Memorial Day

Hey everyone,

  This week was good, we were able to say pretty busy this week and teach alot. Last Pday we didnt do a whole lot, we ended up just hanging out at the apartment because weather was no good. Luckily the past couple days have been nice, some of the ocean ice is all melted, its the first time seeing the actual ocean where the city part of the beach is. Its so nice, the suns out and its warm and birds are here and the whole town just comes to life really. Weve been walking around town since the weathers been nice and its pretty funny how many people are walking around and doing things outside because the sun came out and its warm. Angelas brother shot a grizzly bear out at their camp because it was about to charge him, so she went out and helped butcher it and everything. We ended up going down to see her because thats where she'll be for most of the summer and she ended up giving us each a bear claw from that bear, its pretty awesome, they told us a bunch of crazy bear stories too. They said that where their cabin is, is basically bear alley, they said that one night a couple summers ago they had 11 grizzly bears around their cabin trying to get their food and checking out their cabin.We went to the high school graduation to support some people that invited us, it was a really cool graduation, nothing like what we had. There were only like 30 kids graduating so they had a slide show for each kid graduating, they presented scholarships and diplomas and a bunch of other stuff. It was 2 and a half hours long but we were only there for maybe like an hour of it. It was pretty cool. We helped a family move some furniture and stuff into their conex box that they have, theyre moving to hawaii and using the conex box to ship down their stuff. They ended up giving us their snow shoes because they werent going to use them in hawaii, same with some sleds that we have to get rid of since we cant go sledding. I havent gotten the box yet, I might today if Im lucky. Alaska has the absolute worst mail system ever, thats too bad that dad made the extra effort to get it up here in 2 days and it didnt happen like they said. Its really irritating how bad they are with mail up here.

  Today should be fun though, were having Ian teach us how to gold pan and then maybe drive out somewhere since the roads are open now. And on wednesday were driving out to the native village Teller and making it a day trip. It should be good, theres one member of the church that lives there and were going to visit him since he hasnt had any real contact with members in a while.

  We were able to see Iskander, we taught him about the 10 commandments, hes been taught just about everything we teach people before baptism, hes doing good right now. Were going to try to get him baptized or at least on date before we leave.

  We saw Angela, we taught her about the plan of salvation and taught her briefly about the word of wisdom, she completely accepted and agreed with it all, even about tea and coffee, and she loves tea and coffee. Shes doing great, at the end of the lesson she asked us if its alright to revert from her church to ours haha, we told her of course! Next time we see her were going to put her on date for baptism, which will be in June. Ill attach a picture of her cabin.

  Weve been meeting with the dad of a less active family everytime we go over there for dinner. Hes a really good guy and definitely wants to at least learn what we believe, he was in the national guard, hes pretty funny and super cool guy. Ill let you know more about how thats going next week.

  It sounds like you guys had a pretty crazy week, you guys had tons going on last week, and the next week sounds like its going to be insane. Congratulations to Brolin for getting 2nd place in that photo show, thats pretty awesome! Im glad everyones staying busy and happy!  Love you guys!

 Love Elder Ashton Roney

Elder Roney

Hey everyone!

  This week we were in anchorage until friday morning for zone conference, it went pretty well. Elder Zwick was the 70 that came to talk to us and he says hello to uncle Blake, he shook hands with all the missionaries in the mission and when I was up he recognized my name and asked if I'm related to uncle Blake and to tell him hi for him. It was a really good zone conference and a good week in anchorage. While we were down there we were working in Elder Allens old area and my old areas, it was fun to see people that I knew again.  On Wednesday we went to the temple in the morning and that was awesome.  Most of the bush missionaries went to the temple. They came in from everywhere, from Kodiak, Dutch Harbor, Sterling, Homer, Bethel, Nome, Valdez, Kenai, Soldatna, Cordova. We had interviews with President Beesley while we were down there, he told us what's happening to our area even though i'ts 3 weeks before transfers. He's going to white wash Nome and he hinted towards sending me to Fairbanks for my last transfer. While we were down there we met up with the missionaries in ---------- to do a district tract with them, and I was reminded how dumb missionaries are, haha. There were 10 elders, no sisters and there was alot of jokes about farting and playing pranks on other missionaries. It was funny but a reminder of how dumb elders are haha. So when we left Nome to go to Anchorage it was becoming spring and warming up and when we got back from Anchorage it was winter again.   And it's been snowing every day since weve been back!   Weather here is all messed up and confused. Yesterday was my birthday, haha pretty uneventful but still a good day. We went to a pre graduation thing that we got invited to, there were a couple speakers and some musical numbers and hymns  (it was at the lutheran church). I didn't get my box yet, I should get it hopefully today or early sometime this week.

 It sounds like you all had a good, fun week. It's crazy that Averys so close to graduating, congrats on graduating from seminary! Anyways, sorry its a short email, but I gotta go, Love you guys!

 Love Elder Ashton Roney

 

 Ill attach some pictures of the trip down to anchorage.

Elder Roney

Hey everyone,

 

 This is going to be pretty short since I talked to you yesterday. Happy Mothers Day yesterday!!! It was super fun to talk to you guys yesterday! Its weird that its my last time skyping, see you guys in a couple months. Today we arrived into anchorage from nome, its great theres no snow here and things are starting to turn green! I forgot how much I like trees until today, theyre great to have around, trees are a good thing. I lost my nametag today somewhere between nome and girdwood too, I currently have no name. We drove down to Girdwood today, thats where the big ski resort in Alaska is and its super pretty! Its the same drive you take down to Homer but only like 45 minutes down the road, and I forgot how pretty it is down that way. So I forgot to tell you guys during skype but last week during our comp study we saw a wolf out behind the church when we looked out the window, pretty sweet right? I got a new temple recommend too, President called yesterday after our skype sesh and interviewed me because mine expired in April.  I love to see the temple, Im going there wednesday. Zone conference is on thursday, Elder Zwick from the 70 is coming and doing a mission tour, should be good. Ill let you know how it goes and Ill send pictures next week, 

I forgot my camera cord and card reader in nome. Welp, love you guys! Bye!

Love Elder Ashton Roney

Elder Roney

Hey everyone!

 This email probably won't be too long, sorry. On pday we drove out towards one of the villages to see how far we could get, we only got like halfway there but it was a cool drive. On the way out there we stopped at the train to nowhere and took pictures of it. It's a train that they were building from Nome to Council but something happened that stopped them from finishing so now its just a rusting old train. I'll send pictures of it. We drove through an old village called Solomon.  It took less than a minute to drive through and we only saw one house that looked like people were living there, the rest looked pretty old and abandoned. We're getting kuspuks made for us by some people here, we're pretty excited, they're gonna be neat. Kuspuks are like the traditional eskimo shirt/sweater thing that they would wear seal and bear hunting, and they wear them when they dance. The lady had us buy our fabric and trim and everything.   I never realized that so much went into something that looks so simple. We saw another herd of muskox the other day while we were on the way to an investigators house. They're definitely a weird animal. Weather was goodish for most of the week, then it snowed again today, haha.  This weather makes me never want to live in alaska. Then we got a call from the assistants with our flight information to go down to zone conference, we leave on the 13th and come back next friday.
  We were able to see Iskander this week, he's doing good.  We taught him the law of chastity. He's having a hard time accepting it though, we're gonna work on that with him though. We weren't able to see Angela because she went out seal hunting with her husband/family last week.  Then they got back and the next day or so they left to go bear hunting and have been out of town since. Hopefully they shoot the bear soon so she can get back and we can start meeting with her again.
  I sent out a letter to you guys, you asked for my birthday list so I sent it to you, it's pretty short. I haven't gotten your package yet, but it should be coming in pretty soon, hopefully today.  To answer your question dad, eskimos have a few tribes but some of them are mainly inuit, then there's yupik, siberian yupik and there might be more but those three are for sure.

 I'm glad everyones doing so good, it sounds like it was a pretty fun week for you guys with the wedding and the art shows and everything else. Well I gotta get going, love you guys!

 Love Elder Ashton Roney

 And here are some pictures :)

Elder Roney

Hey everyone!
  Happy 23rd Birthday Braedon!! I hope it was just wonderful and everything you hoped and dreamed for! :)
  We got our transfer call on saturday, we're both staying in Nome for another transfer :) And we're both happy about it, we're actually going to be able to see Nome when it's not all white everywhere! Hopefully I get sent to Fairbanks or Juneau next, that would be awesome! We're going to be driving out to a couple of the eskimo villages as soon as they open up the roads all the way. In Teller, the eskimo village north of Nome there's one member who lives there and has been stuck in Teller for the winter and we're going to make a trip up to see him. We've been in contact with him and he seems like a super solid member, it'll be good to go visit him. Today were driving out one of the roads to go see the train to nowhere. It's a super old rusted up train that they were building the tracks for to go from Council to Nome and they never finished. We heard it's pretty cool so were gonna drive out to see it today. The weathers been good lately too, it's been in the 20s and got into the 30s once! All the snows starting to melt away, I love it, alot of the snows supposed to be mostly gone by the end of may so that'll be awesome. We had the game night activity and it went well, alot of people showed up and brought games and food, it was pretty fun.
  This week was good, even though I got sick one of the days and we had to stay inside all day. I got pink eye in my right eye and it was the worst. Luckily the head doctor of the hospital here is in our ward and he got me some eye drops which helped a ton. So I was stuck inside all that day because I was contagious and didn't want anyone to get sick and be the cause of their illness. But we were still able to teach alot this week so that was good. We were able to see A------------, she's been reading from the book of mormon and we gave her a plan of salvation pamphlet to read while she's out at her cabin for the weekend. She's awesome and told us that she'll read it on the way to the cabin haha.  It was a short visit but a good one. When we got there they were telling us about walrus' and killer whales, then showed us some walrus tusks that they got and a killer whale tooth that Angelas dad found on the beach. It was pretty cool, the walrus tusks that they have are tusks from a walrus that ate humans, they said you can tell because if it's a walrus that attacks humans their tusks are a different color, kind of brownish, they call them rogue walrus'. (what??? sounds like a myth to me) Its pretty nuts. But A---------- doing awesome and doing good.
  We met with I---------------- this week, and he's still doing good. We weren't able to teach him about the law of chastity this week though. When we got there he was in a good mood, then after a few minutes of being there his dog went into the other room and made a huge mess which put him in a very bad mood . But other than that he's doing really good.
  That's awesome that everyones doing so good, exciting stuff that Braedons graduated! Congratulations!!!! And hes 23 now! Thats a pretty good week for him haha, and a super good birthday present from BYU! :)

  Thats pretty cool that they had Peter Clegg come back to give a talk. I didnt realize that I was one of those kids who would jump on you when you come over to home teach haha.
  Anyways, I gotta go! Love you guys!

 Love Elder Roney

4/22

Hey everyone!
 
  Happy 18th Birthday Avery!!! You're now an adult, that's some pretty exciting stuff right there.  I hope it was everything you wished for and dreamed it would be.
  Things have been pretty good up here in Nome, we get our transfer call this saturday so well know whats happening. We're pretty positive that Elder Allens leaving and we think that I might be getting transferred too, but we'll see what happens. The weather's been amazing this week! It's been so warm and sunny and all the roads are mostly clear of ice and snow.  There are so many people that walk around and do things outside now, it's awesome. Spring's actually finally here! Yesterday some people spotted a polar bear and two cubs a few miles out of town.  The natives say that this is the time of the year that you see polar bears come around if they do. It's pretty crazy, maybe if I stay another transfer I'll be able to see a polar bear, haha. I got to see a herd of muskox this week too, I'll attach some pictures of them. It was cool to see them, we could only get so close though because the people we were with told us that if you get too close they might charge you and tromp you. So we took those words of advice and didn't get very close, haha. We drove out one of the roads that they just recently plowed, in some places the snow was three times as high as I am tall, it's crazy the amount of snow some places get.
  This week we met with A-------- again a couple times, the first time we went over there we were only there for maybe 5 minutes because she was leaving to go to court haha, but it was for something dumb. She got in trouble for selling some of her smoked salmon.  I guess that's illegal to do up here, she didn't know that you couldn't do that either haha. We went over a few days later and found out that it went well, they only gave her a $100 fine. When we were over there the second time we taught her about the restoration/book of mormon and gave her a copy. She said that she's gonna read it and pray about it. It was really good that we were able to teach her about the book of mormon because she told us that until we came over and taught her about it she thought that it replaced the bible, not go along side the bible.  So I was happy that we were able to clear that up, and I think she was too. Shes an awesome lady and a solid investigator too.
  I------------- doing good, he came to church yesterday and we were able to teach him a couple more times this week. We taught him about baptism and we taught him about how things get difficult before something good happens. The next lesson were going to be teaching him is the law of chastity haha.  We just learned yesterday that his girl friend is now moving in with him.   So hopefully that (lesson) goes well, cross your fingers.
  It sounds like you all had a pretty good week, it sounds like Averys birthday was good. That's awesome that you guys got his paperwork finished the night before his 18th birthday haha. Hopefully his board of review will go well.  I'm sure he'll pass with flying colors. Pretty exciting that he's getting his partiarchal blessing too, I love reading mine. That's pretty sweet that Braedons graduating this week!   Fun stuff
  Thanks for sending me stamps and my backpack! I'll probably get the letter with the stamps in the mail today.

 I gotta go. Love you guys!

 Love Elder Ashton Roney

Ill attach some pictures too, one of the muskox, one of me in front of the wall of snow, and one of me on the ocean ice last week(on one of the packed snowmachine trails though)

snow again

 Happy 15th Birthday Brolin! I hope it was an amazing day for you! You can get your permit now!
   This week was good, it was a pretty eventful week. So for 3 days there was a big Kawerak conference, Kawerak is a regional native coorporation, it was awesome! The conference was to celebrate the coming of spring and to start off the whale hunting season or something like that, they do it every year around this time. They did alot of native dancing everynight while it was going, we were able to see some cool dances. There was one that was kind of spooky though but still super awesome to watch.  It was a shaman dance and there was alot of screaming involved, haha.  During the conference, they announced that the people in Savoonga killed a whale, which is pretty exciting I guess. A lady in the ward is from there and she said that she's gonna be getting a good amount of muktuk from the villagers over there.  So I might be eating muktuk again soon haha, yum...   It was pretty cool, one of the nights at the conference they were feeding the community reindeer soup and it just so happened to be on the night that we didn't have dinner.  So we stopped by and ate some yummy reindeer soup for dinner, it was super good.
   We had a bowling activity on saturday, the ward rented out the bowling alley for the night and alot of people showed up, it was an awesome turnout. Most of the people there were either less active members or non members, and all the active members that werent out of town were there too. When we got there we discovered that we ran over a big chunk of metal sometime during the day, so we had to change our tire before we went in, and since it was muddy out we got our clothes kinda muddy, I dont even know how many times I was asked when we got into the bowling alley "what happened? Why are you muddy?" Then me and Elder Allen joined in on one of the games towards the end, I won :)
   We were able to teach I---------- a couple times this week, we're in the process of teaching him the Gospel of Jesus Christ, each time we go over there we teach him one or two principles. So far we've taught him about Faith and Repentance, next were going to teach him about baptism and the Holy Ghost and hopefully get him on date for baptism. He's coming along really well, he's doing awesome, and he's still keeping the word of wisdom too which is a huge step forward for him!
   We picked up a new investigator this week, her name is An------. She seems pretty solid and lives like 2 houses away from the church haha. Shes a subsistance living native too, so on the weekends she snowmachines out of town and hunts and gathers what she needs for the week. She's a really cool lady, she ended up giving us raspberry jam that she made and gave us a jar of smoked salmon too.
  That's crazy that you guys got more snow, unfortunately we did too. Everything was melting and making such good progress towards spring and there were even spots that you could see the ground, and then it snowed again a couple nights ago. This weather really likes to get my hopes up and then smack them right back down haha.   Wait, we have missionaries in our ward now?? Thats awesome, have there ever been missionaries in our ward while we've been there? That's exciting that Kaedon got his mission call to Guatemala! He's gonna love it.
  Anyways, I gotta go now. I'm glad you all had such a good and fun week, love you guys!

 Love Elder Ashton Roney