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