Sister Aleta Bray

Aleta 25

Aleta 25
On my Birthday!

Worn Out!

Worn Out!
after pushing the car....okay it may have been slightly exaggerated....(explanation of car in July 18th letter)

Aleta Christmas Eve - Beunos Aires

Aleta Christmas Eve - Beunos Aires
Look at what I Got! Aleta Christmas Eve - Beunos Aires

Monday, February 13, 2012

it's the fial countdown...

love that song.
Dear family......2 John 2:12
 
lots of love,
Aleta
 
2 John 1:12 (KJV)
Having many things to write unto you, I would not write with paper and ink: but I trust to come unto you, and speak face to face, that our joy may be full. 

Monday, February 6, 2012

ice cream..mmmmmmm

Dear family,
Hi!!!! It´s been a busy week as always, our numbers don´t really reflect it this week, but we were working hard in the heat. It´s a really good thing that the ice cream is SO delicious! I mean really good, I´m gonna miss it, so I´m stalking up ;) Today we went to Villa Adelina and played futbol with the elders (that´s pretty much what we do every week) it was fun and we had a good time. I still don´t really play soccer well, my goal is to just be in the way of the other team, it works pretty well. One of the elders got confronted by my companion and I and wasn´t sure exactly what to do with the ball, he said he was scared with the two Hermanas right there. HAHAHa (he´s new, only has three weeks here.)
Well we have been running a lot this week, seems like every time we got o take the bus it either is just about to leave so we have to book it to catch it or we are waiting like half an hour. Oh the other day it rained like Crazy. A huge down pour it rain so much so fast that all of the roads were like rivers. It wasn´t so bad here, but in some of the elders areas it was like knee to waist high. Well we got soaked and waited for a colectivo (bus) for 1 1/2 hours! it was fun...in a way. I was doing pretty well the first hour, humming singing in the rain, but when it started getting close to the hour we needed to be home i got a little more nervous. It all worked out okay in the end.
I also had the opportunity to go to capital on Saturday and do another ¨open chapel¨ well they changed the name to visitors center in the church, anyway it was a lot of fun, but is really tiring, we are taking people on these 30 min, tours through the church for 4 hours strait and it was fast Sunday, so no water to drink. It was just one more of those fun experiences, oh plus I went with Hermana Reed. President wanted the senior comps to go so our junior companions were together here covering both areas. They both only have 9 weeks in Argentina. I heard it worked out okay and they only got a little lost looking for a colectivo stop. Oh by the way, Jaime, if you get this email. You know Hermana Reed (Carlee) she worked with you at the museum at BYU. We´ve shared an apartment for the last 9 weeks. Small world huh.
Well I don´t have too much more to say. I love you all and am really grateful for  the emails. Thanks to Mary, Brother Millard, Dad, aunt Janie, Barbara, Betsy and Mom. Sounds like life is good and full of blessing and adventures. I can´t wait to be a part of them all.
Lots of love,
Aleta

Monday, January 30, 2012

Rain!!!!!!

Hello dearest family and friends,
This has been a very busy week. Thank you so much for the emails,
sounds like there is never a dull moment. Thank Brother Thurmond too,
I really liked the card/message that he sent. Dad, hang in there, I´m
glad you´ve got a good attitude abot everything. Mom, thanks for the
updates, you´re great. Aunt janie, sounds like you had fun on the
coast, I remember when we went, you do cook well, so I´m not at all
suprised that the staff remembered you ;)
So this last week we had a great training meeting with President. We
talked a lot about how we can work more effectively with the ward to
help our investigators to come to church, we must have done something
right, we had 4 at church this week Yeah. Two of them are so great
they are really good friends and are progressing and both have
baptismal dates in a few weeks, so we´ll keep working with them and
the ward to help them get intergated. That really is one of the
biggest reasons people stop coming to church, lack of friends and
feeling like an outsider, so if the Elders ever ask you to do
something, just do it, they spend a long time praying and seeking
inspiration and sometimes the answer is you. Hey and even better,
don´t wait to be asked, I hear there are three elders now, just one
more to help all of you in the missionary work isn´t that great!
Okay, I´ll get down off the soapbox now. sorry.
In other news this week is not nearly as hot as last week , it´s raing
today, yeah, that´s good too because yesterday was like a sauna,
really humid and in the high 90´s, yuck.
okay umm I don´t have too much more to say, Oh somebody give Brittney
a hug for me. Oh and happy belated Bday Jackie, oh and somebody tell
uncle Doug crongrats too.
Alright that´s it for this week, stay tuned for the continuing
adventures of Aleta in Argentina.
love,
Aleta

Monday, January 23, 2012

HOT!!!!!!! please send some of that snow.‏

Dear family,
How´s it going? Sounds like you all had a fun week being stuck inside ;) Well, I´m not going to lie, some of that snow would be really nice about now. It was up in the high 90´s last week, at least 98.6 one day, okay that should be my internal temp, NOT external. So that always adds to the fun of our days. On Saturday we got ot go and do another one of the open chapel activities. It was really fun. We went to the Zone leaders area and they were all ready and they had a lot of support from the ward too. So I think we did about 11 tours total. I really enjoy those. I attached a photo and also a photo of my companion and I. I don´t think I´ve sent a picture of her home yet. So I´m attaching one of those too.
Okay so this week President Foster came. That was fun and really great. I actually really liked that talk from Hermana Gulbrandsen the best, I think. It really struck home with me. They also choose to do pretty much the whole Zone conference in English, so we all had to rearrange ourselves so all the Latins were next to a ¨Yanqui¨who could translate. So I didn´t get the full effect of president fosters talk because i was translating for an hermana the whole time. I did get a lot of it though, PS. he talks really fast. Basically never forget who you are. Everyone of you is a child of God and he wants you to know that, there is power in that. Satan, wants you to be confused and forget. That´s were I come in. I help people remember. That´s a pretty fun job. :)
Okay got to run. Love you all.
Love,
Aleta
 
PS. thanks for the recipes they´ll be great.

Monday, January 16, 2012

snow! man that would be nice, maybe a snow cone is more probable for me.‏

Hello family!
Okay so sorry I don´t have a lot of time to write it has been a bit of
a crazy day. We normally go to this one internet place, but since
everyone goes on vaction in january they are not open. Well okay they
were open this morning and we went and printed off all of our mail,
because they close at 1 for the siesta. Well I guess for the next few
weeks they just aren´t opening in the afternoon. So oops. We had to go
to another internet place and they only had 1 computer so my
companion and I had to share and well that really takes up time, so
I´ve got 10 minutes. It´s like I´m back in the MTC and there is a big
red clock in the corner counting down time. That was really stressful,
I´m glad that I don´t ever have to deal with that again ;)
Well thank you for the emails, especially mom, I love the photos of
the snow! Jac, thanks for the update. Dad, sorry you had to go home
early, but happy you got stuff done. Mom, enjoy your day off.
I´ll try and send pics of me and my companion next week so
you can see what she looks like. Thanks aunt janie , sounds like you
are busy as usual. Matt C. I hope school goes great for you this
sememster, enjoy college it goes by really fast.
Well okay so this week was fun. We had a lot of growing expiriences
and chances to learn, those are always great. I had to give a talk
yesterday. I chose to talk about charity and how that is the basis of
the missionary work. President and Sister Gulbrandsen showed up to our
ward yesterday, so that added a little to my nervousness, which really
shouldn´t suprise anyone. I think it went okay though. They said they
liked it and so did my comp. I think she has to say that though ;)
We have a special treat this week, President Foster of the area
presidency is here on a tour of the mission and we´ll have a zone
confrence with him this week so I´m sure I´ll have something to say
about that next week. Okay my time is about up. I love you all, I
can´t think of anything more.
Have a fantastic week everyone!
Love
Aleta

Monday, January 9, 2012

It´s the final count down....but not trunky...yet.‏

Dear family,
Hola! ¿Como estan todos? Muy bien, espero. Okay So this is the first day of my last transfer. So weird. Last night as I opened my planner to plan for today we were very dramatic. I opened it, unwillingly, and hermana Sperry shot me! okay, it was an imaginary gun. Then I said ha! you missed you only thought you were going to kill me. Well I realize that sounds horrible, but if you don´t know, it´s kind of missionary terms. When you are the last companion of someone who is ending their mission, you ¨kill¨ them. Well I said she almost killed me, because I thought she was going to be transferred, in which case her ¨bullet¨missed. Okay so that doesn´t sound nearly as exciting in writing as it was in real life, sorry. Well the truth is I was right! ha ha. Hermana Sperry has been transferred to Urquiza! ya, actually they are splitting the area, so she´ll be living with hermana Binks, cool huh. So my new companion is Hermana Renteria, she´s from Ventura CA. She´s super sweet and this is her second transfer, so looks like I´ll just finish up training her. It´s gonna be fun. I´ll try and send pictures next week.
Okay so this week went by super fast. We had so many miracles. I can´t believe all that we accomplished. We taught 18 lessons with members. That is a new record for me and Hermana Sperry and I were really blessed. So we´ll try and keep that going, although it really doesn´t matter how many lessons you teach if your investigators aren´t progressing, well that´s were we are at at the moment. It´s always one thing or an other. We did teach this elderly gentleman named Ernesto the other day. He is atheist, it was really great. It was great to see that the spirit was touching his heart and he could see the reason behind a lot of what we said. I love analogies and those really seemed to help him too. So yeah, that was pretty great.
Ummmmm, OH Hermana Sperry sprained her ankle on Tuesday, so that added to adventure of every day. She´s a trooper and didn´t let her slow her down, okay, yes literal it did slow her down, but spiritually and mental no.
So it sounds like things are going well there. I got a few letters today, I haven´t had a chance to read them yet, but thanks to the Treibers, the murrys, and to Heidi Isaksen, they mean a lot. Thanks for the emails too, mom, dad, aunt Janie, jac (i really want to think about that and I´ll tell you what I think, it´s really interesting so I want to ponder it a bit before I respond), and brother Thurmond
Okay so that´s all I got coming to mind, Love you all.
Lots of Love,
Aleta

Monday, January 2, 2012

¡¡¡¡Feliz año nuevo!!!!

Dear family,
This has been a long week. You know the kind when you think that one day is really another day. For example I woke up on Tuesday thinking it was Thursday, so then Wed, I also thought was Thursday so it seemed like the week really dragged on. We did a lot and that always helps keep time moving. We taught a new record of lessons for me this week, 57. That is crazy. We 17 on Friday alone. So that did make the days go faster even if the week was long. So let´s see, well for new years, I was asleep, although was awakened by the loud fireworks, they are everywhere here. It´s pretty awesome, although this year we couldn´t see them from our apartment, we live on the bottom floor and there is another building in front of us. lame. So that was our new years! Let´s see que mas...Oh we had quite a few run ins this weekend with ummmm people who were quite tipsy, if you know what i mean. We got off the colectivo yesterday on our way to church, and my companion almost ran into a guy, so she started talking to him and invited him to church. Well he said yes and had a really good experience, I really hope he remembers it all... I am sure that it was a blessing form the lord in his life, what a better way to start off the new year, right? He doesn´t live in the area so we´ll be passing that reference to the elders. Then there are always a few who want to marry us. That adds a little of humor to our days.
Okay sorry there isn´t much spiritual in here, but nothings coming to mind. Know that I love you all and you´re in my prayers. I love the scriptures and through study and prayer we can find the answers to our questions and the things that we are looking for and concerned about.
Okay love ya,
Aleta

She has Arrived

She has Arrived
President & Sister Gulbrandsen & Aleta

Hermana Vargas, Gillum and me

burrrr, cold spell

burrrr, cold spell