Busy Week

Hey everyone!

 This week was alright, kinda crazy though. So we went up to Juneau for zone conference, we left on wednesday and got back on saturday. It was good.  Thursday was the bitter sweet day for me, we used that as our pday. That was when dad gave President (Beasley)  the call about grandpa.  As soon as he got off the phone with dad he pulled me aside and told me the news. {Ashton's Grandpa Roney passed away early Thursday morning.}  We had some training in the morning, then after lunch a bunch of us played rugby with the tongans in Juneau.   After playing rugby we went to the glacier. It was awesome, we walked out on the ocean or a big lake for a while, I'm not sure which,  and got some pictures on icebergs and on the ice as a zone.  The glacier was awesome!   And there was a waterfall close to it, it was super awesome/pretty. Then from there a few of the missionaries went back to play more rugby and the rest of us went to costco with president or ran some errands. Then later that night we all went to dinner at this place called the Booyah grill. It was pretty good I guess.  At the Booyah grill had this food challenge that some of the missionaries tried to do. You could either eat a 5 pound burrito or eat a 2 pound hamburger with 1 pound of fries in 1 hour.  It's a whopping 35 bucks and if you finish you don't have to pay. Some of the missionaries said they would pay for me if I did it, so I did haha.  I got close but didn't finish. I felt like I was gonna die after I was done haha. I ordered the hamburger.  When they brought it out it was alot bigger than I thought and it made me laugh because of how ridiculous it was.   And I definitely paid for it that night and the next day. Our actual zone conference meeting was on Friday.  We started at about 9 and we didn't get out of meetings until about 8 haha.   It was a long day of meetings for sure, but good meetings. Then we got back from zone conference on saturday afternoon, and went back to work. On the way back from zone conference we had a 2 hour delay on our flight so to apologize to us they gave everyone 2000 bonus miles for their mileage plan if they have one.   It was pretty sweet.  So Juneau was good.  And we did start teaching a new investigator last week before we left and we're teaching him again today. So it was a pretty good week overall. And Alyssa got to go to Valdez!   I've only heard good things about that place! It should be fun for her.
 
So in my zone we have 16 normal missionaries and 6 senior couple missionaries. There are no other missionaries in Ketchikan, and we cover 2 islands.  Next week we get to take a float plane over to our other island, Metlakatla, I'm excited for that. Ketchikan is a good size island, but not tons of people.  Theres only about 7,515 people here, so smaller than orem. And Ketchikan is a cruise stop during the summer, so I'll probably see a bunch of cruise ships.  I am still in a car, luckily, we have a malibu.   And Elder Satini has been out a year, hes a pretty fun guy.  As for general conference, I'll probably watch it at the church unless we get invited in by a family. That's awesome that Lanes going to Madagasgar! And same with Taylor!  (two of Ashton's friends have been called to serve in Madagasgar!)  That's so crazy.

I hope you guys had a good week.   It was pretty good here.   I'll send some pictures of zone conference and all the fun up there in Juneau. Love you guys!

Love Elder Roney

TRANSFERS

Hey everyone!
So this week was good, transfers happened and I went down to Ketchikan!  So on the way I stayed in Juneau over night with the zone leaders in their house, Juneau is awesome! Then the next morning I took a flight down to Ketchikan and a short 5 minute ferry ride to the main island of Ketchikan, the airports on a small island. So Ketchikan is a pretty cool place, except for how much rain there is. the weather is alot warmer than Eagle River, theres hardly any snow at all, and if there is the rain makes it go away. It rains every day alot of the day. Yesterday and today are the first somewhat dry days since wednesday. The reason it rains so much is because its an island and a rain forest. Its a super mountainy island, some of the roads where our place is are carved out of the mountains cliffs, its really cool, Ill send some pictures. So my comp is elder Satini, he is from Tonga. The ward is awesome! They all love missionaries and are pretty missionary minded for the most part. And the ward is doing this 40 day fast thing where 40 people have assigned days to fast for missionary work and to break their fast they feed us and hopefully give us referrals. So far its been super good, we havent gotten that many referrals, but its getting everyone thinking of missionary work and how they can help. Its super good. The leaderships good too, theyre missionary minded for sure. Theres not tons of investigators here, we have a couple of invetigators were working with, but other than that its alot of finding. So the work is kinda slow, but its good. Our apt is pretty sweet, we dont have a dishwasher but we have a washer and dryer! Its a big place too. Its a sweet place, and our address is 527 1/2 Revilla Rd haha its a crazy address, I dont know how they got the 1/2, but thats not the address to send stuff to if you send letters directly to me. That one is PO Box 6321 Ketchikan AK 99901. Thats cool that you guys got to go to Cayman! You luckys! It sounds like your week was pretty good. Happy Birthday Uncle Blake!
 
Anyways sorry this emails so short, I didnt have as much time for emails today. Love you all!
Love Elder Roney

Northern Lights

Hey everyone!

So this week was good. we got our transfer calls, I'm leaving Eagle River and going down to Ketchikan!   I'm so stoked, it's in the very south east part of Alaska, right where all the missionaries want to go haha.   So that'll be sweet.   I'm taking 2 plane rides and 1 ferry ride to get there.   Also this week we shoveled off 3 roofs, that was pretty crazy how much snow came down this winter.   Oh and guess what? I saw the NORTHERN LIGHTS!!!   It was insane!  On thursday our mission president sent out a text to all the missionaries and told us all to go out and watch them.   So we were probably out there until 12:30 watching them.  At about midnight they just exploded and were dancing all across the entire sky.  There were purples, yellows, greens, and a little bit of red every now and then, it was sooooo cool!   They looked like the super cool ones you see in pictures.   But we paid for it the next day, we were all super tired all day. But it was awesome!   My little camera couldn't get good pictures but some of the other missonaries got some good pictures.   I'll steal theirs and send them home.  And it was Elder Coombs birthday, he turned 20 on Tuesday.   We barely got something together just in time for his birthday. The sisters went and bought the supplies and then they set it up and we surprised him, so pretty much the sisters did all the work haha.   But it was good, lots of fun. So that was pretty much all the exciting stuff that happened this week. Pretty good week, I went on exchanges too. I went with the zone leaders down into Anchorage, it was pretty crazy.   We were seeing people in the ghetto of Anchorage and saw some pretty interesting people.   I'm glad I didn't get sent to Anchorage.    So this week was good.

 I'm glad everyone's doing so good.   I gotta go, I hope you guys have a good week, love you guys!

Love Elder Roney

Wonderful Temple

Hows it going everyone?!
 So this week was good, it sounds like you all had a pretty good week too. Happy Birthday Dad! Im glad you liked my little box of gifts. Thats sweet that it arrived on the doorstep the day of dads birthday! Perfect timing. Thats awsome that you guys got to go to Jarom and Kendis endowments, that probably was awesome. So many missionaries in the family. Everyones leaving coming and getting their papers in and ready. Definitely let me know where  Lane gets his call too! and same with Ky too. Thats aweosme that OHS was good enough to win state this year! They werent even close to being that good when I went to school there. I havent gotten that letter from his mom or you yet, Ill probably get it today. Hopefully we can pull something together for his birthday. Dad, no we werent able to have that baptism on your birthday, we pushed it back, we still have to set another date, Itll probably be within the month. That would of been so cool to get a baptism for your birthday, but oh well, hes almost ready though. And I did get that box with the proactive stuff in it, and that tie, thank you guys so much! Thats fun that sister Johnson emailed you about us eating over there, theyre a fun family. The people up here definitely take good care of us. And thanks for the idea for district meeting dad, I think Ill use that htis week.
  This week was great though, we helped out with the actual Iditarod start! It was so cool! We didnt do anything super cool as volunteers, we only helped out with the bus stuff, but before that we got to go check everything out.  It was legit! The start we helped out with wasnt the actual start, this was just the celebratory start, the real start was the next day, but since most of the people in AK are in anchorage they do this celabratory start thing in anchorage.  Its really fun though, theres people from all around the world, and we were volunteers so we could walk around on the track and get pictures before it started, I sent some pictures of that. Oh and on Friday it was elder Savaiinaeas birthday! He turned 21, it was fun, we went to coldstones and ate his cake and some ice cream. It was fun, then on thursday at the nature center we played around by the river and got some pictures as a district, it was pretty fun too. So this week was pretty fun overall. Were still working with eric, were still getting him ready so hes still not on date for baptism, but hes close, I can see him being baptized within the month or at the latest the end of this next transfer for sure.  So hes doing good, weve seen him really change since weve taught him. Also, weve found a couple more people to teach, hopefully they turn out to be investigators. Oh, and we get our transfer calls this saturday, Itll be fun to see where everyone goes. But everythings going pretty good here, I might be sending home one of my SD cards today, its all full of pictures. So the pictures I sent, I sent a bunch of the trucks the mushers use to transport their dogs and all that stuff, theres some of the actual iditarod with the dogs running, theres a map of the iditarod and a big list of all the winners of the iditarod, Elder Savaiinaeas rainbow birthday cake that the sisters made for him, me and the district at the first bit of service we did for the iditarod, me standing on a frozen lake in chuguak, and me and the district at the nature center. So theres all the pictures from the other emails. This week was good, Im glad you all had such a good week, sorry this email isnt longer.


Love Elder Roney

Hey

Hey everyone!
   So this week was alright. We helped out more with Iditarod and also the Fur Rondavu.   For the Iditarod we're still helping get things ready for the race in a few weeks. This week we helped move furniture out of a hotel into a big moving thing so they could get furniture to different checkpoints for the race.   So that was good.  In a few weeks the actual race will start and hopefully we'll get to help out that day.   Also, we helped out with the frostbite footrace.   It's part of the Fur Rondavou, a big thing and there was a parade and ice sculptures and a bunch of that kind of stuff.   We only stayed around until the race was done though.   It was lots of fun, people are crazy up here man.   It was only like 16 or 20 degrees outside and people were running in shorts and no shirt and all these funny costumes.  They're crazy, there's no way I could run around without a shirt and in shorts in 16ish degree weather.  So that was fun, luckily they had hot chocolate for us haha, and we got a sweet shirt for being volunteers. It was lots of fun to see the race.  This week has been fun.  Elder Savaiinaea makes missionary work here lots of fun. He's been out 16 months.  

    So this week was good, it's interesting covering both wards.  For bear mountain ward, we only go to sacrament meeting then head over to meadow creek ward for their sacrament meeting and the rest of their meetings. We're meeting with Eric tomorrow, and taking him off date, he wanted to move it up but we don't feel like he's completely ready yet.  We still have to finish teaching him the commandments and go over a few things again with him before we can dunk him.   But he's progressing right along, he's doing good.   We're still working with Paige and Pierce, just waiting for their mom to give us the green light.   But they're doing good, super smart kids, their lessons are always tons of fun.   At the end of each lesson we play a game of soccer or ball tag in their house, and then I realize how out of shape I am haha.   But it's fun, they always ask super good questions and are deep thinkers.  Then we're still working with some people in the bear mountain ward, they're all doing good.   We've just kept on keepin on, maintaining bear mountain wards work and trying to get our wards work to grow.  Slowly but surely it is.    So anyway, this week was pretty good.   I got your package, thank you!   I loved it, the cow tails are already gone haha.   And I'm probably gonna buy a case for my scriptures that you sent up while I'm in Anchorage today.   Anyways, I think that's everything.

Love you guys, hope you have a good week!

 Love Elder Ashton Roney

Happy President's Day

Hows it going everyone?!
  So this week was good and went by super fast. Thats awesome that Blake got his official call to the France, Lyon mission! isnt that the same mission that he served in when he was my age? Either way thats pretty sweet and crazy exciting!   And you guys got more snow! I remember when we would get like 4 inches of snow and think its tons, now it seems like nothing for me haha. So helping out with the iditarod was good. I forgot to grab my card reader before I left but I got some pictures at it and Ill send those next week if I remember to get my card reader. So basically, what we did was load up all the food for the mushers and their dogs on to pallets for each check point of the race.   They were all native names, some were Nome, White Mountain, Skwentna, Rohn, Shaktoolik, Yakotna.   But there were probably 20 or more or so check points. It was cool, then we helped out again later in the week and loaded up more food that the cooks make at each check point.  So this was normal food that you'd buy at the grocery store.   the first day load of food we did was in big white bags, full of different meats and things for the dogs. Yuck, stinky.  We're helping out with the iditarod on wednesday again, moving some furniture into a hotel the competitors will stay in.   It'll be good though.   So the snow that we jumped into that destroyed my pants, it was tons of fun. The snow wasnt too crunchy and you just sink, it's fun.   We probably should of done it in our work clothes but it's too late now, haha. 

So, with Eric, his mom isn't ever at the lessons.  She's not too fond of our gospel but she'll let Eric be baptized since he's 18.   And his dad is deployed, so they don't live with him currently.
This week was good.   We found a couple new potential investigators that said we can come back, so that was super exciting. We gave out a book of mormon and the guy said he wants to read it and learn more.   So thats pretty sweet. I haven't had that happen very much out here so far, so it was almost a surprise, a very good surprise.   Oh, and we ended up getting a third elder on Thursday, so we're in a trio now.   His name is Elder Savainaea.  He's from Western Samoa and he's hilarious.   I think I've laughed more since Thursday that I have the last 3 months. It's so much fun, and it's good because he covered the Bear mountain ward. {A new ward Ashton's working with.}   So he's gonna be a good help as were covering both wards.  So I ate McDonalds for dinner one night and it was the first time in a while.  My stomach wasn't very happy and decided to make me pretty dang sick for a day or two, and ever since then Ive had weird red dots on my forehead.  Its funny, Elder Savainaea loves Mcdonalds haha. If he could he would eat there every day, he always gets the same thing too, the Mckinley Mack.  It's an Alaksa only burger and pretty darn good, but it made me sick.   Anyway, so Elder Savainaea is awesome.  We found out while we were eating at Mcdonalds that he played rugby professionally back in Samoa and represented Western Samoa. Haha, it's crazy, he's so much fun and so funny.   The week was good though, covering both wards is working out well.  We've been able to see some less actives and also Eric. Were seeing Paige and Pierce this week some time. We just taught Eric more about the baptismal covenant and all that good stuff.  But this week was pretty good overall. Its awesome how much better life is as you live the gospel and read the scriptures and pray daily, its amazing to see how the gospel changes lives of the people see and also my life for the better.    Definitely make sure you're all reading and praying and building your faith and testimonies, because I know it will.   I've seen it in my life and the life of other missionaries and other people I've met out here. Well, sorry its not a longer email, but I love you guys!

 Love Elder Roney

Happy Valentines Day

Hey everyone!

So this week was good, better than last week. The weather has been warming up a ton! Right now its like 40 degrees out side! Im not even wearing a jacket when I came to email. Its been nice, I love the weather right now. So Were still working with Eric, Paige and Pierce. Theyre doing good. So last night we had a lesson with Eric, and taught some of the commandments, it went good, and at the end we set a baptismal date with him. Me and elder Coombs picked out the 10th for Eric to be baptized, he accepted and said he would prepare for that date. So that was good, we set that with him, and once we set the date I think it really sunk in even deeper that this is real, this is actually happening, so that was great, its giving him something to work towards. And then this morning we got a text from Eric, he told us that he wanted to switch to one week earlier, march 3rd, haha we just told him that we could definitely do that, so now we got to get him ready for the 3rd. And were still just waiting on Paige and Pierces mom to give us the green light. Then we went to Ronnie and Josies sons birthday party that they invited us to, Phillipino food is amazing! at least the food she made us. I loved it, they made tons of it too and had us take it home with us, so now weve got a huuuge container full of this Phillipino noodle stuff, and this good chicken stuff and this dessert stuff.  And before we went we went over to Walmart and got their son the game Trouble. Now theyll be doing family home evening with out even realizing it haha. He was stoked about it though, it was good. Oh, and I accidentally ripped one of my pants super bad Ill send a picture, not from bending over or anything like that but from being kind of stupid, but not that stupid... So we were shoveling off the roof of a members house, and we had a huuuge pile of snow in the yard on top of the 4 feet of snow already in their yard. And the roof is only like 10 feet high, so we finished up shoveling, threw our shovels and stuff over in a snow pile by the front door. Then since there was so much snow we had to jump off the roof, we had to. once I got back out of all the snow I looked down and the middle was destroyed...Im gonna see if I can get them fixed though...Sorry!  Also this week, we saw some less actives, one of them is a part member family as well. Theyre awesome, the Hanks, her husband isnt a member and hes halarious. He was telling us that he 100% thinks this is the right, true church but doesnt want to join. He told us that hes been in more fights defending our church then well ever be in in our lives haha. He was telling us all about the old days in fairbanks and in CA and his fighting days haha, he discribed himself as a modern day porter rockwell. We ended up talking about standing up for what you believe in and he started crying and told us that we won that night and that he'll let his wife read the book of mormon to him more and all that good stuff. The funny thing was that we werent trying to convert him or anything that night, we were just trying to get to know them a little and see how they were doing since ive never met them before that. Theyre awesome, theyve got tons of legit, artifact native stuff, and tons of animals theyve hunted up here, the coolest thing was a polar bear rug thing on their wall, and theyve got ivory and walrus tusks and all this crazy stuff. So their house was like a museum, it was fun to go to. Oh and sunday was good, were covering two wards right now so we ended up going to two sacrament meetings haha. Other than that weve just been trying to see less actives and former investigators. We ended up tracting earlier this week and got tons of potential investigators. We knocked I think 6 or 7 houses and we got 4 potential investigators from it! That was awesome, ussually ive been lucky to get 2 out of an entire street. It was nice to have people say that we could come back sometime. Were meeting with one tonight actually, so hopefully that turns out good. So this week was good.

Thats good that you guys got more snow this week, I love the snow. As long as its snowing here its somewhere above 0 so im happy when it snows. It is surprising how cold it actually gets up here, I saw -20 or a little colder and Im in an area thats not too bad, up north it gets even colder, crazy stuff.   So were helping out with the iditarod this wednesday, stuff with the food for the dogs, and then on the 21st were helping out again, its gonna be sweet, Im stoked for it! And then were helping out with a few other things that are going on too. So its gonna be sweet.   Im pretty good on everything I need, I can get just about anything up here since im in a city with a Walmart haha. So I think Im good and dont really need anything sent up to me, some members gave me yak tracks, things you put on your shoes that give you traction on the ice theyre sweet, so Im good and if I need anything Ill let you know. And on Pdays like today we just wear slacks and a white shirt and tie with a thin jacket or coat. Were supposed to wear our normal everyday clothes on pdays unless were playing basketball or doing something that requires work clothes. So this week was good, it sounds like everyones doing good at home. And thanks for that package, it was delicious. I think I got everyhting,  Love you guys!

Love Elder Roney


And here are some pictures,


One of my pants...again sorry...

 

The Salmon we made for lunch one day.



An eagle that was by our apt in a tree.





 

Eagle River from a road in our area.

 Enjoy! Love you guys!