Chapter 9 - Christmas Eve

Hi Everybody,

It's crazy how long I've been out here!

Here's the rundown of my week:

Monday: I left a white shirt at another elders apartment from the previous week then we went to an old church and climbed up the spire. 

 

Then we went to Walmart to grab a few things and I got a candle thing so our house doesn't smell like old man. Then went to the library to email and then had dinner at the the second counselor in our Bishopric's home, and we had cafe Rio, which isn't out here, and it was so good!!

Tuesday: we talked to bishop after he finished feeding the cows and then headed to a little town where I found that big wheeled bike and it was so funny to sit on it.

Wednesday: (hahaha) I threw a gift card at my comp and nicked his ear really bad on accident. Woops! We went into town to go see a woman that we've been teaching and we both have felt like she's been avoiding us, and so it's kind of sad, but we just keep trying to get a hold of her. We had dinner with our ward mission leader and then went caroling with the youth for their mutual it was super fun!

Thursday,  No clothes!!! Hahaha just kidding no church clothes. We had a day of service! We started our day out at the Mills County storehouse helping in the food pantry then we did some studies, then went to this United Methodist Church to help serve food, and they said absolutely no tags or church clothes.

It was so fun to help people, and then we had a white elephant thing and I got a spot-light and it was super fun shining it into the field at the cows and at bishops house hahaha!

Friday:  The bishop came into our house and talked with us again for like a half hour and went our finding for the rest of the day.

Saturday, we got up and put jeans on! Sister Thomas asked us to deep clean the church for the special day of service.  After that we made some breakfast cuz we where hungry. After making breakfast we headed out to a small town to try some people, and started knocking. After that town, we were going to go to the next town over, when bishop called and said to get home so we did, and we went out with sister Mayther (and her dad) who's going  home soon, and went caroling again to some families and then ate dinner at bishops house and it was great!

Sunday, we had asked 8 people to come to the special sacrament meeting and 0 of them came! It was really sad, but our Sunday service was really nice! Elder Castell sang a song and then we had a linger longer after it, ( a linger longer is where everyone brings food to church and you all stay there after and eat because everyone lives forever away cuz we're in the sticks!) It was sooo good!  We had some smoked pulled pork and lots of other things!  We helped clean up then had to head back up to the little town where we were Saturday, for a guy that said to come back, he didn't answer so we went to the next town over to try this guy named Terry that I've never met before and tried to get ahold of a few times, I thought it would be a waste of time because we've tried him like three times , and he didn't answer. This time he answered, and we had an hour lesson! And it was crazy because it was my first time meeting him and I asked him to be baptized! Talk about listing to the spirit! It was the most amazing experience.

Love you all!  Merry Christmas!

Elder Roylance

Chapter 8 - Short Sleeve Weather

Hi Everybody,

It's been around 30 degrees this week. So warm!  Haha

Last Monday was pretty fun.  It was Pday, and we walked out on a frozen lake and skated around and found some frozen fish. We got hair cuts and went to get our weekly pizza and brought it to the Stake Center because it was zone volleyball day!! All of the Elders and Sisters from the zone came and we played volleyball for one of our last meetings together as a zone.

Tuesday, we drove around talking to people and we found a tipped over porta-potty and tipped it back up hahaha.

Wednesday,  we were at the chapel eating lunch and we were about to leave when sister Fredrickson (our ward missionary leader's wife) the young women's president came in, and we helped her set up for New Beginnings.

Thursday, it was Christmas zone conference!!! We got up early and drove into Omaha, to our zone conference where we had some training. We had a talent show too, and it was to much fun. Then we did a huge white elephant gift thing and it was so much fun! Then we went home and had a dinner appointment with a member and he showed us his collection of guns and it was so cool! 

Friday, we started off the day with service at the Storehouse in town. It was really cool to help and serve the people in the area. We were trained by and older guy and we had a lot of down time, so we started talking about the gospel and it was really cool! The place was just like the DI, so we walked around and looked at some stuff. I bought a toaster oven for $6 and its like brand new. Elder Casteel bought a foot massager foot bath thing, hahah and it actually works pretty well! 

Saturday, we went out to an area where we had talked to a lady before. but she didn't have time, so we came back and we had gave her a large print Book of Mormon and she has been reading it. So now we are teaching her and invited her to come the the special sacrament on the 23rd. I think she will like what we have to say. She is older and gets scared to open the door, but when she knows it's us, she's alright.

Sunday, we went to church and stayed there until like 4pm! It was has regular church meetings, and then we had some more meetings after church, and then we went to a dinner and I had to teach a lesson and it went really good.

I love all you guys. Thank you for your support, and I miss all of you guys.  Being out here is amazing, I'm so glad I get to be out here serving the Lord.  i hope you guys are all looking at the the Light the World calendar and doing the challenges.

Elder Roylance

Chapter 7 - Frozen

Hi,

This week has been a blast. I'm so excited for the Christmas season and I hope you guys are too!!! Light the World is in full swing. I hope everyone has taken a look at some of the videos and the calendar.

Tuesday, we drove out to this really small town and it was like, way small. We started trying to contact people out there, and we forgot that there was a member that we had never met. So, we randomly knocked on his door and we talked for like an hour then we had to go.
Wednesday, we had our district council and then we went to this BBQ place that was so good!! Then I went on splits with the zone leaders and it was so fun. Then, later that night, we went to dinner at our mission nurses house, sister Thomas.
Thursday, we did like a lot of planning and knocking. We spent the night at the zone leaders place and it was so much fun!
Friday,  we had trainer training, I got to see everyone that came out here with me! And I got the privilege of driving!!! It's awesome and I also will get Facebook soon.
Saturday, we went finding and it was good we found this lake that was frozen and made really cool sounds! I said we have to go back on P-day!

Sunday, we had church and we got someone we are teaching to come!! Her name is Terra and she is super interested about family history, it was super cool!! That night we had a Christmas concert with like three other churches and it was so fun!

Monday today, I walked on a frozen lake and it was so much fun and got a hair cut, we had zone volleyball!

 

That was my week!  Hope you are well.  Light the World!

Love,

Elder Roylance

Chapter 6 - Bad Ankle Week

This week was pretty slow!
 Last Monday I was playing basketball and I rolled my ankle pretty bad, and it killed to walk on it. My ankle started turning purple and it's super swollen and I've been on crutches this whole week. 

Since we've been stuck inside and in the car, we've had to just contact people in our area books, so I didn't have to walk around, and it's doing alright, getting better slowly! We went to a member's house where the wife is a ER nurse, and wrapped my ankle and I was given a blessing.

Tuesday was lame because I was bed-ridden and and to rest my ankle all day, The Zone leaders came do splits, and one of them went with my comp and the other stayed with me. We just chatted, while the other two went to our appointments for the day. When they left, we went to another dinner appointment and it was the only time I got out of the house.

Wednesday we did a chapel tour! It's a thing out here I guess, haha.  It quickly turned into a history lesson and I was speaking by the spirit , and it was so amazing and what started as a 30 min chapel tour turned into a 2 hour lesson!  And my comp felt confident enough to ask the lady we were talking to if she would be baptized, and she said I'll think about it if I happen to join your church. Then we had to explain that that how you become a member in our church haha.

Thursday we had district council and interviews with the president. Afterward we went to taco bell,  and the workers know us by now!! It's the best!! We say this huge group prayer over the taco bell. It's a little weird at first, but you get used to it hahaha.  Then later that night we got our free pizza from Papa Murphy's that we get once a week.

Friday we planned a lot and ran into a new person named Katie, and she was pretty cool and was asking if we believed in the Bible and Christ. We told her what the Book of Mormon was and she seemed to love it!

We have mice! Bishop gave us two traps and they have gotten us two mice so far and then we gave them to the cats in the morning.

Saturday we had a bishopric breakfast and it was so good, then we went to a town called Malvern and went to their Festival of trees. We thought their was going to be like 200 trees, like the Festival in Utah, but no there was like 25 trees and some little shops set up.  I put #Lighttheworld cards all around the town, we went to this little cafe and it was sooo good! We thought it was going to be a little food but it was so much!  At the end of our lunch we saw bishops wife and friend and they bought us pie and the slices were huge!!

Sunday we where snowed in again we tried to leave and had to turn around in our neighbors drive way (the drug Lord) and went back home. We then made a pretty big snowman named Elder Smith, 

then Bishop took us around to give sacrament to people. After we got done they had us over for dinner and listened to the Christmas devotional.

  The Lord will bless us as week as we look to Him. Remember Him even more during this Christmas season. I love you all thanks for reading.

Love,

Elder Roylance

 

Chapter 5 - White Out

Hi Everybody,

This week has been a lot better, and finally having a pday was the kind of break I needed! After that it was back to work. I've grown to love it out here. It will be hard work, and I'm always tired, but it will be well worth it!

  This week has been a lot less door knocking and a lot more contacting people. Most of the time they aren't home or they want to stop seeing us, but I guess we are just cleaning our area books out a little hahaha.
This past week was Thanksgiving!!! I'm so thankful for this gospel. It has helped my life so much! I'm also grateful for all the prayers that you send my way, and especially thankful for my family. I could have done this without them! I'm most grateful for our Savior and everything He did for us!
We had our zone conference and it was pretty cool to see the whole zone, and see elder Andrew again! Then we ended up going to go to taco bell, but it was closed so we went to McDonald's- it's so funny because we say a huge group prayer over the food!
FRIDAY! We did service for the Davis' and cleaned their gutters, then we went to Sam's club, and went to go get food for dinner, an we got quite a bit! (see some of the pictures down below) The pictures don't do justice, it was so good!! It's brother Davis' hobby to cook and he asked me how I liked my steak and I said medium well- (that's always how my mom has me steak). He said now that's where you're wrong, and I was taken back for a second. He said your missing out on all the flavor, he cut me some of the medium steak and it was tender on the inside with some of that blood in the middle, and it was good. I said my mom would never eat that because of the blood. He said that it's not blood, and that it's a misconception. It's actually a protein that's just red. He said most of the blood get s out when they process the meat.- so mom, you might have to try a medium haha it's pretty good!)
SUNDAY, we woke up to a white out!! Church was canceled, so we continued to get ready, study and plan. Then we were stuck inside so we took a nap (hahaha) and our cars where grounded, so we couldn't do anything with them. So then around 1 we got all bundeld up and walked over to bishop's house (one of my pictures). We made it to his house in all the wind and snow, and we had some pumpkin spice cake and then bishop took us to go feed the cows back near our place, and we got back into our regular clothes and helped him do that.  Then went back to bishop's house and played cards with his family which was so fun! Then we got cleared around 4pm to go out and about, so we went out to see all the roads and some of the drifts are pretty big.

Sorry this week's email is a little short.  Hopefully we'll start finding some people soon to teach!!

Hope you all had a good Thanksgiving!

Love,

Elder Roylance

Chapter 4 - Big Email

Hi Everybody,

So, last Monday, we left the MTC.  I grabbed my bags and was ready to go! We left at 8am, so we had time to say goodbye to our district. We got on the bus and headed for the train. On the way to SLC I realized I had left my wallet in my drawer back at the MTC! I only had a few things in their nothing that I needed urgent, so that was nice. 
In the airport we finally got real food! We had Mc Donald's and we where so happy! And I got to call my family.
We flew over my house! As we took off we flew right over my neighborhood and I was able to show my friends where I lived, I saw Farmington Canyon for the last time for two years, and it made me a little sad. We got in to Nebraska and it was sooo cold.  I could see my breath right off the plane. As we walked around, we found our Mission President and his wife.  We had the AP's come pick us up, and we went to the mission office. We ate and stayed at a hotel for the next two nights.
I got out to my area on Wednesday, their I got to the rundown of everything.  We get a certain amount of miles a month and it's hard because are area is so big and we live in the middle of nowhere.  It just outside of Council Bluffs, IA.  I live in a place called Malvern, IA.  It's getting so cold and windy I bought a new hat and it has helped so much! It's getting colder so I've been using my thermals the past few days. Saturday was the first day that I wore two pairs of thermals. Their are so many squirrels around here it's crazy, I've only seen two pure black squirrels but still!!! We are having Thanksgiving dinner at a members house this week and another member us letting us have of our own pies!!! I'm not going to lie, I've been a little/lotta home sick at times, I've thought about going home, but as I think into it more, I just think "If I go home I'll still have to make big decisions, and I'll probably still have to budget, and I'll still have to work hard."  So, I'll do it for the Lord right now, and learn and grow right now. I need just just put my home life in a box, not throw it away, but just put it away on a shelf,  and get back into that box when I come back from the mission, it will still be there.

My fist area is huge! I live about 10 miles away from our church and about 25-30 min away from any tiny towns. I live out in the sticks, we live on a dirt road with two neighbors. One was a drug lord, and the other on is our the local bishop. We don't talk to the drug lord too much , but we live in bishops dad's old house, it's about a half mile away from bishop's house with about 20 cows in between us. We l have the house all to ourselves, lol.  We never lock our doors because no drives by our house which is kind of scary, but oh well haha. We have two big sheds on the property , one is for the big combine tractor and the other one is for the cows, and it has a basketball court in the top of it!, yup! I get to live on a farm for my first area and in a house, and the only one on a farm.

My companion Elder Casteel, and we get along pretty well. I'm sure I annoy him sometimes, but he hasn't done really anything to annoy me, so that's nice. He is from Clearfield, Utah,  and loves to sing and play the piano. He's been in this area for about 4 months, he's knocked almost every door our area.  Our area covers a lot of land but not a lot of people. We wake up, i work out and he stretches, I cook eggs every morning that we get from the farm so that's nice we don't have to pay for eggs. Then we study for an hour and plan for a half hour and start our day. We listen to John Bytheway talks in the car a lot, and that's nice. We do have some other music that we like to listen to, so that's nice to listen to and get my mind off things. We only have like three food places near us, McDonald's, Subway and a Pizza Hut. On pday we go to Walmart just right out side of our area in Council Bluffs, and there are some more food places up there, but I'll ex6plore them today and see what's here. We have very little food right now cuz pday is Monday, and my comp has like no money hahaha so I get to by food for the next two weeks on Monday with the $70 on my missionary card, haha it's called my greenie money cuz I'm new. Out of the few days I've been here I've already gained a big list of stuff I need to get from the store.

My comp is a real stickler for the rules, I'm okay with most of it but sometimes it annoys me,  not the rules just the way he is.hahaha.

Everyone smokes out here! So I'm just going to have to get used to it and wash my clothes more often.
The MTC life was sooo fast and super scheduled. The people out here are just so laid back and slow in wanting to learn about the gospel. So many people go to churches in their town and we only have one building in our whole area. The only good thing is, that when we get told no about wanting to hear about the gospel, they are nice about it most of the time.

We have one person of interest right now (investigators).  Her name is Erin, and she had 4 little girls, and she's way cool (she reminds me of my Aunt Jana, but with black hair. Her face kind of looks like my Aunt, and she here she kinda sounds and acts like her too, so that's cool hahaha).   She wants to know if the church is something she should get into or not.  So, we'll keep working with her.

We met with our ward missionary in the Glenwood Ward, and he's and his family are from Utah, so being around them makes me feel like I'm back  home, hahaha.

Another weird thing is whenever we have to back the car out, the passenger has to get out and watch it back up, and right now that's me cuz I can't drive yet and I don't know the area.

I'm not going to lie it's really hard out here. But as I trust in the Lord and pray for strength help to  help me.
One of the perks of having our own house in the middle of nowhere is that we can do our own laundry right here, no laundry mat, and we just got a new washer on Saturday.  DId I mention that it's freezing out here! It started to snow and it just stays and freezes cuz it's so cold.

On Sunday we got ready and everything and went to sacrament meeting, and I finally got to meet the ward.  But unfortunately, the first day I get to meet the ward, a quarter of them are sick and not there, bummer.  But it was good, and  it felt normal, even though I'm not in my normal state hahaha  Later that night we went back to the church because my comp has been asked to practice the piano, so I was able to just sit their a draft my emails. After we were done, we got a text from the Bishop asking us if we could bring the sacrament to his wife and him, so we headed over to their house. They had another member of the ward over, and the three of us gave the Bishop and his wife a blessing. The blessing so was good, I probably wouldn't have said some of the stuff he said, it was so spiritual and deep.

That was a lot.  Everybody have a great week!!

Love,

Elder Roylance

 

Chapter 3 - I Made It

Hi Everybody!

I've made it here to Nebraska!! We flew right over our house when we flew out of SLC.

 I just had my interview with President Ence, I think it went so well!! Its 6:53pm here, and you were right,it is so cold here.  When we got here, we could see our breath when we got off the plane. I sat next to one of the Elders in my district, but across the ailse was Elder Nerdin, and he gave away my Book of Mormon to an Asian man who works at Google. It's been so good!

I love you guys!! 

-Elder Roylance

Dad Note: We also got this e-mail the same night from a member of our former Stake Presidency who was on Adam's flight:

"I was waiting to board my flight to Omaha this afternoon and I heard someone call out, 'President Spjute."  I looked up and there is Elder Roylance, all smiles and warmth!  There were 7 other elders with him along with 4 sisters - what a fligh!.  We got to talk for a few minutes before boarding.  He is healthy, happy and ready to get to work!  I watched carefully as each of the missionaries boarded and from what I could tell, Elder Roylance was the sharpest of the bunch by a long shot.  His mission president and the president's wife were waiting to greet the new missionaries.  They look like a very wise and happy couple.  Your son is in good hands.  You should be very proud!  It was so fun to see him!

Just wanted to you know your son made it and he looks GREAT!"

Chapter 2 - Roses in the MTC

Hi Everybody!

This week has been a party! This week I've gotten closer to the zone that was older than us, they are so fun. Sadly, my comp and I had to send them off on Wednesday @ 4:30 in the morning!! But it was worth seeing them one last time though. Earlier this week I got to take a little trip to the urgent care. On our our way there we got stopped by a truck and we couldn't tell if we where being yelled at or being complemented. Either way, we just laughed.   While we where there, we saw set of sisters from our zone, and talked for a bit, but my ear was killing me and the clinic was packed. It turns out it was just swollen for some reason. Anyway, seems to be ok now. We had to move our clocks back for daylight savings, so that was fun, but too bad me and Elder Nerdin, we still had to wake up early for a meeting.
On Tuesday, we got to do service and we mopped the bathrooms. While cleaning the bathroom by the MTC president's office, he saw me and called me into his office ( I was so scared -  like what did I do???). He then took me into his second office and opened this door and inside where a bunch of roses, it was their 43rd wedding anniversary, and so he had me put them on his wife's desk when they went to breakfast.

The food here isn't so bad here, and we make the best of our time here!

So this week a sister in our district had been sick for a week and she wanted a blessing so Elder Nerdin and I gave her a blessing after class one day, and that was really cool!

Monday is the big day - I head to Nebraska.  I get excited and nervous, but mostly I'm just stoked!!

Love you all!

Elder Roylance

Chapter 1 - The MTC

Hi everyone !!! This last week has been crazy! I finally get to email!! I love my companion. He's like the same person as me. We get along so well together! The MTC is a lot better than I thought it would be. The spirit is always here, and it's amazing!! I've met so many different people and they are all so cool! My room has four elders in it, and we always have super fun talks about anything and everything before we head to bed. 

So my companion and I are Zone Leaders. We were asked to do this just about a week ago.  It's a been a little stressful at times, but it has also been so amazing! I got to go to the temple today and it was so good I've never been inside the Provo temple. It's so beautiful also it has the softest seats ever! I love it here. It's a lot of fun, and my whole zone is great to be with. I can't believe it's already been a week and I only have 12 more days left til I go to Nebraska!! I'm super excited about it but also a little sad (cuz I might actually miss the MTC). I miss you all and I'll talk to you all next week
- Elder Roylance

My desk - Go Huskers! ;-)

Elder Mordue and I, reppin the Farmington So Stake

Me and My Comp - Elder Nerdin

Had to do a back flip

Lookin good!

 

Chapter 0 - In the Beginning

Elder Adam Roylance was set apart as a full time missionary on Oct 23, 2018, by his Stake President, Robert Howell.   On October 24, he spent the morning with family, going to lunch and visiting the Provo Temple grounds prior to going to the Provo MTC.  The drop off was a quick affair, with just enough time for some last minute pictures and some final hugs that need to last for 2 years.  Good luck Elder Roylance, we know you'll do great!!!!