Senior couple serves their third mission together for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Micronesia Guam Mission

Micronesia Guam mission welcomes Elder Richard and Sister Jill Bigler, from Blackfoot Idaho. They will be serving in the Mission Office.  Elder Bigler will be the mission health advisor and Sister Bigler will be the office specialist.  They have six children.  This is their third mission together.   As their last child was preparing his mission papers, they decided it was time for them to serve as well.  Jill said: “The decision to serve a mission was not hard.  All my life I have had a desire to be useful in the Lord’s kingdom and to raise righteous children unto the Lord.  Once our children were grown, we were ready to dedicate more time to the Lord.”  The hard decision they faced was what to do with their family home of 25 years.  They had fixed it up the way they wanted and had made a lot of memories there.  After a lot of prayer, they felt like they should sale it.  Their home didn’t sale as quickly as they wanted. They finally sold it closing the sale on a Friday night, and entered the MTC in Provo, Utah on Monday!   They were called to serve as the Caribbean Area Welfare Specialist in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic from August 2019 to February 2021.  Because of COVID, they were only able to serve there for seven months.  The rest of the time, they served remotely for eleven months.  Because they didn’t have a house, they lived with their children for about four months.  They ended up purchasing a truck and RV camp trailer to live in.  This put them in the perfect position for their second mission!  They were called as camp hosts for the Church’s Pasa La Coma Church Recreation Camp and served there for two summers.  They thoroughly enjoyed spending time in the mountains not only hosting, but partaking of the sweet spirit of the Church youth groups that attended. They worked to provide a pleasant and safe environment where all who came could experience the wonders of God’s creations.  Here they developed lasting friendships and drew closer to Heavenly Father.   

 Elder Bigler (Rick) was raised in California and Massachusetts. He served a mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Jackson Mississippi.  Rick spent four years active duty in the Air Force, of which fifteen months was at Anderson Air Force Base on Guam and retired after serving nineteen years in the reserve.  He attended Rick’s college, Idaho State University, and Utah State University. It was at Utah State where he and Jill met, fell in love, and married.  After earning a BS degree in health education, they moved to Rexburg where Elder Bigler worked for Rick’s College (now BYU-I) After a few years, he decided to go to nursing school and eventually earned a BSN in nursing.  He really enjoyed his psych rotation, and ended up moving to Blackfoot, Idaho where they raised their family.

Sister Bigler grew up in Redmond, Utah.  She went to Snow College in Ephraim, Utah and then moved to Logan, Utah where she attended Utah State University.  She served a mission in the Spain Barcelona Mission.  Her Spanish came in useful when they served in the Dominican Republic. Jill earned a BA in Administration Systems.  She enjoyed being able to be a “stay-at-home” mom raising their children.  She volunteered within their community and in the schools. 

When asked about their hobbies, Rick said that he loves camping.   Jill replied: “I play the piano and love to serve the Lord and our family.”