Alright

Hey everyone!

  This weeks been alright, we were finally able to get ahold of Rebecca on the phone again. The night that we called her she said that she was leaving to Hawaii that night until the 3rd, but we were able to set up a lesson with her for the 4th and she wants to be baptized on the 12th! (: so that was a pretty exciting phone call haha, not only were we able to actually get ahold of her and have a conversation after a month of failed attempts, but we were able to set up a lesson and baptismal date, it made that extremely slow and bleh kind of night not completely stink. We met with Kate again, and reviewed the restoration, she could remember the bulk of the lesson, it was awesome. We read some more with sister Hansen, now were in Jacob 3, and thats going good. Taught Joe and his family the plan of salvation, they had a family friend that passed away this last week so we felt that the plan of salvation was perfect to teach them that night. They seem like they really accepted what we taught and they had some really good questions too, it was a good lesson. We finished teaching Ted the plan of salvation as well, it was good, it was a quicker lesson though but still good.

  We had the ward adult christmas party this week, it was alot of fun. At the end there was a white elephant gift exchange, I ended up getting some nasty old candles inside of a small cooler haha. I had a sweet big maglight but it got stolen, so I picked a gift that was still unopened on the table and ended up with the gross candles. But its ok because at the end of district meeting this week were having a white elephant gift exchange and Im just gonna rewrap the candles and use them for that haha. For Pday I pretty much just hung out with Alyssa and the sister missionaries she was with. It was fun, she wanted to go shopping for Christmas presents for her family so we were just walking around the gift shops in anchorage, so now I know what are in those stores (: But it was fun getting to spend some time with her on her last day. We found out that the member we ate with last night teaches martial arts.   So, on monday we're probably gonna go over there and he's gonna teach us some stuff for like 2 hours haha, it'll be fun.  (: I got the box with all my presents from you guys and I got another box from Britt and I got the box from aunt Mary and a book from Richard and Luann Watson! haha it was a good week for mail. Thank you guys so much for sending that stuff! On Christmas morning we're opening our presents with the meadow creek elders. And you guys should have gotten my sd card, it's been almost a month now since I sent it.  Maybe it got lost in the mail or something. I forgot my card reader, but maybe I'll try sending pictures through email again next week to see if it will finally let me yet. 

  Christmas should be pretty fun, like I said, in the morning we're opening our presents with the meadow creek elders, at about 9 were eating breakfast with the Giffords, 10:30 we have district meeting, at 1 alaska time I'm skyping you guys from the Manwaring home, then later that night after dinner we're going caroling again, so it should be a good Christmas day. I haven't been able to hand out all of the candy canes yet, I still have some left. And surprisingly there hasnt been very much snow this year.  It's snowed like twice so far, it's been too cold to snow. (below 0 & negative) So when it does snow we definitely stay busy shoveling and doing stuff like that, at least for the morning.   So the Manwaring family is awesome, I'm so happy they're letting us skype at their house. I'm gonna be using their ipad and elder Sant is gonna be using their mac computer. They have 3 kids, one boy and 2 girls, and they're all primary age. But they're super smart, and they know their scriptures and are pretty talented kids. They're raising some pretty impressive kids for sure. Brother Manwaring was the guy in the ward that I told you guys about who had the tree fall on him when everyone was cleaning up and cutting down trees after the windstorm. But he's recovering super good, he just can't lift heavy stuff for like 6 more months or something. Sister Manwaring makes quilts professionally, she has a giant quilt maker thing and said that if we get her the supplies she'll do one for free since i'm a missionary (:, and she also has a kiln and makes glass bowls and plates and stuff. They're a pretty awesome family. 

  Anyways, I'm glad you all had such a good week, and are doing so good! Can't wait to see you in a few days on skype! And I'm doing good, I havent opened my presents so far even though they've been calling my name and tempting me to open them every single day (: Love you guys!

   Love Elder Roney

popcorn popping

Hey everyone!

 I only have like 30 minutes to do this email so sorry if its all screwed up.  This computer took 40 minutes to get to my email because its flipping ancient, so I don't have much time to do this. Anyways, so this week was ok, we met with Kate last night and were meeting with her again tonight, We finished teaching her everything that we teach investigators but she wants us to still come over.  So we're gonna be reviewing stuff now and reading chapters with her.  But she's doing way good.  She leaves january 7th, (She's from Australia) so not much time left here in the u.s.   Met with sister Hansen again this week, she's doing good. She wasn't reading along with us this time until the very end because she was making projects for peoples christmas presents. But she still enjoys it I think. We met with this lady that other missionaries handed off to us this week. So now we have another investigator :) She seems pretty solid and pretty interested, and we're going back on thursday, so we're excited for that. We also met with a lady we tracted into a few months ago, we were mainly answering questions the whole time, but we won't be able to go back until after the holidays.

   We went and saw santa this week haha, there's a less active guy in our ward (the one who shot a bear in his kitchen) who plays santa on base at their big christmas tree lighting thing and he invited us to come to it. So we went and got pictures with santa, and with reindeers too.  They had 4 from the reindeer farm up in palmer.   So we got to pet and hang out with some reindeers for a little bit, it was pretty cool. Then I had the dentist this week, yay, I'm sending you a letter today and it has the bill in it. Oh and it warmed up to 15 degrees this week! It was great, still kinda cold but not in the negatives, we had a cold snap for almost a week and it was about -15 so its nice to have it in the positive teens. So things are good, this weeks been pretty good too, and thanks for the package!   It's all set up in our apartment.   And tell uncle Brook and his family "Thanks" for sending their package too! It was awesome to get 2 packages this week. And I'll answer your questions next week, love you guys!

 Love Elder Roney

Yup

Hey everyone!

 This week was good, nothing too exciting happened this week. Its been in the single digits, teens and negatives this week, , all I know is that its super cold haha. We had zone conference on Wednesday, and that was pretty good. I interviewed a girl for baptism this week, she was super ready and definitely had a testimony. District meeting was on Tuesday, it was good and fun. And tomorrow I get to do it again. We also ate dinner with the Giffords, his first name is Lyman by the way, not his last (: It was good, they live at the cub scout camp so we were in their mess hall for dinner, and got to make the ginger bread houses. It was alot of fun, there were like 3 or 4 other families there as well, it was awesome. And Im not sure what time we'll skype you yet, Ill probably let you know next week though. 

  We were able to meet with Terry, Kate and sister Hansen. We met with Terry on monday and taught her about the gospel of jesus christ and it went really well, her kids were in the other room for the most part so there werent really very many distractions haha. We taught Kate last night and taught her about following the prophet, and we asked her if she wants to be taught by missionaries when shes back in Australia. She said that she didnt even realize it was an option haha and that she'll ask her parents if thats ok. Then we gave her some more reading assignments (: We also met with sister Hansen again, and read 4 more chapters with her. It was good, and we were able to get a lesson set up with Rebecca and Bill for this week. Were gonna get Rebecca on date this week, it'll be great!

  Sorry, I dont have much time so this is about all Im gonna type today, sorry its so short... Anyways, Im glad you guys are all doing so good! Its always good to hear. This weeks been good and hopefully this next week will be even better, and hopefully you guys have a great week and enjoy the hot weather down there! Love you all!

 Love Elder Roney

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

No tricks..

Hey everyone!

  This week was pretty good, chilly but good. We took the priests on a tour of the mission office, it wasn't too exciting or eventful, the office isn't that exciting haha. It turned out that I didn't even need to use the key to the mission office, the assistants were there and had it all open and everything for us, so that was kinda nice. Sometimes we do take the priests to lessons with us, not a whole lot though. In other wards Ive been in we've done it more though. And ya, we do get fed soups a decent amount up here.  Like last night at dinner we did.  It was more of a stew, but we had bear and vegetable soup, it was really good. I got your halloween box last week, thank you! The socks are gonna be great, I used a pair last week, they're gonna be good. And no, I haven't gotten the question letter yet. But today I have my dentist appointment to fix me up. 

  We were able to teach Rebecca on Tuesday, and we taught her the restoration. It went really well, she told us that she lost alot of sleep the night before because she was praying all night to know if this is the true church and if she should join it, and she got her answer and it was yes. She said "is it true that you have to wait a year to be baptized?" haha so we cleared that up and told her that she can be baptized after two weeks as long as she's been taught all the lessons and has attended church twice. This is probably going to be a super quick baptism. She's awesome, she's already seen the prophet of the restoration video(which made teaching the restoration easy since she pretty much knew it already) before we even met her, she has a copy of the book of mormon that her friend gave her, and she has an articles of faith card. Were teaching her again tonight at a members home, it should go super good.

  We were able to see Kate last night, we taught her about the word of wisdom. It was good, she didn't really have any questions about it. The only concern she had was with green tea.  She loves green tea and couldn't understand why it would be against the word of wisdom. But we helped her understand why it would be, and she said that it makes sense. 

  We saw sister H, she's still doing good. We met with her twice this week and read 6 chapters with her. She's probably going to convert, I think it'll just take a long time.

  This week we got in with a guy named Ted, he's this super funny, loud voice guy. The sister missionaries found him on a district tract and we haven't been able to catch him at home until now. We pretty much just got to know him this time, he dominated the conversation pretty good haha.  But we gave him a gospel of Jesus Christ pamphlet and he wants us to come back. He told us that next time we come over we're going to do all the talking and he's gonna have questions because he's gonna read from the book of mormon(the sisters gave him a copy when they met him). So next time we see him it should be good.

  It sounds like everyones doing pretty good for the most part. The halloween parties sound like they were probably pretty fun, hopefully you guys have a fun halloween too. Mine's gonna be interesting, we're supposed to be in our apartments at 7 on halloween unless we get special permission.   Well, i'm glad to hear that you guys are doing good and keeping busy with all the parties, fence stainings, geneology classes, interesting temple sessions, ARCs, going to powows and sorting through boxes, and hopefully you guys have a wonderful week! Sorry this emails not longer, I gotta get going to the dentist, woo hoo. Bye!

 Love Elder Roney

Hey everyone!

   

  This week was pretty good, had some interesting experiences but it was good. I forgot to mention last week that I finally got to go to the temple again haha. It was the first time Ive been able to go to the temple since the beginning of last december, so it was nice to be able to go through it again. Its starting to get pretty cold again, when we leave in the mornings its usually in the 30s, and it doesnt warm up much during the day, so Ive been using my ski socks and all that good stuff more and more. But its good I guess, because that means the end of winters even closer haha. We also helped the meadow creek elders move out of their apartment that I was living in while I was in that area. They moved to the apartment building that was just behind their apartment building that they moved out of haha, so we were just walking stuff from their old apartment to their new apartment, but we got some weights out of it and they offered to buy us lunch at hula hands. Hula hands is a super good polynesian restaraunt, I love it there so much that I could eat there at least once every week and never get tired of it. And were taking our wards priest quarom on a tour of the mission office this week, they want to see what its like a little bit to be on a mission and all that stuff. So us and the APs are gonna take them on a tour of the mission office,   Today one of the office staff is gonna give me a key to the mission office, haha.  Once I have that key I'll have the power! haha   i\It should be good though. Oh and today I'm getting an appointment set up to get those dern cavities fixed, yaaay.  

  This week we had a girl named Rebecca come to church with a member and she told us that she wants to learn about the gospel! That was the first time thats happened to me since I've been on my mission, so it was pretty awesome. We're gonna call her today and set something up with her. We also saw Kate twice this week, the first time we met with her we taught her about prayer and studying the scriptures, it went super well. She told us that she said a prayer and had it answered, so that was pretty cool, and all the hymns at church were about prayer, so it was even better. The second time we met with her this week we taught her about the gospel of Jesus Christ. Which is faith, repentance, baptism, the holy ghost and enduring to the end. It went pretty good, she retains everything from church and when we meet with her, she was answering questions before we could finish asking them haha. It was a good lesson, she's been keeping up on the chapters weve been giving her to read too, she's doing great.  We met with sister H-------- again, we were only able to meet with her once this week though, but it was good because we were able to read 3 or 4 chapters that time instead of just 2. We werent able to meet with Bill though, he got sick this week. We had a lesson scheduled with him but since he got sick he had to cancel with us. And Terry was super busy so we weren't able to meet with her this week either.

  We had a fun experience this week, so a member wanted us to go see his neighbor and try to get in with them. He said theyre super nice people and would probably let us come in, but he told us that they have a license to grow medical marijuana so that would probably come up as an issue they might have with the beliefs of the church. So we went over there and once we got within probably 15 to 20 feet of the house we could smell the marijuana. We knocked and out of the side door the lady popped out for a second and had a joint that she was smoking so she got back inside pretty quick, and the husband very quickly came out and told us that they're not interested haha. The member who is their neighbor said they probably would of let us in if we didn't catch them at a bad time haha. Then we also tracted into this super akward guy who didn't say much except for no and bye. Then we left and knocked on some other doors.  When we passed by his house on our way back to the car he yelled "YO!" and waved to us to come back. So we went back hoping that he changed his mind and was interested, but we soon realized otherwise. He let us come in and after a few minutes of getting to know each other, he started quizing us on little things that unless you really sit down and study the bible and look for little things that don't really matter, you won't be able to answer his questions.  So then he was pretty dissappointed we did'nt know the answers to his questions to pointless facts.    But, we got to warm up for a few minutes so that was nice. Interesting people here in Chugiak, that's for sure. 

  It sounds like you guys had an overall good week, mingled with not as good parts. Im glad you got to go to St George and golf Dad, sounds like it was a super fun trip. It sounds like Avery had a good time at the dance. Too bad that BYU lost that game and that you dont like the coaching staff. Im glad that Brolins enjoying his new school schedule, I would too if I got to sleep in later, that'd be awesome. And those pictures are pretty good that Brolin sent me, he's getting pretty good. That's crazy that Damons already back from his mission, that was fast. And no I haven't gotten the box yet so I don't know if the socks you sent are like what I have, I'll probably get it today when I go to the mission office.  this week was pretty good, sounds like the majority of your guys week was good too. Anyways, I think I didn't miss anything, but if I did Im sure I'll probably tell you about it next week or something haha. Hope you guys have a great week this week, love you guys!

 Love Elder Roney

Hey everyone!

  This week was pretty good for the most part. Winters pretty much here already, it snowed a few inches on saturday, and its snowing right now. Im not excited for it to be winter, pretty soon my feet are gonna be asking me, when are we gonna get some warmth? Thats never good. But I do like the snow, just not so much the cold temperatures that Alaska gets haha. So  Guess who I saw at transfers? Alyssa! It was fun to see her again, shes been over in Valdez, lucky duck. Now shes been transferred up to Fairbanks and shes probably gonna stay there until she goes home in December.

  Weve done a decent amount of service this week, its been fun. We helped a ward member move a bunch of steel i beams and big steel pipes while it was raining haha, that was pretty fun I guess, took forever but it was fun. We helped a ward member in the process of re roofing their house, we helped get the shingles and all the stuff under them off on friday but then on saturday we went over to help them finish and it was snowing but they were still doing it anyways. But they didnt let us back onto the roof because it was too dangerous, one of the guys almost slid off the roof and the ladder fell down too and landed kinda close to me haha. We left that pretty early from that since there wasnt any point of us being there, and went and helped the meadow creek elders take some couches to the dump. We did some other service  stuff but nothing worth mentioning. 

  We saw Kate this week, shes doing way good. We taught her the plan of salvation last night and I got to use my sweet plan of salvation puzzle visual aid thing, I love using it. It went pretty good, it was good timing for that lesson too, because she told us that earlier in the day sometime yesterday she got the news that her grandpas getting pretty sick and isnt doing so well. But shes doing good, she came to the baptism of a girl in the ward which went awesome. So during the lesson she had a few questions about the baptism and she thought it was pretty interesting. She said she thought it was peculiar that the font was like a little pool inside of a room and that it kinda reminded her of an aquarium because everyone was just standing around watching the people in the font haha. So shes doing good still. We saw sister Hansen, shes also doing good, we were able to meet with her twice this week. we finished off 1 Nephi and got through 2 Nephi 3 this week.  And we were able to see Bill this week as well. It went pretty well, for the most part we basically just answered questions that he had and asked questions that we were curious about, to find out more about him and his interest level. It was good and hes pretty interested and just wants to find out the truth and see if our church is the one he wants to join and go to and all that good stuff. And other than those three people we just saw some less active people in the ward, so it was a pretty good week overall. And today I signed up for an anchorage library card haha, so thatll be good to have incase I ever end up serving in anchorage,

  Im glad you guys had a good week, and hopefully you have a wonderful fall break this week. Hopefully Avery and Virginia wont be too sore from their wisdom teeth being pulled.And hopefully Brolin gets some sweet pictures today. And for your questions real quick, we do get a copy of the general conference issue, the mission sends each missionary one. Its pretty sweet. Thats awesome that the Malawi branch that we went to while we were over there is now two official branches with so many members, those are pretty big branches haha, they need to make those wards. The yards gonna look awesome when youre done with it. And we dont make cookies or cakes too much, we just havent, we probably could though, that was a good idea after all. And the couple that was a referral from mormon.org, ya theyre not really that interested. They just went on a visitor center tour and enjoyed it.

  Well Im glad you all had such a good week, hopefully you have a great week this week too. Times about to end so I gotta go, love you guys!

 Love Elder Roney

What a feast!

Hey everyone!

  So this week was alright, we got our transfer call and were both staying, again. So now well be serving with each other for 3 transfers, then next transfer is pretty much a guarantee that one of us is leaving. But they're opening back up Metlakatla to full time missionaries this transfer, those missionaries that are going down there are so lucky, it would be fun to serve there. So last monday we got a brand new truck! Ours hit 52,000 miles so the missions selling it now, and they sell the vehicles once they reach 50,000 to 55,000 miles. We got a 2012 nissan frontier, I like it but elder merrell doesn't. I think it's a pretty sweet, its a brand new truck, it has that new car smell to it and its not beat up by missionaries, what more could we ask for? So now we have a nice new apartment and a shiny new truck, and we just need some new shiny investigators and the area would just be all around awesome.  

  This week was alright for missionary work, not as good as last week but it was ok. This week we were pretty much only able to see less active members, but that's fine, they need visiting too. We were going to be seeing sister Hansen but she got sick and brother Hansen did too.  They're better now and we're going over there tonight. Terry wasnt able to meet with us, she was busy or something. We weren't able to see Kate either because she was in a play and had rehersal and stuff, but I think that's over now so were probably gonna see her this week, hopefully twice. We tried getting ahold of Bill this last week but he wanted us to call back because he was watching the presidential debate when we called.  So we called back and we're going over tomorrow night to see him again. Then on wednesday we got another referral from  mormon.org. It's this couple that went to the visitors center in Salt Lake City and is interested in learning more. They get back from their trip this week so we're gonna be able to contact them and hopefully pick them up as an investigator this week.  That'd be cool if that happens. We weren't really able to meet with any of our investigators but we will this week, so this week should be alot better.

  General conference was awesome, I've learned to appreciate it so much more while I've been on my mission. We just watched it at the church with almost all the other missionaries in our zone and whichever members came to watch it at the church too.  The last session on sunday I watched at a members home.  They made biscuts and gravy, it was pretty sweet. That's pretty sweet that Avery got to go watch in at the conference center. I really liked Elder Hollands talk, it made me think alot just like it made you think Dad. It just made me realize how much harder I should be working even if I'm working hard.  But everyone slacks off sometimes and we should be as diligent and hard working as we know we should be. I liked President Uchtdorfs talk too, because it's true that we all need to enjoy life more and the things in it. Another one I really liked was Elder Christoffersons talk about the temple inspection and how everything needed to be perfect and "temple standard" for the Lord.  And if there was anything wrong, it had to be resanded or replaced even though you might not be able to see that part of the temple when it's all done, just so that it can be as perfect as we can make it for the Lord.  And that goes the same for our own lives too. Elder Nelsons talk was good too, I liked how he said to ask the missionaries so much, haha. And of course the announcement about the age to go out on missions is awesome.  Hopefully, more people will come out on missions now. That's pretty crazy that theyre cutting the MTC time down, that's gotta be nice for the people going into the MTC though. And that 12 week program's already in use, unless theyre coming out with a new one.   I was in the first group of missionaries to be in that 12 week program. I don't know, maybe they're coming out with a new one though, that'd be cool I guess.

  So ya, this weeks been pretty good, general conference was good, our new truck is good, the referral was good and this transfer should be good. I'm glad its Fall break for you guys, that's gotta be fun.  Hopefully you guys do something super fun this week! Avery gets the fun and joy of getting his wisdom teeth pulled? You'll have to send me pictures of his chipmunk cheeks next week. That's a bummer that Virginia got broadsided in that car crash on saturday.   It looked kinda nasty, hopefully they can fix it. (Virginia is fine, the car is probably totaled.)  Im glad Brolins getting super good at photography too, you should send me pictures of his really good ones, like the one he sent me a few weeks ago. And im glad Britts doing good too. Dad was probably pretty happy that BYU won too, I know a member in Eagle River sure was. Well, I hope your weeks just wonderful while you guys are on break!  Love you all!

 Love Elder Ashton Roney

Hey everyone!

  So yes. there was flooding here in Chugiak,.  We didn't have flooding in our apartment but there were lots of people that had their basements flood because the rivers been so high.  Bummer that Alyssa got flooded though.

    Well,  this week was good, we did lots of service and a good amount of teaching. So we met with Kate twice this week. It went really well both times. The first time this week that we saw her we talked about the Book of Mormon and Godhead and especially the Holy Ghost and who they are and everything, she had lots of questions about the Holy Ghost which was awesome. So we spent a good while answering her questions and helping her understand what the Godhead is and what role each of them play. Then at the end of that lesson we gave her a Book of Mormon to have for herself. She was pretty excited about that, she kinda perked up and was pretty happy that we were giving her her own copy. During church sister Townsend, the member shes staying with, told us that she really wants to start reading the Book of Mormon and likes learning more about the gospel and what we believe, its nice to have someone to meet regularly with whose genuinely interested and will take the time to meet with us. It makes the area so much better to be in. Last night we met with her the second time this week and taught her the restoration and taught her about Joseph Smith, the Book of Mormon and where it came from and all that good stuff. And again she had lots of questions which is perfect and awesome! It makes teaching so much easier/better when the investigator asks questions, its fun teaching someone who has no religious background haha.

  We met with sister H and finished 1st Nephi, it went good, she still enjoys reading from it. Hopefully she can just change her mind about not taking the lessons and decide that it would be fine to take the lessons.
 
    And then we finally were able to meet with Terry again after many weeks of failed attempts. It was alright, she always asks deep doctrine questions because she meets with Jehovahs Witness  missionaries as well as with us and she tries to see what we believe compared to what they teach her. So thats kind of obnoxious, she needs to just focus on looking into our church haha, that way she wont get confused about who taught what and she probably wont ask so much about deeper doctrine stuff.  But it was good to be able to meet with her again, and we taught her about the restoration as well and she seemed like she really enjoyed it. And her kids go crazy and start putting toys on our laps and are super distracting haha, I think they handed me every toy that they own during that lesson, and lots of scribbled on and cut up pieces of paper too. Its always interesting going over there haha.
 
    This week we've done tons of service too.  We cleaned out gutters, with our hands.. Super Nasty!  At the nature center they had some water that over flowed and was running over the trail so we dug some ditches to redirect the water so the trail isn't a river anymore haha. We helped a member in the ward cut down some trees so they have firewood this winter to heat their house, which was awesome! We cut donw a pretty tall pine tree and it was super fun to watch fall, then some smaller trees too.  Then we helped another guy rip out tree stumps and clear out some of his woods so he can park his motor home there. It was fun,  I like doing service like that. Oh and the northern lights were out last night! We only saw it very faintly because we were in the lesson with Kate while they were out and when we came out they were disappearing.

   Well Im glad you guys had such a good week.   Tell Zac hi for me. I'll try to write a letter for you to give him. I'm glad Avery was able to have fun at the concert.  At the Jack Johnson concert with Keaton, Kortni, and Nicco it was pretty funny to watch some of the drunk people too. Tell Kortni hi back for me, its good to hear that she's enjoying California. Tell Keaton hi too.   That's pretty sweet that Brolins gonna be doing a the first half of his day on the internet classes instead of at the school.  That would be kinda nice to be able to just do that instead of traveling early in the morning in the cold to school. Too bad that Braedon and Virginia weren't able to end up camping, but fun that they got to watch BYU dominate. I'll bet Dad really enjoyed that game, one of the members told me about that game and I figured that Dad watched it and loved it. Hopefully Britt enjoyed Moab too, one of the missionaries in my zone is from a small town down by Moab. You guys are all the way at 50 degrees?  In the morning here it's getting a little chilly.  Today when we left our apartment it was 23 degrees, and it snowed for the first time this past week. Only a couple inches that melted by the next day though.

Well, take care and love you lots,
 Love Elder Roney

Fall colors

Hey everyone!
   
  This week was alright, all the leaves are changing colors and falling off now just like it is for you guys, the pictures look awesome. Ill probably attach some pictures from this week. Weve been able to see more people than last week, most of them were less actives but thats alright. So we met with sister Hansen twice, once to read from the book of mormon specifically and once for dinner and then we read more from the book of mormon. It was really good, she seems to enjoy it and she asks questions about what were reading and everything. One of her questions this week was about Nephis familys travels when they left Jerusalem, and she had some questions about the directions it gives. It tells us they went south and south east direction that they traveled and she asked us why it says south, since they probably didnt know directions by north east south and west like we do, so we were talking about that for a bit and explained that they might of written something like away from the sun or something but it translated into the kind of directions were familiar with. But im not really sure, I dont think that matters very much. so anyways, shes doing pretty good. We also met with  Bill again, and we brought our ward mission leader with us, they have so much in common, they could talk for hours if they had the chance. But he still had some questions about being more charitable and less judgemental and all that so we talked about charity while we were over there. It went ok,  We also might start teaching this girl named K...  We had dinner with them and watched a video with them and shes pretty interested in what we believe about Christ and Heavenly Father and all that good stuff. She was raised not learning anything about Christ or anything like that, and so shes pretty interested in our beliefs. Its funny though, in Australia they have super strict gun laws and its super hard to get a gun or anything so shes never seen a gun or anything until we had dinner over there with them. They had some other people in the ward, their basement tenants, eat dinner with us too and after dinner they brought up a bunch of their guns to show her and she loved it haha. So other than those people we pretty much just saw less active people in the ward and tried to see some poeple, then the sister missionaries in the other ward asked us to give some people in their ward in Chugiak a blessing, she didnt want anyone who knows her or her circumstances give her a blessing, thats why she didnt go to her home teachers or someone in her ward for the blessing, and while we were there we gave her daughter and another girl in their ward a blessing too.  

About the happy light, I can get them at costco here, so as long as I have enough in my account I can get one from costco.  (We want Ashton to get a 'happy light' to help off set  the lack of light during the winter.)  And Ill do that either today or next week or the next week haha. Were in Anchorage just about every P-Day, playing sports and hanging out with other missionaries, so we could stop by costco and get one while were down there.

  Thats a bummer that the subarus dying, hopefully Zacs dads garage can get it running again. Thats funny that Brolin wanted to bill each of us for gradually ruining it haha.  The chalk art contest would be sweet to see in person, the pictures are pretty sweet, I like that t-rex one the best out of the 3 pictures.  How many chalk art drawings were there? That would of been cool to see. The temple dedication sounds like it was pretty awesome too, it would be fun to get to go to one of those again. Oh and yesterday they announced that the Anchorage temples going to be closed on the date that our zones supposed to go.  And the date our zones switching to is after the transfer.   So if I get transferred I wont get to go to the temple for almost a year haha, fun fun.   Well Im glad you guys are all doing so good, hopefully the subaru gets working again and you all have a wonderful week. Love you guys!

  Love Elder Roney

Ill send some pictures next week, the computer wont let me send them right now.

beautiful fall

Hey everyone!

 So this week was alright, we had zone conference on Friday. It was pretty good, we went up to Palmer/Wasilla for it, we had about a couple hours of training then we went to the reindeer farm for the rest of the day. It was good, we did some service for the reindeer farm for an hour or so and had dinner then we did a 'trek' since we were finishing up the zions camp training. The 'trek' was fun, the handcarts were down in Soldatna so we didnt use those. It was pretty much a hike with activities as we went along. The first activity we did, and Im not sure what we were supposed to learn from it but it was fun, was potato launching. We split up into districts and had some water balloon launchers and a big bag of potatoes and we were supposed to try and hit some wooden stick targets that the zone leaders set up before hand. I think it was all about working together or something like that, but im not sure though, all I know was that it was super fun. Then we kept hiking and then we had another group activity and this was definitely about working together, they had a few stacks of pretty heavy logs that we had carry up the mountain quite a ways onto the hillside. And since there werent enough logs for everyone they told us that if we need to we can switch off with people if theyre getting tired and to basically share the load. So that was pretty good, then we went down the hillside to the trail again and did a 'faith walk'. The district leader and his companion were in charge of leading the rest of their district(with their hoodies covering their face) up the rest of the trail. So I got to be one of the poeple leading the way and try to help them avoid running into trees and bushes and all that good stuff haha. Then at the top were some hay bales around a bonfire, and thats where we took zone pictures and did a little devotional/testimony meeting kind of thing. It was pretty fun, and Alyssa was there too, she was in the other zone that we did this zone conference with. It was fun seeing her again. So zone conference was pretty good, Palmer/Wasilla is a pretty cool place.
  Then we moved into our new apartment, its so nice and so big! We actually have carpet in this apartment, I love having carpet. Its probably one of the best apartments in the mission right now. Moving our desks was awesome though, we found out that theyre old military desks and theyre made out of steel and super heavy haha. But were pretty much all moved in, we only have a few things from the old apartment to go back and get, then we get to clean the old apartment haha, its gonna be super gross to clean. And you wont be able to see my apartment from google maps street view, its back on a private drive, fancy right? But heres the address 18101 Mall Circle, I think thats it at least. Its at the end of Bending Birch though, if that helps you find the location at all.
  We had stake conference this weekend, it was super good. The adult session was super good,  they talked alot about spreading the gospel as members and the importance of it. We had Elder Call and his wife hes an area authority I think,Stake President, President Perkins and his wife, the temple president here, and President and Sister Beesley speak along with a few high council members and stake calling people. I really enjoyed it, the stake president called on a few people out of the stand to bear their testimonies too, it was interesting but super good.
  We did more service this week taking care of the mess last weeks wind storm made. The elders quarom and the young men came and we hauled all the giant logs out of our old apartments backyard and took it to a member in the ward for them to use as firewood, even though its all cotton wood trees, they dont burn very well. But the member was super greatful anyways, so that was pretty awesome. They were all super heavy logs and I think everyone that helped was pretty sore for the next few days haha. And the windstorm last night wasnt nearly as bad as last weeks wind storm. I think Ive only seen a couple fallen/leaning trees from this last one, there were just a bunch of yellow and red leaves everywhere. But I guess they get windstorms like last week all during the winter but theres no leaves to act like little sailes to pull the trees down and the snow holds them in the ground. And no I dont think that Alaska gets tornados.
  We met with sister Hansen, we were gonna read from the BofM with her and her husband but they were both feeling super tired from work and kinda sick so they were only able to talk for a little bit and then they went to bed. So hopefully they get better soon so we can read some more. Then we have another appointment with Bill tomorrow, which should be awesome because hes pretty interested and wants us to keep coming over and to 'not give up' on him. Then we still have to get something set up with Terry, shes super busy, and also with Sierra and Austin. So hopefully we can get things set up with them this week as well as with other people too.  And other than that on the days that weve been able to do work in our area weve been trying to get in with less actives and setting things up for later this week or next week. Everyones been busy trying to get things done before winter hits, which will be soon because theres already snow on the mountain tops around us. So yea, things have been alright this week.
  And for your questions, Eagle River is definitely more upscale of an area, part of our area has people that are pretty well off and especially in Meadow Creeks area. Theres alot of dentists, doctors, radiologists, and people with high paying jobs in Eagle River. Our bishops an orthodontist and has a pretty big house overlooking the valley, inlet and he can see the city of Anchorage pretty well from his living room and kitchen.  And what alot of missionaries and people in the wards ive been in do to help stay away from depression and stay positive and happy without sunlight is they have a 'happy' light or 'blue' light or whatever you want to call it or they take vitamin D. And I think Im pretty set for winter, Ive got a suitcase with all my winter stuff in it and a that lion blanket and my coat at the mission home that I can go get once it gets cold again.
  Im glad you guys had a pretty good week over all, it sounds like everyone had fun this week between lagoon, the family reunion, homecoming and everything else. And hopefully this weeks even better for you guys! Hopefully BYU plays better this week (: and im pretty excited to get that camera, itll be nice to have a camera again haha, were gonna be in anchorage playing sports and hanging out with other missionaries and we have to go to the office to get a shower curtain so Ill be able to pick up the camera while were there! Oh and I just found out that the lady that was baptized while I was in Homer is still active, I was super happy when I found out from the missionaries down there. Anyways I gotta go, love you guys! Hope you guys have a great week this week!

 Love Elder Ashton Roney

Hey everyone!

 This weeks been pretty crazy, and we were able to see at least triple as many people as we saw last week.  On Tuesday we had a super crazy wind storm that started at about 8 or 9 at night and went all night long. They clocked some of the wind gusts at more than 130 miles an hour, it was pretty crazy. We had about 10  big cottonwood trees in our backyard fall down! From those 10 that fell, 2 fell on our house, 1 smashed the chicken coop(the chickens were fine though) in the back yard and the rest just fell all over the place and ripped up the ground with it. It was pretty crazy, almost everyone in chugiak had at least 1 tree in their yard get blown over and alot of trees fell on powerlines. Everyones power went out at least over night, ours was out until friday morning, and at church I heard that some people in anchorage are still out of power. So basically all day Wednesday we were going around and seeing if anyone in the ward needed help cleaning up trees or debris. When you drive down the streets here in chugiak a good majority of the trees are leaning one way or fallen and on one road within one block we counted  more than 50 trees that fell over. Its nuts, and we heard that theres supposed to be another wind storm just like it this week (: Alaskas crazy!

  This week we saw alot of less active members in the ward, and met some for the first time. But we did see brother Hansens wife again and read 1 Nephi 14 and 15. She seems to be really enjoying it too, even though chapter 14s kinda scary to read with non members because it talks about the great and abominable church haha. But brother Hansens awesome and makes it not so scary by asking things like "so which church is the great and abominable church?" and it helps alot because it gives both him and us the chance to help her understand those sketchy topics and not turn her off to the Book of Mormon or our church. So that was good, shes doing awesome, hopefully soon she'll change her mind and be interested in taking the lessons instead of just reading the Book of Mormon with us. So that visit was good, and they ordered pizza before we got there so we had pizza after we read those two chapters (:.

  We also saw a former investigator who every time we knock on his door he tells us hes really interested but is  super busy at the time. His name is Bill, hes super awesome and super interested. When we got there his wife went upstairs right away so she could watch some political thing on tv, and we had a super good discussion. we were planning on talking about the restoration or something but we ended up answering questions of his and talking about the Book of Mormon and getting to know him. Its weird and backwards, he told us that its easier to read the Old Testament than it is to read the Book of Mormon for him. Were thinking its probably just because of his familiarity with the bible because he grew up going to catholic schools and everything. And he wanted to learn how to become more tolerant with people and so we spent a while talking about that haha. But hes awesome, and hes interested and wants us to come back and learn more.

  Then we weren't able to meet with Sierra, Austin or Terry this week, boo. Sierra still hasn't been able to talk with her dad. Austins parents along with his work and school are keeping him super busy and hasn't been able to find time. And Terry was pretty busy and wasn't able to meet with us. Hopefully this week we'll be able to meet with them though.

  It sounds like you guys had a good week back home, and thanks for sending that stuff.  Hopefully this weeks just as good for you guys as last week was! Love you guys!

 Love Elder Roney

Hey everyone!

 Happy Birthday Britt!!

So this week was kind of a bummer week, but some good things came from the week too, so that's good haha.  Alot of people were gone this week or weren't interested so we werent able to see very many people.  So really nothing exciting happened this week.   But we were able to find out who some of the do not contacts in the ward are, and where a few people live.    Also we got to see sister Hansen this week.  They had us over for dinner and they had some visiting people eat with us, so beforehand, they asked us not to have a lesson afterwards like we usually do. :(  Then they went on a motor home trip over the weekend and should be back now.  One of the good things that came from the week was that we were able to get ahold of alot of people on the phone and set up 7 or 8 appointments for this week! It's so nice to have appointments haha. We've done a decent amount of service this week too.   On Wednesday, at the nature center, they had us dig a new septic pit for their outhouse at the end of the trail.
So they had us take turns down in the new hole we were digging with a jack hammer since the ground was so compact and had so many rocks.   It was fun, we found a big surprise too, a giant 400ish pound rock and 4 of us had to lift it out of the hole!   It was so crazy. Then at the senior center we helped them decorate little tiny hats haha.    One lady was super possessive over the little flowers she was using and wouldn't let anyone touch them haha.   She made some funky growl noises and pulled all her fake flowers away when another old lady tried to take some to put them away haha.  But on Sunday we gave like 3 blessings, it was pretty busy.

We ended up driving to Wasilla and Palmer on thursday.  All the district leaders and zone leaders for our zone and wasilla went on a hike getting things ready for zone conference. Its gonna be a zions camp training thing and so we're gonna go on a hike for zone conference. They were gonna have us pull handcarts too but those are down in Soldatna right now and are going to be unavailable.   We went into Anchorage yesterday to play sports and hang out with a bunch of missionaries for pday.   The first chapel we went to (chapels are where alot of the missionaries go on pday) was taken over by alot of samoans, the samoan ward was having a big party and playing basketball and volleyball and so there was no more room for missionaries.  So we got to go to a chapel by the temple. Everyone just played basketball then some played settlers of catan. It was pretty fun.   On  pday last week I was playing volleyball with a bunch of tongans and 4 other white people and that was pretty fun. I ended up playing volleyball in my slacks, shirt and tie because we werent expecting to be there that time. haha and now I can say that I've had the ball spiked into my face by a giant tongan.   It didn't really hurt but should of.  Things are starting to cool down and I drove when the sun was down for the first time since I left to Ketchikan!   I'm not excited for winter, I want the sun to stay up forever!

Hopefully things are great this week for you guys! Love you guys! Enjoy the sun for me!
And sorry this email isn't longer. Love you guys!

 Love Elder Roney

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

Hey everyone!

    So im back in eagle river in the Bear Mountain ward. So in presidents email to me last week President Beesley told me that hes afraid theres not enough work to do here and that my assignment is to prove him wrong on that. So this might be a long and interesting transfer or two haha, but hopefully we can get the work here moving along pretty good by the time one of us leaves the area. My companion Elder Merrell is from Barstow(hopefully I spelled that right) California,  hes been out on his mission a transfer less than me, and he has served in a few areas in Anchorage and he was in Fairbanks too. Hes fun and a good missionary, hes super smart, he graduated high school when he was 16(he was right before the cut off date for school so he was super young to start off and was supposed to graduate when he was 17,so he just graduated a year early) and did 3 years of college before he came out. So for my apartment, I live in the basement of a member, we have cement floors, a shower that somehow leaks water through the wall into our closet, and this morning I went to pick out a tie and stepped in a puddle of water and got my sock all wet haha. The apartment and the area has been neglected.   Hopefully we can get the work up to speed to what elder Coombs and Savaiinaea had it at, on the progress records each week there were gradually less and less things reported on each sheet and the last one that missionaries left they had 4 lessons for the week. Theres alot of work to do in this area for sure. So I havent met most of our investigators yet, they taught them earlier in the week, I got here on wednesday and they taught him on tuesday, so I dont really have anything to talk to you guys about investigator wise, weve just tried to see a bunch of less actives and attempted to see some potential investigators and only taught 2 investigators. Oh and we taught a members wife this week, one that we were meeting with when I was in the area last, shes awesome and comes to church every week.  But this week should be good, Ill actually get to meet our investigators and get things rolling hopefully.

   It was awesome getting mail! I got that package from you guys, thank you so much! it was waiting in the apartment for me, along with a letter from you guys and I got one from Janessa too! And I texted president Beesley to ask if I could see Braedon and Virginia for lunch or just to say hi some time today but he hasnt texted back, it would be awesome if president lets me see them sometime while theyre here. (Ashton's older brother, Braedon and his wife, Virginia are in Anchorage this week.  They are up visiting Virginias only sister who lives up there with her family)

   Well, nothing too exciting in my life lately, the plane ride up from Ketchikan was pretty fun I guess, I had a whole row to myself the whole time so that was sweet. And I took one of the nicer fishing poles from the Ketchikan apartment since there were like 4 more :), so all I need now is a reel and fishing line for it and Im good to go. I found out that my investigator Eric from meadow creek got baptized recently while I was down in Ketchikan, so thats pretty cool, and he leaves to basic training next week. And yea, thats pretty much it, Im glad you guys are having fun in Cayman. It sounds like its been quite the adventure since you got there. Good thing you guys didnt drift out into the middle of the ocean on the boat, I might not have ever seen you again if you did! And the octopus sounded pretty cool too. Anyways, have fun in Cayman for the next couple weeks! And have fun in the sun for me, its pretty cloudy here all the time. Love you guys!

 Love Elder Roney

Hey everyone!


   So this week was good, kinda crazy though. Im still in Ketchikan but I fly out tomorrow afternoon. We were all able to go over to Metlakatla, elder Weber and I were only over there friday and saturday, then elder Woratyla and Sonderegger stayed over there friday to monday, they just got back on the ferry about an hour ago. Things were good, on saturday we did a hike up this purple mountain to this lake and did our studies up there. It was awesome! I only read like a page in the Book of Mormon but I got so much out of it! It was a pretty sweet way to do our studies. only one bad thing happened over there though... my camera broke friday night! Ahhhhh, so I wasnt able to get any pictures of the hike or anything on saturday. So Ill probably be buying a new camera today or when Im in my new area. So Im not sure how much I have in my account but if its not enough is there any way I could get some money put into my account for a new camera? or if you want you could send me my black camera so I dont have to buy a new one. Either way. Oh and the RM that came back a month ago or so is going to be moving down to provo, so hes dropping something off for me at the house. Its a glass cup that I dont want to end up breaking on my mission, I got it for christmas from a member. This week was awesome here though, we were able to get tons done with two companionships, we were able to find an indian family (from india not native) and teach them the restoration and theyre super open and interested, theyre legit. With them and a couple other people we found we were able to get 7 new investigators, it was crazy good. We taught Kodie again, I probably told you but hes interested again and wants to be taught and join the church again, and we taught him about receiving answers to our prayers and that God loves us it was good. Then we met with Gabriel and Ashleigh again, and were meeting with them again tonight because they want to see me one last time before I go. Theyll definitely end up being baptized, were gonna ask them tonight if they want to. And we started teaching this girl named Hailey, it was elder Weber and Woratyla that taught her so I dont know much on that one, but they said shes solid. Oh and Matt, we met with him again and answered some questions, but hes still coming along good. Basically elder Weber and Woratyla are gonna have a ridiculous transfer and have a few baptisms haha. So im excited for them and to hear what happens this transfer. Then we went fishing on monday, this last one and the one before and were going today again haha. And the second time we saw a bear! It was like 20 yards away from us, and it came around the corner and surprised us when we were fishing. But luckily when it saw us it turned around and went back! Anyways, thats pretty much the week in a nutshell, pretty crazy and productive week. Ill send pictures I have to you guys. Oh and my new companions name is elder Merrell, and hes gonna be district leader and Im gonna be junior companion :), Anyways, im glad your week was so good and hopefully its just as good if not better! love you guys!

 Love jc Elder Roney

 The pictures are of the place we fish, Ketchikan on a normal day, and a boardwalk in Metlakatla enjoy!
 oh and Ill get some pictures from the other elders of metlakatla

"oh no! he's awake!"

Hey everyone!

 So this one's gonna be short, sorry. I only have, like 20 minutes to get this done, the library closes at 2.   So we got the transfer call, I'm going up to Chugiak and serving in the Bear Mountain ward.  I know what youre thinking, I thought the same thing, I'm going back to the same area that I was in before Ketchikan?  oh my.    So I guess there's something I still need to do there, since I get to only be in that ward and not have to focus my time and attention to two areas.   I'll be able to do some good work hopefully, and I'm whitewashing into it, so it'll be interesting.   And elder Webers lucky and gets to stay in beautiful, wonderful, lovely ketchikan.   The address you should send that package to is the mission office address, just so you know.  But guess what? I get to stay in ketchikan for an extra week, yaay! So while I'm here with Elder Weber, his new comp and an elder that served in metlakatla are gonna be over there for a few days showing his new comp all the info and everything about Metlakatla so they can be more effective when they go over there. Hopefully they'll get to go over there more too. They need it over there.

So we we're able to get in with Matt again this week. We started teaching him about the gospel of Jesus Christ and we taught about faith and it opened up a whole new conversation. It was really good because it got him to talk alot, which is the best, I love when investigators ask lots of questions and talk alot, it makes teaching alot easier. And we're gonna try to meet with him in a day or two. And he wasn't able to make it to church so we have to push his baptism date back a week or so. Oh and we were able to meet with Frank Mather today, he's in town from metlakatla and we were able to get him a new bible. And we're gonna meet up with him for a lesson on Thursday. Then we were able to  meet with Gabriel and his fiance Ashley, some new investigators we picked up the other week. They're still super interested in learning about the gospel and they just seem golden. We taught them more about the book of mormon and they're pretty excited to start reading it. Oh and I'm sitting next to an anti mormon lady right now who tried bashing with me and elder Satini, yay fun... But oh well,   We're gonna try to meet with kodie this week and try to get him to come back, but if he doesn't I guess there's gonna be some happy missionaries in the future who run into him. Sorry I didn't talk more about my other peeps that weve been teaching but I gotsta goes. And I'll get ot your questions next week, sorry again that it's so short! Love you guys! Have fun summer days this week and I hope its sunny nice weather for you guys! oh and guess what? rare week, it's been sunny everyday this week!!! What?!

 Love Elder Roney

beautiful America

Hey everyone!

  So this weeks been pretty good, 4th of July was mostly good. The fireworks here were pretty good, they did them on a barge in the ocean, it was pretty sweet, I took pictures. They had to do them at 11 so it would be dark enough, we got permission from President Beesley to stay out and watch them with some members. The only fireworks that happened on fourth of july were the city ones on the barge, I guess its illegal to light them off in city limits(even though we're in a rainforest)  It was a good fourth of July though, and it didn't rain either which made it even better! And they had a parade but we missed it because we were talking to some people in subway, but I heard it was pretty good and kind of a long one for ketchikan. That's good that you guys had a good 4th, I think it's funny that they made it a law that you can't throw candy anymore. (We ride scooters down University Ave. the night before the 4th of July Parade. In years past, everyone on scooters would throw candy to the people who were camping out for the parade.  This year they banned throwing candy.... too much excitement??)   Did they say why they made the law?
  We met with Matt again this week, he's doing good. We taught him the plan of salvation and he liked it alot and it makes sense to him. We brought one of the tour bus drivers that's an RM with us since he knows matt and it went really well. Then at the end of the lesson we asked him if he wants to be baptized and he said yes, and we got him on date for baptism for July 28th, he said that if he can't on the 28th because of work or something he will be baptized before he leaves Ketchikan. I think the blessing for his knee helped alot, I guess when elder Weber and Terry went over that day they gave him a blessing, he said that he didn't want to be baptized into our religion, I guess the blessing changed his mind (: Hopefully I get to stay and see him and Kodie be baptized. We weren't able to see Kodie this week though, he had to work alot with the 4th of July (which would of been his day off) and everything so that was a bummer. But other than that he's still doing good. And we watched that missionary fireside, it was super good. They read scriptures then after they read them they had some missionaries play songs they wrote on their mission then they read more scriptures then played more songs and did that over and over again for an hour and a half, it was good though. Oh and I went fishing on Monday too, I'm gonna go today too. The place were gonna go to today I guess has bears though, so hopefully I see bears, but from far far away haha, and hopefully they don't steal my fish. I guess they do that alot. Hopefully I'll catch some salmon, oh and I learned how to catch dungeness crabs on the shore so we might try that sometime too before the end of the transfer, they're soo yummy in my tummy. I love the crab and fish here.
  Anyways, sorry this email isn't longer, but I gotta go. I'm glad you guys had such a good week, and hopefully this weeks just as good if not better!  I'll put the pictures in this email too because I remembered to bring my card reader today, yay pictures! Love ya guys!

 Love Elder Roney

 enjoy the pictures, these ones are from the fourth of July and the flight back from Metlakatla, there's more coming