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