Alaska's getting all our snow!

Hey everyone!

So this week was pretty good, but its still too cold, and were still getting tons of snow. Ill start out by answering questions and all that fun stuff. So when other missionaries sleep over they just sleep on the couches. Theyre pretty comfy couches, easy to fall asleep on and just use extra blankets we have. And on new years day the mission home wasnt open for missionaries to stop in. Everyone just treated it like a normal Sunday and visited people  and some elders had a multiple dinners. Mom, I do have some work gloves, I just  didnt have them on when the shovel almost froze to my hands. We were visiting a family and on the way in we shoveled really quick and my hands stuck to the shovel for a second. The same thing happens with metal door handles sometimes. Im glad Braedon likes the hat, and I did get your package with all that good stuff, thanks so much! I havent gotten the letter yet, Ill probably get it today or sometime in the next few days. With Eric, we try to meet with him twice a week, but if we cant meet twice we meet with him once a week, depending on his schedule and the schedule of the family whose house we have the lessons at (his girl friends house). We do still meet with people once theyre baptized, but we try to pass them on to the ward once theyre baptized. And we do tract in Eagle River, not everyday because of weather and its not super successful but we do tract. And we do meet with less actives here, theres lots of them, so we try and stop by less actives homes and visit them. Theres lots of less active work to do here. Those are good ideas for Eric and Tasha dad, thanks. Maybe well try and set a baptism date this week with him.

Thats crazy that you guys don't even have more than an inch of snow yet. Its January! Yesterday when we came outside to go to church and meetings we had at least a foot of fresh snow! The snow comes down here like theres no tomorrow, it snows like that a couple times a week. It definitely gives us service opportunities though, so thats good. The snows crazy here, so were always shoveling peoples driveways. Oh and weve gotten stuck and slid around a few more times haha.  We couldnt stop these times either, except one of the times... And we got high centered on the snow trying to get into the church parking lot haha, some guy in a big truck matched bumpers with us and pushed us out, it was awesome, then he floored it and took off haha, I think he thought he might have damaged the car or something, I dont know. Obviously our little chevy malibu isn't the best for this kind of weather, you definitely need 4 wheel drive if youre gonna live in alaska. Anyways, so dad, you said you were lucky to have 2 solid investigators, was your mission tough in that aspect? were the people pretty anti and not open to you guys or were the people pretty nice in tennessee? Thats good that fast and testimony meeting was so good for you guys, it was awesome here too. The bishop gave an awesome testimony and alot of the ward was crying and then a bunch super awesome solid guys got up and gave their testimonies and talked about the same stuff. The bishop was talking about how its hard even for him sometimes to want to get up and go to meetings and church and that if you pray and ask for help from the Lord he'll help you and lift you up. Then alot of the guys talked about that same stuff and also enduring to the end and always improving. It was super good, sounds like yours was awesome too.

So this week was pretty good, its still cold and snowy but its so pretty here so that almost makes up for the cold haha. This week we saw a few more moose, theyre everywhere here. We had another lesson with Eric this past week, it went pretty good, we talked about the importance of the book of mormon in our religion and that he needs a testimony of the book of mormon. And the past few lessons he has been realizing how big of a commitment this all really is and hes actually thinking and making sure he really knows for sure. Also, we were able to talk with Tasha more and help her move some stuff. Were starting to build that good relationship with her so now she feels more comfortable talking to us, and I guess she told sis Goff(her mom) that she would maybe like to take the lessons sometime in the future, so were definitely making headway with her. And, our other investigators, two kids Paige and Pierce might be getting baptized sometime in this transfer or next. The only thing holding them back is their mom, whos divorced from their dad Doug, a recent convert, and shes been super against the church. I guess Doug was talking to their mom and asked her if it would be alright if they could be baptized, and instead of flat out saying not she told him that shed talk to them, see what they would like to do and then decide if she wants them to be baptized or not, so shes definiteley having her heart softened! We had a training meeting with president Beesley and our district, it was super good, I wish it was longer though. It was only about an hour and a half long. It was great none the less. Sorry, theres nothing super crazy or eventful thats happened this last week.  Anyways I think thats everything, thanks again so much for the package! I love mail so much! Anyways, Love you guys!

Love Elder Roney