Happy Halloween!!

Dear family,
Well it´s Halloween today, we´ve been eating candy corn all morning! Thanks for that, it´s good, they don´t have anything like it down here. So our plans today are to go the the cemetery in Chacarita and see the sights. When the elders asked if it was something we want ed to do, we were like...really...cemetery. Then we thought about it and remembered it is Halloween and since we can´t really do anything else to celebrate, why not. This cemetery is HUGE, so it should be cool to see all the different types of graves, and tombs, they have a lot of family tombs here and they are always really pretty and cool looking. So that is the plan for today.
Thanks for the PACKAGE!!!! It it fantastic! Mom, I asked Hermana Gulbrandsen about the customs thing and she said they didn´t have any problems receiving it, so the money thing isn´t a problem I guess. So you can send things how you want, don´t worry about me having to pay. I don´t know if that goes for all missions, but that´s what Hermana Gulbrandsen told me. As for Christmas I´ll have to think about it..... Thanks for the cards everybody, they are great. Love the skirt, I´m wearing right now actually.
Oh and HAPPY BIRTHDAY LISSY!!!! and a HAPPY BIRTHDAY KAMMIE!!! I hope they are great! I can´t remember if if I wished Brandi Happy birthday, if not Feliz Cumple.... tarde! I can´t believe that tomorrow is November. How time flies. I saw Hermana Vargas yesterday and someone asked her how much time she had in the mission and she said 5 months. That was weird. My hijita has 5 months! I can´t believe that I´ve been with Hermana Binks for 2, it just keeps speeding up. Before you know it I´ll be home and all this will be like a wonderful dream. It´s weird how things like that work. Oh well, así es, and we don´t have to worry about it.
As for this week...
It had it´s ups and down like every other, but the goods always out way the bads. One of the biggest things was our ward missionary activity that we had this weekend. It was a combined activity with Nuñez as well. We went to Parque Saavedra and contacted about 650-700 people. They were all invited to an open house that we had the following day (yesterday) One of the biggest purposes of the activity was to get the members involved and excited. It was great and there was definitely a new excitement in those members who participated. Hermana Binks was great as she knows how to make balloon animals and made several for little kids as we talked with their parents. I think I am going to develop this talent when I come home it is super fun and everyone love it. So Sunday came around and we were very excited for the open house. Well we had five people show up! One was a contact from the park and the others were people that members contacted on the street as they were walking by. One of them is Alcides. He is amazing and he is just as much an answer to my prayers as we are to his.
So things are good here in Urquiza. I love you all lots!
Okay, off to see some graaaaaaveeeeesss. oooooohhhhhoooooo.
Love you,
Aleta

Well, family how is it going?
I´m just peachy as always. Sounds like you all have had a busy week. Mom, thanks for the pictures, Calista is SO cute. Good Job Scott and Betsy. I can´t wait to meet her, I guess that will happen before we know it. Dad, that´s great about the activities thing sounds like a lot of fun. Aunt Janie, I think that some how you manage to be more busy than a full time missionary, and that takes some doin´. :) Jack, thanks for the letter, I can definitely relate with the commute issues. Our area here in Urquiza is huge. It takes about 1 1/2 hours to walk from one end to the other. There are always colectivos (buses) but then you have to wait and you never know when they will come. It´s not an unusual sight to see two very determined missionaries running with all their might to catch a bus, if they miss it....well 20 blocks isn´t really that far to walk...;)
I have a zone conference on Thursday so I hope I´ll get my package then! This was a really good week. We found three new investigators yesterday, all from different sources. One was a contact that Hermana Binks did on Saturday night. She started talking to this guy while we were walking and she invited him to church and he said he´d come. Well they almost always say they´ll come, but don´t actually do it. Well this guy did. he came to sacrament meeting then we taught him a little after church. We have another appointment on Tuesday so we´ll see were that goes. So things are going well here in Villa Urquiza.
Oh, thanks for the updates about Alex. That´s how our lunch schedule has always been. 1 hour for lunch and then if you are hungry for dinner, usually eat something when your finished with planning. The only difference is here in Buenos Aires nobody takes the siesta, most of them are at work. Oh and thank goodness it is not that Hot, I would die!!!! So thanks for putting things in perspective, when I get hot, I´ll just think it could be worse, poor Alex.
Okay that´s all I got for you.
Love you tons,
With all my heart,
Aleta

transfer 10...

Dear family,
Well here we are I think this is transfer number 10 in the field. Whoa. I´m still here in Urquiza and Hermana Binks remains my comp. Yeah! We went to San Fernando last night for the missionary farewell, there were 20 Elders who left. That´s a lot, in case you didn´t know. So I think there are a lot of changes in other areas, but not us, we are nice and tranquil here in Urquiza. mwahahaha. So this week has been good. We found some new investigators and dropped several, I guess that is how it goes though. We received a reference from a recent convert in Belgrano (one of the other areas) and he is SO awesome. He had actually read what the elders had left for him, he understood it, liked it, and wants to learn more. So we are pretty excited to get to work with him.
Oh and I´m glad that the Binghams enjoyed the paintings.....I would be more than happy to do something specific for them when I get home, if I still remember how that is ;) Oh and hey, I just remembered, when we were on the train last night, there was this girl from a different stake and we got to talking and I was like, she seems so familiar to me, do I know her....have we talked like this before....then it hit me. She is a split image of Tamsin, really, it was weird. She does the same gestures and talks the same, and even has curly hair. So I´m throwing out a huge HI to my beautiful friend Tamsin this week!
Okay ummmm, that´s about all I got for you, nothing else is coming to mind. I think I might have to start taking notes again like I did at the begining of my mission so I could remember all the cool things to tell you. I´ll work on that.
Lots of Love,
Aleta

rainy here too...

Dear family,
This has been an extremely long week for some reason. The days just crawled by, not that that is a bad thing, just different, usually they fly by. Well we too have had a lot of rain here this week. I guess spring here is similar to fall there, go figure. It´s lovely, I love it. I have a huge purple umbrella that I´ve had since Tigre to keep me company and dry:) So I can´t remember anything special that Argentines do for the 31st, Dad, sorry. Today is a holiday, but I´m not sure why. Next week is mother´s day, yep the whole world celebrates it in may, except Argentina. So we have really been contacting a lot this week, we are in need of investigators, pero mal. The good thing is that my companion loves to talk to people, so she usually starts off the contact and I finish when she gets a little lost. She actually speaks super well, she doesn´t realize it, but it´s true , re capa ella. aka she´s awesome.Oh thanks for the emails. I always love them. I´m glad to hear that you all are getting over your colds, and wow employee of the month! congrats.
Oh and I´m attaching a ¨lovely¨ picture of me with my chicken pox and the balloon animal i made. Also I have a year in Argentina so as a present I finally broke down and started using my new pair of shoes, yep I made the others last a year. They may have a hole, but they made it.
Today we went to Belgrano and got together with the Elders in our district and went to China town and a little mini arts and craft thing in the plaza. It was fun and I bought some cool things....so yeah that was our day. I´m sure it will be more exciting next week.
Love you all,
Aleta

a year...

Dear family,
well can you believe I´m going to complete a year here in Argentina this week, crazy huh? So how about that General Conference. So good. It was slightly stressful at the beginning though, we went to the stake center, but because ours is being remodeled we had to go to the next stake over. Well they were having difficulties and we missed the first 30 min. Then they told us that the English didn´t work, so we could only watch in Spanish. Well, okay, sad day, I understand what´s being said, but it´s not the same as hearing the actual people speak. My poor companion, who only has a month here, had a harder time with it than I did. So after the first session we headed out to Belgrano to watch it at the institute building, much better, English and everything, plus it´s a really pretty building. Well I don´t have too much more to tell you all, I was inside until Friday. Finally I had permission to leave after the whole chicken pox thing. By the way, thank you very much for all of the emails and get well wishes. I am much better and almost all the dots have faded. :) It is just one of those exciting things that can happen on a mission. I hope, none of you who are getting ready to leave, experience it though. Hey, Congrats Eileen! Mesa! Wow, I can´t believe it. Lame, that I am just going to miss you and Melissa by a couple of months. Oh well, that´s what mail is for. Thanks for sending me a visiting teaching note, I feel the love!
Well that´s about all I got. I just spent a LONG time filling out a missionary questionnaire and don´t really have more time.
Know that I Love you all and hope you have a great week!
Love,
Aleta

What a week...

Dear family,
So I´ve been on the fence about whether or not I should tell you about my week last week. I have decided that if I don´t tell you, I will have nothing to say and my email will be shorter than that one last week. So 1st things 1st, I am FINE The thing is well, last Saturday I came down with a fever. No big deal, just a fever, it´s that time of year when people are getting sick. Well Sunday rolled around and still had said fever, okay that´s just annoying. The rule is if you have a fever you have to stay inside, you can´t go out and proselyte. So Monday still had pesky fever and then a dot. followed by two dots, three dots.... as the afternoon went on I noticed a few more.....uh oh..... which is why my email was so short last week , I was feeling slightly under the weather. Well if you are my mother you have probably put the two things together...the dreaded and deadly chicken pox! Yep, that´s right. Don´t worry though I called Hermana Gulbrandsen and she gave me a perscription for this medicine that makes it run it´s course faster and then another one so that it doesn´t itch. Well the first day, yes there was itching, then the medicine started to kick in and it really wasn´t bad at all, I haven´t really paid much attention to them since Wednesday. The only things is that I have to be inside until they all scab over. So all this week and a couple more days in our apartment with limited ways of entertainment has been the most difficult part. The other day I drew a picture and that was fun. I´m fourteen chapters in to Jesus the Christ , oh and Saturday we made balloon animals. Hermana Binks knows how and had all of the stuff, I made a purple bunny. That was super fun.
Okay so LISSY!!!!!!! that is so cool Arizona! There are a lot of great people who are serving from Arizona, not to mention my mission president. So I know that you will love it and that the members will just love you. I know the lord has people prepared for you , or that he had been preparing you for. You´ll LOVE it. promise.
Thanks everyone for your emails. aunt Janie seems like you are having a great time like always. Dad, a book, cool.
Okay that´s all I got. Love you all!!!!
Aleta
PS. I really am OK, I´m not sugar coating it or anything, modern medicine really is a blessing:)

Whirlwind of a week

Dear family,
Well this week has been very busy. We had a our regular district meeting on Wednesday and we went to San Fernando on Tuesday ands Thursday for leadership training meetings, they are so great. We always learn where we need to be better and what it is that we can do. Then that switched up our weekly planning session to Friday so it was a fun meeting filled... good week. This week we have zone conference, so I am looking forward to that as well. It is always so nice to meet together with the other missionaries and learn form them , what they are doing in their areas and how that is helping them.
Thanks so much for the emails. They really are a lift to my week. Jac the dog is super cute, and I can not believe how big Elaina has gotten! Wow. I really have been gone a while. You kind of start to think that time just stands still back home, but then you see a picture and realize that in fact life goes on for everyone. Mom, thanks for the recipe, I hope you have a happy week and can find some joy in all the little things around you. I´m sending a huge hug and kiss from Argentina. Aunt Janie, thanks for all the up dates, sounds like you are super busy but enjoying it, and that´s what matters.
oh hey, que paso? Lissy? did you hear anything?.... You totally need to write me when you do....
Well I am kind of short on words today, sorry. Then again, most of you said the same thing, so maybe it´s something that is going around, some sort of short email syndrome that we have all caught. Hopefully it passes by next week.:)
Lot´s of Love,
Aleta