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