gobble, gobble

Hey everyone!

  This week was good, not the busiest week but a good week. Thanksgiving was good, we had 3 dinner appointments all throughout the day. My stomach felt like it was gonna pop haha, im glad it was only 3 though, another set of missionaries in my district had 6 dinner appointments. We saw the northern lights again a few nights ago, the northern lights are always pretty cool to see. These ones werent that bright but they were still cool to see. It was the first time Elder Sant has seen them so he was pretty stoked. 

  So Elder Sant is from New Mexico in a town pretty close to Roswell, the ufo place, but he doesnt believe the alien stuff. Hes been out 4 and a half months and he has been in one of the samoan wards his whole mission.  We seem to get along pretty well, and so far weve worked well together. Its been in the single digits this week, and in some spots around our area its been below 0, it would be super nice to have the temperatures you guys are having haha.

  They made me district leader again, in my district theres 11 missionaries including me and my companion. We have the sister missionaries, a senior couple, 3 zone leaders, a trainer and his trainee and then me and Elder Sant. A big district but a fun one. So you asked what I do as district leader, basically heres the main things I have to do, I do training every tuesday, I call each companionship on sunday night to get their weekly numbers and baptismal stewardship, and do whatever to help the other companionships in the district.  We have zone conference this week, and we get to go to the temple after zone conference as well, it should be awesome!     

  We finally got in contact with Rebecca again, she had a friend in town and her dad was back from afghanistan for a week or two so she was pretty busy. And we should be having a lesson with her today sometime. And if she does end up being handed off to YSA and being baptized into that ward(not sure if she will though) she probably will still be baptized by the same member whos in my ward right now.

 *Saw Kate, shes still doing good. We taught her about the law of chastity this week, its pretty straight forward and easy to understand so she didnt really have any questions. Weve taught her the majority of everything so far, theres only a few things left to teach. 

  *Sister Hansen, this week we read 5 more chapters in the book of mormon with her, were almost to the end of 2 nephi now. She still seems like she enjoys reading with us, hopefully sometime soon she will actually want to take the lessons. 

*Bill we weren't able to see this week, but were seeing him tonight after dinner. Should be good, its been a few weeks since weve met with him.

  And we finally were able to set up a lesson with Terry again, we havent taught her in like a month or two. And weve got a lesson with her today as well.

  Thats awesome that PJ stopped by the house and got my mug to you, hes a way solid kid. Im glad you guys got to meet him. I got the thanksgiving box and a letter from you guys, thank you! I got it at the transfer meeting, and I got a package from Bill and Luann Watson, tell them thank you for me!  And tell brother Heinz thank you for me as well, he sent me a letter. Thats awesome that Katie got her mission call to California, wow she leaves pretty soon, thats exciting! Has Jesse left the MTC yet?I need to reply to his letter but Im not sure if hes still in the MTC or left Italy yet. Im glad you guys had a great thanksgiving, sounds like you guys had plenty of people over. And Im glad everyones doing so good and had such a good week. Anyways, nothing too exciting happened this week besides the northern lights and transfers. And hopefully you guys get my sd card with pictures on it this week. Hope you guys have a wonderful week! Anyways, love you guys!

  Love Elder Roney

I'm grateful for you!

Hey everyone! 

 So this week was good, we got our transfer calls on Saturday and Im staying in Bear Mountain and they made me district leader, and elder Merrell is going to Meadow Creek to be a zone leader. And his new companion is elder Merrill and elder Hartman haha, theyre gonna be a zone leader tripanionship. My new companions name is elder Sant, hes only been out for 3 transfers and has been in the samoan ward his whole mission, but hes not samoan. Ive only met him a few times so I dont really know him, but Ive heard good things about him. So it should be good.

  Things have been good this week, we met with Kate, Bill, and sister Hansen, unfortunately we havent been able to see Rebecca since last Sunday though. And unfortunately, well find out next time we meet with Rebecca, we might have to pass her off the the YSA elders because she would have alot more fellowshippers and better chance of staying active in that ward, but we'll see what she wants to do. 

  We saw Kate twice this week, the first time we taught her about obedience and the second time we taught her about tithing and fast offerings. Shes doing super good, teaching her is like teaching a seminary student, its way fun. I learned some Australian terms this week too, there was a stake dance and it was an Australian theme so they put Australian phrases on the wall. Theres Thats so yummm! How are you going? How handy! Crikey its a croc! Thats not a knife, thiiis is a knife.  Good on ya(but dad already told me about that one). and Crikey hes got my arm! haha then there were more but I cant remember what they are. 

  Sister Hansens still doing good, we read 2 Nephi 18-21 this week, some of the Isaiah chapters. When you think about it the message Isaiah keeps teaching is pretty simple, as brother Hansen describes it, follow the commandments and you'll be blessed, or break the commandments and rebel against God and he'll stomp you into the mud puddle haha. Its a funny way of putting it but it seems like thats basically the jist of what Isaiah teaches.

  Bill, we finally were able to meet with him after many cancelled appointments. Now that he has the triple combination that we gave him hes been reading the chapters weve given him and coming along good. Unfortunately he wasnt able to make it to church yesterday. But when we met with him, he had a bunch of verses marked that he didnt understand so we just went through the chapters he read and clarified what the verses meant that he didnt understand. And he said that now that hes reading it more its getting easier to understand the wording and lingo of the Book of Mormon. So hes definitely coming along great.

  And we might have a lesson with Rebecca today, not completely sure though, so next email Ill have an update for you on her.

  Things have been pretty good this week, the weathers just getting colder. The past few days its been in the teens, so now I wear my winter coat everyday. But I heard up in Fairbanks where Alyssa is its been in the negatives. Im glad its not that cold yet down here. But nothing too exciting happened this week, although I just heard horror stories from the sketchy ghetto area of Anchorage. Im gonna get my pictures onto an SD card today to send you guys, so dont worry about not getting pictures, you'll have them soon.

  It sounds like your weeks been good/crazy. Happy 23rd Birthday Virginia! Thats pretty awesome, hopefully it was great. That stinks that Braedons having problems with his back, hopefully he can get that stuff figured out soon and get it taken care of. Thats good that Averys getting those tickets paid off, those are some spendy tickets/fees, alot more expensive than I thought they would be. Im glad that Brolins getting that math stuff taken care of, and maths definitely a necessary evil for graduation, elder Merrell loves it though. yea so I was at dinner this week at a members home and they had a math sheet helper thing that has equations and all that helpful stuff that you need to know, and I realized really quickly that when I get home Im gonna need a tutor for sure haha. I recognized some of it but didnt remember how to do any of it haha im in trouble, the only math I ever do on my mission is adding up the miles we drive in our car. And thank you for the package! I got it last wednesday. ANyways, Im glad things are pretty good overall and that you guys are staying warm down there. 

 Love you guys!

 Love Elder Roney

Hey everyone!

  This week was ok, we had a lot of people cancel on us this week so we werent able to teach as much as we would of liked. A few of the days we had all of our lessons cancel on us, but we were able to see sister Hansen, Kate and Rebecca this week. 

  Rebeccas doing good, we taught her right after church and we taught her about the gospel of Jesus Christ. We tried putting her on date for baptism but we werent able to, she has to look at her schedule and see what shes got going on. She said it will probably be mid December though.  But shes still doing super good, she already asked a member if they would like to be the one to baptize her, shes just super solid.

  We read a few more chapters with sister Hansen this week, were still in the isaiah chapters but I think were almost to the end of them, so thats good. It was funny how ister Hansens husband summed up isaiah, he said that in the book of isaiah and in the isaiah chapters theres only a couple things it talks about or that you can get out of it. He said the only thing you can get out of them or that they really talk about is that if you keep the commandments and live a righteous life youll be happy and prosper, but if you break the commandments and dont live righteously heavenly father will stomp you into the mud puddle. haha it was pretty funny when he said it, it might not be as funny over the email though.

  Last night we saw Kate, we taught her about the 10 commandments. It was good, she had alot of questions that we were able to clear up. She understanding what we teach her and she enjoys learning about the gospel. Its fun to teach her, since she doesnt have any religious background its nice because she doesnt have any biases or anything about doctrine or anything about religion. 

  One of the senior couples in the mission went around and did a cleaning check on our apartment while we werent there, and we passed with flying colors, so that was good. The hike at Eklutna lake last monday was good, its a pretty sweet place. Ive been to Eklutna to try and meet with some less active members before but never to the lake out there, its like a 30 or 45 minute drive to get out there so we havent been out there too much. There was a general priesthood meeting for our stake last night, it was good. They talked about how the duty to God program, they called it the duty to God pathway, is a tool to help the young men progress to become a missionary and all that good stuff, and not just another program to get an award from. They also talked about quoroms and how they altogether act like a gear system in a car, its too long to email but basically how when they all work the way they should individually and together they help the church move forward the way it should. It was a good meeting, and they had ice cream afterwards and gave us all the left over gallon tubs of ice cream. They gave us like 5 tubs and 5 things of chocolate syrup. So were gonna be distributing some of that to other missionaries so we dont get super fat from it, we already gave one of the gallon tubs and things of chocolate syrup to Kate and the family shes staying with. One down 3 more to go. It sounds like you guys are staying plenty busy, thats awesome that you guys got a bunch of snow, you have more than we do right now haha. Thats good that Avery got a 4.0, thats pretty dang good. And thats awesome that Brolin was able to get some merit badges done too. And Im glad that everyone is staying busy and doing good. 

   Transfers are going to be the week after Christmas this year, last year they were right before Christmas. But transfers are two days before Thanksgiving haha, so it'll be interesting to see if I get transferred, I find out this saturday if I stay or leave. And I did get your letter asking specific questions, I'll probably get that sent out to you today sometime or tomorrow, haha I keep forgetting to send that back to you.

   Well, hopefully you guys have a wonderful peachy week and have fun in the snow, and hopefully it'll stick too! Love you guys!

 Love Elder Roney

incoming..

Hey everyone! 

   This week was good. Sister Beesley told us of some big news that is happening because of the missionary age announcement in general conference. Sister Beesley said that everyone in the mission needs to be ready to train by february.  Because in february, our mission is going to be getting 100 new missionaries and 50 are going to be sister missionaries.  Right now we have 150 missionaries in the mission. Pretty awesome news, that transfer is gonna be nuts. President Beesleys probably stressing super bad because there's not too many places in this mission to put them all haha.  So, in the anchorage, eagle river and wasilla areas there's probably going to be two sets of missionaries in a bunch of areas, it'll be interesting to see what happens and what president does with all the new missionaries. 

   *So this week we saw Rebecca on monday, and we had her lesson at the house of a member of the stake presidency. It went super good, we taught the plan of salvation, its super nice having a member of the stake presidency at lessons, he always has the perfect answer for any questions we cant or can answer. Its awesome, we were gonna have another lesson with her yesterday but she had to cancel because she was super busy. We were gonna try to get her on date for baptism for the end of the month, so hopefully we can meet with her again soon and get her on date and start working towards that. 

   *We saw sister Hansen again and read a few chapters from the book of mormon, it was good we found our more reasons why she isnt the most interested in joining the church right now. When she was in college she met with sister missionaries and they were just awful and completely turned her off to the church, and she had a disagreement with her husbands mom and that didn't help her desire to look further into the church either. So it was good to find some of that out so we actually know a little bit why shes not interested in taking the lessons haha. It was good though, she seems like she enjoys reading the scriptures with us.

   *We met with Victoria, she's married to an inactive member. We had dinner at their house and she had alot of questions about the priesthood and coffee and caffiene and all that good stuff. It was good, shes definitely interested in looking into the church and she said that she wants to come to church one of these upcoming weeks, and we're meeting with her again on thursday, so that should be super good. 

   *Then we contacted a referral from a lady in the meadow creek ward and taught her a little bit of the restoration and answered some questions for her. Apparently she's been pretty interested in taking the lessons for a while now and so it was good to meet with her.

   *We weren''t able to meet with Kate, she was pretty busy this week and wasn't able to meet with us. We weren't able to teach Bill either, but we were able to drop off a super large print book of mormon for him and give him some chapters to read for next time we come over.  

   Halloween was alright.  We had to be in our apartments at 7 unless we got special permission for a lesson or something.  But it was alright, the mission did this radio program thing over polycom for the missionaries and whoever knew about it.  It was pretty much just missionaries telling stories, singing/playing songs they wrote, and reading scriptures and all that good stuff. But it was alright because it was cold outside on halloween but warm in our apartment. Here in chugiak theres only a couple neighborhoods that kids trick or treat.   Everyone for the most part just goes to parties or trunk or treats.  So the members that did buy candy for trick or treaters make us take some when we go to their house. I'm glad you guys had a good halloween, too bad that someone stole Avery's sombrero and that the car got towed when he was only gone for 15 minutes! I'm glad that everyone overall had a good halloween though.

You guys are lucky that it was so warm on halloween, it snowed the day before halloween and now its always in the 20s and 30s and this week its supposed to get down to the single digits, im not excited for the winter and the dark and the cold, but mostly the cold.

   Well Im glad you guys had such a wonderful week and stayed busy, and hopefully this week is even better for you guys! Love you guys!

 Love Elder Ashton Roney