end of January already? woah.

Dear family,
Thank you for the letters! Yeah. Thanks Brandi!!! I wish you could have seen the smile on my face as I read the part about ¨It´s a wonderful life¨! Yeah yeah yeah!
Okay, mom sounds like you had a fun week with the bedroom. Hope things turn out well for you with that project. I´m sure that the Cookies went over well and that if he shared, his whole district is grateful. Yes I did find powdered sugar.
Dad, I´m really glad that you are having fun with your book, sounds like a good one.
Jack, grape jelly......really? very resourceful. hahaha
Oh and a belated Birthday shout out to Jackie and an early one to Isaac and Betsy!
Okay so as for things here...it´s been good. Still hot, but good. It´s really interesting to see so many blessings and progress here in Tigre, when I feel like I´m still not quite working at full steam. Maybe the Lord just knows that I´m trying and that is what counts. I can´t even count the number of blessings I saw here in Tigre this week. Many of them were small and simple but I know that that is usually how the Lord works.
We had a wonderful lesson with Pablo on Saturday. We watched ¨Finding Faith in Christ¨ with him and a recent convert, Oscar, and one of his friends, Erika, a former investigator. Well the spirit was incredibly strong during and after the movie, the we talked about the savior and what he means to us. Pablo was at a bit of a loss for words, he has an amazing testimony of the Savior. Then to our surprise Erika shared her feelings as well and what she liked about the movie was how the family is sharing about Jesus and testifying to their friend, but not in a pushy way. I´d never even noticed that before, but it is really true. They are sharing their testimonies of Christ out of love for their friend. Then she surprised us and said she´d like to talk a little bit more about this later.
We also had several good lessons with Luz Maria, she has a baptismal date for this Saturday and things are still going well for that. We just need to work some more with the members to help her feel more comfortable with other people. She is quite attached to the two of us.
Yesterday we had a lesson with a reference from a member, Nelly. She is really interested in our message and wants to learn more. We shared about the Book of Mormon and are going to follow up on Tuesday.
So yep, that´s pretty much my week. I hope all goes well with everyone at home.
I love you all!
Aleta

great week

Dear Family,
Mom, thanks for your letter. I did get the other package last week, the one with the shirts and apple cider, yum. Thanks a lot. Yeah,I know I need to write a few letters, I´ll get around to it one of these days I promise:) Oh and I agree last week was a fun little surprise with the email.
Well, as far as my life goes.....things are much better with my companion. I think that is hard when to people are so very different and to top it off are from very different cultures. We are making it work and usually laughing at each others wacky customs. Ha. yep. OH and have I mentioned that it is HOT here, yep still hot, incase anyone was wondering. Alex is lucky that he´ll miss the heat.
Let´s see can´t tink of anything new me wise, so as for the reason I´m here.....
This was a really good week. We finally had investigators at church! All of three of them really liked it. It was so great to be able to help people feel the spirit of the Lord at church and learn more about his gospel and how they can apply it to their lives. One of our investigators, Pablo, is really a genuine person. He does what he says he is going to do and want very much to follow the Savior. He used to be very active in another church, but hasn´t gone in the past to years. He realizes that something is missing in his life. The first time we met with him he said that he felt full, in a way that he hadn´t felt in a really long time. He told us yestserday that he really liked it and felt really good, but is a little nervous to take steps away from what he knows and where he is comfortable. He said a lot of things that we teach him and talk about are new to him, and he´s just not sure. Well, we assured him that Heavenly Father wants the very best for him and that through sincere prayer he will recieve an answer from God. He has amazing faith in the Lord and it has got him through some tough times in his life, we are excited to see him again this week and see how the Lord has helped him.
We had several lessons with Luz Maria this week. She told her aunt the otherday that she wants to be baptized. That is a big step for her and hopefully that will help open up the line of communication between the two of them. They don´t talk too much. Her testimony is growing and we are getting better at figuring out ways that help her understand the lessons. We have arranged for a member to help her learn how to read. Luz Maria is very excited for this and I know this will help build her confidence in the Lord and how he can help her if she trusts in him.
Basically, I´m trying to work hard with the time the Lord has given me in Tigre and we are seeing blessings in the lives of our investigators as they begin to put the Lord first in their lives.
Well that´s about all I got this week. I´ll try and be more exciting next week.
Love and miss you!!!
Aleta

Ps. Jack, WOW! That is so great. I´m praying that things continue to go well.

another week here and gone‏

Dear family,
Well thanks for the letters they are always great.
Betsy I like both, good job and tough decision with the names.
Well this is going to be kind of short. My computer just shut down, so now i have to do it all over again. To do Internet we come to a little place across the street from the train station. There are a lot of computers and each one has a number. Well the person at the desk tells you what number to go to and turns it on , then you get charged for how ever long you are on the computer.Well when you are done you tell them what number is yours and they turn it off. WELL, somebody got the number mixed up. For some reason they thought that they were number 4, but really they were number 8 and I was number 4. So Mine got turned off in stead. Oh thus is life, it does keep things interesting though.
So dad, no i haven´t gone to the museum, it´s closed Mondays, but yes I´ve seen the outside, pretty cool architecture. Oh and yes Portas de frutas in very much like a huge flea market slash arts festival. It´s only open on the weekends though, oh and holidays, so I did go once with my other companion it was a lot of fun.
Somebody tell Alex that Argentina is amazing and he is so lucky to come here! Good luck in the MTC and enjoy it.
Jack, I really liked your letter today.
Mom I really like the quote. Thanks a lot. Hopefully I can get the package soon. Maybe tomorrow!
This week was very good. We had three investigators with baptismal dates last week, but only one came to church. This seems to still be one of our biggest hurdles. One of our investigators Agustina, is really good and she has a strong desire to follow the Lord and be baptised, she knows that it is true. She just doesn´t want to move on with out her husband, well they still need to get married. She has come to church a couple of times and once with him, Gustavo. She feels that it is just not he same with out him. So this week we are working a lot more with him. In the beginning he was really interested and wanted to change, for himself and for his family. then out of the blue he didn´t want to listen anymore. We have yet to find out what really happened. Hopefully we will be able to get to the heart of things this week and help them progress and come closer to the Lord.
Also we have an investigator, Luz Maria, she is 19 and very sweet. She can´t read though, and that does make things a little more difficult. We are taking things slow and trying to make sure that she understands everything. She has some kind of learning disorder, but really wants to learn about the gospel. So we are trying to not overwhelm her with information and we need to repeat and go over everything a few times so that she retains it. She came to church yesterday and really like it.
All in all things are going well here in Tigre. We are starting to see some of the fruits of our labor. I feel like the Lord has a lot of wonderful things in store for Tigre.

Well that´s it, that´s all folks, ´till next week
bye, or as they say in Argentina, Chao!
I love you all SO MUCH.
Aleta

I have A shoe!!!

Dear family,



This week went pretty well. A few bumps here and there but over all it was great. It´s still really hot here so all of your stories about the cold and snow sound great! It´s so wierd being hot in January, it just shouldn´t be. When I come home I´m just gonna be confused about what to put on a coat or a t-shirt.

So my email is a day late because yesterday we had Zone conference, so wonderful. President Gulbrandsen and his wife truely are inspired. We talked a lot about how important the members are in missionary work, and how we can help them be more involved. It is really true, if the members reach out and offer help in love and friendship, the investigator can more easily feel the love of God and their fears don´t have a hold on them.

Thank you so much for your letters. They really do help me throughout the week. A phrase from one and a sentence or scripture from another often come to mind when I´m feeling a little down or challenged. Thanks to Sis. Grimnes for the conference notes, sounds amazing. Mom I loved the quote from relief society. Thanks also to Issac, Jack, Betsy, and Aunt Janie. I´m glad that things are going well for each of you and pray that this year will top all others.

Now, since yesterday was zone conference that means that I get mail! Yeah, oh somebody tell Molika Graham congratulations for me. Also, I have a SHOE! One shoe... hopefully the other will come at some point. Good thing is I don´t need them yet. Also yummy, nutela. Thanks mom, and yes I found the memory card BEFORE throwing away the box. So I´m excited for the other package whenever it comes.

. Well, both of the new investigators this week, Sabastian and his mom Maria, both came from a less active member. We went to visit this family, they had been a strong active family when my companion was here last year, and she has a great love for them, naturally she wanted to know what happened. We went to visit and Sabastian the boyfriend of the members daughter, was interested in what we had to say. We started teaching him and saw him many times last week. He accepted a baptiam date and everything. Although he said that it´s difficult for him to read because he needs glasses. So he said he read a little from the Book of Mormon. He didn´t come to church this week and we have plans to see him tonight. I have a firm belief in the power of the Book of Mormon and how if you don´t read it and pray about it, you can be so easily swayed by other people. There is a lot of social pressure, against the church that we need to help him with, and I know that if we can receive the revelation to help him read and pray, then it will be a huge help and we will start seeing more miricles here in Tigre.

I really feel like our investigators and less active members, just don´t realize the importance of church attendence and the blessings that come from the sacrament. I´ve been trying to study this a little bit more, so that when we teach it, we can teach with power and the Holy Ghost can testify to hearts of others that this is of a great importance to their lives.

Alright that´s all I got for you this week...stay tuned for the next installment of Aleta´s mission in Argentina.... hahaha. Hope you enjoyed that, I thought it was funny...
Love,
Aleta

Happy New Year‏

Dear family,

Felize año nuevo! Thank you so much for the letters this week.
Dad thanks for email. It is exactly what I needed to hear. I figured you´d at least be able to relate. I´m gonna try and ¨act¨my part.
Aunt Janie thanks for sharing. I love hearing from you. Thanks Bro Bingham, sounds like I´ve got to be better at contacting too, I´m nothing like your father in law :) Brandi...name, please, that is all. name. Jack, thanks for sharing about the women and prayers. That really helps. Oh and happy early 1 year aniversery as a memeber
As for this week, I really don´t have much to report. It´s been interesting trying to adjust to not only a new companion but one that I have trouble communicating with. She´s really great and very happy. I mean, I´m a happy person, right? Smiles and all that. Well I look sad and boring next to her. She really loves the people here and is ecstatic to be back in Tigre. I hope that we can learn for each other and grow into the people that the Lord needs us to be. Like every companionship there are a few wrinkles that need ironing, but only a few.
We did find a new investigator this week Paulo. He´s really great. We found him on Saturday night and taught him the first lesson. He is very open and receptive to the gospel. He is really sincere. Everything he says comes straight from the heart. There is just something about him. He didn´t come to church yesterday, but I´m not sure if he has even read in the Book of Mormon yet, so I can´t really blame the guy. There is a scripture that I love it´s in Alma. I can´t remember the reference now, man....nope....it´s verse 5 maybe, but can´t remember the chapter. I have it written down in the apartment.Oh well. It talks about how they were going to preach to the Lamanites and they wanted to preach the word of God unto them because it has more power on the hearts of the people than anything else. Think about that. There is a power in the scriptures, they are the word of God. A power to change people and their lives. That´s all I´m trying to here, help people change their lives for the better by coming to Christ.

Well that´s all I got for this week. Love you all.
Happy new Year!

Love
Aleta