internet.....grrr‏

Dear family,
Well this is the second attempt at a letter. Got to love the internet. We spent 15 minutes trying to get it fixed then gave up and did all our other stuff and decided to come back. Well it´s up and running now. So we went to an all you can eat place for lunch today with our district over in San Fernando. This was not like a place in the states....it was really yummy. So that was fun, nice to see the elders.
So mom, I´m glad all went so well on thanksgiving. I´m glad the car worked well for you. yeah. I´m sure the packages will be alright. It´s always an adventure. Kammie....you´re alive! It was so good to get your email thanks so much. Oh and Brother Bingham thankyou for the email as well, sounds like life is going good. I got Jaime´s invitation last Tuesday and I thought to myself ,¨what a nice tender mercy of the lord, if I´m not there in person at least I get the invitation on the actual day of the wedding¨. That was really nice. Jaime I wish you all the happiness in the world thats what you deserve.
This was a good week. Every lesson we taught on Saturday was great. They were perfect for the investigators and the members we were teaching. It is really amazing how the spirit can guide and direct you in a lesson and before and after the lesson as well. We taught one family, the Gomez family, who have been less active for sometime now, at least my whole time in Tigre. We taught them a lesson and watched the Testaments. The husband, Ariel,said that at the end when the man sees Christ´s face, he said he(ariel) had a flash and realized that they way he was living he would not be there to see Christ´s face. It was a big turning point for him and his whole family came to church yesterday!
A family that we are working with right now are Augustina and Gustavo. She is really good and he wants so badly to change and become better. We talked to him about the atonement and how you change with the help of Christ. We also shared Alma 32 about faith and how you need to nourish it. We didn´t know it at the time, but he is actually a gardener,so he get´s the analogy perfectly. It really was good and at the end of the lesson he asked his daughter to say the prayer,she didn´t know how so he helped her and he taught her how to pray. It was lovely. He is already starting to nourish and take care of the seed.
We had lunch with a recent convert, Oscar, on Saturday and we talked to him about patrichal blessings, he is really excited and has made some goals to start preparing to recive it. Later he asked both of us about our missions and why/how we decided to serve. He´s seriously thinking about a mission and just needs the papers. So that was a great help to him and a reminder to me about some of the reasons I´m here.
So all in all good week. I wish I could say more, and write to every one. Love you all!
love,
Aleta

Apperantly it still gets hotter....

Dear family,

I´m slightly jealous about the cold there, maybe we could work something out...you send half of it here and I´ll send half of the heat there...then it would be perfect!!! Let´s work on that ok:) So I asked the Branch President yesterday how much hotter it gets here compared to the last couple days and he said like 10 degrees, I may turn into a puddle before christmas. Oh speaking of Christmas I realized it´s still a while, but he said we´d be calling form their house, so I guess that´s one thing I don´t need to worry about. They are a great family, he´s the President, sister Torre is the sunday school teacher, their son, Mathias Torre is the Misional leader and gospel principle teacher and I think all three of them take turns teaching semanary. Crazy, oh and there are a family of four boys so our sunday lunches are quite eventlful and we usually side with Hermana Torre. Lot´s of fun.

So about Steven, I all most mentioned Elder Lowery in my letter last week but changed my mind. funny huh. He is actually in my district. Their area is right next to mine. Yes he is an assistent to the president I think this is his last transfer. I met him my first day and he is one of the few people I know. He is a really great missionary. Poor Hermana Gulbrandsen, she doesn´t know any Spanish, well very little, so he is the one that always translates for her. I´ll probably see him tomorrow at District meeting, if not that´s the building where the mission office is so I´ll get a message to him some how. Small world huh.

Excited for the package. I hope you get it sent off okay and all is good. Everything sounds fine.
Oh, HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!!!! I can´t believe it´s already the dia de gracias. Wow. No, they don´t celebrate it here....it´s all about the pilgrims and native north americans. They know that it exsits though. So I hope everyone has fun eating turkey and things. Have fun up at aunt Janie´s. Hey, are you getting up early and hitting any sales as usual? Don´t let my absence hinder your favorite pass time :)
So this week was a really good one. We found 5 new investigators and they are all so good. One of them Freissy (sounds like fray-zy) is so good. She reads all of the additonal reading in the pamphlets we leave her and reads all the chapter, not just the few verses we leave, out of the scriptures. She is so cute and has a two year old little girl and another on the way. The next step get her and her ¨husband¨ legally married. We found this other family Gustavo and Augustina by listening to the spirit. That was pretty great. They are really good and even came to church this week. She listened to the missionaries over a year ago, but he didn´t like it. Well now he is more interested and is okay with her listening. He gave the closing prayer during our first lesson and he asked for the strength to be able to change and become better. So that was pretty great to hear.
So that´s about all I got time for this week. Off to buy a few things. It´s some new holiday here so everyone has the day off so the street vendors are out today, usually they are only here on the weekends. Yeah I guess Nov. didn´t have any holidays so they made some, cool huh.
Love you lots! Keep my updated about the family. I haven´t heard much about Scott and Betsy or Matt and Shiela. Dad how is work going, general stuff like that.
Love, love, love you!
Aleta

Sorry, it´s late!

Dear Family,
Sorry it´s a day late. When ever we have transfers our Pdays are on Tuesdays. So sorry if you waited all day for my email Mom. Don´t worry everything is fine. I can´t belive it´s already been a whole transfer. I happy that Hermana Romo and I get to stay together! Have I told you anything about her, I don´remember. She is from LA and she has two younger brothers serving missions right now too. Wow, imagine having three kids on missions at the same time, crazy! Her family is from Mexico so she is fluent in castellano, or spanish, apprently spanish is what they speak in spain, not here... So it´s great because she knows both languages really well. We get along great and have a lot of fun.
Speaking of missions.....ARGENTINA!!!!!!!! I knew it! I was thinking wouldn´t it be cool if Alex came to Argentina? and then... he is! Yeah. Congrats. I think Salta is north of where I am so more heat, but my companion says they eat more asado there, that´s grilled meat. The meat is SO good. so good.
Thanks for the emails this week, wow. Lots. I just had time to skim them all so if there are any questions they´ll have to wait till next week. It was nice to hear from Bro. Chord. Barbara sound like life is good! Mom thanks for all the up dates. Alex thanks for the news. Oh and I do get Dear Elders, they just come every six weeks along with all the other mail. So I should be getting them in about three weeks from now. Dad, thanks for the advice about Olga, we´ve tried some of that, but we´ll keep at it.
So news from here, lets see. Oh we ran into this guy, well his wife actually, but that´s along story... so lets just say we met this guy form New York. Well he was born in Uraguay, but was brought up in the states. Well, turns out he is Mormon. Well I guess his dad was somebody ¨pretty high up in the church¨I have no idea who he is, but it was a long time ago. So John, knows about the church, and we really did find him at the perfect time, he has a lot of questions, they are really good questions too. He has seen a lot of things in his life that have caused him to wonder, he´s an ex CIA agent by the way. Google him if you want, he told us to but we can´t. His name´s John Battaglia Ponte. Any way it is amazing how God puts people in our path right when they need to be and when they are ready it´s great!
Well sorry I can´t write more but I´ve got to run
Lots of Love,
Aleta

ps.Oh... So I mentioned Steven Stucki the other day to my companion and she about died that I know him. Apparently he is some kind of ledgend here. She got here like 4 months after he left and she still know who he is pretty cool huh.
pps. any food would be good, stuff to snack on. chocolate, the chocolate here just isn´t the same!

love,
Aleta

hot!!!!!!!!!!

Dear Family,
It is getting Hot here! Oh, if there is money missing from my account it is because I broke down and bought an umbrella after being drenched last week. My comp forgot her money so I bought hers too. The strap is for my bag, to replace the lame one that comes with it. So padding would be good. I like the shoes, I guess they are okay. I do wear the clarks more though. I think they will be fine, I mainly need them incase something happens to the ones I have now. Oh and my companion says to send each shoe seperately so they make it to me, sometimes things go ´missing¨ .Dad, if you tried to send an email. it was blank. So thanks for thinking of me anyway. Brandi, thanks for the update, good luck with the job search. Happy belated birthday to you, Melissa and Kammie. The singles ward is great and really fun, you'll meet lots of friends. Aunt Janie, sounds like you are having fun as usual. Jack, thank you for the letter. It was perfect, the pick me up that I needed. That is great about your mom. I'm so excited. So mom to answer question from last week. I get up at 6:30 pray and excerise. at 7 get ready for the day. 730 eat breakfast, usually eggs and toast with some fruit. 8 is personal study, 9 is companion study, 10 is language study then we are out the door at 11. We have teaching appointments at different times throughout the day. We have an hour for lunch useally with members at any where between 1230 and130, just depends on the family. Then we travel all over Tigre teaching people until 9 when we head back home and plan for the nextday. We found a couple of new investigators this week and they are awesome! Rosa recieved the Gift of the Holy Ghost yesterday and that was awesome. One of the greatest feelings in my life. We are still working with Olga, I'll keep you updated there. My companion says she doesn't have agency anymore and that she WILL be baptised. :)Oh I went to capital this week to get my visa stuff in order and we went on the widest street in the world. it is like 11 lanes oneside. Look it up, it´s in congresso and by the obolisque? Any way it was cool, lots of palm trees. Any way that´s about all I got time for. Love you all and pray for you!Miss you,
your missionary,
Aleta

Wow, November already!

Dear Family,
Guess what, Guess what, Guess what?????....... BAPTISM!!!!!!!!!!!
No unfortunately not Olga. It´s Rosa! I realized I forgot to tell you about her last week. She is the sweetest lady I´ve ever met. Muy muy dulce. Hermana Romo and her last companion found her about a week before I got here, but didn´t really get a chance to teach her too much. So we taught her all the lessons and in the first lesson she was praying about the book of Mormon and she said right there in her prayer that she knew it was true! So we asked her about it, turns out she had heard the missionaries before 15 years ago and had wanted to get baptised. She only stopped going to church, because they stopped coming and she wasn´t baptised. Well, turn out she wasn´t leagally married to her Husband , which happens all the time here, but he died two years ago. So she was ready now to be baptised. I love every lesson with her. When we would teach her she would just say, ¨okay, i know, I already do that....¨ We couldn´t believe it. She´s great and I´ll send pictures, eventually¨:)
Oh and before I forget, we found OLGA! Yeah, we are taking it a little slower trying to make sure we address her doubts. Mostly they are about being able to keep the commandmants after she is baptised. We met with her last night and talked a lot about the Holy Ghost. I love it when we teach her, I actually feel like I am helping, it helps that she speaks English!
Okay to answer questions...yes Argentinian is a word. Today I studied the last four chapters of Mosiah, good stuff. Oh my the CENSUS! We could not leave the appartment ALL day. My companion called the district leaders four times to make sure because she couldn´t believe it. we did a project inside with our area map that we´ve been wanting to do for a long time. Yeah, A girl!!!! Congrats! Oh I live in an appartment complex by the train station in Tigre center. It´s the safest part. Shoe size I can´t read it. I think the box might still be around in my room some where though. I think 81/2 not sure though. Rice pack, or both we have a mirco wave. Among things for Christmas a nice camera back strap, for by shoulder bag would be much appreciated.
Okay, got to run. I´ll try to tell you about my daily schedule next week and answer a few more questions.
Love you all,
Aleta