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