Elder Roney

*Note from Derek and Becky: "We loved every minute of skyping with Ashton on Christmas Day.  He looks great, loves the work, loves Alaska and is growing in the gospel."*

Hey everyone!
 Sorry I didnt get an email out to you guys yesterday, the place we usually do emails at was closed yesterday and same with the library. So I wasn't really able to get an email sent out yesterday. But skyping home was awesome! I loved it so much! It just made my day so much better, definitely the highlight of the day. It sounds like you guys all had a pretty good christmas and are gonna have a pretty good rest of your christmas break.Im glad you all liked your presents, you guys can switch with each other if you want to.  I loved the gifts you sent me, especially the ties, it was hard but I didn't open most of them before christmas! I feel accomplished for holding off til christmas. Thats fun that youre both teaching classes now, that should be a fun change for you guys.  Skiing should be pretty fun for you guys, thatd be sweet if I could ski up here haha.  Anyways, so for your questions, you can go ahead and give his mom a call, I wouldn't hate that. I like him a lot most of the time. He's a pretty nice guy. In this area I don't have to teach classes or give talks at all, at least not yet. In Homer me and elder Butler taught the gospel principles class most of the time, and we didn't have to give talks.  But yea its crazy how unhappy and messed up peoples lives can be, especially growing up in Orem you don't really see too much of it, but I never realized how unhappy people really are. But thats awesome news about Kendis, thatd be a sweet place to go on a mission.(His cousin, Kendis Roney, is going to Paris, France to serve in April)   And uncle Blake might not be too far away from her.

 But yea, theres not a ton of new news that I have from this last week that you dont already know about since we skyped. Last week was good though, we helped this less active couple move back to Utah, theyre gonna be living closer to his family, theyre an awesome couple, theyll be missed for sure. They gave us some of their furniture, so now I have a place big enough for all my garments and service and pday clothes besides on top of the shelf in my closet! Oh and I already told you on skype, but we had a lesson with Eric, the boyfriend of a girl in the ward. It went super good, we taught him some of the principles from the restoration. And tonight were watching the Joseph Smith movie with him and the Garcias, and if we have time we might watch another short church movie. It should be pretty great. Christmas and Christmas Eve were both amazing, on Christmas eve we ate dinner at a members house with 4 families in the ward, it was lots of fun. Those 4 families are some of my favorites. Christmas was awesome too, loved skyping and seeing you guys. And we had dinner with another favorite family in the ward, theyre a ton of fun. They got a chinchila for christmas! Its pretty awesome, that families pretty cool. Then we went and visited a couple members for the rest of the night. The ward here spoiled us, we got a bunch of gifts from the ward members. We got a mug, a tie, a scarf, a walmart gift card,  truffles, and a chocolate scrabble game. Ill probably send that mug that I got home sometime soon, its pretty cool. And again, I loved the gifts you guys sent me! thank you!  P-day was good, we were at the mission home all day, just playing ping pong, and games, eating lunch, and just hanging out with other missionaries. I found a couple pretty fun games yesterday, ones called mexican trains, its super fun, and also a card game blink. They're both fun games that I think you guys would enjoy playing. So guess what?! at the end of Pday when we were leaving the mission home two moose were hanging out outside of the mission home! Ill send pictures, they were two baby moose, but still pretty big. Their backs were about as tall as me, we were able to get like 4 feet away from them and they didnt care! One of the elders stood really still and held out his hand and the moose started licking his hand, it was pretty sweet. Good thing mama moose wasn't around that we could see. Anyways, not too much new stuff. Ill send the picures next week. Anyways, I love you guys and loved seeing you all on christmas! I hope you all had a great christmas and have a fun week! Tell Kendis congrats for me.    Love you guys!

Love Elder Roney

First December Countdown!

Hey everyone,

    So I have some good news, dad will love it. President Beesley sent out the news that we can skype if we want to! So thats pretty sweet, the only bummer thing about it is that if we do skype we cant talk for as long as if we talked over the phone, because I would have to skype at a members house. So just let me know if you want to skype or call. Thats crazy that Braedon and Virginia are getting married this saturday, its come so fast! Man, 6 days, thats awesome, too bad im gonna miss it.  It sounds like you all had a fun week, and the parties sound like they were lots of fun. Thats pretty sweet that Kurt Bestor played for the Nu Skin party, and you all got kindles, thats pretty dang cool. Kenzies homecoming sounded like it went great.{ a cousin that just returned from Guatemala}  It sounds like her mission was crazy, it sounds like she had some completely ridiculous pile(thats what we call missionaries that are worthless, like a pile of poop) {so sorry - he's a boy} companions. I definitely wouldnt sleep much for that week or two until she left, Id be terrified.  Haha its funny that Avery moans about your long prayers, once they go on missions they're prayers will get pretty long and they'll see alot of really long prayers that other missionaries give. That's fun that you saw Lane at build a bear with the marines. I did get the picture, its pretty sweet.
Our investigators are going alright. So Joan, she was going to come to church yesterday but didn't end up coming. We think her husband might be an influence that's kind of getting in the way. She seemed so golden and excited, then her husband just got back from working on the slope, up with all the oil way up north. And since hes been back we haven't been able to see her.   He answers the door each time and said she's not feeling too good. So hopefully once he goes back to work in a week or two (the people who work on the slope usually work two weeks on and two off,because they have to fly up there) we can start working with her again and get her to church. He seems pretty nice, I think he's just not very interested, so hopefully once he leaves we can make some headway. Also, a members daughter, Tasha, we're going to start working with her probably this or next week. Shes not a member and when she came to alaska she was against the church and wasn't interested in it at all.  Now shes warming up to us alot and said that once her husband (soon to be ex husband) leaves town she'll accept a book of mormon and maybe start taking lessons.  Her husbands super against our church and mad that she's looking into it. She seems super solid and golden though, a previous elder from this mission lives in the apartment in the upstairs of her moms house and hes been really helping her progress.  They've had alot of talks about the gospel and good discussions. So hopefully we'll start teaching her soon. There's a couple other people were working with too, but we can really see that things are brewing and gonna start going good here soon. We've got a bunch of potential investigators too, so hopefully those turn into solid investigators soon.
    So this weeks been pretty good for the most part for us. The wind here has been crazy the past two days, and last night we got like a foot of snow! The weathers kind of bipolar right now, its pretty weird.  But its been warmer, its been in the 20s alot! I got your letters and the packages from family and soon to be family the Voeks, thank you all so much! I love getting mail, it's so exciting to see a letter in the PO box. I put up my little christmas tree and put all my presents around it, and then I taped up that paper christmas tree on the wall and put up all those paper ornaments on it. {Thanks to Uncle Park and Aunt Stephanie}  Ill send a picture of our living room next week.  It's completely decked out in christmas lights, we taped up probably 8 or 9 strands of lights on our ceiling so when we hit the light switch all the lights turn on, and now thats how we light up our living room, I think it's awesome. Were borrowing 2 strands from a member, im using the lights you sent me in my christmas package, and then we got the rest from salvation army, it was pretty sweet. Theyre so dang cheap there, like a buck fifty for 100 lights, its great, gotta love thrift stores, and the best part is that theyre brand new and work like a charm. So our apartments pretty cool right now. We did exchanges this week, it was alot of fun, I went to Chugiak with Elder Darcey,and Elder MacPherson stayed in Eagle River with Elder Ivan, it was fun, then elder Ivan and Darcey slept over at our place last night becasue they had a dentist apointment early this morning, that was alot of fun. Elder Mac got Dear Johned, that wasn't so fun for him. We got to go to the temple on Wednesday! It was awesome, I love going to the temple. Last night I found out that a guy in the ward here helped design the anchorage temple. I thought it was cool. Tomorrow we have zone conference, thatll be fun, its our christmas one so theyre giong to have a dinner there for us and everything. It should be a pretty good zone conference.
      So nothing too crazy has happened lately.   this weeks been pretty good,  Love you guys!

                            Love Elder Roney

Elder Roney

Hey Everyone!
     So this weeks been pretty weird and went by pretty slow. So on Friday we got a call from our zone leaders with some weird news/information. President had them tell us that we arent allowed to leave our appartment until further notice. The reason was because there was going to be freezing rain and during the darker hours of the day/night it would all freeze and make the roads straight ice.   So it was going to be really slick and dangerous to be driving around.   So just about all day we were inside our apartment, and I figured out how to do the rubiks cube haha. We were only allowed to be out of our apartment for a couple hours if we had lessons planned, so we were only out of our apartment for about an hour or so that day. It was super weird. Then the next day, we went around doing our thing then at about 3 they called again and told us that because of weather and slick roads due to rain we could only be out and about until 6.   And Saturday night a lady in the ward called us and told us that because of slick roads and weather conditions, church would be cancelled on Sunday, so there was no church yesterday, it didnt feel like Sunday at all. I guess there were like 30 crashes/cars in ditches on the freeway between anchorage to eagle river. And anchorage is only about 30 minutes from eagle river, I heard anchorage had like 115 mph winds saturday or sunday night.  And again our zone leaders called us Sunday morning telling us that we couldn't leave our apartment because of road conditions. Then, just like before they said we could be out between 4 and 6.   So pretty much all we did on Sunday was watch the First Presidency Christmas Devotional at a members house, then eat dinner at that members house and head home after dinner. It did not feel like Sunday, the only reason I remembered it was Sunday was becasue we were fasting. The Christmas Devotional was amazing, I hope you guys watched it or heard about it. It talked alot about the real reason for Christmas, the gifts God gave us, and charity. And it showed some of the new videos that they filmed in the new Jerusalem theyve been building. They were super good. So the weekend was the slowest weekend ever, the weekend felt like a whole week.
     So we picked up a new investigator this week! Her name is Joanne Thor, she's the lady that gave us the dolphin statue. We went back and visited her twice this last week, once to do a lesson, and once to remind her about church. Thats right, the first visit last week she told us she wanted to  come to church with us, she was telling us that she wants to stop using alcohol and went to the AA class the previous night. The second time we visited her to remind her about church she was super drunk again, but still wanted to come to church with us. She said she would be sober for church which was good and gave us her number so we could call her in the morning and remind her and make sure shes sober. Unfortunately we had to tell her that church was cancelled but she could come next week. So that's what she wanted to do, she told us that she would be there next week. We'll probably visit her again this week once or twice to see how shes doing, hopefully teach her a lesson and remind her about church. So thats the main new exciting thing thats going on here. The work here is slowly picking up and were finding more people to teach, so thats awesome! Elder MacPherson and I came up with another idea to help everything to get going. We made a sign up sheet that we passed around relief society to have short lessons with members. Hopefully this way we can get the trust of the members, earn referrals and get people more involved and excited about missionary work. I think it'll be good. Weve been tracting more too, and we've found a few more potential investigators, so hopefully that will turn into something good!
     Oh and guess what?! Ive worked off all the Thanksgiving dinners I ate and then some. But Im still about 5 or 6 pounds heavier that when I came out. Its better than 15 pounds heavier than last week. The slim fast diet works haha, Ive lost about 10 pounds since last monday!   Also, I got the christmas package that had the nativity, window clingons, 12 days of christmas bag for me and Elder MacPherson, that countdown chain and all that other good stuff. Thank you! I absolutely love getting mail, so keep mail coming if you can:)   That's so exciting that the weddings in 2 weeks, its coming up pretty quick. Its funny that my sister in laws older sister is so close too, maybe Ill get sent somewhere in Anchorage to serve sometime and Ill get to see her. Thats good that the Roneys and Borens are doing good. All of those many Christmas parties are going to be fun for you guys, its just gonna be one party after another, party time!  Christmas is going to be alot different this year for me, itll be good though. Hopefully people are more receptive during Christmas season as we share a message with them about Christ and the real meaning of Christmas.  
     Anyway, it sounds like everyones doing good, and staying busy. Hopefully it stays that way. This week was good for me, we're starting to see some good success here in Eagle River.   I'm excited about that.   It got into the 50s on Sunday, so that was good.   I didn't have to wear my coat that day, it was nice. The devotional on tv was great, loved it!    You guys should check out the videos filmed in the new Jerusalem that they have so far, they' re good. Also, you guys should make a mormon.org profile, I know Braedon wanted us to make one while he was on his mission too.   So you should do it.    

 Anyways, Im doing good and I love you guys!

                Love Elder Ashton Roney

Elder Roney (photos!)

Oh I forgot to send the picture, and sorry that last email wasnt very long.. Heres the picture. And heres a moose that was right next to the road in Eagle River, and also some missionaries and sister Watson. The one with all the polynesians are me my trainer(the only other white kid), the elder my trainer trained before he trained me (the one on the very far right), the elder my trainers training in fairbanks ( the biggest one, second to the right) hes a samoan from australia, and im not sure who the one in the middle is.
Im getting fat.... :(

Elder Roney

Hey everyone!

So Thanksgiving was good, I never thought I would ever eat that much food in my life! We had 3 full meals and almost had 4, I felt like I was going to blow up at the beginning of the third!  It was crazy, we were eating meals basically all day, from 2 to about 7:30. And they eat turkey up here, haha im sure somewhere in alaska some people eat fish instead though. Not a whole lot of exciting stuff has happened this week,  were just trying to get the work to pick up here. It snowed more this week, so we did alot of shoveling for people, I like shoveling for people, its good exercise haha. This last week when I was shoveling all my hair froze.  It was all frosty, and some of my hair was ice haha.   The bishop here is awesome, he's really into mission work.  You guys are lucky you have good weather and dont need to wear coats yet, I have to wear a coat everyday, its usually in the negatives now, last week it warmed up a little bit! It was like 9ish degrees instead of around 0 or less. It was kind of nice to have it warm up a little bit, it's supposed to get a little warmer too. The reason its been so cold is because there was arctic weather that was pushed into this area because of low pressure or something like that, so thats going away and hopefully itll get warmer.
  So thats good that BYU basketballs doing good, hopefully they can improve and get better and keep winning without Jimmer. Thats fun that Kenzies back, hopefully you get to see her today, her mission really did fly by.  Its exciting that Landons going into the MTC this week, I think he'll do good. Thats going to be fun to get that box, it sounds like its gonna be pretty sweet! I love getting mail sooo much, its super exciting to get mail now haha.  Thats a cool quote that the missionary that spoke in the ward said, two years as a missionary is worth it for families to be together for eternity. pretty cool, and true.  So we went back to give that lady back her dolphin but she said she still wants us to have it haha, she said that she has lots of them and to keep it, so we still have the dolphin statue sitting on my desk, I'll send a picture of it today.  Shes funny, we're going back to visit with her tomorrow I think. Its sad that people drink to fill their emptyness, especially in the middle of the day. Splitting wood wasnt too bad, even though it was in -15. The wood splitter that they usually use was frozen and wouldn't start so we had to split the wood with some axes they had. I already have a face mask, you don't need to send one up to me. And I do have good gloves I use, my gloves I used to ski, and another pair of work gloves I got last month. That's good that dad sent the Vitamin D. Hopefully that will help with the dark. You were right when you said Dec. 21st is the shortest day, members were saying the same thing. That's pretty funny that Alyssa had her car slide off the road too, thats a funny coincidence. We tracted into this older lady a couple days ago, she said she won't be converted and won't read the Book of Mormon, but we can visit with her anytime and play scrabble with her haha. So we might use scrabble to get her interested in learning more about our church. Were going to try to use scripture words haha. Hopefully she becomes more interested in our religion. So not a whole lot of anything super exciting happened this last week, were just trying to find more people to teach, once we find more people the work will start to pick up more, and hopefully that starts real soon. Also, today we get to go to anchorage, we're going to the mission home to play games and hang out with a bunch of missionaries. Its gonna be alot of fun. Anyways, overall this week was pretty good. I gotta go, but I love you all and I hope you have a good week!

Love Elder Roney

Alaska is getting colder..

Hey everyone!
  Sorry the email is so late today, the university here was updating all the computers in the computer lab until 3 so we haven’t been able to do emails until now.
 So I got that envelope from mom and also Braedon, Virginia, and sister Voeks package, thank you all so much! it was nice to finally get some mail. So in my apt. we don’t share it with other missionaries, but there is another missionary apt. a couple minutes away.  
We do still have a vehicle, and it’s a good thing that we do too, the past week or so its been in the negatives quite often. Unfortunately we don’t drive a truck anymore, we have a little pontiac vibe, and were the only ones in our district who don’t drive a truck.
Eagle River is like a suburb of Anchorage, but its a good size town. Thats cool that bishop printed you off a map of Eagle River, that’ll give you more of a perspective of the size. I do get along with Elder Macpherson, he’s a good guy. He played football for snow college, he was their kicker, he’s a pretty fun guy, easy to get along with, he’s a good missionary, obedient too, and he’s from Alpine, so not too far from Orem. Does Virginia know any Terrys? One of the elders in my district, Elder Terry went to Mountain View High School and graduated same year as me.
The wards good here, they feed us every night, they’re good about that. Alot of the members are working with friends and co workers trying to get them ready for missionary lessons too, they’re a solid ward with lots of member missionary work going on. One of the lady’s in the wards mom is in uncle Blake or Brookes ward, I don’t know her maiden name though, so I don’t know her moms last name.  It doesn’t snow as much anymore, it snowed last night though and we got like 3ish inches, so that was fun. Its definitely not warmer up here than in Homer, since Homers by the ocean it keeps it warmer I think, even though it wasn’t very warm. And it snows more up here and the snow sticks, because in the actual town of Homer it rains after it snows so it all turns to slush, at least when I was there, I’m sure its sticking now or will be soon though.   I’ll try to stay warm, its kind of hard here sometimes haha.
On Thursday we did service at the nature center in the woods out in the middle of nowhere splitting wood and it was -15 degrees, my hair and eyelashes had a little bit of frost on them when I was done haha. And we tract almost everyday and its usually single digit temps or in the negatives, like the other day we tracted  and I think it was -10. Crazy stuff! Oh and I don’t think we can skype, that’d be awesome if we could though! If I find out otherwise Ill let you guys know.  This last week was good though, and it sounds like your guys' week was good too, that's too bad thanksgivings not gonna be big and with all the Roney’s together. Tell everyone going on missions and all that good stuff, congrats and good luck for me.
Some fun things happened this last week. So on Friday or Saturday we were tracting and we tracted into this lady who was pretty dang intoxicated, at first she was angry and calling us swearwords and said " Come in and I’ll read the Bible to you" so we got inside and she started showing us her roserie and her prayer book and all that stuff that catholics have (I think she was catholic) and was showing us some pictures of relatives that recently passed away. Then she handed my this crystal and porcelain statue of a dolphin and said " here you go! Take it! The dolphin's a symbol of peace!" and she kept insisting that I take it, so I took it haha and now we have a crystal and porcelain dolphin statue thats probably a foot or a little taller on my study desk hahah. We found out its worth at least $50 too, its made by Lenox and it was made in 1995, so were going to stop by her house sometime this week when she’s hopefully not drunk and see if she wants it back. She had a crystal unicorn too, it would of been pretty sweet if she gave us the unicorn instead. So thats my crazy tracting experience this week, I’ll take a picture of the statue and send it next week.  We also ran into a Jehovah Witness tracting yesterday and he was super nice, usually they’re grouchy and mean to us, and he knew the bible super good. We taught him that we have a prophet on the earth today and he didn’t know that, it was a really good visit with him. were going to try and stop by his house in a couple weeks, he might be a good potential investigator. Its getting darker here too! It stays pretty dark until about 10ish to 11ish and the sun goes down around 4, maybe a little earlier. Its not even the darkest time of year yet either! But this weeks been good, the works still not super busy but were working on it. weve got a bunch of potentials and a referral from SLC that we’ve been trying to get a hold of, she hasn’t picked up her phone or answered her door yet. So hopefully we can get in and start teaching her this week and get some investigators.
Oh yea I almost forgot! Another funny thing that happened this week that didn’t end up too bad. So we were driving and pulled off to the side of the road to look at our area book(the book with all the info about our investigators and all that good stuff) Braedon can tell you about what area books are, and he went to stop but we kept sliding because it was so icy and we ended up in the ditch haha. It happened so quick and the car was pretty dang stuck, we had to dig out the snow around the car and a member pulled us out.  It was pretty funny, Anyways, I gotta go. Love You guys!!   Hope you have a good week this week!

Love Elder Ashton Roney

Chugach?

Hey everyone,
     I'll start out by answering questions and all that stuff.  The actual city that I am in is Eagle River, the address of my apartment is 16810 Easy Street and my mailing address is 16810 Easy Street PO Box 770652 Eagle River, AK 99577, but still use the mission office address if you send me any mail or packages or anything.  It was kind of hard but wasnt too hard to leave Homer, Homer was pretty sweet but I wasnt terribly sad to leave it, being transferred out of there had to come sooner or later.  So that huge storm didnt effect Eagle River that I could tell. It really effected Nome though, they took the elders out of Nome and Im not sure if they put them back yet. President Beesley took them out for transfers and Salt Lake called and told him to take the missionaries out of Nome and Im not sure if theyve put them back yet. Theyve had 20 foot waves in Nome and were expecting like 30 foot waves I think(thats what I heard from a member).  Eagle Rivers a good area, the ward is awesome, they all seem like theyre really good member missionaries which is perfect. I think the areas like 5 miles by 3 miles, so its alot more compact.  My districts good too, everyone in my district except one elder is from Utah, and all generally not too far from orem, its funny. I actually see them too which is great, its weird having district meeting in person instead of over the phone, and were all emailing together right now, we email at the University of Alaska Anchorage computer lab. Theyre all good missionaries. My healths been good for the most part, Elder Butler got sick last week and got me sick a little bit, just a little bit of a cold though, Ive only had a runny/stuffy nose and a little bit of a sore throat. Ive been trying to stay warm, Ive done a decent job, its been pretty cold, its been in the teens and in the low to mid 20s. So I wear my coat everyday, Ive worn my thermals a few times and my thermal socks quite often as well.  But ive mostly stayed pretty warm.  Thats crazy to hear about the earthquake, kind of crazy. Thats good that you guys got my fish, its really good, especially the white salmon. Definitely eat it all, Im pretty sure it wont be that good when I get back so eat all up. And I think someone in Homer said that if its kept for too long it goes kind of grody.  {Ashton mailed all the fish he caught to us since he couldn't take it with him, yum.}   So definitely eat it. Im glad that Don Moran called you guys and told you what to expect and what to do and all that stuff. Did he talk to you guys much about anything else besides the fish? He can talk your ear off if you let him. Thats good that Sage is doing better, thats crazy that the hospital didnt catch the broken disks sooner, thats no good.Thats awesome that Braedon and Virginia found an apartment for such a good price. Thats pretty lucky that they found such a good deal. And their weddings coming up pretty soon, just a little more than a month. It sounds like Britts settling in nicely over in her apartment.Thats funny that the girl I know from Marleys lives above Britt. Tell her hi for me if you see her again. Thats good that Braedons going to be working with Lane and Jesse in Preach My Gospel. Itll be good for them to have that getting ready for their missions, I heard Lanes getting ready to start working on his papars and putting them in. Exciting stuff. BYU destroyed Idaho, thats awesome. Theres lots of BYU fans here too. And Avery and Brolin are doing good in school and staying busy, its good that Brolin got to go to that party too. Thats awesome that Avery sang for Holdens farewell, was he good? Was he the only one singing or did a group of them sing? and what did he sing? Thats pretty sweet that Holdens going into the MTC this week, and to Iowa, thats pretty cool. Tell him good luck for me if you see him! Thats crazy that Landons {a Roney cousin}  going into the MTC pretty soon. Tell him good luck for me!  Thats crazy that Kenzie {another Roney cousin}  gets back in 2ish weeks! Time flies, Ive already been out almost 4 months, its gone by super fast.
      The work right now for us is kind of slow and were trying to expand our teaching pool. We white washed into the area, but luckily elder Mchpherson was here 2 transfers ago so he knows the area a little bit. But the area is way good, weve already got about 8 potential investigators from tracting, weve done lots and lots of tracting, at least an hour each day. Theres alot more snow here than in Homer when I left, theres a few feet of snow. But the areas awesome, theres actually a Walmart here haha. The areas The wards awesome too, they all seem like really good member missionaries. Almost everyone weve had dinner with is working with friends and people trying to get them to where we can teach them. A member gave us each a tie too, its a tie with a bunch of sheep and one black sheep in the middle. A member went to a fireside in Korea like 9 years ago and the theme was Bringing the lost sheep back into the fold. so that member bought 350 of those sheep ties over there in Asia and has been handing them out. And probably 20 members wear them each fast sunday. Its kind of cool I thought. But so the wards really awesome and dedicated to missionary work. The areas good, were just trying to find people to teach. If you guys have any ideas feel free to share no matter what it is. Any ideas would help, weve done lots of tracting and trying to help shovel peoples driveways. But were starting to get lots of potentials and hopefully well be able to teach more people, were actually going to see if we can teach a potential we contacted through tracting on wednesday I think, so hopefully she turns into an investigator. But weve been visiting lots of less actives and trying to visit former investigators and the few investigators we have and all that kind of shininigans. {must be an alaskan word?} But thats pretty much where the missionary work is right now here in Eagle River. We just need to get things rolling here and when we do I think well see some success and hopefully some baptisms.
     I have a quick question real quick for dad.Do you remember Wayne Tolman from Lake Arrowhead?? I met him the other day at a meeting and he says he was your neighbor there. Theres lots of weird connections here. One of the sister missionaries here, Sister Brown, was Nedras nanny, I think she said she was Corrals nanny. Anyways, I gotta go now. Ill talk to you guys next week! Love you guys!

Love Elder Roney

Beautiful November

Hey everyone,

Sorry my emails so late, Ive been driving up to soldatna to meet up with some elders to carpool up to anchorage. So I have some news, Im being transferred up to Chugach! And also Elder Butlers being transferred up to fairbanks haha. Theyre whitewashing the area and bringing in another greenie and his trainer into homer. They said its a really good area to train in so theyre having another elder trained there. And elder Butler is going into an area training again and whitewashing it as well. They like whitewashing, its really effective, because it brings a new mind set into the area,so its not because we were bad missionaries haha. So thats kind of crazy, they called on Saturday saying where were each going. It was exciting. But we left the area good I  think, theres some investigators we picked up last week and got a bunch of referrals from  members there lately so I think the area will do good. But Im excited to go to Chugach, my companion is going to be elder McPhereson. Hopefully the elders coming into homer can get Julian back on date and get him baptized. Also, I sent all my fish home. I couldnt really take it around the mission with me because theres too much so I sent it all to you. Theres alot of halibut, king salmon, and white king salmon. White king salmons super good, its the best salmon and its kind of rare I guess. And all the salmons labeled, the halibut isnt. All my things I have are good and keep me warm. As for that christmas package, I dont have anything on my mind right now that I need or want specifically. If I can think of anything specific I want or need Ill tell you in the email next week. Oh and a couple weeks ago we were at the salvation army thrift store and guess what I got for $15?!? A brand new suit that fits!!! Just thought Id tell you guys that haha. You guys know how much I like thrift stores haha.  Thats a big bummer that they got in that crash!!  {4 of his cousins were in a serious car accident in Wyoming on Sat. But they're mostly fine and recovering well}   Thats crazy! Anyways, I gotta go, we need to get up to Anchorage, sorry this letters not super long.

Love Elder Roney

Happy Halloween!

Hey everyone!

   Happy Halloween! So Ill start out answering questions. Yes, I did get those boots, they will do the job, theyre rated to -60, so theyll work really well. Dad, I dont have a wells fargo account anymore, I cancelled it before I came out so I only have my America First bank account that I use, so hopefully you meant youre ready to put money into the America First account at harmons. And I totally spaced asking sister Loflin to take the type writer with her and she left last monday, but its alright, if I really want one when I get back Ill be able to find one in Utah. Also mom, you asked what town elder Butlers from, he is from Kimberly Idaho, and hes been here in homer for his entire first year of his mission, pretty neat. I still eat alot of good fresh seafood, I actually had fresh king crab a couple nights ago. A less active lady in the ward owns a really good sea food restaraunt called Crabbies, and for dinner she had us come eat there for free and she told us to get whatever we want, it was way good. For the salmon you guys want, instead of you guys paying a member for fresh salmon Ill you guys send some of mine, theres no way I can eat all of my salmon I caught. So Ill send that probably sometime this week or next monday for sure. Do you just want salmon? or do you want some halibut as well?? How many vacume sealed packages of salmon and or halibut do you guys want? Let me know soon. Dad, you know that Jason Bills guy you wanted us to find? Hes been showing up to church the past couple weeks and we have his address and number and weve been assigned to be his home teachers. So thats pretty sweet, weve also been assigned 4 other people to be hometeachers of as well, and 2 of the people we have to find because all they gave us were their names without any contact information at all. So hopefully we can find them soon.  Its definitely getting colder, yea its probably in the high 20s in the morning, and it heats up to the 30s or maybe 40s during the day, its chilly. But its not cold enough that I have had to wear any thermals yet, because were mostly inside houses and the truck unless were tracting or walking because were out of miles. Like today it snowed an inch or so and its in the 30s right now, and we have to ride bikes to do everything or walk if we cant get ahold of a family with bikes because were just about out of miles for the month, we just have enough miles to get back to the apartment from the place we email. But I have been wearing those socks you sent me and all my socks are warm enough and good, so hopefully I dont freeze today.
   Thats awesome that Blake was called as a mission president! And its cool he announced it at the convention and it was recieved well. Thats gonna be a cool experience for them. And I never recieved any clip in the email if thats how he sent it. It sounds like the convention was pretty good too, thats always good. Too bad BYU lost their game against TCU but good they won their first basketball game. Those pumpkins are sweet, looks like it was alot of fun for you guys. And it sounds like theyve all got pretty good costumes for halloween, Im going as a missionary haha. Were actually not going in early, we normally would but we were asked to help out with the ward party here tonight. Were going to be costume judges and help dish out food. If we werent asked to help out we would be in the apt. at around 7 doing more studying and maybe handing out candy or maybe book of mormons hahaha. Thats good that Brandi has been coming to church, thatd be cool if she accepts the invitation to be baptized. Ive got some bummer news, we met with Julian this last week and he isnt getting baptized on the 5th anymore, he feels rushed and wants to take it slower, also he didnt want people thinking hes being baptized for the wrong reasons like because he just was married to an lds lady, but we told him that no one will but hes still worried they will and just feels rushed. But he said he for sure will be baptized just not as soon as we would of liked. So now its not a matter of If he will be baptized but a matter of When he will be baptized. But Spud had his farewell talk yesterday, thats awesome that hes going in this Wednesday. And Derek just getting started his mission papers, thats pretty awesome too. Itll be fun to see where he gets called to. It sounds like everything went pretty well this last week for everyone.
   This week was pretty good for the most part. Its a bummer Julians not being baptized this weekend, but its good he isnt rushing and doing it for the wrong reason. But weve stayed really busy this last week which is great, and we have 2 new investigators we picked up, one is a lady we tracted into and she seems way interested and were going back soemtime in the next few days. And the other is a lady weve met with once and we met with again a few days ago. Weve been getting lots of referrals as well, yesterday we got 3 referrals from ward members, its awesome that theyre finally giving us more referrals and getting a little bit more involved. We had exchanges on friday. It was good, I was here in Homer with one of our zone leaders and elder Butler went up to Soldatna with the other zone leader again, it went really well, I like going on exchanges, in Homer we dont see other missionaries very often because the closest ones are 2 hours away, so its fun to see and go on exchanges with missionaries. On friday we were at the hospital in long term care like we usually do and they were having their halloween contest, it was pretty fun. All of them but 2 were in wheel chairs with costumes draped over them haha. The majority of them were asleep or looked sort of miserable/angry but it was kind of funny because they had angry faces or asleep and they were in pumpkin, ladybug, bumble bee, mermaid, ghost, butterfly and mad scientist costumes haha. Is that aweful that I think its kind of funny? Anyways, but this week overalls been super good, weve stayed busy and had some successful days and pretty unsuccessful days. Also, tell the voeks thank you for the package for me, Im already using the scripture case. Anyways, I gotta go, I love you all and hope you have a good halloween. Also, let me know about the fish you guys want sent to you.

Love Elder Ashton Roney

no mistakes today

Hey everyone,

    Ill start out by answering questions. So for the boots, its better for them to be black but its fine if theyre brown. Elder Butler has brown boots. So if you want to you can send me my brown boots, if dad wants me to have black boots dont send me any and Ill buy some up here. Also, Soldatna is about a 2 hour drive away from Homer. And I dont mind hearing the details and all the stuff about the upcoming wedding. 

   This week was super good. On Tuesday we went up to Soldatna for specialized training and leadership training. I was only able to be in the specialized training meeting so me and the only other elder not invited into leadership training went on a short exchange for a few hours. It was super good though, I was on a short exchange with Elder Duval, hes a funny kid and a way good missionary, and then specialized training went from 1 to 5. It was really informative and gave more ideas on finding, how to do things more effectively and they talked alot about waking up on time. I guess alot of missionaries struggle with waking up on time, especially during the winter when its dark all day except a couple hours or so. So they gave alot of ideas to help missionaries to wake up on time. Also, its starting to get into winter, recently its started getting dark at around 6:30 or 7 and the sun comes up around 9:30ish or 10 and we lose about 5 or 10 minutes of sunlight everyday. But it was just a really good meeting overall that gave alot of insight, and im sure leadership training was pretty good as well. I got to see Alyssa there, that was pretty cool, it was good to see her again. Oh, and its getting pretty chilly, in the morning when we wake up its in the 20s.  Oh and it was elder Butlers birthday on Saturday, one of the members that he baptized set up a surprise birthday party for him, it was pretty cool. Hes a farmer so they had John Deere stuff all over and had a John Deere birthday cake for him. It was pretty cool.On Saturday our investigator Michele was baptized, that was pretty sweet. Ill attach some pictures from it, but it went really well and there were quite a few members that attended. So that definitely made the week good. Also, weve had a few more lessons with our investigator Julian Massey. He used to deliver yachts in the carribean for a living, and was in the coast guard in Florida, and was a ski instructor at deer valley and park city, and a bunch of stuff like that. But weve been doing alot of preparing him for baptism, those lessons are always pretty good. We went over the baptismal interview questions with him and helped clarify any questions or concerns he had about them, and on Friday Elder Yang, one of our zone leaders is coming down to do his interview. So were excited for his baptism on the 5th of November, thats gonna be sweet, hes super cool. But thats pretty much been our week. Oh and Im getting another haircut today, thats gonna be good, my hairs getting longer.

    It sounds like everythings going good at home, alot of staying busy. Thats fun that uncle Mark and Mari and her friends came over, that sounds like it was alot of fun, did everyone carve pumpkins in the family? And dads friend came over to look at pictures, thats sweet, did he end up buying any for his new house? Thats awesome that the NuSkin convention is this week, what bands gonna be doing a concert at the end of the week? do you know? Thats good that Aunt Marys arms getting better, and to bad that Aunt Deannas not doing so good. Sounds like the alpine slide was fun, that stuffs always fun. It sounds like everythings going good at home. Everythings going good here in Homer, the works progressing slowly but surely. Hopefully well be able to find more investigators so well actually have some solid investigators after Julians baptism. Anyways, I gotta go, Heres some pictures. Theres a halloween costume for a familys dog, the baptism, one of the stingrays we caught and one of the sharks we caught. Im using pictures from elder Butlers camera because the lady took blurry pictures with my camera, she didnt focus it and I didnt notice until after the baptism was all done.  There you go! Love you guys!

Love Elder Ashton Roney

Im gonna go get my haircut in a few minutes and Ill be back to check my email, so let me know quick if dad wants me to have black boots.

Dad's Letter

Hey Dad,

 So things went pretty well this last week. We had another lesson with Julian last night, and he's going to be baptized on November 5th! The lesson went really well, we taught him the plan of salvation, but before we started the lesson we just talked for 5ish minutes about whatever and it lead to him talking about his mothers death some years ago(I have no idea how it lead to that point), which was perfect for the lesson! The spirit was really strong during the entire lesson, and he already had a basic knowledge of most of the plan of salvation. We pretty much just went over the whole plan and explained each part of it, then at the end of the lesson we extended the baptisimal invitation and he accepted a baptisimal date of the 5th of November. So thats way exciting, and he came to all 3 hours of church yesterday which helped him understand alot more. So that was the highlight of the week, we also had a couple more lessons/meetings with Michele. We finished up the details of her baptismal program and she had her baptism interview with one of the zone leaders during exchanges on thursday. That was good, she passed, so her baptisms this Saturday. So thats super exciting! We arent doing the ordinance, she wants one of the members to baptize her. This member and his wife have helped fellowship her and help her move in and help with the process of her progression. Ill be sure to take pictures with her though. We had exchanges this last Thursday. It went good, the zone leader came down from Soldatna and did the interview with Michele and Elder Butler went up to Soldatna for the day. It was sweet because I finally got to drive the truck for the first time on my mission. But exchanges went well, theyre always fun. Overall this week went pretty good, alot of tracting, we had more service, we did sheet rock on this guys house, then helped put in a septic system at this other guys house that hasnt had running water for 20 years! Its crazy! 20 years without running water! Also, we helped the pratt museum put up their moose fence around their garden. And I found out that Sam Pratt was the founder of the museum, not sure if hes related to us or not, mom wanted to know. And weve gotten a few more referrals, so hopefully those turn out to be investigators. But that was pretty much the week, just trying to stay busy serving the lord.  

Now to answer your questions. I did finally get my coat, its way nice and fits good, its perfect. Im not sure whether or not the sorels will be good, Ill double check and see if theyre good in -40 weather or whatever. I was just getting my size so I could tell you guys about what size I take. The size that fit me was 11 just so you know.  And we didnt eat that sage grouss last week. He kept it and we went back to the apartment and then finished up the rest of the day. But its alright because one of the last times we ate at their house we ate some of that sage grouss stuff. Its ok. And Its just starting to get kinda cold. In the mornings theres always frost and we have to scrape the car windows. Its probably in the 30s in the morning. Then it might warm up a little bit into the 40s. So its getting chilly. Theres not a whole lot to do on pday. What we usually do is email in the morning, drop off our laundry at a members house, go grocery shopping,  then try and find something to do. Usually we go to like the Salvation Army thrift store or the trading post which is pretty much just a pawn shop, or we shop for things we need unless we get to actually do something fun. Like that fishing was fun, but thats the last time I will be able to do it on my mission, so thats no more. Then we went hunting, that was ok, we were pretty much just company because we couldnt shoot any guns or anything. Then weve gone on a hike down to the beach before, that was fun. The beach has black sand instead of white sand like cayman. Weve gone and visited one of the russian villages too. That was kindof cool. Its kind of crazy, the older village is right on the beach and the only way you can get there is down this road that varies between like a 45ish degree slope and almost flat. So that was kind of cool, you cant actually go into the old russian village unless youre a russian orthadox, and they have a sign that says if you tresspass you will be shot. Theyre pretty secretive people for the most part. But thats pretty much it for pdays. I cant really think of anything else weve done besides what needs to be done each week. But you can do the stuff weve done, or go for a drive, or hikes, or shop, or play sports, or whatever you can think of I guess. 

Its good that everyones doing good. Bummer that the dekkers health is getting worse, Ill keep them in my prayers for sure. And we can definitely see the difference from everyones prayers. Thanks. But it sounds like everythings going pretty good. Whats britts new address? Its good that BYUs doing better and it sounds like the new change of QB might be good. That was a good trivia question too, and good insight on the melches. priesthood! Thanks. Sorry I didnt take any new pictures since last week, Ill have some baptism pictures next monday for you guys. Anyways, I gotta go. I love you!

Love Elder Ashton Roney   

Fishing Photos!

From Ashton

Hey!

 So this week was good, really fun too. So yesterday we worked on getting the info for Micheles baptism program ready. We got it all done except she still has to pick an opening and closing song. So Im super excited for that! Its on the 22nd of this month. Its awesome that shes getting baptized, she has changed so much since we began teaching her. The first few lessons were crazy, lots of crazy questions and you almost always left with a headache, and now she actually accepts the answers really quick. Its way cool too, because she said that on saturday night and sunday morning she prayed really hard and sincerely and asked heavenly father to show her signs if the 22nd is the correct day she should be baptized. Then yesterday at church in sacrament meeting the talks were about baptism and their experiences of baptism and how its a blessing in their lifes, and in the gospel principals class(the investigators and recent convert class) the lesson was on baptism and people bore their testimonies and shared their experiences of their baptisms and all this sweet stuff. So it was awesome because all during church she was recieving answers to her prayers. Also, we had a good lesson with our other investigator Julian. The spirit was definitely there and it really helped him understand the things we were telling him. It went really well, we still have to figure out a date to work towards for his baptism, we think were going to shoot for the first saturday of November, I think its the 5th. So hopefully today or tomorrow when we meet with him we can discuss that and figure out a date for him to be baptized. Im pretty sure we can get him ready in time for the 5th, we just need to make sure he has a stonger understanding of everthing. Once we do that we can get him baptized easy peasy. Oh, and were having more success tracting doors! Its awesome, weve been accepted by people more and been giving out more Book of Mormons, and we havent had hardly any door slams or scary people yelling at us lately! It makes tracting alot funner, and theres tons of wild raspberries along side of different trails and roads that we tract on! Its pretty sweet, and yesterday we ate at a members house then carved pumpkins, it was way fun. The dinner was good and strange, we had spaghetti and salad but we didnt have normal silverware. I guess every so often they do this dinner where they get random kitchen utensils and put them in a pile on the table, then they say choose your utensil and thats what you use for your salad and spaghetti. It was pretty fun, I ended up using an alvocado peeler, it was either that or an ice cream scooper haha. And they gave me and Elder Butler a small pumpkin each and we all carved pumpkins after dinner. It was pretty fun, and I kept my white shirt clean! Bonus! And this morning we went bird hunting with a member, we didnt shoot any guns or anything but we went with him. We went on the native land close to Ninilchik, it was alright. We pretty much just drove on the dirt road til we saw Sage Grausse(thats what he called it) then we would stop the car and he would get out and shoot it, we only saw about 7 of those birds for like 3 hours and we only killed 2. It was a good drive and the scenery was pretty, it doesnt make me want to be a hunter though. Other than that not alot of stuff has happened this week, just lots of tracting and staying busy serving the Lord during the week. Now for your questions. I have not recieved the jacket in the mail yet, Ill probably get it today when mail comes. And Ill try to stop by those stores with boots today and see if they have any my size, so Ill let you know on the size of boot I wear, and I did like those boots from last winter. And Ill get back to you on the address of that investigator that took me fishing.  We are teaching or trying to teach another investigator besides Michele and Julian. Her name is Amanda Smith. Shes hard to get a hold of, and we think she might be avoiding us so weve been giving her space and some time before we go try to visit her again. And theres a few others, that we help out around their house doing whatever they need help with. So the way we met julian and michele was through members. The missionaries were already working with him while he was dating a member, then recently weve been helping him move and hes now married to a member and progressing in the gospel. Hes a little hesitant about being baptized until he has more of an understanding, hes just about there though, and hes way cool too, I like him alot. And Michele was a member once and had her name removed, then now she really prayed and knows for sure that this is the church shes supposed to be in and now shes being baptized this month. Shes pretty cool, shes way nice and all she wants in life she told us is to please the Lord. Shes way solid. Thats good that everyones doing good. And thats no good that aunt Mary broke her arm and maybe her shoulder on her 60th birthday. Sounds like shes pretty crazy. It sounds like everythings good at home for the most part, thats dumb that BSAs changing that merrit badge. And theyre doing the details of the wedding, thats good. Sounds like fun stuff. Its good that bro Washburns funeral was good. Everythings going good here as well. Anyways, I gotta go. Love you guys!

 

Love Elder Ashton Roney

Gone Fishin'

Hey!

  Sorry I didnt email yesterday, I was deep sea fishing from 8 to 6! We got permission from the mission president and went with one of our investigators, hes a charter captain. It was way fun. We each caught 2 halibut, and 2 king salmon that were big enough we wanted to keep, I caught 3 other king salmon but we let them go because they were small (I thought they were good size but I guess they were small compared to whats usually caught). We caught a bunch of other stuff too, I caught a shark that was about 3-4 feet long, it was cool, we let that go, and I caught a good size stingray, we let that go too. All together we caught 2 sharks and 3 stingrays. We saw alot of pretty neat stuff, we saw alot of whales, dolphins, sharks, stingrays, jelly fish, tons of otters, more puffins, and a couple seals. The whales were awesome, there were probably around 10 whales that you could see at once. Ill send some pictures next week. 

  But thats awesome that Braedon and Virginia are engaged! Thats crazy! Its a bummer I wont be able to be there though. But thats pretty cool, I might even be an uncle when I get back, who knows.

  BYU won, thats good, sounds like it was a good game. Sounds like everythings good at home, everythings good here in Homer. Its getting cooler still, everything has frost in the morning now. But more days are sunny now but still lots of rain. The wards good, everythings pretty good.  

  This week was good. Another investigator wants to be baptized, we just have to set a date when we meet with him tomorrow. His name is Julian Massey, hes way cool, he said he wants to be baptized sometime this month. So that will be awesome!  Sorry this emails so short, I have to go, just wanted to give you guys an update. Love you! 

    

  Love Elder Roney  

Photos: Homer

Kodiak and back..

Hey everyone,

So to start out I’ll answer questions. I have not met Jason Bills yet, Elder Butler hasn’t either. Hopefully well find him. I haven’t gotten winter clothing yet, when we were up in anchorage we didn’t have time because zone conference ended at about 5 or 6, and its a 5 hour drive back to homer so we had to get on the road, so I wasn’t able to go to REI or any stores. So I’m not that prepared for the winter I guess. My health is good, I’m gaining some weight though because the members make sure you’re full before you leave their house, so I’ve gained 5 pounds already. And its getting harder to be able to run in the morning because it rains almost everyday and its getting cooler in the morning. :( Dad, I’m not sure what you meant when you asked, how are you looking your mission pres.? If you meant to say liking your mission pres. I like him alot, he’s way cool and definitely inspired and called of God. I do feel like Im growing and getting a stronger testimony, and I do feel like I’m learning the doctrine more. Teaching’s getting more comfortable for me.  The hardest thing is just figuring out how to teach with your companion, once you get better at that, your teaching gets better. The ward is very accepting of me I think, I feel welcomed by them. The ward is starting to get busier helping us with missionary work.  They’ve given us some names to go see. The bishop and ward mission leader are good. They just called a new mission leader a couple weeks ago.  He was baptized last year some time, so he’s new and hopefully he'll do good, he seems like he will, and the bishops good too. I definitely am glad Im serving a mission, and I know its the right thing to do right now. One of the things I learned in zone conference is that every phone call has to have a precise reason and only that reason to call.   Also, that the mission is like a roller coaster. Then we watched a short video about driving in snow and on ice and just driving conditions in Alaska. There was a bunch of other stuff that was talked about as well.  In the MTC I didn’t know Elder Flynn because he wasn’t in the MTC the same time as me, he’s been out just over a year.  

So this week was good, it was the end of the transfer, and they called and told us that were staying in Homer another transfer, so 6 weeks for me at least. On Wednesday morning at 10, our ferry left to Kodiak. It was a 10 or 11 hour ferry ride. It was fun but way too long to be on a boat.  The ocean was kind of rough, we had like 6ish foot swells and we were going up and down the whole time.  Elder Butler got sea sick haha, he ended up throwing up alot the last 5 hours of the ride. It was a super cool ride though, we saw tons of huge jelly fish and alot of puffins. It was pretty sweet, and it was way pretty too, even though it rained for alot of the ride. Once we got to Kodiak we were only there for an hour or so then we flew to Anchorage.  Kodiak is way cool, I liked it there alot, the elders there live in the church too. They like in this closet thing behind the gym walls, its kinda neat. The flight was fun too. It was probably the shortest take off I’ve ever been on, we were on the runway for maybe 5 minutes total, and from the time we started speeding up to when we got off the runway was probably 10 seconds, it was way fast. The flight from Kodiak to Anchorage was about an hour long, and we flew over Homer too. Unfortunately it was night time when we flew so I couldn’t see the scenery or anything. It took about 30 minutes to get over Homer on the plane and it took us 10 hours on the ferry to go the same distance. But we arrived in Anchorage at around midnight and we got to where we stayed at around 12:30 or almost 1. Then zone conference was at 10.   That was way good. Brother Walker from the Quorum of the 70 was there, zone conference was really good.  Then we drove 5 hours back to Homer. The drive was super pretty too, all the leaves are starting to change color now.  Oh, and we went to a wedding on Saturday.  A member and an investigator got married on the beach/deck of a restaurant on the spit.  {The ‘spit’ is a long, narrow piece of land stretching into the ocean.  There are docks, businesses, etc on it.}  It was way good, so hopefully he starts coming to church now that his wife’s a member.

A lady in the ward made a funny comment that made me laugh this week, she asked me what my name was and looked at my name tag and said " What’s your name again? Jesus (she pronounce it like Hesuse, like the spanish people pronounce it) Christ? haha oh no thats the name of the church! oh your names on top, Elder Roney" It was funny that she mixed it up I thought. 

Ill explain those pictures. Those are our apartments that we live in, the picture dad sent me is the street up from us, a guy named Chuck lives in those blue ones. Then that is a view of Homer right now, super colorful and pretty. And that picture of the ocean was a picture from the ferry dock right before we got on the fairy. Also, thanks for the package!  I got it once I got back from zone conference, it was on the door step, Thanks a bunch for that stuff, its perfect timing for those blankets too. And tell the Voeks thanks for their package!  The work is picking up too. We’ve been having more success tracting around. Yesterday a guy told us that he has company and to come back in a few days. He was way cool, he told us to come back in a few days before we even did our door approach. So this week’s been good. Its good that everyone’s doing good and staying busy at home. But I think thats about it for this week, thanks for everything. Love you guys! 

Love Elder Ashton Roney   

better week in Alaska

Hey everyone!

 

So this weeks been good here. We went on exchanges on Wednesday with the zone leaders. It was great, I went up to Soldatna from tuesday night to wednesday night. It was alot of fun I was with Elder Flynn, it was a super busy day which was great. We gave a lady a blessing in the hospital, it was pretty cool, hopefully she gets better. Im not sure what exactly was wrong with her, it was pretty bad though. We helped move a family, and we saw other missionaries! I love seeing other missionaries because the closest missionaries to us are an hour or two away. When we were moving, Alyssa and her companion helped too. It was fun to see her again. It sounds like shes doing pretty good in Kenai. Also, our investigator Michelle is being baptized on October 22nd! Its gonna be awesome. Yesterday when we were tracting everyone we tracted into was actually nice to us! We got two potential investigators from tracting too, and we picked up an investigator during another lesson yesterday, her name is Lily. Im not sure how far she'll go in the lessons, she asked alot of deep, hard to answer questions and seemed like she didnt want to really accept it that much, but she said we could teach her again on sunday and she told us she would read the book of mormon and pray about it. So hopefully next week will go better with her. Were going to try to teach one of our investigators Amanda Smith more this week and set up more times that we can teach her. She seems pretty solid and receptive to what we teach her. The man in the hospital that we gave to blessings is out of the hospital and recovering now. He and his wife both had pnumonea and another virus that attacked the weakest part of their bodies which was his lungs and his wifes kidney. And it hit them at the same time and went away at the same time too and they had they exact same thing, so theyre kindof a mystery at the hospital. Theyre both back at home and getting better. This week the works been picking up so this last weeks been pretty good. This weeks gonna be pretty good. Tomorrow were going on the fairy {ferry} to Kodiak.   They need our truck for some reason even though they already have trucks. But then on wednesday were flying from Kodiak to Anchorage for zone conference on thursday. Then were driving a different truck back to Homer on thursday or friday, Im not sure which day though.   Im excited for all that.   So this weeks gonna be pretty good. Its no good that BYU lost, they got destroyed. Its good that everyones doing good and staying busy. And its good that the weathers good in Orem, here its rained almost everyday, again, so nothing new there, and its starting to get into the low to mid 50s here, and its gotten into the high 40s. Its good that sister Fields sent you those pictures, they took that like the first week I was in Homer, im pretty sure it was the first time I did any service here. I should be able to get the right coat and boots here before it gets too cold. I know I can get the right boots here, but Im not sure about a good nice coat, I should be able to get one here. But I might be able to get one in Anchorage maybe but if I need help getting a good one ill let you guys know. I think the only way you guys could help me get that stuff is if I cant find a good one for less than $150 Ill have you send me one. For your questions, I have not gotten your package yet, I got the letter on friday though. So I should get it today, or if you sent it to the mission office address they probably kept it and will give it to me when im at zone conference.  It was pretty fun to be up on that ladys roof   The reason you have to get the moss off your roof is that the moss holds all the moisture.  If it gets bad enough, your roof could collapse or be damaged. Shes a member, but shes an older lady so she couldnt really get up there.   It could probably rot the roof too, im not really sure though.  Its good that lady's { a non-member gal in our ward} gonna be taking lessons, having the missionaries will help alot. Anyways, thats about it for this week, well I gotta go, Love you guys! 

Love Elder Roney

Moss!

Here are two photos of Ashton and his companion (?) cleaning moss off of the roof of a Homer, Alaska home. Apparently, the moss gets so bad it needs to be cleaned off before snow comes and causes more problems. What a nice service project!

So Many Ways to Say NO

Hey,

So this week was good, we picked up a new investigator, she's going to be baptized but we just have to set a date. So thats pretty exciting! The work here's still way slow, yesterday when we were tracting a lady said we could come back and talk with her! So that's exciting, and that was the first good thing from tracting in the last week or so. People here are ridiculous and just don't like us.   This week I've gotten all different ways of being rejected, I got I'm not interested please leave, and that was before we even got to her house, we got a guy that yelled we don't f*&%$#@ want any!, he didn't answer the door then when we were walking away from his house he yelled that at us, yesterday we got a lady that said I go to a church here in town, I respect what you guys are doing but I'm not interested, one guy answered the door shirtless and let us say our door approach then said thanks and shut the door, and a ton of other ways to be rejected, it's kind of funny but really annoying. So I'm not sure if very many people would come to any activity at the church, it's a good idea, it might work too, maybe we'll try something like that and see how well it goes. but that's fun the NuSkin party happened, why didn't anyone besides brolin want to go? Did all the cousins show up? And BYU lost, thats no good, are we doing very good this year? And Avery went to homecoming, thats pretty sweet, it sounds like it was pretty fun too.  Britts moving out, sounds like she's not too happy about that, she needs to though, It'll be good for her.  Shanda had her baby, that's pretty sweet.  Who did Orem High beat? Its good that theyre finally winning. But this weeks been pretty rainy, only one or two sunny days this week. Its super crazy that I've already been here a month, time goes by way fast. I've seen lots of moose too. It's getting cooler, it's getting down into the 50s and high 40s.  Last week it was super windy too, the wind was breaking branches and stuff.  It ripped up a roof of a store and we made sand bags to put on the roof so it'll stay down.  Its the roof of a grocery store, so its like a tarp thing that lays flat, but the person who laid it down did a bad job and didn't use enough glue so the glue didnt work.  I ate at the Loflins {this is a cousin of Ashton's paternal grandmother who lives in Homer} house yesterday.  She said I look like grandpa Arden.  And she said that grandpa and grandma couldnt have kids, so they got a blessing in the mesa temple to have kids and were finally able to.   So if what she said is right, we're all products of a blessing, pretty neat.   Participating in those 2 blessings was cool too.   Hopefully he gets better soon. Well, this weeks been pretty good overall. I'm doing good, I love you.

Love Elder Ashton Roney

Elder Roney

Hey,

So first off I'll answer the questions you asked at the end of the email. So the people are pretty weird here, theyre just kind of strange, and there's alot of older people too. The town is small, there's only about 5000 people that live here, and its kind of spread out too. So Homers a big area but only because its all spread out. Our schedules arent too bad, its kind of just how we schedule it for the day. Its definitely not as busy of a schedule as the MTC schedule was. We wake up at 6:30, exercise until about 7, shower, eat, and study until about 10. Then depending on the day we might have a district meeting over the phone at 10:30 or weekly planning or just what ever, then at 12 its lunch time. Then at 1 you do whatever, tract, walk around and talk to whoever you see, maybe service, visiting people or do whatever you plan and then around 6 we usually eat at a members house, then usually if we have enough time we visit a less active or investigator or dinner might end up going til about 8 and depending on where the person lives you won't schedule anything after because they live so far away and you don't have time for anything else. So thats pretty much our schedule, its pretty much whatever you plan. Then we do service at the museum here every wednesday at 10 doing whatever they need, we help people move alot, and just whatever people need help with. And its raining most days, if its not raining its cloudy, and we might have a sunny day once or twice a week. And its getting cooler too. I havent seen the northern lights yet. And I havent really seen too much wildlife, Ive seen a few moose, a baby black bear, some otters, some squirrels, and some bald eagles. I havent seen anything beyond that though. The cool weather's ok, I'm not hating the cooler weather but it could be a little bit warmer. It's been in the 50s and low 60s everyday. Ill make sure to buy another pair of service jeans and warmer socks and everything I need before I need them. There was that earth quake on the islands, I didnt feel that one, but there's little earth quakes everyday here and I've only felt one, it was shaking my bed a little bit and woke me up. I'm actually going up into Anchorage tomorrow, it was something about the zone leader conferences, I'm not really sure though. But I'll get to go through the temple for my first time. But mainly we only travel for transfers because it's a 5 hour drive up to Anchorage. Elder Butler's a pretty cool kid. They did change the training program up here. I'm in the first wave of trainees to be trained in it. Basically we do companion study for about 2 hours throughout the day instead of 1. And they have us study certain things each week, and we do a few other things, we do teach lessons at the very beginning too. We've only done team teaching though. Oh and we do our companion prayers at around 10.

But that's good that youve been catching the raccoons, {We're setting traps for raccoons that keep eating our cat food.} Its funny that you guys caught sneakers. {Sneakers is our cat, who is very curious} Its about time the raccoons went away. I also taught gospel principals yesterday, so I guess it was a teaching day for everyone! I have to go now. But we're able to do emails again on Wednesday, so I'll finish answering this one and dads email as well, and I'll have pictures. I forgot to grab my camera case that has everything. Also, if you could send me a blanket that would be great. I don't want to use the old one that elder Butlers last companion used. You should send that lion face one if you can or just any of them. But I'll give the full update on Wednesday. Love you all! bye!

Love Elder Roney

"eternigator"?

Hey everyone,

So this week was good, we picked up an investigator! Shes a referral from a member in the ward. We taught her the first lesson and she said she would read the book of morman and pray about it. And she actually let us in her house, shes the first person to let us in so far. And when we were tracting we ran into a guy up the street from out apt, hes not active in the church but he was baptized in. So he probably moved up here after he graduated and became not active. But he said we could come back, he would of let us in but he just put his baby to sleep. And my apt is blue, its dark blue and theres 2 buildings and a grass yard inbetween them with garden boxes people made in the yard. The work here is slow but its going. We do alot of service, this week we helped an eternigator (an investigator thatll be an investigator for eternity and probably wont end up being baptized) with their garage. We cleaned/organized it, then ripped up the pallets that were ontop of the gravel floor so they could park their car inside, then we put that in a big truck to go to the dump then we cut down some trees on the side of their garage so their moose hunting boat could fit and be out of the way. then we put the trees in the same truck to be taken to the dump. It was fun, theyre way funny. The husband Keith is a captain of a fishing charter. Everytime we help them they give us a bunch of fresh halibut or salmon from their big freezer. Our freezers stuffed full of fish from members. And once the mission president lets us we get to go on a charter with Keith and fish. Im excited for that, its gonna be way fun. We only get to go on a charter once a mission and only if were on the Kenai peninsula. But tractings fun here, you meet some really weird people though. And its the time of year that raspberries are growing so when we tract we find tons of wild raspberries and we pick a bunch. Theyre way good. But for my apt, were the only missionaries in Homer so we dont share our apt with other missionaries. The closest missionaries are a few hours away. I have enough blankets and my shoes are holding up great. We do get to listen to uplifting music in the car and we do. You can send me some if you want to. There are a couple stores that sell outdoor stuff, Ill probably be able to get some boots and if they sell warmer socks I can get those there too. My comp showed me an old type writer that still works that was left in the apt and its up for grabs. So I might end up bringing it back with me, its pretty sweet. I got the package with my powder stuff and the lifepak nano and garment bottoms, thanks. Thats cool Brolins trying out for the play, hope he does good, and he got his life, nice work. Whod Avery ask? is it that ellie girl? Thats crazy schools started, its gonna be way expensive for Braedon, books cost so much its ridiculous. And yea that lady said shes related somehow, something about the Fronk line, shes like dads cousin or something, its crazy. Thats awesome Landon got his call to South Carolina, when does he leave to the mtc? Tell him hi and congrats for me. And if you send a bottom for garments you should send a top too so I have an even amount, thanks. But yea everythings good here, Homers way cool, its to small/spread out though, theres only one stoplight. Its weird coming from having a church on almost every block to only having one in the whole town, and going from having houses so close to each other to having like 100 yards inbetween each house. Its weird. So yea Im doing good, I love you guys. Talk to you next week. Bye

Love Elder Roney