Merry Christmas!!!

hey, it´s like I just talked to you....‏

Dear family,

Hey so it was SO good to see your faces yesterday! You look great. I can´t believe how big the kids have gotten. That´s so great that Scott and Betsy stopped by. I hope everyone´s Christmas was great. Mine was fabulous. Oh and when I got done using skype I went down stairs they wanted to know if I liked pie. Well, I assured them that I not only like pie I LOVE pie. It was delicious, an apple and there was also a peach and something red cream pie. SO yummy. So that was just a nice cherry on the whole night. oh and then earlier I had mentioned that i love potatoes and she had put a whole container of left over mashed potatoes in a container for me! so awesome!

Okay I don´t really have too much to say, I said a lot yesterday. That sounds weird. I love technology, just thought I´d add that.

This was a good week. Every week has it´s ups and down, but overall I think that we are progressing. Hermana Sperry and I are constantly trying to figure out how we can help our investigators. How we can help the members in Vicente Lopez have the desire to be a part of the missionary work. They are starting to get on board. I feel really strongly that where we need to look for these people is through the recent converts. I have known this for a long time and we are constantly trying to pass by for them and help them grow in their faith so that they will come back to church, but we can´t find them. We are trying to figure out how to teach them. When we finally have an appointment they aren´t home. I have really been praying a lot this week about how we can teach these people. I know is what the Lord has asked and he doesn´t give any commandment without preparing the way. So the way to do it is there, we´ve just got to figure it out. As for my studies they are good. I love how when we ask the lord responds. He helps us know what will help our investigators.
Okay I´m sure I´ll have fabulous stories for you next week as everyday is an adventure here.
LOVE YOU!!!!!
Aleta

Merry Christmas

Dear Family.Merry CHRISTMAS!!!Thankyou so much for the letters. It sounds like things are going welland full of interesting stories. Okay, This week was a bit crazy. We had planning and that always takes a while, now we are changing a little bit how we do it. Well, I guess we are just doing part of it more thoroughly than before. It´sawesome, but a lot of work. So then we got a phone call letting us know that we had a training meeting for all of the trainers and their companions. Oh no, I´m getting a head of myself. On Tuesday we got togo to the Church office building in Bonpland to do a simulization ofthe new ¨open chapel¨program that they are launching here in Argentina. That was awesome, we got to do a run thorugh with the employees that work for the church and see how it works. It´s pretty cool. They have the recording that they use in the visitors center and a big wood cut out of the Christus. So that´s what we did on Tuesday in preparation for the actual event on Friday. It was pretty cool to be able to participate in the first one in Argentina. So we headed out to that on Friday morning, but we had to leave early because we had the open chapel activity. OH Wait. I almost forgot about the most exciting part. On the way to the church for the meeting, the train hit someone. I don´t know how bad it was. They weren´t any ambulances or anything, but that´s what we were told. So of course we all have to get off the train as they wait for the police. Well It was an adventure to jump off the train. It is about 8 feet up of the ground.Oh the fun we have in skirts....It was really nice of the Elders to help all the sisters down off the train though, that made things slightly less awkward. So then it´s gonna take forever for the next train to come so we just start walking. We walked to the next train station and just as we walked in the train pulled up. Well we were in the wrong side of the tracks....well we all brake out in a run down the platform, up the strairs that go over the train tracks and down the other side. It´s a good thing the Elders were out in front because just as they got there they yelled out ESPERE ESPERE. (wait wait) The train whistle blows the doors were about to close and we were booking it down the last few steps of the bridge. Thanks to the elders and them talking to the driver we all made it on the train and got to San Fernando. That was awesome. So then we had to leave early to make it back to vicente lopez and it started to rain just as we got off the train, so all of our preparations to look nice were in vain, but hey we´re missionaries right, we look pretty ragged most of the time. So we got to the church and got everything set up and it was so great.This program will be so powerful when people learn about it and invite their friends to it. So we gave the tour to 10 people, but they were all really awesome and we recived 20 referals.So that was probaly to most enternaing part of the week. It´s great being here. We also saw a lot of miracles, one being Luis. He´s an elderly man we met on Saturday. We were walking by his house and out of the corner of my eye I saw something strange. i took a double take and turns out it was a turtle turned over on it´s back. Poor guy, well it couldn´t move and like every house there was a big metal fence. I rang the doorbell and few times and that´s how we met Luis. Turns out the turtle tends to do that, not really sure how, but it happens. Well we got to talking and he was interested in the messege and he came to church yesterday. yay. So things are well here. I hope all is well with you. Love you all.I´ll talk (and see) you on SUNDAY!lots of love,Aleta

december..hot.

Dear family,
Hows life? Good I hope. Wow I can´t believe Lissy is entering the MTC next week. That came so fast. Well sounds like you all have had busy weeks, well those you that I hear from.
So this last week for me was a good one. We had zone conference and that was great. We talked a lot about how Christ is the good Shepard and how his sheep hear his voice and know him. Well it´s our job to help people hear his voice. They really just need to recognize it, since they´ve heard it before they came here. It is amazing to think about and see that the lord really is preparing these people to receive us and recognize us as his servants. For example, Thursday after zone conference, we had a lesson planned, but the member (555 aka a less active member that we are visiting) wasn´t home so we turned to go to the next appointment, as we were pretty close on time anyway and didn´t have much time to contact in the area we were in before heading to the next appointment. Well we walked by this cute little family I smiled and kept walking. I know.. horrible. Well I got to the end of the block the whole time thinking, what. you aren´t going to turn around and talk to those people? Angels are preparing people, don´t you have confidence in the council of your President and the Lord? Well knowing that I would not be able to sleep at night, and we know I like to sleep, I quickly turned around and we talked to them. Natalia is so wonderful. She accepted a baptismal date and everything, right there on the sidewalk. We have an appointment with them for tomorrow, so we are pretty excited to work with these people that the lord has guided us to.
We are also trying really hard to memorize all of the how to begin teaching points. It´s going well, Hermana Sperry used one in a contact the other day and it was great. So we are really trying to improve in that area, so people know right from the beginning why we are talking to them and how this will bless their life. Preach my Gospel is so great, everything you ever need to know is in there. We have decided that we have this slightly awkward pause after saying hi to someone, so we are focusing on ways to make them feel comfortable and WANT to talk to us. So that´s our challenge for the week. They will want to talk to us. OH and funny story so the other day Hermana Sperry had this goal to ask everyone we talked to to be baptized. Well she had forgot once and felt kinda bad, so the next person she was determined to do it. Well we saw this nice man standing on the corner of the street and we said hi. Well Hermana Sperry started in on her contact, which was really great by the way, but this guy had NO interest. In fact he kept saying it, we kept talking anyway, he doesn´t really know what he´s saying no to. Well it was clear that he didn´t want to learn any more, but Hermana Sperry had her goal, and she invited him anyway, and he said......no. I know very anti climatic. It was really funny though. Afterward we were talking about it and she said that she thought well this guy going to say no, but what have I got to loose.
Oh and then there was this other day we were walking at twilight, and all of the sudden we heard a motorcycle then we heard this really weird laughter. It was like this maniacal joker cackle. He did it all the way up the street and then turned the corner. It was so weird. Hermana Sperry turned to me and asked ¨did that really just happen¨ It was rather entertaining and then we just felt like we were in this weird episode of the twilight zone. Oh good times on the mission, you just never know what kind of craziness you´ll see next. It´s always an adventure here in Argentina.
Well I think I´ve rambled on enough this week. I hope you all enjoyed this abnormally long letter. My companion is writing a lot to her family, so I had a little more time than usual to remember a few stories for you all. Well I´m sure I´ll have all the details for Christmas call next week.
Love you lots
Aleta

Hello December

Dear family,
This has been a really fun week. My companion is super fun. She´s a hard worker and always has on a smile. I attached a few pictures of us....hey we get our kicks where we can find them.
Mom, I´m super happy you had a happy birthday. Sounds like a lot of fun. I thought of you on Friday and wondered what you were doing. I should have guessed apple bees. I thought maybe Mexican. Oh, well can´t be right all of the time. Thanks for the email. Thanks for the emails dad and aunt Janie. Dad, great that you´ve got another job, and that you like it. Aunt Janie thanks for filling me in on the ward and all of the changes, I´m pretty sure I won´t even recognize the place when I get back. ;)
So it is really nice to return to my second area. I have some good memories here. It was short only 8 weeks, but almost all of the members remembered me, not my name, but me. So that was pretty cool. I really didn´t think that many would remember, it´s been like 6 months. Oh and the other day we went to see Omar. Hermana Salas and I had taught him all of the lessons before he was baptized and then we got transferred. Hermana Keele was so great and helped him adjust to the change and get baptised. Well I was able to come back for his baptism ç, back in July and haven´t herd much since. Well on Friday we went and paid them a visit....awesome. I think I know what it will be like to reunite with loved ones who have passed on. I walked in and he didn´t really focus on my face, just that it was the missionaries and the I said to his friend Carlos, do you remember me, he nodded and smiled. His wife did too, Carmen is so sweet and she was really happy to see me. Then I got to Omar and asked do you remember me... wow, I wish I had a picture of his face. he said ¡ NO! no me diga. No, way, don´t tell me... yep. he was surprised. His hands flew up and he did a home alone type scream, nooooooo. (but of joy not out of pain, just to clarify that one) It was so sweet. We had a great lesson with them.
So that´s about all I got time for this week. Oh and I got to witness Hermana Sperry´s first proposal, that was entertaining. It was this homeless guy we stopped to talk to and we offered a pray with him and then after he said, ¨Can I tell you something¨ well of course, what? ¨I´m in love with you. tell me... are you married.¨ Oh it was a pretty good one. My comp was like what? you have got to be kidding me. I hope the best for the guy and that he can find a nice Latina to marry.
Okay now that´s about all,
Love you tons!
Aleta

Here we go again 2.0‏

Hello family,
well we had transfers today. It was a little tough to say good bye to Hermana Binks and to Urquiza. 6 months is a long time to have in an area and well there is just a special relationship between trainers and their hijitas. So here I am once again in Vicente Lopez. 2. Yep, that{s right. It seems I have more to do here. So I{m opening the area...again. I guess. So it got split when I was here in May and then they closed it or maybe better said put it back into one area when we got transferred to Urquiza. So I{m here again to split it all over again. It should be fun. My new companion is Hermana Sperry she{s from pleasant grove. This is her 2nd transfer here in Argentina, so I guess I{m still training. Well this last week was fun. Last p-day we went to calle Florida and I bought a lot of souvenirs and things. I had a feeling that I{d be leaving capital and I wanted to take advantage of the easy accessible and cheaper souvenirs. Mom, thus would be the reason of the with drawl from my account. We had a good time. Our awesome investigator Alcides, moved to Chacarita, the zone leaders area. So we aren't able to teach him any more, but they are awesome. Then he told us that he got a new job and had to work on Sundays. Well he wasn't aware that he couldn't get baptized if he didn't go to church. So miracle he called us today and told us he found another, better job, and he only has to work Monday thru Friday! What a miracle. Hermana Binks and I have been praying a full for that.
Well it sounds like you all had a pretty calm Thanksgiving. I{m sure next year will be full of adventures. Dad, that sounds like one good menu. Mom, I thought of you on Friday and wondered if you went shopping. Glad you spent some time with Jennie. Hey Melissa I got your Christmas card today, thanks!!! oh and Christine, I hope you feel better soon, I{m sure your sticking it out, but ouch!
Well that{s about all I got for you. I{m sure next week will be full of fun stories.
Lots of Love,
Aleta
PS. ¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM!!!!!! o como dicen aqui ¡¡¡¡¡¡¡Feliz Cumple¡¡¡¡¡¡¡

Happy Thanksgiving!

Dear Family and friends,

Thanks for the letters! Jaime, that is so weird to think you have been married a year. Congrats! Oh and speaking of marriages, Congratulations HEIDI! I got the wedding announcement this week when we went to a leadership training meeting and was slightly speechless when I saw your name. You look so happy! I can´t wait to meet up with you again and hear all about it.
Oh and HAPPY THANKSGIVING everyone! I can´t believe it´s on Friday...wait no Thursday. I guess that´s a sign I´ve been a way a while, can´t even remember when national holidays are....well, friday´s the day of the sales , that I remember ;)
So I´m sending home a few pictures of this awesome pen that Hermana Binks and I bought....then it broke, which just made it even more funny. I hope you think so too. hahahahha...it´s funny.
Also sending a picture of cute little Jonas, the chicken pox culprit... in case you´d like to see who i caught them from. I think he´s three.
Oh and this week at our training meeting, all of the sisters had a special meeting about this new pilot program the church is doing about open chapels. It´s like a mini visitors center and is mobile. They set them up in church and have an open house type thing, with a huge cut out of the christus and everything, even the same recording that you here in the temple visitor centers. Pretty cool huh. Well our mission is the ¨test site¨ So we´lll see how it all goes, I hope I get to participate in one before I go home. It is really great and the way they have it set and contact the people is just great. So we´ll see.

This week has been a roller coaster. We have had some great up and some huge downs. I guess that is the way things are though. The down definitely help you see and be grateful for the ups. We have an investigator Alcides, he is amazing and so prepared. It has been a blessing to see him learn and grow. He has had some amazing experiences with the spirit and loves the Book of Mormon. He has been working and living in the same house and as of last week the family moved in that had hired him to remodel. Well it turns out that they told him he had to leave the next day. Well, he had no where to go and doesn´t know anyone here, he´s from Chaco (a province in the northern part of Argentina). So to make a long story short, after much prayer and diligent search on our part, the lord blessed him with a place to stay for the weekend. Unfortunately, he told us yesterday that he didn´t have enough money to stay there any longer and he didn´t know where he was going to go. With tears in his eyes he said, ¨I don´t want to go, I feel God´s love and I want to get baptized in this church.¨ We talked a lot about repentance and a few things that he needs to change in his life, but the spirit was beautiful as it touched his heart and he saw the truthfulness of the gospel and the hope to change for the better. We are going to try and stay in touch with him, we aren´t giving up on him yet, we just aren´t sure where he will be going. He really has been a blessing for us and has helped us learn how to teach by and with the spirit. On another note...
Our district leader called us this week inviting us to look for ways that we could find new investigators. Well Hermana Binks and I prayed and counseled about it and we came up with some great ideas. I know that as we go forth with faith and diligence the lord will bless us with his children who are ready for this good news.
Okay I think that´s enough from me this week, I love you all!
Have a great week and eat A LOT of turkey and potato's for me. They don´t really do the whole turkey thing here, it´s pretty much pig or cow, but it´s delicious :)
Love,
Aleta

Hello

Dear Family,
Hi how´s everyone? Thanks for the emails. Aunt Janie that sounds great! I can´t wait to see the video, good job with the surprise everyone. I have a great mental picture of you seeing Mike there in the doorway. Dad, I´m gonna try the cookies, they sound really yummy I´ll let you know how they turn out. Mom, I´m glad you liked the pictures. It has certainly started to warm up here, sigh. Oh well, I guess I had better enjoy it, since Feb, will be extremely cold when I get there. This has been a week with a lot of walking. We ran out of credit on our cell phone and we don´t get more until the 23rd, so that makes it a little more difficult to set appointments and find members to come with us. Today was a little abnormal as well, we had to go to San Fernando at 8 this morning to do paperwork for Hermana Binks, then we (all of the companions not doing said paperwork for visas and official documents) had to take the train to go to Capital. Well that took forever, then we walked around and looked at a few shops, we walked past the congress building, which is beautiful by the way, and the plaza 25 de Mayo. Then we hooked back up with our comps and well that was that. I had fun though and it´s always nice to get together with the other missionaries.
Our area is doing well, we have an investigator who is fantastic. We can´t find him right now, but he is great. I have never met someone so susceptible to the spirit.
Well sorry it´s short I don´t have too much more to say...I feel like the longer I´m here the shorter my emails become. Sorry about that, I just never remember all the things that I want to tell you when I´m here writing. I hope everything is good and that you have a great week.
Love,
Aleta

15 Months!

Dear family,
Well here we go into another month, I can´t believe I just completed 15 months in the mission. wierd. So they don´t observe daylight savings here, I completely forgot about that. Well, I´m glad you all got an extra hour of sleep! Wow, mom, that sounds like one busy weekend. I hope you had fun with everyone. Thnaks for the pictures you sent a couple of weeks ago, it looks like Calsita is getting really big. I look forward to seeing here just in time for her birthday;) Oh and no, I don´t think any of my packages have ever been opened. Well, that´s not entirely true. This last one was opened, but by Elders in the offices, it seems that my name somehow got lost on the package. It got here and everything, but they couldn´t tell who it was for, so the elders dug in in hopes that something had a name on it inside. Well lucky for me I had a few cards in there, and Aleta´s not that common of a name. So they got it to me. So it might be a good idea to write the name on the actual box as well as the typed address. There was a little note written on one of the inside flaps that said, ¨Looks like a great package, enjoy!¨ So I know somebody opened it
Well that´s all I got time for today,
Love you all Tons!

love,
Aleta

Happy Halloween!!

Dear family,
Well it´s Halloween today, we´ve been eating candy corn all morning! Thanks for that, it´s good, they don´t have anything like it down here. So our plans today are to go the the cemetery in Chacarita and see the sights. When the elders asked if it was something we want ed to do, we were like...really...cemetery. Then we thought about it and remembered it is Halloween and since we can´t really do anything else to celebrate, why not. This cemetery is HUGE, so it should be cool to see all the different types of graves, and tombs, they have a lot of family tombs here and they are always really pretty and cool looking. So that is the plan for today.
Thanks for the PACKAGE!!!! It it fantastic! Mom, I asked Hermana Gulbrandsen about the customs thing and she said they didn´t have any problems receiving it, so the money thing isn´t a problem I guess. So you can send things how you want, don´t worry about me having to pay. I don´t know if that goes for all missions, but that´s what Hermana Gulbrandsen told me. As for Christmas I´ll have to think about it..... Thanks for the cards everybody, they are great. Love the skirt, I´m wearing right now actually.
Oh and HAPPY BIRTHDAY LISSY!!!! and a HAPPY BIRTHDAY KAMMIE!!! I hope they are great! I can´t remember if if I wished Brandi Happy birthday, if not Feliz Cumple.... tarde! I can´t believe that tomorrow is November. How time flies. I saw Hermana Vargas yesterday and someone asked her how much time she had in the mission and she said 5 months. That was weird. My hijita has 5 months! I can´t believe that I´ve been with Hermana Binks for 2, it just keeps speeding up. Before you know it I´ll be home and all this will be like a wonderful dream. It´s weird how things like that work. Oh well, así es, and we don´t have to worry about it.
As for this week...
It had it´s ups and down like every other, but the goods always out way the bads. One of the biggest things was our ward missionary activity that we had this weekend. It was a combined activity with Nuñez as well. We went to Parque Saavedra and contacted about 650-700 people. They were all invited to an open house that we had the following day (yesterday) One of the biggest purposes of the activity was to get the members involved and excited. It was great and there was definitely a new excitement in those members who participated. Hermana Binks was great as she knows how to make balloon animals and made several for little kids as we talked with their parents. I think I am going to develop this talent when I come home it is super fun and everyone love it. So Sunday came around and we were very excited for the open house. Well we had five people show up! One was a contact from the park and the others were people that members contacted on the street as they were walking by. One of them is Alcides. He is amazing and he is just as much an answer to my prayers as we are to his.
So things are good here in Urquiza. I love you all lots!
Okay, off to see some graaaaaaveeeeesss. oooooohhhhhoooooo.
Love you,
Aleta

Well, family how is it going?
I´m just peachy as always. Sounds like you all have had a busy week. Mom, thanks for the pictures, Calista is SO cute. Good Job Scott and Betsy. I can´t wait to meet her, I guess that will happen before we know it. Dad, that´s great about the activities thing sounds like a lot of fun. Aunt Janie, I think that some how you manage to be more busy than a full time missionary, and that takes some doin´. :) Jack, thanks for the letter, I can definitely relate with the commute issues. Our area here in Urquiza is huge. It takes about 1 1/2 hours to walk from one end to the other. There are always colectivos (buses) but then you have to wait and you never know when they will come. It´s not an unusual sight to see two very determined missionaries running with all their might to catch a bus, if they miss it....well 20 blocks isn´t really that far to walk...;)
I have a zone conference on Thursday so I hope I´ll get my package then! This was a really good week. We found three new investigators yesterday, all from different sources. One was a contact that Hermana Binks did on Saturday night. She started talking to this guy while we were walking and she invited him to church and he said he´d come. Well they almost always say they´ll come, but don´t actually do it. Well this guy did. he came to sacrament meeting then we taught him a little after church. We have another appointment on Tuesday so we´ll see were that goes. So things are going well here in Villa Urquiza.
Oh, thanks for the updates about Alex. That´s how our lunch schedule has always been. 1 hour for lunch and then if you are hungry for dinner, usually eat something when your finished with planning. The only difference is here in Buenos Aires nobody takes the siesta, most of them are at work. Oh and thank goodness it is not that Hot, I would die!!!! So thanks for putting things in perspective, when I get hot, I´ll just think it could be worse, poor Alex.
Okay that´s all I got for you.
Love you tons,
With all my heart,
Aleta

transfer 10...

Dear family,
Well here we are I think this is transfer number 10 in the field. Whoa. I´m still here in Urquiza and Hermana Binks remains my comp. Yeah! We went to San Fernando last night for the missionary farewell, there were 20 Elders who left. That´s a lot, in case you didn´t know. So I think there are a lot of changes in other areas, but not us, we are nice and tranquil here in Urquiza. mwahahaha. So this week has been good. We found some new investigators and dropped several, I guess that is how it goes though. We received a reference from a recent convert in Belgrano (one of the other areas) and he is SO awesome. He had actually read what the elders had left for him, he understood it, liked it, and wants to learn more. So we are pretty excited to get to work with him.
Oh and I´m glad that the Binghams enjoyed the paintings.....I would be more than happy to do something specific for them when I get home, if I still remember how that is ;) Oh and hey, I just remembered, when we were on the train last night, there was this girl from a different stake and we got to talking and I was like, she seems so familiar to me, do I know her....have we talked like this before....then it hit me. She is a split image of Tamsin, really, it was weird. She does the same gestures and talks the same, and even has curly hair. So I´m throwing out a huge HI to my beautiful friend Tamsin this week!
Okay ummmm, that´s about all I got for you, nothing else is coming to mind. I think I might have to start taking notes again like I did at the begining of my mission so I could remember all the cool things to tell you. I´ll work on that.
Lots of Love,
Aleta

rainy here too...

Dear family,
This has been an extremely long week for some reason. The days just crawled by, not that that is a bad thing, just different, usually they fly by. Well we too have had a lot of rain here this week. I guess spring here is similar to fall there, go figure. It´s lovely, I love it. I have a huge purple umbrella that I´ve had since Tigre to keep me company and dry:) So I can´t remember anything special that Argentines do for the 31st, Dad, sorry. Today is a holiday, but I´m not sure why. Next week is mother´s day, yep the whole world celebrates it in may, except Argentina. So we have really been contacting a lot this week, we are in need of investigators, pero mal. The good thing is that my companion loves to talk to people, so she usually starts off the contact and I finish when she gets a little lost. She actually speaks super well, she doesn´t realize it, but it´s true , re capa ella. aka she´s awesome.Oh thanks for the emails. I always love them. I´m glad to hear that you all are getting over your colds, and wow employee of the month! congrats.
Oh and I´m attaching a ¨lovely¨ picture of me with my chicken pox and the balloon animal i made. Also I have a year in Argentina so as a present I finally broke down and started using my new pair of shoes, yep I made the others last a year. They may have a hole, but they made it.
Today we went to Belgrano and got together with the Elders in our district and went to China town and a little mini arts and craft thing in the plaza. It was fun and I bought some cool things....so yeah that was our day. I´m sure it will be more exciting next week.
Love you all,
Aleta

a year...

Dear family,
well can you believe I´m going to complete a year here in Argentina this week, crazy huh? So how about that General Conference. So good. It was slightly stressful at the beginning though, we went to the stake center, but because ours is being remodeled we had to go to the next stake over. Well they were having difficulties and we missed the first 30 min. Then they told us that the English didn´t work, so we could only watch in Spanish. Well, okay, sad day, I understand what´s being said, but it´s not the same as hearing the actual people speak. My poor companion, who only has a month here, had a harder time with it than I did. So after the first session we headed out to Belgrano to watch it at the institute building, much better, English and everything, plus it´s a really pretty building. Well I don´t have too much more to tell you all, I was inside until Friday. Finally I had permission to leave after the whole chicken pox thing. By the way, thank you very much for all of the emails and get well wishes. I am much better and almost all the dots have faded. :) It is just one of those exciting things that can happen on a mission. I hope, none of you who are getting ready to leave, experience it though. Hey, Congrats Eileen! Mesa! Wow, I can´t believe it. Lame, that I am just going to miss you and Melissa by a couple of months. Oh well, that´s what mail is for. Thanks for sending me a visiting teaching note, I feel the love!
Well that´s about all I got. I just spent a LONG time filling out a missionary questionnaire and don´t really have more time.
Know that I Love you all and hope you have a great week!
Love,
Aleta

What a week...

Dear family,
So I´ve been on the fence about whether or not I should tell you about my week last week. I have decided that if I don´t tell you, I will have nothing to say and my email will be shorter than that one last week. So 1st things 1st, I am FINE The thing is well, last Saturday I came down with a fever. No big deal, just a fever, it´s that time of year when people are getting sick. Well Sunday rolled around and still had said fever, okay that´s just annoying. The rule is if you have a fever you have to stay inside, you can´t go out and proselyte. So Monday still had pesky fever and then a dot. followed by two dots, three dots.... as the afternoon went on I noticed a few more.....uh oh..... which is why my email was so short last week , I was feeling slightly under the weather. Well if you are my mother you have probably put the two things together...the dreaded and deadly chicken pox! Yep, that´s right. Don´t worry though I called Hermana Gulbrandsen and she gave me a perscription for this medicine that makes it run it´s course faster and then another one so that it doesn´t itch. Well the first day, yes there was itching, then the medicine started to kick in and it really wasn´t bad at all, I haven´t really paid much attention to them since Wednesday. The only things is that I have to be inside until they all scab over. So all this week and a couple more days in our apartment with limited ways of entertainment has been the most difficult part. The other day I drew a picture and that was fun. I´m fourteen chapters in to Jesus the Christ , oh and Saturday we made balloon animals. Hermana Binks knows how and had all of the stuff, I made a purple bunny. That was super fun.
Okay so LISSY!!!!!!! that is so cool Arizona! There are a lot of great people who are serving from Arizona, not to mention my mission president. So I know that you will love it and that the members will just love you. I know the lord has people prepared for you , or that he had been preparing you for. You´ll LOVE it. promise.
Thanks everyone for your emails. aunt Janie seems like you are having a great time like always. Dad, a book, cool.
Okay that´s all I got. Love you all!!!!
Aleta
PS. I really am OK, I´m not sugar coating it or anything, modern medicine really is a blessing:)

Whirlwind of a week

Dear family,
Well this week has been very busy. We had a our regular district meeting on Wednesday and we went to San Fernando on Tuesday ands Thursday for leadership training meetings, they are so great. We always learn where we need to be better and what it is that we can do. Then that switched up our weekly planning session to Friday so it was a fun meeting filled... good week. This week we have zone conference, so I am looking forward to that as well. It is always so nice to meet together with the other missionaries and learn form them , what they are doing in their areas and how that is helping them.
Thanks so much for the emails. They really are a lift to my week. Jac the dog is super cute, and I can not believe how big Elaina has gotten! Wow. I really have been gone a while. You kind of start to think that time just stands still back home, but then you see a picture and realize that in fact life goes on for everyone. Mom, thanks for the recipe, I hope you have a happy week and can find some joy in all the little things around you. I´m sending a huge hug and kiss from Argentina. Aunt Janie, thanks for all the up dates, sounds like you are super busy but enjoying it, and that´s what matters.
oh hey, que paso? Lissy? did you hear anything?.... You totally need to write me when you do....
Well I am kind of short on words today, sorry. Then again, most of you said the same thing, so maybe it´s something that is going around, some sort of short email syndrome that we have all caught. Hopefully it passes by next week.:)
Lot´s of Love,
Aleta

Hi :)

Dear family,
Well this has been a good week. It´s always a little rocky at start of a new transfer getting to know your new companion, but luckily mine is awesome. Hermana Binks is super sweet. She is from the US and is really excited to be here. She speaks really well, way better than I remember speaking. I don´t know maybe it was the same, but you just feel like you don´t know anything. She understands a lot though and I can tell that this is going to be a great transfer. We have plans to go to the Japanese gardens with our district today so that should be fun, nice to see some sort of nature here in the city :)
Thanks so much for all of your emails today! I am really feeling the love, nice to know that people still remember over there. Brother Bingham thanks for the photos, they are great, and I can´t believe how grown up all of the young men are! Its´s amazing how much people can change in just a year.
Lissy, super excited for you! I remember that feeling, just waiting until the mail comes. It´s a killer, but then it comes and I had to wait another 3 months to leave, so if nothing else you´ll learn some patience :) I am excited to here where you go.
Christine, wow Disneyland. That´s awesome. Thanks for the up dates, I was just talking about you last night and our opinions of the twilight movies. Jac I hope everything goes well with the move. Thanks Dad, Brother Chatt, Matt C. and Aunt Janie for your letters.
AS for me here, well things are pretty tranquilo (calm). We had a really great lesson yesterday with an investigator. Well she´s been an investigator for a while and she come to church every week. She really likes it, but when I brought up the whole topic of baptism she just kept saying that she has a lot of fear. Well we got to talking and turns out that she isn´t keeping a few commandments and has fear that she won´t be able too. Okay, so we made some good goals to help her out with that. It truly is amazing how Satan gets his grip on us and will use every way he can to keep us down. We have just got to find the strength to break free. Sometimes it is difficult and it starts a little by little doing the things that the lord asks us. He knows that it is by doing these things that the powers of Satan can be shaken and that´s the whole reason that we have to do them in the first place. Just something I´d been thinking about this week.
So it´s super cool that you are all part of this test/launch of I am a Mormon. I hope it fun and I know it´s an inspired program. I have seen a few of the clips on Mormon.org and they are really interesting. There is such a great spirit that one can feel from them. Okay
don´t have too much more to say. Love you all tons!
Aleta

Round two....

Well here we go again....
So Thursday we were planning for this week, as usual, and I got a phone call from one of the assistants saying that I was invited to a special meeting on Friday at Presidents house and that I need to be there at 10.00am and bring something to take notes. That was it. Sometimes I feel like they like being cryptic and leaving us in the dark. Okay, so my companion and I were like, huh? weird, special meeting? Oh well, we´ll go and see what it is all about. So Friday morning comes along and we head over to the mission home and we walk in and there are a lot of other missionaries there, but I was having a hard time finding something in common, for what reason we were there. Well, then we get started with the meeting and the first words out if presidents mouth were, ¨welcome, all of you who are senior companions as of Monday will be trainers.¨ You should have seen my face. my companion just turned and smiled this slightly evil smile, like ha ha told you so. It was a surprise to us all. Well so here we go again. I am with the Hermanas in Nuñez today and my companion will get here tomorrow. I don´t know if she is Latina or north American, so you´ll have to wait ´till next week to find out. Oh and the Hermana Vargas, she went to ..... Tigre! Well, I talk about tigre all the time so she is really excited to be there. I´m sad to see her go, but she´s all grown up now, time to get out on her own and learn new things. So this week will be full of excitement I´m sure and I´ll have tons of things to tell you next week.

oh and happy birthday day Dad and Congrats Isaac.

lots of love,
Aleta

Spring!!!!

Dear family,

Well I am happy to say that it is quiet lovely outside today. ¨Spring, Spring, Spring, all at once one day it´s spring!¨ Well, I´m not sure, I hope so, I am farly sure that the cold, really cold weather is gone. That´s good. I am not looking forward to summer though, I´m happy with spring. Let´s face it summer here, hot doesn´t describe it. It´s okay though I don´t have to worry about that for quite a while yet!

Okay so thanks for teh emails! Barbara sounds like everything is just great. I´m so happy for you, I´m gonna miss the kids, but it´s an excuse to come visit :) Tell them all I say hi when you see ´em. Dad, I really like the poem, it´s cute and happy, my kind of poem. Mom, sorry I forgot to mention the painting, there are always so many things go through my mind that there are always one or two that escape. Aunt Janie, thanks for the up-dates, I always love reading them. Jac thanks for your letter. Oh and Melissa Marie Chord.....Why am I just now hearing about this.....(insert picture of me tapping my foot with my hands on my hips).. hmmmmmmm, and yeah! I am super happy for you. I´ll try and write you a letter, but it might not happen ´till next week, I´m slightly short on time, like always ;)

Oh and the zoo was a lot of fun last week. There are a lot of animals to see, they have a turtle here that is huge, huge, like the size of a , well I can´t think of something that´s the same size, but it´s big. This week was great. We found some new investigators and are finally get some where with the others: One of our investigators is a former investigator, but didn´t feel like she has an answer to the question, is it all true? She also feels like if it is she won´t be able to follow through and keep all of the commandments. Well my companion and I have really been trying to figure out who could help her with that and this member came with us to the lesson. We also have been studying a lot for her and the other day we got the impression that we should share the story about Joseph Smith and the 116 pages of the book of Mormon. Well that´s not usually one I go about sharing with the investigators, but I could see how she could relate to the story so that´s what we taught. It was great she really felt like we were there to help her and that we weren´t just trying to get her in the water. After the lesson Hermana Vargas said that she just felt great that the spirit was really strong and that she felt it differently than in other lessons. I got to thinking about that and said that when we seek the lords help diligently and then follow through with it he will always be there to testify of what we said, because he gave us the words in the first place. We talked a lot about how she could see the difference between teaching people and teaching lessons and we both prefer the former. So we are really learning a lot. Hermana Vargas is just wonderful. Okay, that´s all I got.

Lot´s of love,

Aleta

August....can´t make up it´s mind‏

Dear family,
Well this was a good week. The weather this week has been up and down, last week it was really nice and I actually went out a couple of days with just a sweater. Well then the wind came up and the temp. dropped. My poor companion, she´s not used to it, Guatemala is warm all the time. Did you know that they don´t have fall or spring, just winter and summer. I remember Hermana Peña was super excited when the leaves were changing because that doesn´t happen in her house. Well the same with Hermana Vargas. She looked like a little penguin the other day with all those layers on and the long black coat and white scarf. It was pretty funny, she´s a good sport about it all.
Thanks for the letters. Jac, I knew your motivation must have been something like that...food. ;) Mom, WOW, sounds like you are doing a tons around there. I don´t think I´m gonna recognize the place when I come home. Oh and thanks for the letter about Grandma, if I remember correctly she wrote that for me when I was taking psychology in high school and had to do that big project about all the stages of my life. remember that? Well it should be in my room, in the book case by my bed, it´s in a rose colored scrap book if you want to brush up on my life. :) Okay, once again I don´t have a lot of time, we are going to the zoo today! It´s a holiday here and the zoo is open, so, we´ve got to take advantage. Oh, thanks Aunt Janie, dad, (loved the poem), and Matt c. for your letters! Here´s what on my mind today....We have really started to see the lords hand in answering our prayers. We have been finding people through visiting members and less active members, we have a few set appointments for this week and we are excited to meet them and teach them the gospel of Jesus Christ. Today I was reading in Acts 8. I have never really paid much attention to this chapter before, but I love it. It talks about when Phillip goes to preach and the lord tells him in a dream to go to a certain place to the south. So he goes. On his way he comes across a guy, that is reading scriptures from Isaiah. So the spirit says go talk to that guy. So he does, but he doesn´t just walk over there, no no, he runs. He asks him what he´s reading and asks if he understands it. The guy says no, he needs help to understand. Well at this point, Philip, who has been listening to the spirit (and in an earlier chapter says that he is full of the spirit) and following the direction opens his mouth and testifies that Jesus is the Christ and that these scriptures are talking about him. The guy then asks what is keeping him from being baptized and Philip says, if you believe with all your heart, nothing. So the guy stops his chariot and goes down into the water right then and there. Wow. I love this example of trusting in the Lord and that in fact if we continue with faith and are constantly looking and asking to find the people who are prepared to receive the Gospel he will lead us to them. We have that promise all we have to do is remember that and act. So that is our plan here in Urquiza, I love it.

it´s me again....

Hello family,

it´s me again....just thought that i would drop you a little note, like I do every week, just so you don´t all forget me. Thanks so very much for the emails! Betsy, sounds like things are going great for you three, I can´t wait to see Calista in person, she looks so cute and I´m sure you are just the best mom. Thanks for the up dates, I hope everything works out with the house.

Aunt Janie sounds like you are really starting to see a lot of blessings I´m so happy for you. Mom, so you hacked off all your hair huh? Picture please. Oh and mom, Uncle Brian isn´t on the email list, could you add him for me, I´m not really sure who all gets the emails, but he´d like to. Well, sounds like everyone has had a pretty busy and fun filled week up there. The weather here is finally starting to warm up. The other day we had a pretty nice thunder storm, luckily we were inside studying and we just happened to be houses every time it poured. That was a nice tender mercy. In other parts of the Buenos Aires there was flooding and even hail, don´t worry here in Urquiza it was all calm and boring as usual. ;) Oh, we had interviews with President this week, so we all headed to the mission home, that was a nice treat since we usually have them in the stake center. The meeting was really good and we learned a lot. President and Sister Gulbrandsen are so great. Oh and last week we went to the ¨centro¨ down town Buenos Aires, and we went to the Obelisk and calle Florida, calle Florida, is a famous street with tons of stuff, it was really fun. Unfortunately we had to leave before they went to the armory museum, since we have to travel about an hour to get there and an hour back. Lame, but I did get a photo of knights armor, before we headed out :) A ver....que mas....ummmm....Oh we have this great convert, Carlos, he is so sweet, we went to his house the other day for a lesson and he made ¨mazamora morada¨ it´s super yummy, it´s from Peru, as is he. Okay well...

This was a good week. We are starting to see some progress here in Urquiza. I love the area and the members are great. Our Zone leaders are fantastic and have really been helping us by verifying with us everyday. I am starting to see that it is really true that as humans we are naturally lazy and when we have someone there to help us, we have a lot more success. It is really true. The thing now is to remember that even if they don´t call I am still always accountable to God. It goes back to the parable about the servants who are working those that he finds working when he comes he rewards and those who are just waiting to work until he comes back are not rewarded. I love that we have the scriptures to remind us of all these things so that we can receive that reward of eternal life that is promised us by our Savior.
This last week we had so many set appointments and members to accompany us that I was super excited, then one by one almost all of them fell through, two days in a row. It is so interesting that always, just like we tell the investigators, that when things start to turn around something comes up to test you, to see how committed you really are in succeeding. Well, I am committed and we will succeed with the Lord´s work here in Urquiza. Things are good and we are happy. Hermana Vargas is fantastic and she teaches me so much everyday. She´s a powerful missionary and I know the Lord has a lot for her to do here in Argentina. Okay that´s about all I got... love you all!!!!!!!!!

lot´s of love,

Aleta

Cumpli un año.......

Dear Family,

How are you? It was great to hear from you this week, your letters were all great, every one brought a huge smile to my face. I am so glad that everything went well with the arts festival. I am looking forward to being right beside you next year. Well, maybe not all the time, we know that I like to be in a different part too, anyway, I´m glad that you all had fun and everything went well. Sounds like church was great yesterday for everyone! I´m glad to hear it. Wow, I it´s been a long time since I went to a break the fast, but then again, I do get delicious lunch everyday. The members here are very generous and they loving having the missionaries in their homes. Oh, and yesterday the sister that we ate with made this delicious apple tort thing, I´m not really sure what it´s called, but I know how to make it mwahawahah. See, I am making sure that I am learning the most important things while in Argentina ;) food. Okay, okay, I´m learning more than that don´t worry. This week for example I have been learning more about patience.... a subject that we all love. Well, we have really been searching for the people here in Urquiza that the Lord is preparing at this time to learn about the gospel. There are days that seem forever long as we go from one appointment to another and no one is home. Then there are those days when you are literally running to get everything done. I guess that just fits into the plan, there must be opposition in all things, right?

Well okay, I´ve got to cut this short, we are getting together with our district today, I have no idea what we are doing, but it should be fun. They called last night and invited us, so we are looking forward to having some fun!

Okay got to run, love you,

Aleta

Agosto? when did that happen‏

Dear family,

How is everyone doing? Sounds like you all had very busy weeks. Christine!!!! it was great to hear from you! I´m looking forward to when we can enjoy those movies, seems like a long way away, but I´m pretty sure it will be here before we know it.  Thanks Aunt Janie, Jac_, dad, and mom for your letters. They were all great. I m looking forward to hearing about Shaun´s wedding........ pictures would be nice.....(wink wink, nudge, nudge) :) Oh and mom, no no, don´t worry that was only 9 PESOS, it´s about $2.25. That is one of the reasons I´m not so keen on hand writing letters, that can get expensive if you make a habit of it. I guess you´ll just have to wait another 7 months ´till I come home to hear all about my adventures in details.

I´m glad you liked the pictures, I like the punk band comment, it is true, maybe when we come home Hermana Gillum and I will get on that, sounds like a good idea, well a fun idea anyway.

Okay, okay lets see what have i been up too....

 We have contacted a lot of former investigators who have some interest. We have scheduled a few lessons for this week and hope that this will help find more people to teach. I have really seen this week that planning is starting to pay off, we didn´t have anyone in church, but they are all warming up to the idea. We have a lot of things planned this week to help them. There are 6 new ward missionaries here in Urquiza and we had a meeting last week, they are all really excited to be involved, two of them are preparing for a mission. They took it upon themselves to go out and visit the recent converts yesterday. It is great that they want to help strengthen the members here, it´s good because these are the people who will be in the lives of the new members, we as missionaries are just travelers helping them find the right road home, but it is the ward and their new family that will, in the end, help them stay on the road.
I am really excited to contact a few people that we contacted in the street last week, they seem really great. I am starting to see, that even though I can´t see the answers to prayers in the moment, they always come, all of it is according to our faith. I was reading today in Ether. Moroni talks a lot about miracles and how they all come after we show our faith, well it was a confirmation of something that I knew, but with a new meaning, a new application. I am pumped and ready for this next week. We are pulling out all the stops and going full force ahead.

Okay that´s all I got for you this week, I hope you all are happy and have a great week,

love,

Aleta

 

PS. weird to think that last year today, I left home on this great adventure, time really does fly!!!

howdy...

Hello my dearest family and friends,

Well here I am still in Urquiza, yeah! Today is the first day of my 8th transfer, weird. Hermana Vargas is still my companion, but sadly Hermana Gillum went to Caballitos. I really learned so much from that girl and know that we will be life long friends. However, thus is the life of a missionary.... always changing.

Well this week has been fairly calm, not to many crazy stories. We are in need of new investigators, but that´s not really new. We always are looking for people who are ready and prepared for the gospel. I suppose you never can have enough people to teach. That however is one of our main focuses right now. Sorry I really am running a blank of things to write here, weird. 

So how are all of you doing? Oh, before I forget thank you for the emails. If you could only see the joy it brings to my face when I see I have emails, lets just say I smile, and you all know how big that tends to be. So thank you Isaac, Brother Bingham, Jack, Dad, Aunt Janie and Mom for your emails. They are such a lift, especially when it has been so long... I can´t believe I´m gonna hit my year mark next week....that´s weird. Okay so as promised photos! Oh and I´d love to hear how some of you are doing....you know who you are...if you are feeling the slightest bit guilty right now, you are probably on the list ;)

 

Okay sorry it´s so short, but that´s all I got, until next week...

Love ya

Aleta

 

burrr, it´s rather cold outside‏

Hello family,

I´d just like to tell you that it is rather cold outside. Today is kind of like a wet drizzly November day. We went to Wal-mart today. It was kind of weird, it was like I just stepped out of Argentina and into the states, but not exactly because there are still mostly Latin brands. It was pretty great though. I must admit that I never in my life thought that I would be glad to enter a wal-mart. So that is what we did today. So how are you all doing? Thanks Betsy for the update. Brother Bingham I thoroughly enjoyed your letter, sounds like camp will be great. Dad, thanks for the email, I guess we will just have to wait and see if my art changes when I get home or not. Mom, you are great. Thank you for your constant love and support.

So I got to go to Vicente Lopez yesterday and attend a baptism of a former investigator there. That was great. It was beautiful and I was so glad that I was able to go and be a part of that change in his life. There is just something truly beautiful when a person decides to make promises with their Heavenly Father. I know that the Lord will bless him in his life.

Last night we also had a rather fun (?) experience. We were walking home and my companion Hermana Gillum thought that we should take a different way home, so we did. We went a block and were about to turn the corner when we saw a mom and her two kids out side of their car with the hood up. Well, I thought wish I new something about cars right now... we offered to help anyway. Well after a bit of talking and looking at the car, it still wouldn't start. So we decided to try and get it going by pushing it and her putting it into gear. Well that didn´t really work either. So we asked where they lived and it really wasn´t that far so we pushed the car all the way back to her house. Okay, that was really a lot of work. I thought that it would be fine if we could push the car walking, it would have worked, but we ended up continuing to run. Well needless to say by the end of the whole thing we were really tired. We made it home and just were wiped out. We did manage to take a few rather entertaining pictures though. I don´t have time to send them today, but look for them next week.

I´ve got to get running. I love you all and miss you very much.

Love,

Aleta

The Ward Talent Show in Vicente Lopez

HELLO!!!!!!

My dearest family,
How are all of you? It was great as usual to get your email and to hear what´s going on in your lives. I hope that Calista is feeling better. I´ll keep her in my prayers. Yes, the 9th in Independence day here, but I actually forgot, so I guess that tells you how much they celebrate it here....I really don´t have to much to say today sorry, It´s been a really long week full of meetings. I feel a bit wiped out. It is just one of those days that you are happy it´s p-day. We had training meetings this week in San Fernando for all of the district leaders, zone leaders and the trainers. So we went to San Fernando three days this week. I learned a lot and it was great to see some of my former companions, especially because two of them finish their missions in two weeks. Okay so as far as things here in Urquiza.... We had a baptism last week, Carlos and this week he was confirmed. He is so happy. It was great to see his family seated together in church this Sunday. We had a lesson with them this week and the Relief Society president came with us. She and one of her counselors had gone to his house the other day to help with some of their everyday needs. The daughter, was so happy to have a new skirt to wear to church. Wednesday night we had ward council and informed the bishop and ward leaders of their situation and it was so heart warming to see how they all grabbed their pens and started taking notes of which person were in charge of doing what to help them out. Then to our surprise less than 24 hours later they had visited this family to start helping out. It truly was a blessing to see the lord work this way through the members of the ward.
My companions are great, we have a great time and are always laughing about something. I´m getting used to the city and figuring out which bus takes us where. That is always fun....there are a lot of buses here, not to mention the train and the subway. It´s a little different that home:) Well that´s about it for me today sorry, I´ll try and attach some photos at least.
Lots of Love to you all!!!!!!!
Aleta

Happy 4th !!!!!!

I can´t believe it is July 4th. Last night when we were planning I looked at the date in my planner, which says ¨4 de Julio¨ So to me it was simply the 4th of the month. So naturally my mind first went to ¨Hey, I have 11 months in the mission today, weird...¨ Then after that I gasped and turned to Hermana Gillum and said ¨Tomorrow is the 4th of July!¨She got out an American flag and started singing the Star spangled Banner along with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. It was very entertaining. To answer a question, yes I am currently decked out in Red, white and Blue.

Okay so to answer a few questions, Yes, I am great. Don´t worry about me. I have trust in the Lord and I know that I am the one here in Urquiza because he needs me here. Of course I miss Vicente Lopez and it just seems like I had so little time there, only 7 weeks and I had almost 8 months in Tigre, so it was a bit of a change. I have one week in Urquiza and it is great. The ward is very friendly and missionary oriented. We actually had a baptism on Saturday. His name is Carlos and I met him for the first time about 2 hours before his baptism. The other missionaries had been teaching him and he has been really busy all week so we couldn´t teach him. Well we called him Friday night and asked how he was feeling for his baptism on Sunday. He said he had to work Sunday, but Saturday would work. Okay, sure, no problem. So we ran around and got everything figured out and he got baptised . YAY.

Okay, next. Yes I am warm enough. Okay it is cold. It feels just like home in the Winter there is that lovely humidity here as well. ;) My poor companion who has 1 month here in Argentina is from Guatemala, she had 4 skirts on yesterday along with spandex under her tights and two jackets. It was pretty funny, she said that she has never had on so much clothes in her life.

Next. Urquiza is close to Vicente Lopez, just closer to the capital. This area is a lot busier tan the other two and there are a lot of apartment buildings. I think it is next to Nuñez and Belgrano if you can find them on the map.

You asked about Hna. Sandoval, yes she technically finishes her mission on the 7th, but will go home at the end of transfers like every one else. I will be done with 18 months the 4th of February, but won´t finish until the 21st. So it is really more like 19 months in the mission.

Sounds like all of the movies have been fun, I look forward to watching them all with you when I get home! A big shout out to the folks at the theater!!!!!

Okay I think that was all of the questions for this week. Thank you everyone for the letters! It was great to hear from Dad, mom, aunt Janie, Jack and Brother Wilson. Bro. Wilson your letter was great and I actually had the exact reactions that you thought I would. I can´t believe there are so many missionaries leaving from the Ward. That´s awesome! Oh and Jack, yes, it is the kind with ground beef and mashed potato's. I am slightly jealous of you right now. I hope it is delicious.

I hope everyone is having a lovely and Happy fourth. Enjoy the fireworks for the girl on the other side of the planet where they don´t celebrate today. I hope you have lovely weather and that it is warm, cause I ´m missin´that right nowJ

I´ll write again next week. Love you all.

Aleta

wow, didn´t see that coming...

Hello dearest family,

I hope you are all well. I am doing just great here in URQUIZA. That´s right, not Vicente Lopez, Urquiza. Well it is a bit of a long story and I´ll get to it in a minute. First things first. This week was just full of suprises. We had a zone conference on Wednesday that was just great. We all learn so much and just come away from them with a new enegery to work, work, work. My companion is fabulous like I have previously said, but she really is great. She is learning and growing everyday and so am I. Oh and on Thursday we had our weekly planning session where we plan for the whole week, who we are going to see, when we are going to stop by this persons house, what we are going to teach etc..., so this week was something different. President Gulbrandsen had all of us in the whole mission on a conference call at the same time so we all planned together. It was pretty cool that he can talk to all of us at the same time no matter where we are, even the people in the south.
Okay okay, so that is how the week went up ´til Thursday. Friday morning I got a phone call from one of the assistents saying that something had happened in Urquiza and that we (my companion and I were being transfered.) What? Okay when...now. What? Well okay so we packed our bags and were ready to go about at 12.30. So we called the mission office to find out the direction an dhow to get there. Well Elder Denton said that, they didn´t have the keys they were with Sister Gulbrandsen in Escobar. Well for those of you who don´t know, Escobar is far, very far from me. So we thought it would be aboutu 2 hours until the keys got there. Well we called at 4.30 and still no new news. Turns out the keys didn´t get to the mission office until 9 something and we got them at about 10.30. So it was a very unproductive day. All day in our apartment. It was goood for my companion though because she has just been dying to mark her scriptures. So she had plenty of time to do it:) Okay so Saturday morning we left lovely Vicente Lopez 2, my area. I say minie, because it really feels that way as in that we had 1 investigator when we got there and had to figure everything out by ourselves, there was no one to show us around.
Well, here we go again. The hermanas that were in Urquiza are being transferred one to Vicente Lopez to be in a trio and the other to Caballitos. So once again opening an area. Well, not exactly, there is at least an area book and list of investigators. That is a major plus. So Saturday we got here and then we found out that Hermana Gillum was coming back to this area to be with us for a few days. She is great, she´s from St. George. She only had one week here, so it´s all pretty new to her too, but at least she knows the investigators. So we are all really excited for this week and the opportunity to start from a clean slate, literally. The ward is really great here. It reminds me a lot of our ward at home. It is now where near the same size, but all the members are really friendly and loving. Okay so I think that is pretty much all that happened with me this week, pretty dull, huh. :)

Okay to answer your questions mom, 1.YES. I can wear what every color I want. The sky is the limit, well okay still need to be classy, but patterns and colors are VERY welcome. It is one of the new rules that I didn´t know when I left. So something with flowers is just fine. Think of the Aleta that you know and don´t worry too much about the rules. Chances are that what ever you buy will be just fine, since my tastes aren´t really extreme. I think the size will be okay. To tell you the truth I have no idea what size I wear, you may want to go with one size smaller, no idea in a shirt. A skirt thought maybe 1 size smaller. Don´t worry though, I eat, I get fed, I just do A LOT of walking, it is the only way to learn my way around the area.
2. no I am fine on the memory card.
3. Can´t think of anything that i need in a package..... whatever. It is like Christmas every time, never know what will be in there, it´s pretty fun. Oh, but could you send me a white sauce recipe, I attempted to make some the other day but failed miserably. Well it was okay and I ate it, but definitely needs improving.
4. I think there are actually 20 sisters now in the mission, not 18. There were 3 in the south that you didn´t see. 1 got cropped out of the photo. Hermana Olsen and Sandoval were talking and didn´t come in time for the photo, I think, either that or they were in another room.
Okay I think that was all of the questions. Thank you so much for the emails this week, mom, dad, aunt Janie, and Brother Bingham. They were great to read and I love hearing from all of you at home. Brother Bingham, THAT IS GREAT. I do remember her and she is super nice. I guess you just never know the impact you can have on people.
Okay I´ve got to get going, you know how it is. Oh and Happy belated b-day Jaime, 25 on the 25th pretty cool.

Lots of Love,
Aleta

hello, from me....

Dear family,
Wow what a week. I can´t ´believe it is over. Well I´m sure learning a lot. Thank you very much for all of the emails! Mom, I´m sorry it is still so cold there, sounds like about the same kind of weather we have here. Actually the Autumn here is very similar to home. Aunt Janie, sounds like you are in for some good eatn´ in the fall with all those veggies! Matt C. yes I did get your email, thank you so much. It is great to hear from you. I can´t believe you´ve been home for two months already. Give a thanks to brother Herman for the great letter. Dad, sounds like you had fun at the poetry thing, keep up the good work.

Well I´m sure you all have just been bursting to know who is my new companion........... her name is Hermana Vargas, she is from Guatemala. It was pretty interesting last week. We got a phone call last Monday, saying that we didn´t have to pick up our companions on Tuesday, because all of the North Americans flights had been cancelled. Then about 5 min. later another call saying that I didn´t have to go, but hermana Keele yes. because she was training a Latin. Then about 2 min. later another call saying that I need to go too, that we should just forget the other calls and proceed as normal because we were training Latins and the Elders had called all of the trainers at first and then realized that there were some of us who did need to come. Well long story short, I met her and she is great- Oh and that Volcano's and their ash, really make life interesting around here.

Okay as for my week....Well here I am in Vicente Lopez and trying my best to be everything the Lord needs and wants me to be. I am humbled everyday at the challenges before me and trust in the lord to see me through them. I know that I am doing his work and pray that he will continue to guide me in everything I do.
My companion is amazing. I think she is the one training me. Hermana Vargas is just bursting with energy. She wants nothing more than to go out and baptize all of Martinez and Vicente Lopez. The other day I said that we could knock a few of the doors on the street where we had an appointment. She was actually excited about. She said that she had been wanting to do it. Well it helped me some, since knocking doors is not my favorite thing in the world to do and not the easiest either. She did great. We also have been passing by for a few former investigators and seeing if they have any interest. The majority said no, and we scheduled a few appointments. One of them Carmen, said come on in. So Hermana Vargas had her first opportunity to put a baptismal date yesterday. She did great, a little nervous, but she followed the spirit and I know that the practices that we do every morning really helped her know what to do. I really love the extra hour of companion study, when I was new it felt like we never had enough time to practice, most of my kinks I had to work out in actual lessons. Don´t worry I´m still working on that, I am far from perfect, but I trust in the Lord and I think the best thing about practices is not that we are learning how to teach the material, but that we are learning how to listen to the spirit and teach the things that he brings to our remembrance. This is why it is so important to study every morning so that we will have the needs of our investigators fresh in our minds while practicing and teaching.
Hermana Vargas is an amazing missionary. I am doing everything possible to help her become the kind of missionary that the lord needs. President Gulbransden once told me that using inspired questions to teach, isn´t only for the investigators, it is for every facet of our lives. I am really finding that to be true. By asking my companion the needed questions, I think she is learning so much more than I could ever teach her.
I am really looking forward to this time that we have together and I am grateful for this opportunity responsibility that the Lord has entrusted in me.

Love you all tons!
Aleta

gulp.......‏

Dear Family,
I hope everyone is well. I hope the weather is warming up for you. I really can´t believe that it is half way through June already, que loco! So as for news here, I went to the farewell for my trainer last night, Hermana Romo, she leaves today to go home. Well I think she leaves tonight. There are a lot of flights that have been cancelled due to the ash and things from the volcano in Chile. There were a few missionaries who are going home today that were serving in the south, and the airport down there had been closed all week so those poor missionaries had to travel by bus....50 hours, but they made it here.

Well, we start a new transfer today.......don´t worry I´m not going anywhere. My companion Hermana Salas went to Campana, it is far and more country, she´s pretty excited. As for me...gulp.....voy a entrenar!!!!!!!!! ( I´m going to train) I am kind of excited about it, and really nervous. I don´t think I know nearly enough Spanish, well I know a lot, but make a lot of mistakes too. It should be interesting. Hermana Keele is going to train too. So we are still living together, so at least we´ll be able to help each other out. I have no idea who my new companion is, she doesn´t come until tomorrow, so for today Hermana Keele and I are comps. It is kind of funny, the same day that my trainer leaves, I train.

As for this week I´m not sure what to tell you, oh wait... what am I saying this week was crazy. I can´t believe I almost forgot to tell you. Sheesh. So Tuesday morning President Gulbrandsen called and said that one of the Hermanas in Almagro had appendicitis and was in the hospital. He asked if Hermana Cariola could go to Almagro and the three of us would be in a trio. Well later on in the evening, he called again and asked if I could go to the hospital and spend the night with her. So Tuesday night I slept on an air mattress on the floor of her hospital room, it was pretty comfy. Then we came back to the mission home thinking that she would stay there for a few days to recuperated, but it is under construction so all of the bed rooms on the bottom floor are unusable. Well, she can´t go up stairs, so out the door and off to our apartment. Then everyday one of the three of us had to stay home so she would have some one to help her do things. It was quite an adventure. It made for a very fun week, a little out of the normal, but fun. Oh and to add to the fun, we didn´t have power last night so my poor companion had to pack her bags by flashlight. It´s a good thing that our cell phones have flashlights :)

Okay I can´t think of too much more. Know that I love and miss you all. Keep me and my companion in your prayers. I´ll give you a good update on how it goes next week.

Lots of love,
Aleta

Che escuchen!‏

Hola querida familia!
Hey it´s me again. I can´t believe how fast this week flew by, let alone this transfer. Next week is transfers. IT is kind of sad. This is the last week that Heremana Romo (my trainer) has in the mission. We are going to do all that is possible to go to the farewell next Sunday. The trainer of my companion goes home too, so we have double the reason to try and go. Well apparently many of you have seen our act at the ward talent show. I hope you like it. It was really fun and everyone liked it. I think the favorite part was when I hold up the life size cardboard cut out and when we use the flags. Well you asked for the words so here you go. Although it doesn´t have the same ring to it in English. ¨hey listen, we are here, Vicente Lopez 123, we crossed the sea for you, to serve. chorus :Called to serve and the salvation can guide and your friends we can find. oooooooooo, Don´t care how long it is, or where or why, we are going to find them I can see, the chosen are of ten. (de diez is a phrase like the best, or an A. it comes from the grading system here, a 10 is the best you can achieve, so then de 10 is something really great, the best.) chorus: Hermana Salas, hermana Bray, Hermana Keele and Cariola too. we are going to find them I can see, the chosen are of ten. Your kindness, gifts we will receive , with joy we will do your will and where you send me i will go. chorus... ooooooooooooo!!
Okay, wow, I kept trying to type the song in Spanish, which wouldn´t help you much. This translation stuff is difficult. So now my brain hurts, but don´t worry we are going bowling today so I don´t need to think to much:) hahaha.
Okay so thank you so much for the emails! Brother Bingham that deer is so cute! My companion thought that it was mine and that I have a pet deer at home. It was rather funny. Jack thank you for the email and the update, what part of town do you live in? Oh and yeah I guess it´s okay, for now, to borrow her, and when I get back I´d be happy to share :) She is pretty awesome. Okay Dad, sounds like you had a great day. I am glad that everything is okay with Calista, I guess there is never a dull moment huh? Mom your letter was great as always. Thanks for the updates. It is amazing how fast we can know things now a days with the Internet and technology. That talent show was just on Saturday. I think there should be another video out there of the actual event, not just the practice. Well things are going really well here and I love you all. I have got to run.
I ´ll try and right more about my investigators and all that next week!
Lots of Love,
Aleta

ahahhhh!‏

Dear Family,
I love you tons I hope you know that. I think of you all often, and even though it always seems like I am running around and never have time for you, it´s not true. I am literally running around. We went to the ¨coast¨ today, really it is the river Rio de la Plata. It is huge and in my area. We had a choriso, well chori pan. It is a delicious sausage on fresh baked bread. I am really going to miss Argentine food when I come home. So, since we took a lot of time to do all of that with the Elders. I don´t have much time here. About 5 minutes so. Know that this week was great. We are really starting to see some success in my area. We had 5 investigators at church this week, so yeah. Okay I am doing great I am really excited to print off a read all of your emails, I´ll respond to them next week. Sorry, I know it is short and you want to here more from me, but well that's life isn´t always fighting against the clock.;)
Love you muchisimo!
Aleta

what a week...

Dear family,

Thank you for the emails this week! Jaime! sounds like life is going great, I´m so happy for you. Dad, I like the poem. Mom, thank you for the updates every week, you are great! oh and yes, I bought a coat. I am going to try and buy a camera today we will see how it goes. We are headed out to play a few games with our district and make tacos. It should be fun!
Oh before I forget, last week I was on splits with Hermana Keele, from Utah, we are teaching English classes every Saturday and so the two of us were together, while our companions were teaching a lesson. Anyway, we went to see one of her former investigators and he is really great. I had a hard time focusing on the lesson at times because this guy is Scott in 20 years. Okay no, he does not look like Scott, but he talks and walks and does the same hand gestures and the way he sits....it was weird. He answered questions, I swear, word for word like Scott would. So weird. Oh and he knows English and speaks really well so that just added to the list of things. So there is a guy who lives in Vicente Lopez who could be my brother, huh, who knew.
This has been a week of a lot of walking. We have now contacted every member in our area and all of the former investigators. We have a few appointments for this coming week and a few that sound really promising. We have an appointment tonight with a family that the other Hermanas just love, but the father just could give up smoking. Well we stopped by last week and he said that he had finally given it up! So we really feel that now is their time. We are really focusing on ways that we can find new investigators. We trying to work with the members, but there aren´t that many that live in our area. So we are especially trying to focus on receiving referrals during our lunch appointments. I am still excited to be here and I know that we are going to see the Lord work miracles in this area. I know that everything is done in his time and that if we stay faithful and keep doing the things that he asks we will see miracles and we will find the people here in our area who are ready to receive the gospel.

Okay sorry it´s short, but we are heading out and the Elder´s area is like 1 1/2 bus ride from here so we have to go early. Love you all, you are in my prayers.
Love from,
Aleta

43 really?‏

Dear family,
really it has been 43 weeks, huh, I lost count along time ago. I just know that I have been here for a while and I still have a while left. So I have been really bad at acknowledging peoples birthdays. Sorry. I remembered right after we left the Internet place the last two weeks. So...happy belated birthday to everyone! There are a lot of you, so friends and family with birthdays in May happy birthday. especially a belated to Scott, 29! and an early to Matt, 31! Woohoo. Okay so my birthday was this week and it was good. My companions made me a card. The next day was Hermana Keele´s so we had cake for the both of us that morning. It was fun. My companions birthday is this week, on the 18th. So we are just in full birthday mode around here. It is pretty fun. One of the members here went and bought us chocolate bars, yum. They are like aero bars, but a different brand and just as yummy.
We do have a few investigators, yeah. None of them came to church yesterday, but we are working on that. Oh and we have been visiting all of the members that live in our area, there are three yankee´s, north Americans, that live in a row. They work for the embassy here in Argentina, well they move every two years. So they are assigned to Argentina for the time being. One of them her name is, oh and I´m not kidding, Elizabeth Bennett. Well she is great and from Arizona, but she lived awhile in Squim, I think. Well I said I was from Anacortes, and her face was priceless. She was very excited and said that they go to Lopez every summer, it is their favorite place in the world. So they are going in about 5 weeks. How cool is that. Down here in Argentina and I meet someone who has been and is going to my town. Pretty cool. Well that is about all I´ve got, sorry it´s short...

Love you all have a great week,
Aleta

ps. Thanks for your letter Kammie, I´m so happy for you!

wow...25!‏

Dear family,
It was so great to talk to you yesterday! I loved hearing your voice. I am determined to make this skype thing work for Christmas :) I hope mothers day was great for everyone. Thank you so much for all of the emails this week, Jodi, Brandi, Dad, Mom, Betsy. Everything just sounds great with you. Okay to answer a few questions. If I remember correctly I had chosen a few paint chips before I left and there was one that is blue. I think it was one of the middle colors, not to dark not to pale. It is kind of a slate blue, with slightly off white trim. That was for my room, for the bathroom, I didn´t have a preference, yellow sounds good, just please not to bright. Go ahead paint a way, I look forward to seeing all the changes when I come home.
So as for things new with me...not much since yesterday. The area is really big and really pretty. There are a lot of really big houses here, that is a bit of a change from Tigre. We did a lot of walking this week, trying to learn our way around. I think it is working, I am pretty good with the map, and my companion is very grateful for that.

Okay I dodn´t have too much more to say, I am off to explore Unicenter (mall). Next week more updates I promise.

Love you all,
Your Aleta

goodbye Tigre......

.......hello Vicente Lopez 2.
Dear Family,
Yes it has happened. I have been transferred. It is really weird, not gonna lie. I feel like I just got here all over again. Everything is new. The zone leaders called last night and said I was being transferred. I said ¨no¨.They said Yes¨ Well they won obviously. So then Elder Larson said, ¨Hermana Bray you are going to Vicente Lopez...2¨ wait what? There is no number 2 only 1. okay okay. so I asked ¨huh, who is my companion?¨ ¨Oh Hermana Salas¨ okay so here is where i start to get worried. I know very well that Hermana Salas is great, she´s from Chile. She actually came to Argentina the same day I did, so that´s cool, but that is not what had me worried. I also know that she has spent all of her time in the south. Which means that she is also being transferred......or if you haven´t put that together yet. We are opening an area. They decided to split an area of Hermanas and now there are 4 of us here. Two in one area and us in the other. We have no clue what we are supposed to do. We don´t even know how the area is split up. I guess we will find out though. It will definitely be a new adventure this week, well all transfer I think. Hopefully it will be fun living with 3 other people. I´ve grown pretty used to just one other person. Okay okay, I guess that´s all I have to say about that. I don´t really have any more time with all the running around and I need to unpack some so I can find things like my scriptures :)

Lots of love,
Aleta

It feels like home to me....‏

Querida familia y amigos,
Hey it´s me again. I have decided that I quite enjoy this time of year. I must admit it is a little strange to see leaves changing colors and falling during Easter, but the temperature is about the same, I think. It really has cooled off in the morning and at night. Every once in a while it is still rather warm in the day, so we just have to carry our jackets with us, that´s slightly annoying,but much better than freezing :) Oh and I thought that the cold would be really bad, because it is humid here, but guess what it is that nice chill you to the bone and there is nothing you really can do about it type, just like home. :) The other day, for a moment, I actually thought that it was September, that was weird, but that´s what it looks and feels like right now.
Okay as for something more interesting than the weather....yesterday was Easter, yeah. Church was really nice and a missionary gave a home coming talk. He is the son of our branch president and is now the young men´s president. Looks like he´s not going to get much rest after that mission huh. Their family is great and we had lunch at their home. Well here in Argentina they have Easter eggs. They are not like our Easter eggs. They don´t do Easter baskets or dying eggs or anything like that. They do have make these giant chocolate eggs. Well, some people make them and some buy them. Anyway they are these eggs made of chocolate in a variety of sizes and they are filled with candy. All sorts of different candies. I guess it is like a giant ¨kinder suprise¨ or maybe it´s the same idea as an Easter basket, only now you can eat the basket too. Anyway, they are really pretty, because the people decorate the outside in all sorts of different designs. So Hermana Torre gave us each one and I could help but think of Harry Potter and the Goblet of fire, where he opens up the golden egg. It was slightly smaller than that, but not much.
Oh and funny story about that, Friday night we were walking through the train station and we saw someone selling these eggs. So I bought one, I wanted to try it and so what all this was about. He showed me one that cost 2 pesos, about 50 cents, and it was really pretty with little details and so I thought well okay I can afford one for 6 pesos. I bought one for me and one for my comp. Well we got home and what....it was totally plain, just brown chocolate and a little stick like thing on the outside, mine was Hello kitty sticker and Hna. Peña´s was one of a soccer team. Okay, okay, but let´s open it up and see what´s inside......1 piece of candy. 1 jolly rancher type of candy. My companion had 5 mini m&ms, not the regular size, but the mini ones. We had a good laugh about it and came to the conclusion that we should have know better , sometimes those people selling things on the streets are a bit shifty. At least the chocolate was yummy.
Okay okay, as for things more spiritual....
This was a great week. We really tried to complete our goals this week. We really put forth an extra effort to contact every reference we received. We have seen that it is fact possible and I am determined to be better at this in the future. We are having success here with visiting former investigators and less active members. Almost all of our new investigators that we have visited this transfer have come from these two sources. One is the nephew of a member who has recently started coming back to church again. He is amazing. He is 8 and I think more intelligent than I am. We asked him if he had any questions after our lesson and he asked,¨who created God.¨ He really understands the doctrine and loves reading the Book of Mormon. We asked him about what he read and he could tell us the whole story of Lehi. I really am amazed at how sharp children are and how eager they are to learn and to do what is right.
We also have two investigators with baptismal dates. One knows that it is true, but he told us this week that he still has a lot of fears. We are working with him on this and we left Moroni 7 for him to ready and study, specifically the begining of the chapter. I really think that this will help him a lot. The other is really great too. He is very humble and eager to learn and do the things that God wants of him. Something I love about him is that when he says he will do something he does it. He is reading the Book of Mormon and learning a lot, he also loves to read the Gospel Principle manual that the branch gave him.
The members here have gotten more excited about the work and are willing to help us more. I really think that it is a result of the progress we have been seeing here. Our branch is small about 40 to 50 every week in church. So the fact that we are blessed with a lot of investigators attending church has really gotten some of them excited to help us. It´s great. I love it here in Tigre. I am so grateful for this opportunity here and to be one of the Lord´s missionaries.

Okay that´s about all I got for this week. I will write concerning mother´s day call next week, with the number to call and I´ll know then if I´ll have access to skype or not. So we will worry about that next week.
okay love you all tons,
Aleta

Dear Family and Friends,
Hi. It´s me again, that girl down here in Argentina. I´m doin´just fine and dandy. Mom, thanks for the email from Alex. It is really true, there are dogs everywhere and the desserts are amazing. Hey before I forget, Happy belated Birthday to Tamsin, I thought of you the other day, but couldn´t email, so here it is today! Dad I liked the poem. Mom, I am not really sure what to tell you about the phone call yet. I´m not sure if I´ll be transferred. I hope not, but the more time I have here the more likely it is that I´ll go; and at the end of this transfer ( in 2 weeks) I´ll have 71/2 months in Tigre so we´ll have to wait and see before I give you a number to call. Okay so today we went to Pacheco, and played football (soccer) with the Elders and it was a blast. There is one Elder Sargettis, from California, and he is hilarious, he is really tall so when he goes to kicks the ball and misses, watch out ´cause his legs go every which way. It was really fun!
Okay as for the work...
This week just seemed to fly by. We were very blessed to see Brian confirmed this week. I feel very blessed to be here in this area and be a part of the lives of so many wonderful people.
We had a great lesson with our investigator Pablo, yesterday. One reason it was great was the member who came with us. Hno. Acosta is the president of the Elders Quorum here in Tigre and the ward is really starting to see blessings for his help. We have three investigators with baptismal dates right now and all of them are men. I sincerely believe that the Lord is blessing us and answering our prayers not only because we are working here, but also because the members are starting to get more involved. In the lesson with Pablo, the testimony of this brother helped him so much. He talked more than we did and we finally found out the real reason he has doubts, he had been talking a lot about what his friends would say, but we knew that it was something deeper than that. So finally we were able to learn that he has fears about being able to comply with some of the commandments. It was only through much love and questions that he finally confided in us his real doubts. We put a new fecha and are working with him to be ready for this day.
We also have two investigators who are the children of lesson active members. I am really starting to gain a testimony of working with less active and part member families. My companion is wonderful and she really helps me to be a better missionary.
I am looking forward to this next week and all that the lord has in store for us here.

Also I am attaching some photos of my excursions here in Tigre!
Lots of love,
Aleta
PS. Okay I made some chocolate chip cookies last week and something wasn´t right. There is no temperature gage for the oven, it´s gas,so maybe it was too hot. So the cookies were really crispy, well and they were really thin, they were not like yours, they were yummy but could have been better could you help me figure out what went wrong. Thanks a million!

Do you believe in miracles...

Dear family,
Okay so today was really fun. We went and hit some golf balls again. It is one of the only things that is open on Mondays and is fun. There are so many things to do here in Tigre, but unfortunatley almost everything is closed on Monday. Lame. So we went again, but this time with pants!
Thanks a lot for the emails mom, dad, betsy and aunt janie.The weather here can´t seem to make up it´s mind either. It is cool in the mornings, rather warm in the day (still using short sleeved shirt most of the time) and then a little chilly at night. Sheesh. I´m not complaining, it´s just difficult to dress in the mornings´cause we never know what it´s going to be like. We don´t see the weather report or anything so it is all based on what it looks like at 11 am when we leave.
Okay I am inclosing photos of our baptisms from this week and last week.
This week was really great. We saw so many miracles. We had the opportunity to see Sharom get baptized on Friday. It was great to see so many blessings after so much work. We had a lesson with her on Friday morning to review the baptismal interview questions, because she had her interview Friday in the afternoon. So during our lesson we wanted to see how she was feeling about her baptism, she had been saying that she didn´t feel ready and wanted to wait another week. That is the same thing that she said the week before, so we had been praying a lot for her and that we would know what to say and how to help. In our companion study that morning we practiced for her. Well, it went really well and I felt that we defiantly received revelation for her and how to resolve her doubts. So when we went to her house and almost the exact same thing happened we knew what to say. It really did have an impact on her. She had been saying a lot that she wants to learn more, that she doesn´t know everything. That it will be fine if she waits another week. Hermana Peña asked, ¨ Sharom what happens if you die today?¨ Well that really got her thinking. We explained that she was ready, she has great faith and that the Lord will help her feel tranquility and peace if she asks. So we knelt down and prayed with her. When she was done, my companion said okay open up the Book of Mormon and search for an answer. It was right there, my companion and I could hardly believe it. She opened up to Alma 10:20. It says something along the lines of the lord sends his angels to declare repentance and the time is at hand. I don´t remember the exact wording, but that´s the jist. It truly was an answer to her prayer. It was an answer to our prayers and she was baptised that night. It was a great testimony builder to me and my companion.
All three siblings were confirmed on Sunday, Sharom, Jonathon and Susan. We went by their house last night to teach a lesson and found that they had really been experiencing a lot of trials lately. It is amazing how the Lord helps prepare people for the trials they will have. Sharom had this powerful experience with the Book of Mormon and her sister had one similar on her own. We helped them understand that this Book is where they can find answers. The answers to ¨why does this happen...or that¨ It was a amazing to see how the Lord answers prayers and strengthens his children if they just humble themselves and ask him.
I have learned a lot this week and am looking forward to this next week as well. I feel very humbled to be able to see these kind of miracles in the lives of others and help in God´s work here in Argentina.

What a great weekend....

Dear family,
This was a great weekend. I love general conference. I am always a little sad when it comes to an end, I really could just listen and learn from the prophets of the Lord all day long.
So also we had three baptisms on Saturday! Susan and her brother Jonathon and also the son of another investigator Brian. It was really hectic, a lot of last minute changes, but was beautiful and sweet at the same time. There really is such a sweet spirit that accompanies a baptism when God´s children show him that they are willing and ready to follow him.
Oh and today was p-day. obviously. We got together with some of the Elders in our zone and went to the driving range. It was a lot of fun. They didn´t tell us we were going there until after, we just thought we were going to eat. So there we were in our skirts and there they were in jeans and t-shirts. It was a rather funny sight.
So because I went and had fun today I don´t have to much time to write sorry, I´ll try and send some pictures next week so stay tuned for that!

This week had some great ups and a few downs. I feel so blessed that we were able to help 3 of the Lord´s children come into the waters of baptism. I am so lucky to be the Lord´s instrument here in Tigre.
I am learning so much from Hermana Peña. She is a great example for me and I feel extremely lucky to be her companion. I really can feel her love for me and her concern for our investigators. So then I can really confide in her, because I know she has our best interest at heart. It is really amazing that we can get so much more done when everything we do is built on a foundation of love and appreciation.
We are both constantly trying to hear and obey the promptings of the Holy Spirit and are beginning to see more success here in Tigre.

love you all very much,
Aleta
Oh ps. I love the pictures of Calista!
ps. Sorry mom, if you waited around the computer today, the one day I email late. go figure.
ps. this is the last one I promise....Jaime! Thanks for your letter I loved it. :)