What a week...

Dear family,

How is everyone this week? I can´t believe Brandi comes home this week! Wow! Somebody give here a big hug from me! Thank you for your emails. Lorette, Calvin´s walking! wow. I´m happy to hear eveything is good. Lissy, sounds like the job is good. That´s great to hear. Tell Andrew I say hi back. Jack, seriously canons from the civil war? Awesome. Hey found my four leaf clover in my scriptures, stuck it between tape cause it was starting to fall apart. It´s amazing the things you find in the scriptures that you weren´t even looking for.
So Here´s a story I think Chrsitine will like. There is this one house that we walk by a couple times a week and well everyone here has dogs. Usally two or more. They are all over and so loud. Sheesh. It´s funny when you walk down the street and there are just random dogs a sleep on the side walk. Anyway, this house has I think 5 chihuhuas and my companion likes to torment them. One of them is vicious he shows his little teeth and I swear he could knaw off a finger if given the opportunity. So Christine, I can deffinately see how someone could be attacked by angry chihuhuas.
OH, this is great...So I´m not sure how good Argetnina is for my ego...My companion and I were walking down a street in a little bit more of a shady area, don´t worry completely safe, just a little shady. So I don´t really understand a lot of the things that people say to us, which is good. I do know however, what a whistle sounds like, so that point gets made. So this day we are walking along on our way to an appointment and a group of 4 or 5 young men are standing on the side of the road. Usually we just ignore them but this time we couldn´t, it was just too funny. So one of these smooth opporators yells out, ¨Si la belleza fue un pecado, no tendras perdon de Dios¨HAHAHAHAHA. So in English, basically Ïf beauty were a sin you wouldn´t be forgiven by God.¨HAHAHAHAHA. Oh we laughed about it for quite a few blocks. OH and then about an hour later we were in another area and we were talking to a man on the street. As Hna. Romo was talking he was looking at me a lot, which was wierd ´cause I don´t say much. So we shook hands and started to walk off, this guy yells back at us and asks if we believe in Prophecy, we were like ya, we believe in a prophet. So he comes up to me and I had a hard time understanding what he was saying, I didn´t know too many words he was using. Then Hermana Romo, is like, ókay, bueno bueno, we got to go...¨ I was really confused at this point. Well, apparently this man just made some prophecy about me and my future. Huh. I guess I will be married by this time next year and I need to pray to know who it is, or something like that.....okay, well I´ll still be on a mission next year, so.....nope. Oh, the people you meet on the mission.
Okay so sad note of the week, Olga, we haven´t been able to find her. She left us a message saying she didn´t want to be baptized. Ouch. So we are really trying to find her and find out what happened. I wish I had more to tell you.
So good news! We found a new family! They are great! the dad actually lied to us the first time we met him, he didn´t think we´d come back, little did he know. :) He even came to part of church yesterday. Then we went to their house for lunch, asado. Like a variety of meat cooked delicously on the grill. WOW muy rico!. Sorry dad I gave in and tried the blood sausage. IT was okay, I wanted to get it out of the way so I ate it first, then they thought I really liked it so they gave me even more. Oh well.
Sorry I lost track of time that´s about all I got.Spiritual stories next week promise.

Love you all,
Aleta

ps. mom, heat pack, another pair of clark shoes( don´t have to be the exact same ones), any nice short sleeves shirts, not collered just churchy nice, that´s all I can think of right now, got to run. love ya!

Wow, that week went fast!‏

My lovely family and friends,

I love You! Mom, thank you for the letter. How are Scott and Betsy doing? How are Uncle Nick and Aunt Phylis? I´m really glad you got to have such a fun time in Bremerton. Yeah, Tigre is really pretty. Apparently it is a major vacation spot for people who live in Capital, the down town part of Buenos Aires. So on the weekends it is really crazy. It is spring right now, so the weather is beautiful, very much like May in Washington. We even had a few overcast days last week :) It was a nice little present from the Lord. The only thing is, in the summer it´s going to be crazy busy! There is a big river that runs right through it which means lots of humidity. So that should be fun! At least it will be an adventure, don´t worry I´ll tell you all about it.
Oh and something I was going to mention but almost forgot, until I read Jack´s letter.... the FOOD! SO GOOD. It´s a good thing it´s hot here in the summer, cause apparently you just sweat off all the weight you gain from the food. There is a lot of pasta. Most of the time it is home made and amazing. One of the members served us steak and papa fritas (french fries) the other day. Seriously one of the best steaks I have ever had. Resturant quality. Oh and the ice cream is amazing. Oh and one thing they use ALL the time......Potatos! Yeah, I have had them several different ways and each one is great. OH and the soup, yum! SO basically the food is great and I need to get recipies before I leave.
Dad, that´s great to hear about your poetry, keep up the good work to you too.
Aunt Janie, the apple sauce sounds like fun. I hope you got it all done and have room left in the basement :)
Oh somebody tell Daniel S. congrats for me. Hey how are my friends in the Singles Ward, Tamsin, Lissy (are you still alive), The Atkinsons, Wilson´s...everyone!
So as far as what I´ve been up to...One of our investigators Olga is so ready! She just needs her baptisimal interview and we are good to go. She has been having a hard time because she feels alone in her decision, Well we went and picked her up for church yesterday and that made all the difference. She finally got to meet friends. She was so cute walking around and everyone she met she wrote down their names and their phone numbers. Then in R.S. they were talking about baptism and the teacher asked the question ¨who needs to be baptised¨ well, she was looking for an answer like, every one over the age of eight.... But Olga just smiles and raises her hand high up in the air! It was great.

Well I think that´s all I have time for this week.
I love you and pray for you,
Aleta

PS. Mom, the mission president´s wife said to befriend her on Facebook. She puts up pictures of the missionaries from time to time, from zone conferences and things. So yeah you can check that out.
PPS. Jack I got the pictures, thanks.
PPPS. Brandi hang in there. I love getting your emails.
PPPPS. Yes I feel much better by the way.
PPPPPS. Now I really got to go LOVE from me to you!

ARGENTINA!!!! woah!‏

My dearest family and friends,
Thank you for the emails from Betsy, Dad, Mom, Jodi and Jack. They were a great suprise when I got on here this afternoon! Mom, I hope the weather stays good for you to get things done! SO....Tigre is my area, it´s kind of a suberb of Buenos Aires. It´s really busy though. We usually take the colectivo (buses) everywhere. I´m not the biggest fan they drive crazy here, but the busses are better than the remises which are like taxis.
So hey, incase you weren´t aware I´m a missionary....it has kind of hit me this week. I go to peoples houses and share the Gospel of Jesucristo with them. I have had so many great expieriences this week and I only understand about 60% of what is going on most of the time. Apparently I am doing really good with the language, people say that they can understand me, which is good, I´m really slow, but at least the point gets across.
So the Holy Ghost is amazing, incase any of you don´t know that, it is. It is the greatest gift in my life right now. Hermana Romo and I are constintly lead by the spirit to know what we should teach or where we should go. So many times last week we just did the first thing that came in to our minds, which turned out to be the perferct thing. We rean into a lot of recent converts to the church that haven´t been in a while, for one reason or another, we invited them to come this week, fingers crossed.
We are teaching this lady named Olga, she is really sweet and teachers English! Oh the tender mercies of the Lord, I feel so blessed to be able to really know what is going on in at least one lesson. She is progressing really well and LOVES reading from the book of Mormon.
OH! sheesh how could I forget... Yesterday we had a zone conference with Elder Arnold. (which is why I´m writing on tuesday, usually pdays are monday fyi) He is the new area President over South America South. He is the one who spoke in General Conference about the stupid cow, and how the fence was there to protect it. Anyway, it was simply amazing! He spoke directly to me, it was obvious I didn´t understand everything since I kept asking my companion to traslate different things. So he noticed and gave me some really encouraging words. He told a really tender story about how he learned Spanish. After the conference we got to shake his hand and he said some wonderful things that were truley inspired and exactly what I needed to hear. I love the Lord! He is so good to me and I know he just wants me to do the best job possible. He want´s ALL of his children to hear the message of the restored Gospel.

I think tha´s all that I have time for this week. Lo siento. I´m off to a art museum and Ice cream!

I love all of you with all my heart!
Aleta

Day 1

Hola madre,
I have arrived safely. I am a little queasy from the flight still. Argentina is very pretty and I like it. The drivers are crazy though. There is a lot to get used to. Pres. Gulbrandsen and his wife are very nice and I like them a lot. There is not very much to say. I haven´t really done anything, because I have been feeling so sick. Don´t worry though I know it will be fine, I just need a little time to let my body adjust from the flight I think. My trainer is Hermana Romo, she is from LA. She has been out 11 months and I am her first trainee. Her companion just left this morning to go home to Utah. So she goes from one companion at the very end of her mission to one at the start. She is very sweet and I think we are going to get along great.
Other than that I don´t really know what to say. I´m sure next week I will have tons to write, so sorry it´s short this week, forgive me.

I love you all,
Aleta

Safe Arrival in Argentina

Your daughter arrived safely in the mission today. We love her and are so grateful to serve with her. Thank you for raising such a wonderful young woman.
Sincerely,


Richard M. Gulbrandsen
Argentina Buenos Aires Norte

Well, this is it. Almost gone!‏

Dear family and friends,

Thank you so much for the letters. Thanks to Mom, Isaac, Scott and Betsy I loved your letters! They really make my day everytime I recieve one. So my address in Argentina is in my call packet Mom. It's the one that says pouch letters, you send them to Salt Lake then they send them to me every once in a while, I think. That's the word on the street anyway.

I haven't got mail yet today, so I haven't got the package yet, but thank you SO much! Oh and my roommates and comps, loved the bread. I was even nice and shared the glorious muffin with them. So tell Frank thanks.

Okay, so tons of great stories this week. I am really going to miss the Elders. Mom, you asked if we were all flying together. Well, four Elders are going to Resistencia Argetnina and they are on a later flight to Atlanta, but we all meet up to fly to Argentina together. There are 10 people in my district, including me. Three are going to Buenos Aires, 3 to Bahia Blanc and the other 4 to Resistencia. Hope that helps some. Oh and yes, I have taken pictures. I can't figure out how to upload them, and the lines at the kiosks are always really long to print them out. I'll get them to you some how don't worry.

Okay so last week our teacher brought in a flag from Argentina for us. So we wanted to hang it up, so Elder Gochnour got the bright idea to hook it up in the ceiling by slightly lifting one of the ceiling tiles up and wedging it between them. I've seen it done before no big deal. Well, all of the sudden we hear a huge crash and I feel a pain in my leg. I turn around and the whole ceiling tile is on the floor in two pieces. It was hilarious. All of the sudden Elder Haslam comes over with a big piece of tape to fix it and the other Elders are trying to put it back in the ceiling like nothing happened. Well, it kinda worked there is still a small piece missing, but nobody else has really noticed yet.

Oh before I forget, my teacher Hermano Zivic, his dad is giving one of the prayers in General conference so look for that, I think it's the Sat. afternoon session.

kay so next, is our Elders REALLY like to sing. So we were practicing for musical number on Sunday, every district sings in Sacrament meeting, before they leave. So we picked nearer my god to thee, but in Spanish of course. Entonces, we were splitting up the different vereses and running through for a practice run. Well the Elders had a verse they sung by themselves. All of the sudden all 7 of them start singing falsetto. Like I think some of them were hitting higher notes than me! Well they loved the way it sounded and it really took some convincing to tell them that they were NOT singing that way in church. I got it on film though and it's hilarious.

Okay then, yesterday Elder Christianson and Elder Haslam having been working on some new lyrics to the song of "Every time we touch" so last night they had it worked out to just start singing it when Our teahcer Hermana Sybrowsky walked in. SOOOOO funny. She walks in asks how we are, no one says anything, excpect Elder Robinson starts pounding out the beat to the song. Then Elder Jay starts whistling the tune. All of the sudden all the Elders join in with the new and improved "missionary lyrics" such as "Every time we teach, we feel the Spirit,..."Anyway, I have 'em written down somewhere. It was so funny, Hna. Sybrowsky's face was priceless.

Oh, last week at the temple walk, right after I took some pictures with Brittany actually, I dropped my Bluecard down a drain! okay so my bluecard is like my key, you don't want to loose it. It get's you into meals and your buildings, you have money on it for things at the bookstore and vending machines. Anyway down it went into a grate and was just taunting me by floating on the water out of my reach. We couldn't pull up the cover of the grate either. Don't worry I got a new one but it was pretty funny.

Okay, I thinks that's all the stories I can remember, there were so many this week, I felt like I was laughing all the time. I'm really going to miss the Elders and my companions. Sorry this email isn't very spiritual, I had some great experiences with teaching this week too. One where I was actually pretending to be an investigator and it was great. The spirit was really leading the missionaries to what my problem was. It was great.

Okay well there isn't too much time left. I'm not sure what day I get to email from Argentina. So sorry if it's more than a week. I can't believe I will be there next week at this time completely surrrounded by Spanish.!!!!!!!!! Yipe!

Oh well, I know the Lord knows where I am and that I'm on his errand. He will watch out for me and help me learn the language.

Thank you everone for your letters, thoughts, and prayers! I love them

All my Love,
Aleta