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!!!!