! Monday we went to downtown Sapporo to see the light festival, then we decided it would be a good idea to walk all the way back to Shinkotoni (lols) we got super lost trying to find a house and it took the help of the police and us being late home (oops) but you better believe our stubborn selves found the house we were looking for!

We spent the whole week running around delivering Christmas presents and singing to less active members and our investigators. It was super fun and we saw some awesome miracles! Nobody really celebrates Christmas here so whenever we wish someone a Merry Christmas they just get super awkward and laugh and walk away- haha good times....

This week is Shogatsu (New Years) which is the biggest holiday in Japan. Like its CRAZY. So crazy that we're not allowed to leave our apartment from 12/31-1/4 . Yoshhh.

I hope you all have a very Merry Christmas!!! Talk to you next year:)

愛してるよ！

リグビ姉妹

“If you do your best, it will all work out. Put your trust in God, and move forward with faith and

confidence in the future. The Lord will not forsake us." Gordon B Hinckley

こんにちは!!!

This week was crazyyyyyyy. So first of all transfer calls came.....I'm staying in Shinkotoni and my new companion is Hannant 姉妹 from Brisbane, Australia!! We're already having so much fun together. After Aussie and Kiwi companions and learning Japanese, my English makes noooo

sense- hahah ごめん

Saturday the most insane blizzard hit Sapporo! IT WAS CRAZY!!! I've never seen anything like it in my life. So much snow. We decided to go up to hanakawa and everyone we tried to visit was

gone so we were just walking around in this blizzard for 4 hours asking people if we could

shovel their driveways for them but no one wanted our help. We finally made it to a members

house and she let us in. I tried to take my boots off and my boot liners were frozen to my tights

and my hair was frozen to my scarf. Frozen chosen life😂. We ended up shoveling her whole

driveway. Just imagine two girls from places that never get snow trying to shovel a driveway full

of 5 feet of snow. It was so fun! Then we ended up getting lost trying to find the bus stop so here

we are again walking around hanakawa in a blizzard. We passed a group of middle school boys

and they walked us all the way to the bus stop and eventually we made it back to shinks!!! When we finally made it to shinks we went to the church and the elders were there shoveling so we

decided to run up a mountain of snow in the parking lot (videos to come) it was so much fun!

And it hasn't stopped snowing since...

We got to teach Yoshi San again. I showed him a picture of my family and he said "People who

believe in God are beautiful." Hahaha -I love him so much.

Being a missionary during Christmas is the greatest thing ever. We just get to run around telling

everyone we see about the real meaning of Christmas. IT'S THE BEST!

愛してるよ!

リグビ姉妹

We went bowling for a zone activity and you better believe I beat our zone leader!

MIRACLESSSSS!

Last Monday we found out that Lafaele Shimai and I would be going on splits together that night!!!! Tender mercy. MTC comps back it. We were sooooo pumped!! We walked up to Shinkotoni to visit Ochiai San. (Our golden investigator) she let us in and we somehow managed to have a conversation. Miracle. (Lafaele and I are still beans so we don't know much Japanese). Then she started making us ramen. By the time the ramen was done it was 8:30 and curfew is 9 and we were 45 minutes from our apartment. Do you see the problem??? So we ate that ramen faster than we've eaten anything in our lives. And this wasn't American top ramen were talking about... This was a giant bowl of Japanese ramen with eggs and bamboo and other things I was too scared to ask what they were.... After we finished we shared a message about finding strength in Christ and RANNNNN literally full speed in the snow back to the apartment. It was sooo much fun. and painful hahah. The next day Ochiai San called and said she loves when we come over because she feels so much peace. We told her that was the spirit and she agreed:) Miracle.

Wednesday we got to teach one of our Eikiwa students, Yoshi San. He told us he wanted to believe in God because the world is so scary and he wants to feel peace. We showed the Mormon message "Why we need a Savior" after he said "that is my first time watching anything like that and I want more things like that in my life!" Then we talked about the Book of Mormon and I told him reading the Book of Mormon is how I feel peace in my life and the days I forget to read I don't have that same peace. He said "where can I get that book. I will read it everyday." How cool is that??? Miracle. Teaching him reminded me how blessed I am to know what I know and how EVERYONE deserves to and needs to know it.

And for the best news... The first time I taught a lesson in Japan, we taught a 17 year old girl. Himawari ちゃん. She doesn't live in our area so we passed her to the missionaries in her area. She still comes to our Eikiwa every week and last night SHE GOT BAPTIZED!!! We are so excited for her!

Tomorrow is transfer calls which means I'll be getting a new companion and possibly a new area and be able to dendo again!!!!!!!!!!! YAY!

愛してるよ!

リグビ姉妹

げんきよ

おはようございます!

Tuesday I got to go on splits for a few hours with Oka 姉妹 while Massey 姉妹 and Zollinger 姉妹 stayed in the apt!! It was so nice to get out. All the roads were covered in ice so we penguin shuffled all the way to Tonden. No one we planned to visit was home (just my luck) but we still had a lot of fun!

Spent Thanksgiving at the most American place we could think of...KFC.

Friday night we got a text from a random number asking if we could be friends... So we said yes and planned to meet up the next day. I was a little freaked out it was going to turn into the Saratov

Approach 2 but it turned out to be this 40 year old woman that literally just wanted some friends...It was still weird but she believes in God so were gonna try to teach her the lessons!

And that sums up the amount of times I got out of the apartment this week! Massey 姉妹 and I have been having nightmares all week. It's pretty weird. Kaichō thinks it's because we've been stuck in the same place too long haha shoot we've literally gone insane:/

Hope you all had a great thanksgiving and watched lots of football and ate lots of yummy American food. Now go spread the Christmas initiative for this year... #LIGHTtheWORLD. mormon.org :)

愛しています!

リグビ姉妹

"The purpose of faith is not to change God’s will but to empower us to act on God’s will. Faith is trust--trust that God sees what we cannot and that He knows what we do not....It means trusting that God loves us perfectly, that everything He does--every blessing He gives and every blessing He, for a time, withholds--is for our eternal happiness" Dieter F Uchtdorf

感謝祭!🍴

Helloooooo

We've been trapped in our apartment for over 2 weeks now :) Imagine being stuck in a tiny apartment with no wifi, no tv, no social media, no internet, no friends, just you and your companion 24/7 for 2 1/2 weeks. Yeah, I've officially gone insane! I definitely appreciate the little things so much more now...fresh air, a little walk to the church, talking to somebody (literally anyone) even the giant crows have become my friends.

We did get to go to the hospital with President Nakatsuka one day. He sat next to me and we talked about trials and how good things always come from them. He shared a scripture with me that is now one of my favorite scriptures. Romans 5:3 "we glory in tribulations.." How great is it that no matter what we're going through we always can have hope for better days because that is the plan of our God! A plan of happiness!

Hope you all have a great thanksgiving! There's so much to be thankful for:)🍗🌽🍴🏈

次は....クリスマス!🎄⛄️🎁🎊🎅🏼!!!!!

PS if you love me... :)

Sister Whitney Ann Rigby
Japan Sapporo Mission
1-6-2 Oyachi-Nishi, Atsubetsu-ku,
Sapporo-Shi, Hokkaido
004-0042
Japan
💌📬📮📄💌

愛してるよ! 頑張って!

リグビ姉妹

"Does it not fill our hearts and minds with wonder and awe to contemplate the great plan of happiness our Heavenly Father has prepared for us? Does it not fill us with unspeakable joy to know of the glorious future that is prepared for all who wait upon the Lord? If you have never felt such wonder and joy, I invite you to seek, study, and ponder the simple yet profound truths of the restored gospel." Dieter F Uchtdorf

Everest Training 🗻☃️

おはようございます!

It's been a crazy week in shinks...

Thursday night my comp and I were riding home from とんれん, I was singing a song about how cold my toes were and we were crossing a street and a car came out of no where and HIT MY COMPANION!!!!! He didn't even stop and just kept pushing her bike into the middle of a busy road, ran it over then finally decided to pull over. He got out and picked up her bike then said it was too cold, jumped in his car and drove away!!! We went to the police station and sorted everything out and they tracked down the guy and it's all だいじょぶ now. But my companion is pretty beat up so we haven't been able to dendo the past few days.

Still got to break out the snow boots and parka this week!! Woohoo! Working in snowstorms is cold but I just pretend I'm hiking Everest and it's a lot of fun.

Yesterday we had ZTM and something the Zone Leaders said that I loved was that Satan knows our fears and he knows how to take those small fears and turn them into something big. But if we have confidence and trust in God we will realize we have no reason to fear.

Being a missionary is really hard. I'm pretty sure I'm homesick everyday, I'm so far out of my comfort zone, I'm learning the hardest language in the world in the coldest mission in the word and some days 14 more months feels like an eternity. But the strengthening power of the Atonement is so real. I wouldn't have been able to make it through the past 4 months with out it. I'm seeing my weakness turn to strengths and I'm becoming the person I want to be. Change is hard but when you just let go and trust God, he really will make more out of you than you can ever make out of yourself. So as hard as it is, I'm so grateful to be a "frozen chosen" in the best mission in the world, Sapporo Japan. 🗻🎌☃⛩🎎

愛してるよ!

リグビ姉妹

"It's not the mountain we conquer but ourselves." Sir Edmund Hilary

HAPPY HALLOWEEN

こんにちは!

I SURVIVED MY FIRST TRANSFER. Miracles happen. I'll be staying in shinkotoni for another transfer with Sister Massey! Im so glad because I love shinkotoni so much.

They don't really celebrate Halloween in Japan but we threw a ward Halloween party this week anyways and it was awesome!! We taught them how to trick or treat and we had everyone from grandmas to little girls knocking on the doors we set up in the church to trick or treat. It was so cute.

This week we tried to make the trek to Sapporo Eki (metro station) to do some streeting. We've tried a few times before but every day we've planned to go it was raining which isn't good for streeting. Wednesday it was finally sunny so we started riding our bikes down. Thirty minutes later we were caught in a rain and lightning storm. It was raining sooo hard and there was so much lightning that we had to stop at a 7/11. We were waiting inside and the thunder was so loud it was shaking the building!! It was crazy. So we ate some ice cream and waited for the lightning to calm down and made the trek back to shinkotoni in the pouring rain.

We got to go to an NAs daughter's elementary school play the other day. It was crazy. Japanese schools are awesome and slightly terrifying.

I read a talk yesterday called "He Loved Them Unto the End" that Jeffrey R Holland gave in the 1989 October conference. It's one of the best talks I've read about Christ's love and character. You should
read it.

Okay cool I'm going HIKING!!!! YAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAY! It's pouring rain but I don't even care

:):):)🗻

愛していますよ!

リグビ姉妹

"We are a blessed people. In such a marvelous time as this, I feel an overwhelming debt of gratitude. I thank my Father in Heaven for blessings unnumbered and incalculable, first and foremost being the gift of His Only Begotten Son, Jesus of Nazareth, our Savior and
King." -Jeffrey R Holland

FISHERS OF MEN