Thermals

Hey everyone!

 This weeks been pretty good, cold but good. Yesterday it was -23 and its been in the negatives most of the week, most of the time around -10 or so, so not terrible but still cold. We went tracting yesterday and we ended up only tracting one house, haha. But not because it was cold or anything, but because the first house we knocked on let us in. The guy who answered the door was completely drunk but let us in right away. Turns out he's inactive, from Orem, and Hyrum Smith is like his great great great grandpa haha. His friend Gloria was there and she was sober, so we were able to teach her therestoration and it was an amazing lesson. The cool part is that he was the one who initiated the lesson and he was testifying about everything we taught and he helped out quite a bit. It was a good tract haha. She lives in Shaktoolik, anative village that you have to fly into so we might not be able to teach her again for a while because she goes back this week sometime to help herfamily with some stuff. She said that shes terrified of flying and will not fly if the weather's bad though, so pray for bad weather this week so we can teach her again haha.

  

  I might be headed over to Savoonga on St. Lawrence Island sometime this transfer or next. We talked to president about it and he told us that if we come up with a good plan and have everything arranged then there's a good chance to go over. So we've been working with a  lady in the ward in getting things set up. President Beasleys requirements are that we have a place to stay, and someone to show us around, and someone to protect us haha (he said that it takes about 6 months for the people over there to like you enough to not want to kill you, but we've heard otherwise from members who are from Savoonga (: and he only heard that from members in wasilla)  So far we've figured most of it out, we just need to double check about the housing arrangement. It'll be awesome to get to go over there if President approves it. And the oldergeneration over there speaks Siberian Yupik so the member we're working with is teaching us a song in Siberian Yupik, it's pretty cool. She took us out for a walk on the iced over ocean, it was pretty neat. We're hoping that through all this we can help her become active again, because I guess its a big step even to be able to meet with her.

  

We saw the Iron Dog come in this week.  It's a 1000 mile snow machine race that goes from Wasilla to Nome to Fairbanks, it was kinda neat to see it come in. In a couple weeks the Iditarod comes in, it's gonna be awesome to be at the finish line this year. (Last year Ashton was in Eagle River and helped as a volunteer with the "Start" of the Iditarod.)  On Monday we went on a hike, probably the coldest hike I've ever done in my entire life but it was good haha. It took like 10 minutes of keeping my hands inside my coat to warm them up from being outside holding my camera for less than a minute, it was pretty crazy.  The wind chill is ridiculous here. I met a guy in the branch this week who's a gold miner on one of the dredges here.  He's on the show Bering Sea Gold and his names Ian Foster. He's pretty cool, he said that he'll send us a text when theyre filming in town so we can try to be in the background or something haha. Oh and today were eating dinner with Carol and she's feeding us eskimo food, were gonna be eating mucktuck, fermented mucktuck, cormorant, and walrus, then I think she said seal oil as well.   I'll make sure to take pictures.  She said that missionaries in the past have thrown up ... pray for me haha 

  So now to answer your questions, right now we get a decent amount of sunlight, the sun comes up around 9 and it goes down at like 7/7:30, so like 10 hours or so of sunlight, it's nice. Um I'm kind of warming up haha, I just wear my winter gear that I brought out with me and I'm good for the most part. Elder Allens cool, he's from Vegas, he's been out almost a year, he came out with Elder Weber, and he's learning russian. Oh and by the way, that guy Mot Mahoni, he's not in this branch, he lives down in Wasilla area so I don't thinkthere's anyone up here that he baptized.  From what I hear all of the people he baptized are active. Hopefully I'll get to meet him someday before I leave Alaska though, I think that would be pretty cool to meet him. And this branch, they're definitely a bare minimum kind of branch, but the people arereally good people. That's awesome that everyones doing so good, everyones getting married, holy smoke. Thats awesome that Avery got a full ride scholarship to UVU, congrats man! 

I have a question to ask you guys. Can you send me up a pair or two of thermals?

Love you guys!  Love Elder Ashton Roney

Frozen Tundra

Hey everyone!

  This week has been pretty good. We had transfers and then all the bush elders and the departing home missionaries went to the temple, then we slept in the mission home that night and left in the morning.

 While we were in the mission home we heard about this member who goes to church out in Willow and we're all pretty sure he's one of the 3 nephites haha. Everything matches up perfectly. He has a darker complection, he's always flying around, he has a job as a bush pilot/regular pilot and he's always flying back and forth to SLC because he works for the church on top of his other job, he doesn't have church records but holds callings, he's baptized tons of people and some of the people he's baptized are like 80 and he baptized them when they were kids, he looks like he's 50 but runs like hes 20 and can outrun missionaries and kids in the ward, no one really knows where he lives or how old he is (but with all the things the missionaries have gathered, he should be like 105), when the missionaries talk or ask about him members get kinda stand-offish and sensative about it, his name is Mot Mahoni (not sure how to spell it),  which is kinda similar to one of the names of the nephite 12 apostles, so with all that and more stuff that I didn't mention we're pretty sure he's one of the 3 nephites haha.

  Anyways, so I arrived in Nome, and my first impression was, wow this transfers gonna kinda suck haha. But I've soon found out otherwise. When I stepped out of the airport doors it was around -10 or -15 with a 10 or 15 mph wind chill and we had to dig our truck out of the snow drift so we could leave the airport. The coldest I've seen so it get here so far is -27, and the winds always blowing. We live above the church (the church makes some crazy weird sounds by the way) and we use the computer in the church to do emails and mormon.org and all that. Nomes a pretty cool place, its a small mining town with about 3000 people. I think they said its like 90 percent native, and aparently there's a sign that says it was the first sin city, haha. Its basically how I first thought Alaska would be when I opened my mission call, cold, in the middle of no where, theres a bunch of eskimos everywhere, and alot of people use snowmachines to get around town. All the buildings here are on stilts because of the permafrost or something like that. We don't proselite after 8, because most of the people are in the bars or sleeping.  So most nights we go to the gym here, except saturday and sunday and on saturday we clean and get everything ready for church.  On sunday we go to the youth home and do stuff with the native kids there. We do alot of service here; we play bingo with the old people, do stuff with the native kids in the youth home.  At the museum we're transcribing a natives journal from the 1800s, we sort books at the library.  Nome's a branch and there was about 25 or 30 people that came yesterday. The members here are pretty cool for the most part. Nome's a pretty cool place to serve, it's a really interesting place.  I can already tell the transfer's gonna be pretty fun and I'll have plenty of stories haha. My first day someone broke into the apartment and ruined part of the door jam, so now it makes a big click sound when you open or close it, haha, but they didn't take anything, so that was pretty weird.   Then a few days ago a drunk native guy stared me down then from across the street he yelled "you should buy me a bottle!" haha. Anyways, this transfer will probably bring some interesting and funny experiences :) My companions name is Elder Allen, he was in my district in eagle river so it was nice to know who my companion would be before I was put with him and to know that we get along. Oh, and I'll be able to send pictures now, because if I forget to bring my camera cord I can just run upstairs to the apartment and get it, haha so I'll attach some pictures today. I got your box this week! Thank you so much! It was fun getting it.   I actually got it at transfers last week but accidentally left it in the mission home.  But then they sent it up to me and I got it a couple days ago hah.

  So that's Nome so far, haha it's gonna be an awesome transfer. We met with one of our investigators this week, he's from russia and hes awesome. Hes only 20 but he's super spiritual and super funny too. At our lesson on saturday he had alot of questions about the holy ghost and trials and adversity. So that's what we taught about that lesson. And then he came to church yesterday and all the talks and the lessons in church yesterday were about the exact same thing that he was asking about on saturday.  So after church he said that he really liked it and enjoyed church, and we asked him if he's thought about being baptized and he said" Oh yes yes! I've been thinking about that, I want to talk to you guys about that next time we meet!" and when he talks he's very enthusiastic about most things, so he's super fun to talk to. We're meeting with him tomorrow, so well be able to talk about baptism with him, it'll be good. this transfer should be good. Oh and I hope you enjoy the pictures! 

Love Elder Ashton Roney

There's no place like home..

Hey everyone!

 We got our transfer call on friday, and Im getting transferred! Theyre sending me up to Nome!   it's pretty far north west in the bush and its a native town. It should be good, I'm pretty excited for this transfer. I guess everynight we go to the gym there because everyone's either drunk (even though its supposed to be a dry community) or sleeping and so there's nothing to do.  So it'll be good to lose some of the weight I've put on since Ive been in Alaska.   This week we helped move lots of boxes of books to send to Tonga. They're building the first public library there and all those books are going there.  They said that they're gonna put all our names (theyre putting everyone's name on the wall who helped out with getting it all together) on the wall because we helped put together the first public library, haha. 

   I went on exchanges this week and went into the other area for the day. It was alot of fun, we did alot of shoveling that day. Oh and I went to the dentist that day too (: so now my teeth are all good to go and you don't have to worry about it anymore haha.  It's a good thing, because they probably don't have good dentists in Nome.   Yesterday was awesome, a members daughter was baptized and it was probably one of the best child of record baptisms i've been to on my mission.  Then, later that day there was an awesome musical stake fireside that the sisters put together.   The spirit was super strong in both of those events, it was pretty good. On saturday, Alaskas area 70 came and did a training meeting for all the missionaries and ward missionaries/mission leaders/bishops. He talked about referrals and how the Lord has his part to help the work and we have ours and we need to do our part because the Lords done his part, it was really good.

   We ate dinner with the H-------s this week and then read a few books with them haha, the short books in the book of mormon, so now they're on Mosiah. We met with L------ and N------ again, it went really well, alot better than the time before haha. We had to set some ground rules though, we told him that were gonna teach him about the lesson and if he has questions that arent relevant to what were talking about he has to wait til the end to ask them haha. It worked pretty well, he only asked non relevant questions once and then we were able to stay on track the whole time. We were able to get in contact with R--------- again, it was awesome, she was gonna come to church but she got called into work at 8. And when we went on exchanges, Elder Sant was able to meet with an investigator, he said it went well. And other than a couple other potentials and less actives and moving stuff and meetings, I just said goodbye to people yesterday. So it was a good week. 

  That's super exciting to hear that Braedon and Virginia are having a baby girl! And all the different cousins either engaged or pregnant, alot of exciting things are going on hah. I'm glad everyones stayin busy and happy!    Well, I'm just about out of time, sorry the emails not more detailed about the week mom.  But I gotta go, Love you guys!  I'll tell you all about Nome next week (: 

Love Elder Ashton Roney

Kinda Nice

Hey everyone!

 This week was pretty decent, the weather's been kinda nice and warm too, its been in the 20s lately and its awesome haha. On Wednesday we did service at the nature center again and we did something we've never done before, they had us snow shoe this week! We were packing down a trail for an extreme bike race that's gonna be on the frozen river. So we ended up snow shoeing on the river for 2ish miles.  It was fun but kinda sketch at first. Every now and then you would break through one of the top layers and the layer would make a whomp sound and crack a circle around you, but you only go down maybe a foot at most and then you land on another layer of ice. 

I did alot of driving this week, the office realized that we have storage at our apartment and so we've been storing couches and stuff that the mission gets for missionaries.  So right now we have 3 couches, a recliner and a table, all in our storage room. And we took two other couches and a couple things up to Wasilla to some missionaries up there.  We get our transfer call this week on friday and transfers are next tuesday, and I'm probably getting transferred out which would be fine. On saturday the area 70 for Alaskas doing another training and all the missionaries and ward mission leaders/ missionaries are supposed to go to that.  It should be good. And I got your package! Thank you so much! And give the Watsons a big thank you from me, it was awesome to get that package from them! 

We were finally able to start reading with sister Hansen again, and we're eating dinner with her and her husband this week. We met with a former investigator, one who I taught last winter while I was in this area the first time. We got to know him a little bit and found out what his road block is, he doesn't know that there's a God. And until he knows that God exists he won't be able to progress, because he's gone through the missionary lessons 3 or 4 times, he's been through all four years of gospel doctrine 4 times and he's been through the gospel principles class a few times as well. So he definitely knows what we believe but we won't get anywhere until he knows that God exists. But the next lesson we have scheduled with him is the saturday after the transfer, so I probably won't meet with him again before I leave:(  

Well,  it's been a good week, we went tracting and we were able to get some potential investigators and got cussed out by some old grumpy guy, fun stuff. We have some lessons set up for this week to meet with a few investigators that we weren't able to meet with this last week, so this week should be alot more productive than last, which would be great.

 Welp, my times running out or else I'd make this letter more indepth and more exciting. but I love you guys and Im glad youre all doing good! Love you guys!

 Love Elder Ashton Roney

Anchorage

Hey everyone!

   This week was good. We went to Anchorage everyday monday through friday, it was weird. Monday we came into anchorage for emails and pday stuff, tuesday we got some chips in our car window fixed, wednesday we got our flu shots, thursday we had a training, and friday we did family history stuff/looked into college to figure out the answers to your questions last week about college. Lots of driving to and from Anchorage.   The next transfer is on the 12th, I find out if I stay or go friday of next week.  And no, theres not very many moose wandering around chugiak or eagle river this year, I don't think there was enough snow to push them down out of the mountains this year. District meeting was good, I had the senior couple missionaries give a training.  They picked the topic- about cleaning our apartments and hygene haha. They're the apartment cleaning checkers for the bowl area so they've seen some pretty nasty missionary apartments - haha.  They said that our districts apartments are some of the cleanest that they've seen though. They ended up taking the whole time for training so everything else that I planned on doing last week we're doing this week instead.  So next week, a sister missionary is doing an activity on patience, I'm gonna train on becoming a more christlike missionary/person, and elder sant is also going to do a short training on our purpose as missionaries. Delegation's the best thing ever, haha, so it should be good. 

  

   We had a decent week, we started doing more lessons with active members to try and get referrals and its been working.   Last week we got 12 referrals, which is the most I've ever gotten in this area so it was awesome. We weren't able to meet with investigators, because we had alot of cancelations. We did meet with a new person though, he's friends with a less active lady. We were intending to meet with her boy friend but he's out of town working so she had her friend staying with her because she gets nervous being alone with a baby. And we were able to teach him about the first vision and who joseph smith is.  He said he would be fine learning a little bit about our beliefs, so we set up a lesson with him. Then we met with less active members and did lessons with active members. But we were able to set some lessons up for next week so that was good.

   I hit my 18 month mark yesterday and burned a pair of pants that were all beat up and worn out with elder merrill at a members home in meadow creek. Pants stink suuuper bad when you burn them, it wasn't good. It sounds like you guys had fun up at park city and doing all sorts of shinanigans during the week, thats good! :) Welp, I hope you all have a great and glorious week this week and do even more fun shininigans too haha. Love you guys!

 Love Elder Ashton Roney

Stayed Pretty Busy

Hey everyone!

  This week was alright, we taught alot of lessons this week and stayed pretty busy. Yesterday we bought fabric to make ties out of.  A member in the meadow creek ward's teaching us all how to make ties. It'll be cool.   And now, President Beesley comes to basketball on pday, but he doesn't play.   He watches and makes sure no one's getting too competitive or intense, because it has in the past.   Especially with an elder in the mission, but he's a cool kid and has mellowed out a bunch at basketball.  We met with L------ and her husband. It was super interesting, L----- was on board and willing to learn but her husband definitely wasn't haha. We tried teaching the plan of salvation and it just wasn't working.  Anytime we brought up any point, he tried arguing it. So basically I didnt say much that lesson because bashing's the most stupid thing ever and doesn't help anyone with anything.   It was interesting, I hope our next lesson with them doesn't go that way.  Whenever it's just L------ things go pretty smooth.  We also met with Bill and taught him about the plan of salvation and it went really well. We had a lesson with Terry scheduled but she had to reschedule to this week. We didn't read with sister Hansen this week because she's super busy and doesn't have time to do anything for another week or so. But once she gets done with the crazyness at work we can start reading with her again. And we're gonna give Rebecca a week or so and then call her again. She still won't answer her phone. We had interviews with President Beesley this last week, they were really good. Towards the end he asked me where I want to go next and I said I don't know, anywhere he wants me.  And then he asked me if I want to go where they eat whale, and I said "yea, sure, that would be pretty sweet".  So I might go up north to the bush next transfer, but we'll see haha.

  Sorry I don't have much time so I'll just answer your questions real quick. So I have been to the Anchorage temple since I've been back in Chugiak.  I've been twice since i've been back up here. I dont ever speak in sacrament, I never have on my mission yet. The most i've done in sacrament was bear my testimony, haha.  So you're right to assume that I rarely do that kind of stuff. We just mainly attend the meetings and try to participate when we can. Here's my Sunday schedule: I have my first meeting starting at 7, then ward council/pec at about 7:15, then church starts at 9 and ends at noon.  Then we go and do our normal missionary thing like I would any other day. Every now and then we teach in primary or something, I've taught in primary twice during the sharing time.  It's funny how the kids answer questions.  As for my dental work, I called to set something up but they said that they don't really have any openings this transfer.  So I might try to go to this other dentist that's in the meadow creek ward and get it done by him.   So yea, i'll give you an update on that another time :) The days are getting longer for sure, the sun came up at about 9:30 or 10ish the other day, that was awesome.  And the sun sets somewhere around 5.   I don't really know because I haven't paid as much attention to the sun setting lately. But all I know is that this winter (even with the happy light) I' m way more tired than I was last winter    If I sit in a comfortable couch or seat, I have to be careful that I don't fall asleep sometimes, or else I will haha.   It'll be nice when the summers here and the suns out like all day and I don't get super tired all the time. And I would of used the card reader this week but I forgot it at the apartment, so I'll try to do better next week.

  Well I only have a minute left, so I better go. But I'm super glad that you all are doing super good this week and enjoying yourselves, except for the cold :) Sorry this emails not longer but I love you guys and hope you have an amazing week and stay super happy! Love you guys!

   Love Elder Ashton Roney

Stake Conference

Hey everyone!

 This week was ok, we weren't able to see very many investigators. Yesterday church was cancelled, and president Beesley texted everyone telling us that we couldnt leave the apartment until about noonish. We had freezing rain again and because the roads were sketchy they decided to cancel church. On Saturday we were driving on a smaller highway and this lady in a jeep in front of us slid out of control and went into a ditch and we asked her if she needed any help but she told us that she had someone on their way.  A few minutes later we saw the fire department headed her way. I think I saw 6 new cars in ditches because of the fun weather.   We didn't have district meeting this week because we had a zone meeting instead. But tomorrow I'm training on setting goals and stretching ourselves to reach our goals.  Then Sister, C in the district is doing an activity  (I made her the activity coordinator in our district so there's a short activity every district meeting) and usually I ask one or two of the other missionaries in the district to do a short 10 or 15 minute training as well. And a zone meeting's just where the zone leaders talk about our goals and numbers and everything and give some training. I went on exchanges with Elder Merrill (the one I was in the MTC with, not my last companion) in Meadow Creek. It was really good and fun to serve with someone I came out with for a day.

   That's awesome that you guys are all doing so good, and I'm kinda jealous that you're getting snow there.  But then again, you guys are having temperatures close to 0 and its been in the 30s and 40s the past few weeks, so that's been awesome.  I haven't even worn a jacket everyday it's been so nice haha.  Thats awesome that Tannon finally got his visa and gets to finally go to spain haha, how long was he in SLC for?

  Anyways, Im running out of time, sorry its not more of an exciting email haha. But I love you guys and Im glad that youre all doing so good! oh and tell Paul hi back for me!

  Love Elder Ashton Roney