Hey everyone,

  This week was alright, about the same as last week. So we found out that were going to be moving to a new apartment this coming month. Were going to be able to move in on the 15th, so that should be good. And its sooo nice haha, itll be the nicest apartment Ive had on my mission, im pretty excited. The ward im serving in is the Bear Mountain ward. And the girl that was baptized into the meadow creek ward is a15 or 16 or 17 (dont remember old old she is, shes one of those ages though haha) year old girl. Then Eric, the kid I was teaching in that ward before I left to Ketchikan was baptized while I was in Ketchikan. So thats cool. So Elder Merrell, heres more about him. So hes from barstow california, and he finished high school early and took 3 years in college. Then hes been out on his mission one transfer less than I have, so almost a year. And hes served in North Anchorage, South Anchorage, Fairbanks and now Chugiak/North Eagle River. This is his most bush area hes served in. And then he has 2 older brothers and they both served their missions in different parts of japan. And he really likes video games and is super smart. So thats basically Elder Merrell. And we got our transfer call on saturday and were both staying another transfer, our whole zone stayed the same except for three people. One is leaving the Hmong branch and going to be training in the YSA branch but still in our zone, elder Darcey is coming into the Hmong branch, and our zone leader is going to Ketchikan and is going to be there with Elder Coombs haha, theyre so lucky, I would love to still be there, thats probably my favorite area that Ive served in so far.

    Thanks for those 2 boxes! They were awesome, it was nice to wear new garments again, and everything fits great! Thanks again. I probably wont have you send those other shirts for a while, most of my shirts are still doing pretty good. And we do eat with members most nights, we passed our dinner calendar around primary for once because some of the teachers wanted to see it and since theres not tons of teachers not alot signed up that week haha but when we pass it around relief society it gets filled up decently good. We usually end up making our own dinner about once or twice a week. and sometimes more often.

   So this week we werent able to see Terry, shes been super busy this week so we werent able to meet with her. We met with sister H and read more from the Book of Mormon with her. We read the chapters where it talks about and explains Lehi and Nephis dream of the tree of life. It was really good, and she came to church too, all 3 hours of it. It was super good. She participates in all the classes in church too haha. Shes awesome. Then we called Sierra to see if she and her family have been able to talk about whether or not they want to look further into the church and they havent yet. But hopefully soon. And we got another referral from mormon.org of a kid named Austin, Im not sure if I mentioned this in my last email so im mentioning it now haha. And we called him once and were still trying to set up a time with him to meet with him. Then we called all of the former investigators in our area book this week that had numbers on their record and we got a return appointment! Were going to go see him today, his names Bill. Then weve done a bunch of tracting and going through old records from previous missionaries looking for more people to teach. And then we actually got in with this one inactive family that weve been trying to see for while. Theyre pretty cool people, they have a bear hanging on their wall that they shot in their kitchen haha. It was going through their trash eating the left over salmon from the previous night. And other than that weve just been trying to contact people this week. Oh and we found a solid place to do laundry, the relief society president in the ward sent out an email asking if anyone would be willing to let us do laundry at their house and we got tons of places that said we could. But this one lady said that if we bring our laundry over and start the first load she'll do everything for us haha so now we just have to drop it off, start the first load and pick up our laundry at the end of the day. Its gonna be soo nice not having to worry about it. And we did more service at the senior center here, and we played bingo with the old folks there. Its pretty funny to play bingo with the oldies there. Oh and we got raspberries! A member let us pick a bunch of raspberries from her garden, and they were sooo good. Yep I ate them all, a whole tupperware thing full of raspberries, now theyre all in my tummy mmmmm.

   So thats pretty sweet that Brolins taking guitar lessons, I wish I could play guitar. Hes gonna be super good at the guitar and ukulele by the time I get home probably, a mini Johnny Cash or a thin Iz something.

   Well, thanks for those packages and thanks for everything! It sounds like your week was not too bad, and hopefully you guys have a wonderful week this week! And hopefully no more eggings occur and I hope BYU football is amazing for you dad! Love you guys!

   Love Elder Roney

home sweet home

Hey everyone!

This weeks been ok. We've done tons of service this week, almost every morning. And we've been able to pick up a few decent potential investigators this week! This morning's been interesting and long, so we did service this morning and we re-tiled a guys roof with a bunch of other people and missionaries. But we had to do some (pday) stuff so Elder Merrell and I left early(as well as the other missionaries) so we didn't get to help finish it.  BUT we got half way done so that was good! And on the way to that service project there was this big long military caravan on the highway going the other way than us.  It was pretty cool looking.  Then after service we just  did our shopping while we were in Eagle River and did our laundry as well.   We had to go to the mission office to get a package for elder Merrell, and guess what I got? I got your postcard haha! (a postcard from "Hell" in Grand Cayman)  ...and some granola bars and candies from the giant candy bowl at the office (: I love mail and going to the office so much, there's alway's free food and its always not old, good tasting food so its great. Then I came to do emails and thats why its taken me so long to send this email today, sorry.

Right now we have a good amount of potentials, now we just need to get them to be actual investigators. We haven't been able to meet up with Sierra again, we're still waiting for them to call or text us to let us know if they still want to pursue the church more. But if they don't call in the next day or two we're gonna just contact them instead of waiting for them to contact us because I don't want to wait too long haha. And we weren't able to meet with Terry this week, she had something come up and she wanted to just do it this week instead of last, so hopefully she won't have anything else come up and we'll actually get to teach her again. Then we met with our other investigator and we just read the Book of Mormon with her so she can gain a testimony of it and of Joseph Smith, even though I'm pretty sure she knows it's true but doesn't want to admit it :)  And thay'd good.  She makes alot of comments about what were reading. Like we were reading where Sariah was complaining to Lehi that her sons were gone trying to get the plates from Laban and she was like "I probably would of complained too, it's a logical motherly thing to do" haha so she definitely likes it and i'm pretty sure she knows its true.  Oh and I found out that our ward mission leader and bishop like us so that's good, I'm glad they dont think were dumb or something haha. (Whats not to like???)  And we had some training for all the missionaries down in Anchorage on Thursday, it was good. It was fun to actually be at a training in person instead of listening to it on a phone.  It was fun to get to see some of the people I came out with and a former companion again. And guess what?! our zone was able to go eat at the mission home afterwards, all of the food there is so good and non existent at our apartment (expect fish and canned foods, we have so much of that), and they have an abundance of left overs and different bread and those giant marshmallows!  (He LOVES food!!!)  So good. Then we got an email from president Beesley today giving us the temple trip dates for each zone and if I stay in this zone for another transfer or two I won't get to go to the temple until october, haha.  So it might be about a 9 month gap without going to the temple, but some missionaries go even longer without going to the temple.   Like one missionary didn't get to go the majority of his mission. So I'm excited for October now. Then on Saturday there was a baptism in the meadow creek ward, it was pretty good and there were so many people there it was an awesome baptism.

So this week's been good, and Im glad that you guys had such a good trip, even though getting back seems like it was pretty crazy. And sorry there's no pictures, Im finally getting my camera set up, I have to install some software before I can use it and Im in the process of doing that right now, but the computer here at the senior centers pretty slow so its taking a while. Anyways, thanks for everything, and have a wonderful week!

       Love Elder Roney

Ernesto

Hey everyone!

  So this week was alright, not too terrible of a week for this area I guess. We went on exchanges on Tuesday, it was good. I was with one of the elders that was in my MTC district, so it was fun to do some work with him in his area. So when we got into the area we didnt have anywhere not in the boonies to do our laundry, and we finally found a place to do our laundry, we were able to do it on wednesday hah, it was sooo nice to get it done. This weeks been crazy for service too, weve done service almost everyday. Weve helped a few people move, weve ripped off the side of a house(in our proselyting clothes...), that service was the most rewarding in an earthly way because after we were done they gave us 5 filets each of copper river red salmon that was caught on the 28th(I love freshly caught salmon, sooo good (: ), and weve chopped lots of wood with some axes(the best way to do it, it makes you feel like a mountain man after a while of chopping it in the middle of the woods haha).  So yea that was most of the week, and the best part of the week was on Friday when I saw Braedon and Virginia.(Braedon & Virginia were in Anchorage visiting Virginias only sister, Stephanie and her family.)   It was fun to see them again. I think its the first time Ive seen him with a beard and a belly haha, it was fun to see them and have lunch with them though. And Ill probably get my package today when we go get mail (: I looove mail. And guess what??? We just got a referral just now! sooo nice, and were gonna meet with her on sunday right after church. Her name is Sierra, so thats gonna be pretty sweet. Things might actually start to move along in this wonderful area of bear mountain haha. And pretty much we just saw a bunch of less actives this week, everyone else wasnt there or wasnt interested, fun stuff right? Its gotta be to survive, oh and were gonna pawn a stereo system that elders in the past rented and didnt return and when we called the renting company they told us that its been out of the system for so long that we can just keep it. haha so were gonna pawn it. (Ashton and Elder Merrill are whitewashing an area that needed new missionaries - obviously)
 
    Thats pretty sweet that you got to play with that dolphin in cayman, I know Brolin said that he loved it and that youre having tropical storms, Avery seems pretty stoked about it haha. Man, what are the chances that you run into one of your old BYU students in cayman? thats pretty sweet if I do say so myself. Hey so Mom you said that you think aunt Denise might have grown up in Barstow? Whats her maiden name? And I havent burnt my shirt yet, Im slacking. (In the Anchorage Alaska mission, the elders burn a shirt to mark their year long "Hump Day.")  Ill probably do it when I get my camera, and Ill be sure to get pictures of that glorious moment haha. And only some of the sugar cookies end up in crumbs, like maybe the amount of one cookie total. So dont be too afraid to send more (:  Good luck on fixing up the boat dock, hope it turns out wonderful. It sounds like the cayman house is turning out to be pretty awesome, perfect, when I get to go back in a year or whenever we go back itll be a pretty sweet vacation home(not that it wasnt before, I love that place).So anyways, and it was good to get an email from Avery and Brolin, fun stuff to find their emails when I log on. Anyways, so this weeks been average for this wonderful area I call home temporarily, and Im glad you guys had such a fun week in cayman and I hope this weeks just as wonderful and glorious as last week. And hopefully you get the dock done too. Sorry this emails not more exciting, but its about as exciting as the area haha. Hopefully we can turn it around and get it to gradually be busier and busier. Anyways, love you guys!

 Love Elder Roney