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

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

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

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