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