Disaster Week

Dear Family and Friends,

So I´ve often thought on my mission, missionaries never can have bad weeks.  When we have bad weeks, we get leaders on our backs asking us why we didn´t work.  But this week was the exception.  Here´s what happened... (by the way, I don´t blame my companion in this story)

So Tuesday we woke up with a message from our district leader changing our district meeting to the afternoon.  So we started doing all of our studies.  Ten minutes to 11, or ten minutes before finishing everying, planeamiento, estudio personal, estudio de compañerismo, e idioma, our district leader changes the meeting to Wednesday.  No!  What are we supposed to do during siesta entonces?  So I helped Hermana Garbin with her English and washed clothes but that was a big bummer.  We couldn´t even make calls because everyone yells at us for waking them up.

So Wednesday morning was district meeting.  Then, right before studies during siesta, Hermana Garbin made arroz con leche.  Yum!  I ate a nice bowl and then we studied.  We went out at 4:30 to a less active´s house.  While we were there I felt something funny in my stomach.  I gave Hermana Garbin "the look"  so that she would stop talking and we could get out of there.  In the back of my mind I thought, I just need fresh air.  So we leave and we start walking.  All of a sudden I was in a lot of pain.  So we went back to the pench.  I tried sleeping but that wasn´t working.  And then I went out to our kitchen and talked to Hermana Garbin.  De repente I threw up.  Weird because I haven´t thrown up really since 5 years ago when I had the flu and I was home alone.  While I was throwing up, Hermana Garbin called Hermana Giuliani who said it was because I had milk and then went out in the heat.  Who knew?  So I spent the rest of the day throwing up.

Thursday I woke up and didn´t feel all that well.  And then it started coming out the other end about every 15 minutes.  So we stayed inside until our appointment in the afternoon with Augustina.  The member didn´t show up but it was still a really good lesson.  And I bought fruit salad because it was the only thing that I could get down.  Oh and crackers.

Friday I woke up good.  We did studies and we were ready to go out when we noticed our termo tanque was losing water.  So we had to call a plummer and he said it was the building´s problem and he couldn´t do anything about it.  All morning we had to try and fix everything because our apartment flooded and water was coming out of the walls.  And of course everyone was on vacation.  Eventually by lunch time everything was fixed.  A faucet broke upstairs.

Then I felt sick after lunch and we didn´t go out.

But saturday I was all better and it was time to get to work.  A member from another ward was with us until 5 and we didn´t get any lessons!  How can it be?  Oh well, next time.  We had a lesson later with Alejandra and the less active that you met on Christmas.  

Sunday we contacted and all our investigators couldn´t let us in so it was a lot of walking.  

So ya, our week was basically a disaster, but it´s all good now.  They´re fixing the faucet upstairs, we don´t have water in the kitchen and we have a whole in the wall!  I love Argentina!  Oh and did I mention that we didn´t have water Friday morning and when the water turned on the disaster started?  So so shower... or toilet... with me being sick...  We learned our lesson and now have jugs filled with water just in case.

I´m a happy happy missionary though and it´s the last week of

the transfer so miracles!  A member in the ward told us yesterday she´s ready to get along with the sisters (us) again and she´s just the beginning.  The errors of the past sisters are slowly being forgotten!

Weston, we don´t get dinner time, but sometimes we don´t have lunch appointments so i make it then.  Or the banana bread at night instead of writing in my journal.  It´s fast and easy and delicious.

Hermana Borup

Pictures:

Our zone today at pday especial!  It´s soooooo hot!

Our investigator gave us a ton of food on saturday.  Yikes, it´s getting embarrasing.  But we have a plan so that next time she doesn´t give us so much.

Hermana Garbin and the flood.  My pictures of the water coming out of the wall didn´t turn out so well, but you can imagine.

Just keep walking and walking and walking

 1-6-14

Dear Family and Friends,

Well this area is the same as last week.  I thought I told you about the area last week but if you really want to know more...  We live in the center of Pergamino in a shopping mall.  It´s nice, but not at the same time.  It gets loud at night because everyone eats outside and there´s music.  But other than that it´s fun.  We have a ghetto elevator and everything.  Our area is Centro B which is the half of the ward starting from the train tracks and going to the limit in the center.  So that Dad can be a creeper and look on google maps.  Most of our work goes on far from where we live.  The outskirts of our area because no one likes to listen in the center.  My companion is slowly learning the area.  She´s also getting a lot better at contacting.  Now she doesn´t just hand people a pamphlet and counts contacts for the people across the street that she yells at.  She actually talks to people now.  So we´ve found some people through contacting.  The ward is good.  Nothing like Arroyo Seco.  I don´t really know the bishop because he´s super quiet and doesn´t really like the missionaries.  I want to help him out but he lives no where near our area and we´re not allowed to go into his neighborhood.  Somehow we´re going to find a way to serve him.  Oh that´s another thing.  all these members want service service service.  I love service, but I´m getting the feeling that their attitude is this, "these missionaries aren´t doing anything so we´ll give them something to do.  Clean my house!" so... yep.  But every week gets a little better.  We´ve repaired some damage done by the sister before me and we had two less active families at church and an investigator!  And the members got excited about that!  Wahoo!

 

So I feel like I´m trying to have a positive attitude about everything but this place is really hard.  And it shouldn´t be.  It´s hard because of my companion´s last companion.  No one wants to work with us.  And all the other missionaries kind of exclude us in the zone.  So that´s rough.  Today I wanted to do something for pday instead of just sleeping like we´ve done for the last two weeks and the elders said they were all getting together to play soccer, which we can´t play with them.  Lame.  So we´re having a picnic by the river with the other sisters.  We´re going to eat ice cream of course so it will be fun.  But I do miss pdays in Galvez with my last district.  

 

This week I had a near death experience with my health.  But I got a blessing and it´s all good now.  I finally got to do my blood testing and i´m going to a doctor when I get the results, so there was no need to call Hermana Giuliani.  Just know that I was protected and I know that what my setting apart said is true, that Grandpa is close to me on my mission.  

 

Quick question? Can someone get addicted to benedryl?  Because I´ve been having a lot of allergic reactions and I´ve been taking a lot lately.  Let me know if I shouldn´t.

 

So this week was the fast.  I love fasting.  With my health, I can´t do it very often, but when we do fast, it gives us so much extra spiritual strength.  We start our fast after lunch on Saturday and then break it on Sunday lunch time.  Saturday was amazing!  We finally had a lesson with a member, a recent convert named Angela.  She came with us to our investigator´s Alejandra.  We had a good little lesson and then we talked about church.  And Alejandra asked Angela if she walks to church and at what time.  They exchanged numbers and then came to church together!  It was exactly what Alejandra needed.  Now she just needs to quit smoking before her baptismal date on the first of February!

 

The other miracle: we met Viviana this week.  Saturday we had a lesson with her.  She´s been going to a lot of different churches.  She had cancer and since that trial she´s been looking for a way to be closer to God.  When we told hing to give her the Book of Mormon she almost cried.  She´s a miracle and we´ll see her again on Saturday.

 

The other miracle:  I had to call Arroyo Seco last night because I forgot a few things.  While I was talking to Hermana Dean, she told me that the Narducci kids have another baptism date for the 25th and that they came to church!  Luis Ramon moved back to the campo and walked 8 kilometros to get to church and he´s 80! and Delma is coming to church!  Ahhh!!!  I feel like the Narducci family is my family.  Everyone looks for that family to teach on their missions and they are mine.  I didn´t think I could love anyone besides my own family that much!  Now I just have to find people like that in Pergamino.

 

Well this letter is long.  I hope you´re all doing great.  Thanks for the updates on everyone in the family.  Mom, st George half is the best race, so I know you can beat McKenzie.  You´re getting old but not that old.  

Love,

Hermana Borup

p.s. This week I made brownies and taco soup because we actually had a rainy day.  Yes, I´m cooking.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

1-1-14

Dear family and friends,

So last week our pday got passed on to Christmas and we weren´t allowed to write, only talk.  This week our pday got passed on to today.  so that´s why I haven´t been writing if anyone was wondering.

So cool to hear about your San Francisco trip.  You know, you have been there twice now as a family and I have never gone.  I think we should change that when I get home.  Or we can forget about San Francisco and take another trip to Mexico.  I could use a long week in Mexico right about now.

Weston!  That´s super cool to hear you´re going south.  Really south.  Take lots of pictures of penguins for me.

 

So this week was super long.  Because of the holidays, no one wanted to meet with us, and that includes members.  We walked and tried tracting and either no one was home, or no one wanted to talk to us.  We did have a great contacting experience Friday.  We did some service for a less active that morning and since no one else in our plans were home, we went contacting.  In one street we talked to 3 people with really strong potential.  One was a man named Gustavo who set up an appointment for the next day.  One was a less active named Marcelo, who´s wife is not a member, but they were going out of town until March... they´re already in our plans for March.  And one was a guy that stopped us because he thought we wanted to talk to him.  Ya we do!  He´s an old investigator, but he doesn´t live in our area.  But the next day we went to Gustavo´s and it was probably the most awkward lesson of my life!  We didn´t know if he had a wife, but we knew he had 4 kids and that they were going to be there.  So we get there and there they all are waiting for us with the nanny.  But they wouldn´t talk to us, just stared across the table from us.  The man was standing next to me and the nanny was sitting on the floor.  I can´t really understand why it was so awkward but afterwards Hna Garbin helped understand.  She has never taught a man before!  Or kids!  And she didn´t know how to handle it.  Her comments were out of no where on whatever subject.  So it was all just a mess but we´re going to go back more prepared next time.  Also, I think she was shaking.

 

Highlights of the week, I made my first asado.  Yes, I also made banana bread without a recipe.  And it was dang good.  All that watching Hermana Smith cook paid off!  But the asado came because on Saturdays we cook for an old less active lady.  She wanted asado instead of milanesas and neither of us knew how to cook it.  So I just sort of guessed and it was delicious.  Quite the cook these days.

 

Yes, my companion´s interesting.  She´s from Peru and she´s great.  Super funny.  She´s been here for 3 months, it´s her first area, and she didn´t even know where the church was or what the bishop´s name was.  You can tell she´s a new missionary because she kind of likes to talk a lot  in the lessons and throw scriptures at the investigator.  But she´s a lot better than I was that´s for sure.  With a lot more practices in studies, she´s going to be an awesome missionary.  

 

Well that´s all.  Last night we didn´t do anything special but the fireworks did wake me up.  Also our blind investigator stopped us in the street the other day and told us that revelation doesn´t exist and that we´re teaching false doctrine.  I think she may have gotten that from her Jehova witness niece.  Oh well.  There are prepared people in Centro, I know it.

Happy New Year!

Hermana Borup

P.S. Still haven´t done the blood testing yet.  Lots of dumb complications.  Everything´s closed until after Reyes.