Memorial Day

Hey everyone,

  This week was good, we were able to say pretty busy this week and teach alot. Last Pday we didnt do a whole lot, we ended up just hanging out at the apartment because weather was no good. Luckily the past couple days have been nice, some of the ocean ice is all melted, its the first time seeing the actual ocean where the city part of the beach is. Its so nice, the suns out and its warm and birds are here and the whole town just comes to life really. Weve been walking around town since the weathers been nice and its pretty funny how many people are walking around and doing things outside because the sun came out and its warm. Angelas brother shot a grizzly bear out at their camp because it was about to charge him, so she went out and helped butcher it and everything. We ended up going down to see her because thats where she'll be for most of the summer and she ended up giving us each a bear claw from that bear, its pretty awesome, they told us a bunch of crazy bear stories too. They said that where their cabin is, is basically bear alley, they said that one night a couple summers ago they had 11 grizzly bears around their cabin trying to get their food and checking out their cabin.We went to the high school graduation to support some people that invited us, it was a really cool graduation, nothing like what we had. There were only like 30 kids graduating so they had a slide show for each kid graduating, they presented scholarships and diplomas and a bunch of other stuff. It was 2 and a half hours long but we were only there for maybe like an hour of it. It was pretty cool. We helped a family move some furniture and stuff into their conex box that they have, theyre moving to hawaii and using the conex box to ship down their stuff. They ended up giving us their snow shoes because they werent going to use them in hawaii, same with some sleds that we have to get rid of since we cant go sledding. I havent gotten the box yet, I might today if Im lucky. Alaska has the absolute worst mail system ever, thats too bad that dad made the extra effort to get it up here in 2 days and it didnt happen like they said. Its really irritating how bad they are with mail up here.

  Today should be fun though, were having Ian teach us how to gold pan and then maybe drive out somewhere since the roads are open now. And on wednesday were driving out to the native village Teller and making it a day trip. It should be good, theres one member of the church that lives there and were going to visit him since he hasnt had any real contact with members in a while.

  We were able to see Iskander, we taught him about the 10 commandments, hes been taught just about everything we teach people before baptism, hes doing good right now. Were going to try to get him baptized or at least on date before we leave.

  We saw Angela, we taught her about the plan of salvation and taught her briefly about the word of wisdom, she completely accepted and agreed with it all, even about tea and coffee, and she loves tea and coffee. Shes doing great, at the end of the lesson she asked us if its alright to revert from her church to ours haha, we told her of course! Next time we see her were going to put her on date for baptism, which will be in June. Ill attach a picture of her cabin.

  Weve been meeting with the dad of a less active family everytime we go over there for dinner. Hes a really good guy and definitely wants to at least learn what we believe, he was in the national guard, hes pretty funny and super cool guy. Ill let you know more about how thats going next week.

  It sounds like you guys had a pretty crazy week, you guys had tons going on last week, and the next week sounds like its going to be insane. Congratulations to Brolin for getting 2nd place in that photo show, thats pretty awesome! Im glad everyones staying busy and happy!  Love you guys!

 Love Elder Ashton Roney

Elder Roney

Hey everyone!

  This week we were in anchorage until friday morning for zone conference, it went pretty well. Elder Zwick was the 70 that came to talk to us and he says hello to uncle Blake, he shook hands with all the missionaries in the mission and when I was up he recognized my name and asked if I'm related to uncle Blake and to tell him hi for him. It was a really good zone conference and a good week in anchorage. While we were down there we were working in Elder Allens old area and my old areas, it was fun to see people that I knew again.  On Wednesday we went to the temple in the morning and that was awesome.  Most of the bush missionaries went to the temple. They came in from everywhere, from Kodiak, Dutch Harbor, Sterling, Homer, Bethel, Nome, Valdez, Kenai, Soldatna, Cordova. We had interviews with President Beesley while we were down there, he told us what's happening to our area even though i'ts 3 weeks before transfers. He's going to white wash Nome and he hinted towards sending me to Fairbanks for my last transfer. While we were down there we met up with the missionaries in ---------- to do a district tract with them, and I was reminded how dumb missionaries are, haha. There were 10 elders, no sisters and there was alot of jokes about farting and playing pranks on other missionaries. It was funny but a reminder of how dumb elders are haha. So when we left Nome to go to Anchorage it was becoming spring and warming up and when we got back from Anchorage it was winter again.   And it's been snowing every day since weve been back!   Weather here is all messed up and confused. Yesterday was my birthday, haha pretty uneventful but still a good day. We went to a pre graduation thing that we got invited to, there were a couple speakers and some musical numbers and hymns  (it was at the lutheran church). I didn't get my box yet, I should get it hopefully today or early sometime this week.

 It sounds like you all had a good, fun week. It's crazy that Averys so close to graduating, congrats on graduating from seminary! Anyways, sorry its a short email, but I gotta go, Love you guys!

 Love Elder Ashton Roney

 

 Ill attach some pictures of the trip down to anchorage.

Elder Roney

Hey everyone,

 

 This is going to be pretty short since I talked to you yesterday. Happy Mothers Day yesterday!!! It was super fun to talk to you guys yesterday! Its weird that its my last time skyping, see you guys in a couple months. Today we arrived into anchorage from nome, its great theres no snow here and things are starting to turn green! I forgot how much I like trees until today, theyre great to have around, trees are a good thing. I lost my nametag today somewhere between nome and girdwood too, I currently have no name. We drove down to Girdwood today, thats where the big ski resort in Alaska is and its super pretty! Its the same drive you take down to Homer but only like 45 minutes down the road, and I forgot how pretty it is down that way. So I forgot to tell you guys during skype but last week during our comp study we saw a wolf out behind the church when we looked out the window, pretty sweet right? I got a new temple recommend too, President called yesterday after our skype sesh and interviewed me because mine expired in April.  I love to see the temple, Im going there wednesday. Zone conference is on thursday, Elder Zwick from the 70 is coming and doing a mission tour, should be good. Ill let you know how it goes and Ill send pictures next week, 

I forgot my camera cord and card reader in nome. Welp, love you guys! Bye!

Love Elder Ashton Roney

Elder Roney

Hey everyone!

 This email probably won't be too long, sorry. On pday we drove out towards one of the villages to see how far we could get, we only got like halfway there but it was a cool drive. On the way out there we stopped at the train to nowhere and took pictures of it. It's a train that they were building from Nome to Council but something happened that stopped them from finishing so now its just a rusting old train. I'll send pictures of it. We drove through an old village called Solomon.  It took less than a minute to drive through and we only saw one house that looked like people were living there, the rest looked pretty old and abandoned. We're getting kuspuks made for us by some people here, we're pretty excited, they're gonna be neat. Kuspuks are like the traditional eskimo shirt/sweater thing that they would wear seal and bear hunting, and they wear them when they dance. The lady had us buy our fabric and trim and everything.   I never realized that so much went into something that looks so simple. We saw another herd of muskox the other day while we were on the way to an investigators house. They're definitely a weird animal. Weather was goodish for most of the week, then it snowed again today, haha.  This weather makes me never want to live in alaska. Then we got a call from the assistants with our flight information to go down to zone conference, we leave on the 13th and come back next friday.
  We were able to see Iskander this week, he's doing good.  We taught him the law of chastity. He's having a hard time accepting it though, we're gonna work on that with him though. We weren't able to see Angela because she went out seal hunting with her husband/family last week.  Then they got back and the next day or so they left to go bear hunting and have been out of town since. Hopefully they shoot the bear soon so she can get back and we can start meeting with her again.
  I sent out a letter to you guys, you asked for my birthday list so I sent it to you, it's pretty short. I haven't gotten your package yet, but it should be coming in pretty soon, hopefully today.  To answer your question dad, eskimos have a few tribes but some of them are mainly inuit, then there's yupik, siberian yupik and there might be more but those three are for sure.

 I'm glad everyones doing so good, it sounds like it was a pretty fun week for you guys with the wedding and the art shows and everything else. Well I gotta get going, love you guys!

 Love Elder Ashton Roney

 And here are some pictures :)