My dearest family,
I am doing very well down here. Yes mom, it is starting to cool off, but not so much that I need a coat yet, so I´ll let you know when that happens. Thanks for the emails this week. Dad it was nice to hear from you, aunt janie as well and sister huffman, that was a pleasant suprise.
Thanks for the updates on the singles ward I didn´t know that Kyle and Jordan had their calls, Brazil huh. Cool. I met someone this week who served their mission in Salta, like Alex. He said it is a great place.
Oh and in other news... Happy Birthday Jack! I hope that it is just splendid.
okay so as for me...
This week was great. I love my new companion. She is great. I recently found out that her dad is a motivational speaker, so that explains a lot. She´s always happy, and you just can´t get her down. She is an amazing example of someone who listens to the spirit and follows the what she feels. We saw several miracles this week. I know that a lot of it comes down to trying to be 100% obedient in everything we do. I know that the Lord is blessing us and the people here in Tigre for our efforts.
We had several wonderful lessons this past week and saw a lot of progess with our investigators.
Our first lesson was with Susan, she has a baptismal date for this next Sunday, but her brother has been a bit harder to wake up in the morings to go to church. Well this week both of them and their older sister all accepted baptismal dates for the 3rd of April, next Sunday. They said that they are really excited to be able to do it all together. Hna. Peña really has a gift of talking to people and helping them realize what is really of the most importance. She is bold, but not pushy. Oh and yesterday all of them including their mom came to church.
Also Saturday, we were planning for the next day and a less active family came to mind. So we planned to go there and help them resolve any doubts or concern with the church and learn why it is that they stopped coming. Well turns out that this family, familia Rojas, have a son who´s 9. We were talking about the atonement and why it´s important to be baptised and keep the commandments and covenants. Well Nazareno, the 9 year old, said the sweetest words a missionary can hear, ¨I want to be baptised.¨ Hermana Peña and I were very excited to talk to this family about how that can happen and the steps they need to take. So that his dad can be the one to baptise him. I really feel like this is just what this family needs to be happy again, that their son is the key to helping them come back to church.
All in all it was a good week. I am very happy to still be here with the people I have come to love so very much.
okay that´s all I got...
Love you all!
Aleta
Sister Aleta Bray
Aleta 25
On my Birthday!
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
Look at what I Got! Aleta Christmas Eve - Beunos Aires
Monday, March 28, 2011
Monday, March 21, 2011
4 trasfers down, un monton todavia!
Dear Family,
Well today is the first day of my fifth transfer, which equals 24 weeks, or 6 months, in Argentina. I am still here in Tigre and am really glad as I don´t want o leave the members or my investigators yet. Hermana Sandoval however, went to Urquisa. So my new companion is Hermana Peña. She is great. She is from El Salvador and finishes her mission in July, the same as Hermana Sandoval. She is really sweet and happy. Not tooooo happy, just right. She is really excited to be here and when I told her that our apartment building has a washer and dryer she couldn´t believe it. Yes, it´s true, as far as I know Tigre is the only place in the mission with a washer and dryer. Everywhere else you need to take it to the laundry mat, or something similar to that. Anyway, she is really great and I think that by the end of this mission I am not going to remember any English at all. However, my Spanish is coming along and I can communicate so I guess it´s good that I have another Latina companion.
I LOVE the pictures of Calista. She is so cute. Does she have blond hair?
Thank you for your emails this week, it was a great surprise to see so many. Lissy, I´m glad that you are well and enjoying your job. Brother Bingham, thank you for the letter, it is truly amazing all of the opportunities that we have to share the gospel, if we are praying and looking for them. Oh and somebody tell Scott ¨welcome home from your mission¨for me.
Oh and I got an envelope from Brother Wilson today, from the ward. Thank you SO much. I loved all of the letters and the huge paper heart made my day, oh and don´t worry it´s going up on the wall.
Oh, mom, I think there are a few friend request for facebook so if you could add them it would be great.
Okay. okay, for the things of most importance....
As for the work here in Tigre, our investigator Pablo, finally, accepted a baptismal date. We are so happy. We spent a while talking about his doubts and what it was that was holding him back. The answer was just so obvious to me, but he couldn´t see it. He needed to pray. He was worried about what his friends from his former church would say if they found out that he was attending our church. I assured him that the only way he would know what to say to his friends, how he could say that this is what God wants for him, is to pray. The only way he will get a confirmation that these things are true is if he asks if it is true. That really impacted him and he could feel the presence of the Spirit. He prayed with us to know, and then accepted a baptismal date. I can´t describe how happy we are, we´ve been working with him for almost 3 months.
Also we have plans to go with our Mission leader and his mom , to go to the Isla ( Island, the part where he lives is like an hour away) this Friday. We got special permision from President to go and we are really excited. Our investigator Raul lives there and we are excited to go and teach him and his family more about the Gospel, so he can be ready for his baptism the following week.
We are really starting to see the blessings of working with the members. Members that have befriended our investigators are such a blessing. They feel so much more involved and a part of everything when they know other people, not just the missionaries.
I am really excited to keep progressing here and helping the Lords children learn of his wonderful plan for each and everyone of them.
Okay I´m not sure what else to write... other than I love all of you and your are continually in my prayers. I hope this week is full of blessings and that all of you are extremely happy.
Con amor,
Aleta
Well today is the first day of my fifth transfer, which equals 24 weeks, or 6 months, in Argentina. I am still here in Tigre and am really glad as I don´t want o leave the members or my investigators yet. Hermana Sandoval however, went to Urquisa. So my new companion is Hermana Peña. She is great. She is from El Salvador and finishes her mission in July, the same as Hermana Sandoval. She is really sweet and happy. Not tooooo happy, just right. She is really excited to be here and when I told her that our apartment building has a washer and dryer she couldn´t believe it. Yes, it´s true, as far as I know Tigre is the only place in the mission with a washer and dryer. Everywhere else you need to take it to the laundry mat, or something similar to that. Anyway, she is really great and I think that by the end of this mission I am not going to remember any English at all. However, my Spanish is coming along and I can communicate so I guess it´s good that I have another Latina companion.
I LOVE the pictures of Calista. She is so cute. Does she have blond hair?
Thank you for your emails this week, it was a great surprise to see so many. Lissy, I´m glad that you are well and enjoying your job. Brother Bingham, thank you for the letter, it is truly amazing all of the opportunities that we have to share the gospel, if we are praying and looking for them. Oh and somebody tell Scott ¨welcome home from your mission¨for me.
Oh and I got an envelope from Brother Wilson today, from the ward. Thank you SO much. I loved all of the letters and the huge paper heart made my day, oh and don´t worry it´s going up on the wall.
Oh, mom, I think there are a few friend request for facebook so if you could add them it would be great.
Okay. okay, for the things of most importance....
As for the work here in Tigre, our investigator Pablo, finally, accepted a baptismal date. We are so happy. We spent a while talking about his doubts and what it was that was holding him back. The answer was just so obvious to me, but he couldn´t see it. He needed to pray. He was worried about what his friends from his former church would say if they found out that he was attending our church. I assured him that the only way he would know what to say to his friends, how he could say that this is what God wants for him, is to pray. The only way he will get a confirmation that these things are true is if he asks if it is true. That really impacted him and he could feel the presence of the Spirit. He prayed with us to know, and then accepted a baptismal date. I can´t describe how happy we are, we´ve been working with him for almost 3 months.
Also we have plans to go with our Mission leader and his mom , to go to the Isla ( Island, the part where he lives is like an hour away) this Friday. We got special permision from President to go and we are really excited. Our investigator Raul lives there and we are excited to go and teach him and his family more about the Gospel, so he can be ready for his baptism the following week.
We are really starting to see the blessings of working with the members. Members that have befriended our investigators are such a blessing. They feel so much more involved and a part of everything when they know other people, not just the missionaries.
I am really excited to keep progressing here and helping the Lords children learn of his wonderful plan for each and everyone of them.
Okay I´m not sure what else to write... other than I love all of you and your are continually in my prayers. I hope this week is full of blessings and that all of you are extremely happy.
Con amor,
Aleta
Monday, March 14, 2011
burrrrr....WOOHHOO!
Dear family,
It rained on Saturday and I was cold. I can´t believe that I, Aleta, am about to say this but...I was HAPPY that it was cold. Pathetic. Today is warmer though. Not hot, just warmer. Yeah, I think that fall is finally here.
Okay so I like the name, Calista, cute. I can´t wait to see some more pictures! Oh and yes mom, feel free to move or even delete some things. I really dodn´t need a lot of the pictures that are in the Kodak program.
So thank you for the letters. Aunt Janie I´m glad that Mike is doing great and it sounds like your life is as busy as always, thanks for the up dates. Jack, thanks for the letter, I´m sure your talk was great, and congrats on the job. I hope you like it.
Something that I´ve started to notice in my life is that most of the time other people don´t know what is best for me. Only the lord does. Trust in him and trust in yourself and you won´t go wrong. Listen to the spirit and don´t be afraid of what it tells you to do, one way or the other. This has really helped me over here in Argentina, it´s helped me a lot to know that the Lord is always there and that when I have fears or doubts about something, anything, he is there.
Oh I almost forgot. I met a little boy who could be the twin of Aaron. okay I realize that Aaron has a twin, Bryan, but this boy, could be the Argentine duplicate. His hair, eyes, shape of eyes, smile...total down so his love of cars. Seriously if Aaron has slightly darker skin and brown hair and spoken Spanish , I´d think it were him.
AS for this week... This week just really seemed to fly by. It was a good week here in Tigre. We had three investigators at church this week.
We are kind of at a stand still with him if them, we can´t see him until next week and we are going to invite him to be baptised again. He has been avoiding the subject lately, he feels that it is true and he loves reading the Book of Mormon, especially Alma, but for some reason won´t pray about it. He prays, and he reads, he just doesn´t pray to know if it is true. Today in our companion study we did a practice for him and something I really liked was my companion said, okay, then let´s pray right now together, specifically to know if it is true.¨I loved it and I really think that this will help him, so this is in our plans for the next week.
Also, there is another who is really great. He is 20 year old and lives on the isla. He has been coming to church alone for a few week s now and he really likes it. He definitely has desires, he travels one hour each way and pays 12 pesos round trip. We finally were able to teach him after church yesterday and I´m really impressed with him. One of the members, Hno. Acosta, is going to meet the rest of his family this weekend and invite them to church as well.
We received a phone call last week from a guy, he is 20 and has been less active for 4 years. I´m not entirely sure how the elders found him, but they did. They passed him our information and he contacted us. He has a really strong testimony. He told us that the thing he wants to most is that his family can return to the church as well. We met his Sister and Brother-in-law and nephew. He came to church yesterday and brought his nephew. We have plans to bring several of the single adults with us to meet him as well.
I´m doing just fine here and am enjoying the time I have to serve the Lord.
Well that´s all for me.
I love you all,
Aleta
It rained on Saturday and I was cold. I can´t believe that I, Aleta, am about to say this but...I was HAPPY that it was cold. Pathetic. Today is warmer though. Not hot, just warmer. Yeah, I think that fall is finally here.
Okay so I like the name, Calista, cute. I can´t wait to see some more pictures! Oh and yes mom, feel free to move or even delete some things. I really dodn´t need a lot of the pictures that are in the Kodak program.
So thank you for the letters. Aunt Janie I´m glad that Mike is doing great and it sounds like your life is as busy as always, thanks for the up dates. Jack, thanks for the letter, I´m sure your talk was great, and congrats on the job. I hope you like it.
Something that I´ve started to notice in my life is that most of the time other people don´t know what is best for me. Only the lord does. Trust in him and trust in yourself and you won´t go wrong. Listen to the spirit and don´t be afraid of what it tells you to do, one way or the other. This has really helped me over here in Argentina, it´s helped me a lot to know that the Lord is always there and that when I have fears or doubts about something, anything, he is there.
Oh I almost forgot. I met a little boy who could be the twin of Aaron. okay I realize that Aaron has a twin, Bryan, but this boy, could be the Argentine duplicate. His hair, eyes, shape of eyes, smile...total down so his love of cars. Seriously if Aaron has slightly darker skin and brown hair and spoken Spanish , I´d think it were him.
AS for this week... This week just really seemed to fly by. It was a good week here in Tigre. We had three investigators at church this week.
We are kind of at a stand still with him if them, we can´t see him until next week and we are going to invite him to be baptised again. He has been avoiding the subject lately, he feels that it is true and he loves reading the Book of Mormon, especially Alma, but for some reason won´t pray about it. He prays, and he reads, he just doesn´t pray to know if it is true. Today in our companion study we did a practice for him and something I really liked was my companion said, okay, then let´s pray right now together, specifically to know if it is true.¨I loved it and I really think that this will help him, so this is in our plans for the next week.
Also, there is another who is really great. He is 20 year old and lives on the isla. He has been coming to church alone for a few week s now and he really likes it. He definitely has desires, he travels one hour each way and pays 12 pesos round trip. We finally were able to teach him after church yesterday and I´m really impressed with him. One of the members, Hno. Acosta, is going to meet the rest of his family this weekend and invite them to church as well.
We received a phone call last week from a guy, he is 20 and has been less active for 4 years. I´m not entirely sure how the elders found him, but they did. They passed him our information and he contacted us. He has a really strong testimony. He told us that the thing he wants to most is that his family can return to the church as well. We met his Sister and Brother-in-law and nephew. He came to church yesterday and brought his nephew. We have plans to bring several of the single adults with us to meet him as well.
I´m doing just fine here and am enjoying the time I have to serve the Lord.
Well that´s all for me.
I love you all,
Aleta
Monday, March 7, 2011
There and back again the story of the long lost shoe....
Dear family,
I finally received my other package from Christmas. Yeah. I now have TWO lovely and new shoes, much better than only having one.
Yeah!!!!!! Congratulations Scott and Betsy! I´m so happy for you two. I hope you enjoy every minute with your new baby girl. I´m so excited for you.:)
Okay I´m sorry to hear that it is still really cold there. Well I guess it is March, in like a lion out like a lamb. Don´t worry it will be spring before you know it.
Thank you mom and Aunt Janie for your emails this week. I love them as always.
I think it might be kind of short this week I want to attach some pictures.
This week was a good one. I am so pleased that 3 of our investigators came to church yesterday. I feel extremely blessed to be here and working with these great people in Tigre.
One of our investigators , is really good. He really likes to read in the Book of Mormon and loves church and everything he is learning. As for our other investigator, she still has a baptismal date for the 19th of March! However, we are having trouble getting her to church. We know that if it is a problem now, it will still continue to be an issue after her baptism. She has all the desire in the world to come to church. She has attended twice and after the first time she could feel a difference in her life. She noticed that there was something new and good and she liked it. Well we have tried all different sorts of ways to help her come to church. The problem is that her mother thinks that it is dangerous for her 18 year old daughter to be out alone on Sunday morning. She wants us to come by every week to pick her up, and if not us then some member. We explained that we would love to come by every week, but it´s just not possible and that she has to put in her part. The mother is a less active member and doesn't really want to make any sacrifices to help her daughter attend. However she wants very much for her children to be baptised. Well yesterday she was ready to go, but her brother who was going to go with her, didn't want to get up. Well with out him her mother wouldn't let her leave. So we are planning to take several members with us this week so they can meet other people their age and maybe this will give them a little more desire to get up and go. I am praying fervently that we can find away to help them.
I am really excited for this next week, things are going well here in Tigre and I know that we will see Miracles if we work hard and continue to trust in the Lord.
Well I love you all tons,
Aleta
I finally received my other package from Christmas. Yeah. I now have TWO lovely and new shoes, much better than only having one.
Yeah!!!!!! Congratulations Scott and Betsy! I´m so happy for you two. I hope you enjoy every minute with your new baby girl. I´m so excited for you.:)
Okay I´m sorry to hear that it is still really cold there. Well I guess it is March, in like a lion out like a lamb. Don´t worry it will be spring before you know it.
Thank you mom and Aunt Janie for your emails this week. I love them as always.
I think it might be kind of short this week I want to attach some pictures.
This week was a good one. I am so pleased that 3 of our investigators came to church yesterday. I feel extremely blessed to be here and working with these great people in Tigre.
One of our investigators , is really good. He really likes to read in the Book of Mormon and loves church and everything he is learning. As for our other investigator, she still has a baptismal date for the 19th of March! However, we are having trouble getting her to church. We know that if it is a problem now, it will still continue to be an issue after her baptism. She has all the desire in the world to come to church. She has attended twice and after the first time she could feel a difference in her life. She noticed that there was something new and good and she liked it. Well we have tried all different sorts of ways to help her come to church. The problem is that her mother thinks that it is dangerous for her 18 year old daughter to be out alone on Sunday morning. She wants us to come by every week to pick her up, and if not us then some member. We explained that we would love to come by every week, but it´s just not possible and that she has to put in her part. The mother is a less active member and doesn't really want to make any sacrifices to help her daughter attend. However she wants very much for her children to be baptised. Well yesterday she was ready to go, but her brother who was going to go with her, didn't want to get up. Well with out him her mother wouldn't let her leave. So we are planning to take several members with us this week so they can meet other people their age and maybe this will give them a little more desire to get up and go. I am praying fervently that we can find away to help them.
I am really excited for this next week, things are going well here in Tigre and I know that we will see Miracles if we work hard and continue to trust in the Lord.
Well I love you all tons,
Aleta
Monday, February 28, 2011
Ha! snow.....yuck
Dear Family,
I´m sorry to hear that the snow caused so many problems for many of you this week. It looks really pretty though. Mom, thanks for the picture, I laughed when I saw all that snow. The man next to me saw my computer screen a laughed as well, then he asked it was, so I told him and we both decided that the warm weather is preferable to that. Although, today is really warm...a little too warm (not to brag or anything) but I wouldn´t mind a little snow.
Okay, so Dad, I´m glad you finally got to see the pictures and liked them. Yes Brandi I am very tan, the tan line on my feet is rather entertaining though, when I take of my shoes it still looks like I have shoes on (just white, as that is the original color of my skin).
Oh and really, I have visiting teachers.....when should I expect a visit? hahaha, it´s kinda nice to know that I´m still thought about back home. I expect more frequent emails from now on, from those visiting teachers... Oh and Melissa thanks for your letter as well, your trip sounds like fun.
Mom, I´m glad that you are feeling better. Yes you can add Natalia as a friend, I´m almost possitive that she is a member of the ward here in Tigre, just that she has a different last name now because she´s married. I think I sent a picture of her and her family playing jenga, she has the two adorble little girls.
Poor Betsy, has to wait a little bit longer. I am excited to hear when the baby finally arrives.
As for my life here in Tigre.....We had interviews with President Gulbrandsen this week and that was really great. He actually reminds mem a lot of Bishop Atkinson, except he is a lawyer instead of a dentist. Personality wise, very similar.
We are really starting to see the results of having a member with us during our lessons. All three of the investigators we had in church this week were directly related to having a member with us during our visits. Two of them have been hard to get to church. They both have baptismal dates, but in order to keep them they have to come to church. Well she, Susan, wanted to go to church and one time we picked her up. The problem has been that her mom doesn´t want her to go to church by herself, she thinks that it is very dangerous to be out early in the morning on Sundays. She is a concerned parent, so she didn´t want her 18 year old daughter alone on the streets. Well finally her brother decided that he too wanted to come to church and a member, Hno. Acosta actually invited them and offered to come and pick them both up and that they would all go together. Yeah. This same member is stopping by their house tonight to help them with a problem with their roof. This family is really starting to feel the love of the Savior through the help of the members of his church. It truly does make a huge difference. I recently re-read the talk by President Monson to the Relief Society in Oct. He said,¨True Charity is love in action.¨ I love this. It really is true, in order to truly have a love for someone we have to do something, show it some how and when we do this we are that much closer to showing them a divine kind of love.
This week has been good,I´ve really started to take the hymn ¨count your blessings¨ to heart. All you really have to do is remember, remember the Lord and your blessing from him.
Well I think that´s about all I got for you this week.
My love as always, take care,
Aleta
ps. I hope it warms up some for you!
I´m sorry to hear that the snow caused so many problems for many of you this week. It looks really pretty though. Mom, thanks for the picture, I laughed when I saw all that snow. The man next to me saw my computer screen a laughed as well, then he asked it was, so I told him and we both decided that the warm weather is preferable to that. Although, today is really warm...a little too warm (not to brag or anything) but I wouldn´t mind a little snow.
Okay, so Dad, I´m glad you finally got to see the pictures and liked them. Yes Brandi I am very tan, the tan line on my feet is rather entertaining though, when I take of my shoes it still looks like I have shoes on (just white, as that is the original color of my skin).
Oh and really, I have visiting teachers.....when should I expect a visit? hahaha, it´s kinda nice to know that I´m still thought about back home. I expect more frequent emails from now on, from those visiting teachers... Oh and Melissa thanks for your letter as well, your trip sounds like fun.
Mom, I´m glad that you are feeling better. Yes you can add Natalia as a friend, I´m almost possitive that she is a member of the ward here in Tigre, just that she has a different last name now because she´s married. I think I sent a picture of her and her family playing jenga, she has the two adorble little girls.
Poor Betsy, has to wait a little bit longer. I am excited to hear when the baby finally arrives.
As for my life here in Tigre.....We had interviews with President Gulbrandsen this week and that was really great. He actually reminds mem a lot of Bishop Atkinson, except he is a lawyer instead of a dentist. Personality wise, very similar.
We are really starting to see the results of having a member with us during our lessons. All three of the investigators we had in church this week were directly related to having a member with us during our visits. Two of them have been hard to get to church. They both have baptismal dates, but in order to keep them they have to come to church. Well she, Susan, wanted to go to church and one time we picked her up. The problem has been that her mom doesn´t want her to go to church by herself, she thinks that it is very dangerous to be out early in the morning on Sundays. She is a concerned parent, so she didn´t want her 18 year old daughter alone on the streets. Well finally her brother decided that he too wanted to come to church and a member, Hno. Acosta actually invited them and offered to come and pick them both up and that they would all go together. Yeah. This same member is stopping by their house tonight to help them with a problem with their roof. This family is really starting to feel the love of the Savior through the help of the members of his church. It truly does make a huge difference. I recently re-read the talk by President Monson to the Relief Society in Oct. He said,¨True Charity is love in action.¨ I love this. It really is true, in order to truly have a love for someone we have to do something, show it some how and when we do this we are that much closer to showing them a divine kind of love.
This week has been good,I´ve really started to take the hymn ¨count your blessings¨ to heart. All you really have to do is remember, remember the Lord and your blessing from him.
Well I think that´s about all I got for you this week.
My love as always, take care,
Aleta
ps. I hope it warms up some for you!
Monday, February 21, 2011
Happy President's Day!
Dear Family,
Thank you so much for the emails. Dawnstarr thanks it sounds like all the Pilchers are doing really well. Mom, I guess it´s good I´m not around right now, since I haven´t had the chicken pox (well maybe) it´s still in debate I guess. Jack I hope you get feeling better soon. aunt Janie, wow, sounds like a blast. I hope your birthday was great! Oh and Betsy I like the names, don´t waver, stay strong. Oh and no, I differ from Scott in that I am not really one to go off on adventures and travel the World. I prefer to stay around home and enjoy the local fun. I guess I´m just more boring than he is. Oh well. I can´t wait to see pictures when she finally comes!!!!
As for me here in Argentina...there was a few days of rain this week, yeah! Oh, but the day before the rain was horrible, yuck, so muggy and humid and hot. I was so glad when I woke up the next day to RAIN. It has been a little cooler though, not as bad as January, my companion says that it is still pretty hot all through March. I really hope she´s wrong.
Okay, and as for spiritual things....This week was much better than the last. It really is interesting how life can be like a roller coaster, ups on day and downs the next. It is just like Lehi says there must needs be an opposition in all things, without it we would never appreciate anything. I have a lot of gratitude for all of the blessings I´ve seen this week, in the lives of our investigators and my companion and I.
We are excited we have two investigators with baptismal dates, Jorge and Gina . Gina is 8 and her father is a less active member, her mother is not a member of the church and at first was against the idea of her getting baptized. We talked to them together and the father, John really stood up for the church and the gospel. He wants to come back, but he´s not living the law of chastity, as in they aren´t married, and feels like he is an outsider. We are going to try and work more with him and assure him that with the Lord all things are possible and that through repentance he can feel the love of the Lord more than at any other time. We need to talk to the both of them again this week to confirm the baptism and make sure that the mother, is still okay with it.
We also had a great lesson yesterday with Pablo, he has been having a rough couple of weeks, but he did come to church this week. His religious history is Evangelical and so he has a bit of reservation to leave what he knows and move on to something else. We´ve been trying to explain that it is just more, like before he was able to see but his vision was blurred and the restored gospel is like having glasses to see everything clearly. It isn´t different just more defined. Well yesterday we asked if he had prayed or not to know if the Book of Mormon is true, he says that he knows it´s true and an inspired book, but hasn´t prayed about it. We assured him that if he prays he will get an answer. We also talked about real intent and what that means. We watched ¨the restoration¨ and he really liked it. He committed to ask specifically about the Book of Mormon and if it is truly the word of God.
We have also been having some success working with our recent convert Luz Maria, she is a great little missionary. She has been talking to all of her neighbors and introducing us to several of them. One of which is Jorge, he´s really great and came to church yesterday as well. He was a little hesitant to accept a baptismal date at first, since he was baptised in the Catholic church when he was a baby. We explained about authority and also Moroni chapter 8. He also has a few issues with organized religion in general because everyone is so different and all claim they have the truth, needless to say he really related with Joseph Smith. We have another lesson with him tonight and are very excited. I am definitely gaining a strong testimony of the importance of recent converts.
Okay that´s all I got for you this week.
I love you all and will write again next week (as if there were any doubt of that)
Love you,
Aleta
Thank you so much for the emails. Dawnstarr thanks it sounds like all the Pilchers are doing really well. Mom, I guess it´s good I´m not around right now, since I haven´t had the chicken pox (well maybe) it´s still in debate I guess. Jack I hope you get feeling better soon. aunt Janie, wow, sounds like a blast. I hope your birthday was great! Oh and Betsy I like the names, don´t waver, stay strong. Oh and no, I differ from Scott in that I am not really one to go off on adventures and travel the World. I prefer to stay around home and enjoy the local fun. I guess I´m just more boring than he is. Oh well. I can´t wait to see pictures when she finally comes!!!!
As for me here in Argentina...there was a few days of rain this week, yeah! Oh, but the day before the rain was horrible, yuck, so muggy and humid and hot. I was so glad when I woke up the next day to RAIN. It has been a little cooler though, not as bad as January, my companion says that it is still pretty hot all through March. I really hope she´s wrong.
Okay, and as for spiritual things....This week was much better than the last. It really is interesting how life can be like a roller coaster, ups on day and downs the next. It is just like Lehi says there must needs be an opposition in all things, without it we would never appreciate anything. I have a lot of gratitude for all of the blessings I´ve seen this week, in the lives of our investigators and my companion and I.
We are excited we have two investigators with baptismal dates, Jorge and Gina . Gina is 8 and her father is a less active member, her mother is not a member of the church and at first was against the idea of her getting baptized. We talked to them together and the father, John really stood up for the church and the gospel. He wants to come back, but he´s not living the law of chastity, as in they aren´t married, and feels like he is an outsider. We are going to try and work more with him and assure him that with the Lord all things are possible and that through repentance he can feel the love of the Lord more than at any other time. We need to talk to the both of them again this week to confirm the baptism and make sure that the mother, is still okay with it.
We also had a great lesson yesterday with Pablo, he has been having a rough couple of weeks, but he did come to church this week. His religious history is Evangelical and so he has a bit of reservation to leave what he knows and move on to something else. We´ve been trying to explain that it is just more, like before he was able to see but his vision was blurred and the restored gospel is like having glasses to see everything clearly. It isn´t different just more defined. Well yesterday we asked if he had prayed or not to know if the Book of Mormon is true, he says that he knows it´s true and an inspired book, but hasn´t prayed about it. We assured him that if he prays he will get an answer. We also talked about real intent and what that means. We watched ¨the restoration¨ and he really liked it. He committed to ask specifically about the Book of Mormon and if it is truly the word of God.
We have also been having some success working with our recent convert Luz Maria, she is a great little missionary. She has been talking to all of her neighbors and introducing us to several of them. One of which is Jorge, he´s really great and came to church yesterday as well. He was a little hesitant to accept a baptismal date at first, since he was baptised in the Catholic church when he was a baby. We explained about authority and also Moroni chapter 8. He also has a few issues with organized religion in general because everyone is so different and all claim they have the truth, needless to say he really related with Joseph Smith. We have another lesson with him tonight and are very excited. I am definitely gaining a strong testimony of the importance of recent converts.
Okay that´s all I got for you this week.
I love you all and will write again next week (as if there were any doubt of that)
Love you,
Aleta
Monday, February 14, 2011
happy valentine´s day
Dear family,
First off happy belated birthday to Sheila and early birthday to Aunt Janie! Thanks for the letters they lift my spirit every week. Yes, mom, some of them I read at the computer and others I print off and read later, or over ´cause they are just that good :). And yes, they do celebrate valentines day here. I´m pretty sure that is similar to the states. Although everything here is less commercialized. There are not constant remainders of it every where like there would be in the states. It´s kind of nice.
I´m so glad to hear that you all had a great week. Sounds exciting. Mom, Thanks for informing me about Mallory.
Oh I almost forgot to tell you. I had lunch yesterday with a family from Peru. Well they gave us purvian food...Mondongo, something like that. This was in a soup with corn. Well I had no idea what it was and my companion didn´t say anything to me. Well after I had eaten it and noticed that my companion had only eaten one or two pieces of hers I did what I knew I should not have done...looked in the dictionary. Yep...intestine. Yuck! Ps. it didn´t taste good so you don´t need to try it, take my word for it.
As for this week, work work work, like usual. It is really interesting to see how the lord prepares people in advance for trials that they have. One of our investigatores is going through a really hard time right now and to top it off his dad died yesterday. It is amazing though that he has God again in his life and that he knows were he can find solace.
I love you all.
love Aleta
First off happy belated birthday to Sheila and early birthday to Aunt Janie! Thanks for the letters they lift my spirit every week. Yes, mom, some of them I read at the computer and others I print off and read later, or over ´cause they are just that good :). And yes, they do celebrate valentines day here. I´m pretty sure that is similar to the states. Although everything here is less commercialized. There are not constant remainders of it every where like there would be in the states. It´s kind of nice.
I´m so glad to hear that you all had a great week. Sounds exciting. Mom, Thanks for informing me about Mallory.
Oh I almost forgot to tell you. I had lunch yesterday with a family from Peru. Well they gave us purvian food...Mondongo, something like that. This was in a soup with corn. Well I had no idea what it was and my companion didn´t say anything to me. Well after I had eaten it and noticed that my companion had only eaten one or two pieces of hers I did what I knew I should not have done...looked in the dictionary. Yep...intestine. Yuck! Ps. it didn´t taste good so you don´t need to try it, take my word for it.
As for this week, work work work, like usual. It is really interesting to see how the lord prepares people in advance for trials that they have. One of our investigatores is going through a really hard time right now and to top it off his dad died yesterday. It is amazing though that he has God again in his life and that he knows were he can find solace.
I love you all.
love Aleta
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