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