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

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

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!

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