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