Missionary Experiences Prepared This Cowgirl to Win Miss Rodeo America 2023

 
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By Trent Toone, Church News
 

Kennadee Riggs was home from her Latter-day Saint mission and beginning to pursue work, education and other endeavors when she felt divine inspiration to go in a specific direction.

The 22-year-old cowgirl from Queen Creek, Arizona, felt prompted to enter the Miss Rodeo Arizona competition.

“Heavenly Father touched my heart enough times for me to know that He wanted me to try for Miss Rodeo Arizona,” she said. “I really didn’t know if I was capable of winning because, unlike a lot of other girls, I hadn’t pursued pageants — that would be my first. I didn’t know how it was going to go over, but I knew Heavenly Father wanted me to try.”

Much to her surprise, she won.

Little did Riggs know how her pivotal decision would lead her to greater opportunities, experiences and friendships.

Riggs was crowned Miss Rodeo America 2023 in Las Vegas, Nevada, on Sunday, December 4, 2022.

 
She described the feeling of winning the national pageant in a way familiar to many members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

“It really was so similar to my mission call experience,” she said. “When my name was called, that was more of a testament to me that this is Heavenly Father’s will; it wasn’t just by chance that I won. I knew it was because of my prayers. That’s the biggest sense of emotion that I got when they called my name — gratitude — for another mission experience that I was really hoping and praying for.”
 

Proud Heritage

Riggs has always had an interest in rodeo, horses and western life, mainly because it’s in her DNA.

Ranching has been part of her family for several generations. The women of the family have also been riding horseback in rodeos and parades for 120 years. Her great-grandmother was a rodeo queen in 1950, and many of the women in the family have followed in her footsteps.

“It’s special for me to do this not just because I love it but because it feels like a piece of my heritage and history,” she said. “Because my cowboy bloodlines go back, I’ve always had a desire to contribute to this industry somehow in some way, shape or form. Growing up in the Church has taught me how important it is to use our gifts and talents for good in our communities.”
 

Missions, COVID and Unexpected Blessings

Riggs was raised in a devout Latter-day Saint home. When she was 16, her father took her and her brother to Recife, Brazil, where they visited places where he served and met people he taught.

A few years later, when Riggs felt a desire to serve a mission, she was willing to serve anywhere but secretly prayed the Lord would send her to Brazil. He did, and she was called to the Brazil Belém Mission.

“That was one of the biggest testaments to me that I will never forget,” she said. “Heavenly Father hears and answers our prayers.”

Unfortunately, Riggs’s time in Brazil was cut short. Halfway through her service she was sent home due to the COVID-19 pandemic. She was eventually reassigned to Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.

Riggs was initially upset about returning home but later realized it was a valuable blessing. Before being reassigned, she was able to spend time with four family members — three grandparents and an uncle — who all died while she was serving in Oklahoma.

“At first I didn’t understand the timing of it,” she said. “I didn’t realize how precious that time would become because I got to make memories with all four of those family members. That was probably one of the biggest challenges ... but it ended up being one of the most sacred experiences.”

Another highlight of Riggs’s mission came while she was awaiting reassignment. A longtime friend began asking questions about the Church. She collaborated with the local full-time missionaries to teach him and saw him get baptized before departing for Oklahoma.
 

Miss Rodeo Competitions

Similar to the Miss America competition, Miss Rodeo contestants compete through interviews, public speaking, appearance and personality categories. The pageant does not include swimsuit or talent portions. The girls take a written test and do a horsemanship interview to test their knowledge of equine science and rodeo history rules and regulations. They are also asked to mount an unfamiliar horse and ride in a pattern for the judges.

 
Riggs said lessons, habits and skills gained as a missionary — from “Preach My Gospel” to connecting with strangers and more — were beneficial as she competed in Miss Rodeo Arizona and Miss Rodeo America.

During the Miss Rodeo Arizona competition, Riggs and others were given a topic and had 10 minutes to prepare and deliver a speech. She doesn’t remember her prompt, but she made a list of bullet points and prayed for Heavenly Father to “fill my mouth with the words he wanted me to speak.”

As she spoke, these words from President Russell M. Nelson came to her mind and she shared them: “The joy we feel has little to do with the circumstances of our lives and everything to do with the focus of our lives” (“Joy and Spiritual Survival,” October 2016 general conference).

“Heavenly Father totally blessed me with the exact words in that very moment that I needed to say ... and a lot of growing experiences,” she said. “A constant theme through the last two years has been the story of Nephi, ‘Not knowing beforehand the things which I should do’ (I Nephi 4:6). He trusted Heavenly Father and everything panned out. That’s exactly how I feel on a minuscule scale.”

Riggs also felt blessed by the power of prayer, scripture study and the presence of Heavenly Father and loved ones watching over her.

Each morning of the eight-day Miss Rodeo America competition, held in conjunction with the National Finals Rodeo, she knelt in prayer and read a scripture and a little quote from her late grandmother to help herself feel spiritually prepared for the day.

“Every day there was something that happened, whether it was a question I was asked or a prompt given to me for a speech, that I had already been prepared for that morning or the day before,” she said. “It was a perfect testament to me that Heavenly Father cares about our temporal needs too, and even seemingly insignificant endeavors in our lives, when we turn them over to Him.”
 

More Missionary Opportunities

Riggs maintained a missionary mindset as she traveled around as Miss Rodeo Arizona. She found ways to share her beliefs in normal, natural ways, and reactions were all positive, she said.

“Even if I wouldn’t necessarily bring people to our Church, there are so many people in the rodeo world I discovered who love Jesus and they want to have faith in something, but they don’t necessarily know where to find it,” she said.

Some of her most memorable missionary moments came as she competed with 27 other state rodeo queens in the Miss Rodeo America competition. She wasn’t the only Latter-day Saint — there were a few others — but most other competitors knew nothing about the Church.

“Girls would ask me random questions about why I didn’t drink, why I dressed the way I did or why I would leave to go to church when we were on a trip,” Riggs said. “The opportunities came to me; I didn’t have to seek them out. ... At the very least, a lot of girls learned something about our Church that they didn’t know before, or maybe a myth was busted.”

Riggs befriended several girls but became especially close with her first runner-up, Miss Rodeo South Dakota, Adrianne Schaunaman, a member of the Lutheran faith.

Schaunaman said her best friend died earlier this year in a drunken driving-related accident. Because Riggs had experienced the loss of her family members, the two girls were able to have some meaningful conversations about faith and beliefs.

Schaunaman appreciated the kind, respectful way that Riggs shared her faith but also her unconditional, nonjudgmental way of accepting others.

“She had such an open, honest way of bringing light into the world,” Schaunaman said. “She practices her faith, doesn’t drink and all those different things, but in that she was still with us. We were able to be part of things together without anyone feeling left out. ... I think that’s the most beautiful thing to come out of all these friendships.”

When it came time to announce the winner of Miss Rodeo America, both girls were at peace and ready to support one another, no matter the outcome.
 

‘An Example of Jesus Christ’

Riggs is just getting started as Miss Rodeo America 2023.

In her new role, she is an official spokesperson for the professional sport of rodeo, an advocate for the western heritage way of life and a representative of the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association.

Last year’s Miss Rodeo America was only home for about two weeks out of the year, Riggs said, and she is expecting to travel at least 300 days of the next year, attending rodeos and events around the United States. Learning to be away from home for long periods of time as a missionary is another blessing for which she is grateful.

 
“I will get to meet people all across the country and hopefully continue to do what I was able to do as Miss Rodeo Arizona, which is promote this heritage and lifestyle that is so special to me,” she said. “At the same time, in everything I do, I will try to be an example of Jesus Christ as someone who loves Him and show that in everything I do.”

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