March 2, 2015

March is already here!

Hello family! and Friends!
This week was another great week with working with members. That has been especially good with our investigators Tony and Desiree. With Tony we watched President Monson's talk from last conference and Brother Cole asked Tony if he felt he was a prophet of God. Tony said, "If I imagined what a prophet of God would talk about and say, that is what I would imagine." That was so great! He came to church and sat by the Coles. The ward loved Tony.

Desiree is working on quitting smoking. She's doing pretty good with that and she right now needs the enabling power of the Atonement. She knows the gospel can help her with her kids and her fellowshippers have helped so much. We're excited for her! Their house is super super crazy with their kids. Had a miracle last night. The whole family including boyfriend gathered for prayer and as Desiree prayed it was silent! I don't know if we've ever experienced silence in that house. So cool!

Some progress with Miriam Pearson and her husband (less actives) and Miles (recent convert) they as a family last week read the Book of Mormon every day and prayed every day as a family! That was wonderful to see them keep this commitment and their desires have already changed. They're coming along slowly but surely.

We have a friend Latricia who we started teaching so she should be coming up too. She's the cutest!

Had a lesson with Chris (recent convert) and Jenni his fiance. They're pumped for the temple in 10 months to be sealed! Everyone (even in the ward) tells them how long of a time that that is and they could just be civilly married and then be sealed later. Nope they're strong and I admire their decision! What an example they are! We had a fun lesson with them on missionary work. They roleplayed answering questions to nonmember friends. Priceless. Then we were going to commit him to prepare to serve a full time mission.....jk! Don't think Jenni would've appreciated that very much. haha They're adorable!

Well, I love you all. Happy March. Get ready for St. Patricks day!!!!! 

Sister Roylance 

Victoria's cousin Megan got baptized!!!!!!! 

February 23, 2015

Feels Like January

Hello everyone! 

Okay this week was a great week!!!

So this week was a complete turnaround! It was filled with miracles and our goal of member present lessons was finally reached and exceeded after 3 weeks of struggle. It was amazing to see these plans come through and see the progression in those we teach because of member involvement.

Exciting news with recent converts, Victoria got to go to the temple on Saturday! She had a wonderful experience. And Chris (the one engaged to Jenni) got his recommend to go for next month. He was very excited.

This week we had dinner with a less active/recent convert Kim and her friend Amanda and daughter Alexis were there. We were able to meet them and they are interested in learning more. Alexis was able to come to church yesterday and she loves it! She is 10 and she asked the other day if she could be baptized. Of course!!!

Had a great week with Tony and taught him the Word of Wisdom in the Cole's home. They connected really well, and Tony is coming along slowly but surely. His only issue with Word of wisdom is green tea. Yuck! well, that's my guess. But he's praying about it. His girlfriend is hindering his progression a bit so we're trying to somehow get her involved.

Well, that's about it! Miracles miracles... 

Love you all. 

Sister Roylance 

p.s. forgot to take pictures this week. oops! 

February 16, 2015

Be thou Humble... and the Lord thy God shall lead thee 

I love the lyrics to this song.

1. 1. Be thou humble in thy weakness, and the Lord thy God shall lead thee,
   Shall lead thee by the hand and give thee answer to thy prayers.
   Be thou humble in thy pleading, and the Lord thy God shall bless thee,
   Shall bless thee with a sweet and calm assurance that he cares.
2. 2. Be thou humble in thy calling, and the Lord thy God shall teach thee
   To serve his children gladly with a pure and gentle love.
   Be thou humble in thy longing, and the Lord thy God shall take thee,
   Shall take thee home at last to ever dwell with him above.

This is our week! Okay so miracles happened but not in the way we planned. So we had appts set, members ready, investigators we counted on....and it did not work out that way. So we're learning to always strive to follow the Spirit and what we need to do.
Let's see. One miracle, So there's this girl named Georgina whho was baptized 2 1/2 years ago, left on a mission a year later, came back on wednesday, and is a miracle to this area! She wants to come out with us all the time and it just so works out she is the perfect fellowshipper for our investigator Evelyn. So we're excited!!!!!!!
Evelyn, we gave a church tour and taught the restoration on Saturday. It was a great lesson with Georgina and she accepted to be baptized if she came to know! Georgina and her exchanged numbers and now she'll be involved. Yay!
Had lesson last night with landry's. Bishop was going to come with us...but couldn't last minute. A bit discouraging because we have such a testimony that members make the lessons! But we did the Book of Mormon drawout to help explain where it came from and such. Jim replied, "Well, that's believable" So that was good. I love them so much! Jim's brother is a mormon in like idaho or somethin. But, since we met the Landry's they have fed us twice and offered their help in anything we need. They're like the adopted parents out here. Love them!!! Can't say it enough.

We bus contacted for the first time!!!!!!! We got to use our spanish name tags. (did i tell you president gave us permission to get spanish tags?) But bus contacting was fun. Pretty much we just parked at the stateion, got on a bus, and rode it for an hour talking to people. Good time.

Well gotta go! Love ya! 

Oh, picture of my 3 companions. sister pearson and hancock left for home this week. Sister Kealer is current. 

February 9, 2015

 What a week!!! 

Alright let's see! So this week was a week full of miracles. That is one of the things that I really appreciate from my mission. The ability to see miracles every day, every week, and all the time. The Lord's hand is truly in ALL things. But it only matters if you can see it. We need the "eyes to see"

This week we went on exchanges with the Shawano sisters again. I got to go to shawano with Sister Pearson. (my comp from a year ago) She is goign home in 3 days! Ahhhhh!!! We will miss her. She's blessed Shawano so much. The mission is also doing some downsizing with less missionaries than when there was the flood. So shawano and an area called Gresham is joining together. So sad.

We also did blitz's with Manitowoc sisters. My very first blitz!! It was so fun. So if you don't know, a blitz is when me and my comp go to another area, join with them and all four work in that area for the day. I was with Sister Karlsson and I'll just share a few of the miracles we saw in the 3 1/2 hours we had. 

-We extended a baptismal date boldly with their investigator Charlotte who just needs to be baptized!!! 

-We were able to hand out 4 book of mormons, 2 new investigators, and talk to everyone! 

-Also, I love sister karlsson (from sweden) and she is just amazing and has such an obedient and dilligent attitude about the work. 

It was so good to help jump start their area and I only shared my side of the miracles. Sister Kealer and Lyons worked hard too!

So you know when you pray for patience you get opportunities to be patient. Well, our goal this week was to have more member present lessons......and we really had to work hard for the ones we had because the first 4 days of the week, those lessons dropped like flies. Yikes!  My more humble part of the week.

But we had stake conference this weekend and Elder Hillier of the Seventy came. So great. We had Jamie and Tony come. Yes, TONY HAD HIS FIRST CHURCH EXPERIENCE!!!!! 

You may have noticed, our investigator Tony who we sat with in Stake conference. He came to church and what a miracle that was! We also think he really enjoyed his first time there and we appreciate your testimony.

Got back in contact with our baptismal date Megan and so things should be moving along well with her. Excited for the upcoming transfer. It will be full of miracles! 

 The last part was copy paste from my letter to President. Ah well. But Tony came which was such a miracle!!!! His girlfriend/ fiance is what's holding him back....always the girlfriend

Also got to see all my Marquette peeps so that was great! So much to catch up on with them. I'll attach a picture of em. Starting from the left girl 1,3, and 4 got baptized in December/ January. They need a singles ward up there! And a couple of them want to serve missions. So exciting. Love Marquette. Red head number 2 is Caroline and will be visiting me in utah in June!

Had lesson with Jamie and sister Cutler came! (mission president's wife) so that was a first time experience too. It was great! 

Well that's all from me! Sorry it's long. Didn't realize it was such a great week!

Love ya! 

pic of me in Seymour. Home of the Hamburger. which sadly there's not a place to get a native hamburger. Just dairy queen and mcdonalds. 

February 9, 2015

Fwd: On a mission! 

This week we saw a miracle. A legit miracle. We were out with our RS president Sister Mills and it was like 830 at night. Walking back to the car we see a drivers license on the ground. We check the address and its only 10 minutes away so we decide to take it back to her and she's the sweetest girl! It's been lost for a few weeks and where we found it was no where near anywhere she had ever been....the Lord truly put it in our path. It's a young family and we're now teaching them!

Our investigator Megan who's 18 was able to come to the Green Bay 1 Sisters' baptism and she loved it. Had a lot of questions for things they referred to in the Plan of Salvation and the priesthood. We're way excited about her! She got hired at a new job where she won't have to work Sundays. Funny thing is it's at an assisted living place where our good friend Wally lives. They'll be the best of friends.

Craziest dinner appt ever! I'll try to sum it up quick. Victoria invites the 6 of us missionaries over. Elders need to bring a guy with them and after much struggle we suggest wally. So they get to the appt, and Wally forgot (has alzheimers) and will be there in 10 minutes (really 30) so Victoria grabs the neighbor Jim who she doesn't know to come join us so Elders can come in. Jim comes but doesn't eat and sits on the couch. Now we're about to leave and who shows up? Wally!!!! He's ready to eat. So victoria fixes him a plate while we're all ready to leave. Then someone comes to deliver a table while taking hers away. So Wally, while eating gets his table and chair taken out from under him and we apologetically leave Victoria with Wally. Sweetest old man but oh boy..... Craziest! All the while Jim is still sitting on the couch!

Love you lots! 

Sister Roylance 

Or should i say Hermana. (we got permission to get spanish tags because we interact with a lot of spanish people who can't read our tags.) 

Dated January 26,2015

Boy am I tired! 

This week has been great. Ah lets see. Many miracles 

We've had a big focus with getting to know the ward and involving the ward in every lesson including less active and recent converts. We're still working on it but we were able to see good things come because of it. We had a lesson with our less active member Miriam and we feel like she's moving. Getting unstuck! We brought her visiting teacher who is perfect for her and she invited her to come to the Relief Society activity and she actually might come!

Sister Kealer had a prompting the week before to go see a girl Megan. (Steph, this is the girl you met when going to see Jed, I mean chad) She is our new baptismal date working for Feb 28th and she is so prepared. She loved the Restoration lesson and was already studying the Book of Mormon by topic using the index for whatever she needed on a specific day. She loves it.We definitely feel she will serve a mission in the future. She's great!

Went on two exchanges, one I got to go to Manitowoc with Sister Lyons who is only 3 weeks old! She's already pro at teaching a 10 minute restoration at a door step and plays the violin beautifully! 

The next exchange was with marquette sisters and i got to be back with Sister Hancock my last companion. We had a grand ole time here in Green Bay. Without my trustie Sister Kealer, I made a flop. But thinking on it, I think my flop was guided by the spirit. 

So a couple weeks ago we had like 20 minutes to knock so we knocked on a house. We met Oscar. He was so nice!!! Such a family man. Then on Friday me and Sister Hancock had 20 minutes to knock and we knocked on a house. Oops it was oscar's house! But we met his wife this time and they are such a solid family! Excited to go back this week and teach them. only thing is, their spanish is better but they more want english. We think they'd comprehend with Spanish elders better but if they insist....we'll see!

Well, one last miracle to end it off! Yesterday at church, all of my favorite people jsut filed into church. most we didn't even invite! We had 4 less actives, a former investigator, and 1 investigator come. Miracles. When Heavenly Father wants people at church, they come. The 3 hour block was perfect too!

Great things. Well, love you lots! 

Sister Roylance 

Patience in Tribulation 

This week was a hard week in the moment, but turned out miraculous. We had like 8 member present lessons cancel and we were concerned about our lack of solid people to work with. But as the weekend came, we were able to see some huge miracles and have some new investigators. One of which is a couple that wants to start a family and is looking for a church to raise the kids in!

We also had a great lesson with our investigator Priscilla with a member and it was great! She felt the spirit, she has a desire for her whole family (husband is interested too) and we were able to set a baptismal date with them. This came because we felt to focus on Priscilla rather than her mom who isn't so interested.

With Jamie we have been focusing on the temple with her. she definitely knows the importance of the Holy Ghost, the Book of Mormon, and the Temple. We're trying to help her see the sooner she gets baptized, the sooner she can enter the temple!

Tony is doing good. We moved his date but we are helping him get involved with members! A member family invited him and his girlfriend to dinner. This is great because we feel like once we help his girlfriend, Tony will jump! He's excited to be baptized but he doesn't quite understand that this will be his church, not the other one.

Just a note: I am excited to come home. Have 2 months left. But I'm trying not to think about it so much that I lose my focus and I appreciate the help from each of you as well.

Love ya!

Sister Roylance

p.s. Con:The packers lost. Pro: now investigators and active members will come back to church!

Woodmans is the greatest store on earth!

Gas Prices 1.96!!!!!! 

Hey everyone! Exciting news! Gas prices have been dropping the last few months and it's gone from like 3 somethin to 1.96!!! Good time to be a poor college student.
Also, the Packers won the play off game against  the Cowboys! Lookin to be in the superbowl as I'm serving in Green Bay. Woohoo! haha but really it was quite the challenge being on the sabbath and all. We drove past Lambeau field on our way to an appt and the road is closed! People are selling their lawns for 10-40 dollars. Even saw cars parked in a local lutheran church lawn. Big day! Then at church, we were really nervous about attendance. Being that we have 1-4 church, it was perfectly interfeering with the game which means some people went to the other ward 9-12. But, we and Bishop Jensen were excited to see the faithful latter day saints that came to church. (we were happy to get updates from everyone as well)

We had a big focus on church attendance this week with our investigators. A few of them (feels like a theme) are a little harder with this particular commitment because they have another church they love. Logically in Sister Roylance's head is that if this is Christ's true church headed by Christ himself (which it is) then wouldn't everyone want to drop their other church and flock to ours??? Workin on it!

We had a great lesson with Tony this week. He knows the Book of Mormon is true. He loves what he's learning but his fiance is holding him back from coming to church. Well, our church. We had a fantastic lesson in Bishop Jensen's home this week with Tony and Bishop was perfect. Now Tony is going to work to come this week or the next. That's a huge improvement!

Also, Bishop at ward council and in sacrament meeting showed his excitement about Tony to the whole ward. So everyone will know who he is when he does show :) Bishop, he is so funny. Gotta love it!

Kim and Mady, a recent convert/less active mom and daughter came to church this week! Kim is struggling emotionally and physically and she has a testimony that church helps. It was so great to finally see her there and hope to help this to continue! She needs a lot of love from the ward.

Things are great in Green Bay. Chris is a rock solid convert and came to church even while the play off game for the packers was playing! He also received the Aaronic Priesthood. Double the goodness. Well, triple because we also had a lesson with him that night doing his new member lessons.

Cool experience with Chris is that this week we invited him and Jenni to accompany us to a lesson with our investigator Marcus. Well, for Chris this was in between jobs. Got off one and an hour later off to the other. Jenni reasoned that he didn't have to help us, she could alone. He said, "No, I'm a member now and I want to help" Legit!!!! 

Oh and Chris and Jenni are unoffically officially getting married one year after his confirmation date exactly! They'll be sealed in the Chicago temple on December 22 2015 and their reception will be New Years Eve. This is inside scoop. There will soon be a ring on it! I'll definitely have to go back for that :)

Well, that's all from me!

Love ya! Sister Roylance

Subzero January Round Two

Feels like Deja Vu. Looking back in my journal, it was 1 year ago to the day that it was -45 (with wind chill) in Stevens Point. Here we come again! Ahh man, just walking from the car to the library, my cheeks stung so bad. Frostbite within 15 minutes :) But "Nothing can stop the work from progressing" and so we press on. It's actually really fulfilling when you work hard even though it's so cold. :) 

We just try to stay inside as much as possble and bundle up!

How's sickness in the west? I've never before heard of so many people (literally almost everyone we go see or have met) has had the stomach flu in the last week. It's an epidemic here. Fingers crossed for us!

I was invited this week to play the piano for a spanish baptism this week. It was amazing!!! I was under "Hermana Roylance" in the program and i couldn't understand 85% of what went on but I could still feel the spirit!

Crazy story. So on New Years Day, Spanish elders told us a story of when they were tracting a drunk woman came out, got in her car, and ran into a pole, almsot hit a pedestrian, and hit some cars. Elders witnessed it and therefore got to sit in a police car while they gave the report....flash forward two days me and Sister Kealer go to our appt with our investigator. Her mom is there and she tells us our inv. is in jail...on thursday...immediately i connected the dots. but as she went on it was apparent that it was her the elders witnessed and put in jail for at least two years! Ahhh so now she is a former. :(

MLC was great this week. Sister Cutler gave a great training on having "eyes to see" except because she ran out of time she didn't give it all and skipped parts. So.....me and Sister Kealer are in charge of giving that training to all the missionaries at zone training. Thanks to the elders. :)

Last but not least, Miracle!!! Victoria who was baptized a couple weeks ago introduced us to her cousin Desee. Who is now taking the lessons and really excited for baptism! Ahh, man missionary work is real. Desee came to church on sunday and we really hope she liked it! But we're excited to continue to work with her!

Love you all! Hope you had a great new years and a great start to 2015!

See you next week.

Sister Roylance

Happy New Year!! 

Hey everyone! Okay such a great week for so many reasons!
First Christmas was great. We felt like Utah missionaries having meal appts breakfast, lunch, and dinner for eve and christmas! It was great :) Got to talk to the family which is always fun. Mom reminded me "3 months and 1 day!" if you know what that means :)

Got my trunky papers. Which means I got my papers with details about the airport, making goals for when you get home, and a great talk from President Monson, "Finishers wanted" I encourage you all to read it. It's great!

We met with our new friend Betty Cantu this week. We found her in the formers and she is so prepared. Not just her but her adult daughter priscilla. It's amazing to see that the church has been in and out of her life and now she comes with a desire to be baptized. We also met with Sylvia who doesn't have a Christian background but native american. Her mom is a member and so we're working with both of them which is great!

One less active we're working with is Miriam and she grew up in SLC, a member all her life. She is very Christian and feels a great need to love and serve. Although, she doesn't feel that churc

h/sacrament is necessary or repentance/change at all. It's a difficult situation but we're working to help her learn the commandments so she can be on the right path and know it!

Miracle was email today, I found out that 3 of the people that I had taught or contacted had entered into the waters of baptism. Angela Grunau I taught for 6 months in Kettle! She finally did it after 5 years of investigating! Marisha and David scott (both kids) from sTevens point. We started to meet with their family and look! 1 year later :) Last but not least, my Christmas miracle last year. We went to see our investigator Barb and met her sister Carol. Carol got baptized this weekend!!!!!!! 

So cool to see the miracles that Heavenly Father brings to pass. :) Grateful to have opportunity to be a part of it. 

Love ya'll!

Sister Roylance

 It's a white Christmas! 

Hello Friends and Family!

It's been an amazing week full of miracles!!!

Most exciting to start out with! Victoria and Jorge were baptized on Friday! Victoria unexpectedly bore her testimony at her baptism and you can just see how happy the gospel has made her!!!! We love them! Plus the Taylor family (her prime fellowshippers) are taking her to the temple with them this week! Ummm.... she's going to the temple!!!

Chris was baptized on Saturday!!!!! Boy was his packed. His girlfriend's family is one of the main mormon families in the greater Green Bay, Shawano, and Gresham areas. So he had lots of support there. :) Not spreading rumors or anything but we foresee a wedding in approx. a year in the temple! Bishop even said it almost directly at his baptism!

With these exciting events Sunday in sacrament was exciting as well! 5 confirmations, and a baby blessing plus a christmas program. What an amazing way to celebrate the Christmas season by making covenants with Heavenly Father :)

Last monday we saw Lambeau field! It cost 11 dollars to do the tour. Almost worth it but the tour guide wouldn't even let me touch the field or take grass for souvenier. :( But it truly is the great and spacious building!

We set a baptismal date with our friend tony. He's way excited and super legit. Reading the book of Mormon pretty good too. Not sure he understands that him being baptized is a covenant we make with God and we are members of His church. He thinks it'd be great to be baptized by priesthood authority tho!! We'll help him :)

Miracle at the post office. this week we sacrificed eating lunch to get our christmas packages in the mail. While there, I felt prompted to share our tape (that we had to purchase) with a man so he didn't have to waste 3.50. Well, he noticed who we were after that and he approached me and asked if there was a church around here and that he was in the military and joined the church in Rome!!! So we got his info, will see him this week! It's amazing to find lost sheep and the Lord truly helped us to find him!

Also here is Lambeau Field! And the parking ticket we got last week.

Who ever heard of it being illegal to park within 4 feet of a driveway??? Lame!

It's been swell :)

Merry Christmas!!!

Love, Sister Roylance