7 Months and Going Strong

Dear Family and friends,

I first just wanted to say thank you for all the letters and emails.  Most missionaries say that after 6 months they are forgotten and then they start getting letters again when they have 3 months left.  Not me!  I got a record number of emails this week so thank you and sorry for my short responses.

This week was interesting.  Remember how I said I had a little cold last week?  Well that cold turned into a big cold.  So I called Hermana Giuliani and she had me call the doctor.  We decided that I need to test my thyroid again, so I have an appointment with a specialist on thursday and we'll see if that's why I keep getting sick.  Because this is ridiculous.  So that took up a good chunk of the week.

Then when we were about to have a normal day on thurday, we got a call from the office.  Two more sisters are coming to Arroyo Seco!  Wahoo!! But that meant that we had to get everything ready for them.  As in buy a bunk bed, a table, mattresses, etc.  So that was most of thursday, saturday and yesterday.  But the furniture came today and everything's ready.  Minus, we still haven't found blankets.  They can share one right?  No but I felt super cool and grown up.  I went furniture shopping.  In argentina.  By myself.  Mostly a nightmare, but kind of fun!

Sunday not a lot of people came to church because it's been raining.  So not even the councilors or the relief society president came.  it was bad.  But a member brought lunch for us and when we opened it up we saw a roasted chicken.  A whole chicken.  With the scales and some feathers on it and everything.  I didn't get a picture!

Yesterday we cleaned and waited for the furniture that never came.  And then we were at a less active house eating dinner when I noticed I was very itchy.  all on my neck and cheeks and back.  And then I was having a hard time breathing.  so I took a benedryl and waited whiel the family freaked out and wanted to take me to the hospital.  Nothing happened so I took another benedryl.  20 minutes later I decided we should probably go home without giving the lesson we wanted to give.  I got home and changed and saw hives all over every inch of my body.  I went crazy.  I took a shower and by then, the benedryl made me sleepy so I went to bed.  This morning I still have the hives, but they aren't as itchy.  I have no idea what could have caused them.  Weird.  My body loves me.  I'm trying to remember that I wanted a body though.  That it's a blessing.  That my dizzy spells are normal.

That's all for this week.  I'm a lot happier though and I know we're going to see miracles in Arroyo Seco this week!

Hermana Borup

I love Coffee!

Not really, malta, which tastes like coffee, but still!  I´m in love!

Dear family and friends,

This week started out miserably hot.  I was sweating everywhere.  I couldn´t get dry.  after running in the mornings, I would be dripping.  Too much information?  Just trying to paint a picture.  And then on Thursday I woke up and put on some airy clothes and it was freezing.  What?  Argentina´s worse than Utah with the weather.  It´s been cold and raining ever since and I have another cold.  Great.

But the members are starting to realize that I can´t eat as much as past missionaries.  They still call me the grandote, but they serve me less and don´t make me eat another plate.  They can call me what they want because I´m finally feeling good after lunches instead of having stomach pains!

Estevan was baptized!  Remember my investigator in Utah that couldn´t be baptized because he was on probation?  Well he was baptized last week and I´m soooo happy.  He´s amazing.  Probably the biggest turn around I´ve seen yet on my mission and I´m so grateful that I could see him progress.

I´m sending another package of letters soon!

So this week was draining.  We´re working with a lot of less actives and they are doing fantastic!  4 different families came to church this week!  But we have no investigators.  We´re looking and looking and trying to get the members involved, but they´re getting tired.  I woke up exhausted.  More tired than I´ve ever felt, but we´re going to keep working to find the prepared ones!

This week we also had to Rosario.  An area seventy, Nicolas Di Giovanni came and spoke to us.  It was an amazing conference and gave me the strength I needed to keep going.  I even contacted on the bus ride home (something I never do because I´m usually sleeping) and I met the most amazing lady.  She took a plan of salvation pamphlet and was excited to read it.  And she´s from Arroyo Seco!  Wahoo!  It was a booster for sure.

Yesterday there was a car show, so there was loud music right outside during sacrament.  The first counselor started dancing.  haha.  And then the man giving the last talk sang a whole hymn.  It was fantastic.

Love you all!

Hermana Borup

Like Father Like Daughter

Dear family and friends,

This week I started a diet with my companion.  I´m too much like dad sometimes.  But let me explain, I´ve been having really bad back pains, and I think it´s because I´ve gained so much weight.  So I´m losing for a health thing and also to feel better about myself.  But it´s gonna be great.  It basically just means no facturas and no dinners, just lunches with members and something small for breakfast.

Paulino was baptized yesterday!  It´s amazing to me how many things can go wrong for a baptism.  The day before we went to the church to do the program and as we were turning on the computer, the power went out (a regular occurance in Arroyo Seco).  Then we got to church early to organize things well, but our ward mission leader was late and the font was filled with cold water because of it.  Also, we lost our keys to our apartment and to the church and Presidente Guttierez (Dad´s a little bit of a stalker, another thing I learned from him) announced it in sacrament meeting.  So after church we were running around trying to finish getting everything ready, but we also had a croud of members around us asking us where our keys could be.  It was very hectic.  But the baptism started and it all went away.  Paulino had to quit smoking and drinking, so it´s been a long road for him, but he was so prepared.  I love him!

This week we were also yelled at by a crazy man.  He was fat, didn´t have a shirt on and started yelling at us while we were tracting.  He started to kick the wall and punch it, so we decided it was time to leave.  We have no idea what he was trying to tell us.

In district meeting this week I had to give a little training.  It was on courage.  Ya, I have no idea how our district leader chose that one, but I think it went alright.  I just talked about how fear is the opposite of courage and also faith, so when we have a lot of faith, we have a lot of courage.  Or something like that.

On saturday there was the caminata de la virgen de San Nicolas.  So there was a parade of people that woke up early to walk with the "virgen" from Rosario to San Nicolas.  They passed through Arroyo Seco and it just so happened we were walking that way already, so we walked with them a bit.  We got to see a very happy priest in all his robes, drinking mate, and dancing to the christian spanish rock music so it was all worth it.

So we also had zone meeting this week in Rosario and I have to say, I think Argentina´s a step behind.  We were trained on the exact same things as in Utah 3 months ago.  Also, we´re changing key indicators and how we do them here, which is a big deal.  It´s gonna be like how we did things in Utah and I´m super excited for it!

Mom, if you want to send a birthday or christmas package, it probably needs to be sent before october.  In november the mail system crashes and there´s a delay of about 4 months after that.  I don´t really need anything except a spray bottle with a fan (the one that can go around your neck).  It´s so hot and it´s only going to get worse.  And a jump drive would be nice (they´re super expensive here).

Love,

Hermana Borup

Pictures next week!

6 months!

Dear Family and Friends,

So this keyboard struggles and i may have errors everywhere.  Please forgive me.  I do know how to spell... sort of.

So I feel like my emails home haven´t been as spiritual lately.  Believe me, I´ve had lots of spiritual experiences, but sometimes I think it´s best to keep it to myself for now.  Some have been life changing.  But one little one from this week I do want to share.  Remember that little lesson we had a few weeks ago with a less active? haha maybe not.  Well i was a really powerful lesson and we´ve gone back a few times since then.  Saturday we took a member and i was the best member present lesson i´ve ever had.  It took work to get her there, and the tv and music was going on the whole time, but the spirit was so strong.  Her name´s Isabel and she´s super shy and I think that´s why she stopped coming to church.  We went by her house on Sunday morning to take her, but she was already at church!  alone with 3 other less actives that we´ve been working with.  It was a strong testimony to me that people need to feel love from the missionaries, from our Father in Heaven, but from the members as well to progress.  Please be the members that every missionary wants in your wards.

 

I´ve also been thinking a lot about the difference between a missionary that plants and one that harvests.  I´ve been called a planter so many times that if i hear it again i might cry.  No missionary wants that.  They want to harvest and see the baptisms and the progress.  But I don´t think any missionary is one thing.  This week we met two new investigators that are golden.  it´s their time right now.  4 years ago, the man delivered water to the sisters in arroyo seco.  One of the sisters gave him a book of mormon and a card when she left.  Fast forward to now and we talked to his wife who remembered the book.  The next time we came over she had found the book and had started reading it without us even inviting her to do so.  We went over again last night and had an amazing lesson on the Restoration.  But it just came up.  we were on our way to another place, and they were sitting outside with friends drinking mate.  We stopped, sat down and started talking to them like friends.  Then their friend asked us what we believed in and bam, the spirit was there.  I´m so grateful for that sister missionary that planted 4 years ago.  We never know when it´s someone´s time, but it´s our job to keep inviting. 

So this week was the week of creepers.  One lives right by the church and yesterday he stopped us and asked us why we couldn´t stay in Argentina with him forever... ew.  Then today we had another one while we were waiting for the elders who asked to take a picture of us and asked hermana smith all kindsof questions about her eyes.  Gross.  We just keep ignoring them the best we can.

This week we had to go to rosario for capacitación especial.  yes, we are 6 months into the mission and still training!  yes!  But it was actually really good and i learned a lot from president Guiliani.  I love that man.

 

Got to go!  I love you all!  good luck at school BYU students!

Hermana Borup

 

Hermana Smith cooking pizza with a less active

 

The elders threw a party for us at district meeting for our 6 months.  They even sang for us.  Don´t worry, I got it all on film.

all the sisters at the special training.

Grido

Dear family and friends,
Every area there seems to be something that I just cant resist.  In arroyo
seco it´s grido ice cream.  Holy cow and it´s only 10 pesos for two scoops
and chocolate and nuts on the cone!  Ya, i´m a little fatty.  Actually, a
family here calls me little monster, "monstruito"  because I wont tell them
my first name.  I´m either that or "sin nombre".
So this week was a lot better.  We are teaching lots and lovig the work.
Guess who got sick this week... an elder in my district, who then got me
sick.  ya, we´re a close district, but I told him I didn´t want to share
his germs.  I was ticked.  It´s a combination of what I had in Utah, with
what I had two weeks ago and added a bad cough.  So I didn{t work at all on
friday.  Despite that set back, we were still able to do way more than our
first week.  We have an investigator named Paulino on date for the 6th and
he´s quitting smoking.
So I´m still not all there health wise so i´ll just write a few funny
experiences this week:
We have to teach institute every week and this week was our first week
doing it.  It went awful.  The 18 year olds just love to goof off and twist
our words because we can´t speak perfectly.  Ok so that wasn´t funny but it
was somthing that happened this week.
We saw two guys graffiting with a huge spot light.  Aren´t they supposed to
hide it?
There was a race going on sunday and so the finish line just happened to be
right outside our churh building.  There were drums playing the whole time
we were in sacrament meeting and when we ended, so did they.  Bad luck eh?
Hermana Smith´s family is in the circus.  Her dad does the cannon and her
siblings to juggling, trapeze, and her brother in law won america´s got
talent for a dog act?  Pretty cool.  I was pretty disappointed when she
told me that she doesn´t do anything with it.  But her dad´s in Sweden
right now.  He travels everywhere.
Because we´re so new to Argentina, we get random calls from the zone
leaders to check up on us.  Last night they asked us how our studies are
going.  What kind of a question is that?  Ok I have no time now.  Until
next week!  So exciting about Weston!
Love,
Hermana Borup
The picture´s from my trip to La paz.  Since I´m never at the baptisms, I
don´t have pictures of my investigators! The other one is my wall in
Paraná!  First and last american for this year in that apartment!

 It feels like a white wash

 

Dear Family and Friends,

This week was an eternity.  Very stressful, but also a great adventure.  I definitely think this will be the period of the most growing for me on my mission. 

Tuesday I bought my first object for mate, the bag.  It´s awesome and it has patches of cow hair.  I bought it in Paraná because it´s the most expensive part of the set and Paraná is the cheapest place in the mission to buy suiveneirs.  But now I have to carry it around with me... oh well.  When we got back to our apartment, there were testigos de Jehova waiting for us!  We were super excited until we saw that they were kids of like 10 years.  We couldn´t really talk to them, but we accepted their pamphlet. 

Wednesday I left in the morning and got to the bus station in Rosario by myself.  I was lost, looking for other missionaries for about 15 minutes with all my stuff.  But I found them and Hermana Smith was there!  We got to know each other a bit.  She´s from Missouri, but now her family lives in Logan.  She came to Argentina with me and her spanish isn´t that bad, we definitely can get around, as long as we don´t have to use the phone.  And then the assistants came, took us to Arroyo Seco and dropped us off.  Seriously, they dumped us there.  Our apartment is a house.  It´s huge!  It´s one of the nicest for sisters in the mission.  So that´s fun. 

The work´s really slow and I was super sad that I couldn´t see the baptisms in Paraná.  Hermana Smith knows the area sort of well, but we´ve been doing a lot of contacting.  So this week we want to work more with members, especially the youth.

The branch here is great.  They feed us almost every day, and they are so willing to come out with us.  We teach piano and mission prep every week and now we´re starting institute.

Thanks for the updates from everyone.  Happy very late birthday scott, I remembered forever ago, but I kept forgetting to write it.  And happy engagement Alyssa!!!!  So exciting!

So today we went to Galvez, which is a little town about 30 minutes from Arroyo Seco.  The rest of our district´s here.  We played soccer and volleyball with the elders and uno as well.  It´s been fun to see other missionaries.  We just had to get out of Arroyo Seco for a bit, but I know this new week we´re going to see miracles from our hard work.  I´m super excited.  I´ve seriously never have met nicer people.  Everyone assumes we can´t speak very well at church, so they talk really slow.  It´s funny.  But so far it hasn´t been that hard to contact, we understand most everything and I feel like I can say most everything I need to say. 

Thanks for all your support!  Sorry I couldn´t respond to everyone this week, it was a little rushed. 

Quick story, last night we went to bout 5 homes and no one was home, so we went to one more before we went home.  The lady said she was about to go to a dinner with her in-laws, but I said that we just wanted to share a short message.  She´s a recent convert and let us in.  We were only there for about 10 or 15 minutes and it was the most powerful lesson I´ve had in a while.  At the end she asked us to pray for her that she can come back to church.  Something really simple that we see all the time, but after the week we had of almost no lessons, it was amazing.  I know I´m here for a reason and I know the Lord wants us to succeed here, so we´re going to keep working and laughing.

Love you all,

Hermana Borup

A week of miracles!

¡Buen día!

So this week was an adventure full of trials and miracles.  After a whole month of being healthy, I got sick again.  Wednesday I couldn´t even get out of bed.  But somehow I managed to still work and get through the other days.  I seriously think something is wrong with my thyroid.  I haven´t been able to sleep well for months and my emotions are a mess.  Maybe it´s just the missionary life.

Last monday we finished our p-day as a zone at the church.  We couldn´t get the movie to work so Hna Gomez and I decided to go home.  Good thing we did because we soon got a call from Hermana Inés asking us if we were coming over to her house for an FHE at 6.  Uhh... we didn´t plan to.  So we ran because she´s very strict and easily gets mad for tardiness.  She´s not a woman I want on my bad side.  Good thing she absolutely loves me and loves making me hot chocolate!

 

Friday we had an appointment with Santiago Arraigada who had a baptismal date for the 31st.  We taught the plan of salvation and then talked about his baptism.  He told us he wanted to be baptized on the 17th instead because it´s his mom´s birthday.  Ahh!!!  So we went back saturday and taught him using the baptismal questions.  He´s amazing.  He´s 11 but asks questions that I have never even asked myself about the gospel.  The spirit guides those lessons for sure.  I love that kid!

Sunday they came to church along with all the Coria family (the other investigator boy we have) and Hermana Inés husband (the ex-communicated one).  I have been in Paraná one transfer and sunday we had 62 people at church!!!  Our goal is 70 and I know this ward will reach it soon.  It was a great day at church.  Then right after we had to go to the bus station to go to La Paz.  In Argentina it´s a rule that every citizen has to vote and if they don´t they have to pay a fine.  But if you´re more than 500 km away, you can go to the police station and sign a form saying you couldn´t vote because you were too far away from your home.  Hermana Gomez is from Buenos Aires and we were only 470 km away, so we had to travel.  The whole mission had to travel.  But we came back that same day. And I fell in love with La Paz.  I hope I get to serve there one day.

 

Yesterday we had to clean our apartment in the morning and as we were cleaning we heard, "Hermanas".  We looked out the window and there was Hermano Coria.  He asked us if we could baptize Josecito on sunday after church because he wife came from Buenos Aires as a surprise.  No problem!  Biggest miracle ever.  Hermana Coria is waiting for a kidney and has been sick for a year, but she gets to see the baptism of her youngest son who´s been waiting for a year.  So two baptisms this weekend.

 

Last night we had both of their interviews and another FHE with Hermana Ines and her husband.  The work is picking up!  So many miracles!

 

...and I´m being transfered.  I almost cried.  This always happens to me.  I get transfered right before a baptism.  These boys mean so much to me and I´m super sad to go, but I´m just so happy that their getting baptized.  Maybe one day I´ll see one of my investigators get baptized.  But really, this will be my fourth area and my companion goes home in november and paraná is her 3rd area.  The Lord must need me in Arroyo Seco.

 

My new companion came out with me and doesn´t speak spanish very well, so this should be interesting.  Haha and we´re both "senior companions".  More like we´re both blind mice.  But I´m excited for another adventure.  I leave tomorrow.

 

I sent a packet today full of letters (it was cheaper this way).  Can you distribute them?

I love you all and thank you so much for the support!

Love,

Hermana Borup