Chapter 6 - I made it to Ecuador!

Ashley left the CCM early Tuesday morning, and was on her way to Ecuador.  At about 5:45am our time, she was allowed to make a short 1 minute phone call to us.  It was so good to hear her voice.  Once she got to the mission home, she only had about 5 minutes to type out a letter to us.  I delayed posting her letter this week because I know that the Mission President's wife posts pictures of the incoming missionaries.  But alas, I guess she's behind on her posting.  So, being super sleuth dad, I logged into Ashley's LDS account and figured out where her first assignment was.  She has been assigned to the Florida Ward in Guayaquil.  We know that she has a Latin companion, and that's about all we know.  That first week in the mission is tough.  We're hoping that we hear from her on Monday (we think Mondays are P-days), and get the whole story of the first week.

Hi, I made it to Ecuador! I only have like 5 minutes to write but I just wanted to let you know that everything is good. We met the mission president and his wife and they are very nice. It is very humid here...because we have lived in Utah for as long as I can remember, all I really know is dry heat and here I can like cut the air with a knife....anyway, I guess its not even the hot part of the year right now, that comes in like January and February or something so this should be fun. I woke up at 3:30 this morning and so I'm really tired right now and I kind of want to take a nap but I stay awake because this is all so new and I just want to take it all in. The CCM was good but I'm so excited to be here now. We stay in temple housing tonight and have some meetings tomorrow and then go to our areas tomorrow afternoon....here I go. Wow! I will write more next week. Love you all and hope you all have a great week!

Love,

Hermana Roylance

Chapter 5 - Final Countdown

Ashley is continuing to do well.  She's down to her last week in the CCM.  She will be on her way to Ecuador next Tuesday!!!!

Ok everyone, its the final countdown! I have like 4 ish days until I'm thrown out into a world where I can only talk to people about the gospel (and I cant even really do that very well), and its really hot, and I will have a companion that only speaks Spanish, and everything will be totally different!! But Im so excited...its been a good ride here in the CCM.

TIDE-TO-GO PEN

Ok, thanks to Hermana Flamm and mom for telling me about the magic of tide to go pens...it is literally saving my district. haha so many people in my district have used it, including myself, and its awesome! Glad I have them!

SPIRIT ANIMAL

Ok, one day a few weeks ago we were all sitting around and everyone in my district gave each other a spirit animal...and they decided mine was a lemur...yeah. I think I like it haha it was so funny. We have some good times here. My companion was a blue jay so that fit her pretty well too.

WE ARE FAMOUS

Ok so last week, when we were at Monsoratte, this lady just came up to us and said something in Spanish to me that I didnt really understand-suprise-but I understood that it had to do with taking a picture so I thought she wanted us to take a picture of her and the lady she was with so I was like, yeah ok sure. But then we started walking out there and the lady had the camera and she wanted to take the picture with us! Haha so me and two elders and my companion all got in a picture with her! haha I felt cool for a few seconds...I guess youre really interesting if youre white and youre in Colombia...

DREAMS

Ok, the CCM makes me have the strangest dreams...like every night I have really strange dreams and most of the time the missionaries from my district are in them..they range from having a soccer game in our classroom to one of the Hermanas in my district being suddenly fluent in Spanish and riding a llama...its so strange..but so funny.
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(Hermana Phippen, Hermana Walker, and Hermana Roylance)

PB&CHOCOLATE

The farm is saved! (this is a favorite expression of Hermana Phippen) So Elder McDermott brought peanut butter and chocolate spread with him and he breaks it out whenever the Latins go to the temple and its just the Nortes there for breakfast and its wonderful. Im pretty sure I took peanut butter for granted before me mission....it is so good! Those are pretty much the best breakfasts. I think Ill have to save up in Ecuador and buy me some pb and nutella!

1 NEPHI 3:7-8

Ok so we did this really awesome thing in my district on Sunday and Monday where we all sat in a circle and one person sat in the middle and we all looked for scriptures that applied to them or just scriptures that we thought they needed and oh my, it was way coool. Everyone in my district got a turn and it was really neat. I feel like we really bonded after that because to me, it was an expression of love and charity...here we are looking for scriptures and listening to the spirit as to what we think that person needed at that time...it was amazing. Well, one of the scriptures that was said about me was 1 Nephi 3:7-8 I will go and do the things the Lord has commanded...and the comment that the Elder made with it was really awesome. So it says in verse 8 I think, something about Nephis father being proud of him and the Elder just said Well I dont know how your dad feels but I bet hes pretty proud of you and glad youre here and lots of other people are glad youre here too.  And I was just like wow-speak to my heart why dont you! It was so awesome and it was really cool because I dont talk to that Elder a lot but he said just the right thing! I knew my dad was thinking about me and is proud of me! I love you dad!

HERE COMES THE SUN

Ok so there are two meanings to this. 1-The sun is litterally coming and Ecuador is going to be sooo so hot and humid so thats one thing but 2-Here comes the sun, as in the song, made quite the difference the other day. So one night we were just in the bathroom and this song just popped into my head, I dont know why, but I just kept singing it. Anyway, one of the Hermanas in my district walked out of a stall and I could see that her eyes were red like she was crying..all I said was hi to her but for some reason I Knew that I just needed to keep singing that song..I was hoping that somehow it would help her. So I continued to sing and then we both went to bed and that was the end of that. Well, yesterday we were in class and part of it was we were sharing our testimonies about prayer and she was paired up with me and she started telling me about how the other day she was in the bathroom crying and just praying for some sort of comfort because she was feeling pretty down and then she heard me singing that song. I wasnt singing it very loud but she said she heard enough to realize what the song was and the lyrics were "here comes the sun...and its alright" and she said thats exactly what she needed. I was so happy to hear that. The Lord really does answer prayers and we are answers to peoples prayers more than we know. I knowo that if we respond to the promptings of the spirit that we will bless the lives of others. And sometimes we are lucky enough to see the results of our efforts. I know the Church is true. I know prayer is communicacion with God and we will receive answers. I know that we can be answers to prayers and God loves us so much!

I love you all and I hope you all have a great week!

Love,

Hermana Roylance

Chapter 4 - Changing it Up Again!

We are now getting the hang of this moving P-day thing.  It's great when her last P-day was just last Thursday and now get to hear from her again today.  Then we have another long wait until Thursday next (15th).  She's doing great, and sent us pictures today!!!  Such as this one from the temple.

Here is her letter, and the rest of the pictures:

Hi everyone! So its the end of week four, for real now... and its time to get all new Latins! Its so exciting when they all come, even though its sad to see the old ones leave! 

TOUR

Ok so we got to go on a tour of Bogota today and it was awesome! We went to Monserrate (I don't know how to spell that) but its very cool and very pretty and very high in the mountains. We took this really cool tram up the mountain, and I kid you not, straight up the mountain...it was crazy. We got to look out over the city of Bogota and its huge! and we didnt even see all of it! I got a lot of cool pictures that Ill try to send! We also went to the souvenir shops and bought stuff and that was way fun too.

ARE WE IN UTAH?

Ok, so there are these beautiful mountains here that remind me of Utah and then one night we had green jello and someone was like...mountains and green jello, are we in Utah? haha I just thought it was funny and I wanted to share.

CONFERENCE

Wow, wasnt conference great!? I loved watching and listening to all the apostles and prophet speak to us..I especially loved it because it was in English!  Jeffrey R. Hollands talk definitely made me cry....I love my mom! and I'm so grateful for her unconditional love! Also, I really liked the talk about ponderizing the scriptures. I think thats such a good idea and Im going to try and do that here on my mission. One thing that he said would happen as you did this was that the scriptures would become like loyal friends you could rely on and I really want that and I believe its true. I just want to challenge you guys to do that..find a scripture, put it in a place where you can see it every day, think about it often, and really ponder the meaning. Try it for just one week and note the change in your lives..I promise that it will make them better and as you do this it will provide a higher place for you thoughts to go, like he said.

WE ARE ONE

Ok, this is not the Provo MTC and its very small here and our district had six people in it and I was like, yes I like this, this is good. Well, the rest of the people I came here on the plane with were in another district and there were 7 of them and that was good too, but last night they combined us into one district so there's like 13 of us and its HUGE...ok you know you're at the Colombia CCM when 13 in your district is huge, but really it feels quite big, but I love it and I love these people. They are all so great and have wonderful testimonies..I couldn't have made it this far without them!

PROSELYTING PART II-WITHOUT HIVES

Ok we went proselyting on Friday and it was so awesome! We went for 3 hours this time instead of 1 and we were around a library and there were so many people to talk to. It was a lot different from the first time we went. We had more confidence and it was fun. Even though we couldn't understand most of what they were saying, we could feel the spirit and I know it was helping us. Its amazing that the spirit works that way and Im so grateful that it does because it really is the true teacher and its helpful because I don't know Spanish. We gave out both of our Books of Mormon and I really like the people we gave them out to. One guy, he was probably in his 20s, seemed really interested and said he was going to go read it. I felt like he was sincere and it filled me with such joy-oh I wish I could follow up with these people! But I know the missionaries in their areas will be able to touch their lives!

Well, I hope you are all having a great week! I love you!

Love,

Hermana Roylance

Chapter 3 - Gifts of the Spirit and Family

We finally got P-day right this week.   Ashley sounds like she is doing well, and she's already 1/2 way through her CCM (MTC) stay.  She sent another Group Picture this week, along with her letter.

Well family and friends, here I am. On the end of week 3 and its crazy. I think I blinked and two weeks passed....I don't know how it happened because the first weeks were eternity!

WEIRD CAR ALARMS

Ok, so they have these really weird car alarms here...they like change between five different patterns when they go off...its so strange and I had never heard anything like it, but its pretty much normal now. It was just weird.

TRASH CANS ON ROOFS

So there are these things that look like trash cans on the roofs of all the houses and apartment buildings...I think we have come to the conclusion that they're for water in their houses and maybe they get filled up by rain but we are still no really sure....Its a true mystery to me...

SMALL WORLD PART II

One day our district was just talking and one of the Elders in my group, who went to Alta, was like yeah at this time last year I was probably at the Herriman XC Invitational...and then I was like, wait...Ive ran in that invite before and then my companion was like, hey Ive ran in that too..so basically once upon a time we were all at the same XC meet (the one where it rained so much and was so muddy..yeah we all remember that quite clearly) at the same time! Like what?? So crazy!

DO I KNOW YOU?

There are so many people here that look like people I know, but Latin versions of them, its crazy!

GIFT OF TONGUES

The gift of tongues is so real! So on Sunday, we had fast and testimony meeting and it was soo good! I got up to talk and it was really interesting what happened..as soon as I opened my mouth, the Spanish just started flowing...it came naturally and effortlessly. I don't even remember what I said, but I know the spirit was speaking through me. Later that day, this new Norte, who knows a little more Spanish than most who come here at the beginning, came up and told me that I was the only Norte that he could not understand. It sounds weird but I was really happy about that. Ah, the gift of tongues...so grateful for it! Also, Presidente asked me and Hermana Phippen one day if we felt happy when we thought about how we had to learn Spanish and we said yes. and he said that was the gift of tongues, and I couldn't agree more. I remember the first few weeks I told hermana Phippen that I really did not look forward to 1:40 every day when we had to teach because I couldn't speak the language, but now Im so excited to teach and learn Spanish! Its an amazing change!

THE LORD SENDS US LOVE FROM OUR FAMILY

Ok so on Sunday we were singing a song and I looked down at the composer, which I never do, and I noticed that it was Ebeneezer Beesely, my ancestor and it just brought me such great peace and it let me know that my family loves me and thinks about me often. Also, when we watched Elder Scott's funeral, they said he was going to be buried at Wasatch Lawn Cemetery, where my Grandma works, and that also let me know how much my family loves me! The tender mercies of the Lord are amazing!

Yo se que Jesucristo vive. Yo se que El Libro de Mormon is verdadero y la palabra de Dios. Estoy muy agradacida por mi familia y por el plan de Salvacion. Yo se que Dios nos ama. Yo se que La Iglesia de Jesucristo de los Santos de los Ultimos Dias es verdader. En el Nombre de Jesucristo, Amen.

Love you all, have a great week!

Love,

Hermana Roylance