Sunday, August 24, 2014

Last One

Dear Family and Friends,
So I feel like everyone´s expecting a great last email, but I´m just not feeling really creative today and I don´t really know what to write.  It´s weird that I´m going home.  I tried buying things today but it´s a feriado and nothing is open.  So that stinks.  And that´s the only thing I´ve done to get ready for coming home.  Oh and I know my homecoming topic, thanks dad.  
This week we worked really hard and not all of our citas fell!!!  We´ve been trying to work with members a lot.  It´s frustrating because members sometimes take a lot of time to work with because you have to go and pick them up, but we saw the blessings this week.  We had some awesome member present lessons!  One was with Carina... she´s not getting baptized this week because she got together again with the father of her son.  She´s dealing with a lot so we keep praying for her.  But when we went in to review the baptismal interview questions with her that´s when she told us.  We had Hermana Carlotta with us that completely knew what to say and they ended up crying together talking about kids.  I was grateful.  Missionaries need the help of the members!  Members can connect to investigators in really special ways.
So we´ve been praying really hard for a baptism this weekend and when Carina fell for some reason we didn´t feel crushed.  She´ll still be baptized, just on a different day.  And then we remembered that María will be baptized this weekend.  We started teaching her an then the elders took her over.  She came to church on sunday and she just had a whole new light in her eyes.  She´s amazing and was so happy to see us.  We´re so excited to see her on saturday!  Can´t really describe those feelings over an email.  The miracle of conversion and prayer.
This week we also started working with an investigator we dropped a while back.  Really we dropped him because we couldn´t find him, but the ward was also really negative about him because he´s a ward member´s neighbor.  Well we passed by again just to see what would happen.  He´s prepared!  He didn´t accept a baptismal date yet because he says he needs to work on his faith but little by little he looks so much happier.  He´s kind of an awkward person and doesn´t like being with people but he came to church on sunday and loved it!  A member took him around the building afterwards and he was just smiling.  He´s also quitting smoking.  He used to smoke around 100 cigarettes a day...  now he´s almost at nothing.  And his shaking has gone down a lot.  I love him.  His name´s Juan Carlos, like the other 3 Juan Carlos´s we´re working with.  Something about that name.  And they´re all old men, well older.  
Well I´ll see ya all next week.  I don´t know if I´ll be able to go to Arroyo Seco before I end afterall because President´s changing everything around, so if I don´t, we´re definitely coming back to Argentina next July.  If you don´t want to then I´ll come by myself.  That plan is the only thing that will stop me from crying this week.  I´ll probably still cry.  
Love you all
Hermana Borup

Monday, August 11, 2014

You know you´ve been in Argentina too long when...

1. You go through a kilo of dulce de leche in 5 weeks and don´t feel bad about it.
2. You think you have a balanced meal when you add rice to your plate of milanesas.
3. You start losing teeth.
4. You can´t control your hands when you talk.
5. You can sit in a house with 27 cats and not wonder if the food is sanitary.
6. You automatically kiss everyone, even the north american sisters.
7. You have to ask your companion what´s still in style (apparently platform shoes are not.  They´re really big here)
8. Your socks are the permanent holding place for your phone, money, etc.
9. You know Violetta songs by heart
10. You feel a need to buy every kid you know a gift for el día de niño, a holiday that you forgot doesn´t exist in the states.

Dear Family and Friends,
The biggest news from this week is that my tooth chipped while I was flossing one night.  It hurts.  But not that bad.  After All, it´s the tooth with the root canal.  But I felt like a real Argentine at that moment.
So this week was pretty normal.  We´ve been working a lot with two investigators that were the elders, Carina and Patricia.  Carina will be baptized on the 23rd and we´re super excited.  The only thing that was holding her back before was her pareja, but now they´re over.  She just still needs to be a little firmer on the date but we have faith.
Patricia is a middle aged woman that is great in everything except diezmo.  She works 3 jobs and she just thinks it will be impossible to pay.  We had a lesson on faith and how nothing is impossible if we ask God and she was agreeing and everything and then we turned it to her issue with diezmo and she kept saying, "It´s impossible!"  You just told us nothing is impossible!  It was a little frustrating but we realized we just need to increase her faith a bit.  She did fast with us this week though.  So did Carina.  
I don´t know what else to talk about.  We had zone meeting and I had to give my final testimony.  That was weird.  And I´m super sad to be leaving.  It´s hit me hard and I´m kind of emotional about it.  What other time in my life am I going to be able to just go up to someone and talk about the gospel and have it be ok that it´s awkward for us both because I have mi placa?  Without the placa it´s just awkward.  But that´s ok because what I learned from the beginning of my mission is that even in Utah it´s possible to be an awesome member missionary.  
That´s all.  Just so you know dad, I have another 30 minutes so you can write me if you want.
Hermana Borup
P.S. I did make guacamole this week and it was awesome!  I´ve learned how to just put things together and make it work.  So I think that will be useful.

I´m gonna look like an Argentine

Dear Family and Friends,
So this week was an adventure and it actually didn´t go by so fast because we were a little stressed.  
We started off the week getting to know our area.  We´ve been talking with and seeing the elders a lot.  The thing is, we organized our area book and gave them all the information they needed to be successful last monday.  It´s now a week later and we still don´t have their information.  elders. But they did tell us the people they were working with and showed us around to their houses on wednesday morning.  We were wondering why they took time to do that when they could have just given us the addresses, but then we realized they probably don´t even have the addresses written down anywhere.  
On wednesday we also had a correlation meeting with our 18 year old ward mission leader.  Those meetings usually make Hermana Thornton and I so mad that in order to avoid saying anything mean, we´re quiet.  With the elders there this week it was a little better.  But then he went out with them to one of our old investigators and they realized why we get so annoyed with him.  Also after our principios del evangelio class on sunday they asked us "is it usually this bad?" and that was actually one of the best classes he´s given.  
The big highlight of the week was that I got to go to Paraná this week on divisions!  And I saw two members!  Also, Hermana Rasband wanted to go to two antiguos in the morning and it turns out that they were 2 investigators that I taught last year and then dropped.  so that was a little awkward.  But Paraná was super fun and it was fun to be in the pench again and to walk around the city.  It´s so different than the rest of Argentina!
On Sunday we got a new bishop and the new ward was formed as well.  We had 80 people there and only 5 of them were visiting from the stake!  Incredible!  It was so exciting the see the capilla almost full.  The most I´ve seen on my mission!  And one of our investigators came.  Really she was the elders, but now she´s ours.  And an investigator that was ours but now is the elders came as well with the whole less active family!  We were so excited to see them.  We´ve all been working hard and it looks like these changes in the ward and in our individual areas are going to be really good for the ward.  Change is a good thing.
And now I´m spending loads of money trying to buy things before I go home, which is super complicated because most of pday is during the siesta.  So we´ll see if there will be presents for anyone.  At least mom and dad are taken care of.  But the rest of you, probably not.  I´m sorry!
Well that´s all.  We have to bajar la caña on a lot of investigators that just won´t progress this week.  We´ll see how it goes.  Sometimes agency annoys me.  Just put the mate down, turn off the tv, and talk to us!  
Hermana Borup
ps mom, will you update the blog?
Oh and the subject, I have all argentine clips and sweats and I´m gonna look good and lazy for school! 

New Area and Broken Shoes

July 28

Dear Family and Friends,
Well time just keeps going by ridiculously fast.  It hit me this week while we were at lunch with a less active family that I´m really going home in a month.  I got really really sad for a few minutes and then we got back to work.  So although my planner´s decorations would say otherwise, I´m really not that trunky.  Don´t get mad mom, but I´m really more excited to go back to Arroyo Seco and Paraná for a day than to go home.  
So I started the week in Rural, another ward in this stake.  It rained hard and so the next morning was super muddy, which I thought wouldn´t be a problem because the sisters are in the centro.  Wrong, they mostly work in the villa of their area and my shoes broke.  They were about there anyway, but still, I was mad.  So then I walked around in broken shoes the rest of the day and didn´t get to change until I picked up hermana Thornton from the terminal and went home to change.  Oh and my other pair broke today but I fixed it with safety pins.  Yes, you may not recognize me when I get home.  I´ll be the one with holes in my clothes, broken shoes, bunions, red wrinkly cut-up hands, and legs covered in scars caused by mosquitos/ leg infection.  Don´t worry though, I´ve survived it all even if the zone leaders are making me go to a doctor this week for my hands.  
So the big news this week is that we have a new area.  On sunday our stake changed the ward boundaries and our ward got a whole lot bigger.  The zone leaders are now sharing the ward with us and took the north "dangerous" end.  Which means that all of our good new investigators are now theirs but it´s ok because I really think that they can do some good up there.  And I´m pumped to have new areas to find.  Our ward still doesn´t know that now there are 4 missionaries, but they soon will.  They would have yesterday if they didn´t cancel consejo for the 4th week in a row.  
We taught a new investigator that came to church last week named Maria.  She´s a recent convert´s mom and he´s the best.  he´s 20 and just finished his mission papers and will probably go out right when he turns one year as a member.   She was the really evangelica one that I talked about last week.  Turns out she absolutely loves us.  She´s confused because her church says different things but she really feels the spirit with us and lvoes the peace that she feels.  She almost accepted a date but then said she had to pray about it, but that´s great!  And now the elders will teach her.  Along with the other man that keeps coming to church named Angel.  
Just a side note, I think I loved Arroyo Seco so much because we weren´t with the zone leaders.  Not that I haven´t loved all of my zone leaders and respected them and everything, it´s just easier not sharing a ward with them.  
Oh so we had a service in a pueblo this saturday and it lasted all day long.  I thought to myself, if my home stake did this, I would have definitely not wanted to be there, but because I´m a missionary, I love it!  it was a stake service and we fixed up a school.  So we prepared walls for painting, painted them, polished statues, redid chalk boards, and made a garden outside.  Hermana Thornton and I somehow got stuck with the really hard manual labor stuff while the elders polished.  We also got stuck on the ladder that was held together by a bungee cord and rusty nails.  Again, I don´t know how that happened... but it was a blast!
Oh ya, and we made a version of apple pie this week.  It tasted like butter but it really wasn´t that bad.  I´m becoming a good cook.  
So that was this week.  Please pray for Hermana Thornton who is still having sleeping problems.
Hermana Borup

Still Fighting

July 21 2014
Dear Family and Friends,
Don't worry, the leg thing went away after a few days using the medication.  
So I don't really have much to say this week.  We had a pretty rough week.  We went out with a ton of members and almost all of the lessons fell.  Actually, all of them.  So that was hard.  And our investigator that for sure was going to go to church texted us the night before and told us she had to go and take care of her mom.  I don´t think my companion and I talked at all until we got to church.  Both of us were pretty down.  And then a family at church (they live in the really dangerous area) brought 3 new people.  One is the mom of an awesome convert that´s doing his papers, one was the neice of this family, and one was working at the uncle´s house.  So we set appointments up with them and we have that planned for this week.  They were all not really interested and very evangelistas but the spirit will hit them and they´ll accept.  Plus, they have the support of a member family!  That´s always better.  
We also got two calls this week from President talking about the changes that will happen in Mayoraz soon.  So that should be fun.  Just in time for me!  
Today I´ll be with some other sisters while my comp goes to Rosario for trámites and then we also have divisions this week.  Of course, after a really hard week when all we want to do is work really hard the next week, we can´t be in our area.  But we´ll still see miracles.  We just have to have faith!  
We did laugh a lot this week.  And our new District leader was with me in Pergamino when he started his mission and our new zone leader has 8 months on the mission.  I feel so old.  But it will be fun, newer blood = more energy and more excitement for the work.  I like being surrounded by new missionaries.  I´m known as the sister that teaches everyone all the good places to eat and good things to eat... I don´t think that´s a good thing.
Don´t mind the italics, I´m not liking this keyboard.
Hermana Borup

Tuesday, July 15, 2014

When you didn´t think anything else could possibly happen...

Dear Family and Friends,
So this week I got an infection in my leg.  Yep.  I thought I was done with having weird things happen to me.  So monday morning I woke up with these bites that I just thought were mosquito bites (subject of last week´s letter).  The bites hurt more than itched though.  And then they grew and it hurt to walk.  And then they got infected and that was just gross and hurt.  A lot of puss that I (thinking they were zits at this point) tried to pop.  Then we got smart on Thursday and went to the nurse in our ward, Hermana Carlotta, the stake president´s wife and she said we needed to go to a doctor.  So I´ve been on medication now and I also have a good cream to put on it.  It´s all under control but really?  Why is it always me and not my companions?  Not that I wish illness on my companions...
Next, the world cup.  That was pretty crazy when we won against holland during the shootout.  We knew it was a shootout because we were in the streets and everytime we made a shot the car horns would go off.  We were in the streets when we won.  It was intense.  But we had a lesson right then so we were safe inside.  A lot of robberies and drugs went on that night.  But it was also a very exciting moment to be in Argentina.  And then the missionaries had permission to watch the game on sunday if we watched it with members.  So we went to the Carlotta home and they put us upstairs by ourselves and had cake and juice for us.  It was a sweet setup but they did it so we wouldn´t get offended if one of the cousins swore downstairs.  We were sad when they lost, but it was alright.  Di Maria wasn´t playing and I think if he were, we would have won.  Germany controlled the game, but we had more shots that could have worked out for us.  Oh well, Germany is a good team too. Except I hate how number 7 from their team with the non-pronounceable last name played.  What a flopper.  That was annoying.  I think he singlehandedly gave the non soccer fans like Dad a reason to complain.  Just get up and play and stop being a baby.  
So on to the work of the week...  Surprisingly it wasn´t affected that badly by the cup.  We got a lot of referrals this week and that was awesome.  We met the new mission president and he´s great!  Super motivational and his kids are the coolest.  All of them.  I played with the three youngest during lunch.  The youngest is 5.  And they have a son in Taiwan serving a mission and the next one is leaving in December.  
We had a huge miracle that I want to share this week.  On our way to go meet the president we got on the bus, a girl came up to us introducing herself as a member from a different ward and told us that she had been praying to find us because she had a referral for us.  She works at an old person home and upstairs lives a family that she has become close to.  The mom just passed away 3 weeks ago and she´s been consoling the husband by explaining the book of mormon.  We went the next morning but she said it was a bad day for him.  So then we went saturday and she got us in there and he has a 4 year old girl and says that he just feels so alone.  He was just crying the whole time and we just testified, left him with a book of mormon and taught him how to pray.  It was one of the most spiritual lessons I have ever had.  This man needs the gospel and he´s ready to accept it.  Just pray that he has the strength to leave his house to go to church and get baptized!
Other investigators are doing great they just need to go to church!  But two accepted a date for the 9th.  It would be really cool if weston and I had baptisms on the same day.  That´s cute.  Pray for Fernando, Eva, Verónica, and Paola please.  Thanks!
Hermana Borup
Pictures, 
infection.  doesn´t look that bad but hurt badly
mundungo.  Cow stomach stew.  Gross





Monday, July 7, 2014

And the mosquitos are back

Dear family and friends,
So since you´re all asking, I´ll talk about the world cup first.  We´re not allowed to watch any of the games, but when you´re eating with members and all the games for argentina have been at that time so far, we´ve seen little bits of games but still trying to be obedient.  Yes, argentina won and yes it was a huge party for about an hour on the streets.  But I wasn´t awake to experience it because I was super sick this week.  My cold got better after a few days and then bam on friday just crashed and died.  But I´m all better now and let me tell you, Hermana Zanni is super nice.  She did prescribe me a medicine though that I had to take 3 times a day that just knocked me out.  So church was fun.
And yes dad, I think Argentina will win only because I´m here.  Where should I travel next?  What country to do you want to have win in 4 years?  I´m thinking I´ll live in costa rica.  That sounds fun.  No only joking, but it would be cool and I would be pumped if Argentina wins.
So the work this week was pretty slow.  Because I was sick we didn´t get a lot done but it was alright.  Our investigators didn´t come on sunday but they all said for this next sunday.  Paola absolutely loved the book of mormon and was so excited when we said it was her copy.  And verónica is scared about baptism but loves our church.  She just needs to feel like it´s the truth.  Which is what everyone needs to feel.  So that´s fun.  And we avoid Gladys´s house like the plague.  Something isjust off with it and it´s not just the drugs.  
We get to meet Presidente Zanni tomorrow and I´m pretty excited.  He seems super nice and strict and good.  And we get to meet all of his kids as well which is exciting!
Well my finger´s starting to hurt from an ingrown, I know it´s gross, but I´m done.  Pray for me that I can end my mission strong and healthy!  
Hermana Borup

I´m doing great

Dear Family and Friends,
Question of the week: Can you go blind from smoking marijuana for too many years and too much quantity?  Because I think that may have happened to our investigator... Let me explain
So remember Gladys, our only investigator on date for baptism?  Well we didn´t feel comfortable going to her house again to teach so we found a member house to take her too.  Partly because her house was mysteriously missing all the lights...  So we go last sunday and she wasn´t home anyway.  whew, we´re free.  So then we go on wednesday morning to try and set up an appointment with her at the member´s house.  We´re setting it up and I think the creepy son realized what we were trying to do and came out and said that his mom had time right then for a lesson.  Ok... well we went in because what can happen in the morning right?  Oh it was awful.  All of a sudden his friend comes out from the back room, we´re trying to have a lesson but no words are coming out, the son turns on this awful music with no words, shows us his tattoos (he´s a tattoo artist and has a huge virgen on his chest that he did himself) and then the son and the friend start smoking weed in the back.  We cut the lesson right then and asked if we could end with a prayer.  She´s saying the prayer and during it she asks to have the power to stop smoking (but we don´t think it´s cigarettes).  We ended the prayer for her and booked it out of there but not fast enough to escape the kiss from the son.  It was the worst feeling but hey!  It´s a story right.  Needless to say, she´s just not all there and we think our efforts would be best spent somewhere else.
Other than that we found 3 awesome new investigators this week.  One is the pareja of a less active family and they said they were going to church but didn´t come which was sad but next week they´re coming for sure!  And then the other one is a cute mom and her husband (who wasn´t there for the first lesson) is also really nice.  We see some good potential in them.  And the last one we found last night while contacting.  Her names Verónica and she´s a single mom of one.  One of her good friend´s LDS and she loves the church.  Took the lessons about 9 years ago but said it wasn´t her time.  So now we´re praying that it´s her time.
We also had a noche de hogar at the church this week.  Not very many people came which was disappointing but it was super fun .
Also, the whole ward is mad at the bishop and the bishop confronted everyone about it yesterday in the last hour.  It was kind of uncomfortable but we couldn´t do anything about it.  So in the end we were kind of grateful we didn´t have investigators at church.
That was our week.  Mom, I haven´t been sick very much for months now and it´s been awesome.  But I did get a bad cold on saturday and it´s still here.  But it´s fine, it happens all the time and it doesn´t affect the work that much.
The picture´s from our first walmart adventure like 2 months ago. Go world cup! We just can´t win the next one because then we´d be going agaisnt argentina and all the missionaries from the states would be in danger.  But really.
Love you all!
Hermana Borup

Monday, June 16, 2014

Vamos Argentina

June 16, 2014

Dear Family and Friends,
Happy Father´s Day dad!!!  Thanks for all the support.  You´re the best dad and I wish I could call you and tell you that, but you´ll see me soon enough so you´ll just have to wait.
Well the biggest news of this week is the World Cup.  Yes, it´s as crazy as everyone predicted.  Last night Argentina won and we heard the streets explode, and we´re not even in Centro.  So that was fun, and I was expecting it.  What I wasn´t expecting is that no one wants to listen to us whenever there´s a game on.  Even if it´s just Japan playing.  Who cares about Japan?  We´re just starting the world cup, these games aren´t even important.  Now when we get into the finals, I´ll give them a break because if I weren´t a missionary, I´d be watching all the games as well.  It´s just reminding me of 4 years ago when I was in Spain during the world cup.  I don´t know if you know this parents, but I went with Alvaro and Miguel to bars to watch the games.  It was fun.  Soccer´s fun.  Ridiculous, but fun.  And I´m a Messi lover.  As much as the world hates him, I love him.
Yesterday Hermana Thornton and I had a reflecting time during comp study.  It just made me look back on my mission experience.  I really don´t know what she´s feeling because I was never thrown into things.  1, I already knew spanish, 2, I started in Utah english speaking and then moved into a spanish area and then got to Argentina so I had lots of time to adjust.  We talked about the difference between stateside missions.  Her sister´s in California in San Jose which is a service mission.  Argentina´s hard.  We have to knock doors at least an hour a day and hear the constant, "soy católica, apostólica, romana" and get rejected because a soccer game´s on, but I can´t think of a better place to serve.  Argentines have so much pride it´s contagious.  I love this country despite all it´s flaws!  I feel like I´m Argentine.  And yes, we have slow weeks (like this last one where all of our citas, every last one of them, fell) but there´s also good weeks.  It´s just part of life.  Everyone has to go through hard times to recognize the good.  I had to live in Argentina to recognize some things I want in my life.  It´s hard to describe but basically, the mission´s incredible.  And even though I haven´t had a whole ton of baptisms, I feel like so far I´ve had a successful mission.  And as long as each one of us feel that way, it means we´re doing our best and the Lord´s happy with our work.  
So those were my thoughts.  Not much to say about our investigators.  We ate at Eva, Leila, and Nadia´s on thursday and we´re talking about the possibility of passing them today with them.   Wish us luck!
Hermana Borup
Pictures: Argentina ganó!
Elder Wagstaff was a little too happy to find snickers at Walmart.  He bought 15 just for himself and jumped to grab more.
Last night to celebrate we at ice cream, and tortas fritas with dulce de leche.  The diet starts today.  Hermana Thornton´s going to make me snack on carrots and do insane workouts every morning.  Good!  




Welcome Hermana Thornton!

June 9, 2014

Dear Family and friends,
So this week was mainly just transfers.  On wednesday we woke up at 3:45, went to the terminal and then I left to Rosario to pick up my new companion and Hermana Wilde went to Esperanza.  So I get to Rosario and there are only a few elders there ( it was like 7:20 at this point) one of them was very blunt and made fun of me ( like most latinos do) but that´s fine.  Told me that I´ve gained a lot of weight.  Thanks...
My new companion´s Hermana Thornton. She´s from Washington.  So all the trainers went from the terminal to the mission home together and we got to eat in the house.  I got to see some of my favorite missionaries and so that was fun to catch up.  Then the assistant comes in and tells us that there are 3 sisters, one from mexico, one from Korea, and one from Idaho.  Ya I don´t know where the one from Idaho went but I definitely got the American.  
We´ve been working this week.  She´s actually really good at spanish for just starting out.  She really wants to learn fast so she´s practicing like crazy.  It´s been fun.  But she still doesn´t feel very comfortable during lessons so I do most of the talking.  I´m sick of hearing my own voice.  
The big news this week is that Sunilda got a blessing yesterday after she didn´t come to church again.  After the blessing she said that she´s been waiting for revelation to know that this is the right path for her and she felt like she got it!  Awesome!  Her new date is for the 21st so that she can come to church again and I know she´ll make it.  I love her so much!
Eva, Leila and Nadia are doing great but they really can´t come to church on sunday for some things going on, so we might have to pass them to the missionaries in Recreo.  That´s a little sad, we´ll see.
And mom, I got a package.  I don´t know yet if it´s from December or October but an elder got one last week from July, so I´m thinking it´s my birthday one from October!  That´s exciting!
And we´re going to walmart again!  And this week we have a ton of appointments with contacts taht we made.  We´re going to find find find this week and it´s going to be good!
Love you all!
Hermana Borup
Pics:
Hermana Thornton
Saying goodbye to Hermana Wilde, it was super early.
Making cookies with Hermana Wilde´s second christmas package that came



Transfers

June 3, 2014

Dear family and friends,
So I´m writing this email first this week so that I actually have time.  So if I don´t respond to anyone, I´m sorry.  I´ll respond next week I promise!  Thank you for all the emails and support!
Mom, don´t worry, the members feed us and we´re definitely not starving.  And I don´t like to use my personal money because there are a lot of missionaries that don´t have personal money and have to deal with the consequences, and I like doing the same.  We´re all learning how to budget!
So this week was kind of hard.  Manuel´s facing opposition again and gets very confused.  This week he tried to say that our bible isn´t the real bible because we don´t have eclesiasticos.  Well there are several books that the reino valera doesn´t include because they´re actually not scripture, but the catholics consider them as scripture.  Eclesiasticos is one of those books.  Good thing I took a new testiment class at BYU or we would have been stumped.  Anyway, we don´t know what to do with him because it seems like now all he wants to do is argue.
We also focused on Sunilda a lot this week.  She had to go to church to make it to her baptism date.  And she went!!!!  Hunched over with her cane and everything but she went!  And she was originally planning on just staying for sacrament meeting but she loved it so much that she stayed for sunday school and then had to go home to meet her daughter.  So there´s some serious progress there and it all came from the members that visited her last week.  Good idea, members going on their own to the investigators!  It works!
Yesterday was cleaning day which destroys my back, but today we´re going to the massage beds so hopefully that helps.  I picked up all the leaves on our patio.  4 huge garbage bags full.  And our patio is small.  2 hours.  I was exhausted and then we still had to clean inside.  But luckily Hermana Wilde did most of the inside work while I was working out back.  I hate cleaning day.
And then we had a lesson with the family we found a couple of weeks ago.  Eva, Leila and Nadia.  They accepted a date for baptism!  July 5!  The only challenge we see in the future is getting them to church because they visit their dad on the weekends and the mom works.  But with prayers I know they´ll make it!
And transfers... I´m training and staying in Santa Fe and Hermana Wilde´s going to esperanza.  Another transfer that I´m with my companion just for 1.  But the change will be fun.  I do think that Hermana Wilde´s been one of my favorite companions so far though.
Way to go Dad on the ride!  I placed 1 book of mormon last week because we didn´t have anymore to give out.  Those things are precious in Argentina.  So you definitely beat me.  But the most important thing you did was with the man from Costa Rica.  Remember the follow up!
Have a great week!
Hermana Borup

After the trials come the blessings

May 26 2014

Dear family and friends,
Well I´m broke.  Looks like I´ll be eating rice for the next week.  Somehow everyone´s out of money in this mission.  But it´s cool.  I like rice especially if you cook it with a little flavor cube.  Reason number 1 that we´re all fat.  Healthy food´s expensive.
Oh and I´m buying tapas for my scriptures from Cordoba for my english scriptures.  I already have some for my spanish.  Let me know if I´m crazy or if it´s a good idea.  
And Weston, I´m sending you a package by way of an Elder going home from Concepción.  I´m sure it will get to you eventually.  
Oh and packages are coming in finally.  I think I´m out of hope, but maybe the one you sent in December will come still.  Probably not.
This week was crazy.  First off, we had to go to Rosario for tramites, but for me and not Hermana Wilde.  So we left right after pday and got home late on tuesday.  it was fun because I got to see some missionaries I haven´t seen for a while like Elder Lopez, from the MTC district, that´s now the financiero and Hermana Jimenez.  But other than that it was insignificant.
We had a really good lesson with our investigator Manuel.  He´s kind of difficult because he tells us that his mom is against the church, but yet she sits in the lessons and reads the folletos and loves us.  So we knew he was lying.  Anyway, so we invite him to be baptized, talk to him mom, he accepts, and then we´re setting a date and out walks him girlfriend from the room.  I´ve never felt the spirit leave so fast.  Seriously, it was opposition standing in front of us.  So then he told us that he had to talk to her before accepting a date.  It was awful!
Then we found a really good girl on thursday and set up an appointment with her for friday afternoon.  We have the lesson on friday at the stake president´s house and everything was really good.  She´s friends with their son and she´s adventist but not active.  She asked a lot of questions and ended well.  And then we went to english class at the church.  At the end, she walks in and gives back the book of mormon and said that she felt horrible because we believe it´s just as important as the bible.  We asked to still have another lesson to explain it better but she said no and left.  Ouch.  That one hurt bad.  We were super confused too.  We think she might of ran into an adventist friend.  The adventists aren´t too friendly about our church.  Basically one said that we believe Brigham Young is the father of God.  What?  No.  Oh well, I´m still praying for her.
So we had a pretty dumb week until Saturday.  We went back to Manuel who accepted a date for august.  We´ll work more to move up the date.  And then we found 5 new investigators!  Two just let us in while contacting and then the other three was a callback from a former day.  We have an appointment with three today.  A family!  So I learned a lot about the work this week.  it was actually a really special week for me.  hard to put all the feelings into an email but just know that this is the Lord´s work and we just have to put our trust in Him.  
Love you all!  
Hermana Borup

Monday, May 19, 2014

Car ride with a 70!

Dear family and friends,
Well again, I have no time to write, I don´t know how that always happens.  So the highlights of this week...
We contacted a ton.  And we found some good people that we have appointments with this week! 
I went on divisions with the capacitadoras.  I got to be with Hermana Boren but instead of getting to go back to Paraná and see all the people I love, I had to stay here.  But it was fun to be Borup and Boren.  And the division was actually a lot of fun.  Somehow no one showed up to our english class though.  I´m still confused how that happened!
We also had stake conference this weekend and we had to go to the adult session saturday night!  I loved it.  Elder Chappe from Uruguay was there and he´s just a good speaker. And then sunday after the conference, we said goodbye to President and Hermana Giuliani.  Really sad actually.  But I´ll see them in Provo when I get home so it´s not goodbye forever. 
Hermana Carlotta, the stake president´s wife that´s our best friend, wanted to take us home but there was a problem, they had to first take the 70 to the airport.  So we got to go!  The zone leaders gave us permission.  And we got like 30 minutes extra with Elder Chappe.  Probably an experience that I´ll never have again.  I love the mission!
Oh and we had interviews with President.  It went well.  We talked about the Argentine panaderia in Orem.  Apparently there´s two!  He´s a little ready to end but he´s working hard until the end.  
Love you all!
Hermana Borup

Tuesday, May 6, 2014

We´re getting animated

Dear Family and Friends,
Well this ward is a little bit dead, but we´re getting them excited again to do missionary work.  This week we focused on meeting all the existing investigators and all the members.  We started off with correlation with our 18 year old ward mission leader.  He´s super negative about everything.  Said that our investigators that want to be baptized only say that because they like us.  Thanks buddy.  But then we talked to him more and realized that he´s working on his conversion so that´s why he says these things.  
So after talking about some changes we can do we decided on a book of mormon challenge for the ward.  Start today and finish before the end of the year.  We then talked to all the families about it and they´re all on board!  I felt like dad.  But I´m excited we made a calendar and everything.  I know this will unify the ward and help their testimonies grow because this book has power.  Number one thing, they have to stop getting offended.
Something else we tried this week was english class.  I´ve tried this in every one of my areas and it´s never worked.  This week we had our first class and 10 people came and an investigator.  Sweet.  And the word´s spreading and more people told us that they´re coming this week.  I´m super excited.  
Other than that we´ve just been teaching and finding.  We had a noche de hogar last night with an inactive family and then afterwards the stake president went over there to talk to them (we´re buddies, we´re skyping at his house) .  Then the stake president came to our house and told us that when the 70 comes for stake conference this month, they´re going to visit this family.  Sweet!  I love the stake president and his wife and his whole family.  You´ll meet them next week.  They´re so funny!!!
Well that´s all!  Have a great week!
Hermana Borup
The picture with the dog is Jonathan and Andrea.  I miss them!



Monday, April 28, 2014

Santa Fe, city of mosquitos

Dear Family and Friends,
Well I´m here in Santa Fe.  Saying goodbye in Pergamino was hard but I was ready to go and excited to start new.  I traveled all day on Wednesday.  I was in Rosario for 3 hours waiting to go to Santa Fe because the hermana I was going to travel with caused problems.  Yep, the same one that always caused problems in Arroyo Seco when I lived with her.  So that was annoying, but oh well.
I love my new companion.  She´s super bold.  Really.  And that first night one of our investigators accepted a baptismal date.  Juan Carlos for the 10th of May.  Super funny man and super prepared.  
This week we also saw two miracles while contacting.  Two girls, about 23, next door neighbors let us in.  So miracle after miracle.  Sweet.  Both are really interested but don´t understand why they need a church in their lives.  But just the fact that they let us in was a miracle.  I think I´m going to love this area.  
The ward´s interesting.  All the strong members got baptized last year.  The ones that have been members for years are less active.  I don´t get it.  There´s a lot of gossip in this ward and everyone´s mad at everyone.  Oh well.  There´s work to do!  Starting with english class!  Wahoo.  Finally going to get that started.
So I have no time this  week.  I would just love some extra prayers for protection.  This area has history.  We don´t carry bags.  Just a book of mormon,our agenda´s and some pamphlets.  So I think I should be ok but I would love prayers anyways!  Oh, and we can´t go into half of our area!  Crazy!
I´ve officially been in Argentina longer than Spain.  That´s an accomplishment.  Sad that I only have 4 months left.  Really, I freak out when I think about it so I choose not to think about it.
Hermana Borup

Tuesday, April 22, 2014

Save a place, I´ll be there, in Santa Fe!

Dear Family and Friends,
So the day has finally arrived.  Since the beginning of my mission I´ve been singing the newsies song wanting to go to Santa Fe.  And here I am, I´m getting transfered to Santa Fe!  Probably going to die there as well, in mission vocabulary.  My new comp is Hermana Wilde, who got to the mission when Hermana Dean got there.  Super cute and I think she´s going to be fun.  But I´m worried about being with an american in Santa Fe.  Whenever there´s two americans together it´s bad news for creepers.  Should be fun and full of adventure.
So this week we made the mission goal for contacts.  My first time ever.  140 contacts.  I about died doing it, but we did it.  I love contacting, I do, but not really during holy week.  It´s like all of a sudden the catholics turn really catholic and don´t want to talk to you.  Oh and I showed Hermana Ihler the cathedral we have here in Pergamino.  It was her first time walking in one.  While we were there I noticed that a lot of men were walking in.  I thought it was odd because usually no one´s in there.  And it was also weird that there were no women.  And so we got up to go and I saw the sign saying that the special mass for men would be starting in 5 minutes.  Ooops.
This week we also said goodbye to our zone leader, Elder Higginson.  He got called as AP.  Super good elder but it´s weird when someone that was in the mtc with you gets called as AP.  It means we´re old in the mission.  Anyway, he sayed goodbye to everyone in the ward on sunday and so I didn´t, and now I´m leaving too.  That stinks.
We had the marriage talk again with Jonathan and Andrea and it turned into a counseling session.  They still don´t have a date, but they´re going to start doing comp inventories once a week.  Thank you Preach my Gospel for teaching me that!
We got flirted on real bad by a 50 year old man last pday.  This is a daily occurance but the bad thing was this was the first time it´s ever happened in front of the elders.  The zone leaders just smiled and winked.  I was going to kill them.  To make matters worse, they´ve told everyone in the ward and in the zone.  
We have a less active that we´ve been teaching that´s super old and has a bad back and that´s why she doesn´t come to church.  But she came for easter.  it was super exciting to see her there.  I really do love this area.  
Well I know this isn´t really miracle filled, but it was a good week.  We have a lot of new potentials, a few new investigators and life´s good.  Now I´m ready for the new adventure in Santa Fe!  I get to live with the patriarch!
Hermana Borup

Crazy storms and contacts

Dear family and friends,
So this week had a lot of interesting happenings.  First off, Hermana Ihler and I are professionals at planning fun group games.  The zone leaders know this so they put our special pday (when the whole zone gets together once a transfer) into our hands.  Everything minus the food.  Yes, we had to find the movie as well.  And so we played four square in pairs (super fun because I was with this random elder and boy could he play.  We rocked it), lover´s leap (but with a lot of different actions that you had to find your companion to do.), mafia (classic), and a chair game that uses rock, paper, scissors.  Basically it was a blast and everyone was sore the next day.  Yes, we´re all terribly out of shape.  And we watched frozen!  I loved it.  But the elders not so much. Everytime a new song came on they groaned.  This is what happens when you leave the movie up to us!
And then monday night we had our zone meeting.  So we spent all day with the zone.  The meeting was good but at the end there was a huge rain storm.  Crazy.  And we got left at the church with 6 elders.  We called 3 taxis and only one came so the four of us left.  On the way home the taxi was drowning but we did make it after lots of prayers.  Funny thing is that the elders had to wait at the church until 12:30.  Good thing we left first because that couldn´t have happened with elders and sisters together.
Tuesday and Wednesday we contacted all day.  Not one lesson.  They were hard days.
Manuel, the old man that came to conference with his brother is progressing.  We went with the patriarch and his wife and he read the evangelio de Jesucristo folleto.  Little, but it´s progress.  We might have to drop him though because he doesn´t want to come to church.  If he doesn´t come this week it´s the end.  But he just loves us so much and feels so much better after we come that it´s hard to drop him.
We couldn´t see Jonathan this week because of work but we saw Andrea.  She wants to marry him!  And he won his court case so now he gets to have his son wed, fri, and sunday for a few hours.  He was super excited on sunday when we saw him!
It´s getting cold.  I wore tights yesterday.  And no one came to church.  It´s a sign that we´re getting into winter.  I forgot how cold the churches get.  I don´t know why all of the heaters are always broken at church.  It´s miserable.
We´ve found some great new people.  One´s Pilar who´s absolutely golden and we´ve already had a lesson with her.  Unfortunately, she only works in our area.  That´s what happens when your area´s the rich area.  All the good people only work here.  So we´re going to get with the elders and have a lesson with the four of us to pass her on.    The other is Augustina and she has depression and she´s 17.  Serious depression that she´s getting over.  She´s sweet but her mom´s never home.  And then we have Isabel that´s moving to the elders area.  dang.  And then we have Angela that we found last night.  She´s old and she was going into a panic attack when we knocked on her door.  We said a prayer with her and then shared a little of the plan of salvation.  She said the prayer at the end and then just bawled and thanked us.  It was a super special experience.  We have an appointment with her on wednesday right before augustina.  So things are looking up a bit!
Contacting´s crazy though.  We run into all sorts of people.  Yesterday a crazy man let us in. I only asked if we could come in because we saw a girl walking in there 5 minutes before so we were sure there were women in the house.  When we walked in we felt bad.  There was a bedroom with newspaper on the walls and spray painted words over the newspaper.  Like what the killers do in scary movies.  We handed him a folleto, said a prayer and booked it out of there.  And then we met a really friendly testigo de jehova.  Not really, she just yelled at us and told us we knew nothing of the bible.  I kindly invited her to read 1 peter 3 when she said that there is nothing after death until the resurrection but in her bible it is probably translated so differently that it will make no sense.  Shame that others don´t have the book of mormon.  The bible is so confusing with all of its translations!
Today I studied esperanza in chapter 6 of predicad.  I learned that the way that it shows that we have hope is by being optimistic, among other things.  I read in Alma about Ammon right before he cuts the arms and how he turned the situation into a blessing.  His fellow servants began to cry because they were afraid when they lost the rebaños, but Ammon saw it as an opportunity to show God´s power that he had with him.  To be able to preach the gospel.  That to me was a great example of looking at a situation with optimism.
Oh and friday and saturday brought crazy wind and rain!
Love you all and good luck with finals those of you at BYU!
Hermana Borup

Pictures:  the chair game, and our zone.  The elder that was with me during four square is the one at the end that got cut out.  Other than that, I think everyone made it into the picture!

Conference Weekend

Dear family and friends,
So i don´t even remember the rest of the week because conference was what I was looking forward too.  I do remember that we worked on trying to get all our investigators there.  And Jonathan came for 2 sessions (he had to work on sunday) and another investigator came with his brother!  But no one else... which was sad but I still loved it.
So there´s a little girl in the ward that calls me "seño" which is short for señorita.  That´s because we taught her in primary and she´s less active and not used to calling the women hermanas.  Cute though.  That´s what people call their school teachers here.  There´s also a little boy in the ward that´s in love with me.  Worse, he´s not that little.  He´s 11 for goodness sakes!  He´s awkward but what are you gonna do?
Back to conference... so saturday we got a ride for Manuel, our really old investigator that can´t walk very well.  We went with the patriarch and his wife.  When we showed up to his house we realized his brother was going to go with him.  Uh oh, not enough spaces.  So hermana Ihler and I crowded into the front seat and the two brothers and the patriarch´s wife were in the back.  At conference they both fell asleep... but Manuel said afterwards that he liked it and felt the spirit!  So that´s good.  And President Eyring´s talk was perfect for him!  Also perfect for Jonathan1
In this mission we can´t go to saturday afternoon unless we have an investigator there.  And Jonathan stayed.  Did anyone catch all the references to the law of chastity?  It was the best!  I have a feeling they are going to get married sometime really soon.  Jonathan just wants to get baptized but he needs to realize that living with someone is a sin!
My favorite talk was Elder Ballard´s of course!  Do his invitation!  It will bring a lot of blessings into your lives.  We all need to get involved in this work and make sure that we follow up on our invitations!  Without the follow up, nothing gets done.  Not enough to just give out a book of mormon on a trip and invite them to read.  Love them into this gospel.  We all have to do the baby steps, so do it with them!
Well I´m going to try and update you on preach my gospel learnings more often!  I loved Elder Uchtdorf´s talk too on gratitud.  I added it to my preach my gospel chapter 6!  Another christlike attribute to have!
Love you all!
Hermana Borup

Tuesday, April 1, 2014

Zone Conference

Well I have no time to write this week.  Sorry.  But I do want to say a few
things.
First, we had zone conference this week and it was the best!  I learned so
much.  Basically I came out wanting to change everything about the way I do
missionary work.  Well not everything, but a lot.  And we played a
scripture and preach my gospel knowledge game and I rocked at it.  I didn´t
think I knew the scriptures very well, so it boosted my confidence.
We found an awesome girl this week.  her names mariángeles and she´s
actually married!  She´s been praying and feeling like her prayers have
been answered!  She´s golden!
We had 2 investigators at church but the elders had 6.  So eight total!  It
was awesome.  It was also the first time since I´ve been in Pergamino that
the elders actually had investigators come to church.  So we were excited
for them.  Two great families!  Would be such a blessing for this ward.
Also, at church there were a lot of kids and we were asked last minute to
teach sharing time in primary.  We did the human knot and it was a mad
house.  And then in sacrament, each missionary had two kids to take care
of.  We were all divided so that our investigators could hear what was
going on and not be listening to crying.  Kind of fun.  But I think I´ll
wait about 10 years between each child I have.
That´s all.  I love you all so much!  Thanks for all the support.  It was
much needed this week!
Hermana Borup
 
Pictures- 13 months!  We´re not trunky, I promise
arroz con leche, my enemy
Elder Monzon, my district leader, and I trying to cut up a chicken.  We´d
never done it before.



Tuesday, March 25, 2014

And we´re back to flu season

Dear family and friends,
So this week Hermana Ihler got sick.  I was feeling pretty proud of myself that it wasn´t me until saturday when I got sick too.  I´ve been feeling horrible for the last couple of days but whatcha gonna do?
This week I was also called fat twice.  Well actually, in the same day.  We were at lunch with an Hermana on friday and her less active son came in.  He lives in Salta and visits about once a month, so we already knew him.  He always says some rude comments, but it´s all good fun.  Until I asked him how long the drive is from Salta.  He said 10 hours and that one province was 43 C on the way there.  And then he said that I should ask president to transfer me to that mission a transfer before I go home so that I will sweat off all of my fat.  That was low.  Especially because he made 2 other comments during the lunch about my weight.  But I felt better when he asked Hermana Ihler why she couldn´t speak and I spoke so well if we got to Argentina together.  He´s just a mean man.
The other comment came from a lady that night.  I was finishing eating something when she came to say hello.  Then she said, you should stop eating because you´re "re gorda".  Again, thanks.  I didn´t need that.
This week Beatriz accepted a concrete date!  April 19!  But she couldn´t come to church because of work.  This next week she´s coming though.
We also met a new investigator this week named Patricia.  She´s orthodox catholic which isn´t too common.  But all of her concerns, we can answer!  So we taught her the restauration and she´s going to read the book of mormon.  I´m excited because I really think she´s interested in what we teach and not just because we´re two young girls from the states!
Another cool thing this week was that Jonathan and Andrea came with us to another investigator´s.  How about that?  An investigator coming with us to another one.  And he bore testimony and everything.  It was awesome!  He just needs to be baptized!
Hermana Borup